Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is copyright © Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and Fox. In fact they own everything. The New Beginning Storytellers are just playing with their toys when they are not looking. We take good care of them, honest!

Cordelia Chase was dreaming, although she didn't realize it. She didn't feel her tosses and turns in the lonely bed, she didn't feel the dampness of her sweat on the sheets, didn't hear her moans. All she felt was the descent.

It was as if she was a feather, really. Spiraling down, down, down... Except it was frightening. There was a glow at the very bottom of wherever her descent was taking her; it was accompanied by... a chant. Yes, she had to call it a chant, for want of a better word. It was as a thousand voices raised in unison, in an inarticulate syllable. Something like the ohm she'd learned in that yoga class she'd dropped out of. And it kept going, and going, deep-throated, endless, as though the voices might go on forever without drawing a breath...

And on she spun, downward, downward toward the light. No... not a light. A fire. Yes, that was it, a fire, she thought jubilantly. It was flickering in the middle of a circle of dots... Hoods. Yes, those were hoods, she realized as she flew closer. A circle of people, around the fire... But their mouths were closed. Cordelia couldn't see them, but she knew their mouths were closed. Then where did the omnipresent «oh» sound - it was more of an alarming «aaaaaa» now - come from?

The fire grew brighter, bigger. Cordelia spun downward. She wanted to see, to know who those people were. It seemed as though her descent became slower, slower... Frustrated, Cordelia tried to force herself to go faster. To no avail.

Below, in the dark, the fire reached out. The flames caught one of the black robes and engulfed it. Then another. And another. Cordelia was desperate now. She struggled and squirmed; she tried to scream, to warn them, but no sound would come out.

And the fire burned the robes... The champions, a voice whispered in her head. The champions burned where they were, never budging. All of them. And while they burned, the chorus of «aaaaaaa» continued unbroken.

Cordelia realized it didn't sound human at all.

Again, she tried to scream. All she succeeded in producing was a kind of rasp.

She awoke with a jolt, panting. She felt the arms on her shoulders, shaking her... but there was no one there.

For a terrifying second, her heart lurched. Then she remembered.

"Thanks, Dennis," she sighed.

It was day outside. She squinted at the alarm clock. Seven in the morning... With another sigh, she looked at the blankets strewn on the floor and forced herself out of bed. She was shivering, but it wasn't because she was cold.

Instinctively, her hands went to her forehead. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found no horns there.

Lifting her head, she addressed the room. "Dennis, do I look OK? No mottled skin, no tail or something like that?"

Something rapped twice on the wall. Dennis' signal for "no". Nodding approvingly, Cordelia got up and shuffled her way to the bathroom.

It had been a week since The Incident. The vision that had plunged her into a coma, flung her out of her body, and forced her to make a pretty hard choice. Since then, every morning was the same: she would feel for horns, and then ask Dennis how she looked. She preferred advance warning to going to the bathroom, looking in the mirror and...

Cordelia was part demon. Something that would manifest in some unexpected ways, Skip had said. Apart from levitating and having no-pain visions, Cordelia had yet to meet the unexpected manifestations. It filled her with some amount of dread.

But not as much as the dream she'd just had.

*

Wesley Wyndham-Pryce sometimes thought he was the only one who got some work done in the early morning. Especially when he heard the baby sounds emanating from the lobby.

A vampire baby-talking his son, the former Watcher thought. I'll have seen everything. A half-smile crept up his lips.

Wesley didn't mind the work. He'd just found priceless information on a Yalstto demon they'd been tracking. A good find like this generally put him in a good mood.

Smiling, he called out to his friend and colleague. "Angel, would you come here for a moment?"

Within a few seconds, the large silhouette of the vampire came through the doorway. Angel had Connor in his arms and a particularly childlike expression on his face. Wesley couldn't help laughing.

Angel proudly displayed the baby to Wesley. "Hey, Wes, I swear he just said 'dada'," he announced. Then, looking at Connor with that silly smile, he continued, "Hey, little fella? Didn't you just say dada? da-da? daaa-da?"

Connor just looked up at his father, looking nonplussed. Wesley chuckled. "Angel, Connor is just two months old. I doubt he could say 'dada', no matter how gifted his father may be".

Angel also chuckled. "Just you wait and see, Wes. He'll be a great musician someday. Or a scientist."

With that, he resumed his baby-talking, hunched over his son. "We'll show Uncle Wesley, won't we Connor? We'll show him how bright you are... Yes-you-are!"

Wesley had to restrain himself from laughing out loud. Seeing the dark, brooding vampire going ga-ga over his baby son was priceless. Instead, he cleared his throat and brought them back to the subject at hand.

"Angel, you remember that case we had with that Natasha disappearance a few weeks ago? The one in the dark alley downtown?"

Angel's eyes snapped into focus. "Yeah... you got something?"

"Indeed," Wesley happily answered. "The Yalstto demon."

Holding up the book Gunn had purchased for him in the bad part of town the day before, Wesley showed Angel the picture of a demon with an incredibly developed... mouth. It was huge, in fact. "The Yalstto demon can kill people just by the sound of its voice," Wesley explained.

"The girl's tympanic drums," Angel concluded. "They were ruptured."

Wesley nodded. "The Yalstto demon's voice causes telepathic transmission that can summon horrible images in the victim's mind. The brain basically lobotomizes itself."

Angel looked awestruck. Still holding and rocking Connor, he paced a bit, pondering this. "Charming. So, how do we stop this Yalstto demon?" he asked.

"Not important," answered a third voice.

Angel whirled around, all his vampire reflexes having clicked into motion. Wesley glanced up. Standing in the doorway, Cordy looked pale and worried.

*

"I just don't know how to describe the way it felt," Cordy explained as she took the cup of tea Wesley handed to her. "I was desperate to warn those people, whoever they were... It's as though my life depended on it!"

Angel was pacing, sans Connor this time. "So, there wasn't anything more... Some indication as to who, where, when or how?" he asked.

Cordy shook her head. "It wasn't a vision," she said softly, "just a really clear dream."

Fred took Cordy's hand and held it tight. She of all people knew how bad hauntings of the mind could be.

There was an uneasy silence as Angel paced thoughtfully, and Wesley searched for something to say.

"There was another thing..." Cordy suddenly spoke up. That got everyone's attention - and eyes - back to her.

"In the dream," she continued, "I seemed to know, somehow... that the people in that circle were champions..."

Angel stopped pacing, thunderstruck. "Champions?" he asked. There was some surprise and a bit of fear in his voice.

"I wish there was more," Cordy said, shaking her head. "Maybe it's nothing, y'know... maybe it's..."

A second went by. "Maybe it's what?" Wesley prodded.

But Cordelia wasn't paying attention. She'd just... stopped. She was staring straight ahead, her conscience turned inward.

And then she screamed.

She was speeding across a desert. There was that monosyllabical «aaaaa» chant again, sung by hundreds and hundreds of deep male voices. She sped, she sped, flying above ground. She was being brought to witness something, something that would take place, she guessed, in that dark mountain face dead ahead.

She was right. Before she even stopped her flight, the mountain cracked open, revealing... something. It wasn't light. There was no light in this. Light could not survive with such evil.

Cordelia sreamed.

She felt as though she were slapping back into her body as she jerked awake, gasping. She was now lying on the sofa where she'd been sitting, in Wesley's office. Fred was still holding her hand, her face a pool of empathy and pain; Angel's and Wes' faces peered down at her, filled with concern.

"I thought the visions weren't supposed to harm you anymore," Wes blurted out.

Not answering his question, Cordelia sat up and looked at Angel with urgency in her eyes.
"Get Gunn. We have to leave now," she announced grimly.

"Leave? For where?" Angel asked, a bit taken aback.

Cordelia was already up and heading for the door. "Sunnydale," she answered in the same grim tone, not even looking back at him.

*
Not a lot of people hung out on Main Street in Sunnydale after dark. Even though they routinely denied anything was wrong with their town, the citizens of Sunnydale tended to stay home at night. As though there was a kind of sixth sense at work, or some unconscious acknowledgment of a danger, present, intangible...

But that was no concern to the two late-night strollers.

"It's really powerful," Willow commented to Tara as they walked. "You wouldn't believe the things Sasha is having me read!"

"Like what?" Tara enquired.

Willow's smile fell. "Oh, sorry, I forgot... I can't tell you... Baby, I'm so sorry..."

Tara looked at her feet. "It's OK, Will... really," she muttered.

Then Willow perked up. "But hey, I can tell you what it's for, though. She called it purificatio legere," the redhead explained. "Purification by reading. I don't know how come it purifies me, though. Must be kinda like, y'know, the complete opposite of what reading Harlequin novels does to your mind. Or Barbara Steel," she snickered.

Tara chuckled too, a bit. She looked worried. "Will..."

Willow looked at her girlfriend with concern. "Tara... what is it?"

Tara sighed. "I... Look, I-I don't know. It just creeps me out, a spell that'll make Buffy and Spike share a soul. It's big, Will. Dangerous. Remember what happened to you when we brought Buffy back?"

Willow caressed Tara's hair. "I know, sweetie... But it won't happen again, I swear. And Sasha is really the best..."

Tara caught Willow's hand and squeezed it. A little, shy smile crept up her features. "I know... I know. As long as you're okay with it, I'm okay."

They resumed their stroll in silence.

It's strange, though..." Willow said dreamily.

"What is?" Tara asked.

"Well, just think about it. Two years ago, Spike tried to bite me. If it hadn't been for that chip, I'd be a skanky vampire right now, with, you know, black lipstick and all..."

"Well, it didn't happen," Tara quickly said, obviously uncomfortable with the vision.

"No, it didn't. And now, I'm preparing to permanently merge Buffy to Spike."

Willow paused in thought. "I know he's good now. Well, I mean, as good as he can be. But, y'know, a small part of me..."

"I know," Tara answered. "But you're right. He's okay now. We have to trust..."

"Yeah, but Spike's a freak!" a voice interjected.

Both girls looked up. The words had been spoken by a tall vampire with a shaved head and a small goatee. He looked mean, and hungry. Willow screamed as the vampire lunged for her and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck.

Tara's eyes glowed black as she recited, "Ares, god of war, hear MMFFF!"

"Well, we can't have that," said another vampire as he put his hand on Tara's mouth, while drawing her back. The first vampire did the same with Willow.

As the girls wriggled, trying to free themselves, both vampires looked at each other and laughed. "Well, looks like we found ourselves a little snack! What's your freak vampire gonna do to save you now, sweeties?" he taunted.

"Well you see, he's not the only vampire who's a freak," a male voice said matter-of-factly. The bald vampire whirled around to see who was addressing him. A shadow moved, took a hold of his head, and twisted it hard, breaking the neck. As he exploded into ashes, the vampire that had been holding Tara let her go and fled.

He didn't get far before a bolt shot from a crossbow caught him. He was ashes too.

Willow's face broke into a grin. "Angel!!!" She ran to the vampire and hugged him hard.

Angel returned the hug, a bit awkwardly. "Hey, Willow, it's good to see you too," he said softly.

"What are you doing here?" Willow asked happily. "Does Buffy know?"

"So, you're the famous Angel," Tara said, stepping forward.

"Well, I don't know about famous..." Angel answered.

"Oh, he's just being modest," Cordelia said dismissively, still holding the crossbow.

After hugging Cordelia, then Wesley, Willow introduced Tara to everyone. Then Angel introduced his two other sidekicks.

"Willow, you remember Gunn... And this is Fred."

Fred waved timidly, and flashed a shy grin. "H-hi..." she said.

"I remember you," Willow answered cheerfully. "You were there the last time I went to L.A., when..." Her voice trailed off as she remembered that last visit to L.A., when she'd gone to inform Angel that Buffy had died.

Willow had hurt so much at that time. And it had hurt even more to see Angel and his friends so cheerful. And it had been excruciating for her to have to see Angel weep.

"Well, anyway, last time I went to L.A.," she finished soberly.

"How is she?" Angel asked, his gaze intense.

Willow looked a bit befuddled. "You mean, she... doesn't know? That you're here?"

Angel and Wesley looked at each other uneasily. They both looked at Cordelia.

"Willow... There's a lot we have to talk to you guys about. And...you're not gonna like it," Cordy said grimly.

*

Dawn struggled to keep her balance on the swiveling chair she was standing on. It was her third attempt at doing this. She unfurled the poster again, bent back, and put it in the right position on the ceiling. It was stupid, she knew. But she wanted Jude Law to be the first face she saw when she woke up in the morning.

Concentrating, she took a push-tack out of her mouth and started driving it into the ceiling with her thumb. All it took was a little more weight, a little more...

The chair swiveled wildly, with Dawn atop it. She flung her arms and screamed. Then a pair of strong arms took hold of her.

Dawn breathed in relief. "Geez. Once again, Spike to the rescue," she said sarcastically.

The vampire looked unimpressed. "Trying to kill yourself, are you now? Glory wasn't enough for you?" Spike said dryly.

Then, as he picked up the poster and looked at it, he chuckled. "And what's more, trying to kill yourself for this sniveling whelp. Well done," he continued.
"Hey!" Dawn exclaimed indignantly. "Jude Law happens to be a babe. And anyway, what do you know?"

Up on his toes, Spike reached out and tacked the poster to the ceiling. "What I know is he'd be a lot better if I made him into a vampire," he commented.

"Don't you dare!" Dawn answered indignantly, pointing her finger at him.

"Oh, I think Jude Law would look nice as a vampire," Buffy said wryly.

Strolling into the room, a quirky smile on her face, the Slayer added, "But then, I'd have to dust him, I guess..."

Spike chuckled. Dawn rolled her eyes. She batted her hands jocularly at Buffy and Spike, chasing them out of the room. "Out! Out, out, out! Jude Law worshipping to do!"

Laughing, her sister and the vampire obeyed.

Buffy was still laughing as they emerged in the corridor. "Can you believe her? Buffy said, amused, to Spike while grabbing his hands.

"Well, she is a teenager, and Jude Law is, well..." Spike pondered.

Buffy laughed some more. "That's not what I meant, Spike. I mean, the banter and everything. With you. And you helping her put up that poster. This is perfect..."

Spike looked puzzled. Buffy continued. "Since I've come back, my life's been a wreck. A disaster..." Buffy's voice trailed off, as she looked at some inner vision.

"Then you come along... and all these people, I mean... Gabe, Sasha, Nate, Eve... They all care. They all want to help, to make it better. And seeing you, me, and Dawn having fun..." She paused, hesitated, and then plowed on. "... almost feels like I have a family again."

Spike gently put a finger to her chin and raised her face so her eyes would meet his. "Do you know how badly I wanted to hear you say that?" he said softly.

They were still staring at each other, basking in each other's gaze, when the door opened and several people, it seemed, came into the house. But Buffy and Spike were elsewhere. That is, until they heard someone clearing her throat.

Spike noticed Willow first. "Hey," he acknowledged. "What's up?"

As Buffy too gazed at Willow, the redhead spoke, awkwardly, wringing her hands. "Um, Buffy? Spike? We have guests..."

"Well, let's go and meet them!" Buffy said cheerfully. As they proceeded down the staircase, she resumed her bantering with Spike. "By the way, speaking of William, did you ever have a last name? Apart from Bloody, I mean?"

"Wait!" Willow cried out. But Buffy didn't seem to hear.

"Well, I can give you a hint," Spike answered. "My name was British."

"Oh, and some hint that... is..."

Buffy's words died out as they walked, hand in hand, in the living room. There had been a collective gasp from a few of the guests. Namely, Angel, Wesley and Cordelia were staring at the two of them wide-eyed.

"Oops," said Willow, arriving in the living room behind them.

Cordelia was the first to break the silence. "Um... Hey, Buffy, nice hair... I mean, as a homemaker with financial issues, you must really save money with your bargain barber!"

*

The Scooby Gang had never been this big. So big, in fact, that a lot of people were standing up in Buffy's living room. There was Buffy, Spike, Willow, and Dawn, of course. And Tara, Xander and Anya, and Giles. That made up the original Scoobies. Then there were Angel's group, all five of them. And then Nate and Sasha. Eve was out shopping, and Gabe and Raven were nowhere to be found.

That still made 15 people in Buffy's house. Including her former boyfriend and her current one. And two of her Watchers. Wesley and Giles had saluted each other with rather uncomfortable "Hello, old boy" greetings and were still rather uneasy.

Hell, why don't you bring Riley into the mix? Buffy thought cynically. See how the three boyfriends get along.

Giles, as usual, took command. Taking off his glasses and lowering his head in thought, he stepped forward.

"Well, it seems that Angel and his associates decided to come to us with some important information pertaining to the situation that we shall soon be facing..."

"Oh, stop being so British, Giles," Cordelia cut in impatiently. "In a nutshell, I've been warned that we're in major trouble, which, by the way, means that I won't have to pay what I owe on my Bloomingdale’s card..."

Xander snorted derisively. "And how would you know that?"

"Visions," Buffy muttered to him.
"Well, I'll have you know," Cordelia said coldly, "that the Powers That Be send me visions, Mister Harris with the skanky demon girlfriend!"

Xander just gaped, but Anya reacted. "Xander! She called me a demon! And skanky! Aren't you going to defend my honor?"

"Oh yeah, like you have some!" Cordy mocked.

Anya gasped, her mouth open in shock. "Xander!!!" she pleaded.

Giles had had enough. "Now that you have all proven that you are all as aggravating as you ever were, can we please continue with the matter at hand?" he sighed.

"He's right," Wesley said. "Cordelia, please try to stay focused."

Hands on her hips, Cordy looked coldly at Anya before resuming her explanation. "Okay, well I don't know a lot, but I had a dream a few nights ago..."

While she was telling them about her dream, Xander leaned toward Buffy. "How did you know she had visions?" he whispered.

Buffy shrugged. "Angel told me. When I saw him, after I..., um, came back..."

"Excuse me, speaking here?" Cordy said pointedly. Xander and Buffy blushed and smiled sheepishly.

"And then, the next morning I had the vision," she continued. "I was speeding toward a mountain. Then the mountain was split open and something came out... It was freed from the mountain."

"Lava?" Xander quirked.

"Evil," Cordelia said. "The worst evil I have ever seen. Something that never should have been freed, never even should have existed."

There was a heavy silence in the room. Then Sasha inclined her head in agreement. "The Disciple. I have also witnessed its liberation."

They all stared at her in shock. Then Buffy spoke up. "And you waited until now to tell us because...?" she asked angrily.

"It was not yet the time," Sasha answered calmly.

"Oh? And when would it have been the time? When a lot of people had wound up dead?" Buffy demanded.

It was Wesley who rose to the defense of Sasha. "Buffy, if I were to guess, knowing you, Sasha had to make sure you didn't try going after the Disciple by yourself."

"It's deadly, Buffy," Cordy added. She seemed grimly serious. "We need an army to defeat it, and then again…"

Again, there was silence in the room. Then Angel spoke up.

"Well," he said, "We seem to have assembled ourselves quite an army right here..."

"Oh, bloody hell," Spike muttered, rolling his eyes.

Angel whirled around and stared at him, his eyes cold. "Are you addressing me, blondie?" he spat.

Despite an audible sigh from Buffy, Spike spoke out. "Just look at this," he said mockingly. "Angel comes back to town with his little groupies and suddenly everything is going to be okay..."

"I didn't ask for your opinion, gothic boy," Angel said in a dangerous tone. "In fact, I didn't even ask for your presence."

"Why don't you just sod off back to where you came from..." Spike began.

"ENOUGH!" Cordelia and Buffy yelled at the same time. Startled, Spike and Angel looked at them both. Both women also exchanged startled glances. Everyone else in the room seemed frozen in shock.

"Why the hell can't my former and current boyfriends ever get along?" Buffy asked impatiently. "Spike, we need him. We need Angel. And Angel, just stay out of my personal life. Spike is my business, not yours."

Both vampires looked defiantly at each other. "Just don't ask me to like him," Angel said.

"Oh, that's precious," Spike snickered. Then, on a warning glance from Buffy, he decided to shut up.

Again, an uneasy moment passed. Buffy moved toward Sasha and stopped in front of her.

"So, now I have two questions. One, why the hell were only you and Cordelia warned of this, and two, what kind of evil am I going to be fighting..."

Sasha stared at Buffy for a moment. "You know why Cordelia and I were the ones warned. And you know the importance of having the champion of L.A. and his team here. As to what kind of evil we're fighting..." She paused, and looked around at the other people in the room.
"Let's just say that those of you who thought sitting atop the Hellmouth was bad may want to reconsider. If things were dangerous, they just got apocalyptic," she said grimly.