"Buffy, I wish you'd be serious," Giles scolded. Buffy was having a great deal of fun in her training room. With a few more techniques now remembered, she had so far been unable to concentrate on the matter at hand. "Sahjhan is no joke, you're aware of this, but still you refuse to focus. Remembering what you've learnt one year out of seven is not going to be enough to save you if you don't know how to use what you know."

"Well, you know what they say," Buffy said breathlessly, jumping down from a beam she had been balancing precariously on. "You can lead a Slayer to slaughter, but you can't make her drink."

Giles tried not to smile. "Very clever."

She grinned, the smile an odd mixture of Buffy the vampire Slayer and Buffy Summers, innocent teenager. Suddenly she looked sombre and the playfulness in her movements vanished. "Can I win this, Giles?"

Giles was taken aback by her frankness. "I can't say with any certainty, but... Based on your track record, I imagine we have a sizeable chance, yes."

Buffy crossed her arms and looked sceptical. "My track record has one count of vampire boyfriend turned homicidal and two impermanent but severe counts of death. I don't love those chances. I remember feeling powerful and... Ready, but I died. It's kind of hard to be Miss Optimism when I know I lost and I don't even remember what I did wrong. Could I have been faster? Quicker? Better? Because all I've got right now is 'I was dead', and, for some reason, this reminiscent feeling of an upped thermostat."

Giles smiled and looked to his left, cleaning his glasses. "You did nothing wrong, Buffy. What you did–what you gave–was a gift. You gave your life for Dawns. That shows loyalty and love. Bravery. Time and again you've proved your–your resilience, your strength, your commitment," Buffy raised an eyebrow and Giles corrected himself, "For the most part. You have been... Spirited, and yes, blows have been taken–on both sides, but you are still the Slayer, and you are still, to the amazement of beings on many realms, it seems, alive and kicking."

"Oh! Kicking! I remember!" she burst, aiming an exceedingly precise high kick that he remembered teaching her early in her final school year. After she had acted out her new found move, she paused and looked at her Watcher. Wordlessly, Buffy moved closer and Giles placed his arms around her once more. She cherished the warm feeling of a true familial bond that this inspired within her. A nostalgic, warm, comforting, unforced emotion. Stronger than a memory was this warmth flooding her chest.

Buffy pulled away and grabbed a staff, moving into fighting stance. "Okay, I'll be serious now."

Giles mimicked her action and lifted his staff. "Tell me your plans." They touched wood and began to spar. "En garde."

"We need to find where these guys are hiding out. Wes is doing a locator spell as we speak. If they're hiding out in a signal-blocking Batcave I can go around to the local bars and do my own locator spell, but I think being in tip top trouble-free shape is probably the best idea, so fingers crossed our boy took advantage of the bonus meal deal featured at the Hiltons' quality lodgings because they've got great reception. And he seems like Paris's type."

"I don't think so."

Buffy turned around, and there was Angel. Her temporary lapse in concentration cost the Slayer her balance; Giles swept his staff under her feet and knocked them out from under her. As she began to fall sideways, she overbalanced her torso and placed one of her hands on the ground before she fell, rising to a one-handed handstand and quickly flipping back to an upright stance, just in time to jump over another well-directed sweeping from Giles' weapon.

"Pause," she said to Giles. "Why? Not pretty enough?"

"I was going to say he seems too moral, but that works too I guess," Angel shrugged.

"The locator spell? The... Other spell? With the... resinking urn?"

"Resikhian. We've locked onto his location, but he's busy tonight, hasn't stayed in one place the entire time, which is difficult to track when he teleports so much. And yes, taken care of. I know how to do it."

"Okay. That's good, we can catch him off guard." Buffy turned to Giles. "That's good, right?"

"Yes, I imagine that we will be able to catch him off guard if he's running errands," he answered.

Wesley entered the training room. "There's another one with him. A companion, an ally, take your pick. We know it's a human."

"Beauty and the beast, huh? Sweet," Buffy murmured.

"Yes. Well, they're both staying within half a mile of each other at all times," Wesley lifted a map of L.A. with scorch marks in select places and charring on others. There was one and one red dot on the damaged map, both moving over it at a slow but steady pace and within close proximity of one another. Wesley placed his index and middle finger over them. "We'll have to track them and see if we can disable the communication devices that they have and take them down individually."

Buffy sighed. "I wish Willow was here, she could do that in a heartbeat. Okay, we'll manage. Have you got the reseeking urn?"

"Resikhian," Angel, Giles and Wesley all corrected at once. Meeting eyes and looking awkward, Wesley continued.

"Yes, we have the urn. It's upstairs. We'll have to get close enough to Sahjhan to capture it."

"I'll take Sahjhan. Buffy, you take the human," said Angel.

Buffy looked unhappy but unwilling to argue. "Fine, fine, your city, your rules. Is Faith back from recon yet?" she asked, pacing the lobby and examining the weapons.

"I'm here, B," Faith returned, her hands bright red, as though chafed. She had scrubbed the blood off and she had continued to scrub even after it was gone. They didn't make water hot enough to make her feel cleansed, these days. "Didn't have anything good. I got a Nazi scroll or something. Sounded dodgy, thought I'd confiscate it and hand it to the principal for extra cred." She tossed it to Wesley carelessly, and he grasped opened it carefully, not believing his eyes.

"Faith..." he began slowly, looking disbelieving, "did you mean 'Nyazian scroll'?"

"Yeah, that'd be about right. Worth the good old fashioned cash-money I spent on it?" she grinned, wiping her knuckles.

"Very much so. I've read excerpts before, I have pieces, but to now own the whole scroll..." Wesley looked at Faith dryly. "Would you like me to reimburse you the uh, cash-money?"

Faith grinned. "Happy to help the cause."

"Nyazian scroll, that's full of prophecies, isn't it Wes?" Angel asked.

"Yes, they tell the coming of a, uh, a merging of events, I think, from memory. I'll have to look over them again."

Buffy laughed as she saw the look of longing in Giles eyes as he watched Wesley handle the scroll. "I think you kids might have to share."

"Oh, of course," Wesley offered the scroll to Giles. "Shall we begin to translate it?"

Giles looked at Buffy, Faith and Angel. "Do you think you could spare an hour?" he asked.

"Gunn, Cordelia and Fred are still out patrolling," said Wesley. "Call us when they return and we'll discuss what we've translated in that time."

"Seems fair. Play nice you two!" Buffy called up the stairs, laughing once more as the two hurried up the stairs. "Couldn't you have found this at some time of year that I could have wrapped it and used it as a present?" Buffy asked Faith with mock exasperation. "I'd be off the hook for the rest of my life."

Faith smirked challengingly. "You think you're takin' the cred for that, even with a pretty little bow on it, you're dreaming. You buy the chocolates and make the fruitcake, I'll beat low-life demons for the ancient prophetic scrolls. It's a fair split."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Watcher's Pet."

"Gee, you really don't remember much, huh?"

"Sure I do, I remember enough to know that I wasn't a W–Angel! Stop laughing!"

[]

"What have you got?" Wesley asked, leaning over the desk.

"A great deal less clarity than I would have liked," replied Giles, rubbing his forehead. "A, erm, a confluence, something called the Tro-Clon. Dates–three dates, specifically, possibly more, but they're the only ones I've been able to work out. One is soon, though I can't be precise. The approximate date I've calculated could be today, or it could be a week from today. I surmise that the next is weeks after that, the next days after that. But there is something here that I can't discern, or, I can't discern correctly, apparently."

"What is it?" Wesley asked, envious that Giles had received the more interesting side of the parchment.

"Tell me what you make from this," Giles placed his finger lightly over a small paragraph in the middle.

"There will be no–" Wesley's head sprung up and concern was evident in his eyes. "How can this be right?"

Giles shook his head. "I don't know."

"Is it referring to–?"

Paling, the older ex-Watcher despondently replied, "I think so."

"What do you suggest we do?"

"Honestly?" Giles replied, taking his cold cup of tea from earlier in the day and adding a little kick to it. "I'd suggest that we get down on our bloody knees and pray that we've read this wrong."

"Yo, guys!" Gunn called up, wiping an unpleasant smelling grime from his forehead. "Time to hit it. Get whatever you need, Cordy's getting the cavalry prepped as we speak."

Wesley replied that they would be down in a moment. Placing the scroll in a drawer in his desk, he suggested, "We finish this later. For all we know this could be wrong or, contextually, it could make more sense. We wait until we've translated the surrounding paragraphs and then we decide on a course of action and whether to tell them."

Giles agreed and the two left the room, the scroll seeming to have its' own presence.

[]

"That's what it said," a frightened translator told an impatient Lilah.

"You're... Absolutely certain? You're not thinking of a different scroll? You're thinking of the vampire with a soul, not a King or an army?" she asked coolly, her voice liquid and menacing. "I've had to dispose of several good translators today over this. I'd like to keep the numbers down." She leaned over the desk and towards him, baring her teeth as a crocodile does to tell its' pray of impending doom. "Well, no I wouldn't, but that's the price you have to pay for answers and a reasonable lunch break."

"I'm positive."

"Well, thank you," Lilah said, her tone much more pleasant, but still unerringly businesslike. She dismissed the translator, picked up her things and left the room. Walking down the hall, she said to herself, "That makes things much easier, even after today's... Upset."

"What things?" Gavin asked, jumping into step with her from out of nowhere.

Lilah smirked. "All in time."

[]

Angel stood at the doorway. Looking around, he made sure that everyone had a weapon and went over the plan. "Everyone ready?"

"We're good. Lead the way," Fred replied.

"Okay. Fred, Wes," he tilted his head at them, "I want you two with Giles and Buffy. You're taking the human. I know he might not seem like much of a threat, but he's with Sahjhan and we've got to assume that there's a reason for that. Gunn, Cordy, Faith, I want you three with me. This guy means serious business, we can't mess around here. Get in, get him cornered, get him in the urn."

"Is there a chant?" Cordy asked. "Because I'm not so good with the Latin and demon languages designed for people with more than one tongue, and since you're going to have your hands full and Wes won't be with us, if there is you should probably give it to me now and let me do a warm up."

"You don't have to chant, don't worry," he reassured her with a bright smile. She returned it with her patented grin that seemed to light up the entire room.

"Ready to move out, guys?" Faith asked, moving towards Gunn, Cordy and Angel. "'Cause I don't do too good with stragglers."

"Okay, we have no idea who this person is or why they're working with Sahjhan. We hold them down, try to get some answers," said Buffy. "Got another map for Angel, Wes?"

Wesley nodded. "He has it."

"Good, let's get going."

[]

Buffy didn't know how she had managed to split up with the group. She thought she had seen something reflective about fifty metres away and had instructed the group to stay there for a second, but just as she had gone deep enough into the brush that she could no longer see Wesley, Fred or Giles, she heard their hurried footsteps. Surely they hadn't been running away from her? What were they, five?

"This isn't hide and seek guys!" she called out, then mumbled, "And if it was, my Slayer senses would find and then kick your asses."

Wishing that it had been her, not Giles holding the map, she ventured the way that they had been planning to go before the rest of the group disappeared.

[]

Giles felt uneasy walking through the forest, looking for their target. Something about the mission made the air buzz ominously.

Buffy, straggling behind and somewhat distracted, stopped. "Hold on guys, I think I see something man made, just let me check it out."

"Do you need us to come with you?" Wesley asked.

Buffy didn't look away from her point, "No, it's okay, it's not far, I'll be back in a sec."

A minute later, she returned. "Okay guys, we're good to go. It was nothing, just a trick of the light, I guess. Or a squirrel. Giles, are there demon squirrels that change shape?"

Giles ignored her question but made a mental note to look it up later due to pure curiosity. "This way," he pointed to his left, investigating the map and then holding it out to Buffy. "Hold this for a second."

Buffy jumped backwards, startled, and Giles returned the map to his jacket. "I heard something behind us," she pressed urgently, pointing the way that Giles had, "Everybody run, now!"

They didn't notice when the Slayer disappeared mid-sprint into thin air behind them.

[]

Angel, Cordy, Gunn and Faith slinked through the forest, closing in on the blue dot on the map. Angel weilded a longsword, Faith a bow and arrow and a dagger, Gunn a sword similar to Angel's and Cordy an interestingly-stained axe.

"We gettin' close Angel?" asked Faith, constantly scanning her surroundings with trained skill. "'Cause I know this is your guy, but I'd love to get a few punches in, myself."

"Gunn has the map."

"Yeah, we're gettin' close, everybody get your weapons out," Gunn said, removing his sword and grasping the hilt. He sliced through an approaching string of vines, revelling in the clean cut. "Angel, Cordy, you guys know what to do."

"Got it," said Cordy as she and Angel began to draw a pentagram in the undisturbed patch of dust that they had found. She then proceeded to pull out some candles from the bag slung over her shoulder and hurriedly lit them. "Where?" she asked, cutting her hand and letting the blood drip into the middle of the pentagram.

"South." Gunn pointed to his right.

"Corpus Granok Sahjhan demonicus!" exclaimed Angel.

"Alright, alright, you don't need to yell," said Sahjhan, appearing a metre in front of them and in the middle of the circle. Angel lunged forward, swinging his sword at Sahjhan's head before he realised that it would hurt him. Just before it made contact, he lifted his hand and caught the sword.

Surprise was obvious on his face when it stayed still in his grasp. Smiling grimly, Sahjhan flipped the sword and sent Angel flying into the air. Faith was next, running forward and lifting her leg in a flying kick. The demon intercepted her move and jerked her foot at an angle that caused a snap that rang out through the entire forest.

Faith cried out in pain, swearing uncontrollably. Angel raised himself and moved in front of the other three to stop the uninjured two from following through with the attacks that they had just been about to execute.

"Guys, leave, now," he said, forcing them backwards by retreating.

"You're freakin' kidding me! You're dreaming Angel, we're not going anywh–"

"FAITH, GET THEM OUT OF HERE, NOW. GO HELP EVERYONE ELSE," he yelled without turning around, and heard to his relief that she had obliged. He threw his keys over his head in one fluid motion and heard them land in someones' hand. "Why are you doing this?" he demanded of the demon, "Why are you trying to kill us?"

"I'm trying to make the world a better place," he said, then looked at the vampire as though he were deficient. "Evil, chaos, does that mean anything to you?"

"It used to."

"Oh, God, get the tissues, here come the tears. I think I see one now, just let me just get that for you," said Sahjhan, propelling his fist into Angel's face. Angel hurtled backwards. He hadn't realised that Sahjhan would be so strong, and he felt fear that his plan would fail. He wished that Faith would hurry up. He could only keep Sahjhan in the circle for so long.

[]

"Okay," Faith said to Cordy and Gunn once out of earshot. "We go back in how long?"

"He said a minute. If he doesn't get anything good then, we trap him," Cordy replied. "Which is a pity, because Pro-Active just doesn't have 'before' shots that terrible anymore."

"Aaand that's a minute of my life I'll never get back," said Faith, running forward. She faltered because of the pain in her ankle, but powered through it. It wasn't broken, she'd had enough breaks to know that. Still, she was thankful that she was only sprinting the distance that she was, if she wasn't a Slayer she wouldn't have been able to do this.

Thanking a higher power that Angel still had Sahjhan in the circle, she opened the lid of the Resikhian Urn.

"Don't forget to tuck in your knees, big boy," she spat, placing the urn on the ground.

"What? What are you doing?" Sahjhan spluttered, and then he was gone.

Angel smiled satisfactorily and then fell to the ground, limp.

[]

Buffy had almost called out for Giles several times, but decided that remaining incognito was more important to the mission. She wasn't scared of the darkness, but the things in it tended to make her a little jumpy. Stopping dead in her tracks after about ten minutes of solid wandering, Buffy came face to face with... Herself. Automatically, she extended her fist to punch whatever was imitating her form. But to no avail, her fist went right through the copycat.

"What are you?" she asked, trying the verbal thing before she figured out how to pummel this... Ghost?

"I'm the ghost of Christmas past," she replied patronisingly.

"Very funny, really, ha, ha, but really, you're both copying my outfit and my face, so I'd tell me what's going on or I'll–"

"You'll what? Punch me?" the figure walked through Buffy, who gasped at the unpleasant feeling it caused her. "Haven't you realised?" the Buffy doppelganger asked with condescension. "This wasn't how it was meant to happen. You're supposed to remember, you're supposed to be somewhere else."

The woman moved forward, distress painted across her face. When she spoke, her voice mimicked Buffy's exactly. "Wherever I was... I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time... didn't mean anything... nothing had form... but I was still me, you know? And I was warm... and I was loved... and I was finished. Complete. I don't understand about theology or dimensions, or... any of it, really... but I think I was in heaven." She turned to face the real Buffy and gauge her reaction before she spoke her next time. "And now I'm not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out... by my friends. Everything here is... hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch... this is Hell. Just getting through the next moment, and the one after that... knowing what I've lost..."

The real Buffy turned as white as a ghost.

"Ring a bell?" her counterpart asked.

Buffy stuttered, the images exploding back into her head felt as though they were searing hot. "I..."

She didn't even hear the footsteps behind her, ignorant of the rock hanging above her head until her attacker brought it crashing down onto her skull.

"I'd say I've earned the right to cast the first stone, wouldn't you?" Caleb asked the conscious, smiling, incorporeal Buffy. "Should we kill her?" he asked, holding the stone to his side.

The First smiled. "No. I felt that. I was all inside of her–"

"Now, now, you cheatin' on me?" asked Caleb with a sardonic half-smile.

She smiled. "We don't kill her. Trust me, after that shock, pretty soon she'll want to do it herself. And you know I do so love it when they struggle."

Caleb nodded. "Sahjhan?"

"Unimportant. At this point, everything is where it needs to be."

The two began to depart, but were stopped in their tracks by a group consisting of five unknown people and the barely-standing vampire with a soul.

"Okay, who are you?" Cordy asked, lifting her weapon.

"I'm a vessel, just doin' the Lords work," he said reverently. Without warning, he shoved Cordelia aside with all of his strength. Her head barely missed a tree trunk and she skidded across the dirt. Angel and Wesley ran towards her to make sure that she was alright.

"Cordy? Are you hurt?" Angel asked, holding onto her left arm and lifting her gently.

Cordelia stood and patted herself down to rid the dirt from her clothes. "I'm fine, just... Ow. I think I preferred the monk dude in that movie that was big on the self-flagellation, because I don't like the idea of my head playing tips with that tree trunk."

"Buffy," Giles said, running forward. He turned her over. "She's unconscious."

"Get her back to the car," said Fred, running over to her. "Oh God, it's her head." She addressed Giles. "Do you think she'll be able to recover from this? Because if this were a normal person they'd already be dead from this kind of blunt trauma."

Giles seemed to be struggling within himself for a moment. "Get her to the hospital."

[]

Buffy trudged into Angels' room. He was laying on the bed as battered and bruised as she was. For a second, both tried to pretend that moving normally was no task, but Buffy moved forward and, with an inward groan, placed herself on the bed. The movement hurt her joints and she had to use a substantial amount of strength to make no noise.

It had been hours since she had taken a blow to the head and at least one hour since she got back from the hospital (much to the dismay of the doctors who had insisted on keeping her all night), but she still ached all over and it was difficult for her to move. It didn't help that whoever had attacked her had dropped the enormous rock they used to knock her out with on the back of her knee, which had mostly healed, but it still caused her slight pain to stand and move her leg.

"Good thing we're superheroes, huh?" she said, laughing hollowly, then regretting it when her ribs ached in response.

"Yeah, I didn't think it was possible for me to get any deader than I already am," he replied.

Hesitantly, Buffy laid down on the spare space. Angel didn't object, and if he did she doubted he felt inclined to move.

"Are you feeling better?"

Buffy turned her head and nodded, the bandage slipping down slightly. "I'll be healed up in a few hours, I guess. Some light bruising. I don't think I've kept a bruise for more than a couple of hours since my eighteenth birthday. I mean, I assume I haven't. Unless I fight super strong priests a lot, which would make me feel slightly better about my situation." This was a lie. Her situation had nothing to do with the priest.

"Yeah, I–"

"You think the church would be congratulating me, stopping the spread of the soulless Hell demons they fought so hard to destroy, or something."

"You've read the bible?" Angel asked in surprise.

She shrugged. "No, but there's always a battle."

"Couldn't say, it's been a while since I've touched a bible myself," he said dryly.

Buffy suddenly looked intrigued."I didn't realise bibles burnt vampires."
"They don't, they're just really long." He grinned. "I'd need eternal life to get through The Good book."

Buffy tried to smile and, unconscious of the physical discomfort, propped her head up on her arm. "Surely they have cliffnotes for that kind of thing nowadays?"

"It's possible, but 'Ye Olde Bible: for Dummies' always felt like a bit of cop-out for me."

"I was in heaven," she blurted, dropping the act and letting her words drip with the numbness she felt.

"What?"

"I was in heaven. And now I'm not."

For a second Angel looked thoughtful. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. "When did you remember?"

Now that she was being honest, Buffy found it difficult to meet Angel's eyes. "I told me. Not me, me, a different me. She was in the woods. She said that this wasn't the way it was supposed to happen, and... Something, did I understand, and I remembered." Buffy snorted bitterly. "It felt like someone smashed a rock over my head, at least, until someone really smashed a rock over my head. Then it didn't feel like anything. But I remember now. 'Everything here is... hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch... this is Hell. Just getting through the next moment, and the one after that... knowing what I've lost...'" she repeated, looking more despondent than Angel had ever seen her. "I've never felt so out of place. That I didn't realise it before, when now, just... Existing... It feels like I'm being pulled by a thousand different hands to different places, and I don't belong in any of them."

Angel looked on her, stunned into silence.

"I can't... feel. And I don't mean that the needles they put in my head have got me dizzy. There's regret and bitterness and... sorrow, inside of me, and I can't fight it. I'm not battling because I've done something wrong and I'm unhappy. Every breath I take is another chuckle at my expense, because they're up there and I'm not. Because I don't get to feel peace. Because I don't get to feel anything. I just..."

Buffy's words were cut off by Angel's mouth on hers. He seemed to have forgotten about the pain that this was supposed to be causing his body, because in a figurative heartbeat he had rolled over and lifted the Slayer on top of him. His hands rested on the small of her back, which he stroked with his thumbs. Her body reacted much more quickly than her mind did; her arms around his neck as soon as he began to roll her over. Their kiss deepened and the scene quickly became more heated.

Buffy moved against Angel, their bodies locking together perfectly. His large hands held her small ones as he rolled on top of her and held himself up to relieve any pressure from her body. Although he knew that she was much too strong to be crushed by his weight, the reflex was automatic and it was not until Buffy swept his arms out from their posts and pulled the vampire closer that he truly lost all inhibitions and gave himself over to the passion he felt, the pain she felt. The despair that she spread through him like wildfire, right through to the end of his fingertips.

[]

"The first date on this," Fred said, examining the scroll closely. Wesley laid a hand reassuringly on her shoulder as he watched her think. "You weren't too far off Giles, it's... Uh, you sure you guys translated this thing right?"

They both nodded. "Fairly sure," said Wesley.

"If I'm correct, which, y'know, not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty sure that I am, that means that this one... Must have happened today."

The three looked at each other.

Fred grimaced. "Can it be true? 'There will be no birth, only death'."

Thanks for reading! First of all, sorry I haven't updated in so long. You know how I said that my computer was fixed? It broke as soon as it was fixed, O cruel fate. So, sorry.
I didn't put an intro at the beginning of this chapter because I figured we'd get straight into it. Firstly, I've only seen seasons three and four of Angel once, so I tried to make everything as logical as possible. Sahjhan is in the Resikhian urn which Angel took from Wolfram and Hart when he went to see the girl in the white room there. Faith got the Nyazian scroll. Buffy remembers that she was in heaven and, of course, leans on Angel. Caleb and The First have paired up with Sahjhan through Wolfram and Hart for an early attack. There are a few more things, but I'll leave them for now because I've got to have something to keep mysterious. They shall be elaborated on next chapter, which, God, let's hope will be updated sooner than this one was.
Reviews are wonderful. Love it? Hate it? Want to throw a smelly shoe at me for taking so long to update? Let me know!