The Adventures Of Cordelia Chase and Xander Lavelle Harris vol.4: New Beginning

4. Research

It was a gorgeous night, as everybody sat around the living room, doing research. Willow was on the computer of hers, while the others were in the books. Not all of them were necessarily book readers, but they were all used to it by now. It dated all the way back to high school. Tara had gotten used to it a few years back, when she became a Scooby. Cordelia had been doing it since sophomore year of high school. The year she fell for Xander. The geek of the school. The others had been doing it since almost the day Buffy arrived. Faith had been doing it since after Dru killed Kendra, and she came to Sunnydale. Riley had been doing it since he was a young teenager, when he enlisted in the Initiative.

It made everybody jump, when Cor announced that she had found it.

She stood up.

"It's a prophecy," she announced. "It's Latin, but I can see that it roughly translates that the Hellmouth will open up, all will be lost, and only the Chosen can stop it."

"You read Latin?" Xander asked.

"When you hang with an English guy and big and broody, you learn things quickly."

"And that's why I love you," he said.

She tossed the book onto the couch.

"Who's the Chosen?" Willow asked.

"Isn't it Faith?" Riley guessed.

"Not just Faith. We're all Chosen. We're Chosen heroes to help the Slayer. Don't you get it? Riley, you're combat guy. Xan, you're army guy. Willow and Tara, you're the good magic that protects and helps us all. Dawn, you're Buffy's sister. Faith, you're the last one left that follows Buffy. Anya was the mega knowledge when she was here. Me, I'm everything all rolled up into one. We all are kick ass to the death. We will fight until the very end. We will not give up. Never. Not without a fight. We will go out with a big bang. And that's that. Now gear up. We're going to stop the Hellmouth from rising."

Everyone did as the former Queen C ordered, all of them going to the chest and grabbing weapons.