Last Time . . .

"Demora, I would like nothing more than to attack FoxGlove again. It would rest my mind to know that I was going to kill the Chosen Ones. But Damouse and I both agree that an assault on the Manor again would be foolish. However, you both have control over your clans regardless of Damouse. Attack the Manor. But be forewarned that it is not that easy."

Demora, and Damoka looked at each other and nodded. Soon after they were on cell phones contacting their Lords, and telling them that a small attack was to be ordered. But they were not allowed to enter the Manor; just to make sure that their presence was known by the Chosen Ones.

This Time . . .

Josh and Lance were walking down the corridors of the Manor, and talking. The sounds of voices could be heard down the corridor and got louder as they approached, still they continued to talk.

"I hope you know what your doing. I don't remember you ever doing anything like this." Lance said; his voice was clearly laced with fear, his cutlass at his side, and black v-neck crew t-shirt.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing. After all . . ." Josh said stopping. "I am the . . . Chosen One." His eyes grew big and his body began to shake. "Pretty scary thought huh?" He said as he kissed Lance on the cheek and walked off.

"You have no idea." Lance said as he smiled.

            Lance caught up to Josh, and they both walked down the stairs together. There in the front lobby, were the Teams. Only three out of all of them were actually blood related, the rest were a close net of people, like *NSYNC. Fate had brought them together, and there they stood, all 49 teams, 245 people in all, not including *NSYNC and Beryl.

            Josh looked down at them, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Lance was the first to feel it. It was if as Josh were saying. 'Hey look at me. I have to say something.' It was in his mind, and it was strong. Josh was communicating with everyone in the room who could hear him. The lobby fell quickly silent as they looked up towards the stairs and saw Josh and Lance.

"My friends . . . Welcome to FoxGlove Manor. I know summoning you all here has brought up some questions. As I have told every member of my team I am not at liberty to discuss those matters, nor are they. As scary as this may be, you are all just going to have to trust me.” He said pausing for a second. “Now, some of us have never met. That is one reason why we are here. Every one of us has heard of the Prophecy. And as most of you think, it is coming to an end with the birth of the Chosen Ones," Josh said holding his hands out to all his friends in the front row, and Lance, "it is far from over. For sometime I have known what was to happen. And it has all come true. New Teams have begun to arise around the world. Berlin, and Moscow are some of the ones we know about. Others will soon, very soon, begin to show signs of their powers. So, the time for rejoicing is not yet at hand. The truth is, the war between good and evil hasn’t even reached its peak yet!” He said pausing again. “But that doesn't stop us from being the best hosts possible. For the next week, you will be our guests. Although you won’t be staying here, you all have the Waldorf Astoria to your liking, but for tonight . . . We get to know each other. Please, if you have any questions about anything, don't go asking just any one of us. I recommend you ask me, cause I'm the only non-dumb ass out of my group." Josh said. Lance looked at him, and pulled out his sword and pointed it towards Josh. Everyone laughed and then went on to talking. Josh walked down the stairs, and Joey and Chris were acting like they were crying.

"Oh, that was just Beautiful man." Chris said, acting like he was wiping tears away from his eyes.

"Yeah, brought a tear to me eye." Joey said in an Irish accent.

Josh smiled and then beat them over the heads a couple of times with his hands. They ducked for cover then gave Josh the finger as soon as he started to walk through the crowd.

Lance went off and started talking to the leader of the Boston team. She was a strong-minded woman, whom Lance got along great with, even though he could never remember her name.

            Josh was soon talking to the leader of the Jackson and Moscow teams. The night was going fine, but just beyond the gates of FoxGlove Manor, in a dead zone just outside CIDS range, 30 Vampires sat watching the Manor. The two leaders looked at each other and then told their troops to fall back. There was going to be no battle with all the slayers there.

Two Hours Later.

"I didn't know we had so many people on our side. Kinda hard to believe huh?" Lance said as he and Josh walked out of the control room.

"Yeah. Not like the good old days huh?" Josh said as he looked over at Lance. Suddenly their phone began to ring and Josh walked over to one of the many and picked it up.

"Hello?" He said as he looked over at Lance.

"Josh, longtime no talk." A very familiar voice on the other end said. Josh knew who it was right away.

"Damouse?" Josh said into the phone as he turned his back to Lance. Lance frowned and took a step closer to him.

"Yes, it is I. So how yah been?"

"Cut the small talk. How'd you get this number?"

"Oh, that is not of the concern. Actually, why I'm calling is, because I'm wondering what you are going to do about the Prophecy?"

"I can't discuss this right now."

"Oh, come now Josh, you know very well, that you can't change what is going to happen to yo . . ."

Josh hung up the phone and wind filled the small hallway. Lance took a step back and then began to get scared when the wind didn't stop.

"Josh?" Lance said; his sword gripped tightly in his hand.

"Lance, I think you better get away from me for a little bit. I need to be alone."

"Okay. I will be in the ballroom with the others." He said as he started to cautiously walk away. "If you need me for anything just call me. Alright?"

The wind slightly died down, and Josh turned and looked at him.

"Okay."

With that Lance walked out into the main lobby, and into the ballroom, where he could hear laughter, and the clang of swords. He walked through the crowd, towards the front, to see what was going on. There he saw two swordsmen; one from Jackson, and the other from Philly. They were some of the best he had ever seen, and in the middle of them, watching them like a hawk, was a short, very beautiful young girl with two swords in her hands.

The two would attack her and she fought them off easily to the point where their swords flew from their hands and stuck into the floor of the ballroom. She smiled, and the two looked utterly shocked; they had lost.

"That ladies, is why women are better than men." She said, her voice slightly high pitched, but sweet. Lance couldn't help but look her over. She was beautiful. She had long brown hair that came to the middle of her back, and she had the softest blue eyes that could compete with Josh’s, and a bright smile.

"And any other man that dares to challenge me, come out here right now. Cause I would love to see yah try." She said almost sure of herself. She heard a sword pull out of its sheath. She lowered her head and heard footsteps approach her. She heard light chatter in the room and turned around. There in front of her, was one of the handsomest men she had ever seen. He had piercing green eyes, and short blond, spiky hair.
"You think you can take me?" She said smiling, completely blind to the fact that he was one of the Chosen Ones.

            Justin, Chris, Joey, and Beryl began to laugh, and she looked over at them, pointed her Katana sword at them, and said,

"Boys!" They quieted and she turned her attention back to Lance.

Justin, Joey, and Beryl began to laugh again only much more quietly.

Lance and the girl began to circle around each other.

"You're pretty good." Lance said, with the point of his sword close to the floor, and his wrist turned outward for a quick slice move.

"I'm the best." She said causing Lance to raise both eyebrows and smile.

The fight began; he attacked her, not as fast as he could, just to see what her reaction was. As his sword came down to her head she blocked it and their swords clanged together. Lance quickly withdrew his sword and smiled at her. She attacked him this time, two swipes at his body, easily blocked. The room was deathly silent as the two sparred off.

            She attacked again thrusting the sword at his midsection. He batted it away with his sword, and counterattacked. Both swords sparked on impact, and they danced around each other like they were doing ballet. It was graceful, and almost peaceful to watch them. But Lance messed up and in a quick, swift second, he felt a slight stinging on the left side of his stomach. He looked down at his black shirt and he could see his skin, covered in blood. He put his hand to it, and pulled it away, to see his bloody fingertips.

"You play for keeps don't you?" He said slightly angry.

"Always." She said with a smile; her sword ready in hand, and crouched down.

"Hold this." Lance said as he threw his sword up in the air.

The slayers saw someone fly through the air, grab the sword and land; it was Josh. He held the sword as he got it, by the handle. Nothing really shocking to the other slayers, since they could all do the same.

            Lance took off his shirt, as he revealed his nice body to the crowd, four howls could be heard. Two of them were coming from Joey and Josh and the other two were coming from Johnny and Buffy.

 Lance looked down at his cut, and noticed a perfectly carved K.

"K?" He asked her.

"K! My Name is Katie."

"Ahhh." Lance said, as Josh handed him back his sword. "Thanks babe."

"Anytime." Josh said as he patted Lance’s wound, healing it.

Lance walked back to the girl, and swung his sword at her, then across her stomach, like many times he had done with a pen, wrote,

"Lance Bass. Stay *NSYNC!"

The girl quickly looked down at her stomach then slowly raised her eyes to Lance.

"Lance . . . as in . . . Chosen One Lance . . . as in . . . *NSYNC Lance?" She said scared.

Lance simply nodded and smiled.

The room burst into fits of laughter, all except for Josh. He just looked at the two, and smiled lightly, as a tear fell from his eye. He walked out of the room, and left the party, not feeling like being around anybody.

Demora hung up her phone and looked down at the floor, frustrated.

“Well . . . What did he say?” Damoka asked.

“He laughed at us. He said that we were stupid to even gather up a team and go over there when we could be conjuring up a plan to divide the powers.”

“Well, lucky for us I DO have a plan for dividing the powers!”

“What are you talking about?” Demora said looking up at him.

“I have a team on the inside.”

“Huh? What do you mean a team?!”

“I mean a slaying team!”

“WHAT?!”

“Yup . . .”

“Since when? And why didn’t you tell any of us?!”

“The more people that knew, the more likely it was to get out to the Chosen Ones! It was imperative that I keep it a secret.”

“Well, we should inform Damouse! Let him know we have a plan! I’ll call him back right now . . .” She said opening up her phone again, only for it to be thrown out of her hand by a shocking wind coming from Damoka.

“NO!” He yelled as the wind subsided. “No. We will not reveal our plans to the other gods. If they were to know, word would spread and wind up back to the powers that be, so would the Chosen Ones find out. We cannot let that happen! The whole success of our plan relies on the secrecy of it all.”

“And what makes you think this will work? Don’t you think that the Chosen One, Chasez, already knows? Or the psychic? Or the Divine Oracle?”

“The Oracle isn’t allowed to tell them! It’s against the rules of her job.”

“And what about the others? They’re bound to feel it!”

“If Chasez knows, then he’ll get rid of them, but until that happens, we should make as much use of them as possible!”

“What is your plan?”

“Simple, they are going to try to get close to the Chosen Ones, as well as the Dream Masters and divide them. Cause a little ... chaos.”

Josh stood alone in the atrium. Up on the balcony, he looked out on the night’s sky, upward towards the moon. Fate was a cruel bitch sometimes, and now was one of them. The weight of knowing the outcome of the future drove him to near insanity many times. But that didn’t stop him from doing his job, doing what was right. There were certain things that he couldn’t stop or prevent, so he had to learn to accept that, and for the most part he did, it was just certain things that drove him overboard, things that that hit too close to home, too close to his heart.

“You called a meeting Josh?” Lance asked as he, the other Chosen Ones and Beryl stepped into the atrium, to see Josh’s back to them.

“Close the door.” Josh said still looking up at the moon.

“What’s going on?” Justin asked.

“Close the door, come inside and have a seat.” They did as told and crowded around the fountain. Josh hesitated for a few seconds, collecting himself enough to stay sane. He then turned to face them and jumped down in front of them. “You all know that as the Chosen One, I am fully aware of the Prophecy and it’s outcome. There are many things that I know that I would love to share with you, and would hate to tell you, but can’t because you aren’t supposed to know.” He said as they all sat quietly staring at him. “I can only disclose certain things to you at certain times, things that need to be known for the sake of our victory.”

“So what do you need to tell us now then?” Lance asked.

“The New Orleans team . . .”

“What about em?” Beryl asked.

“They aren’t trustworthy.”

“What do you mean? They seem fine to me!” Chris said.

“They are working for one of the gods, Damoka.”

“What?!” They all said in shock.

“That bastard?! I thought we banished him!” Lance said in shock.

“We only bound him for a short time, the other gods restored him to his power and he has been in cooperation with the New Orleans team.”

“For how long?”

“About six months.”

“And why didn’t we stop them?”

“Because we couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“BECAUSE WE COULDN’T!” Josh said as a small gust of wind filled the room. “Look, I’m sorry . . . I’ll try and calm down . . . We couldn’t stop them because we needed them here so we could use them when they thought they were using us. We’re going to make them help us in preparing for our battle, of course, unknowingly.”

“How are we gonna do that?” Justin asked.

“The Dream Masters.” Lance said.

“Exactly. I had a meeting with Vanessa on the Astral Plane, and informed her of the plan.” Josh continued.

“Which is?” Lance asked a little jealous that Vanessa knew before he did.

“Tonight, while the New Orleans team is sleeping, Vanessa and Dom are gonna go into Jean Louis’ dreams . . . Jean Louis is the leader by the way, and search for any useful information, like when they’re planning on striking, what exactly their plan is . . . and they are going to continue to do so until it is time for our trip.”

“When exactly ARE we going to on our . . . trip?” Joey asked.

“In about a day or two. I have to meet with the heads of each team and let them know what’s going on, New Orleans included, so this way we can plan everything and not have any mishaps while we are physically MIA.”

“I’ve boosted up security on CIDS and made sure to extend his range. Although they were in a dead zone, a team of Vampires were spotted outside earlier, but they fell back once they saw how many teams were here.” Lance said. “Smart enough to find a dead zone, but stupid to go out of it and have them be spotted.”

“Who was with them?” Josh asked.

“Demora for sure, and Damoka I guess. Since they were in a dead zone, we couldn’t get an absolute number of how many there were and who exactly was with them. But, since you said that Damoka has the New Orleans team under his fangs, then it was more than likely to be him.”

“Ok, find out for sure. Other than that, the rest of you can go back to the party except for Justin and Chris. I gotta talk to you two.”

“Are you gonna come back out later babe?” Lance whispered in his ear.

“Um . . . I dunno, I got a lot of planning to do. I’ll try though . . .” Josh said a little depressed.

“Ok, I’ll see you then.”

“Ok, bye.”

“Babe?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you!”

“I love you too Lance.” Josh said hesitating slightly, and with a little pain in his voice.

TBC . . .

Feedback: [email protected]