Foreword:
After watching Not Fade Away, I couldn't stop thinking about what happens to the Fang Gang. I simply couldn't believe they'd die in that alley; Spike and Illyria alone are far too contrary to simply roll over and die on account of a few thousand demons. Thus, I had to wonder; what happens next?
Given that I always longed for the full-on Buffy/Angel crossover that was never to be, the two ideas fused together in my mind until I came up with this. I hope you enjoy, and please, if you see somewhere I can improve my writing-tell me!
All characters used within from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel were created and brought to life by the wonderful Mr. Joss Whedon and the casts and crews of Angel and Buffy. I make no claim to any of them, and wish to thank all those who worked on the shows for creating this amazing setting and the fantastic characters which populate it.
Gunn
The clangor of combat filled the rain-soaked alley, steel ringing on steel as the bruised and battered remnants of Angel Investigations fought for their lives.
Charles Gunn lay in the alley where he had fallen, back against a dumpster, clutching his side. Damn, he thought. Was hoping I'd take a few more of them with me. He winced in agony as another intense jolt of pain shot through his body, his axe clattering to the concrete as his numbed fingers finally slackened their grip.
Simply forcing his eyelids to remain open had become an effort, yet Gunn refused to give in. He might be dying, but he'd be damned if he'd leave one second before he was ready to.
I ain't going anywhere until I'm ready for it.
Gunn might be unable to do anything but keep his eyes open, but he would do that until the end. And so he lay there, bleeding out in an alley, watching his friends stand together against the demon horde.
The light of the streetlamps glinted off of Angel's blade as he whirled and slashed at an armored demon.
Dozens of the Senior Partners' footsoldiers lay slain in his wake, but there seemed to be no end to them. Angel rammed his blade into his opponent, twisting the cold steel in the demon's gut before ripping it free. He moved to face the next foe before his current one had finished crumpling to the ground, face set in a grim mask of determination.
The Champion fought with a speed, strength and ferocity Gunn never knew he possessed. His boss tossed around hulking demons as if they were children and effortlessly danced around sword thrusts.
Gunn gazed on stunned as Angel kicked a snarling eight-foot demon in the jaw, launching it ten feet through the air into a brick wall.
Damn! When did he become Blue Thunder Junior?
Whatever Angel had done, it had made the vamp into a veritable killing machine. Gunn had brawled alongside Angel for years. He thought he'd seen the vamp at his most righteous and furious. He now knew he was wrong.
Angel fought as though the specters of all the loved ones he had ever lost drove him forward, smiting down any servant of darkness who stood in his path. Gunn envied him. He was making a real end for himself, something to be remembered by.
Hell, maybe he'll make it into one of Wes' books someday. "The vampire who spat in the face of Hell itself." Me, I'm just the guy dying in the alley. Nobody's gonna tell stories about Charles Gunn.
Even though Gunn had fallen, however, Angel did not stand alone.
Spike dueled side by side with Angel, his face split by a maniacal grin as he laid about him with his sword. Gunn could hear his gleeful yell even above the snarls and roars of the onrushing monsters. "Been bloody forever since I've been in a real brawl! I should be thanking the buggers."
Angel gave him a mirthless smile as he ducked under a demon's mace swing.
"You really haven't changed, have you, Spike?"
The lean, blond vampire smirked at Angel as he smashed an elbow into the face of a demon grasping at his arm.
"C'mon, you great poof, don't go tellin' me you don't get a kick outta this."
Gunn's mouth quirked upwards in a faint, dark smile. He saw a bit of himself in the irreverent vampire's love of a good fight. Something about driving a stake through the heart of a vamp gave Gunn a rush like nothing else he'd ever experienced.
At least I got to go out on a high note. Never did plan on dying in my sleep.
An inhuman screech of pain caught Gunn's attention. The pulped remains of a demon's head flew through the air, dark blood spattering the alley as it clanged off of a fire escape.
And there's Illyria.
Illyria had plowed into the wave of demons like an angel of vengeance. The blue-haired demon left even Angel behind her as she rushed to do battle, tearing apart all in her path.
Big Blue no longer ducked around her opponents' blows with preternatural grace; her foes packed together so tightly that they afforded her no room to dodge. Illyria instead seemed to be relying upon her sheer power to overwhelm her opponents. Rather than evading the sword thrusts or axe cuts of her attackers, she shattered their weapons with sweeps of her forearms and splintered their limbs with the force of her blows. None stood against her wrath and lived.
She lashed out with a booted heel and caught a demon in the stomach, the raw force of the blow driving its chestplate through its ruined abdomen.
"Know the wrath of Illyria and perish, insects!" she thundered.
Guess she really wasn't kidding about doing that violence.
Gunn still hadn't grown used to seeing the body of the woman he had once loved moving with such unearthly power. He didn't think he ever would, not really.
Course, "ever" ain't lookin' to be all that long now, is it?
Illyria hurled the dying demon into the oncoming press of foes with an almost contemptuous ease. The body knocked her opponents sprawling, momentarily clearing a space around her.
She spun to face Spike, her lovely face twisted with anger.
"I agree with the pet. Inflicting harm upon these vermin brings me some satisfaction. I'll claim many more skulls before this night ends."
Illyria turned back toward the soldiers of Wolfram and Hart as they clambered to their feet. She caved in one's cranium with a single forceful blow, crushing the throat of another with a thrust of her palm as her leg scythed through the air in a vicious arc.
Spike nodded. "See? Blue gets it."
Angel scowled, "Not now, Spike. I'd like my last words not to be meaningless banter."
Spike grinned. "Oh, and I suppose you thought 'Let's go to work' was right badass, was it?"
"Not now!"'
A gaggle of snarling demons rushed forward, dragging Angel and Spike to the ground under the sheer weight of their bodies.
"Oh, bloody hell!" Spike snarled, hacking and slashing away as the press of demons carried him down.
Angel spun a wickedly curved demon battleaxe in a figure-eight, spraying black blood wherever he cut as he stumbled back to his feet. Spike threw vicious punches that sent demons sprawling; he seemed to have lost his blade in the scrum. He and Angel stood back to back as the ever-increasing demon horde surged forward.
Illyria forced her way to Angel and Spike, rending apart any who challenged her.
"Glad you came with us, Blue!" Spike shouted. "Right handy in a pinch, you are."
Illyria gave Spike what Gunn thought remarkably resembled a smirk.
"You're fortunate I did, Spike. These scum cannot hope to match me."
The trio stood firm, a rock against the vicious tide. However, not even a badass superchick and the two strongest vamps Gunn had ever met could hold against the assault pouring down the alley. Gunn's eyelids drooped, ever so slightly, as the tiny knot of his compatriots gave way before the onrushing mass.
With every step of ground they gave, the still-warm bodies of demons collapsed, spun, and dropped to the cement, splashing into puddles and joining their lifeblood to the torrent already murking the waters of the drenched alley. Still, for all their fury, Gunn knew it wouldn't be long now before his companions ended up on the wrong end of a sword.
They fought with exceptional courage, but the seconds of combat seemed like hours. Despite their skill, none had emerged unscathed. Even the mighty Illyria bled from cuts and bruises.
The bestial roars filling the air had grown even louder, but his friends now fought only a few feet from where Gunn lay; close enough for him to hear Illyria's bitter words.
"The vermin are too many. We cannot prevail."
Spike swept out a demon's legs from underneath it, smashing in the creature's face with a discarded helm as it fell. "Afraid of a couple o' measly demons, Blue? Didn't peg you for a nancy."
Illyria hissed "Never!" as she wrenched off the arm of a particularly large beast. "I'm simply angered that" -she thrust a clenched fist through a demon's chest-"I should fall before doing more violence to these rodents."
"My grief has not"-another charging demon flew through the air minus a limb-"eased."
Angel seemed focused solely on the killing; he had slipped into a berserk rage. Even as his death loomed, he fought with greater fury than ever before.
The remnants of Angel Investigations now stood in a semicircle directly around Gunn. Spike glanced back over his shoulder at Gunn.
"Still with us, Charlie boy?
Gunn gave what he hoped was an audible groan; he barely possessed enough energy to move his lips, let alone a limb.
"He lives, but his time grows short." Illyria affirmed, as she pummeled a twelve-foot demon with a flurry of blows.
A muscle-bound Fyarl demon wrestled with Spike, slamming him into the wall next to Gunn's head. The vampire grunted in pain before managing to shove off the demon, snapping its neck as he pushed it away.
"Well, Blue, judgin' by the look of things he won't be going alone. 'Course I jump out of one sodding apocalypse straight into another. Figures. "
Gunn would have laughed, if simply breathing didn't wrack his body with agony.
Angel Investigations continued to battle, seconds passing like hours for Gunn as he lay dying, unable to stand and join the fight yet unwilling to let go.
Gunn could tell the end had come. Angel and Spike had their backs pressed to the wall, no longer bantering, their enemies' axe blows and sword thrusts showering sparks off the wall.
Illyria seemed to recognize that her end was close at hand. She gave one last howl of rage and flung herself forward, smashing demons aside in what Gunn somehow knew to be a death charge.
Guess I would know, wouldn't I. Already did my own today.
Knowing that the end had come, Gunn finally allowed his eyes to droop closed. Darkness seeped in.
Then the world exploded. Searing light filled his view, blinding Gunn even as his eyes flew open in shock. The entire alley shook as a concussive force slammed into Gunn like a mighty fist.
Jesus! What was that?
Gunn's vision cleared nearly immediately, granting him vision of a strange turn of events.
Angel and Illyria had been knocked prone by the blow. They groaned and twitched. Spike was nowhere to be seen.
Still alive, then.
Gunn's eyes flicked onward. The explosion had sent the demonic forces of the Senior Partners sprawling; they lay insensate for dozens of meters in every direction.
What the hell?
That wasn't the most remarkable sight that greeted Gunn's eyes, though.
The wall of the Hyperion which faced the alley had been literally blown away by what must have been an incredible force. Chunks of concrete and rubble left foot-long gouges in the pavement of the alley.
Things got even stranger.
Newcomers to the fight poured from the gap in the wall. The darkness enveloping the alley and the relentless downpour combined to ensure that Gunn could barely make out their silhouettes, but even he could tell there were dozens of them.
More bad guys? Wonderful.
Illyria regained her feet first, of course. Her head crooked. "They're not demons. What is the meaning of this?"
Gunn could now make out the newcomers more clearly. They threw themselves at the demon forces, meeting them blade-to-blade. One in the lead, which Gunn could now see to be a rather petite blond woman whirling an incredibly large ax, broke off from the group and ran toward him.
That couldn't be-
Angel finally clambered back to his feet as the blond chick launched into a spectacular cartwheel, blade slicing through a pair of demons who lunged for her. She landed directly in front of Gunn, Angel and Illyria. A sword-wielding dark-haired man with a black patch over one eye and a short red-haired woman clad in black jogged up to flank her.
Angel managed only a single shocked, confused word.
"Buffy?"