Gunn, Angel, Illyria and Spike stood awaiting the advancing demon horde.
"Well, personally, I kind of want to slay a dragon. Let's go to work..." Angel said, and the four of them raised their weapons.
The sounds of the horde, the shrieks and screams, travelled on the wind.
The dragon swooped above their heads, fire blazing out of its mouth, but it was too high up to cause danger... Yet.
It flew back to the horde then turned, making towards them again.
The smell of blood, death and decay hung in the air.
The four of them were ready, although Gunn could feel his strength draining away
Suddenly a blue force field sprang up, surrounding the thousand strong army.
"Great," Spike sighed, "there had to be a catch. There's always a bloody catch. How are we gonna-"
"I don't think that force field is to protect them," Gunn grunted as the demons roared.
The dragon was flying erratically, bouncing off the walls of the force field.
"What the hell is going on?" Angel asked nobody in particular.
"There are others of your kind, standing beyond the field of blue. They are chanting, a strange language to the untrained ear. Luckily for you, I am trained. It is an old Syrian dialect. They are holding the demons in the field, and they are about to destroy..." Illyria said, but she was cut off by the sounds of death.
Moans and shrieks erupted from the horde of demons, and many turned to dust or set on fire.
The dragon, swooping high above, seemed to become alarmed and start attacking the field.
"It's gotta be a very strong wizard to do that!" Spike said, impressed.
Nearly three-quarters of the demons were dead, but the demons had gotten wise.
Every time the dragon hit the edge of the field, it wavered.
The remaining demons had begun to smash at the field, using weapons, claws and kicks to get it down.
After a few more seconds, the field burst in a shower of blood red sparks.
"Well, at least the army is smaller now," Spike said.
At that moment, two things happened.
First, the dragon swooped from above and Angel, Spike and Illyria became occupied with killing it.
However Gunn, who was in no fit state to fight, was watching the rest of the horde, surprise on his face.
Something was attacking it from behind, and making light work of the remaining demons.
Spike watched as the Dragon swooped on overhead.
"How are we going to kill it if it flies so damn high up in the air?" he asked, but Angel was already ahead of him.
Having climbed two-thirds of the way up the wall already, he jumped the last third with ease, onto the roof.
"Of course you bloody managed that before me," Spike said grumpily, "It's still higher than you though!" He shouted.
Angel realised he was right, he needed to get up to the dragons level.
Luckily, help was at hand, and the appearance of an old friend startled him.
"Willow?" He asked, realising she had been behind the force field.
"Hey, thought you might like some help, you know, getting rid of that dragon thingy?" Willow asked.
"You couldn't have come at a better time," Angel smiled, and hugged her on impulse.
She smiled and embraced him briefly, but was soon back to business.
"Let's get the big bad beastie out of the air then," Willow said and Angel nodded.
*****
Below, Spike and Illyria were working to protect Gunn from two massive demons.
"Illyria, now!" Shouted Spike, and Illyria thrust her knives into the back of the demon.
Whilst distracted, Spike used his sword to slice its head off.
"Nice one," he shouted, then he saw the demon looming behind Illyria, ready to strike.
"Illyria watch out!" He shouted, but before the demon could do anything a thick red axe had swiped through its midriff.
"I recognise that axe," Spike said, and as the top half of the demon slid off the person who had swung was revealed.
Spike couldn't take his eyes off her, bewildered.
"Buffy?" he asked weakly.
"I thought you'd want a hand staving off the apocalypse," Buffy smiled.
*****
Back on the roof, Willow was using her powers to levitate Angel towards the dragon.
"Keep going up!" Shouted Angel, and he came to the same level as the dragon.
However, he quickly noticed the tail ready to wipe him out of the air.
"Down! Down! Down!" He shouted, and Willow moved him just in time.
He felt a rush of air above his head as the tail missed by millimetres.
"Oops, sorry!" Shouted Willow.
Angel felt enough time had been wasted, and went in for the attack.
"Forward!" He shouted and Willow did as she was asked.
However his stab glanced off the great beasts' thick hide, barely nicking it.
"Damn dragon and its near impenetrable skin!" Screamed Angel, and stabbed again, this time with more power behind it.
Willow was concentrating on keeping him in the air, far above the rooftop.
Angel managed to cut through the skin, and strained his muscles to try and get the sword in deeper.
However he had angered the dragon, and it swiped at him with his claws, slashing him across the arm he raised to protect himself.
"Ouch," Willow said, then moved Angel further away, out of harm.
She was concentrating so hard she didn't see the demon behind her.
It hovered forwards on a shroud of black mist, but as it approached its face contorted with pain.
In a few seconds it had turned to ashes, with one last shrieking howl, and the knife used to kill it fell to the floor.
"Nobody touches my girl," Kennedy smiled
*****
"There's too many!" Shouted Spike to Buffy.
"Luckily enough I have backup," shouted Buffy, before speaking into a hidden microphone.
"Xander?" She asked, then waited for a reply.
When she got it she told him to send in the army.
"What army is that then?" Spike asked, very much doubting it was the United States army.
"The army of slayers, we already have 100 fighting the demons, and now we have another 200 coming in from the reserves," Buffy smiled, before using the end of her axe to stake the vampire trying unsuccessfully to attack her.
Buffy watched the shower of dust hit the floor, but an instant later something heavy flung her sideways into the wall.
"Oi! You poncey prick! Leave her alone!"Shouted Spike, and he withdrew a dagger from its sheath above his boot.
He ran forwards, ducking in and out, stabbing wildly at the huge beast.
Within half a minute he had joined Buffy at the bottom of the wall.
Spike rolled over and spat the blood out of his mouth.
He looked up and managed to roll aside just in time, the sword of the great beast only managing to cut his leg shallowly.
Buffy was standing, and threw her axe at the beast, but it saw and knocked the axe off course with a giant fist.
He then swung the fist down, missing Buffy by inches as she back flipped through the air.
Just as Buffy landed, three demons came up behind her, shoving her roughly to the ground.
As Buffy dealt with the three of them, Spike saw the beast looming overhead, facing the other way.
He tried to crawl away, but felt it grab his leg and pull him back over the ground, mud and grit impacting on the side of his face.
Suddenly, Illyria appeared out of nowhere, and threw her knives.
They flew through the air landing dead in the centre the great beast's forehead.
It roared and turned to Illyria, dropping Spike, who moaned something about the beast being a bloody great pillock.
Illyria jumped, her blue eyes narrowed with concentration, and she grabbed the handles of her knives and ripped downwards.
With a final, earth shattering roar, the demon fell down, stone dead.
Buffy walked over to stand beside Illyria.
"Nice moves," she smiled.
But Illyria looked at her curiously, "there is strange light coming off this one," she said.
"Okay, weird," Buffy said, then turned to Spike.
"Spike haul your arse up, we've got a battle to fight here," she told him.
"Coming dearest," Spike replied sarcastically. "Don't mind my nearly half bleeding to death," he added.
"That is impossible, you cannot be killed by bleeding to death," Illyria stated.
"It was a joke," Spike said, and Illyria stared at him disapprovingly.
"Wesley taught me there are appropriate times to make jokes, and the apocalypse is not one of them, besides your feeble attempt only..." but Illyria was cut off by the carcass of the dragon falling from the sky.
The three of them scattered as the dragon made shockwaves through the alleyway on it's landing.
"Look at that," Angel said, pointing beyond the carcass to the horde.
Buffy, Illyria and Spike turned.
A hundred slayers had just arrived on the scene, backing up the original hundred.
"There were supposed to be two hundred," Buffy sighed. "I guess Xander was being cautious,"
The demons left behind were now being killed systematically.
The slayers had splintered into groups of three or four, each group working as a team to bring down their victim.
Angel, Spike and Illyria watched with interest as the slayers then banded together to slay the last three or four demons.
Within a minute, the remains of the horde were gone.
"Incredible Buffy," Angel said. "Give us no help, then swoop in at the last minute to save the day and take the glory," he joked.
"Ha ha," Buffy said sarcastically, "if we hadn't turned up you'd be dust," Buffy replied smiling. "Both of you," she added, looking over at Spike.
"Angel, Gunn is in need of your assistance," Illyria said, and Angel turned to see her knelt beside Gunn.
"Angel," Gunn whispered weakly.
"Quiet now, we are going to get you some help," Angel said reassuringly.
"I-" Gunn started, but a dribble of blood rolled from his mouth and he couldn't continue.
"What the hell do we do?" Angel growled.
"Leave it to me and my girls," Willow said, appearing beside Angel.
Willow closed her eyes, and within seconds twenty other witches had arrived on the scene.
"We need to heal Gunn," she said.
They stood in a circle, and one produced an odd purple crystal.
"Hemphoria, healing crystal," Willow explained, "rare, precious and a one-use policy,"
She then sprinkled rosewater and rosemary around Gunn before joining the circle.
After a few seconds, the twenty gathered witches started chanting.
They chanted for a minute, throwing rosemary onto the ground every few seconds.
Angel watched in amazement as the wounds on Gunn's face and chest healed.
Once the witches had finished, Gunn was wound free, but still pale and looked drained.
"Healing stone, not energy giving I'm afraid," said a familiar voice from behind.
Angel turned, and smiled when he saw Giles, who had spoken, and Xander standing to the side of the circle.
"Wow, the old gang," Angel said, however Illyria was looking bewildered.
"Why did you not choose to help us before?" she asked, fury in her voice.
"If you had helped us, I would not be feeling grief. I despise human emotion; it is like a plague, sweeping throughout entire beings, dripping off them like poison. I should not be subjected to such unworthy feelings,"
"Wow, an ancient demon. Gotta be cause normal people don't speak like that," Xander commented.
"This is Illyria..." Spike said, but Giles cut him off.
"As in Illyria of the Old Ones?"
Spike nodded, and Giles suddenly looked excited.
"That's amazing, their type died out long ago. I thought they were kept in the Deeper Well in the Cotswolds?" Giles asked.
"Long story behind that..." Angel said.
"Lab guy from Wolfram and Heart unleashed Illyria's coffin, she took over Fred's body, poof, here she is," Spike said.
"Maybe not that long then," Angel said, rolling his eyes.
"Does that mean Fred died?" Willow asked, sadness in her eyes.
Angel nodded.
"Where's Wesley?" Xander asked. "Heard he was working for you Angel, how you kept an English nonce like him on is beyond me,"
"He died, protecting the world," Angel said, sadness in his voice. "No matter what you or I say, he was a champion,"
He looked from Gunn, who was being supported by Willow, to Spike and onto Illyria.
"We are all champions."