Angel
"All Apocalypses Aside"
By
SHAWNTARA
&
JDM
Summary: It's one year after the climactic battle between Angel Investigations and Wolfram and Hart where we last saw our heroes: Angel, Spike, Gunn, Illyria facing down against hell on Earth in the alley behind the Hyperion.
DISCLAIMER: We do not own nor will we pretend to own any characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" or "Angel" because we don't want Joss "the Man" Whedon coming after us.
We do own: Kelli, and Shane.
This is the brain child of my fortunate other who has a better working knowledge of the Whedon-verse than I. Firefly is more my expertise.
RATED: PG-13 for violence, adult content, adult language and the other good stuff.
PROLOGUE
As Angel sat in the dark office at the Hyperion Hotel in Los Angeles, he sat in heavy reflection of the chaos of the past two years. The endgame between the surviving elements of Angel Investigations and the legion of Wolfram and Hart was not the end as they feared. It was the only the beginning.
In the past year, demonic activity in LA had reached its all time high. Angel and his team never seemed to have a moments peace as they carried on the good fight. Especially with Spike sticking around after the endgame. Along with Illyria who decided to change the means of her ways. Both Spike and Illyria were intricate factors in the success of Angel Investigations.
Gunn, after spending six months recuperating from his near-fatal wounds, returned to fight alongside the rest of the team. Both he and Illyria saw elements in the other that they had never imagined. They had become very close and Illyria played a critical part in Gunn's recovery as many times Gunn had wanted to surrender and give up after his back was critically wounded and lost the ability to walk for a good quarter of his recovery.
At the dusk of the day, the members of Angel Investigations had all lost people closest to their hearts during their journey. Angel had lost the truest love of his life, Cordelia. The ancient goddess Illyria had taken the life of Winifred "Fred" Burkle in her path to return to her domain. And in the process loosing her god-like powers and coming to respect humanity. Illyria's loss came from the passing of Wesley Wyndom-Price during his operation in opposing the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. This event causing the humanity to swell within the once ancient goddess. Charles Gunn who had fought alongside Angel for five years had unwillingly taken part in Fred's death. The guilt flourishing within was unbearable and would had continued to eat his soul away if not for Illyria. Spike had lost people that he had come to trust: Fred, and Wesley. And no doubt felt an emptiness in his un-dead heart as he had lost the one true love: the slayer, Buffy as she had never learned that he was alive after seemingly perishing at the Hell Mouth in Sunnydale. Andrew had kept his vow to Spike and never revealed this startling revelation. Lorne had vanished off into the night after killing Lindsay and had never been heard from again.
Despite all the losses inflicted against Angel and his team, as long as the fight carried on, and they would be willing to sacrafice their lives in protecting the innocent, there would be many more to be lost. But their union and destiny that laid on the road upon them would never let their friendship be broken.
