Title: Heroes Never Just Fade Away
Rating: R
Story: ActionAdventure
Feedback: In lieu of a Faithbot yeah.
E-Mail: If I own the characters, why have Faith and Cordelia escaped? Woe is me.
FIC: Heroes Never Just Fade Away (1?)
"Well, personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon." Angel replied. "Let's go to work," he finished before starting forward, eyes fixed on the swarming hordes charging them.
"Always good to have a plan, mate."
Angel's mouth opened to reply to his smart-ass grand-childe. Suddenly the ground shuddered beneath his feet, knocking him onto his back. An ear-pounding explosion boomed through the cold night air, causing the blood to thunder through his head. His eyes widened as the approaching demonic mob were consumed in fire and the two buildings flanking the monsters collapsed in on themselves, large masonry falling on the screaming beasts.
"Wow. That went even better than I expected," commented an unanticipated but very familiar voice behind him.
Unable to believe what he was hearing, Angel sprang to his feet and spun around to confront the smirking interloper. "Harris! What are you doing here?"
"That's gratitude for you, hey X?"
Angel looked up to the fire escape landing above, his ability to be shocked rapidly diminishing but he was still surprised to see another familiar figure looking down at him, a trademark sardonic expression on her face. "Faith."
"The one," the Slayer grabbed a hold of the fire escape of the rail and vaulted over it to the ground, landing on the rain-slicked cobbles with feet spread, and knees bent to minimise the impact, "the only. How's it hanging?"
"Who are these people, vampire?" Illyria demanded.
Even the rain-swept darkness, Angel saw Faith's eyes flash. "Back the fuck off, Blue Bitch. FYI, Fred was a real nice gal and seeing some demon slut walking around in her body is pissing me off. And if there's one thing ya don't wanna see is me pissed off."
"Amen to that," Xander muttered, "three days a month and I just find myself a bunker and hide."
"You think to speak to the great Illyria in such a tone!" screamed the goddess.
Faith smiled at her. "Just did, didn't I?"
"Oooh," Spike put in, "cat-fight."
Angel decided to step in before things got physical. "Look," he stepped between the two glaring females, definite battle of the Alpha-females, "let's get out of here before starting the hair-pulling contest."
"Hate to say it," Xander glanced towards the wreckage. "But Deadboy has a point."
"Oooh."
Faith's face softened at Gunn's moan. In an instant the Slayer was crouched down by the injured African-American. "Yo, Chuck," she whispered, "hang in on there tough guy. It'll be five by five." The brunette glanced over her shoulder to Xander. "X? Wanna get us some help?"
"Sure," Xander spoke into a handset. "Girls, we need you now."
Angel's eyes widened as a dozen or so ropes dropped from the two buildings flanking them, and a whole bunch of teen girls, every one of them a Slayer, rappelled down to their position even as another ten or so girls charged towards them from the far side of the alley. Just what was going on? "You idiot," he looked towards a suddenly furious looking Xander Harris, the look in the man's solitary eye strangely disconcerting, "you've no idea what you've done have you?"
Connor gasped as he ran home, his side a mass of bruises. He'd been hit harder than Hamilton had hit him, but only by the Beast. But his pain was a secondary concern next to Angel. What was going to happen to him? He wished now he'd stayed, it wasn't as if he had a great record of obeying his biological father.
But that was the problem, he'd done so much wrong in the past, he had to do this for his father.
Turning the corner leading into his street, he stopped, eyes narrowing as he noted his mother and father stood by the door to their house, arguing with two women. Speeding up, Connor was at his house in seconds. "What's going on here?" he demanded as he pulled to a stop, hackles rising. He'd never hit a girl, well unless he counted falsely but fondly remembered pillow fights with his sister, but there was something about these two girls that got his hackles rising. Something that told him they were warriors. Not to mention something strangely familiar, although he could have sworn that he'd never met either of them in either of his lives.
The girls, one a dread-locked African-American beauty, the other a pretty, red-head, turned to face him. "Connor," the black girl spoke, "I'm Rona, and this is Vi, you need to come with us, now. All three of you."
Connor shook his head and crossed his arms. "I don't think so."
"Damn it," said Vi, "we're here to protect you."
Connor laughed. "Really don't need any. And why should I trust you?"
The black girl smiled. "Break me off a switch, son. There's about to be a whoppin'."
Connor blinked, something stirring in his memories. Realising his father was starting towards the girls, hand reaching into his pocket to probably grab his cell, Connor stepped into his father's path. "It's okay, dad," he soothed before turning to the girls, "you know Faith?"
"Not biblically," Vi smirked, "we're strictly monogamous lesbians."
His eyes widened at the visual images, absently noting his father's choked coughing and mother's blushing. "Not helping, Vi," Rona admonished. "We know her, she sent us to get you."
"My-," conscious of the presence of his adoptive parents, he changed what he'd been about to say, "Angel-."
"Faith and the others are taking care of it," Rona interrupted. "Now, are you coming? You'll all be targets."
"The rest of the family-," his father began.
This time it was Vi who interrupted. "We know all about them. We have teams all over the city, retrieving them. Now," the red-head looked around, "let's get a move on."
Connor looked towards his parents. "It's for the best, dad."
After a second his father nodded, his expression bemused. "Very well. I'll need to get some-."
"No time," Vi shook her head. "The others will be waiting."
His father looked towards, eyes pleading for guidance. After a second he nodded. "We better go, then."
"And what the hell's that supposed to mean?" Angel kept one eye on Gunn as the groaning African-American was loaded onto a stretcher and the other on Harris.
He was unsurprised when the human returned his glare with interest. The boy had never been bright enough to be scared when the situation demanded it, and surrounded by almost thirty Slayers, Angel supposed he had even less reason to feel frightened. "Your actions today have caused the senior partners to move their timetable for invading this plane of existence by, oh several centuries." Xander glanced towards Gunn. "He ready?"
"Yeah," Faith replied.
"Let's move." Without waiting to see if they followed, Xander and the others hurried away. After a glance and a shrug at Spike they followed, Illyria in tow.
"And you know this how?" he demanded.
"I'd be more interested in how they knew to be here," his grand-childe commented.
"Yeah, but one thing at a time," Angel nodded as they ran, one eye fixed on Gunn. His friend's heartbeat was weak, they didn't have much time. "Well, Xander?"
"You bloodied the Senior Partners' noses today. Yay, team," the youth added sarcastically. "Only problem with that is, they'll have to strike back." The youth spun around and looked behind them. Angel glanced over his shoulder, by now the remains of the demonic army had climbed out of the masonry and were resolutely advancing. "Um, persistent," Xander smiled suddenly before pressing a button on the remote in his right hand. "Bye."
Angel ducked as the Hyperion itself exploded, masonry showering the army, their screams lost in the roaring explosion and rumble of falling stone. "How-."
"Took a three month's refresher course with Riley's unit, explosives, tactics, that sort of thing," Xander explained before starting off on his run again.
Angel and Spike simultaneously rolled their eyes at the mention of 'Captain Cardboard'. "We figured the Senior Partners would attack us, Whelp," Spike commented. "That's why we were here you prat."
"Not you, Billy Idol," Xander shot Spike a contemptuous look. "The world. This dimension. If they don't strike back and hard, the other demonic powers might think they're weak and ripe for the pickings. You boxed them into a corner, forced them to move up The Apocalypse several centuries. Well done."
"Oh crap," Angel muttered before raising his voice. "How did you know we were here?"
"Remember," he turned his head to Faith, the beautiful brunette running effortlessly beside Gunn's stretcher, "a demon, kinda looked a lot like a horny Kermit the frog?"
"Lorne!" Angel gasped.
"Yep," Faith nodded. "Imagine my surprise when I get this phone call off my own Florence Nightingale, telling me how you've taken over Hell Inc. He was wicked scared, wondered what the hell was going on with you, so he kept the Council informed. When we learnt this was going down, G sent us to pull your ass out of the fire."
"He betrayed me!"
"Hey," Faith's glare had enough intensity that Angel had to briefly check he wasn't on fire. "Way Lorne looked at it, you'd betrayed him, signing them all up for W&H without their say-so, he was worried about ya. And if he hadn't informed us, you'd be deader than George Michael's career, right about now." There was a pause, and then the Slayer continued. "In his last call he said he'd done what you asked, about Linds."
"Good," Angel nodded brusquely. In his way Lindsey was more evil, more vile, than Angelus, Spike, or any vampire he'd met. Vampires were solely demons with no control over their actions, he assumed Harmony was the result of mental retardation, while Lindsey was a human who'd actually chosen to work for evil. Unlike Lillah who appeared to have literally no conscience, or Faith who'd realised what she was doing was wrong and had turned from it, Lindsey had turned away from the path on several occasions but the lure of power, easy living, and money had always drawn him back. It was amazing what 30 pieces of silver could do for the lawyer's conscience. With him and the others dead, and with Lindsey's knowledge of Wolfram & Hart, there would have been no-one to stop the lawyer from taking the firm over, and he'd not been ready to allow that.
"You sure ya did the right thing?" Faith queried.
"What's this Poofter?"
Angel grimaced at Spike's query. "I had Lorne shoot Lindsey."
Spike's head spun around to face him. "The hell you say!"
"Killing a treacherous, untrustworthy worm," Illyria nodded. "Very wise."
"You didn't know him the way I did," Angel kept his tone calm in the face of his grand-childe's anger. "Lindsey wouldn't reform, he's rotten to the core. He signed up with Wolfram & Hart knowing they were demonic, anyone who can read legalese would have seen that in their employment contracts. Then I gave him a chance to get out, instead he went for a promotion. Then he left town, he came back and tried to put us two against one another while plotting to take over W&H." Angel shook his head. "He had too much knowledge, too much skill, and was too morally weak to be left alive."
"What about me, Angel?"
Angel winced at the vulnerability in Faith's voice. "You got a chance to reform, you took it. Lindsey was a grown, educated man when he knowingly signed that contract with W&H. You were a scared high school dropout when you went to work for the Mayor. He got chances to leave but kept on coming back, doing more evil. You changed, he never would."
"He's right, honey."
Angel glanced towards Xander, noting the affection in the young man's voice. Faith and Xander? Noting Spike shooting him a knowing glance, he nodded before speaking. "What are we going to do now?"
Xander laughed as he turned a corner. "Get on that."
