Disclaimer: I the guy who wrote this fic am not the guy (or demi god) joss whedon who created this intricate and and vast universe so dont sue! also don't wear leather shoes...its like wearing dead skin on your feet. also never wear them in a field full of cows while dancing with glee...the cows don't like it and cows are cool.
Chapter one: Trying to: 'Not Fade Away'
The dusty entrance hall of the Hyperion hotel wreaked of memories. Ghosts of lives that were once lived within seemed to haunt the very corridors of the building. The air inside was stale and heavy with dust and the walls were scarred from years of misuse and goings on that had occurred inside. it was a miracle unto itself that the building was still standing not only that it had survived the fact it had been condemned and unsafe to the public but it had seen a war or two in its time but tonight would be its last. A shrill and birdlike scream pierced the glass in the windows shattering them into millions of tiny shards before the left wall of the hotel lobby was reduced to rubble. A colossal creature crashed down through the building taking most of it with it. flailing in agony, its wings twitching and eyes dilating in pain. It lay broken on the green marble floor breathing its last breathes and howling its last howls. A broadsword embedded in the monsters skull was the cause of its demise, the owner of the sword its killer. Angel brushed of his soaking wet coat, pulled his sword from the dragons skull and spoke.
" its good to be home"
he said to himself wiping the blade clean with the tail of his shirt. The rain was now pelting in through the massive crater left by the dragon and the sound of the thunder raging outside drowned out the once musty silence of the room, which from time to time was illuminated by the strikes of lightning. Angel jumped down from the back of the beast his face bloodied and his appearance war torn as his feet connected with the floor they echoed. He didn't stop to look around there was no time for reminiscing, he had lost sight of gunn about 15 minutes ago. And hadn't seen either illyria or spike since he had scaled the surrounding building in search of a vantage point fit for slaying a dragon. He made his way to the remains of the stairs in hope of finding a way back into the ally and back towards the army of demons that were swarming his friends. He headed down into the kitchen to be greeted with yet another demon horde. Angel raised his sword and swung into the fray once more.
The sallow words sang through his mind like a bell in a silent street" happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. happy birthday dear Wesley. happy birthday to you." Wesley looked around to see his friends assembled holding a large chocolate cake swamped with tiny candles. As he looked at all the faces of his friends smiling, waiting for him. Gunn, Angel, Cordelia, Lorne and…fred. He smiled in her direction coyly. "this is…um…such a surprise" that's all he could think of to say. "you big fibber. Now blow out your candles before my arms fall off" came a sarcastic but well meant comment from cordelia. "And don't forget to close your eyes and you know make a wish" as Fred uttered those words to Wesley he stared deep into her hazel eyes, he knew what he was going to wish for…what else did he want? As he closed his eyes to wish , wish hope against hope that Fred would see him as something other that an utterly sexless shoulder to cry on. For her to see him as someone fit to wear on her arm for all the world to see, as someone who would return his love threefold and never be ashamed of it. He blew out the candles and wished to a chorus of cheers from his friends and the smell of smoke filled his nostrils
.when Wesley reopened his eyes he had to close them again, he was blinded by the white static light.. he slowly opened them again taking in his surroundings. The sterile room, was giant…massive and hostile but non the less all too familiar. the white room he thought to himself. He slowly moved his hand down across his bloodied shirt and over the wound made by the blade of cyvus vail. The wound had been the end of him, as he touched the gash he was alerted to the fact that it was utterly painless…he was dead. he thought back to his final waking memories
"would you like me to lie to you now?"
A lie, a pretty little lie as he spent his last moments on the mortal plane
"Wesley, my Wesley"
His skin had tingled with pleasure as he let himself believe it was really her uttering his name
"Its gonna be ok, won't hurt much longer and then you'll be where I am we'll be together"
That was the most painful lie of all…where was she now? She promised she'd be here
"I love you"
Those immortal words the last thing he heard, would linger with him forever. Even though now he had to face the reality that this was all a lie.
As he snapped out of it. Wiped the blood from his hand he turned and his eyes met a familiar hazel gaze. His heart sank as the woman walked towards him. She spoke as she paced closer
" Hello lover, long time no see"
"Lilah?" his voice echoed in the vastness of the white room.
Illyria moved with grace snapping bones and cracking necks as if performing some ballet involving mass murder with a musical accompaniment forged from the howls and mews of her victims. She felt powerful, as she tore through them mercilessly not even breaking a sweat. How dare they be so brave as to approach me, let alone strike out at me she thought to herself I am illyria ancient god king of the primordial, even in this shell I possess more power and vengeance than these followers of the wolf the ram and the hart. And she wouldn't settle for anything less than them, the senior partners more commonly known to her the wolf, ram and hart. A foul smelling robed demon managed to land a blow stopping illyria's sway, it would the last thing it ever did. she returned the blow as it connected she grabbed one of its arms with the other hand and with one swift tug ripped it clean off before beating it around the head repeatedly with it ultimately repaying it for having the gall to touch her in the first place. The demon shrieked in pain and she left it to die in its own juices, moving on to her next victim. And she would continue to do so until this grief she was feeling for the one she knew as Wesley the only thing she had to tie her to this place, gone. So she fought and it eased the unsavoury feeling that ran rampant inside her. As she grabbed the horn of a large creature and snapped it hard until a satisfying crack was heard she was beckoned to look up by the sound of a deafening and shrill mayday call of the giant dragon. she continued to look up into the sky, the rain falling onto her face ferociously. she saw the beast careen towards the building left of the alleyway and collide with it crashing into the ground causing the earth to shake. It is angel she thought he has slain the winged beast, I underestimated the half breed he is not as weak as I had first perceived with that thought she turned and finished off the horned demon and continued her dance of destruction.
Spike had forgotten how much it hurt when you ached all over, he'd forgotten he could ache. He hadn't been in a scrap this bad since god knows when even burning up in a pillar of hellfire didn't hurt as much as this I mean it was over in seconds where as the demon hordes just kept on coming, Charlie boy had been on his last legs or well no legs to be precise he wasn't conscious its pretty hard to stay awake with multiple stab wounds. Spike had him draped over his shoulder as he tried to back down the winding alleyways surrounding the hyperion .He wasn't familiar with the place so he was having a bit of trouble finding a safe place to leave gunn. safe place he mused good luck with that spike. he fled the armies that chased him down the back alleys of L.A. he was never one to run from a fight but another life was at stake and he wasn't about to loose another friend gunn was an alright bloke and spike would do right by him or I bloody well could do if I could find my way out of this sodding labyrinth as spike turned the corner at speed he was stopped dead in his tracks by a 40 foot high centurion
"and you would be the bloody minator"
spike looked down at gunn and back up at the demon stood in front of him. It roared with glee at the thought of stopping the vampire in his tracks, its lower body was composed of four hoof like thing and its shape was not entirely dissimilar to that of a horse, its upper body however was a lot more humanoid although the two great horns that jutted from its head were less than human .
"oh sod it"
spike hissed and with that flung gunn down against the wall of the alleyway.
"come on then horse boy, want a go do you?"
with that he dived forward onto the gargantuan demon screaming as he went.
Wesley continued to look on in amazement.
she questioned Wesley "You look Surprised to see me?"
He acknowledged the question by rolling his eyes. "Lilah, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to fill you in, give you the tour or at least I would be…"
she walked a little closer
" cept heres the snag…you've been a very bad boy and sweetie the senior partners don't take kindly to being toyed with"
a shot of concern flashed across Wesley's face.
" from what I hear Angel and the rest of his little misfits went all assassin and took out the circle of the black thorn…wes they don't walk away from that…you don't walk away from that"
with that she drew back a little
" so questions? Comments?"
the tone of her voice suddenly becoming lighter.
" A few, first being why the hell am I here…I should be.."
lilah interrupted his sentence
"floating around on some fluffy cloud with lil miss Texas plucking your harp strings and sipping tea? Wesley I thought you were smarter than this…your soul isn't yours..lemmi sum this up honey once your on the pay roll your never off the pay roll."
she sighed
" your immortal soul is property of Wolfram and hart You know this, I mean here I am chatting you up for the second time after you took my head clean off "
Wesley glanced down to her neck the cut still as visible and bloody as the day it was made.
" but I don't, I mean we didn't sign anything involving any of us serving the firm after we'd died".
Lilah pulled out the contract Wesley had signed before he took over wolfram and hart, at the bottom of the document was his name signed in blood.
"small prints a bitch wes, and you know all to well this contract, kind of indestructible."
she passed the contract to Wesley, and pointed out the clause on the contract. It read should I the signer of this document do anything to jeopardise and or harm any senior members affiliated or associated with both the senior partners and the firm itself all above agreed terms and conditions are to be dissolved withstanding said event. there it was in black and white bound on an indestructible document and signed in his own blood he was bound to the firm for eternity. Never taught to show any emotion wesley took it rather well, emotion is a sign of weakness that very saying had been drilled into him as a child. He looked back at Lilah and calmly asked
" what do they want with me?"
"thousand dollar question there wes, usually you'd be put to work in the offices down below but as I said before you don't get to cross wolfram and hart and get away with it, they'll deal with you in time but first they have problems on the mortal plane, they have to make an example of angel and the rest of them and the hellfire they are raining down up there is only the start of it. This may just be the 'apocalypse' those prophecies were talking about and guess what Angel chose his side and it's the wrong one"
Wesley replied to that as best he could
"in your opinion, maybe. ok then, if they are to kill me torture me for eternity's lock me away in some hell cell…why send you? I mean why tell me about it?"
"Wesley they may be going to torture you perpetually for aeons but to not give you the skinny on where the hell you are…what do you take them for? Monsters?"
Lilah turned to walk away
"well I gotta be going employees to greet clients to serve as always the wheel keeps on turning…for now anyways"
she walked in the direction she came in
" oh and wes, don't worry about that whole perpetual torment thing may be a while coming, as I said there dealing with things up there you just sit tight here. It was good to see you again"
she smiled, and vanished into the bleakness, leaving Wesley and his thoughts alone to simmer.
Illyria was surrounded by bodies…weak she mused. Each one of them had died bloody and screaming. she looked around at the emptiness, scoffing to herself a pitiful display, is this the so called wraith of the wolf, ram and hart? Proof indeed that they are lesser beings. When I set about vengeance none are left standing and true to her thoughts not a one was. She was beginning to feel that emotion again, concern that is its name she had not sighted her allies for some time and was beginning to feel 'concern' for the half breeds and the one known as Gunn. Rain still poured from the cracking skies but soothed the intense heat non the less as illyria contemplated finding her allies, they found her so to speak. Almighty footsteps began to shake the ground, then she heard the war call of spike
"Arrrghh, son of a goat"
spike was grappling with the head of the centurion and in its rampage it was trying in vain to dispose of him. Shaking its head not looking where it was going it came crashing through walls and fences into the street where illyria and her graveyard of failed opponents were. Rearing up on its hind hooves in pain it still failed to break spikes hold on its horns.
"do you require my assistance half-breed?" queried illyria.
spike trying to shout over the distress calls of the demon " Nah Blue just breaking my little pony here in, doesn't want to play though".
Ignoring what spike had just said illyria took an axe from the corpse of one of her victims and proceeded to hack at the demons hind legs, as it was still reared up it fell to the ground shattering the earth and more than most of its bones, illyria satisfied sunk the axe deep into its occipital lobe and sneered
" even this leviathan has fallen at my feet, I possess more power in this tiny shell that it did in its enormous body…".
spike attempting to clean himself up after being thrown from the demon as it fell,
"I was just about to do that" he announced as he limped over to illyria.
"you are broken"
illyria said looking spike from head to toe.
"Points for observation there luv, where's tall dark and forehead?"
illyria formed a blank look.spike rephrased
"Angel, where is he?".
"I have not seen him since he slayed the demon in the sky".
spike spluttered " he slayed the dragon? I mean talk about living the hero cliché maybe he's gone off to spend his doubloons in ye olde tavern or off rescuing some damsels or something"
the blank look returned to illyrias face
" sarcasm, never a big part of you life as an old one then?".
"Wesley informed me that this thing you call sarcasm is the lowest form of humour and is only spouted by those of very little intelligence"
spike took offence to her skit but before he could reply angel chimed in
"little intelligence huh? that's spike in a nutshell
"well his hair is this peculiar colour" illyria replied
"that much peroxide, gotta be bad for the brain cells"
"HEY!!! Can we get back to the apocalypse ?"spike interrupted their discussion.
Angel pulled himself out of the rubble that was the back wall of the hotel and up into the street. He walked over the demon bodies. To where spike and illyria stood,
" Is Gunn?.."
"he's back through there" spike gestured to the pathway of destruction caused by the centurion.
" but he's in bad shape, not sure if he'll last".
"we need to get him to a hospital, if there are any left…who knows if were the only ones the senior partners rained hell down on and their not finished with us"
"not til we're dust in the wind mate"
" so we make the most of this short reprieve before it starts to rain demons again"
"halleluiah" spike sang
The three of them looked at each other and turned to leave. The rain still beating down on them the air still burning with the humidity of hell itself. The thunder sounded once more, then all was silent, the floor beneath them began to move. It felt as though it was throbbing, moving underfoot…or so it would have appeared. Until the dead that carpeted the floor began to groan and writhe rising up once more. Spike looked at illyria "so you killed most of these" she nodded " boy are they gonna be pissed off at you". the chant of war began to sound again…the roaring screams and beating drums. more were on their way. Angel once again lifted up his sword and illyria readied herself for battle spike wiped the bloodied water from his face
"here we go again". the lightning illuminated the black street enough for the approaching armies to be backlit. just as the hordes were about to fall a silent sound sang through the air and it was quiet, the war cries were hushed the rain stopped and the demons froze in their tracks. A brighter than bright light shone, causing angel and spike to drop to their knees and shield their eyes…it was here the intervention they had been waiting for years for. illyria's face was once again blank…she had much to learn.
A/N: And so here ends the first chapter, show your love! submit a review, and visit my work on fictionpress (look under willowzbitch...its highly entertaining for enjoying and or laughing at) oh and p.s its my first Angel fic so be gentle.