Distribution: If you want it, just ask, I'm sure I'll say yes

Rating: PG13

Summary: Illyria's take on the events of the final battle

Spoilers: AtS Season 5 finale.

Warnings: Character deaths

Feedback: Yes please. I'd love some. And constructive crit too.

Notes: This fic was inspired by the idea of 20 min challenges at TtH. Consider this my 20 min with Illyria. Started 11.04am finished 11.20am. As per requirements of the challenge, this is not beta'd

Disclaimer: AtS and its' characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and associates. No copyright infringement intended. It's all in the name of creation.

Written: 1st August 2004

Dedication: For Mihan, who believes in me.

Vengeance

Wade.

Wade through Blood rain and Corpse river.

Slice through supple flesh. Hack through snapping bone.

Weep.

Weep and blame the rain.

I am perplexed. I do not understand why I feel this way. Why I feel, so... human; why I feel. Wesley is gone, and I need ... In millennia past, I would not have contemplated the actions of lower beings. I was Goddess. I was perfection.

I was.

They took it from me with war and industry. Destroyed my means of reigning once more; extracted my purpose, and now, he is gone. What he believed I could become is no more. What he made me believe, is now nothing but a memory. A memory in the shell of a woman he loved more than life. A memory in the shell I now am.

I fight alongside warriors today. They are worthy of the title I grace them with. The vampires make short work of most foes, preternatural speed and grace enhancing their skill. Yet it is the human I am drawn to most. Against all odds, knowing this is his end... still he fights. He fights for good. He fights for his friends. He fights for the beloved dead. For hope that he will attain forgiveness for his mistakes... his blindness.

The horde keeps moving forward. The more we destroy, the more they attack. They force us to group together. We stand. Side by side, backs facing... circling as they surround us. We are united. We fight as equals. Another incomprehensible in this finality...

Blows exchange. Bodies break and bleed.

Gunn is the first of four to fall. I shout incoherently at him. Drop to my knees by his side. The blond vampire pulls me from his broken body: throws me to the side as a sword goes through him, piercing dead flesh.

His eyes plead as he meets my own. Plead with me to accept his sacrifice.

To understand.

I nod, and reach out to him. It is too late. He disappears in a flurry of dust, swept into the rain.

Weep.

Weep and blame the rain.

The Champion remains. For the first time since my arrival here, I see his true dismay. The dawned realisation that this is the end of all things he has believed to be. The end he has prepared to battle since he was cursed. The battle he had prepared to win.

And They advance.

And We fight.

We fight as warriors.

We fight for existence.

We fight for vengeance.

No.

I fight for Vengeance.

For the man who meant more to me than Omnipotence.

For the man who Believed.

For the man who loved the Shell.

For the memory of that man; held forever in the heart of the shell I have become.

Fin