A/N: O.K. this is just a quick story that I came up with after reading the third volume of Angel: After the Fall. It is based after the 3rd volume of Angel: After the fall and the 3rd volume of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 book, I don't yet know what happens after these 2 volumes. You may not understand what is going on if you haven't read these. It's not very long but I hope you like.

CONTAINS SPOLIERS!

I do not own either Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel.

…

Back in Hell.

Alexander Harris was sitting in his room silently when there was a knock on his door. He grunted, indicating for the person to come in. A young blonde woman cautiously walked in, and looked at him. He was sat in the dark with bags under his eyes; he'd obviously not slept in days. His face was covered in stubble and he the strong odour that he had not washed at all recently, probably from before he got back form Japan. Buffy had never seen him this bad, not even after Anya's death. He must have cared for Renee very much.

"C'mon Xander," she sighed. "You need to pull yourself together, your needed. The girls miss you, and so do I." Once again he grunted and looked away from Buffy.

"Anyway, Willow says she's got some news for us… all of us. So get cleaned up and meet us in the conference room." She paused. "Look I know your hurting but you need to start doing things again. It's the only way you'll heal. So don't make me go slayer on your ass and be ready in half an hour, O.K?"

He knew she was right so he grudgingly nodded and got up to go to the bathroom.

"Great," she said and left the room.

…

Half an hour later Xander appeared in the main conference room clean-shaven and back in his usual navy military clothing. He noticed that everyone was smiling sadly at him, and he hated it. He didn't want people to feel sorry for him any more. He met up with willow and Buffy who were at the other end of the room talking quietly with serious looks on their faces. They turned around to find him standing right next to them.

"Good to see you out of your room," Willow smiled.

"Yeah, so what's the problem," he asked.

"Oh yeah, I think everyone's here now," replied Willow.

"Can I please have all your attention please," shouted Buffy. "As most of you probably know by now, Los Angeles has gone to hell. Wolfram and Hart seem to have turned it into a sunless place and recruited demons and what not to turn it into hell itself. We've had a few slayers keeping an eye on the proceedings in the town, and killing a few demons. But I told them to keep off the radar as much as possible as this is not our fight. However, the reports have shown that these girls have disappeared one by one and now we have completely lost communication with them. We need an elite team to find out what happened to them, it has been rumoured that a large group of vampires as been taking them captive and they need to be rescued."

"What makes you think they're still alive, the vamps have probably killed them by now," said one of the younger slayers. "If they couldn't take on these vamps, what makes you think we can."

"We don't expect you to confront anyone unless necessary, we just want to know what happened to them. Anyways we are sending out some of the more experienced slayers and Willow is also going to protect and hide you if needs be."

"And you can't ask Angel and his so called team because?" Asked Xander.

"He went missing after the first battle, and the rest of his team have scattered and are missing too," replied Willow.

"Oh, then I'll go. Your needed more here, Will, and you can keep us hidden through the magical connection that all four of us created in the initiative," said Xander.

The girls weren't too sure,

"Well that may work, Xander, but I don't want you going off into hell itself in your condition," said Buffy.

"I need to get out of this place and I think a field trip may do me good."

"O.k.," Buffy replied. "But I want you to keep me updated on everything, O.K.? You promise you'll be careful?"

"Promise." He smiled for the first time in weeks.

"Right. Laura, Denise, Rachel, Cat, Izzy and Sam, I want you to go with him, is that understood?"

"Yes Ma'am!" They said in unison.

"You all leave in the morning so go get ready," She ordered. They slayers filed out of the room and Buffy sighed as Xander left.

"He jumped at the chance when he realised Angel had gone missing," she said to Willow. "I can't believe he still hates him after all these years."

"Yeah, I wonder why he's so eager to go anyway."

"He just needs to get out, I mean he's not left his room for weeks."

"I suppose your right," replied Willow. "I just don't want him being reckless." They stood silently for a few minutes and finally began to head to bed, as it was an early start tomorrow.

…

Xander waited at the doorway to meet up with Buffy and Willow before he left. Willow had insisted that he took a Wicca as part if his team and she was the only one that hadn't turned up yet. Finally, when Buffy and Willow turned up he saw a young witch hiding behind Willow.

"This is Elisa, she's one of our most powerful witches, she should be able to keep you out of trouble," said Willow.

"Hey Elisa I'm Xander."

"H-Hello," she replied nervously. "You can call me Elle if you want, everyone does."

"Well then Elle, are you ready to go."

She looked slightly worried but smiled weakly and nodded.

"Well I guess we're off then," he turned to his two best friends. " I promise to keep you updated on everything and loo after the girls." He hugged them both.

"Be careful Xander," said Buffy as we walked out of the big castle doors. He waved in reply and the team were on their way.

…

Xander was surprised how shocked he was when he first set his eyes upon Los Angeles. He thought the idea was amusing that it was all Angel's fault that this happened but this was too much to handle. It truly was Hell and Xander could be nothing but angry that this was allowed to carry on. The girls behind him were also staring at the state of the city, with their mouths gaping open.

He had kept his promise with Buffy and kept her updated with the situation, however when he called her next his first words were,

"How can you let this carry on? Have you seen what it is like down here?"

Buffy didn't answer his question and only said that this wasn't their fight.

Of course it's our fight! He thought angrily. We promised to protect everyone from demonic threats.

"Right girls lets split up into two search teams and start asking questions. Elle you go on the other team. Make sure you keep you headsets on at all times. I don't want anything happening to any of you."

Luckily all of them had a small microchip implanted in them so they could be tracked if they got lost. The missing girls did not have these. They split up and started looking for clues about the missing slayers' location. Xander pressed record on his headset as it had a camera and it began recording everything to be sent back to main base in

Scotland, once they had finished their mission.

After a few minutes exploring Xander's group turned a corner and came across a demon. Instantly the girls secured him and Xander began to ask it some questions. The horned beast knew a surprisingly great amount about the abduction of the slayers, which was lucky, kind of. They were captured by a group of vampires, which they already knew, and were being kept alive in the basement. Unluckily for the demon he did not know were said basement was, and was exterminated.

A load roar echoed through the streets and the team looked up to see a huge green dragon heading toward the centre of town, with none other than Angel riding it.

"So much for his disappearance, for someone who's been missing he sure is easy to find." Xander thought.

"My guess is we should follow that," he said.

"What! Don't you see those big dragon claws, we're no match for that."

"Yeah, but it might lead us to some more information." And they set off in its trail.

…

The dragon had stopped on the roof of a large building and before long it blew a huge breath of fire, before heading off from where it came.

"This is a vamp nest," said Cat.

"Yes but is it the one we are looking for," replied Xander. "How will we find out this is were the girls are held," he said in his head.

"Girls?" Said a voice in his head.

"Whaaa… Who said that?" Xander said aloud, the girls started at him startled.

"Don't panic, my name is Betta George and I'm being held captive by these vampires. I'm telepathic. Did you say something about slayers?"

"No I just thought, girls," Xander thought back. "Do you know about the missing slayers though?"

"Yes they are here in the basement. They are using them for training. They seem hurt, pretty bad. I don't know whether they are dead or not."

"Thanks George, I'll see if I can get you out as well."

"No need, I think I am more useful here and my injuries are to severe."

"Are you sure, where are you?"

"I'm heavily guarded you won't be able to get to me, now go!" And the connection was gone.

"Elle," he said into his headset. "We've found where they are. We need you to come and help us with the infiltration of their lair. Do you have our co-ordinates?"

"Yes sir, we'll be there A.S.A.P."

"Xander what are you talking about?" Asked Cat, who, like all the others, was looking at him in a concerned fashion.

"Didn't you hear that?" He asked, they shook their heads. "Of course they don't he was telepathic." He explained everything about what he heard to the girls.

"Are you sure that is a reliable lead?" Asked Laura.

"Well no, but it's the best we've got at the moment."

"But it could be dangerous in there," said Denise.

"I know that's why the other group is on its way." he paused. "I'd better contact base." He got out his phone and wrote,

B AND W

FOUND LEAD IN NEST

JUST SAW ANGEL

SO MUCH FOR HIM NOT BEING HERE

ALL OF US GOING TO CHECK IT OUT

X

He attached a file of the current video footage up to that point as his evidence and then sent the email. As he pressed send and looked up he found that the other team was arriving.

…

"So that's the plan," said Xander to the whole team. "Got it?"

They all nodded.

"Alright then lets go."

…

Elle had found an entrance in the building that was not covered. And the whole team sneaked into the premises. They all stayed together which meant that they couldn't be as sneaky but they wanted to have as much reinforcements as possible. Elle was showing the safest way for them to go, but even so they met up with very little resistance. They managed to dust a few vampires, but considering this was a powerful vampire nest it was pathetic.

"What's betting that Angel has something to do with this," thought Xander.

Elle stopped and closed her eyes, sensing her surroundings. A minute later she opened her eyes, frowning,

"There's a huge group of them and that's the only way we can get to the basement. Its going to be impossible to get past them undetected." she said.

Xander sighed trying to think up a better idea for getting into the basement. He didn't want to confront the group of them head on because that would be too dangerous, considering that the missing girls all got captured by these guys. but before he could think up another plan many footsteps echoed through the halls. They were growing louder and louder coming from the direction of the basement. Thinking in his feet Xander quickly pointed to the nearest air vent, telling them to hide in there. They quickly and silently bounded into the vent, hoping that the large group of vampires didn't catch their presence. Xander cringed at the thought that the air conditioning could be put on at any time and their scent will spread throughout the entire building, alerting the nest to their presence. He nodded to Elle to carry on and they silently made their way through the ventilation shafts toward the basement. Loud echoes travelled through the shafts indicating that there was some fighting going on in the building. Someone seemed angry about something. They carried on hoping that the violence meant that they wouldn't be noticed and they were right. They had managed to get to the basement unnoticed.

Elle gave the all clear and they knocked down the vent cover and clambered out, bit nothing could prepare them for what they were about to see. The walls were covered in blood and the mangled bodies of four very young slayers lay on the floor. Denise and Laura went around checking the girls' pulses but they shook their heads, it was too late.

"Those monsters!' exclaimed Sam, her eyes full of tears. Xander got out his phone again and sent the base another message along with the recent video footage.

B AND W

GIRLS FOUND DEAD

GONNA HAVE TO GET OUT ASAP

SOMETHING ELSE IS GOING DOWN.

X

There was more shouting coming from upstairs suggesting the commotion was getting worse.

"Lets go," said Xander.

"What?" said Cat. "We can't just leave them here."

"We have no choice, the fighting is getting worse upstairs and if we take them we're going to get caught."

"Why don't we fight them? we are slayers after all."

"Look what the did to these poor girls, these are not ordinary vampires. we have to get out while we can."

they all jumped into the ventilation and climbed a few levels until Xander heard someone familiar. he turned around and went through a few shafts before he looked down onto a scene that made his eyes widen. Angel was fighting what looked like his old friend Gunn that he had heard about, except he was a vampire now.

The girls squeezed up behind him and the all watched as Angel and Gunn fought. it wasn't long before Gunn overpowered Angel and he stuck his sword straight through his chest. he pulled out a strange glowing stone and did something that set it off. Suddenly the Elle gasped and the girls behind him all looked shocked.

"He is not a vampire," said Elle. Xander was confused but then he saw it. what ever that stone did it showed Angel as a human, he could see no vampire in him at all. he could no nothing as he watched him slowly die, with all his limbs broken and a sword through his chest. even though he disliked Angel a lot, he didn't want a champion like him to die like that. Gunn was shouting hysterically at Angel's lifeless body, angry that Angel was mortal, saying that it was impossible.

He signalled for the girls to continue out of the building and they silently headed out. Once they reached the fresh (ish) air of Los Angeles the all stood there silently. Xander got out his phone to text Buffy.

B

ANGEL IS HUMAN

AND HE'S DEAD.

X

"This mission couldn't get any better," he thought sarcastically as they all headed out of town.