A/N: I'm on a roll today!


Not Fade Away – Part 9

Angel said yes! We could go to Scotland with Buffy, if only we all survived long enough to see tomorrow. And sure, it might be a bad idea, but it might be the best place for us. If only we could get this fight over with! As I paced the alleyway, ready to start the fight, I caught a familiar scent mingled with blood, that most familiar of aromas.

"Gunn's coming," I called to Angel and Buffy. "And he's hurt."

Angel jogged to the alley entrance, joining me there with a hand on the back of my arm. Gunn was stumbling toward us, arms held up victoriously, a short sword still clutched in one hand. I noticed the sharp stab wound in his gut and more than one vamp bite.

"Hey guys," he gasped as we caught him and helped him back into the alley.

"Don'tcha know you're s'posed to wear that stuff on the inside, Charlie-boy?" I asked as we set him down on the curb, pointing to the blood seeping down one side of his shirt.

Trying to catch his breath, Gunn nodded and spit blood onto the pavement at his shoes before wheezing, "We ran into the army. Helluva lot of demons. The others are leading them this way."

"Others?" Angel asked, a worried hand on Gunn's shoulder.

"Fred, some slayers, a kid named Connor. Fred seemed to know him."

"Fuck!" Angel cried, standing up and pacing away, holding a fist to his hand in worry.

"He'll be fine, Ange," I said, standing to grab my boyfriend's hands in mine, squeezing them tightly to reassure him. "He's a brilliant fighter. And isn't it better, him being with us rather than gallivanting across the city trying to escape?"

Angel nodded wordlessly, his lips still pressed in a tight line.

"When will they get here?" Buffy asked Gunn, holding a hand to the wound on his stomach, putting pressure on it.

Hissing in pain and taking over from Buffy with a hand on his gut, Charlie replied, "I was just a block or two ahead of them."

Buffy nodded and then whistled sharply, getting Angel's attention back from worrying about his son. "Incoming!" she yelled, pulling a thin sword from a holster on her back and setting her feet in a defensive stance at the alleyway entrance. I gave Angel's hands one last squeeze before picking my sword up from where I'd set it and joining her. Angel did the same, taking a position on Buffy's other side, nodding to me gravely over her head.

And then the battle reached us, slayers and Connor moving the line of demons steadily back toward us, Fred blurring about, a gun in one hand and a long knife in the other as she cut down demons one after the other, before they knew what hit them. But behind the line, there were hundreds more demons, of all shapes and sizes, barely visible through the dark and the heavy rain. And as many of them fell, ten more came to fill the gap in the line.

"Angel, Spike, hold this line!" Buffy called out to us. "Let the others fall behind us."

"Aye!" I yelled back, catching Angel's grim nod of acknowledgment.

The first demon to approach me was a big wanker, all fur and horns, slipping past Connor and raising a big meaty fist I was sure he wanted to bring down on my head. Stepping to the side and twisting around, I swung my sword in a broad arc, grinning when it found its target, chopping messily into the demon's side. Knowing the sword would be too stuck in the demon's torso to bother with, I dropped it, leaping up to bring my fist down into its face as I fell. I had to block a few more blows until the demon fell and I could grab my sword, pulling it out before stabbing the demon again, severing its head most of the way off.

Connor passed by, leaning over with his hands on his knees behind me, catching his breath and letting me take out the demon that followed him. "You okay, mate?" I asked him as two more demons came my way, easy targets both of them.

"Yeah," he panted, with a laugh. "Man, am I out of shape!"

"Thought Angel told you to get outta town?" Another demon to my right was about to attack Buffy while she wasn't looking, so I swept forward and beheaded it before returning to the line. I saw that the two slayers and Fred were all recovering behind the line as well.

"I got cut off by the demons," he said, stepping up next to me and grappling with the demons bare handed. "Ran into Fred while I was running, she led us all back here."

I grunted at him in acknowledgment, barely blocking the Morningstar aimed at his head before it could hit him. Fucking hell! Angel would never forgive me if I couldn't keep his son alive, would he? A thought flitting through my brain amidst the chaos that was the battle, I yelled to him, "Mate! I think an axe fell near my feet somewhere if you want a weapon."

"Yeah, I see it," Connor called back. "Ducking in!"

I was glad for the warning, making sure I didn't hurt the lad on accident until he was clear, axe in hand. "So, Spike?" Connor asked as he beheaded a demon, bright purple blood spraying everywhere, hitting us both across the face in hot splatters. "How's it going?"

Laughing gleefully as I dismembered another opponent, I called back, "A little apocalyptic at the mo! How're you doin'? Classes okay?"

"Done for the summer, actually," he called back, killing two skinny zombies in one blow, skulls and limbs flying everywhere.

"And you came here?" I laughed back, pulling him down below the swing of a giant axe. The demon holding it must have been a good twelve feet tall, and Connor and I took it down together, occasionally kicking or punching another smaller demon away.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," he grunted, jumping up and kicking an enemy in the chest, rolling back until he was on his feet and swinging his axe to chop the tosser in half.

Things were going well for a few minutes, until I got caught by an opponent's blade, slicing into my sword arm too deeply to ignore. I roared in pain and frustration at my useless arm, switching hands and stabbing the fucker right in the chest, shoving him off of my sword with a boot and beheading him before he fell.

Dimly, I heard Angel yell, "Switch!" And then, he was at my side instead of Buffy.

"You're injured," he called to me, swiping at any demons that tried to get close to us.

"It'll heal," I yelled back, keeping my right side to him and fighting with the sword in my left hand, using my feet more often than not to fight back the never ending column of demons until either Angel or Connor could kill them.

Then Angel pulled me back behind him, yelling, "I set my bag down back there. It's got bandages and extra blood."

"I can fight!" I insisted, trying to push my way around him, but he just grabbed me by the collar and threw me back again. "Fine, you overprotective git!" I yelled, stomping back towards the bag he mentioned. I pulled my jacket from one shoulder and dug around in the bag before finding a dry bandage, which I tied tightly around the wound in my arm, using my teeth to secure it. Shrugging my jacket back on, I pulled a shorter knife from the bag, as well as a pouch of blood, which I bit into and drained in a few seconds.

"Patched up and ready to go," I told Angel, hoping he would let me back into the fight. We had to hold them off until Willow got here and did her spell. Only then would I stop fighting, with my boyfriend's permission or not.

"Fight with me," he ordered. "On my left." I grunted a response and joined him, slowly getting the feeling back in my arm. In the meantime, Angel and I fought together, him protecting my right side, me being another set of eyes and ears and feet. And it was glorious. We both had our vamp faces out, and he laughed and crowed with me when we took an enemy down. If something had happened to Willow and she couldn't perform her spell, at least we could have fun doing this, dying this way. At least we could work together, our bodies always sodding moving, always close to one another.

Angel sustained a few minor injuries and I resented every one, though I had no small number of hurts either. But we protected each other, and Connor, and even Buffy, as best we could, holding the line. Waiting for the witch. Waiting and fighting towards the inevitable end.

Gunn was still alive behind us, taking the occasional demon that got through between us, and eventually I saw Fred drop back beside him. She looked exhausted, though uninjured, protecting Gunn when he finally succumbed to his injuries and laid out on the ground, heart beating quickly and breaths rapid. When I looked back next, she'd found Angel's stash of supplies, brandishing a crossbow and pressing a huge wad of gauze to Gunn's injury. But the rain washed away everything – the stink of the demons, the sticky blood, the muck and mud they tracked around, the smell of pain coming from one of the slayers who fell, gravely injured.

Fred pulled her back next to Gunn and I wondered when the next of us would fall. The battle was a mess, and now we fought in more of a semicircle, with me and Angel on one end, Buffy in the middle and Connor helping the last slayer on the other side of her. Demon bodies piled up, helping us hold the line, making good cover for the arrows and crossbow bolts that fell onto us on occasion. One hit Angel in the shoulder opposite his heart, thank the bloody Powers, making him growl out in pain before he pulled it out and snapped it with one hand, beheading the demon in front of him with manic vengeance.

We were brilliant, we were mighty death to those who stood before us, we were champions, all of us, and we were losing. The evil forces pushed our line back further and further into the dead-end alleyway. Buffy was beautiful beside us, even covered in blood and muck and rain, all her movements focused, tireless, and deadly. And even Connor fought well, his fighting style again oddly reminiscent of Angel's. As the last little slayer fell into Fred's care, a huge gash on the side of her head, bright purple light flashed behind us. I turned, fitting my back against Angel's to protect us from the threat coming from behind.

But it wasn't a threat. It was Willow, that glorious bloody witch, and a dozen girls or so, all armed like slayers, all looking just about as beaten as we were. But when they regained their balance after being teleported into the alley, they joined us. The line was reinforced, though weary, and still more fucking demons came at us. There must have been thousands of them, a never ending stream of evil trying to snuff us out. Trying to overrun the world of men, starting here in LA. Starting here in the dark and pouring rain. Starting here with the best heroes our world had to offer. And they thought we would fall.

"Hold them for a few more minutes!" I heard Willow yell, the hairs on the back of my neck standing against the wet droplets of rain as magic filled the air.

A slayer tried to take a place between Angel and I until I growled at her, still in game face, making her start and stare at me warily until I flicked my blade, slicing open the demon in front of me, spilling his oozing guts before stabbing him in the heart and kicking him away so Angel could behead him, he and I moving on quickly to meet the next wave of opponents. No one got between us after that.

From behind us, I heard Willow scream with power and rage before she bellowed, "Fire in the hole!" and the magic erupted from behind us. Bright purple and green jets of magic passed us, weakening the demons before us and making the talisman Willow had given me almost unbearably hot against my skin.

Then, Angel shouted, "Connor!"

The boy was caught in a web of magic, his spine bending in pain, lifting him up onto his toes and forcing a scream from his throat eerily like those bellowing up from the demon army as they fell before the waves of magic Willow threw out everywhere. And one of these waves was hurting Angel's son.

Growling in rage, Angel charged at Willow, blinded by Connor's pain and the smell of his mortality acrid under her spell. Desperate, I tackled him to the ground yelling, "You have to let her finish, Angel! You can't stop this now!"

"Like hell I can't!" he growled, grasping the wound on my arm in one meaty hand and squeezing so I gasped out in pain and loosened my hold enough for him to push me away.

"Fuck you, Angel!" I cried, grabbing his feet and tripping him up. "That was low!" Angel fell half onto me, and just past him, I could see Buffy throwing her charm over Connor's neck, blocking the magic and ending his pain. Small sparks of magic attacked Buffy and she fell beside Angel's son, quivering and screaming in pain, but far from dying the way Connor had been. "Look!" I tugged on my sire's legs. "Buffy saved him, luv! Connor's okay!"

"Willow killed him," he growled, hitting me about the head as I pulled myself up his body, pinning his arms best I could with one of mine still mostly dead.

When I was looking into his face from just inches away, one arm and both legs wrapped around him as we struggled on the ground I snarled, "Connor's alive, you fucking moron! Buffy saved him. Can't you hear his heartbeat?"

"He's okay?" Angel said softer, finally focusing on me and not on his mission to kill the witch for hurting his son. "There's too many hearts. I can't pick out his."

Loosening my hold so he could roll over, I said, "Look! He's hurt, but he's alive. And Buffy doesn't look much better. She gave him her charm." Angel nodded and sighed in relief, squeezing my side in thanks with one hand before getting up and scrambling over to them. Buffy fell over, unconscious but still quivering as the magic washed over her.

I followed, heavy limbs prepared to defend all three of them from further onslaughts. But the demons we'd been fighting were all turning to dust, wave after wave of them succumbing to Willow's spell as it slammed into them. Magic made the air thick as I fell beside Angel, who had one hand on Connor's forehead, the other pulling Buffy against him. Carefully, he pulled his talisman out from under his shirt.

"No!" I cried when it looked like he was going to give up his protection from the magic to Buffy, grabbing his hand so he couldn't. "Don't even fucking think about it, Angel," I growled. "Don't leave me like this."

"She's hurt, Spike," he cried, tears in his eyes. "I'm going to try to share."

I nodded in understanding and relief, helping him hold Buffy's unconscious body closer against his so he could slip the extra cord of his charm over her head, settling it around both their necks. The magic around us settled into a background hum and all of our fighters were sprawled out on the ground, catching their breaths, holding their wounds, morning the few dead. I went to Connor, pulling him into a sitting position so he wouldn't drown in the heavy rain, flinging one of his arms over my shoulders and trying not to wince at the way his weight rested against my injured arm.

After a few more seconds, Buffy gasped loudly and opened her eyes, briefly struggling against Angel's hold on her, until she realized it was him. "Shh," I heard him whisper in her ear. "Shh, it's okay, darling. I've got you," he sniffed, burying his face in her hair. "I've got you."

"Angel?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder as he picked her up, making sure to keep her neck very close to his.

"It's me, Buffy," he nodded, turning to face me. "Have you got him, Spike?"

"Yeah, luv," I replied, standing with a grunt and hauling Connor up, bending and flinging him over my shoulder so I could carry him with my good arm. "I got 'im."

As we left the front line, joining the others around Willow, a loud flash of light cracked in the distance, followed by earth-shattering thunder that just about toppled me. "That was the portal closing!" Willow called out from her halo of bright magic, her hair whiter than mine and whipping around her face, her eyes completely black with the power. "One more spell to finish! Don't take off the charms!"

"Ha!" I muttered, hefting Connor's almost dead weight as I stooped to pick up my knife. "I'm never takin' this baby off."

Angel must have heard me, because he caught my eye and gave me a small smile and a nod. Unwilling to be apart from him any longer, unwilling to deal with anything that was going on around me, I went to him, pressing the shoulder of my dead arm against the arm that held Buffy's legs, resting my temple on his shoulder. He kissed my hair, muttering, "So far, so good, Will." I sighed and nodded against him, just enjoying the way his steady presence felt.

Just before the mayhem let loose again, I whispered, "Love you, Angel."

To which he responded, "Love you, too, jackass."

At the same time, Willow bellowed again, "Everybody SIT DOWN!" Without thinking, I dropped as best I could with Connor on my shoulder, steadying myself with my feet and the hand of my injured arm on the ground, just barely strong enough to hold me up as the world changed.