Disclaimer: I don't own anything, I only borrow the characters and situations of the Whedonverse for my selfish pleasure (and hopefully yours).
Summary: The merging and continuation of BtVS and AtS. Starts just after 'The Girl in Question,' 5.20, and continues from there.
Recap: Plans have begun to come together. Andrew was able to pull through in a clutch and use his redesigned Freeze Ray to defeat that blasted dragon. Principle Wood was impressed, but still thinks he's a geek. Buffy and Spike had a short but sweet little reunion before they were rudely interrupted by bloodthirsty demons. The fight isn't over yet, and there is still more work to be done.
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Not too far away, Angel was wondering how the hell he'd gotten into this situation.
Oh yah…accepting the position at Wolfram and Hart in the first place, no doubt. Sure, he'd had his reasons and his team had been seduced by all the hoity-toity perks they'd offered, but was it really worth all this?
Angel didn't think he'd be able to get through the rest of this night. After his fight with Hamilton, he'd been exhausted, even despite the infusion of blood he'd drank from the bastard. But this rabble of demons would no doubt be the death of him and he almost welcomed it.
He'd gotten in over his head by joining Wolfram and Hart and now it was time to make things right in the only way he could. He would fight for as long as he could stand and when they finally dragged him to hell, he'd go kicking and screaming into its fiery oblivion, making it as difficult as possible for them to take him down.
Which would probably be quite soon, though.
Currently Angel found himself at the bottom of a heap of snarling monsters out for his blood. A demon doggy-pile, he thought, as he tried to drag himself out from under them. It was to no avail though, as he was crushed to the pavement under their combined weight.
Well, he'd never thought it'd end like this. He'd taken out as many as he could, but there was no way he could pull himself from this mess. And, oh, how he'd tried, thinking of the wounds he was currently sustaining. Good thing that he didn't need to breathe, otherwise he'd probably already be dead. Or deader, that is.
However, the load of demons weighing him down suddenly began to lessen as he heard fighting coming from above, and he thought that maybe Illyria or Spike had seen his predicament and had come to his assistance. But when the pile of demons was no more, Angel saw that it wasn't the God King or his wayward grand-childe that came to his rescue, but someone he'd never expected.
"Faith…w-what are you doing here?" he asked, flabbergasted, as she pulled him to his feet and wiped some green goo from his shoulder. He noticed the dead bodies surrounding them, and thanked the Powers that someone was still watching out for him.
"Saving your ass again, it looks like. You gotta stop making a habit of this, Angel," came the sassy rejoinder from the dark Slayer as she pulled him into the cover of shadows behind a small building, hoping for a momentary respite from the demons.
"What's going on? How'd you get here? And how'd you find out about this?" Angel shot the questions at her like rapid gunfire, not sure what to make of her assistance in his little foible of pissing off the Senior Partners he'd managed.
"Whoa, slow down there, Slugger. One question at a time. It's the end of the world and I somehow missed your invitation in the mail. Did you really expect us to just let these bastards take you and yours out? Think again, Angel. You never gave up on me so there's no way I'm giving up on you just yet," Faith said with quirk of an eyebrow.
"Wait…us?"
"You got that right, Big Guy. The whole gang's here to help. Didn't you know?" she smirked mischievously, knowing that of course he had no idea. But that was just Faith; she loved messing with people. "The Watcher boys, the Wicca, Xand-man, B, the Brat, Robin, and about one hundred plus Slayers. Quite an impressive operation we all managed to pull together last minute, huh?"
Angel just stared at her in consternation.
And then he noticed that fighting was erupting not too far away from where they stood. Young girls with heavy swords and fierce determination were felling demons in huge numbers, at least from what he could see. Doing a pretty good job of it too. So these were the next generation of Slayers.
He noticed Faith looking on the scene with a proud smile as she crossed her arms, remarking, "Looks like it's midnight."
Just then, a ball of fire erupted not too far away, sending demon bodies into the air before they (or what was left of them) hit the streets with thuds resounding in his ears. Another couple followed, blowing demon bits everywhere.
Startled, Angel looked to Faith, pointed at the fiery chaos erupting, and asked, "Is that the dragon?"
She laughed at his worry, actually laughed, dammit! "Nope, Little Andy and my man already took out that sucker." She noticed Angel's scowling pout, and continued anyway, deliberately trying to give him a had time. "Quite a spectacle too. Bummer that you missed the show. If you wanna souvenir, just look around. Its parts are all over the place." She really couldn't help but rub it in, huh? he thought. The dragon was supposed to be his.
She pointed to another ball of fire exploding into the demon crowd, many screams following, as she explained further, "That particular firepower is coming from none other than our resident redheaded witch. Man…Willow sure is one scary chic with the mojo she can pull off. Remind me not to piss her off, k?"
"Gotcha," he answered, his mind still reeling with the information she'd imparted. How the hell had the band of Scoobies managed to get here for this, Angel had no idea. But he wasn't ungrateful for their help, that was for sure. Even if this was his apocalypse, he thought sulkily.
"Anyone else in Team Angel with you that we might need to rescue?" the second Slayer asked, giddy at the prospect to rejoin the battle and raring to go.
"Before the Monster Squad came upon us, there was only four of us. Other than me, Illyria, Gunn, and Spike were the only one's left to take these guys on…Wes is dead," Angel said quietly.
Faith was quiet as she took in that bit of news, letting sounds of the splatter of rain, the explosions of Willow's fireballs, and the cries of angry demons impinge on his consciousness again. Wes and Faith had certainly had a complicated past, what with him being her ex-Watcher and her impromptu torture session a little while back, but Angel knew that she'd come to trust Wes. Especially since he'd been the one to help her escape prison. He knew it was hard for her to accept, though.
But accept it she did when she shook herself of her internal regret at his passing and concentrated on present situations.
"I'm sorry, Angel…" she cleared her throat over the lump of emotion in her voice before changing the subject. "Well, why don't we go find Gunn and this Illyria and see if they need help? Buffy was on her way to help out Spike, so they should be ok for now."
Angel scowled at that, wondering why Buffy had sent Faith to rescue him instead of coming herself. Why should Spike get her concern, anyway? Then, recognizing that now wasn't the time to contemplate its implications, he nodded and followed her as she crept around the edge of the building, steering clear of the clamoring crowd in the streets.
Angel was grateful for the respite of sticking to the shadows, since his wounds were bleeding profusely as he was severely injured from the fight. He was already starting to heal, but he still hurt like hell. He managed to ready his sword for whatever decided to attack them next, though, as the two of them remained under the cover of darkness in their mission to find Illyria and Gunn. Once he had his other two warriors behind him, Angel knew he'd feel safer.
"So…how's life been treating you, Faith?" Angel asked, wondering if small talk would keep his mind off of his bleeding limbs and their current predicament.
"Far better than yours, from the look of it," she snorted as she noticed how he winced in pain, clutching at the slash he'd taken to the stomach. "Can't really complain, though. Gotta sweet little set-up in Cleveland with my Principal Man training a huge number of eager young Slayers. They're good girls, too," she answered simply as she scanned around building corners, looking for the best detour around the bloodthirsty demon gathering.
"Why Cleveland?"
"Another Hellmouth…Geez, I thought you were hip to the Big Bad circles, Angel. You must be slipping, what with working for Evil Incorporated," she smirked.
Angel ignored her pointed comment as they continued moving stealthily through the back alleys, and instead asked, "And everyone else? What are they doing now that Sunnydale is no more?"
"Well, Willow, Xander, Andrew, and Robin are all official Watchers, making up the whole of the Council now—"
"So Willow's a Watcher and a witch? I'm confused."
"Yah, well sorta. She's more than a witch after that spell that brought on the Slayer Nation…Like some Wiccan Goddess thingy. I never really got it actually, but she's wicked powerful, if you haven't noticed," she said, gesturing to the devastation in the streets, demon bodies smoldering in piles everywhere. "A member of the all-important Coven now too. But anyway, we're all scattered around the world because of the ungodly amount of Slayers we have to train. They're also recruiting new Watchers too. It's a big job. Dawn's finishing up at a high school that is thankfully not on a Hellmouth this time. She'll probably become a Watcher eventually. We don't see B much, mainly because she's taking a break, trying to be a normal girl for once."
Angel couldn't help the jealous note that crept into his voice as he muttered, "And dating the Immortal."
Faith smirked again, "Yah, I don't know what it is about Buffy and demon boyfriends, but hey, I haven't exactly made the best choices when it comes to men either. Must be a Slayer thing," she mused. "At least I got a good one now, though."
"You do seem happy, Faith," Angel remarked quietly.
"A first for me. Still takes some getting used to, but yah, I guess I am. I'm finally a part of something. I'm a Scooby now…" she said, a hint of awe in her voice as she contemplated that prospect. She turned to look at him again, her features sincere and open, "I have you to thank for that Angel…If turning me away from the dark side wasn't a good enough deed for you to get your Shanshu on, then I don't know what is…How's that whole prophecy fulfillment goin' for you, by the way?"
Angel didn't want to even think about the blood in which he'd signed away all hopes of a human existence he'd been working toward for the past five years, so he grimly changed the subject instead.
"Look, over there! I think I see Illyria. Let's go..."
TBC
A/N: Updates will be coming much more regularly after mid-December, so hang in there. Thanks for reading and please review. I love hearing your input.