Title: The Next Mission

Spoilers: All of Buffy, All of Angel.

Post –NFA

Chapter 1: Dragons, Funerals, and Family

Walking slowly into the Hyperion Hotel Spike carry's the limp form of Charles Gunn in his arms. He walks over to the dusty couch in the middle of the lobby and lay's Gunn down next to Illyria whose body is resting next to Wesley. He's been doing this for hours finding the bodies of his fallen friends. Wesley and Gunn were easy to find follow your nose the scents up in the air, but Illyria has no scent plus the former god king was buried beneath a horde of decaying dead demons. Four hours of digging through rubble and flesh ignoring the gawking passerby's. 'They'll probably come up with a good excuse to deny what they saw.' Spike thought. 'Gangs on PCP have a gang war behind the old Hyperion Hotel!' Spike starts to laugh out loud as he sinks to the floor his laughter quickly turns to sobs. 'How am I going to do this? I don't live on a hell mouth, hell I don't even have a bleedin seer!' Almost as if on cue Spike starts to get woozy he opens his eyes and notices everything's slow and dream like. 'Reminds me of Woodstock' Spike gives himself a ghost of a smile. All of a sudden everything melts around him he's no longer in the Hyperion, but in the vacant and ruined building of Wolfram and Hart.

"What the hell.." Spike whispers looking at the rubble and standing beams that was once Wolfram and Hart. "WHAT THE HELL IM I DOING HERE! HOW THE HELL DID I GET HERE!" Spike yells, but doesn't get an answer hell he doesn't even get an echo of his voice.

"Dad!" A voice yells from deep within the building. Spike whips his head towards the familiar voice. Coming down the cracked staircase is a boy in his late teens with light brown hair, medium sized frame, and blue eyes. He's wearing a tan long sleeve shirt and blue jeans. 'Why does he look so familiar...the family with the boy he's the boy! The one Angel was all papa bear protective about. What was his name? Corden? Kyle? Conner! That's it.'

"Oi! What's going on here Conner? How did I get here?" Spike shouted but received no answer. "Hey! I'm talking to you how did I get here!" Spike shouts as he starts walking towards the boy. "Look you little brat tell me how..." Spike stops talking when he goes right through the boy. "Christ, I'm a ghost again. No NO NO NOT AGAIN!" Spike starts taking unnecessary gulps of air.

"Your dad's dead, Conner." Came a feminine voice from the other side of the building. Spike takes a look at the girl. EVE.

Conner's Eye's Widen in shock "Angel's dead..." Conner says in a soft whisper barley audible for Spikes vamperic hearing, but he still heard it. 'Angel has a son? How...how is that possible?'

Eve Pulls out a gun her voice shaky and angry "Your stupid father had my Lindsey killed! He's dead! I gave up immortality for Lindsey, I gave up everything just for Angel to take it all away from me!" Tears are running down her face as she cocks the gun,

Conner instantly raises his hands. "Whoa I had nothing to do with that I didn't even know Lindsey!" Conner yells.

"No, no you didn't know him, but it doesn't matter Angels dead so I can't kill him, his son well that's the next best thing." Just as Eve was about to pull the trigger A sword comes down at a diagonal angle slicing Eve in half the last thing she did was let out a blood curdling scream.

'Shit it's one of those bloody demons from the alleyway, Wolfram and Harts personally trained solider boys.' Suddenly the room fills with about 15 demons, skin a dark forest green with pure white eyes, covered head to toe in armor. And they all charge at Conner. 'Bloody hell their going to eat the kid alive!' Spike was about to strike forgetting that he couldn't interfere when Conner just burst into action. Blocking blows and breaking necks Conner was going through them just as easy as Spike or Angel. Spike was dumbstruck 'He fights just like him.' Conner was doing great till he got slashed across his back by a sword, and a knife was plunged into his side. He faltered for a second but kept on going, kept on fighting. After the cuts and loss of blood Conner was moving slower no longer blocking quite as fast as before, no longer landing as many hits. Suddenly a horrible screech can be heard through the air and soon following the noise is a dragon, THE dragon Angel wanted to slay. The dragon aims down and swoops on Conner breathing it's molten flames down on the young warrior. With Conner fighting the five remaining Demon warriors he never saw the flames till they consumed him.

Spike blinks his eyes and looks around, he's still at the Hyperion Gunn, Illyria, and Wesley's bodies are still on the couch, and none of it was real unless...

"You're your own seer." Says a refined English voice from the stop of the stairs.

Spike's head shoots up to the voice just to see...himself exactly like he was in 1880, dressed exactly like he did at the last party he went to as a human. The very same night he was damned, freed, changed, and unchanged all at the same time. Spike was looking at William Bradley aka William the bloody awful poet, Beloved son, English Teacher, shy, weak, and pathetic William.

"Ok I understand mum delivering messages of champions and all that whoopla, but why are you here? Your not exactly a favorite of mine." Growled Spike.

William smirked a very un-William like smirk "You need to help the boy."

"The Boy? The boy's dead!" Growled Spike.

William had to suppress an eye roll. "The boy's not dead! What you experience there was what we like to call a vision." William Finished slowly as if speaking to a child.

"That's a vision? I thought Visions were all pain and flashes, that was more like a front row seat at the theater."

William Smiled "Yes well you work for a high power then the..." A short pause and his smile turned back into a smirk "Higher powers. And HE or maybe it's a she, doesn't need it's champion's brain splattering on the wall."

"What are you talking about?"

"God" William replied simply. "God, hasn't interfered with this reality in two thousand years. I mean you can understand, if your son was murdered for trying to spread peace you might be a little angry as well. Not to mention the mockery 60 of all churches are today, using his name to gain money. Isn't that just shameful. So he let the Powers That Be and Senor Partners, a couple of egotistical reality bending children play with this world for the last two thousand years. Not truly seeing us fit to have interference, till Angel."

"What did Angel do?" Spike asked, the little story by his doppelganger caught his interest.

William looked right into Spikes eyes, soft blue meeting cold blue. "He bucked the system. For the last two thousand years it's been the same thing Good wins some, Bad wins some, he made a difference. He allowed your destiny to be fulfilled, he started something and now you have to do the middle and end."

"What did he start?"

William smiled "The worlds an apocalypse Spike, spiraling down the gutter more and more. What he started was a way to finish it. You want to know what your destiny is spike? You want to know why you were born why you got that chip? Why you were poet, a monster, an attempted rapist, a lover, a man, a HERO! All preparing you for NOW! Your destiny is greater then Buffy's, Dawn's, Angel's, or anyone else. You fulfill your destiny and there won't be an apocalypse every year, there won't be an apocalypse ever again!" Takes a short pause. "Though if you fail then the apocalypse is something humanity will pray for." William finished with a grim look upon his face

Spike is stunned by the news, he takes a gulp 'that's my destiny? To stop it all?' Spike suddenly felt it, what his mother was saying in the alleyway, about him being a champion. Spike chuckles 'I guess I did drink from that cup after all, cause I feel that weight now. Am I strong enough to do this?' William answers Spike unasked question with a simple "Yes, you are."

Spike looks up to William, but he's gone 'what do I do now? The boy! Got to save the boy.' Spike looks over to the old weapons cabinet to see that it's still full. "Well let's get dangerous!" Spike walks to the cabinet, but then stop 'I'm far too British that say that right. Er...whatever work on the soddin catch phrase later.'

Conner was trying his best, but no matter how strong you are the bigger numbers win. At least they do when your human and you've lost too much blood. Conner heard the dragon screech, but he couldn't pay attention with five demons pounding on his face. 'Well dad guess I'll be seeing you soon.' Conner's thoughts were interrupted by a loud shriek of pain. And his fight stopped, all the demons were looking towards the site of the sound. When Conner himself looked what he saw was unexpected. A bleach blonde vampire fighting one on one with a dragon the size of a van.

Five minutes earlier.........

Being able to walk in the day has its advantages like being able to jump from rooftop to rooftop with out burning to death. Spike was racing to the Wolfram and Hart building jumping every few seconds to get to the next building when he finally saw it. 'Well there's that damn dragon, right on cue.' Spike heard the dragon screech and that's when he made his move, he jumped from the roof of one building right into a giant hole in the front of Wolfram and Hart screaming at the top of his lungs to try and get the dragons attention. The dragon finally looked up and right into Spikes eyes, for both of them it felt like slow motion each of them inching closer and closer. The dragons working it's muscles getting ready to breath all kinds of hell on the flying vampire, when all sudden BAM! Spike dug a sword he kept canceled in his duster all the up to the hilt into the side of the dragons neck. Finally with a twist the sword blocks all the fire that wants to escape the dragon's lungs. The Dragon shrieks in pain as it falls to the ground, simultaneously Spike lands on the ground rolling up to his feet turns and faces the dragon his leather coat swirl's around him. The dragon starts gagging as it tries to breath fire, but all that comes out is smoke. The dragon looks at spike with something like surprise on its face, but it's kind of hard to tell.

Spike just gives the dragon his classic smirk and says "Your not my first dragon." While Spike charges the dragon he remembers another dragon he had to fight about two weeks after Buffy died. It was released by the portal that Buffy had to jump into to the save world again, and to die again. Spike's brought of memory lane as a slash across his chest sends him back about ten feet colliding with harmony's old desk.

Spike looks down to see the massive cuts "Bugger..." The dragon charges him again, but he rolls out of the way which causes the dragon to crash right through the desk. While the dragons trying to recover it's self-inflicted mistake, Spike pulls out two hatchets and goes to work on the dragons wings. Before the dragon knows what's going on it's raving in pain at the loss of it's wings. Spike charges for it's head, but the dragon whips it's tail sending Spike all the way to second floor. Spike crashes into the hallway wall as the dragon struggles to climb up the lobby wall to the second floor. By the time the dragon makes Spike waiting and delivers an uppercut momentarily stunning the dragon. However it was quick to recover and it went to swipe Spike again, but Spike was prepared and jumps back. As soon as the massive claw passes by, Spike runs right to the dragons head and pulls out the sword. The dragon raises his head in pain and relief as it finally releases the pent-up fire. As the dragon's head is raised and neck is bared, Spike starts to spin. Bringing the sword up and finishing by bringing the sword down completing the spin by lopping the dragon's head clean off. He turns to see Conner fighting four demons now and joins him in the fight. In a matter of minutes the four demons are dead. Both of them are panting now staring at each other but not speaking. Finally Spike breaks the silence "So your Angels son huh?" Conner looks at him for a second then replies, "Yeah, and you are?"

Spike smiles "Name's William, but people call me Spike, I'm your uncle...and your nephew." Spike shines a bright smile at a very confused Conner.

Twenty Minutes later Spike has Conner caught op on details of their family tree and the recent events all except for... "Dear god" are the first words to escape his lips as he enters the Hyperion Hotel. There on the couch are the bodies of Gunn, Illyria, and Wesley. Conner turns to look at Spike whose eyes seemed about a hundred years older then they did just a second ago, filled with sadness and grief he responded simply "I couldn't save them." Conner Just nodded and turned to look at his former family, because that's what they were, weren't they? Family, people who loved him unconditionally because that's what they did, they were there for him when he was a baby; they tried to help him back into the world. Conner speaks after an infinite time of silence "We should give them all a funeral, next to Cordeila. So they can be together."

Spike just stands there for a second before answering, "Yes we should."

The next day at dusk............

Conner and Spike are standing in front of four freshly dug graves each silently saying their words to their fallen friends. Each Tombstone had it's own personal engraving done by Spike

Charles Gunn

1982-2004

A man of great loyalty,

True Friend,

He always had our back.

Winifred Burkle

1978-2004

The world is truly a darker place,

Without her light.

She was someone worth dying for.

Wesley Wyndham-Pryce

1975-2004

He proved himself

Beyond a shadow of doubt

That he was not worthless

That he was hero in his own right

Liam "Angel" Angelus

1725-1750

Beloved Father

Trusted Friend

Champion

Spike walked up to the grave of his departed grandsire and knelt before it. "I will not fail, I won't let you die in vain... I'll make you proud." Spike got and began to walk away as he looked over his shoulder to say his last words "We'll see each other again...ya bloody pouf."

TBC......