The Resistance

by Miz Thang

Let’s pretend, that, for a moment, Illyria’s great army isn’t dead at the end of Shells, and that she begins a great rise to power, and basically, war breaks out. There’s only one group that dares intervene, known as the Resistance.

3. Two

Title: Resistance (3/7)
Author: Miz Thang
Characters/Pairing: Ensemble, Illyria/Spike, DS/Angel, WR/OFC, CG/HK, DS/Spike
Rating: FRM
Word Count: 2332
Warnings: Angst. Melodrama. Romance. Character death.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the little story's idea. Everything else belongs to who it belongs to.
SummaryLet's pretend, that, for a moment, Illyria's great army isn't dead at the end of Shells, and that she begins a great rise to power, and basically, war breaks out. There's only one group that dares intervene, known as the Resistance.

Notes: This is an ahead-of-time warning. This story only has five chapters, a prologue and an epilogue. This is supposed to tell the end of the struggle against Illyria. If not, it'd be some long drawn out story about the three hundred and fifty years I skipped. It's also quite possible that there could be a sequel. And oh, this story is Spike/Illyria, among other pairings.

Two

-2354-

"Why do you do that?" Gunn asked, grabbing a sword and swishing it through the air. It felt nice. Like…like wading through water. Yeah.

"Do what, exactly, Charlie Boy?" Spike asked in return, whipping his own sword around.

"Play with Phoenix like that." Gunn said. They began to spar, the blades of their swords clanging every so often as they moved about the training facility.

"Easy, Gunn. Because I want to." Spike replied, dodging the sword thrust and sending one of his own.

"That's not it, Spike. I can tell."

"Maybe it's not. Maybe it is. Why's it bothering you so much? Don't you have your own girl to worry over?"

"Yeah. Came through on the attack, didn't she?" Gunn grinned, proud of his girlfriend. Sometimes the most impossible thing was the best. Especially for the Illyrian reign.

Illyria then entered the room as they came to a stop. "We're ready."

A grin spread across Spike's face. Just the thought of the hunt…

"This ought to be neat. How about we pay Red a visit?"

-

Willow locked the door to her office and sat at her desk. Another day of pretending to be a regular worker over, she thought to herself with a slight sigh of relief. Having a double identity was so hard.

Her phone rang and she answered it on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Will, it's Dawn."

The vampire sounded extremely upset and Willow frowned in concern.

"What's wrong, Dawnie?"

"We failed. Canada, Mexico, U.S., and Central A. went to see how Fred was doing and failed to have fun." Dawn said. She didn't trust the phone lines and therefore used code.

"It's not your fault." Willow said knowingly. "Maybe there was no fun to be had."

She knew that Dawn blamed herself because of her inability to kill any important member of the Illyrian empire. She didn't understand why, but she knew it as a fact.

"I didn't say it was." Dawn replied shortly. Ever since she'd become a vampire, she was less open about what she was thinking, except when she'd spent that time as Phoenix. And then, when she came back, she'd been even more subdued, and told even less about her feelings, unless it was anger. And that was mostly directed at Hope anyway.

"You didn't have to. I-I get that he's your sire and everything, and I'm sure everyone understands too-"

"They think I'm playing double agent. I-I feel like it. To them, I'm still Phoenix. For…for fifty years, I killed every Slayer I could and enjoyed doing it. You can't tell me that after…I set Angel on fire and staked Drusilla for looking at Spike."

"Knock, knock, someone's home…" Phoenix called out, entering the dark house. A sniff in the air made her aware of someone running towards the back. She followed, smiling eagerly. "Let' play a game."

With a small spell, she was at the back door. She watched with a feeling of pleasure as the slayer turned frightened eyes upon her and began to back away. Phoenix moved forwards quickly, catching the young girl by the throat and lifting her in the air. "I've been living off slayer blood for fifty years. I feel good." She yanked the slayer's head to the side and drank.

"There are things they locked away from me…things I knew about them. Locked away in my own damn mind." Dawn continued bitterly as she shook away the memory with a bout of guilt.

The only thing that had stopped her from killing more was the soul they'd been forced to stuff in her. A curse made up by willow and Sandris had put it in right and proper and made her run away from Spike, though she longed for him. And still did, obviously.

"We'll find the right spell soon, Dawn. We'll…we'll overthrow Illyria and there may be hope for Spike and Gunn yet." Willow said reassuringly.

"Yeah." Dawn wasn't even half as optimistic as Willow was. She'd heard this from the redhead for the past three hundred years and still, they were fighting, still having yet to rid this earth of the god king. "One of these days, I'm going to prove why you just should've staked me."

"Dawn-" Willow started.

"I-I have to go. I think Angel's mad at me."

"What happened?" Willow asked, dreading the answer.

"Spike…Spike kissed me. And I didn't exactly push him away, either." The vampire replied somewhat sadly.

"Oh." Willow paused. "That's not good."

"You preacher, me choir."

"Oh. Sorry, Dawnie." Willow was about to give reassuring words as there was a knock on the door. "Good luck with Angel. I have to go."

"Okay." Dawn said.

They hung up and Willow got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She stood slowly, making her way to the door with every bit of caution. "Who is it?" she asked tentatively.

"Honey, open up," a female called out. "Reservations at the restaurant are in an hour and I teleported all this way-"

Willow unlocked the door quickly, convinced that it was her girlfriend, Sandris, that she'd find on the other side. She realized her error when Illyria gave her a thin smile of triumph. Shit, Willow thought, attempting to close the door back.

Illyria caught the door and forced it open, making Willow tumble back. "You will pay for you miscalculation." The blue god king said, her voice normal once more. She moved quickly, back handing Willow and watching curiously as she flew into the wall across the room. Willow's back hit the wall and she slid down, pain blossoming in her body.

Ironically, Willow's only thought was of her immortality. That she was lucky no one but Spike could kill her and that she was lucky he wasn't there.

Screams became evident throughout the building as they neared and disappeared, and she realized their true mistake. Not letting Illyria in. Thinking Gunn had let accurate information slip to Dawn so easily. Gunn had purposely lead them off base by telling them that the Illyrians were attempting to take Canada from Harmony, when they'd really been more interested in attacking Australia.

Illyria now lifted her in the air by her throat, squeezing painfully. "Let me go," Willow gasped.

"And postpone your death?" Illyria asked, not mentioning that it would disappoint Spike to not have his chance at killing her. "I don't think I will."

Willow closed her eyes, letting out a slow breath. An unnatural wind blew, riling up her hair and Illyria's, swirling around them. Willow closed her eyes tighter.

"Stop your spell." Illyria said before letting Willow out of her grip with a hard shove.

Willow's back hit the corner of her desk and she rolled over to hit the floor as the spell reached its peak and she disappeared, safe from the Illyrian leaders for one more day.

-

It happened in Sydney, Australia. Illyria stood a top a building in the center of the city with Gunn and Spike at her sides, glancing down at the followers that surrounded her, cheering joyously at the final victory over the land. They didn't care who won as long as the fighting stopped.

She talked over their cheers of having one central leader throughout the entire world, of a leader with enough power to care for their needs, to protect what was theirs. And that this person was her. She talked of unity and of destroying those that dare oppose her plan for a new world. She talked of all this and more, the screams of triumph the humans and demons below egging her on.

"Today is a wonderful day," she declared in a loud, booming voice. "A day of much celebration. The oppositionists of this territory have run out; we are successful. Australia is no more and the reign of Willem begins at this moment!"

More cheers erupted as they rejoiced in the light of no more fighting. It had been conquered and they were marginally safe once again.

-

Willow awoke in a cave. She had lucked out. Not deciding a location before teleporting could have killed her. By now, she figured Australia had been taken over and her absence had begun to take affect.

She climbed to her feet and stumbled out into the day light. She wanted to do another spell as she trudged through the grass, but she'd knocked herself out with trying to get away. She'd have to wait another day or two before she was powered enough to travel to the United States, or whatever was left of it.

-

Dawn hadn't talked to Angel since the mission. Not a real conversation. Did you call Willow? Yes. Is everyone downstairs? Yes. When's the next attack? Two days' time. Did you check inventory? Yes.

She'd woken up from another day of sleeping on her side of the bed by herself, hearing the shower running. She sighed at the sound, shaking her head as she slid out of bed.

She felt a whoosh of wind and paused. She didn't need to turn around to know who was there, but she did anyway. She wasn't surprised. "Spike."

"How's things with Peaches, Nib?"

"Why are you here?" She asked, taking a step back when his hand brushed her arm. "Don't-do that."

The beginnings of a smirk formed at the edge of his mouth. "Why not, Dawnie?" He stepped further into her personal space, his grip on her arm tightening so that she was unable to back away. "I missed you."

"No, you don't, Spike. You miss the idea of me." Dawn whispered, even as he brushed stray strands of hair from her face.

"There's a plan, Nib. And you're a special part of that plan. You have to remember that."

"No, I don't." She replies stubbornly, stepping away from his touch.

He gave her a look. "Fine. Have it your way. It'll just have to be a surprise." He swung her around and she landed on the bed harshly. She found him to be gone.

Dawn sat up sharply in bed and noticed Angel sleeping at her side. His arm hung around her waist. Maybe she'd just imagined all the tension.

Angel woke up soon after, not saying a word to her and going to take a shower.

Or maybe not.

-

"This isn't good," Yane murmured as the Resistance watched Illyria announce that Australia would from then on be called Willem. He turned back to the others. "It really isn't."

"I'm more concerned about where Willow is." Sandris snapped from her position on the couch. "I can't contact her."

"If she used magic, maybe she's tapped out right now. You can't communicate when you have no energy." Sari, a regular girl with vendetta (they'd killed her parents, and she vowed they would pay), said.

"Or she'd just dead." Astin commented, despite the dark look Sandris sent his way. "Let's be realistic here; they're not going to hi us on the hand and say, 'don't do it again.' They're out for blood."

"Not all of us," Hope said bitterly and glanced in Dawn's direction.

A growl began in the base of her throat. Harmony gave her a reassuring look. Only Hope had a problem working with four vampires and a demon.

"We know that's not true. If Spike had caught Will and killed her, he'd want to flaunt it. There's no way he'd pass that up." Dawn interjected.

"So, is this a smart idea?" Harmony asked, "Being away from our bases? Canada's on the verge of a take over. I guess I'm not much of a force up there."

"You do fine." Connor said, smiling at the blonde vampire. Oh, yeah, he tried not to make it obvious, but there was no way the pretend that he didn't have a gigantic crush on the vampire. Or maybe it was lust. Either way, Dawn thought he was enamored.

"Ask Dawn. She might know." Hope continued to needle the youngest vampire as Angel remained resolutely quiet. By now, he'd have told the slayer the shut up. "After all-"

"Shut up, Hope. Just shut up!" Sandris yelled. She'd had it. Willow was missing, quite possibly dead, and Hope wanted to spend the meeting acting like a bitch unnecessarily?

She shut up, surprisingly. They all turned to look at Sandris and she stood, shaking in her temporary leadership position. "We don't have time for this. Everyone will go back to their bases and wait. Will-she'll contact me. And if we have to, we'll plan to blow the entire continent up. Things are getting serious."

She flopped back onto the couch, all her anger and worry that had given her adrenaline gone.

Everyone filed out. Dawn was standing by the door quietly. Most of the others continued on, not really caring about whatever confrontation that was about to happen. These people includes Astin, Angel and Miller-the demon Hope had a problem with, though not half as much as with Dawn.

Yane and Sari leaned against the wall, betting each other playfully on what would happen when Hope stepped outside the den's door. Connor soon joined them, as did Harmony.

And then Hope emerged. Dawn's hand hit the wall, inches before the Slayer's face. "What's your childhood trauma?"

"You sound so old." Hope dismissed her.

"Guess what? I am." Dawn said, her voice taking on a dangerous tone. She felt different, like before, like Phoenix. "I'm going to tell you once. And only once. Don't piss me off. I'm not some minion vampire, or fledgling. If I was on the other team, I'd be like the freaking princess. And don't forget that I've killed more experienced slayers than you. So, don't fuck with me."

With that, Dawn backed off, and walked away. Yane let out a small whistle, watching Dawn leave. That was exactly why she was the woman of his dreams. He looked back at Hope with a satisfied smirk. "Who got told?"

Hope glared at him. "Shut up."