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All kinds of quotes and paraphrasing from 'Not Fade Away', no copyright infringement intended, Mutant Enemy owns it all.
Illyria

I carried the red-headed witch toward the meeting point as quickly as I could. She needed recovery time, if she was to complete her purpose. The demon they call Lorne, who this shell remembered so affectionately, would assist her, the way Wesley assisted me.

There had been a change in the atmosphere of the area inhabited by Wesley, the witch I carried, and the other Sineyan female. I felt it spreading away from them, felt reality altering, shifting around me. The witch has great power; she can draw energy from the Sineyans, a difficult task due to their combined nature. They returned most of what the demon wizard Vail destroyed to its natural state. She will be useful in the future. In addition, this shell remembers her now. Fred wished to befriend the witch.

When I reach the building the others referred to as the Hyperion, Lorne is waiting in the central area with three young Sineyans, two female and one male. "The witch needs assistance." I hand her into the arms of the unknown male, following as he carries her up the stairs. "She is exhausted from magicks. She took power from the two Sineyans and served as a vessel for her earth goddess. She needs much rest, to rebuild her strength. She will likely have to call the goddess again to set this universe to rights."

No one asks me for further explanation, so once I am sure they will allow the witch to rest, I move towards the exit, and the coming battle.

Lorne stops my path when I am again in the central area. "Illyria…I just want to thank you for your help. You're doing a lot of good for a lot of people."

I want to tell him that I don't care about humanity, the worthless lower life forms; but it has become obvious that those I fight beside care a great deal. I retain the emotions of this shell; it has become harder to ignore them, since Wesley stripped some of my powers. Fred cared about humans. And now, there are other Sineyans about.

I doubt Wesley has yet realized what attributes qualify him, as they did Knox, to become my Qwa'ha Xahn. The half breeds retain the disturbing emotional attachments of their human ancestors, combined with the strength of their demonic ancestors, making them far less vulnerable than such soft shells would indicate. From the earliest mating of demons and humans, while I still walked this earth in my original form, we watched these half breeds. I walk out to face the battle with only a nod in Lorne's direction, because there is no way to make him understand, and time is short. I do not fight for humanity. I fight to insure the survival of these Sineyans, in the hope that one day they will overrun the human scourge, and take back this world for demons.
********

Spike

Fell Brethren cut into little bits, check. Baby returned to his mum, check. Oh, and torrential rain; bollocks. Should've taken the Viper, 'stead of leaving it by the apartment. I'm gonna ruin another duster runnin' around in the rain, fightin' demons with swords…When I reach the alley Angel's there, with Connor. Can't say I expected to see the prodigal about, but I'm glad Peaches kept his promise to Red. "Are we the only ones left?"

"Looks like…" His response is cut off by Illyria dropping to the ground between us, and a shout from down the alley. We turn to find Gunn and Merry running towards us, with Jezebel and two younger girls on their heels.

"How'd I know the fang boys were gonna make it back first?" Gunn is out of breath, but not much worse for wear. "Where's Wes?"

"Wesley and the Sineyan female plan to return here. They were both alive when I left." Illyria says through a curtain of wet hair. "I brought the red witch to the sanctuary; she is exhausted from magicks, and will be of no use for at least a day."

"Well, here's to hoping we're still alive when she wakes up." Yeah, I'm trying to be positive, because if I think about never seeing Buffy or the Bit again, I won't make it.

There's a dull roar from the South end of the alley, and suddenly demons of all shapes and sizes are coming our way. Bloody hell, that's a lot of demons. The blonde teenage Slayer who came in with Jezebel squeaks and presses back into the person behind her, which happens to be Angel. Connor draws a sword from I-have-no-idea-where, and steps towards the oncoming horde. As I go to follow him, Gunn says, "Okay, you take the 30,000 on the left…"

Merry giggles, and steps forward between Connor and I. As we brace ourselves and draw weapons, I can feel the group behind us spreading out. Angel steps up on my right side. I squint at him through the rain, wondering what's going on behind that massive forehead. "In terms of a plan…?" Can't let him off easy, after all.

He cuts me off. "We fight." Well, gosh, that was informative.

Merry snorts from my left. "Be a bit more vague, would you?"

The dull roar of the approaching demons has become thunderous, and a dragon flies out over the crowd, screeching at a pitch that makes me wish for human hearing, and taking a wide swipe at our front line with one wing.

Angel's face lights up with a maniacal fire that reminds me of Angelus. "Well, personally; I kind of wanna slay the dragon."
********

Angel

The alley floor is slick with rain and blood. I’m doing my best to focus on the fight, not get distracted by what’s going on around me; but I need to keep track of where everyone is, and what they’re doing. I’ve lost sight of Gunn and the little red-haired girl, and Connor chased something up to the roof of the parking garage across the street. Spike and a short brunette Slayer are fighting back to back off to my left, I can hear their voices rising and falling, though the wind swallows the words. Occasional arrows from an unidentified helper behind me make it possible to fight the horde one or two at a time; and someone, I suspect Wes, is shooting balls of fire into the mass of demons. Illyria took Connor’s place in the front line, and the bodies are stacking up quite impressively.

It’s not enough. The rain is hampering our vision and movements; the demons just keep on coming, they don’t seem to mind at all. The dragon is a smoldering pile about 20 feet ahead of me, and it’s keeping them from swarming us, but there are too many of them, and even with the extra help, not nearly enough of us. So help me, I can’t think of a way to turn the tide in our favor.

As I finally behead the demon I’ve been fighting, a tall black-haired woman appears at my side; the one who brought the two teenage Slayers in with her. “Fall back, get some rest, and some blood. I’ll hold the front line for a while.”

I open my mouth to protest, but I spot Connor climbing back down the side of the garage; too impatient to take the stairs, I guess; so I head off to cover his descent. Sure enough, a… Whatever that is…Has come around the crush in the alley to out-flank us. So much for taking a break; now we’ll be fighting on two fronts. If one of them figured it out, there’s bound to be more. I’m just surprised and thankful they haven’t surrounded the Hyperion yet. We’re half a block away, and if they moved into our path to retreat…Yeah, I need to stop thinking about that.

As I turn to face the demon gunning for Connor, I see Gunn and the blonde teenager backing up the woman who took my place with stakes and swords. Two other girls with crossbows cover Wes and a red-haired woman, as they alternate throwing fireballs into the mass of enemies from a fire escape. The stupid demon lunges at me with foot long claws, baring teeth like a tiger’s. It also has skin like metal plating, and it takes me several swipes with the sword to find a soft spot, then get past the claws enough times to do any serious injury.

By the time it’s good and dead, and I turn to check on Connor’s progress, I find him hanging off the side of the building by one arm and a precarious toe-hold, as he fights off a flying gnome with the other hand. His shirt is shredded across his back, and it’s hard to see in the dim light, but it looks like he’s bleeding, which means he’ll attract more of them. This one probably tried to take a bite out of him after he’d been injured in the rooftop fight. Damnit, I hate gnomes.
********

Apple

I ain’t never seen so many demons in one place outside my text books. The one I’m fighting is a Fyarl; it can only be killed using a weapon made of Silver. Which, evidently, this sword is not. I keep trying to reach for the knife in my belt, but it presses its attack every chance it gets, and damn, my arm is getting tired.

Just when I’m startin’ to panic a little, Watcher Woman comes around from behind me, and distracts him long enough so I can get the knife in his back. Go team! I flash her a big smile, and we turn back to the ginormous group of demons coming at us, to find that the closest thing to aim at is a big frickin’ troll. Oh, great. And here I am, all short and stuff.

Fortunately, someone else noticed the troll; a coil of chains land on the ground behind me with a clang that makes just about everyone in the alley jump. Laurie takes advantage of the injury to super-hearing, and runs through the alley willy-nilly, stakin’ everything not on our side that’s holding its ears. A couple of them get back up, but she sure ‘nough did her part in adding to the alley mud. She runs off back where I can’t see her, as Jezzie and I grab the chains, and that Gun guy covers us with a short sword and my silver knife (you know, just in case).

It don’t take long at all to get the troll flat on the ground, roarin’ and kickin’ somethin’ fierce trying to work the chains off it. Then of course, we’ve gotta get past the flailing arms, and get it killed before it gets back up. Between me and my Watcher, we’re doin’ alright…

And sure ‘nough I spoke too soon. Gun sorta bounces off the wall, and stumbles for a few steps, before he can shake it off an’ stand up right again. In the meantime I hacked the arm off, but the damn thing won’t die. At least we can get closer now…

Ouch. Guess the other arm reached across just fine. Great, I bet I got no skin left on that side of my face. Hopefully the rain’ll wash the dirt out. Gotta keep movin’.
********

Ron

Once we heard the first demon roar, there was no keeping Joy and Lise in the building; nothing would do but they go out and help. Lorne and I sent them off the roof with crossbows, and they leaped across the alley to a building closer to the action. I thought I had super strength, but I sure as hell could not have made that jump. Guess Mom was right; Slayer girls are stronger than Slayer boys.

Lorne offered to stay downstairs and keep an eye on Willow; after I saw where the fighting was centralized, I figured I’d just try to keep the path back here clear. So here I am, sitting in a dusty room on the fifth floor with my cell at the ready, hanging out the window with my sniper rifle, picking off any demon that gets close enough. Lorne wanted to know where I got the rifle, but I figured that was a story for another time.

I hear shrieking that sounds suspiciously like more of the flying gnomes I picked off earlier, but I don’t see any…Shit, there they are, coming in from the other direction. And there are two human looking guys, who I guess are ours. Wish I’d gotten to meet a few more people before this mess started.

The angle is bad, and it’s a longer shot than the central front…Damnit. Maybe if I climb out…The ledge is narrow, but the extra foot or so gives me a larger window on the scene playing out across the street; when the gnome turns to make another pass at the guy hanging off the building, I have a clear shot, and the gnome falls to the ground. The rapport of the gun sends me stumbling back; I wasn’t braced properly, and I just manage to catch myself on the next window frame over. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is one of many reasons why I gave up being a soldier; I kinda suck at it.
********

Connor

Whatever the fuck this thing is, it won’t let up enough for me to do more than block it’s claws. I can hear Angel down below me, just out of sight, shouting instructions; but between the rain and wind, and all the other noise, I can’t understand a damn thing he says. And with fighting off this little flying demon, I can’t even get enough breath to yell that I can’t hear. Between the lack of oxygen and the bleeding, I’m starting to feel woozy.

Just about when I start to see spots, I hear gunshots, and the demon thing drops right out of the sky. I start climbing down fast, because there’s another one coming, and I see a guy with a rifle out of the corner of my eye. Dude nearly fell off the building, but he gets it together. When I have a better foothold, I turn and slash out at the next flying thing, and behead it in one stroke. Both pieces go crashing to earth after its buddy. If only the first one had been that easy.

When I hit the ground, Angel’s fighting off two vampires. He’s doing a pretty good job on his own, so I rest a sec and get my wind back. When he’s done, he comes running over. “Connor, are you alright? I told you to go for the head, and keep it away from your back; they’re attracted to fresh blood…”

“Guess that explains where the second one came from.” I shrug him off. “I’m not hurt too bad, just scraped up. We should get back out there.”

“No, you should go inside and get bandaged; I was sent off to get a rest and a snack, I’ll go with you.”

I want to bitch at him, but he didn’t want me here in the first place, and he obviously needs the help; guess I can’t win every fight. In the lobby of the Hyperion, Lorne is helping a Slayer I haven’t seen yet load up with weapons. God, who decides girls that young should be warriors; she can’t be more than 14. I mean, I was fighting demons when I was that age, but, you know, I lived in a demon dimension. Comes with the territory.

“Hey.” Angel nods at the girl. “You were up on the fire escape with Wes.”

She smiles and nods. “And my Watcher, Miss Penny. I’m Elise. I saw him get scraped up.” She points at me. “Why don’t you take a shift up there with the crossbow, and I’ll go on the ground. It’ll give your back time to heal up.”

“Umm, yeah, sure. Thanks. I’m Connor, by the way.” And I hope like hell my ears aren’t turning red. The part of me that’s used to fighting, is really, really, not used to girls.

She smiles and heads out with her weapons, and Lorne and Angel sit me down and help me get my shirt off. By the time Lorne’s rinsed out the cuts from what I am told were flying gnome claws…And by the way, aren’t gnomes supposed to be little old men with beards who smoke pipes and live under mushrooms?...Anyway, by the time I’m cleaned up, a guy with glasses comes rushing down the stairs, carrying a bunch of bandages and stuff.

“Hey, let me take a look at those cuts. It looked like that thing got you pretty good.”

“This is Ron, he’s our Doc on call.” Lorne reports, stepping away to let the other guy get at me. “Ron, this is Angel, and your patient is Connor.”

“Pleasure.” He mutters, and I feel something cool move against my back. “That gnome got you pretty bad; can I stitch you up cold, or do you need a shot?”

“Go for it.” I grit my teeth, but the pain’s not that bad, and a few pricks won’t make it any worse. “Thanks for the help back there; that thing wouldn’t back up enough for me to get a good swing at it. Try not to come so close to falling five stories next time, though.”

He chuckles, and I feel pulling, so I guess we’re stitching now. “I was moving too fast, wasn’t braced for the kickback. Stupid mistake.”

“You have a gun?” Angel looks a little alarmed. I wonder, were guns invented when he was human? I can’t remember when that was, or when the gun was invented for that matter.

“You know how to shoot a rifle? I have an extra.”

Okay, I’m glad there’s a doctor around, since I’m getting stitches and all, but who the hell carries an extra rifle…You know what, I’m just grateful. And it’s not like other people would think that was too weird, compared to my swords and wooden stakes. “I can shoot a hunting rifle. My dad and I used to go to the range.”

Angel and Lorne both look worried. I can’t see the Doc’s face, but his response sounds better than theirs look. “It’s about the same; you’ll need to brace better, though.”

I chuckle, and the pulling stops, then starts again in another place. I’ve never had stitches without pain killers before. It’s not bad. Makes me wonder why people waste the drugs. I look up at Angel, and the frown on his face, and suddenly I think we need a change of subject. “Hey, Pops, weren’t you gonna get some blood while we’re here? Gotta keep the vamp strength up, so the Slayers can catch a break.”

I don’t know if it’s because I called him something other than his name, or just because I gave him something else to think about, but the old man perks up, and heads off to the kitchen. Or, where I assume the kitchen is, anyway. “Oh, thank the Powers; I thought for a second there he was heading into full-on brood mode.” Lorne gestures dramatically, and looks more pleased to see me than he has yet. “You’re a genius, young sir, that’s all there is too it.”

I smile, but don’t say anything, because I have no clue what to say. The pulling on my back stops and starts again. “Last one.” Doc reports.

“Umm, hey, Lorne, could you do me a favor?” Yeah, this is good; something else for him to think about, too. “I need a crossbow and bolts; could you get them together for me?”

Lorne rushes off, and by the time he’s back with the weapons, Angel’s back, and I’m all bandaged and ready to go. Doc grabs me the rifle, and gives me a quick refresher course in using it, with a big ol’ box of bullets, and I’m ready to roll. Angel and I head back outside, where the fighting sounds like it’s moved closer, or at least gotten more violent. He starts to head back in the direction we came from, where Elise is fighting off a demon at least twice her size. I need to let him go, but I also need to say something, just in case.

“Hey, Pops.” He turns to me with a questioning look, the rain plastering his hair down again as he stands there. “Don’t get any more dead, okay?”

Angel nods and smiles, and pounds off through the puddles towards the little Slayer who looks like she’s actually gonna kick that huge demon’s ass. Well, can’t let a little girl show me up, now can I? “Time to go to work.”
********

Gunn

Man, I am out of shape. And now is really not the time to be figuring that out. Merry and I wailed on the Senator and her vamp groupies; the whole thing went down faster than you could blink. We didn't even get real banged up. This fight, though, just keeps going. You knock one down, the magic folks get two with those fireballs; there are three to take their place.

I haven't seen Angel in what feels like hours, and Wes is up above me somewhere, doing the fireball thing. Illyria's fighting around a stack of corpses nearly as tall as her, still working the front line; Spike's up there, too, but he's a little worse for wear. The young redheaded Slayer I wasn't introduced to earlier is dodging around from place to place, dragging demon bodies off to the sides, using them like blockades, staking vamps and swiping at anything she can reach with her sword when one of us needs a distraction. I'm still backing up Apple and Jezebel, but the older girl is clearly fading, and I'm not doing too well myself.

Just when I start thinking about taking a step back, Merry leaves her place at Spike's side, and pushes Jezebel into me. "Go take a break. I've got it."

"What about Spike?" I yell over the noise. I gotta get me some earplugs before I come back out here. Merry ignores me, and I can tell the Slayer leaning against me wants to protest, but she's barely standing up, so I haul Jezebel back towards the Hyperion. Halfway there she tries to pull away, and I pick her up bodily, and don't put her down until we reach the lobby.

Inside, where it's not so damn loud, I can hear her talking, nearly screaming, except that she's hoarse. "What the fuck do you think you're doing; let me go, that's my daughter out there. I've gotta go back out there, please."

I drop her like a bad habit, because I know I'd be pissed if someone pulled me away from my kid who was fighting a big mess of demons. As soon as her feet touch the floor, she starts to crumple, and as I reach out to catch her, I notice that my left arm is covered in blood.

Well, shit.





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