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“Well personally, I kinda wanna slay the dragon,” Angel answered Spike’s question, then after a pause, “let’s go to work,” as he raised his sword and prepared to slaughter the advancing army.
“Bloody hell,” Angel heard Spike gasp behind him followed by a “holy fucking hell.”
“Spike!” Angel growled angrily as he felt the younger vampire’s back bump against his own where he’d backtracked into him.
They were maybe twenty seconds away from having a hellish army reign down on them and Spike was messing around behind him, not even facing the right way.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” Angel rumbled, not daring to take his eyes from their attackers to glance back at his boy.
“We’re gonna be surrounded,” was Spike’s only answer, which actually made sense of his actions in Angel’s eyes. Instinctively Spike had pressed up against Angel’s back in a familiar protective stance, defending against all sides.
“Gonna be?” Angel asked tightly.
“Portal,” Spike offered as an explanation. He’d seen enough of these things now to know what he was looking at as he watched the silvery tear in their reality increasing and widening before his eyes.
Fifteen seconds until impact and Angel was surprised to hear Spike’s voice once more, smooth yet soft, “I’m scared Sire.”
“Me too Childe,” he hushed back after a beat, his body poised and ready for action.
Both titles unexpected, and yet at the same time strangely not, falling easily from each others lips.
“Gonna be a good fight,” Spike’s voice was once more flooded with bravado, but he knew they didn’t really stand a chance, not just the four of them.
“Aye,” Angel agreed, his brogue slipping through showing his uncertainty too.
“Angel, I love you,” Spike whispered knowing he might never get the chance to say it again, as he watched a stairway forming from the opening portal, huge marbled silver-white steps that reached the ground and yet vanished back into the swirling abyss from where they came. “I never tell you enough.”
“I love you too,” Angel responded softly, briefly dropping his hand to squeeze Spike’s, knowing that it would be there waiting for his own.
“Shit,” Spike cursed as they released hands, “three portals.”
“Three?”
“Three,” Spike confirmed, “and oh,” he finished sounding both flat and surprised all at once.
“Spike what are you doing?” Angel asked, his tone anxious as his Childe moved to stand beside him instead of watching his back, “the portals…”
“…are nothing to worry about,” Spike assured his worried Sire. “Hey, eyes front Peaches,” Spike instructed Angel as he tried to turn his head to see what his boy was on about.
Angel heard Gunn call our for Alonna, his departed sister, and knew that his friend must have been fading fast now, the ten minutes that Illyria had estimated obviously being too adventurous.
“Angel,” Wes greeted his friend as he moved to stand beside him, taking up a fighting stance.
“Wes,” Angel nodded without thinking then did a double take, “Wes?”
“You fucking bastard Angel,” Lindsey sounded pissed as he roughly pushed in between Angel and Wes, also falling into a ready stance. “I can’t believe you told Lorne to kill me,” he sounded hurt.
“Lindsey?” Angel asked puzzled. What the hell was going on here? Had the battle already begun? Had he taken a blow to the head? Was he in fact lying unconscious on the floor as the battle advanced around him, and not standing ready as he believed?
“Oh honey, you know I had to do it,” came Lorne’s voice from somewhere behind Angel. “It’s just like Obi Wan, you know? You strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine,” he mimicked the line from Star Wars.
“Lorne?” Wes questioned as the green demon joined the increasing line of friends.
“Sweetie, you’re not the only one who can open a portal you know,” Lorne tipped his head backwards indicating a various assortment of Pyleans armed to the teeth entering through his own smaller, and unfortunately not so fabulous as Wes’, portal.
“Wasn’t me,” Wes didn’t take the credit, “Doyle did it.”
“Doyle?” Angel asked in disbelief.
“Alright big guy, hang on I’m coming,” the soft Irish voice came from behind as Doyle rushed to join the line up.
“Angel, fight yeah?” Spike reminded him again, drawing his Sire’s attention away from Doyle and back to the ever advancing army.
Angel kept his eyes forward, concentrating on the approaching demons even as he listened to the multitude of voices behind him.
“Oh God I feel sick,” Xander complained as he practically fell through the third shabby looking portal. “That always looks so cool when they do that on Stargate, but…”
“Hey Xander,” Cordelia greeted him as she ran-skipped down the white steps of the first portal.
“Alright Buff?” Xander asked as she landed with a thud inelegantly by his feet, spat out from their portal.
“I don’t get it,” Dawn complained to her sister as she watched Lilah and Anya walk down the steps of the biggest portal and saw yet more Pyleans climbing through the other. “They’re coming from other dimensions and we’re only transporting from Rome. How come their portals are better than ours?”
“Because Andrew conjured ours?” Buffy shrugged a guess. “Because there’s more of us? I don’t know.”
“Sorry Dawnie, I’d have done it but I had to conserve my powers,” Willow offered hearing the end of their conversation as she brushed herself down after suffering the same fate as those before her, with the added indignity of having one young slayer land on top of her when she didn’t stand up fast enough.
“How?” Angel asked Spike, as he took in the sight of friends present and past coming to join the battle line as calmly as if they were taking a walk in the park, almost happily as they greeted one another.
Did they not know there was a battle on the horizon? Shit, the battle!!! Angel turned his attention back to the advancing army again.
“Mum!” Angel heard Buffy and Dawn squeal almost simultaneously from somewhere to his left and knew that Joyce had joined them too.
“Tara baby!” Willow gasped from somewhere further down the line.
“Jonathan, I’m so sorry,” Andrew apologized to his deceased friend.
“Jenny,” Giles called out to his former lover.
“Faith where are…oh there you are,” Robin called for his girl.
Closer, beside him Angel heard Spike growl sexily, teasingly, “Penny.”
“Don’t call me that Willie,” Penn grumbled planting a quick kiss on Spike’s cheek as he took up position beside him…and Christ didn’t that sound so familiar to Angel?
“Or what?” Spike retorted cheekily, never missing the chance to wind up his brother.
“Or you’ll both get a good spanking,” Angel snarled seductively, unthinkingly using words he’d used a hundred times as Angelus.
Spike winked at Penn, who grinned lecherously back at him.
“Darling really,” Darla tutted as she pushed Lindsey over a bit so that she could stand beside Angel. “Don’t encourage the children, they’ll be time for *that* after *this*,” she tipped her head to indicate the battle.
“Daddy, can I join the party?” Dru squeezed her way down to her family. Where she appeared from no one knew.
“Course you can Princess,” Spike pulled her to stand at his side, protected between him and his brother.
Less than ten seconds to impact and Angel grinned at Spike, yes actually grinned at him, “We’re gonna win this,” he said, never sounding more certain. Spike just nodded back his confirmation with an equally manic grin.
He knew it to be true as the opposing army came face to face with NOT their undefeatable team of demons, vampires, witches, wizards, brave humans that just never gave up, materialistic ghosts or even hundreds of slayers…but towards heroes, champions…survivors.
“The dragon is Angel’s,” Spike called out seconds before they launched their attack.
The End