Angel: After the Fall #6

Plot

After the cliffhanger of Fred’s appearance at the end of the last part, we now jump back in time for a few issues. They tell what happened to the characters during and right after the big battle – which is why the arc is called “The First Night”…

George:

George, the fish creature Gunn is holding captive, wonders what he might be missing right now. George knows a fight is raging out there – maybe there are even revelations of some kind, and he is missing everything. He really wonders how he ended up here.

Not long ago he was in an amusement park doing his show – nobody got hurt and the kids liked it.

Then, in a single moment, everything was sent to hell – or wherever they are…

Well, nobody is really interested in George’s story (as the comic’s writers note). So, on to the next character…

Spike:

Still in the middle of the fight, Spike thought that Angel was right when he said W&H would unleash their full fury. Even with the dragon having switched sides, they are still hopelessly outnumbered. Four of them against… then Spike realised it had to be three of them, because they had… Charlie?

Spike crouches on a rooftop. He becomes aware of what has happened. So they are in hell – fine by him. Spike laughs and then calls out to L.A. that he has already triumphed twice over the great Big Bad – no, not the Big Bad, the Biggest Bad! The most evil thing there is, and he looked it in the eye and laughed at it.

And now he looks into the dawn – in a manner of speaking, since every time of day reigns at once – and he does not catch fire. So, turning to the dawn: screw you! And hopefully nobody takes that the wrong way (Spike says “Screw you, Dawn!”). All right, done it twice, now he has had enough. He has done his part, and he did not even have to. He fought to get his soul back, so what more do they want from him?

Spike lights a cigarette when a demon appears.

He explains to it that he is hereby officially out – and hits the demon, which falls off the roof onto the street.

From now on nobody talks to Spike unless he wants them to. And he doesn’t – well, unless it is a really very liberal girl.

Now he has to get away from here first. In front of the hellishly transformed elevator he thinks it might have been better to simply jump off the roof. With all the hellish changes he really must keep track of things, he reminds himself.

In front of the building, in a circle of fire, lies a huddled figure. Spike recognises Fred, even though that cannot be. She only asks whether it is over.

Spike thinks so. Then he asks why she is here, with him, and why Fred at all? But somehow it makes sense too, Spike thinks: his wounds are healed, his coat is in perfect condition and Fred is normal again. Maybe W&H really were only after Angel.

“Wesley…”, says Fred. Yes, maybe it was about him too, and possibly about Gunn – but not about her, that is the point. Maybe it was meant to be this way, he thinks. Just him and Fred. She hugs Spike.

Spike hears screams. He sees people fleeing from demons. He wants to get Fred to safety, and what can even a two-time champion do? It probably looks like this everywhere; they are in hell, after all. Still, Spike changes and attacks the demons – a one-time thing, he makes clear. He sees Fred coming towards the fight. He tells her to go back. As soon as he has played the hero for a moment, they are out of here.

Fred turns into Illyria and makes short work of the demons.

Bloody hell, he really had not known that.

The rescued people ask what is going on here. Spike closes his eyes. He says, more to himself, that he is slowly getting sick of it – coming back is getting boring.

The people ask whether they can stay with him, because it is not safe here. And will she – Illyria – come with them, since she does not exactly look as if she needs protection?

Illyria looks at the head she has torn off a demon. Spike goes over to her. Oh, she really does, he says.

The End.

Connor:

After Angel sent him away, Connor was not sure whether he should really go. Since when do kids listen to their father, after all? Then he sees the apocalyptic signs.

Connor runs through the streets (and takes a closer look at the girls on the way). As he runs he reflects that he somehow has three fathers in all. His first father fought for him every day in a hell dimension. His current father is nothing of a hero, more of a Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show). And Angel, his biological father. Although “biological” is probably not quite the right word for his parents. Still, he told him to go, so he does.

Then Connor sees the dragon. That is enough for Connor to decide to run back. Because Angel definitely needs help – quite apart from the fact that taking down a dragon would be pretty cool.

Angel will be angry with him, but better angry than…

Something happens and Connor stumbles. The next moment he finds himself in hell.

Definitely still L.A., Connor notes; maybe Universal Studios, he wonders.

Then Connor feels sick and throws up. In horror he remembers – everything: his birth, his time in Quor-toth, the short time as a baby at the Hyperion, his night with Cordy… which he comments on by saying that his first time was with his surrogate mother of all people; so he is not only a “vampire immaculate conception” but Oedipus too. Angel would probably be impressed that Connor even knows who Oedipus is.

Well, as the child of two vampires, it was bound to end like this sooner or later…

Connor sets off again. He wants to find Angel, but finds himself facing whole hordes of demons and quickly hides behind a car.

The demons are talking about how they are actually far too late. So they can forget about W&H’s payment. They still have quite a few skills to work on – tactics, killing, etc. – but being on time, they really have to get that sorted out!

Connor wonders whether to attack the demons and what his three fathers would do. But there are too many, so he had better get away.

It is too late for that when one of the demons grabs him and drags him over to its “colleagues”.

A pretty little snoop, the demon thinks, showing him to the others. They are surprised that this is his son. Connor is surprised and then quickly denies it, but the demons know Angel is his father.

They explain what they now intend to do: kill him and so make up for being so late.

Connor wonders what the hell he should do now. His first father would fight and maybe die. His second father would fight too and probably die, and the third would just die.

Lorne:

A small note: what is special about Lorne’s part is that the whole text rhymes, but I am certainly not going to do that to you…

Lorne looks back over the last year: the time at W&H, Fred’s death and Illyria’s arrival, and finally how, on Angel’s orders, he killed Lindsey.

He had left the others and was wandering through L.A. when everyone was sent to hell. He actually wanted to leave the city, but by then it was too late.

Lorne saw the horrors everywhere as hell broke loose.

Lorne took a taxi – the “hellified” version, of course – as far as he could, and so ended up in Silverlake.

There too nothing but horror reigned, which Lorne no longer wants to remember.

But Lorne also saw something else: some people fighting the demons, even though they had no real chance.

Lorne began to sing – according to him, it made a demon’s head explode – and in any case he motivated the people enough that they all threw themselves into the fight together; a fight that raged for days.

In the end they had freed the little town of Silverlake from the demons.

A witch’s spell raised a kind of magical field over Silverlake.

The remaining demons fled.

There were many victims and much violence, but in the end Silverlake became a piece of heaven in the middle of hell, where all evil was banished and bad thoughts were forbidden.

Since then Lorne has kept an eye on his friends by magical means, while after a week the people elected him their leader. And he liked that role.

It took a while, but very slowly Lorne became his old self again…

Back to George…

He has told all these stories to his guard – one of Gunn’s vampire buddies – who finds the endless chatter terribly annoying. George replies that it is not chatter but telepathy, but they probably don’t teach that at vampire school.

The vampire warns George. After all, Gunn is not here to stop him doing anything.

The fish creature keeps provoking the vampire. It says that Gunn must have taken all the others along and left him here – no wonder, if he tries to imitate Gunn and shaves his head for it. But honestly, did Mommy and Daddy forget to write him a permission slip, so he had to stay here?

The vampire makes clear that Gunn thought it better to leave him here as a kind of trump card. He changes and comes at George menacingly.

He will simply tell Gunn that George tried to escape and so it came to a somewhat… unpleasant end.

To be continued…