Disclaimer: Stargate: SG-1 and all related concepts are the property of MGM, while the character of Spike belongs to Joss Whedon and James Marsters, among other people (Also, the original idea for this series came from Jedi Buttercup's 'An Unexpected Gift', so I don't own it either, although I have put my own spin on things, and have been given his full permission to use his idea)

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, of course

AN: For the record, to those who've read 'After the Fall', I won't be using the idea that the dragon was an unwitting dupe; the fight's not going to last long enough for Angel to come to that realisation, it would be too complicated to explore how he came to that conclusion even if it did, and it's not like they could take the dragon to Atlantis with them anyway.

The Old One

As he ran down the alley behind the Hyperion, Angel tried not to feel too apprehensive at the lack of anyone else in the area; Hamilton had been tough, but he'd only been one man, and everyone else had far more opponents to deal with…

"You dealt with Sebassis?" a voice suddenly asked from the side, Angel turning around to see Wesley standing in a smaller side-alley, the ex-Watcher apparently unharmed from his confrontation with Vail.

"And Hamilton," Angel confirmed, nodding at Wesley in relief. "You?"

"Vail was simple enough," Wesley said, smiling slightly back at Angel. "Our new associates have some… interesting toys."

"Anyone else here?" Angel asked; he was curious about what Wesley was referring to, but they had bigger priorities right now than talking about what they'd find in Atlantis.

"Not so far," Wesley confirmed, glancing up as the thunder rolled above them. "Well, at least we're going to have a dramatic final stand."

"Damn!" Gunn's voice suddenly yelled, running towards them his hubcap-axe in one hand. "How did I know fang-boy would pull through… 'though English is a nice touch?"

Angel's initial smile when he saw Gunn's approach faltered as Gunn's steps did the same, his voice weakening despite his words.

"You're lucky we're on the same side, dog," Gunn gasped weakly as he approached them. "'Cause I was on fire tonight… My game was tight…"

Angel didn't need enhanced senses to realise that Gunn was in trouble, quickly moving to help him sit on a nearby box as Wesley gave him a quick once-over. Even in the rain, Gunn's bloody hand was obvious as he removed it from his chest, looking shakily at his wounds.

God, Angel hoped this battle wouldn't last too long; if Spike's new friends could save Drogyn after everything the Circle had done to him, Gunn might still have a chance at recovery if he could get medical treatment soon enough…

His anxious thoughts were cut short by the sound of something landing on the ground beside them, but he relaxed when he saw that it was just Illyria.

"My foes are dead," she said, looking at the team in satisfaction. "Are we ready for more violence?"

"Soon enough," Angel said grimly.

"Tricks good here?" Lorne asked, his usually pointed hair practically draped around his head as he climbed down a fire escape to join them.

"The kid?" Angel asked.

"Back with Mom and with full access to the Brethrens' old accounts; they won't be suffering financially any time soon," the Pylean grinned. "Anything else we need to worry about?"

The sound of a loud roar distracted them for a moment, prompting the five of them to turn around and watch as a vast army of demons appeared at the other end of the alley, all wearing some form of armour, along with a few figures that were far larger than the standard adversary Angel had faced since arriving in Los Angeles.

"Either way, we'll go out with a bang, right?" Lorne said, chuckling apprehensively as he tightened his grip on the short sword he'd taken just in case he needed it.

"OK," Gunn said, glaring at the approaching army as he got back to his feet, "you take the thirty thousand on the right…"

"You are fading," Illyria noted, as the five of them stood before the approaching army. "You will last ten minutes at best."

"Then let's make 'em memorable," Gunn said firmly.

"Just hold on for those minutes," Angel said, looking firmly back at his friend as he quickly thought about this new information; assuming that Illyria's estimate was correct, if Gunn could keep fighting for a few minutes, that should be long enough for them to make a good impression on the opposing demons before they needed to trigger their little deception…

"Do we have a plan?" Wesley asked.

"We fight."

"Can you be more specific?" Lorne asked.

"Well," Angel mused, glancing upwards at the sight of a large greenish creature flying through the air above them, "personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon."

As the demon horde began to charge towards them, Angel quickly changed his manner as he roared into battle, his sword drawn as he charged towards the army, his friends close behind him, united in a manner that he'd been missing ever since he started his twisted attempt to infiltrate the Circle.

The dragon was the priority, but until he got a good shot at that thing, he had to focus on wearing down the numbers…

Diving into the fray, a powerful swing of his sword severed the heads of the first two demons that attacked him, following the attack up by punching, kicking and stabbing his way through his adversaries. He was vaguely aware of the rest of his team gathered around him as they continued their fight, Illyria devastating her foes with powerful punches and kicks while the other three did their best with their available weapons, but it soon became clear that the best they could do was hold the line right now; they'd never be able to defeat every single demon facing them right now, no matter how hard they tried.

The real problem was how they were going to make it look natural for them all to be in one place when the detonation went off; they'd split up when making their charge so that they could do as much damage as possible, but that wouldn't help them when they had to escape. Vaulting into the air, Angel kicked out at the immediately surrounding demons as he practically jumped from one to the next, swiftly noting the locations of his remaining active allies in the battle before he hit the ground once again to take up position beside Illyria.

"We need to get ready!" he said urgently to the former Old One. "Get to the others; if we're not all together, things are going to get tricky!"

"Understood!" Illyria replied, as she launched two simultaneous punches through the chests of the nearest demons. "I will retrieve Wesley!"

"I'll find Lorne; rendezvous at Gunn!" Angel instructed, before both of them leapt back into action. Hurrying through the battlefield for a moment, Angel soon identified Lorne's position, his friend's vivid green skin standing out even amid the pouring rain and the mass of demons surrounding him. To Lorne's credit, he was putting up a fair struggle despite his usual distaste for fighting, evading the worst of the attacks and retaliating with a few quick stabs and slashes when the opportunity arose, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to last much longer if things didn't change quickly.

Not giving Lorne a chance to ask questions, Angel dived in and swung his sword at the largest of the demons gathered around his friend, clearing the battlefield long enough for him to grab Lorne's arm and run towards the scent of human blood, distinctive as the only trace of it in this entire alley. As he ran up to his friend, he was relieved to see that Illyria and Wesley were already present. Wesley was holding his side with one hand even as he continued lashing out with the sword in his other hand, and Gunn looked like he was fighting just to remain standing, but Illyria remained standing as she lashed out at her adversaries, bare fists striking with a force beyond anything he'd witnessed before.

"It's time!" Angel yelled, glancing up as he saw the dragon diving towards them, mouth glowing in a manner that almost certainly indicated that it was about to breath fire; they were never going to have a better shot at escape than this, so it was time to take it. Reaching into his pocket, Angel pulled out his emergency signal device, glancing back at his friends to confirm that they were following his example before all five of them pressed the buttons at once. Instantly, they were surrounded by a white light just as flame erupted from the dragon's mouth…

As soon as they had reappeared on the spaceship Angel had been shown earlier, Gunn seemed to take it as his cue to fall over, Angel and Wesley only just managing to catch him before he hit the floor.

"The bomb?" Angel asked, looking anxiously at Spike and his friends as they stood at various control panels around them.

"A small-scale incendiary device was sent back at the same time we beamed you out, and we grabbed most of the demons and other monsters there at the same time," Colonel Mitchell explained. "Getting everything else out was tough, but it's easier when we don't have to worry about putting them back together at this end; we can just let the data go wherever."

"And the bomb?" Wesley asked.

"Our explosives guys calculated that it'd be powerful enough to damage any organic thing that might be left in that alley, but not powerful enough to do anything more than blacken any buildings in the blast radius; there'll be some property damage, but shouldn't be any civilian casualties, and it adds to the illusion that something destroyed you all as well as their own side."

"Particularly since we were fighting in a fairly quiet part of town without any witnesses anyway; nice choice," Angel said, smiling in approval at the chosen weapon before he looked more urgently around the bridge while moving over to help Wesley keep Gunn up. "Sorry, but we need to get Gunn to the infirmary; he look a lot of damage from Bruckner's vampires even before he got to the alley..."

"Literal blood-suckers trying to get into Washington, huh?" Mitchell noted with a smile, as he walked over to take Angel's place holding Gunn steady. "You'll have to tell us about that later on."

"Happy to…" Gunn muttered, his voice trailing off as the other two men led him out of the infirmary, their pace brisk and prompt without being so quick that it would jar anything inside him.

"Don't do things by half, do you?" Spike put in, walking over to grin at Angel as he clapped a hand on his grandsire's shoulder. "Taking on that many demons at once either needs serious balls or a seriously stupid son of a bitch, and whatever I might have said in the past, you aren't that thick."

"Thanks… I think," Angel said, nodding at Spike out of a lack of anything else to do.

"Well," Sam said, smiling around at the remaining members of Angel Investigations, "in the meantime, if we're on our way to Atlantis, while Mr Gunn recovers in the medical bay, I'm sure you'll want to see Miss Burkle as well?"

"The shell truly lives?" Illyria asked.

"Fred's OK?" Lorne said, looking anxiously at the colonel.

"She'll be fine," Sam nodded reassuringly at the green-skinned demon, before her gaze shifted to Illyria with narrowed eyes. "And on that topic, I appreciate that you were fighting for our side right now, but if you try going after Miss Burkle to 'finish what you started'…"

"I have no intention of harming Winifred Burkle," Illyria said solemnly. "I bore her no individual malice when I took this shell, and I suffer from no belief that eliminating her will in some way improve my own position; I am content with what I have become, and shall leave it at that."

"Uh… good," Sam said, out of a lack of anything else that could be said to a statement like that.

"By the way," Daniel asked, stepping forward to look curiously at Illyria, "as long as we're in transit anyway, I was wondering… what could you tell me about the world back then?"

"Excuse me?" Illyria asked, looking at the archaeologist in surprise, before her eyes narrowed as she studied him. "You have the essence of the Ascended Ones on you…"

"You can see that?" Sam asked, looking at the blue woman in surprise.

"I can see many things," Illyria said, still looking contemplatively at Daniel before she replied to his question. "If you were perceived as worthy by them… there may be something in you worth observing."

"Uh… thanks," Daniel said, looking uncertainly at her for a moment before he indicated the door leading to the main body of the ship. "So… can we talk?"

As Illyria walked off with Daniel, Spike exchanged a brief glance with Angel before moving after the archaeologist. Angel didn't think that Illyria was going to do anything to the other man, and given her ego she'd probably appreciate the chance to talk about what life on Earth had been like during her reign, but it would probably be a good idea for Spike to keep an eye on them just in case.

Turning to look at the window before him, Angel smiled wistfully at the sight of Earth as the ship turned around and began to head for deep space, taking him and his team away from the planet that they'd spent the better part of the last three years defending (They had been working together in variations of their current state since Fred was rescued from Pylea, so theyhad been working together for that time).

He probably wouldn't see Connor again any time soon, but that was the only real tie to life back on Earth that he would actively miss; considering the Scooby Gang's expressed opinion of his role at Wolfram & Hart, he didn't have much faith that he would be able to provide an explanation that they'd accept for his recent actions even if he was still on Earth.

As it stood, everything had worked out as well as could be expected; the Circle had been destroyed, everyone was alive, and the Senior Partners would probably assume that the dragon had vaporized them just as someone managed to do something to make it blow up at the same time.

To paraphrase Rodenberry, it was time to boldly go where no vampire had gone before…

AN 2: And there we have it; the end of this story, and the end of this series for the foreseeable future.

I apologise to anyone who wanted to see more of Angel and his team in Atlantis, but I have other things I want to focus on right now, so this just felt like the best place to stop for the moment.