Illyria, Alone. (1/5)
Hello out there and a happy Monday to you all! I've been meaning to post this fic here, ever since the comm started, since it is as gen as you can possibly get - I hope you like.
Title: Illyria, Alone.
Setting: post-NFA, but only just.
Rating: PG.
Summary: Everyone is dead. So where does Illyria go from here?
Length: 4 chapters and an epilogue. 8900 words altogether approx.
Beta: The always lovely kathyh.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine - everything belongs to Illyria Joss!
Feedback makes Illyria smile! :)
Illyria, Alone
Chapter 1
When morning dawned, Illyria was far from the alley where the fight had begun. The first rays of sunlight flashed across the sky and illuminated the god-king where she stood, alone amongst the dead. The blood of untold enemies slowly drying on her hide, her hands and body sated from the all-night slaughter, she raised her face, which was not her face, to greet the sun; a giver of life just as she had once been.
The battle had raged far and wide, the army of The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart spreading out and bringing chaos wherever it went. But in the early morning all was now quiet. Illyria looked around, noting the devastation her hands had wrought. An entire army, dead at her hands as was only proper - she who was beauty and destruction.
As she stood still, letting the warmth of the sun soothe away the last of her rage, she heard sirens in the distance. The humans were here already, interrupting her silent triumph. Busy, busy, busy; each one an alien conundrum of hopes and fears - thousands of disparate impulses guiding them in ways she could not understand. Strange, repulsive and illogical, and yet they had arranged themselves into a society as carefully as ants in an anthill.
In this world of men, she was but a mote. Unknown, alone. Never before had she felt small, and the feeling was not welcome.
How could her plans have gone so awry? She should have been the sovereign now, the world swaying to fulfil her wishes. But her armies were dust, her followers few and scattered, and she was trapped in the body of a lesser being, her powers diminished. And yet she could feel that the undercurrents of power had shifted in this night that had gone. The Circle of the Black Thorn had left a vacuum and she was drawn to it, like a bee to nectar.
But the cost had been high...
Her Qua’Ha-Xahn - her Wesley - was dead.
Her vampire Champions were dead, as were their friends.
The only places that had been familiar, her sarcophagus, the W&H building, were gone.
What could she do? She could not leave, and she would not stay - doomed to inhabit such an inferior place. But she did not have the tools for reigning in this place. The humans, with their sneakiness and guile, had taken the world from the demons. And she could not bring the demons back.
Angel had followed the orders of Powers she had once outshone. Helping and protecting people, holding back the dark powers for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. He had talked about sacrifice and saving the world - all words for servitude.
But she was Illyria, and all she knew was to rule.
And then she smiled, her hard, frozen blue eyes shimmering in the sunlight, because she suddenly realised that her first Qua’Ha-Xahn had given her the best gift of all.
Chapter 2.
Title: Illyria, Alone.
Setting: post-NFA, but only just.
Rating: PG.
Summary: Everyone is dead. So where does Illyria go from here?
Length: 4 chapters and an epilogue. 8900 words altogether approx.
Beta: The always lovely kathyh.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine - everything belongs to Illyria Joss!
Feedback makes Illyria smile! :)
Illyria, Alone
Chapter 1
When morning dawned, Illyria was far from the alley where the fight had begun. The first rays of sunlight flashed across the sky and illuminated the god-king where she stood, alone amongst the dead. The blood of untold enemies slowly drying on her hide, her hands and body sated from the all-night slaughter, she raised her face, which was not her face, to greet the sun; a giver of life just as she had once been.
The battle had raged far and wide, the army of The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart spreading out and bringing chaos wherever it went. But in the early morning all was now quiet. Illyria looked around, noting the devastation her hands had wrought. An entire army, dead at her hands as was only proper - she who was beauty and destruction.
As she stood still, letting the warmth of the sun soothe away the last of her rage, she heard sirens in the distance. The humans were here already, interrupting her silent triumph. Busy, busy, busy; each one an alien conundrum of hopes and fears - thousands of disparate impulses guiding them in ways she could not understand. Strange, repulsive and illogical, and yet they had arranged themselves into a society as carefully as ants in an anthill.
In this world of men, she was but a mote. Unknown, alone. Never before had she felt small, and the feeling was not welcome.
How could her plans have gone so awry? She should have been the sovereign now, the world swaying to fulfil her wishes. But her armies were dust, her followers few and scattered, and she was trapped in the body of a lesser being, her powers diminished. And yet she could feel that the undercurrents of power had shifted in this night that had gone. The Circle of the Black Thorn had left a vacuum and she was drawn to it, like a bee to nectar.
But the cost had been high...
Her Qua’Ha-Xahn - her Wesley - was dead.
Her vampire Champions were dead, as were their friends.
The only places that had been familiar, her sarcophagus, the W&H building, were gone.
What could she do? She could not leave, and she would not stay - doomed to inhabit such an inferior place. But she did not have the tools for reigning in this place. The humans, with their sneakiness and guile, had taken the world from the demons. And she could not bring the demons back.
Angel had followed the orders of Powers she had once outshone. Helping and protecting people, holding back the dark powers for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. He had talked about sacrifice and saving the world - all words for servitude.
But she was Illyria, and all she knew was to rule.
And then she smiled, her hard, frozen blue eyes shimmering in the sunlight, because she suddenly realised that her first Qua’Ha-Xahn had given her the best gift of all.
Chapter 2.