Angel #3

This issue opens with a short explanation about hell. It’s hot, pretty humid, more or less what you’d expect, but what you might not expect is that the sun and moon are both out side by side 24/7. Among other things, it leaves werewolves in a sort of half-man/half-beast limbo, and vampires feel a constant mix of euphoria and the sense of being about to explode in a ball of flame. Demons from the Primordium Age, even those that have had their powers reduced, like Illyria, don’t seem to be affected. That brings us to the current situation where Illyria is throwing Angel all through Spike’s mansion. Angel recaps for Illyria, telling her that a Lord was killed and primordial Sandskrit was found on the scene and that was why he came looking for her. While they’re fighting (basically just Illyria beating up Angel) they seem to be going through time. This time traveling disorients Angel but Illyria just keeps attacking, even saying she’ll take him apart and throw all his pieces in different directions. He says he wants to talk but when she doesn’t stop hitting him he grabs up some steak knives and stabs her in the hip. Annoyed, she pulls it out and he goes for a gun lying near a dead cop on the ground. When he turns to shoot her she’s standing with the knives and she tells him to shoot. He again says he doesn’t want to fight and Illyria rushes him and crucifies him to the wall before sending them skittering backwards and forwards through time and bringing them back. When the fight is over Spike gets Illyria to refrain from killing Angel for the moment. She still wants to do it but Spike is talking her out of it when something new comes into the picture. Angel hears flapping leathery wings and then his dragon sticks his head through a wall and into the house where Illyria, Angel and Spike are.

Illyria sees the new enemy and is so ready for a real fight that she leaves Angel where he is (after stabbing him in the side for good measure) that she walks over to the dragon and offers him the first strike. The dragon accepts the offer and shoots a ball of flame that hurls Illyria across the room. After a moment’s pause she rises to her feat and says “more.” While Illyria goes to fight the dragon Spike gathers up Angel and takes him outside. Spike finds out that Angel knew where he was the whole time and demands to know who else does. Before he gives a real answer the fight between Illyria and the dragon spills out onto Spike’s lawn where the two vampires are standing. As Spike is talking about how badly Angel has messed things up, the dragon eats Illyria. Seconds later he spits her out, destroying the fountain of blood in the process. Spike tells Angel that when Illyria’s done fighting he and the dragon need to leave, but Angel says he won’t leave until Spike tells him what he knows. Spike starts saying that Angel has no idea what he’s doing when Connor comes along and agrees with him, saying that Spike and Illyria had nothing to do with the death of Kr’ph, the runes or the murders, because they don’t put innocents in danger. The reason he knows that is because Spike is on his side. Spike and Illyria send him about half of the humans that they’re hiding. Because of those two, they’ve saved so many humans that the overflow is staying in Spike’s house. Connor shows him all this and Angel decides it’s time to leave.

Back at the offices of Wolfram and Hart, Wesley is standing around unable to touch anything. When Angel comes in Wesley tells him that he needs to lay low, but Angel has other things in mind. He lets Wesley know that whoever killed the Lord of Westwood pinned it on Spike, but doesn’t tell him about Illyria. He gets one of his swords and says something about changing the game.

Elsewhere, the Lords of LA (except for the Lord of Silverlake, the Lord of Beverly Hills and of course the Lord of Westwood) are meeting. The Lord of Compton says they should kill the Lord of Beverly Hills, but the Lord of Burbank talks him out of trying to take her on. Burge calls the meaning to order, getting to the point of why they are gathered, to figure out the best way to kill Angel. The Lord of Weho tells him that Wolfram and Hart warned them not to kill him but Burge says he doesn’t care. At that moment Angel himself waltzes into the middle of their meeting and tells them to bring the fight if they want one. He even gets Wesley to tell that that Wolfram and Hart say they can if they want to. With no higher power protecting him, Angel challenges Burge, saying that if he wins their fight, he owns Downtown LA. Burge turns down the direct challenge but says he’ll have a champion fight for him at a later date. Angel spreads the challenge to all the Lords. They accept, all of them leaving the fight to their champions, and they set the fight for two days later. As Angel leaves his thoughts go to the fact that the sun and moon of hell don’t alter a vampire’s healing abilities so a vampire with all the wounds Angel has recently sustained would be healed up in time. The only thing is, Angel is no longer a vampire.