After the Fall: Chapter XI

Issue 11
Story by Joss Whedon
Written by Brian Lynch
Pencilled by Nick Runge
Colours by Jason Jensen

“Relying on a lot of tools lately, Angel. Swords, axes, Spike. Your action figure is overflowing with accessories.”
Gunn

Angel is getting used to being in Hell. It has a way of getting into your head, makes you see and think things that aren’t there. As he stares at Charles Gunn though, he knows that what’s in front of him is no illusion – this is his friend Charles Gunn. Illyria, having shifted to Fred as soon as she glimpsed Gunn, starts to get excitable – to her, all the old gang are reuniting and it’s magic. The vampires prepare to take Angel out, but Gunn hasn’t told them to move. They’re going to do it anyway. As Angel swings down to protect Gunn, he orders Nina and the dragon to get away immediately – and take Fred with her.

Angel lands, but his human agility is not quick enough and a vampire corners him. The vampire explodes into dust just as he’s about to kill Angel – Gunn stands over him. His fangs are out.

Angel stares in horror. Gunn smiles – it was a shock to him too. Angel wants to know when, and Charles barely contains his contempt when he tells him that it happened in the alley way while Angel was distracted by the dragon. The guilt on Angel’s face is plain enough for the both of them to see. Gunn wants to show him something, and while Angel knows deep down that his friend is gone, he reluctantly follows Gunn into his lair.

At the Hyperion, Spike questions Connor about what’s upsetting him, but Connor keeps Angel’s humanity a secret. He wants to go back out to his father, but Gwen dissuades him. However, Nina suddenly arrives and yells for back up. She explains about the vampires and then says that Angel stayed behind to save Gunn. Spike is incredulous – Charley boy is dead. He must be. When Wesley appears, he is just as surprised – but also cautious about what Hell-A can trick them into seeing. Connor doesn’t care – he’s going after his father, with or without the rest of the team. Fred tells Wes how nice it is to see the gang getting back together, but Wesley watches, pondering: yes, we’re all coming back together, but we’re also all coming back wrong.

Inside Gunn’s lair, the smell hits Angel first. As Gunn shows him around and explains how he took over the vampire group, Angel questions why he’s doing all this. Gunn says he’s not thrilled with Angel, but he has his orders. Orders from where, asks Angel and Gunn grins at him: who else, he proclaims – he’s been receiving visions.

The smell is coming from a dead demon, who’s corpse hangs on a wall nearby. Gunn tells Angel that this particular demon was a conduit for the Powers, and that instead of just having visions, he could project them for all to see. The vampires got to him first, using his visions to predict events – and saw Gunn was where they needed him to be for everything to work: Gunn thinks he’s the larger piece of the puzzle – the Powers have chosen him now to be their vision bearer. When the demon died, Gunn tried to turn him, but failed – and the visions were transferred to him. He has seen the entire story of Los Angeles going to Hell played out in his head and he will do what he has to do to steer events in the right direction.

Angel tells him that the visions can’t be true. The Powers wouldn’t mislead them and Hell is, by it’s very nature, untruthful. Gunn gets angry – why can’t Angel just go along with his plan and realise that he’s the important one this time? As he rants at Angel, it’s clear that Gunn is no more – corrupted by the vampire within. He kicks Angel in his stomach and his former leader crumples to the ground. Angel looks up in pain: the visions can’t be from the Powers. He draws a stake and prepares to fight. Angel sighs – there’s only one possible way this can end and it’s not pleasant. As he fights his way past Gunn’s vamps, Gunn sees an opening and stabs Angel with his own broadsword. Activating a talisman that removes magick spells, Gunn cancels out Angel’s glamour and his humanity is revealed. It saps away all the healing done, leaving Angel on the floor, bloody and bent, broken bones and shattered spine. Gunn smells him.

He demands to know when, but doesn’t give Angel a chance to answer. Nevermind, he states, he’s simply going to let Angel die of his mortal wounds. But there is one thing Charles wants Angel to know – that he found ‘her’ first.

Up on the roof top, reinforcements arrive in the shape of Gwen, Connor and Spike. Connor asks if everyone is ready, but lightning starts to build in the sky. Connor turns around in horror as Gwen, energy spiking, begins to cry. Connor asks if she’s alright, to which his girlfriend responds: no.

No, I’m not okay, she says. She tells them how sorry she is and then Spike realises what’s happening: Gunn found Gwen first.

CONTINUITY

Fred compares Hell to Pylea, just without the ‘humans are cows’ thing – this goes back to season two’s Belonging and the five years she spent in Lorne’s home dimension

Betta George learns the name of the dragon and questions why it has that name. We find out the dragon’s name in the next Chapter.

Spike mentions a time in Sunnydale where ‘all sorts of living dead were popping up’ – referring to the events of Buffy season seven. He also points out that at least three people in the room have seemingly returned from death: himself after Chosen, Fred after Shells and Wesley after Not Fade Away.

The Powers That Be have been sending visions to steer Angel on his mission since he met Doyle in City Of. The visions were transferred to Cordelia in Hero and stayed with her until You’re Welcome. Gunn feeds off the demon in his flashback – perhaps the demonic equivalent, or the closest thing he could get to a kiss?

Gunn flashbacks to the night of his siring in the alley way, as well as the staking of his sire in First Night (Part 3). He also mentions the Slayers he has kept in the basement.

Gunn reveals that he blew up the offices of Wolfram & Hart – presumably to stop Angel’s deception from being maintained. Illyria outed Angel as human in Chapter X.

Angel broke his back and legs during the fight in the alley way, as seen in Chapter IV. We saw him break his hand in Chapter IX.

Gwen and Charles have a past of working together and even spent some personal time together, in Players.

COVER GALLERY