Under the Forbidden Sun
Part 3 – Letters and Loss
“We’ll behave, promise,” Xander held out his hands. “Right, Spike?”
“Aw, Pet, where’s the fun in that?”
“Hmmm, guess there isn’t any. Um, you guys might if I take a break?” Xander fingered the envelope Anya had given him. “I’d like to take a look at this.”
“Go right ahead,” Giles said, patiently. “Were you going to leave?”
“Naw,” Xander shook his head, “figured I’d look at it here. I’m gonna’ tell you what’s in it, anyway.” The others returned to the prophecy, while Xander looked at the envelope. It was a regular 8 ½” by 11” manila envelope. On one side, ‘Xander’ was written in black ink. Sighing, he carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the contents: several sheets of paper, a sealed business envelope, and some photos.
Curious, he looked at the first picture. Two young men looked out at him, smiling and looking happy with each other. He studied them closely. One had slightly curly, black hair and dancing brown eyes. The other had dark brown hair and eyes with a serious set to his features. Looking at them, he could see the resemblance between himself and the men in the picture. Silently he passed it to Spike, who glanced at it quickly, then stared at it. “Your parents?” he whispered, shocked.
“Yeah,” Xander was finding it hard to speak. He looked at the other pictures; they were mostly of the same two men, some together, some separate, and some had other people as well. Xander picked up one with the black-haired man and turned it over. Jeremy 1976 was written in fading ink. Picking up one of the brown-haired man, a quick check of the back revealed Kenet 1977. He barely spared a glance at the other photos, the sheets of paper having caught his eye.
As he set the photographs down, he dimly noticed Spike passing the first picture to the other men. Xander stared at the first letter for a moment, transfixed by the opening.
To my son, Xander, on his twenty-fifth birthday,
I am sure this letter is quite a shock to you. Believing something for so long, then having everything ripped out from you is not a pleasant experience, I know. I wish I could be there when you’re reading this, but if I were, you wouldn’t need this.
Anyanka has probably told you some of your past by
now. I know she’s a Vengeance Demon,
but she really is a sweetie. Listen to
her; she can help you. She’ll be able
to help with your training, as I fear our family would be less than receptive
to you.
You are a special, special boy. Not only because you are a Grogthk (though that in itself is
special enough), but because you were born to a fate predetermined years
ago. Let me explain. Your father, Jeremy, and I had a complicated
love. Our parents are arranged our
betrothal at my birth (Jeremy is a year older) and for all our childhoods we
were prepared for our eventual marriage.
By the time I was fifteen we were hopelessly in love. It was about then that an old prophesy was
discovered.
It told of a Grogthk child who would be born to parents
of the Tor-gethin and the Chyr-severin clans.
This child would grow up fighting for good, but after taking an evil
lover (not specific what kind), he would somehow be turned to darkness and
cause the downfall (or redemption) of the world. Immediately, we were separated and ordered to never see the other
again, ever. The clans feared what
would happen if we were to have a child.
But how could we not see each other, we were young and in
love. All our lives we were told we
would be married, and then we were told to forget everything. My heart broke; I thought I’d lost
everything. Then the first secret
letter came. It was horrible and
difficult to disobey our parents, but we met secretly as often as we
could. We snuck around for about three
years before we started sleeping together.
By then, we had more freedom and it was easier to get together.
When I was nineteen, my parents informed me they had found a new suitor for me. I was devastated. I had just found out I was pregnant and now I was expected to court a man I couldn’t ever love. When I told Jeremy, he was excited about the baby and horrified about the new fiancé. He asked me then to run away with him, but I couldn’t leave my family. I tried to hide the pregnancy, but Father found me hunched over the toilet one morning, and demanded an explanation. (I’m sure you’ve noticed that you never get flues or colds.) I wouldn’t tell him, and he forced me to see a doctor, who immediately discovered what I’d been hiding for four months.
It was too late for an abortion (praise the Heavens) and the doctor said it was too dangerous to induce a miscarriage, so they began planning a ceremony that would take place after your birth. I know you can guess what they were going to do. They were frightened that you would be the destroyer of the earth, but I like to think that you will be its savior. After my parents found out, I told Jeremy I would leave with him, and, with Anyanka’s help, we left. We eventually ended up in LA. Jeremy and I spent every moment we could together, knowing both our clans would be searching for us and we were frightened they would discover where we had gone.
We got through the birth safely and you were the most beautiful boy I had ever seen in my life. I thought you looked just like Jeremy, but he insisted you were the mirror image of me. We named you Xander Jeret Chyr-gethin, so that you would have your own name, but still carry parts of ours as well. But Anyanka told me that when you became adopted, they would most likely change your name. Your original birth certificate should be with this letter. I hope you at least consider using your birth name.
Well, we had you to ourselves for two months before your adoption was finalized. The day Anyanka took you away, my heart broke a second time. And we were lucky, very lucky, because our families located us only a week after you were taken. I won’t tell you what they’ll do to us, but always remember our sacrifice was so you could live and be happy.
Love forever,
Kenet Tor-gethin
Xander stopped reading,
realizing for the first time he was crying and the others were looking at him
worriedly. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s hard.
They loved me so much that they died so I could live. All because of some stupid prophecy with two
different interpretations.”
“Another prophecy?” asked
Wesley.
“Yeah, in the letter my
fa-father wrote ‘a Grogthk child would be born to parents of the Tor-gethin and
the Chyr-severin clans. This child
would grow up fighting for good, but after taking an evil lover, he would
somehow be turned to darkness and cause the downfall or redemption of the
world.’” Xander picked up one of the
pictures of his parents, and took a deep breath, “I guess I’m that child, since
their clans separated them the instant the prophecy was discovered.”
Seeing Xander’s gaze
slipping back to the unread documents, Giles said, “Why don’t we get back to
our research and let you finish reading your letters? We can discuss this new prophecy later.”
Xander gave him a weak
smile and immediately picked up the next sheet of paper; it was a birth
certificate. He studied it for a minute
before picking up the other letter.
Dear Xander,
I’ve been sitting here staring at this sheet of paper for at least an hour. I wish I knew what to say. You’re twenty-five now, and growing into your powers. I hope Anyanka finds you a good teacher. Maybe I should tell you what you’re going to be getting into. As a Grogthk demon, you will stop aging at twenty-five. Well, you probably know that by now. Gods, I wish I knew what to say, I’ve never been good at stuff like this.
Okay, powers. You’re going to have enhanced hearing and eyesight, these will have been developing since about age twenty. Your strength and endurance will be greater than a human’s, how much more depends on how much you work on them. You will also heal rapidly. That usually manifests by age fifteen or so. You should also be very graceful and lithe, but you might not. As a child I was always the biggest klutz you’ve ever seen. It’s only been the past year or so that I’ve grown into my personal grace, so if you’re a walking disaster waiting to happen, you get that from me. And you’ll find your center of balance eventually.
Okay, so that just leaves one thing, because Ken has told you our story and why we gave you up. I wish we could’ve kept you, I wanted to see you grow up so badly. Anyway, that’s kind of what I want to say. Grogthk demons are all male and if you had grown up in a clan, a betrothal would’ve been arranged at your birth, but since you’ve grown up among humans, you’re on your own there. I hope you don’t have notions about gay people, because you have to consider that you’re not gay, you’re normal. Anyway, you have to be very careful when you do get a boyfriend, because you can become pregnant.
God, I’m blushing so bad, you’d be laughing like crazy, Kenet is. I bet you have his sense of humor. That boy can find humor anywhere. Okay, so maybe you’re wondering exactly how you can get pregnant, well, I mean not exactly, because you can figure that part out for yourself. Right, so, in order for you to conceive there has to be a specific balance of chemical and hormones in your system. I’m not exactly sure what, either, because Ken and I thought we were safe, and we weren’t. And you obviously have to be the bottom. Your partner can be just about any species, human or demon. One of my cousins even had children with a vampire lover.
Xander read that statement
again, blanching. “Oh, shit.”
“Xander, what’s wrong?”
Spike asked.
“Uh, you know how Wesley
said I can get pregnant, right?” The
others nodded their heads. “Well,
Jeremy, my dad, wrote a little bit more on the subject and, um, well, Spike and
I may be in a bit of trouble.”
“What kind of trouble,
Xander?” Angel asked, narrowing his eyes.
"And you know how
I've been feeling kind of weird lately?"
"Xander, just spit it
out. Whatever it is, it can't be that
terrible," said Spike, a bit exasperated.
“I might be pregnant.”
Walking through one of
Sunnydale’s cemeteries, Buffy kept a wary eye out for trouble. Anya and Cordelia were a few feet behind
her, Riley and Gunn were off to each side, and the two witches were bringing up
the rear.
Without warning, a
monstrous demon appeared by Riley and gutted the startled soldier. Screaming fiercely, Buffy launched herself
at her boyfriend’s killer. The demon
gave a hoarse laugh before dematerializing and reappearing near Anya and
Cordelia. Cordelia moved quickly,
slashing at the monster and diving away, but Anya stood frightened, unable to
move. The others screamed for her to
defend herself, while Willow and Tara began a spell.
The demon took a step
toward Anya, who recovered from her shock and stabbed at the demon with her
stake. Emitting the same grating laugh,
the demon lazily backhanded Anya into a nearby tree. The ex-demoness hit the tree with a sickening thump and
collapsed. Turning toward the others,
the thing rasped, “I bring you a message from my mistress. The world is lost: the key to salvation is
tainted by blood and twisted by love,” before dissolving into a gray mist that
quickly dissipated.
Buffy raced to Riley’s
side, just as the soldier took his last breath. “Love… Buff…”
She howled with pain and
rage.
Willow and Tara had gone
to check on Anya, who was breathing, but just barely. “Buffy,” Willow said, “Buffy, we’ve got to get Anya to the
hospital.”
“Riley…”
“Cordy, maybe you and Gunn
should take Buffy back Giles’. Tara and
I can take Anya to the hospital, and then you can bring everyone with us.”
“What about Riley?” Gunn
asked, unsure how to proceed.
“Uh, good question. Well, we can call an ambulance, and tell
them a gang or something attacked us.
This is Sunnydale, they’ll believe anything we tell them,” Cordelia
said, pulling out her cell phone and dialing 911.
After the call was made,
Willow borrowed the phone to call Giles.
“Hello?”
“Giles, it’s Willow.”
“What happened?” Giles could tell by the way she was
speaking, something was wrong.
“This really weird demon
appeared and, oh, Giles, it killed Riley, and Anya’s almost dead! The ambulance is on its way. I thought you guys could meet us at the
hospital.”
“Of course, we’ll be right
there.”
“Giles, thank God! Something’s wrong with Buffy. She won’t speak or anything, she’s just
sitting there,” said Willow frantically, relieved now that the others had
arrived.
“Have the doctors spoken
to her yet?” Giles asked.
“No, we just got
here. Anya’s in intensive care and they
took Riley to the morgue.” Willow
lowered her voice, “We told the doctors that we were attacked by a gang. That demon was like nothing I’d ever seen
before.”
“It delivered a message,”
Tara broke in. “It said ‘The world is
lost; the key to salvation is tainted with blood and twisted with love.’”
“Oh, dear. This just keeps getting worse and worse,”
Giles murmured as he cleaned his glasses.
“What do you mean?” asked
Willow nervously.
“Well, the envelope Anya
gave Xander contained letters from his real parents and apparently Xander is
part of another prophecy. I do believe
these are all tied together. Once we
get back to my place, we can start cross-referencing and discover if there’s a
connection.”
Xander and Spike were
sitting on some of the chairs with Wesley and Angel, when Spike looked around
the waiting room, taking note of who was there. “Where’s the little bit?”
Willow paled and
stammered, “I thought she stayed with you guys.”
“No, she wasn’t with us,”
Angel said, running a hand through his hair.
“When was the last time
someone saw her?” asked Willow.
Xander said, “She left
right around the same time as you guys, maybe a few minutes later.”
“What are we going to
do? We’ve lost Dawn! Buffy is going to be very upset,” said Tara
worriedly.
“I don’t think Buffy’s
even going to care right now, she’s in shock,” said Cordelia. “Where would Dawn have gone?”
“I don’t know. Maybe some of us should go look for her,”
said Xander.
“Good idea,” said
Giles. “Who would like to go?”
“I will, and Spike, too,”
said Xander.
Gunn looked over at
Cordelia, “We’ll go, too. That way we
can split up to cover more ground.”
“Right, then. Come back here once you’ve found her,” Giles
said, before walking over to a nurse to get some help for Buffy.
“Bloody hell, where could
she be?” Spike asked as he lit a cigarette outside the hospital.
“The Bronze?” asked
Cordelia.
“Maybe, or she could’ve
gone home,” said Xander hopefully.
“Not bloody likely. Little bit prob’ly thought she’d go patrol
for some demons or some such,” raged Spike, accidentally breaking his cigarette
in two.
“Well, how about you and
Gunn do a sweep of the cemeteries, and Xander and I’ll check the Bronze and the
Summers’ place,” said Cordelia. The
others were agreeing when she suddenly doubled up in agony.
“What’s wrong?” asked a
startled Xander.
“Vision,” said Gunn.
“Oh, God! It was Dawn, and there were vampires, three
of them! We’ve got to get to her.” Cordelia clutched her head, “She’s in a
cemetery; it looked like one of the small ones.”
“Great, there’s only about
a million small cemeteries in Sunnydale.
So glad we got it narrowed down some,” said Xander, trying to lighten
the mood.
“No time for jokes, Pet,”
said Spike, “we’ve got to find Dawn.”
After making sure that Cordelia would be all right, the four got into Spike’s DeSoto and headed for the first of the cemeteries. Fortunately, they picked the right one: fighting could be heard in the distance, and Dawn’s frightened voice.
“Dawn, we’re coming! Hold tight!” yelled Xander as they scrambled through the gravestones.
Toward the middle of the cemetery, they could see Dawn surrounded by six vampires. She was hitting at them with a stake, but it was apparent that they were merely toying with her. One of the vampires caught side of the approaching group, and yelled a warning to the others, “Heads up, we’ve got company!”
The two largest vampires immediately went for Spike, and Xander, Cordelia, and Gunn faced off against three of the others. Spike had dusted one of his and was about to finish the other off, when he noticed Dawn was no longer screaming. He looked up in time to see the sixth vampire drop her drained corpse. “Dawn, no!” His scream echoed through the graveyard and he leapt toward the vampire, throwing it to the ground before dusting it. And the other vampires never stood a chance. The one fighting Cordelia backhanded her and turned to run, but Spike caught him before he had even gone five feet.
Xander and Gunn finished their vampires off and went over to where Dawn lay. “Spike, is she dead?” Spike nodded sadly. “But you can fix her, right? Please, tell me you can fix her!” Xander was distraught.
“I’m sorry, luv. It happened too fast. And even if I’d’ve had the chance to turn her, I wouldn’t. Buffy’s going to be upset enough. She wouldn’t want to have to stake her own sister.”
“Oh, god! Buffy! This is going to kill her!” Xander moaned, pressing his face into Spike’s shoulder. Spike just held him, murmuring soothing nonsense.
Cordelia and Gunn watched helplessly as Dawn’s body was placed in the ambulance, unable to believe that she had died. Spike was coaxing Xander into the DeSoto. “Cordelia, Gunn, let’s go. We can follow the ambulance to the hospital.” Numbly, they obeyed Spike.
Interlude
Things were going very well: the mortals were scurrying to figure out what the prophesy meant, her demon had delivered its message and killed two of the unneeded humans, and soon the one twisted by love would be tainted by blood. She would make certain of it. She had watched, laughing evilly as the youngest mortal snuck out, determined to show that she, too, could fight the demons and other horrors in the night. When the child had been cornered by the vampires, she sent a vision to the girl from LA, know the others would never arrive in time to save the girl. She decided that now was the time to show herself, insinuate herself into the group.
At the hospital, mere minutes after the search party for Dawn had left, Giles and the others had been informed that Anya had coded and could not be revived. Willow and Tara were sitting in chairs, sobbing and holding onto each other; Buffy had been taken off to be looked over and treated for shock; and Giles could not believe any of this was happening. “Why have we had no warning of this?” he asked Wesley and Angel. “How could no one see this coming?” Wesley and Angel merely looked at him, neither one had an answer for the distraught watcher.
A half an hour later, Spike, Xander, Cordelia, and Gunn walked into the waiting room, dreading the reaction to their unwelcome news. Willow leapt up at the sight of her best friend and ran to him, “Oh, Xander! After you left, Anya died! They couldn’t save her.”
Xander looked down at her numbly, the words not registering immediately. “Anya’s gone? How many more are we going to lose?” He collapsed into one of the empty chairs.
Spike watched Xander, worried. He looked at the ones who had stayed, seeing the hope in their eyes, the hope that Dawn was all right and tucked away somewhere safe. “Watcher, Red… I-I, I’m sorry, I can’t do this,” Spike stammered, cursing himself inwardly, why couldn’t he tell them, he was the Big Bad and nothing affected him. But he knew that hadn’t been true since the chip. He walked over and knelt in front of Xander, putting his arms around the boy and holding him.
Cordelia went over to Giles, and crying said, “I’m sorry, Giles. We found her with some vampires. One of them killed her while we fought the others. The ambulance brought her here.”
A few nurses passing the waiting room looked in on the crying group and shook their heads. What a tragedy, two of their friends killed by a gang and another, younger one killed in a mugging.