Disclaimer: This will be the first and probably only disclaimer, if you need to see it, please refer back to this chapter. I don't own anything from the original BTVS series, I own everything else.
Chapter One: The Fallen Queen
I am the one that is walking the night
Sleepless I'm dreaming - eyes wide open
Watching the sky for the ashes to fall
Ending illusions - I keep on hoping
For this world to survive - to keep me alive
So for all you ever desired, you wanted to be
Was shining so bright but only a dream
And nothing remains but this fantasy
Oh this world is falling down
~Xandria, Prophecy Of Worlds To Fall~
His body was cut from marble. His skin a nearly translucent porcelain that glowed in the moonlight. His eyes swirled with sapphire and emeralds, a ring of dark blue around his iris. His beautiful face held a strange mixture between confusion and temptation.
She stands with her head tilted and an odd glint in her purple eyes. She walks toward him, her bare feet not making a sound. "Do you love me?" Her clawed hand lays against his cheek and he leans into it taking a deep breath. "Yes."
She leans up and places a sweet kiss on his lips. "Prove it. Kill her." She breathes, pointing across the room to his shivering mother who clutched on to her husband.
She glides her fingers through his hair once and steps back. Oh, how she hated his parents. They tried to keep her Louis away from her. But it didn't work, and now they'd be together, forever.
She gives a grin as he stalks across the room towards the two.
His father steps in front of his mother. "What has that thing done to you, boy?" Louis pays him little mind, smacking him out the way with a quick movement of his arm. "Buiron!" His mother screams as her husband flies across the room and crashes into the opposite wall. She can see the blood flowing out of a large gash in his head.
Louis puts his finger against her lips, quieting her. He brushes her hair over her shoulder and leans in to his mother. "My poor Louis, you've been damned." She whispers before she feels her son's fangs plunge into her neck.
She watches intently as her lover drains the life from the woman in his arms. She drops to the floor, her eyes empty and her skin pale.
She appears behind him, her arms wrapped around his torso. "You're a good boy, Louis. My favorite." She purrs. He leans back into her shorter frame for a moment before stepping out of her embrace. She makes a slight, confused noise in the back of her throat when he pulls away. He grabs her hand and leads her up to the bedroom.
"Hungry, now." He mutters, leaning down and nuzzling at her neck.
She smiles and runs a claw across her throat, slitting open the skin and sighing in bliss when he places his mouth at the side of her neck.
Lucian stared down at his beloved daughter, his only bloodchilde. He strokes her dark hair a moment before pulling his hand back and lifting it to his mouth. His mouth opens, sharp long fangs stretch from clean, white teeth and he bites into his palm, causing dark red, nearly black liquid to spill over the cut. Quickly, he places it to her mouth before he heals, using his other hand to delicately open her mouth. Blood drips in and burns on her tongue. Once he's sure he has given her enough to awaken her from her sleep, he closes the crystal top of her dark coffin and leaves the chamber.
Her eyes open quickly, visions of her father's memories of the last few centuries passing before her eyes. Her mouth dries and her eyes turn completely black as she feels the hunger wash over her that comes with the awakening. She gasps an uneeded breath and slams her clawed hands against the coffin top, knocking it open. Her irises turn back to their fervent shade of purple as she regains control of herself. Her bare feet touch the cold stone ground and she claws at her throat. "So much... change." Her voice is raspy and she gasps again, holding her head.
The visions finally stop and she sighs, her face awash with relief. "It's about time." A voice says to her. She doesn't bother to look up, she already knows what she'll see. A near mirror image of herself stands behind her, slight differences in appearance and mentality the only thing that separated the two.
"Silence yourself. I have just awoken, the first thing I hear needn't be your voice." She says in an almost whisper.
The other woman makes a face of annoyance but allows herself to go silent at the time.
"Come now, Nyxella, for we have so much to do."
Staring into his eyes, she decided she didn't truly know their color. Blue? Green? Cerulean? Sapphire? Jade? Was it possible that his eyes held all of these colors? Why not. It made sense. After all, his eyes held her entire universe. The sky, the sun, the stars and the sea. Teal. She decides finally, the beautiful color was most definitely a shade of all these mixed together, for truly, no one color could describe her lover's eyes.
"Louis." She breathes between her white fangs, her unnecessary breath softly hitting the back of his neck.
She refused to believe she couldn't bring him back. It mattered not what her father said, nor the servants, nor her childer. She swore this. She runs her hands down his face, closing his striking eyes and turns from his beautiful face.
A laugh bubbles from out her cool lips. She reaches up and grabs the sides of her head, and tugs at her long, beautiful hair, "You've finally destroyed me, my love." Her wet laughter not ceasing.
She lets go and swirls around to the other side of the casket, her dark skirt twirling as she does this. She leans down and gently touches his face, "What a mess you made of the mighty Queen."
A kiss placed on his red lips by her own almost blue ones. She strokes his hair. "I've felt it, you're ring has resurfaced. I scent my magic in the air, my dark one. I've had a vision, it is foretold that I will resurrect you, and you will be mine again." She lowers the glass top over him, closing the casket.
She walks the halls of the dark castle, her bare feet not making a sound against the cold, damp stone. "Xav'ieu." She calls softly, her raspy voice barely above a whisper. He appears within moments, kneeling in front of her. "My lady." He replies simply, his eyes not moving any higher than the ground at her feet.
"."
"Of course, my lady. Do you desire me to escort you?"
"If that is what you wish."
He disappears quickly, but within moments he returns, six skeletal horses behind him. Manes and tails of black fire trailing off their bone bodies. They pull a large carriage behind them. And within a moment, Xav'ieu is helping her into the carriage. As an after thought, she looks to him and says, "Mordrid."
"She is traveling behind us."
"And my father?" She questions, her eyes looking toward the dark sky.
"He left the day he had woken you. By my count, he should have been at his domain for at least three days."
She nods and remains silent for the rest of their journey.
The carriage stops and she waits for Xav'ieu to come to the other side and lift her out. Once he places her on the ground she walks towards the large gates of the kingdom. Standing are many guards and she pays them no mind until she is stopped. "Who are you and what is your business here?" A rough voice sneers. She pulls off the hood of the cloak she was wearing over her dress and she listens as the guard nearly chokes on his tongue.
"L-Lady Amaranthine!" He stutters out, "I had no idea you had been - Please accept my most humble apology."
She pays him no mind and walks through the now opened gates. Stepping through the large, black, steel doors of the castle, she begins to hum a song only she can hear. Her voice echoes through the empty halls, an enchanting melody playing back to her.
Once she gets to the hall of her father's throne room, she waves her hands and the door readily swings open. Without concern, she glides through the threshold and stands in between her father and her current company.
The being that he was currently conversing with, a thing with a man's body and a crow's feet and head, makes a loud squawk sound, as if offended.
"King Lucian!" It cries, "This is a private matter!"
The king, a pale brown skinned being that looks deceptively human says nothing.
"This is an outrage!" It screams. "She cannot barge in here whilst I'm discussing the future of my people!"
"Father," She drawls, "Must you keep such piteous company?"
His mouth quirks up at this.
"You little -!"
Was the last sound the crow had made. Amaranthine annoyed at its incessant whining had appeared behind it and drew her sharp claws across its neck.
Blood gurgled and bubbled from the cut and its body fell to the floor.
Amaranthine took two chalices off of one of the many tables in the room and lifts its body up by its head, watching with amusement as the dark liquid fell into the first cup.
The other crow-beings say nothing as the watch this obscene display.
"Father," she begins again, "I simply came to notify you of my leave. I am journeying to the above world."
"Hm." Is his reply.
"I wished to spend time with you before I left." She finishes, bringing both glasses up liquid with her as she sits on the smaller, throne next to his own.
Handing him his drink, she waves the rest of the occupants, save for Xav'ieu out of the room. They comply with haste.
XxX
"Do come back and visit sometime, won't you?"
"Of course." Amaranthine replies before once again stepping into the carriage with the help of Xav'ieu and her beloved cat, Mordrid in her arms.
Sunnydale was different. The beautiful California town was over taken by snow and dark skies. It was the middle of summer. The team was researching something Buffy was told by a monk on his last dying breath.
"She is coming, and she won't go back until it's back within her grasp. She will destroy this planet and everything else in her path."
Before she can ask what he was talking about, blood fills his mouth and his eyes become distant. He had died.
XxX
"It feels like we're going around in circles." Willow sighs, hand flipping through pages of an old, worn Latin book.
"Our circles are going around in circles. We got dizzy circles here, Giles."
Giles ignores his complaint in favor of checking out a customer.
"Ahh. The Weeping Buddha. Deeply mystical. And it makes an excellent paperweight."
"Maybe... She isn't in the books." Tara whispers shyly.
The others turn to look at her.
"What do you mean?" Oz says, breaking his usual, uniform silence.
"I mean, what if she's not a demon. Or sorceress or spirit or whatever these books cover... What if she's something else altogether?"
"Something new, you mean." Giles replies, concerned, handing the customer his change and watching him leave the store.
"I mean something old. So old it predates the written word." Tara finishes, looking up at the group nervously.
A spark lights up in Willow's deep green eyes as a thought strikes her. Reaching into her bag, she pulls out a small, darkly colored box. "Giles. The Pendant of The Damned." She hands him the box.
His hands shakily grasps it, gently taking off the lid. He reaches in it, lifting the pendant up to the light. It was beautiful. A dark blood red gem tainted by black flecks of light running through it. It was suspended by a short black thread.
"Buffy had taken it from the monk. You said it was made to repel-"
"That which cannot be named." He finishes her thought.
Willow nods, "I'm thinking maybe she-"
"Predates language itself," Giles finishes again.
"Hey, if it means I don't have to read any more, woo and, might I add, a big hoo." Xander says, slightly lightening the mood, but none of the seriousness of the situation.
"If Tara and Willow are right, then we're blind. There's no way for us to determine her moves, her habits. Or even when or where she'll turn up."
Pink lips wrap around the end of a freshly lit cigarette, "Can you feel that, Sinnie?" An pale arm wraps around her waist. He blows smoke through his nose and leans his head down on her shoulder.
"Yes, Blaine. I do."
"She's up now, over two centuries ahead of schedule."
"What do you think it could be?" His companion replies, confusion etched on her beautiful face.
"Well, there's only one reason."
"But it isn't possible, she said so herself."
"Yes but apparently, I was wrong, my dearest ." Her voice rings in her woman's ear. She gasp and spins around only to find no one behind her in the empty alleyway but Blaine and the people on the busy street far away from them both.
"Did you-"
"She's here."
Cold, almost mocking laughter fills the air.
"Haven't I taught you better than this? You've grown indolent while I was away." She lilts.
"Lazy and idle and lax." She hisses between her fangs.
"Why do you play these games with us, old friend? If you have awoken it is surely for a prevalent reason." Blaine says simply, seemingly unbothered by the powerful woman's presence.
"True, true, true, true." She croons out.
She appears in front of the pair, her hand reaching out to caress Sinéad's face.
"I had a vision." She begins, her voice going even lower than usual. "I know how to bring him back."