No one knew how Ethan had escaped from the Initiative and no one really cared. All they cared about was finding him and binding his powers so he could never bother them again. Giles may mourn for the man he had once loved but even he knew that Ethan had become beyond corrupted by his power. `His magic was ruling him. Giles held a small hope that without his magic, Ethan would return to him.
That hope wasn't big though and he was prepared to protect his children from his old lover and friend. He wasn't expecting what happened though. Xander was staying close to Giles as they all knew Ethan would come after Giles. He was obsessed with him to a point of idiocy. Xander was with him on the day Ethan arrived. They were having a perfectly normal conversation about the triplets. For once not about their powers or destiny, all of which were great, but of how fast they were growing. With all his powers Xander couldn't stop his precious children from getting older. Or even himself. It had been five years since Sunnydale fell and so much had changed.
Two years after the Fall, Buffy and Xander had gotten together. They had both grown and both admitted to all of their faults in the past and they had finally admitted to being in love. Buffy first as Xander wasn't willing to do it again without assurances. Everyone was happy for them, even Willow who had also grown and let Xander go. Xander and Buffy married five months later and had a child ten months later, Julian Alexander. He had gold hair and amethyst, his father's, eyes. He was perfect. Livia, Hope and Lucius loved him.
So they were all happy which made what happened so much worse. As Giles and Xander talked, the door ```exploded and Ethan floated in. Hyped up on power. Xander stood. He knew even with the power, Ethan was no match to him. He was the Charmed Knight. The most powerful human in the world. His sisters were only more powerful when they were together. He had the powers of projection, empathy, elemental, spell writing, telepathy and teleporting. He had created all the new Slayers and destroyed Glory. None could stand in his way. Xander was about to send a blast at him when Ethan turned and attacked Giles. Xander projected a shield around Giles, only to see to his horror the spell past threw it. The only thing he could do was teleport in front of it. And then nothing.
Giles stared in shock at the place his son had stood just a second ago, he simply couldn't believe it. Ethan made some noise and Giles turned to him. No. Ripper turned to him and with one wave he used the powers he hadn't touched in decades and he burned his son's murderer to ash. Then he simply collapsed.
Soon after a screaming Willow appeared and began to recite the resurrection spell. Giles knew he should stop her, he knew Xander was in Heaven. In no manner would the Charmed Knight be allowed to be anywhere else but he simply couldn't. He couldn't move from the floor, from the very spot he had last seen Xander nor could he stop his daughter from committing such a horrendous act again. He simply couldn't. He was tired. Another of his children had fallen, killed by one he had once loved greatly. He couldn't do anything, he was a failer. So he watched and actually felt disappointed when the spell failed. Willow let out another scream and just left, He should have worried but he didn't.
Shortly after, Buffy arrived and she knew. She had 'felt' Xander leave her and felt dead inside. Her love was dead. Her soul-mate was dead. She had once thought Angel was her soul-mate but when she had finally let herself feel for Xander, she had known he was. As she had never before felt anything that intense and complete before. He was hers and she was his. Now that was gone and she was alone, dead inside. So she simply walked over to Giles, sat down and stopped. Catatonic.
Dawn was the one to find them hours later, to tell them the news and to ask what had happened. Willow was dead, killed by Faith before she could end the world. Then Faith killed herself, partly because she had once again taken a life but mostly because Xander was dead. The last truly pure soul to exist. The boy who had tried so hard to save her, the only one to truly care about her and the father of her children. Dawn demanded to be told what had happened but neither of them could or would tell her.
It wasn't until Phoebe arrived, via Leo Express, that Dawn learned what had happened. A devastated Phoebe spoke of her twin's death. Having Seen it all. She had been unable to go to him, to save him thanks to being trapped in the Underworld. She had been forced to watch her twin die and know she couldn't save him. It was beyond devastating, it was inconceivable. Her other half was dead.
Three days later they lowered an empty coffin into the ground. Every Slayer in existence was in attendance, they had all felt his death, some had even Seen it. All of them mourned him. He was their Knight and not one that would or could ever be replaced. They'd kill anyone who'd try.
Phoebe was being held up by Piper and Paige, who were also having difficulties. Not even Prue's death had felt like this. Xander had been...'something' else to them. Something special. Now he was lost to them forever.
Giles had partially drunk as he had been for the last three days and could barely bring himself to look at the coffin, even knowing Xander wasn't in it. Wasn't anywhere. Not that he had or would tell anyone. The coven had searched for his soul, Giles had wanted to be sure Xander wasn't in hell. The coven hadn't found him in Heaven or Hell. He was simply gone. Ethan hadn't just killed him, he had destroyed his soul. The coven couldn't even comprehend how he had done it, souls were truly immortal. Nothing was able to kill a soul, harm it yes but not destroy. So they were looking into what new spell Ethan had created to accomplish such a thing, hoping that they could find it and destroy it before anyone else used it. Giles would never tell his remaining children that Xander was forever gone though. The knowledge was destroying him, he wouldn't allow it to destroy them. His son was gone forever. Nothing could bring him back, there was no point in telling anyone.
The children were quietly sobbing. They had felt Xander leave them, though they wouldn't say die as it hadn't felt like death. Not like when Faith had died. So they knew he wasn't truly dead but they also knew he was lost to them forever. So they cried. Julian didn't even understand what was really going on. He was to young to ever have any true memories of Xander, something that devastated the others even more.
As for Buffy, she was still catatonic, so they were forced to commit her.
Faith and Willow were buried next to Xander.
The world mourned for their Prince as well.
Time moved on but it didn't heal all wounds, it healed none. Buffy came out of her catatonia when she went into labor eight months later. A girl. Alexandria Joyce Willow Faith. She was a female looking Xander. Buffy came out for her daughter and son and stepchildren. She was never the same again but she lived for the children. For ten years she lived in retirement with her children, sister and Giles. Then one night she saw a vamp and on a whim went after it. She didn't fight with her all and so the Greatest Slayer to ever live died at the hand of a not even fifty year old vamp. Buffy went to her death with a smile as she believed she was being reunited with Xander.
At the death of his daughter, Giles had enough. He had spent the last ten years drunk, unable to cope with the death of his son and the knowledge of the destruction of his soul. Or the death of his daughter. So he drank to forget. After Buffy's death, he was found in his study. A gun in his left hand and a picture of his children: Xander, Willow, Buffy, Cordelia and Dawn, in his left. Most of his head was gone.
Dawn was able to cope after a while with the destruction of her family but her spirit was broken. She took over the running of the Council and that became her life. She had let it consume her as she had nothing left.
The children went to live with the Sisters and grew up to fulfill their great destinies. They had fulfilling lives but they never forgot what they had lost.
The Slayers mourned for Xander and some died because of that distraction, others simply quit and left. Never to be seen again. Xander's death had changed everything.
Meanwhile, fourteen hundred years early, Xander woke up.
