Hello… is there anyone out there?

I used to frequent and write for this archive. I've since graduated with my master's and taken a full-time job in a completely different area of the country. I recently re-watched the series on Netflix on a whim and was once again aggravated by the unsatisfying ending. Thus, this passion project was born. I have no idea how long it'll be or if anyone will care, so I make no promises.

But, if you're out there and enjoy, let me know, and come along with me and we'll see how far I get. I'm trying to fulfill various head cannons, so character conversation will be as in cannon *as possible. There are hints of ideas I've picked up from other post-series fics out there (e.g., Stretch Snodgrass and the lucifractor = humanity). It's fun to see how much my writing has improved over the last ten years, since middle school – to now, a struggling, young adult who is just beginning to understand friendship and the way of the world we live in.

With love and nostalgia,

noellestarr

I don't own the series, characters, or themes I've picked up from other fics, and I am not in any way affiliated with their networks.

Chapter One – The End of the World as We Know it

The world ended.

Not with a bang, but with an overwhelming scourge of transmutation.

A high-pitched yelp escaped our vampire heroine, Sarah Fox's mouth as she ran, pushing animatedly through the double doors of vampire HQ.

"Faster, faster go, go… what on earth are you waiting for?!"

Her eyes met Jesse Black's, her vampire ex-boyfriend, and she exhaled exasperatedly. "I don't…I don't- "

"We lost Ethan!" Benny Weir cried, her dear spellmaster friend, running a hand through his hair in revulsion.

"He's not a vamp… he'll be fine. Let's go." Jesse was firmer this time. He grabbed ahold of Sarah's wrist, which would have enraged her greatly if she hadn't been so distracted by the absence of his arch nemesis (are they still that? arch nemeses?)

"He's got to be back by Stern!" She jerked her wrist away from his, "I'll go- "

"No way, Sarah. Not without me." Benny stated, stepping solicitously in between Jesse and Sarah.

Jesse rolled his eyes as the three supernatural beings continued to attempt the standoff in place, narrowly dodging old books as they flew off the archival shelves.

"This is senseless, and ridiculously foolish. Even for you, dweebs." Jesse scoffed, and in a flash, he was gone. Sarah couldn't even muster enough gall to retort back at the fact that Jesse had begun to include her as a permanent member of the nerds on demand. Instead, Benny and Sarah quickly exchanged a look and in their momentary stupor, began to run, in the direction they had all but abandoned seconds before… towards the danger. Senseless, as Reverend Horace Black would say.

"Ethan!" Cried the young vampire, sprinting head first, salty tears clouding her vision. Her mindscape was barren, except for one fleeting thought (he's in danger).

Benny flung an arm in front of Sarah and doubled over, coughing as more than a handful of brimstone and grime clouded his pipes. She threw his arm to the side and heaved the double doors open with all her remaining strength, and there he was.

The young vampire stopped dead in her tracks, shaking like a leaf. She began to choke helplessly on her tears, she couldn't speak a word of fear if she tried. The similarly distressed spellmaster caught up to and tossed a protective arm around her. Benny understood exactly what Sarah was feeling. He never thought he'd meet someone who'd appreciate seer, Ethan Morgan as much as he did. He'd be insanely jealous, if it wasn't for the fact that he was "mature" enough to acknowledge Sarah's positive influence on his lifelong friend's confidence and self-esteem. His best friend, Benny thought grimly (he's in danger).

The object of their alarm was floating about ten feet off the ground, directly across from their criminal vice principal. The lucifractor hovered equidistant between them, retracting off an offensive amount of light. Ethan and Stern were orbiting the supernatural object like desperate planets around a vile sun. An aggressive aura of violet lightning continued to assault Stern's forebrain; however, contrary to before, he was no longer preaching his supposed victory, but rather appeared benumbed and lifeless to the two dumbstruck teenagers. Their dear friend; on the other hand, was an entirely different story.

Ethan was brilliant – literally – and enveloped in a supremacy of bright, silvery light from an unknown source. His eyes shone violently white as if he were receiving a vision – but he wasn't – and his friends knew this because the young man was grinding his teeth rather than existing in the present, frozen in time. From his hands, two iridescent orbs formed, shedding and pitching bolts on bolts of insane power. Benny and Sarah didn't need to be any closer to the confrontation to know that the room they were in was coated in some serious free energy.

"What the hell…" Benny managed, while Sarah simply, couldn't.

The lucifractor, once encapsulated in Stern's mighty grasp, then equidistant between the energic tug of war between the elder wizard and the young seer (but can seers do what Ethan's doing?) – now within a millisecond of Ethan's extraordinary hold. Benny and Sarah stood in horror, watching.

"This ends. Now." The vehement grinding of teeth became stagnant as Ethan allowed those three words to leave his mouth (he felt next to nothing. only purpose.)

Sarah couldn't believe this was the same kid she began to "babysit" approximately a year and a half ago. This was a man. A really, insanely powerful man.

An explosion of violent white light detonated from the lucifractor as it reached Ethan's (no doubt) sweaty palms, while Benny and Sarah were forcefully thrown against the back walls of the room. The young spellmaster's noggin hit the metal rail of a ladder and he immediately lost consciousness.

In her vampire métier, Sarah was able to retain the intense lob, but not without a copious amount of trepidation. She was momentarily reminded of a television show she used to watch as a child, Kim Conceivable. Sarah absolutely adored "KC" as a young preteen, and wanted to be just like the crime-fighting cheerleader in high school. Sarah had managed to make the squad before three cheers for evil, and found herself two, amiable butt-kicking sidekicks for the price of one. Sarah reminisced the final episode of the series, where Ron Preventable's unforeseen and unmatched power inevitably defeated the young pair's worst enemy yet.

That's exactly how Sarah felt as she placed a shaking hand upon her knee, staggering her battered and bruised form upright as her Ron and their enemy orbited towards the ground. There remained a quiet source of energy surrounding her friend; hence her unease. Sarah swiftly noted the lucifractor in his firm grip, no longer radiating power, but in its place, a black and lifeless sphere, robbed of its dark magic. She couldn't help but wonder where exactly all that power went. She then managed to grab her chest as it heaved up and down – wait – heaved?

The young woman scrambled to find a member of shattered glass from a nearby window and soundlessly admired her reflection.

Sarah Fox, former fledgling, prior vampire, was unmistakably and unimaginably human. She now understood why the lucifractor's existence was so dire and threatening to the council. It didn't just harm vamps, it robbed them penniless of their ultimate flagship – immortality. Sarah also understood why Jesse wanted to get her away from the powerful object so badly. It rendered his revenge irrecoverable. Her ex-boyfriend had lied and withheld information from them once again. Sarah let out a disbelieving laugh, a choked one at that – but still a precious, lighthearted moment in time, nonetheless (she was cured).

"S-Sarah?" A quiet ask interrupted her brief moment of unbridled joy. It was weak, and it was utterly drained. But triumphant, nonetheless (painstakingly, Ethan Morgan).

Sarah snapped her head upright, towards the voice. She had been curiously kneeling to inspect her reflection but there was no arising from her vantage point. There was only a mystified quiet and apprehension, as a boy about a foot her height (had he always been that tall?) grabbed her hand and gently, dare she say tenderly, helped her upright.

The look Ethan gave her was a concoction of some of the deepest, purest emotions Sarah had ever seen in her life (had his eyes always been that color?) And for the first time since she met him, he took her breath away. The unwavering bravery he had possessed that night shattered her ability to function and she was left in a vulnerable position, letting him help her up, doe-eyed and slack-jacked with nothing to say. And that scared– no, it terrified her. "Ethan…I-I what- "

"Where's Benny." Ethan commanded gently. Evidently, there was no time to share pleasantries or revelations. Sarah managed a small whimper and gestured towards the young spellmaster, who was out like a light at the other end of the room.

His warm hands – irrevocably Ethan, yet continuing to radiate that odd, white light – slid from her shoulders, soothingly down her goosebump-ridden arms. And with his hand tightly wound in hers, he pretty much dragged her – ready or not (definitely not) – toward their severely concussed and peacefully (?) slumbering friend.

"Benny, wake up. Wake up. Come on man, you have to wake up." Ethan's voice became hoarser, if at all possible after the surge of power he had spent that evening.

"Grandma? Is it the banana pudding bake-off again?" Benny murmured sleepily.

Ethan grumbled in annoyance and heaved Benny upright, and Sarah helped to throw an arm of Benny's over each of their shoulders. She could see the gears turning in his head, "We've got to get out of here before the WCPD arrive. Can you fly us home?"

"E-Ethan, I- "Sarah stammered, uncharacteristically. If looks could kill. "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" He sighed, adjusting the weight of Benny's arm over his shoulder. Sarah had never seen his eyes so tired. They were confused and missing their usual I've-got-a-plan spark.

"I'm… human." She said with more than a hint of unease.

Ethan snapped his head towards her weary, but ultimately contented gaze. The expression on his face was one of pure shock and…relief?

"The lucifractor." Sarah stated more confidently, using her free hand to wipe some of the remaining rubble-filled tears off her cheeks. "It really hates vampires. So much so that it- "

"Cured you." Ethan finished in unadulterated amazement. Now, he was the one who was wide-eyed and slack-jacked with nothing to say. "That's… impossible. Benny's grandma said there was no cure."

"Well, whatever happened between you and Stern must have… I don't know… amassed something that's never really happened before."

Ethan's contemplative gaze slowly returned to his feet, in a miasma of unconcealed awe.

"But," Sarah hummed sarcastically, in attempt to break Ethan out of whatever (dare she say, creepy) trance he was in, "it won't happen again if we just stand around like jail bait! Let's get out of here, and let the proper authorities deal with Stern." She stated with a decisive finality following the night's chilling events, and started in the direction of the fire escape in the corner of the grand room. Sarah was more than a bit peeved that she had only just now noticed the convenient exit during her friend's moment of inertness (would have been nice to know about beforehand!)

Ethan joined her (along with a limp, unintelligible Benny) in unspoken agreement and the two teens somewhat hurriedly trudged towards the exit, leaving a pile of absolute destruction in their wake, much, much worse than the Brunner racer incident a couple of months back.

The WCPD soon rushed in, guns-a-blazing, just moments after the young trio's anticlimactic exodus. They rushed inside to find the miserable remnants of a historic building, raising a massive amount of concern, even for Whitechapel. A buddy cop duo made their way over to the lifeless body of the once Vice Principal Stern and the first of the two offered, "I just knew that guy was trouble. I told ya. Didn't I tell ya, Todd?"

His partner grunted in agreement, "He was a transfer from the states. Of course, he was trouble."