Title: And the Saints Boweth Before the King
Author: DOKChairman
Time/Spoilers: Takes place after the events in 'Grave'.
Summary: I could write a summary, but then it would give away everything. So no summary, but I'll give you a hint. The opening I put down for the story is indicative of some of what the story might be about. Not much of a hint, I know, but it's all you're getting.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all of its characters. I own nothing except the story, and the Anna Kournikova poster on my bedroom wall. I just got the new Coldplay cd so now I guess I own three things.
Author's Note: What I am about to say, I don't want taken out of context. I love you guys. All you loyal readers know who I'm talking about. I have the same four or five people who review my new stuff, and while I appreciate your input immensely, I'm kind of disappointed that I don't have a broader audience. Can someone tell me why that is? I honestly want to know. Is it the B/X? I know I've already had one person stop reading because of it, and I wonder if he is representative of everyone else. I want more people to read my stuff, and I'm kind of disappointed that more people don't seem interested. Or maybe I'm just imagining everything. Whatever the reason, I'm stumped.
Author's Note #2: I'm not condoning what Buffy did to Xander guys, and I will address the issue in later chapters. This is not a dead issue. However, physical pain doesn't mean very much to him. Emotional pain yes, but physical pain doesn't seem to affect the guy. Besides, Buffy has always been the kryptonite to his superman. As for the age question, it will be answered eventually. How I'm not quite sure yet, but I can tell you this much. They're not vampires and they're not highlanders. Use your imagination for now as to why they're still alive. Oh, and a little spoiler for you all, they're not the only ones.
Author's Note #3: While I respect your opinion, Chorlton, I totally disagree with you about Xander not being the best choice for having a normal life. In my mind, the very fact that he is the only "normal" human on the show means that he has the best chance for normalcy. Willow is a magic addicted, people skinning, former psycho, and Cordelia is a half demon in love with a souled vampire and who has been called to a higher plane. What about those two makes them more normal than Xander? At least Xander has a normal job with normal everyday activities.
Author's Note #4: Did anyone else like Beneath Me because I know I didn't. The writers somehow managed to once again turn a promising Buffy episode into the We Love Spike Hour. There were so many things I had a problem with in this episode that it would take me this whole post to write down, but I won't do that to you guys. I just want to say this, what the Hell was wrong with Xander? I mean this is a guy who has a white knight complex a mile wide, and yet he just stood by while the woman he still has feelings for, even though she might be partially bad, got the crap kicked out of her by Spike of all people, someone he hates with a passion. The only reason why I could think he would do this was bad writing by the writers. They only wanted to focus on Spike and forgot that there were other characters there as well. Even Buffy seemed to take too long to get involved, in my opinion. Oh well, that ends my rant. Thanks for listening, even though you really didn't have a choice. This is the Chairman signing off. Goodnight!
Chapter 11: Not once, not twice, but thrice!
When Xander awoke on the dirty and sticky floor of O'malley's he was suffering from a massive headache. If Xander hadn't known better he would have thought he had a really bad hangover.
Gingerly getting first to his knees, and after waiting for the feeling of vertigo to pass, climbing to his feet, he stumbled over to sit in a nearby chair. With bleary, bloodshot eyes, he shifted his gaze to settle on the semi-amused face of the oddly dressed man sitting across from him.
Smiling slightly the man said, "I told you that the process would be unpleasant."
Xander groaned loudly and rubbed his hands across his face. "Unpleasant I can handle. Feeling like my head is slowly being squeezed in a vise is a totally different dimension of pain."
The man laughed and said, "Aren't you the guy that said and I quote, 'No pain, no gain'?"
Xander just groaned and lowered his head to the table. Still with his head lying down he said, "I say a lot of things. That doesn't mean that I know what I'm talking about."
The man placed a gentle hand on Xander's shoulder. "Don't worry kid, the pain should wear off soon. In the meantime, we really need to talk."
Xander grudgingly lifted his head off the table to look Dick in the eyes. "Yeah, about that, why the hell didn't you tell me all this stuff beforehand."
The man shrugged his shoulders, "It's like I said kid, I thought you knew. The transition between realms usually doesn't result in memory loss. It probably happened because the Powers jumped the gun so to speak."
"Yeah, Thomas told me that I had to go to Frankfurt to take the test, and that I had to be dead to do it. What the hell happened?"
The man placed both of his hands on the table as he leaned forward slightly, "When your slayer friend pushed you and you fell, you knocked yourself unconscious. Now normally being unconscious isn't enough to move between realms, but the Powers That Be got impatient. They didn't want to wait any longer to bring you here so that you could take your test. They said that forces were conspiring against you and your mission and that they needed to take some precautions. Bringing you here earlier than planned is one of those precautions."
Xander said with frustration, "That's another thing. What is up with the story you gave me about the Powers watching me. If everything that Thomas and Peter told me was the truth, then the Powers should have known about me long before I ever saved Buffy."
"Technically Xander, they did know about you."
"What do you mean 'technically'?" Xander asked.
Dick looked embarrassed when he answered, "Uhh…you see Xander, the Powers That Be aren't exactly known for their organizational skills."
Xander's mouth dropped open in shock, "You mean they lost me?"
The man cocked his head to the side, "Lost is such a harsh word. More like misplaced. They've always known about you, but in all the hoopla surrounding the slayers, the Hellmouth, and all the other multitude of problems that the world suffers from, they kind of put you along the wayside."
Xander shook his head in disgust, "That's great, you know. It's so freakin typical of my life. Here I am, some supposed prince from almost 700 years ago living in the future and the Powers That Be forgot that I fucking existed! Why does this crap always happen to me?"
The man looked sympathetic, "Hey, kid, I'm sorry. Shit happens, and when it does you have to put it behind you."
Xander shook his head before a small smile formed on his lips. "You know, you're not really inspiring me to want to help you guys. I would think that you could do a little better than saying shit happens."
"Damnit Xander, I'm a Guide, not a motivational speaker." The man barked out.
Xander just looked at him strangely. Dick looked sheepish. "Heh, sorry about that. A little Star Trek humor for you their. It was bad I know, but I'm not even human so what do you expect?"
Xander cracked a smile, "It wasn't bad, well it was, but I was just so surprised that you actually knew what Star Trek was. You really do watch too much TV."
Dick grinned back, "Humanity has come along way kid, inventing many great things, but nothing beats the TV. I think that us other worlders would go bored out of our skulls if we didn't have your television."
Xander laughed for a few seconds but he soon grew serious again, "So what's the what? I want to know everything, and I mean everything. I want to know why I was brought into the future, I want to know why I was chosen to be a hero, and I want to know why I have to keep taking this damn test."
The man matched Xander's serious tone with one of his own. "Those are all good questions kid, but unfortunately, they don't have easy answers."
Dick then took one of his arms and swiped it across the top of the table. Empty peanut shells, and other substances that Xander thought were better off left unidentified, fell to the ground. Now that the tabletop was cleared, Dick leaned forward and placed his right index finger on the table.
Dick then started moving his finger along the tabletop, a white light magically appearing in its wake. Soon, the man had traced a stick figure on the tabletop. Dick began speaking, "This is you now."
Xander snickered, "I can see somebody never made it past first grade art."
The man just snapped, "Bite me!"
Dick then began moving his finger again, drawing a smaller stick figure to the left of the first figure. "This is you before." Again, the man began moving his finger, this time drawing a stick figure the same size as the first one, but this one was placed to the right of the first one. "This is you soon."
The man then drew a straight line, connecting all three figures together. "You see kid, everything is connected. When you were born, you were born into a time of extreme chaos. I'm sure Thomas has told you all about Jonas and his attempts to open the Hellmouth. Everything he told you is the truth. Your parents were killed, and you would have died as well, but your future self saved your life."
Xander interrupted, "But that's what I don't understand. Why was I even there in the first place?"
"This is where it gets complicated kid. As I told you earlier, the Powers wanted you to be their champion for a special quest. In order to complete this quest, a person would need to use the Sword of Life. And as I'm sure Thomas has told you, only a member of the royal family of Loria could use that sword."
The man paused before continuing, "What Thomas didn't tell you, was that the sorcerer who made the sword for your family was no ordinary man. He was a champion, or I should say, a former champion of the Powers That Be. He was human, and as such, he was easily corruptible. Because of his corruption, the Powers banished him to your time.
"Banished to a time that he knew nothing about, the man wandered the country side for days, until he came upon a large field called Moridun, only a few miles outside of your family's castle. While there, the man starving, sick, and desperate for shelter, had a vision. In this vision, a being of light confronted the man with all the evil deeds that he had committed in his life. He showed him all the people that he had killed and all the people he had let die through his own indifference. By the end of the vision, the man was begging for the being to stop. His guilt overwhelmed the man and he begged for a chance to make up for everything. The being of light offered the man a chance at redemption, a chance at making up for all the sins that he had committed as a champion. The man accepted; he was willing to do anything. So the being imbued the man with great powers, and then asked him to create a sword.
"Of course as with all things of this nature, there was a catch. The sword must only be made for one family, the protectors of the Hellmouth. That was your family kid. Because the sword was going to be such a powerful weapon, the sorcerer wanted to make sure that only someone who was good could use it, and he knew that your family was as good as they came. So he created the sword and gave it to your father, and now you are in possession of the sword.
"Now what all this means is that in order for the sword to defeat Jonas and stop him from opening the Hellmouth, you have to go back in time to fight him. Your parents are dead and we are unable to stop that from happening, but you are another matter. We can send you back in time to stop Jonas from killing you as a baby, and then you can defeat Jonas with the sword."
Xander shrunk back into his chair and he dropped his head. He had thought that maybe there might have been a way to get out of this, but he realized now that it looked like he was going to have to be in for the long haul. If he was the only one who could stop Jonas, then he was going to do what he had to do.
Lifting his head up, he asked Dick a question. "So what happened to the sorcerer, the former champion I mean?"
The man was quiet, as he seemed to be contemplating something internally. After a few minutes, he answered Xander's question. "You know how the sword that the man made for your family is called the Sword of Life, right?" At Xander's confirming nod, he continued, "Well there's a good reason for that. While the sword is a weapon of good, it is also a weapon of death."
Dick saw a look of confusion cross Xander's face, and he sighed. "What I mean is that in order for the sword to work, for it to have its powers and preserve life, it also had to take a life. The sword needed the life force, the blood of its creator, a man, who despite his leaving the path of the righteous was still a good man deep down in his heart. The sacrifice the man made in order to give the sword its power would ensure that hundreds of thousands of people lived. It was the man's final act of redemption and he made it happily."
A sad look crossed Xander's face as he realized what Dick was saying. But there was something that he was curious about. There was something in the mysterious man's tone that made him wonder. "How do you know so much about this guy?"
The man sighed as he leaned back into his chair. When he responded, his eyes were distant and clouded. He spoke softly, so softly that Xander had to strain to hear him. "Because, kid, that man was me."
To be continued………………….
P.S. I know that I said that this was going to be an extremely important chapter, but it just didn't turn out that way. I have very bad writer's block, and it took me forever just to come up with this part. I am still trying to figure out how I want to write the next chapter, so I am posting this part as a sort of set up piece.