Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Just a little bad language.
Spoilers: Anything and everything.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.
Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.
Then I got this idea.
"Ten years?!" Faith sputtered.
Willow nodded dejectedly, "Uh huh."
"He really is blind, isn't he?" Tara frowned.
Faith chuckled and shook her head, "Hey, T, how do you feel about the X-man?"
"H-huh?" Tara squeaked. "M-me?"
Faith grinned, "Yeah. You."
"Um, well..." Tara flushed. "He's a sweetie."
Faith's grin broadened, "You've got a thing for the Xandman too, huh? So, why you blushing, T? Ain't nothing to be ashamed of. Kinda fancy him myself, actually."
"You too?" Willow asked, a mixture of horror and disbelief on her face.
"No worries, Red," Faith waved off her concern. "Things between me and X? Not going there. Yet. You two are free and clear to chase him down," she winked, "but that's a limited time offer, ladies. If he's still on the market when I get back in the game, you can bet I'll snatch him up."
"He's not a piece of meat, Faith," Willow scowled.
"Maybe not, but I'd like to try his meat," Faith leered.
Willow and Tara alternately blushed and paled, and Faith was amused by how they seemed to take turns in synch, one blushing while the other paled, as though they shared the same blood supply.
My job here is done, she decided.
The rest of the school day passed uneventfully.
"Are you sure he was telling the truth?" Angel asked doubtfully. They were at the ice rink, and his mind wasn't really on what Buffy had just told him. His thoughts were on the one-eyed brute lying dead on the ice... and the ring on his finger. Compared to the Order of Taraka coming after Buffy, anything Xander said couldn't be that important.
"Angel," Buffy shot back, "he warned me and told me to protect you. Does that sound like something he'd make up a story for?"
"Well, no," he admitted, "but then again, I don't really see him telling you to protect me, even if he was telling the truth."
She looked away. "Well, okay, maybe not so much 'protect' as 'warn,'" she conceded, "but the point stands."
Rupert Giles was clutching the latest batch of Watcher Chronicles for indexing when he was suddenly confronted by a teenager he had never seen before in his life.
"Good Lord!" he sputtered, stumbling back in surprise. "C-can I help you?"
"I'd say you can," came a familiar voice. "Wasn't sure she'd show."
The dark-skinned girl whirled toward where Xander's voice was coming from, "Who are you?"
"Name's Xander," he replied. "Giles, meet Kendra. The Vampire Slayer."
Author's Note:
Wow, this would be a really short chapter, wouldn't it? Alas, it's just totally in the wrong place for a chapter break, so I'll have to be satisfied with another of my oh-so-annoying mid-chapter notes.
"You are Alexander?" Kendra asked suspiciously. "De one who knows de future?"
Xander blinked in surprise, then scowled at Giles, "Have you been telling tales, G-man?"
"W-well," the Watcher stammered, caught off-guard, "I had to tell Mister Zabuto something, and I can only conclude he felt it important enough to mention it to her when he sent her here." Giles frowned and looked at Kendra, "If I may ask, why are you here?"
"Her Watcher blah blah signs -- that movie sucked, by the way -- blah blah dark power rising blah blah," Xander said. "She's here 'cause of Drusilla and that ritual that they grabbed the Du Lac Cross to translate. Hopefully, with the warning -- and without little Miss Slays-a-Lot here tying him up for them like a Christmas present -- they won't be able to nab Deadboy to do the ritual."
"Who is 'Deadboy'?" Kendra queried.
"Angel," Xander said. "Formerly known as Angelus, Scourge of Europe, possibly a future Champion for the Pricks That Be. He's currently in possession of his soul and an ally."
"You work wid a vampire?" Kendra blinked incredulously. Her discipline kept all but the barest hints of shock, disbelief, and a query of their sanity out of her voice.
"Yeah," Xander nodded. "We do."
"But de Slayer fights alone."
"Not anymore," Xander's expression hardened. "Tell me, Kendra, how long does a Slayer usually last after being Called? Do you know?"
She shook her head.
"A year." They turned. It was Giles who had answered, his voice quiet. "Most Slayers die within a year of being Called."
"Exactly," Xander nodded. "In the future I saw, Kendra, Buffy was still alive nearly twelve years after she was Called. I knew another Slayer, still alive, eight or nine years after being Called. It wasn't because she was the Slayer -- obviously -- and it wasn't because she was somehow a better Slayer than others. It's because she had us. Friends, allies, a support network that was willing to do whatever it took to help."
Kendra frowned as she did the subtraction in her head, and she asked quietly, afraid to confirm what the math had told her, "And me?"
Xander's face grew somber. "One year. May nineteenth, next year, in this very library." He pointed, "Right over there, in fact. Your throat was slit by Drusilla, also of the Scourge of Europe and also the dark power your Watcher is expecting to rise here. She's weak right now, but if they pull this ritual off..." he trailed off meaningfully and shrugged.
Kendra paled, a considerable feat, given her complexion. It wasn't very often that you were told exactly when, where, and how you going to die.
"And where were you?" she asked, the edges of anger and fear creeping into her voice. "Where was this 'support network' you were talking about?"
"Over there," Xander pointed again, his voice wooden. "I was in the stacks, knocked out and with a broken arm." He pointed again, "Willow was under that bookshelf. Giles was the real target. They needed information. Buffy was lured away earlier, and they attacked in force."
"Did you try and stop her?"
He closed his eyes, remembering, then shook his head and sighed, "No, not really, Giles. We all figured it was a trap. We just thought it was a trap for her." He opened his eyes and quirked his lips into something approaching a smile, "Again. I guess we should've thought of it, what with that 'raise the Master' thing a few months ago, but we dropped the ball."
Xander shook his head emphatically, "But enough dithering about what might happen in six months, we've got enough to do right now." He paused and blinked, "'Dithering'? Did I just say 'dithering'? He shot Giles a friendly glare, "Giles, I hate you sometimes."
"Giles!"
The three turned as Buffy barged in, and she stopped in surprise as she caught sight of Kendra.
Xander gestured, "Buffy, Kendra. Kendra, Buffy. The Vampire Slayers." He looked over at the senior Slayer, "So, Buff, what brings you here?"
"This," Buffy said, holding up a ring.
"Shit," Xander said succinctly upon recognizing the ring. "The Order of Taraka."
"What?" chorused two voices.
"Huh?" went Buffy.
Kendra entered the room she was staying in while she was in Sunnydale. Even Slayers had to sleep some time, and that required a secure location.
"You seem troubled, Kendra."
Her head snapped up. "I spoke with him," she said, losing the false accent she had affected.
"'Him'?" the gentle voice repeated. "I assume you don't mean Rupert, since that's where you were headed. So you must be referring to Alexander. What do you make of him?"
"He is..." she hesitated, trying to come up with the right words. "He acts like a clown, but I think it is a disguise. Whatever he says, don't take it at face value. He knew exactly why I was here."
"What did he say?"
"He said it is a vampire named Drusilla," she said. "She is weakened, but there is a ritual by Du Lac that will restore her, and someone seeks to perform the ritual."
"Hmm," he nodded. "That's quite concise. Anything else?"
"He told me..." she paused, unable to continue for a moment. "He told me how I... how I would die. May nineteenth, next year. Here, in Sunnydale. My throat slit by Drusilla."
"I see," he frowned. "Well, then, we'll just have to deal with Drusilla first, won't we, Kendra?"
"Yes, sir."
He nodded and turned it over in his head for a moment, "I think I'd like to meet him. Get a measure of this young man for myself."
Author's Postscript:
Okay, a little bit of explanation here. Kendra was clearly raised in isolation by her Watcher. It strikes me that the Council is highly unlikely to entrust a likely potential Slayer to a local. Therefore, if she has any accent at all, it should be a slight British accent... certainly not a heavy Caribbean accent. Raised in isolation by a Watcher, she wouldn't have had enough exposure to a Caribbean accent to develop it herself.
So, I'm going with the theory that her accent is faked, intended to make people around her (i.e.: the vampires and demons she fights) underestimate the "simple island girl," and that in the original timeline, she never had the opportunity to open up to the Scoobs enough to let them know.