Chapter 5

Alley near the High School, morning after Halloween

Xander came awake with a raging migraine and a parched throat. The feel of sunlight on his skin woke him up. It was both a common everyday sensation that he no longer thought about and one that he hadn't felt since before humans learned to wear animal furs for warmth. Startled by the awe he felt within himself to be feeling sunlight without pain, it took the dark haired teen several minutes to work out why he felt the way he did.

One moment he'd been returning with his troop to the school so he could head to the Bronze and meet up with the girls, and the next he found himself laying on the ground in a filth strewn alley trying not gag from the stench. It seemed to take him a year, but was probably no more than a minute or two before the young man gathered enough strength and gumption to stagger to his feet.

Suddenly the night before came back to him in a rush, causing him to stagger into a nearby wall as in a matter of minutes that felt like a literal eternity the Californian teenager got to relive the lives of the 4,000 year old Immortal who'd possessed him last night and Kapaneus the vampire that'd tried to Embrace him. Kapaneus, a Greek name he'd taken to using in 16th century. He had many names that were older, the first of which was Cain, eldest son of his father Adam and his mother Eve. Cain; also known as the first murderer, Caine, and the Dark Father. The man who sacrificed his brother Abel on the altar to God in the hope of receiving the Creator's blessing. The one cursed by the Creator with the Mark of Damnation and 200,000 year old progenitor of the vampire race known as the Kindred. The sheer weight of memory threatened to swamp the young man as he worked to process and store the vast quantity of knowledge that was now a part of his psyche.

'God, my head! Who am I? I somehow turned into my costume last night. I remember that. Thanks to some rank bastard's spell I'm now a 17 year old with the memories and experiences of a 4,000 year old Immortal warrior. Then a vampire decides to turn me. And not just any vampire but the FIRST vampire! And thanks to my Immortal Quickening resurrecting me at the same time that the 'Embrace' revived me as a Kindred we have some weird metaphysical crap happen that links me to the bastard and now I have HIS memories in my head too!' He ranted to himself as he staggered towards the mouth of the alley. He never even noticed that his mental rant was in ancient Greek. 'At least it didn't take. The spell must have ended and now I'm back to good ole Xander. At least the Embrace didn't take and I'm still human.'

"Or am I still Xander? Or am I Alaksandu now? I'm nowhere near jaded or apathetic enough to be Caine I don't think... All of the above?" He asked himself aloud, "Sometimes being the butt-monkey of Sunnydale really sucks!"

Feeling better after his verbal melt down, Alex as he'd decided to think of himself picked up the fallen sword he'd 'borrowed' from Giles' weapons cage and after sheathing it began to make plans as he started walking back to his parent's house. Of course even before Halloween's little hiccup to his psyche he'd never considered that place his home. 'Let's see…first things first, I need money. With money I can get out of there. Once I've got my own place I can start figuring out what to do in the future.' He never even noticed that he was covered in blood, grime, and filth as he began the long walk back to his neighborhood.

Minutes after he'd begun walking Alex had already come to the conclusion that while the memories of Alaksandu were great for a lot of things, including combat training and academic knowledge, it was Caine's memories that were the more interesting. Alex now had all of the memories of a major mythical figure in the secret history of the world, the truth of which not even the Watchers knew. They informed Alex as to the reality of the world and the Hellmouths…all seven of them that still exist. He'd also gained a lot of knowledge about magic, the demonic, and many other supernatural subjects that Alaksandu just hadn't been aware of. Apparently the Quickening of the Gladiators, as the Kindred called the mysterious warriors, influenced them to avoid the supernatural. Between that and the Delirium, the effect supernaturals had on humans that caused them to disbelieve, ignore or misremember supernatural events without hard evidence, the Immortal warriors never knew or realized that they weren't the only ones that walked the world and weren't human.

Which had truly shocked the teenager was that not only were the Highlander movie and television series accurate in terms of the basics of an Immortal's life, but the role-playing game he, Jesse, and Willow used to play was actually created by the Kindred to do two things. Help protect the Masquerade and help prepare humanity for the inevitable revelation that they weren't alone on the planet. The Council of Justicars…the leadership of the clans of the Kindred, knew that it was only a matter of time until human technology acquired enough proof to break through the Delirium and out them, so they were taking a proactive role and laying the ground work for an enormous ad campaign to make the Kindred sympathetic and likeable to humanity. For more than a decade they'd been using their vast resources to help fund advances in medical technology, hospitals, orphanages and all kinds of other philanthropies to help the downtrodden and disenfranchised.

While the mage and fae games were almost complete fiction the werewolf, wraith, and vampire games in the so-called 'World of Darkness' were also rather historically accurate in terms of background information. Vampire the Masquerade even revealed the weaker Kindred capabilities and society…well other than the fact that the Sabbat didn't exist. That faction of Kindred society was created to explain away the behavior of the Tso, a Hebrew word meaning filth that Kindred society had been using to refer to Deadboy's kind since Roman times because they felt it perfectly described the demonic bloodsuckers that were created as an unholy reflection of the Kindred nature. And the Tzimisce Clan and Baali bloodline were created to explain away the presence of demons and other inhuman looking monsters.

Alex found it quite funny that the full blooded demon that had decided to make a mockery of Caine's descendants and create the first Tso had deeply regretted it before Caine had allowed it to die. Unfortunately the damage had been done by that point and they were spread too far to make hunting them down practical. 'Which doesn't stop the Kindred from hunting the Tso and any other demons whenever and wherever the little cockroaches are found.' He thought to himself with a laugh as he crossed a deserted street before entering his neighborhood's subdivision. To the Kindred, humanity was their food, and like any good manager of livestock, they wanted their herd fat, healthy, and happy. They had learned all too well what happened when a pissed off segment of humanity found out about the supernatural. And no one wanted the return of the Inquisition on a planetary scale.

Another little tid-bit of information that COMPLETELY blew Alex's mind was that the Kindred existed in every profession and occupation all over the world. They were senators, doctors, and janitors along with being priests and cops and all most everything else except for firefighters. And the only reason that occupation was exempt was because of the absolute and overwhelming fear of fire that all Kindred suffered from, which made it too likely that someone would frenzy and break the Masquerade. But since with sufficient age and power Kindred could walk in daylight, pass a medical screen, and even eat food if they've fed recently enough meant that they could mimic human enough to work anywhere. The only Kindred denied the sun permanently like a Tso was Caine himself as part of his curse.

Having finally arrived back at his parents' house after more than an hour of walking the streets, as he went to enter through the front door, Alex staggered back, gagging from the miasma of cigarettes, alcohol, and rancid body odor that rolled forth into the morning air. After taking a moment to suppress his gag reflex, Alex made a point of entering silently as the last thing he needed was a confrontation with the abusive drunks he 'loving' called mother and father. Luckily it was still early enough for both of them to be passed out in the pig sty that in another home would be the living room. Before making his way to his room to get cleaned up the dark haired teen took a moment to look around the house with new eyes.

Alex was absolutely disgusted by what he saw. Dirty plates and dishes were everywhere along with overflowing ashtrays and enough empty alcohol bottles that if they'd been full could have stocked a nightclub bar. As Xander he'd always been ashamed of his parents and their home but he'd also thanks to the way he'd been raised, believed that a 'goofy, good for nothing waste of food and money', as his father usually put it didn't deserve any better. As Alex, he knew that if he'd lived in any other town in America, where the civil servants were actually competent to do their jobs, Child Protective Services would have had him outta the house and living somewhere else before elementary school was over.

He decided then and there that he'd be out of the house and with his own place within a week. After making his way to his room and stripping down to his boxers, Alex made his way towards his shower, ready to let the hot water cleanse him from the events of the night before. Alex hopped into the stall and took his shower without really paying attention to his surroundings, anxious to allow the hot water to wash away all of the blood and grime that had accumulated the night before. After finishing he got out of the shower and began to dry off when he got look at himself in the mirror and staggered back in shock.

"I look like that dude from 'Fist of the North Star'…what was his name Gary Daniels?" He wondered aloud as he struck different poses and flexed in front of the mirror and admired his new body.

The shape of his face had changed slightly as he no longer had any baby fat anywhere on his body. His cheekbones stood out more and the line of his jaw was more defined. After taking several minutes to think about it, Alex decided that the changes made him look both older and more handsome.

'I really should stop being surprised whenever weird crap happens.' He thought to himself as he moved closer to the mirror to get a better look at his transformed body. 'Finally the Xan-man gets a benny!'

He'd always been in decent shape for a non-jock teenage male, and his body had been improved thanks to over a year of running in terror and trying not to die while dealing with Sunnydale's nightlife, but it had never looked like this before Halloween. Sharply defined muscles lined his arms, shoulders, and chest and an eight pack of abs were shown in his reflection without an ounce of fat left on his frame. Where before he'd had the build of an active teenager, he now had a build that wouldn't look out of place on a gymnast or a professional dancer. All of his muscles were rock hard and stood out in stark definition without even trying to flex. That was when the teen got a good look at the inside of his left forearm and received the shock of his life. A rune in a language not spoken on the planet since before the rise of the pyramids was emblazoned in a virulent crimson shown vividly against his tanned skin. Feeling incredibly sick, Alex stared at the Mark of Caine and wondered what he'd done to make the universe hated him so much.

"She doesn't you know." An English accented baritone said from behind him.