Fray Episode 22: Faded
I didn't know what to expect when I went to sleep that night over two hundred years ago. I held onto the shaft of the scythe, the cold metal against my skin, and I slept. When I awoke it was 2230 and I was in the medical ward of the New York Scientific Hospital in New York City. Hunter was by my side, my hand in his. The first thing I did when I woke was kissed him. We must have stayed connected for an hour, hands clutching him and never wanting to let go. The scythe was propped in one corner.
I was debriefed by my Watcher and three other members of the Fader Council. I told them my story, leaving out almost everything. I would never let them share the others with me. I was then released, ordered to report back on one week for an assignment. Hunter was detained. They wanted to run more tests on him but still, three months later, they haven't found out anything. He is stronger, faster, better, than any of the Shielders they have. Only I know the truth though. He is no longer a Shielder, he hadn't been since the Timer claimed his life in the Hellmouth. In that single moment, he became a warrior, he became Sevan.
As soon as I left the hospital I went to the library. I spent hours buried in books and files and newspaper clippings from two hundred and twenty- seven years ago. Buffy lived until she was ninety-five, the record for a slayer. She formed the New Watchers Coven, still in existence today. Her great-grandson is my Watcher and William the Third is better than all.
Faith died with Robin Wood in 2019 during an anti-slayer protest. At the time, people hated what they didn't understand. They had a little boy named Bradley and a girl named Nicole. I never thought I looked like a Nicole, but this girl did, and I retract my previous statement, she was beautiful.
Dawn and Andrew were married and brought two children into the world. One of them became a Slayer, Joyce was her name. I don't know where that comes from but I know it has meaning. Dawn started a shelter for Slayers during the protests that lasted from 2018-2022. She was killed three months before the end of the sentiment, an amulet clutched in her hands. I recognized Spike's amulet from the Hellmouth the moment I saw it. It was recovered in the back room of the Bronze. It was recovered in my time, pried from the hands of a Timer one year ago. I sent it back with another Fader. It deserved to be where it was.
Xander stayed single until he died at sixty-five of a stroke in the middle of the night. Anya was at his side. He died lying beside her grave.
Kennedy, my sister and my best friend, she lived with Willow for ten more years before family emergencies called her back home. She sort of disappeared for three years but came back with a little boy named Sevan. He was the son of a slayer, one of the first. His father was a warlock and a vampire if you can imagine the combination. He became the first Shielder, sent on missions with Slayers when the odds were against them. After the anti-slayer protests Kennedy started the SIT or Slayers in Training institute in New Sunnydale California. It was a college for Slayers, learning martial arts, history, tactics, and basic things needed to survive in the world.
She was killed four years later by a rogue Slayer and her Watcher.
Willow, well that's a totally different story. Willow's a goddess, ten years after I left she was deemed worthy to become an immortal and became the patron saint of all Slayers so to speak. I still talk to her. She visits every few weeks to let me know how everything's going. Her red hair is gone, replaced by permanent white locks and pale blue eyes. She reveled the reason for my memory loss after I returned to my time. I intercepted a spell she was performing to call a demon to New Sunnydale which caused my memory to erase. It also caused me to meet all of my friends. I don't think I could ever thank her enough.
My assignment in New Sunnydale was to retrieve the Scythe. A demonic army as erupted from a newly opened Hellmouth thanks to the reemergence of the First Evil and they have been wrecking havoc on the world that I have come to relearn and love. My mission now; destroy the army. We have the power with the combined forces of the Faders, the Slayer's Coven, the Shielders, and the Watcher's Coven. I have been positioned in what used to be New Sunnydale. The town is gone, leveled in a massive earthquake. A jagged mountain rises in its place. There is a single monument, a tribute to what was once there.
Eight headstones lay on a single grassy knoll. Below the stones lay eight bodies, Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers, Alexander Harris, Robin Wood, Faith Wood, Anya, Andrew, and Kennedy. A single stone sits on top of every grave and I know that Willow has been here. Another tombstone was found yesterday, cracked and strained, the name nearly worn off and only a single word able to be made out. Tara.
I know that the army from hell lies on the other side of the mountain and I know that some of my people will die. I know that I might die, that Hunter or William might die, but I have to have faith. It's what kept Buffy alive for so many years. I hope that I have done her justice and as I strap on my armor, wield my Scythe, and scream a battle cry that echoes through the mountains, I kept my promise to them all.
I hope that I have learned and that I will keep the world safe just like Buffy and her friends did again and again. She saved the world a lot. I just hope that when we're done, there will be a world left to save.
What am I saying? I know there will be.
I didn't know what to expect when I went to sleep that night over two hundred years ago. I held onto the shaft of the scythe, the cold metal against my skin, and I slept. When I awoke it was 2230 and I was in the medical ward of the New York Scientific Hospital in New York City. Hunter was by my side, my hand in his. The first thing I did when I woke was kissed him. We must have stayed connected for an hour, hands clutching him and never wanting to let go. The scythe was propped in one corner.
I was debriefed by my Watcher and three other members of the Fader Council. I told them my story, leaving out almost everything. I would never let them share the others with me. I was then released, ordered to report back on one week for an assignment. Hunter was detained. They wanted to run more tests on him but still, three months later, they haven't found out anything. He is stronger, faster, better, than any of the Shielders they have. Only I know the truth though. He is no longer a Shielder, he hadn't been since the Timer claimed his life in the Hellmouth. In that single moment, he became a warrior, he became Sevan.
As soon as I left the hospital I went to the library. I spent hours buried in books and files and newspaper clippings from two hundred and twenty- seven years ago. Buffy lived until she was ninety-five, the record for a slayer. She formed the New Watchers Coven, still in existence today. Her great-grandson is my Watcher and William the Third is better than all.
Faith died with Robin Wood in 2019 during an anti-slayer protest. At the time, people hated what they didn't understand. They had a little boy named Bradley and a girl named Nicole. I never thought I looked like a Nicole, but this girl did, and I retract my previous statement, she was beautiful.
Dawn and Andrew were married and brought two children into the world. One of them became a Slayer, Joyce was her name. I don't know where that comes from but I know it has meaning. Dawn started a shelter for Slayers during the protests that lasted from 2018-2022. She was killed three months before the end of the sentiment, an amulet clutched in her hands. I recognized Spike's amulet from the Hellmouth the moment I saw it. It was recovered in the back room of the Bronze. It was recovered in my time, pried from the hands of a Timer one year ago. I sent it back with another Fader. It deserved to be where it was.
Xander stayed single until he died at sixty-five of a stroke in the middle of the night. Anya was at his side. He died lying beside her grave.
Kennedy, my sister and my best friend, she lived with Willow for ten more years before family emergencies called her back home. She sort of disappeared for three years but came back with a little boy named Sevan. He was the son of a slayer, one of the first. His father was a warlock and a vampire if you can imagine the combination. He became the first Shielder, sent on missions with Slayers when the odds were against them. After the anti-slayer protests Kennedy started the SIT or Slayers in Training institute in New Sunnydale California. It was a college for Slayers, learning martial arts, history, tactics, and basic things needed to survive in the world.
She was killed four years later by a rogue Slayer and her Watcher.
Willow, well that's a totally different story. Willow's a goddess, ten years after I left she was deemed worthy to become an immortal and became the patron saint of all Slayers so to speak. I still talk to her. She visits every few weeks to let me know how everything's going. Her red hair is gone, replaced by permanent white locks and pale blue eyes. She reveled the reason for my memory loss after I returned to my time. I intercepted a spell she was performing to call a demon to New Sunnydale which caused my memory to erase. It also caused me to meet all of my friends. I don't think I could ever thank her enough.
My assignment in New Sunnydale was to retrieve the Scythe. A demonic army as erupted from a newly opened Hellmouth thanks to the reemergence of the First Evil and they have been wrecking havoc on the world that I have come to relearn and love. My mission now; destroy the army. We have the power with the combined forces of the Faders, the Slayer's Coven, the Shielders, and the Watcher's Coven. I have been positioned in what used to be New Sunnydale. The town is gone, leveled in a massive earthquake. A jagged mountain rises in its place. There is a single monument, a tribute to what was once there.
Eight headstones lay on a single grassy knoll. Below the stones lay eight bodies, Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers, Alexander Harris, Robin Wood, Faith Wood, Anya, Andrew, and Kennedy. A single stone sits on top of every grave and I know that Willow has been here. Another tombstone was found yesterday, cracked and strained, the name nearly worn off and only a single word able to be made out. Tara.
I know that the army from hell lies on the other side of the mountain and I know that some of my people will die. I know that I might die, that Hunter or William might die, but I have to have faith. It's what kept Buffy alive for so many years. I hope that I have done her justice and as I strap on my armor, wield my Scythe, and scream a battle cry that echoes through the mountains, I kept my promise to them all.
I hope that I have learned and that I will keep the world safe just like Buffy and her friends did again and again. She saved the world a lot. I just hope that when we're done, there will be a world left to save.
What am I saying? I know there will be.