Alexander

There was no one left to watch, no one left to wonder what was happening. No one left to bear witness to the scene that was unfurling inside of what had once been the grandest home in the city, if not the world.

Five men stood inside the room, each one facing away from the wall of windows, not wanting to see the destruction that had been wrought upon their world. Instead the men were focused on one of their own… the youngest of them all, who was only a few steps out of boyhood. The youth in question had dark brown hair which hung in a thick braid down the center of his back. His eyes were a soft brown, darkened by the tears he was struggling to hold back. This was his last chance… his last chance to see the two men who had taken him in, who had proven to him that love could be thicker then blood. It was the last time he would be able to see his adopted parents, and he found that he couldn’t speak, couldn’t find the right way to say.

The room, like the world outside was dark… only a few flickering candles kept the purest form of darkness away. It should have been a bright sunny day outside… but the sky was pure black, not blue but black. In this black expanse there was no moon, no stars. These heavenly bodies were no obscured by clouds… they were quite simply not there.

One of the youth’s parents gently laid his hands on the young man’s shoulders, pushing him forward, towards the two men who were standing on the opposite side of the room. Not a word was spoken as the young man walked away from his parents, who fought the urge to run after their son… each one knowing that they needed to let their son leave, if they wanted him to live.

The young man reached the other two inhabitants of the room and instantly wrapped his arms around the taller of the two who gently kissed his young love, before moving slightly to the side to allow the smaller man to do the same. The three exchanged their final words, each one wishing that there was more time and knowing that, despite their prayers, only one of them would survive the disaster that had engulfed their world.

The silence of the room was broken suddenly, as a violent win whipped through the room, despite the doors and windows being firmly shut. Several of the candles went out as a soft warm light appeared in front of the group. From the portal of light a figure emerged, wearing a tattered black cloak and long black scarf which hid every inch of him from view… except for his dark eyes, which echoed the darkness of they skies outside.

“It is time.” He said, his voice seeming to echo as the mysterious wind tossed his tattered cloak about.

The two men gently pushed their young lover forward. Tears ran down the young man’s cheeks and he started to mindlessly beg the stranger for something, anything that would stop the inevitable from happening. One of his lovers stepped forward, knowing that if the youth did not go then all their prayers would have been for naught.

The young man’s name was Alex… he stood in front of his lovers, who pushed him forward as his adoptive parents watched. The man who had emerged from the light was, in a way, his salvation… but also his damnation. For although the man would save him, he would also take Alex away from everything he had ever known, away from those he loved.

The world they lived in, the world they had been born into, was dying. The fabric of reality was ripping apart, creating holes in existence. The five men in the room were the Heroes of that reality… the Champions of the Powers That Be. Despite their status, the five men had been unable to stop the death of their reality. They had eventually been forced to accept their fate and had been ready to slip into darkness.

But then the Powers That Be had sent an envoy, the very same mysterious man who stood in front of them now, had appeared and offered them salvation… of a sort. The Powers were willing to take one person from the collapsing reality. The Powers would take that one person and save them, by playing them in a different reality. Only the five Champions would be eligible.

Alex had not asked to be chosen. He had not wanted to be saved. His Mates and Parents had chosen him… his Mates had led long lives and were not afraid of death, and his Parents could not allow their child to die. So Alex was the one chosen.

Alex looked back at his Parents and his Mates, the tears he had been holding back broke through, falling down his cheeks to pool on the marble floor. He shivered slightly, before turning back toward the Messenger of the Powers and, with a single step forward, he accepted his fate.

The portal of light behind the Messenger seemed to increase in brilliance and size, erasing Alex’s vision as a mighty wind rushed past him, blocking out all other sounds. After a few seconds the light and wind vanished and Alex opened his eyes, finding himself lying face down upon cold earth, grass tickling his skin. Slowly Alex sat up, shivering from the cold and trying to figure out where he had been dropped.

He was in the middle of a cemetery, ancient graves mixed with freshly dug ones… a little ways away from where he’d landed there was a newly dug grave, with dirt piled to one side. The headstone hadn’t even been placed yet.

Quickly Alex realized that it was the middle of the night… and above him the stars were burning brightly, along with the moon, at the moment only a tiny sliver of white in the sky. Alex leaned back to look up at the heavens and found himself pressed up against a tombstone. A little way behind him on either side were several crypts… one or two even had slightly open doors.

“Vampires.” Alex sighed. “Seems they exist here too.” He leaned back against the tombstone and tried to figure out what he should do. The Powers had promised his Mates that he would be met by someone, someone who would help him find his place in this new reality. Alex found himself fighting back tears as he thought of his Mates… he tried to vanish the thoughts from his mind and stood, taking a step forward.

Alex heard something behind him and whirled around, his eyes wide as a deer caught in a car’s headlights. Leaning against a nearby crypt was a vampire, covered in dirt and smelling like a pile of garbage that had been left out in the rain for a few years. A fledgling… Alex realized. Only just crawled out of his grave. The vampire was licking his lips as he sized up the young man, a smirk growing on his face at the thought of the meal he was about to enjoy. “Hello pretty boy…” the vampire whispered, before launching himself at the mortal.

Before Alex could scream or even think about mounting some kind of attack, the vampire was on top of him… getting ready to bite. Then, just as suddenly, Alex was covered in a thin layer of vampire dust. He spat out the little bit that had gotten in his mouth and checked the claim marks on either side of his neck, making sure they were intact before he looked up to find out who had staked the vampire.

“Are you okay?” Standing above Alex was a short girl with fake blond hair and high heels. She was holding a stake in one hand. Slayer! Alex’s mind hissed as the girl reached out to help him up. Alex managed to get to his feet and found the girl staring at him in surprise… when he stood up his face had gone from obscured by shadow to illuminated by the light from a street lamp. “Xander?” The girl asked, blinking in confusion.

“No… my name is Alex.” He said, brushing cemetery dirt off his pants. The girl stared at him for a few seconds before she spoke.

“I think… I think you need to come with me.”

Alex found himself following the Slayer (who was apparently named Buffy) through the streets of Sunnydale (Buffy had supplied the town’s name). Their journey ended at a magic shop, which they entered through the front door, despite the sign saying that the shop was closed.

“GILES!” Buffy hollered as she walked into the store like she owned the place. “We’ve got Hellmouth activity!”

Who builds a town on the Hellmouth? Alex thought, looking around the Magic Shop and finding himself surprised to find that it was legit… real herbs, spells and magic books. His parents were that rare breed of vampires who had been magic users before they were turned, and they’d passed everything they knew on to Alex.

“What is it Buffy?” the voice answering the Slayer’s question was that of a older man, one who seemed exceptionally tired. As the man asked this, a young woman with fiery red hair peeked around the book shelves and froze at the sight of Alex.

“We’ve got a Xander look alike.” Buffy replied as Alex looked around the shop, his long braid swaying slightly from side to side as he peered at the various things in the shop. The entire shop reminded him of his Parent’s home… full of magic and exotic artifacts. He half expected to turn a corner and see an alter to Janus!

At that moment two men stepped out from the back rooms of the shop. One was young and could have been Alex’s twin… the same face, just short hair and a very different sense of dress. The younger man stared at Alex, who stared right back at him… until he caught sight of the other man. He was older and unlike everyone else, he didn’t seem surprised that Alex was in the shop. The older man was the spitting image of someone from Alex’s reality… someone the young man knew very well.

“Ripper?” Alex whispered, looking at the older man with something akin to shock and hope.

“Not anymore… now I’m Rupert Giles.” The man replied, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with a corner of his shirt. “This is Willow.” he gestured to the red head, who smiled and waved shyly at Alex. “This is Xander, as you might have guessed.” As Giles spoke Xander had moved closer to Alex, the two young men looking at each other. “At first glance I would guess that you’ve come from an Alternate Universe..”

“You mean like the world without shrimp?” Buffy asked, looking between Alex and Xander.

“So a world where Xander goes by ‘Alex’ and grew his hair out?” Willow smiled at the smirk this drew to both Xander and Alex’s faces.

“Yes, I’m from another Universe.” Alex stated, his eyes never leaving Xander’s. “Our world was collapsing… the first sign that something was wrong was when the stars went out, one by one.” Xander placed a gentle hand on Alex’s shoulder and guided him over to a table, pulling out a chair for his ‘double’ to sit in. “The sun stopped rising and the moon waned but did not wax again.” Alex wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. “Soon holes in the fabric of Reality began to appear… swallowing just a few feet at first, but getting larger and larger. Towns vanished… then cities. The Powers That Be said they would take one person to another Universe… they would save one person.”

“And that one was you?” Buffy said, a tone of disbelief in her voice as she stared at Alex.

Xander said nothing… instead he reached out and took Alex’s hand in his, silently offering his ‘twin’ strength.

Giles sighed and sat down across from Xander and Alex, running a hand through his hair. “Then it seems introductions are in order… what is your name? We can’t just keep calling you Xander’s look a like.”

Alex found himself unconsciously sitting up straighter in his chair. He tore his eyes away from Xander and looked over at Giles, Willow and the Slayer. “I am Alexander Aurelius, formally Alexander Rayne. I was consort to the Lords of California.” After saying this, Alex pulled down his shirt’s collar, revealing the claiming marks on either side of his neck.

“Did you say… Aurelius?” Giles asked, peering at Alex over the top of his glasses. “As in the Aurelius clan of vampires?” Giles asked. “You were mated to an Aurelius vampire?!”

“Vampires controlled California?” Buffy asked, running a hand along her own neck.

Alex sighed and pointed to Giles, meaning he would answer the man’s questions before Buffy’s. “Yes, I mean the Aurelius clan of vampires. No, I was actually mated to two Aurelius vampires.” Alex shifted so that he was pointing at Buffy. “Yes, in fact Vampires actually controlled the entire world.”

“What?” Buffy asked, looking very much like a fish out of water. Xander smirked slightly and Willow fought to contain her laughter at the look on the Slayer’s face.

“The Aurelius bloodline ruled over most of American and Europe. Among those vampires were my Mates and my adopted Parents.” Alex smiled sadly. “My adopted Parents controlled Northern California and my Mates controlled Southern California. When we were joined as Mates the three of us became the rulers of California.”

“And Humans were what… slaves?” Xander asked, his eyes focused on the bite marks on Alex’s neck.

“Subjects.” Alex replied, his voice gentle as he corrected Xander. “The vampires only fed from convicted criminals or willing donors.”

“How… how did you become mated to a vampire?” Giles asked, his mind racing as he took in all this new information. “From your stories it would sound like Mates were common in your world, while in ours they are quite rare…”

“My biological parents abandoned me.” Alex explained, watching Xander’s reaction to his life story. “I was only a few weeks old when I was adopted by two vampires who wanted to have a child. I grew up as a member of vampiric high society. I was seventeen when I first met my future mates… we just knew that we belonged together.”

Xander asked the next question. “You called Giles some other name… who was he in your world?”

“One of my adopted parents.” Alex explained, a slight smile on his face. “Rupert Giles --- everyone called him Ripper.”

“And the other one was Ethan.” Giles leaned back in his chair and laughed slightly. “Ethan got turned and then turned me?” Giles asked and Alex nodded.

“But what about your mates? Perhaps they exist in this world?” Willow asked, stepping forward to sit next to Giles, leaving only Buffy still standing.

“The Powers said that they would be here for me.” Alex noted. “They said that the versions of them which exist in this Universe would be my new mates…”

“So who were they?” Giles asked.

Before Alex could respond another voice did so for him. “Angelus and William of the Aurelius Bloodline.” Standing in the doorway was Spike, looking down at Alex with wide eyes.

TBC