TITLE: Ripper (episode 1)
SERIES: Virtual Ripper Series
AUTHOR: Anne
RATING: this part R
PAIRING: this part Giles/Ethan (friendship)
FEEDBACK: Oh yes please!
E-MAIL: bookmangal@yahoo.fr
SUMMARY: Randall has his revenge.
DISTRIBUTION. VSS; ODD. GRB; GN; Tweedybookguy; WatcherGirls.
HardRayne. Anyone else please ask first.
DISCLAIMER: The characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant
Enemy, Sandollar Productions, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox
Television and the UPN Television Network. The story is written for
the pleasure of the author and readers, and has no lucrative purpose
whatsoever. Please do not reproduce this story anywhere without the
author's consent.
SPOILERS: season 6 "Seeing Red"
TIMELINE: season 6 before "Grave." (Virtual) season 1 of "Ripper"
episode 1.
WARNING: Angst. Suicide. Character death.
NOTE: #1 "Ripper" (virtual season) first episode.
NOTE #2: Challenge fic. Lizz on the HardRayne list wrote: the ripper
show will be out September 2003, possibly earlier. Now, I don't know
if that's true, but it did give me an idea: who's up for a little
challenge? It's simple: "Ripper Virtual Season". Only, not too
seriously because I don't feel like archiving and managing a real
virtual season. But if people want to write stories taking place in
the new show, going places with it, from serious joss-style writing,
to weirdass parodies, go with it! Flow with it! And why, you ask,
does this belong on an Ethan list? Well, my dears, because we all
know Giles moves back to England because of Ethan. What other reason
is there? (No, don't answer that). It does *not* have to be g/e
(believe me, its hard to say that). But it does have to include
Ethan Rayne. People want?
THANKS: I want to thank Caz my wonderful beta reader.
When Ripper moaned Ethan bent towards him and slapped him so that he regained consciousness faster.
"Ripper! Wake up!"
The Watcher opened his eyes and immediately raised himself on his elbows. He glanced around him and noticed that he and Ethan were in a rather small, cold room. The walls were painted in gray and there was only one opening - the door. A metal door painted in gray too.
"I tried to open it, in vain. It is locked." Ethan said following the glance of the younger man.
Ripper sat down and rubbed his painful chin then his ribs, which again made him, suffer.
"Randall K.O'd us Ripper. You saw him and he's not a ghost."
The door suddenly opened and Randall entered, holding a dagger. An old man with white hair who held a hunting gun accompanied him. Ethan immediately came to put himself behind Ripper.
"Hi guys, you slept well? "
Ripper did not answer his mouth gaped. Ethan made himself quite small behind his old mate.
"I thought of torturing you to death, but my grandfather had a much better idea some minutes ago."
Ripper blinked. "Your grandfather? You are…?"
The young man moved towards Ripper. "I'm the son of the man that you both killed 25 years ago. My name is Randall as my father. And I inherited from him his powers as Ethan noticed.»
"I didn't know that Randall had a son, …" Ripper said.
"He also ignored it. I was born 8 and half month after his death. My mother never had the chance to tell him that she was pregnant. When she died, I swore to avenge my father by killing his murderers."
"We did not kill him." Ethan said still shielded behind Ripper. "It was a tragic accident. It is Eyghon who killed him. Not us."
Randall scolded. "It was you two that summoned Eyghon! You are responsible for his death!"
Ripper shook his head.
"I alone summoned Eyghon, not Ethan. He tried to save your father by chasing away the demon. He did it but too late. Eyghon killed our friend before going away. If somebody has to die to quench your vengeance, it has to be me, and not Ethan. Let him go. He is responsible for nothing in Randall's tragic death. For nothing."
Ethan backed from Ripper and looked at him with an unbelieving air, mouth gaping. Ripper lied to save his life. He had always believed that the Watcher would not hesitate one second to kill him or would be delighted to see him be killed. But Ripper protected him, liked him. Tears rose in his eyes. Ripper did not hate him anymore. He liked him …
"That's not what Deirdre said to me before dying." Randall said. "She told me that it was you two that had summoned Eyghon. I wanted to kill you both for it, but my grandfather had a much better idea. One of you two will have to kill the other one to have his life saved. I am going to go away. When I return in half an hour, I want to see a corpse on the floor." He threw the dagger, which he held at Ripper's feet and added: "Otherwise I shall kill you both."
"Why did you wait so for a long time to take revenge? You would have been able to do it earlier." Ripper said.
Randall shook his head. "Ethan traveled throughout the world and it was almost impossible to find him and you were in Sunnydale, near your Slayer. If I had attempted something against you over there, she would not have appreciated it I guess. I have patiently waited for you both to come back to England, because it had to happen one day, to have you in my reach. See one of you later."
Once Randall and his grandfather had left the room and locked the door behind them Ripper took the dagger and stretched out it to Ethan.
"Kill me."
The sorcerer blinked. "No!"
"If one of us has to die so that the other one continues to live. Then you are going to kill me." The Watcher forced Ethan to open his hand, put the handle of the dagger in his palm and folded over his fingers. "Kill me."
Ethan shook his head.
"Ripper I don't want to kill you. You are my best friend, my only friend. I can't do that."
"Ethan listen to me. I am dying. I have a generalized cancer. I only have a few months. I had decided to commit suicide before the pain becomes insufferable by firing a bullet in my head but I prefer that you kill me at once, saving your life in doing it, so I shall not have pain anymore."
Ethan blinked aghast. "I don't understand why didn't you use a healing spell to make your cancer disappear as soon as you knew that you were seriously sick, dying?"
"Because I wanted to die, and I still want to. I can't bear to be forsaken anymore. I'm in love with Buffy, I love her more than anything in the world, she is everything to me but she does not love me the way I love her. She sees me as a father figure or even a mother figure. My heart is broken Ethan and I can't bear it anymore, to be haunted day and night by her face, her smile, her laughter and her perfect body. When I knew last year I had cancer and that it was too late to save me, I decided to return in England. I planned to go home, to spend a little time with my parents then commit suicide. I saw my grandfather dying from a generalized cancer Ethan and-and it is very painful. One suffers a lot, enormously. Death is liberation believe me. I don't want that, and that is why I ask you to kill me Ethan. Please… I finally stayed near Buffy because she wanted me to become her Watcher again. I could not leave her alone and my disease aggravated. Look me at Ethan I am still strong and still… handsome. In some months I shall be a 40 kilo old man who cannot move any more on his two legs, cannot swallow, drink and whom the suffering will make crazy. I shall die decreased mentally of starvation and exhaustion."
Ethan paled and shivered horrified.
"Why did you leave Buffy alone this time? Because you didn't want her to see you suffering? Does she know that you are going to die from cancer? Who knows? Except for me"
"Nobody except you."
"You did not speak about it to your parents?"
Ripper shook his head. "I said nothing to them because I did not want them to suffer before I died. I left Buffy alone for several reasons: the first one is because she no longer needs a Watcher, I taught her all that I knew and her friends have my demonologies and the other books which they use to help Buffy to fight against Evil. The second reason is because Buffy has to learn to live without me because I shall soon not be there anymore, and the third reason is because I didn't want her to see me dying little by little. The death of her mother affected her a lot, her death was very painful for her, and I did not want her to suffer again because of me." He undid the belt, which maintained his bathrobe closed, seized Ethan's wrist, pulling the blade to his chest and pushed the point where his heart was. A little blood poured staining the milky skin. "Plunge the blade here, Ethan, with all your strength. My death will be almost immediate. I shall have no time to suffer. To have enough force I am going to lay down on the floor so you would raise your arm high and stab me easily."
Ethan began turning green. "Ripper I can't do it."
Ripper nodded resolved. "Then I have no other choice than to commit suicide. We shall see each other again in hell Ethan."
He turned the point to his chest where he was bleeding and threw himself against the nearest wall. He cried out with pain when the blade sank deep into his flesh and he fell like deadweight on the floor. Ethan remained horror-stricken some moments then he felt his legs sliding away under him. He fell down to his knees, burst suddenly into sobs then buried his face in his trembling hands. When he was a little calmed, he came to kneel down near Ripper's dead body and closed his eyes. Then, he cradled the cadaver of his old mate in his arms.
The door of the cell opened 25 minutes later and Randall entered, followed by his grandfather armed with a hunting rifle. Both men smiled with satisfaction seeing Ethan on his knees on the floor his face wet with tears tightening against him Ripper's corpse.
"You have killed Ripper Ethan? Bravo. To kill a Watcher is not an easy task. Mmm… nice shot! You stabbed him right in his heart. He didn't suffer, too bad. Now go Ethan, you are free." He bent towards Ripper and removed the blood-covered dagger from his immobile chest. He then stretched it out to the sorcerer who took it. "Take it as a souvenir of this memorable day… Why are you crying Ethan? Rip … Rupert hated you and did his best to prevent you from creating chaos around you. You should be satisfied and relieved to have killed him. Now nobody can prevent you from doing what you want Ethan."
"I loved him." Ethan murmured.
Randall blinked surprised. "You loved him?" He smirked then. "Then you killed the man that you loved? Oh! That is great! … Poor Ethan you are going to have to live with the murder of the man that you loved on your consciousness. Of course if you have one."
"I have one."
Randall grabbed Ethan by his arm and forced him to get up. He then pushed him towards his armed grandfather. The sorcerer turned around and glanced to Ripper's corpse feeling a grief of such dimensions that he felt like his heart would burst and explode in his chest.
"What are you going to do with his body?"
Randall smiled. "Burn it. Talking about burning… he has to be in hell and undergo one thousand agonies there."
Three men left the small room. After some minutes Ripper's dead body vanished.
*
* *
The witches of the Coven removed their hands from Ripper's naked, cleansed and immobile body when the now non-dead Watcher returned to life and re-started to breathe. Ripper opened his eyes and shouted brutally with all the force of his lungs until they are emptied of their air. He then curled up on himself and began trembling, looking around him disorientated but mostly terrified. He was surrounded by several women of different ages all dressed in a long black dress. The room in which he was was empty and black and illuminated weakly by some candles put on the floor.
"Pity, pity do not hurt me any more. Please." He breathed, before bursting into sobs.
Deena the seer tenderly caressed Ripper's cheek then tightened him in her arms before rocking him. She wanted to make him understand that he did not have to be afraid any more and that he should understood that he was not in hell any more and that he was alive again. Ripper understood everything and happy, feeling secure in the arms of the old woman who rocked him, fell asleep peacefully. Deena laid him down on the floor and then touched his forehead. Using a memory loss spell erased his memory of what he had lived in hell.
*
* *
Ripper was awakened by the good smell of breakfast tea. He slowly opened his eyes and recognized near him the old unknown woman who had rocked him in her arms to comfort him … He frowned. To comfort him, from what? His last recollection was of falling asleep, happy and at peace embraced by that old unknown woman.
"My name is Deena. I am the seer of Coven of Devon." Deena said stretching out a smoking mug to Ripper who took it. "My sisters and I returned you to life."
"Why?"
"I felt the death of your friend Tara… and after my sisters and I discovered the rise of a powerful dark magic force filled by grief in Sunnydale."
Ripper paled and trembled with horror. "Tara is dead? Oh my God, no." He frowned again. "A powerful dark magic force filled by grief? … Willow! It's Willow! Oh! No!"
"You are going to stop Willow Rupert, to stop her before she puts the world in great danger. But you will probably die doing it."
Ripper nodded. "I want to die Deena. It is why I committed suicide."
Deena nodded too. "You will die Rupert. "
Ripper nodded again. "I know. I need to phone a friend. To tell him I'm alive again."
"Of course. Drink your tea. I'm going to bring you my mobile."
"Thank you Deena."
END
Up to "Grave"