Previously on Chosen:
" 'ello Nika, thought you could use a l'il help."The girl said in a cockney accent.
The other girl, Nika, replied angrily "He was my kill Paige, you should have let me get him!"
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"You can't imagine what it was like Mona... The screaming, the death down there.. Those things were... You know, when I went to Sunnydale, I made friends in that house and I saw them die... Molly, Amanda. But I know... I know they died for the good fight... I think that they knew the moment they died that they died fighters."
Mona looked out of the wooden doors of the elevator and the figure picked up the limp bodies of the slayers and threw them over his shoulders. The figure walked out of the warehouse and into the sunlight. But then it disappeared, the figure and the slayers.
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"I'm sure you have, in the tales I am not one but 4. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I am bringer of strife, war, famine and disease. The "Bible" Blows alot of smoke. Alot of what they say about me is just fabrication. I was dormant for a long time, but when you slayers opened the seal I was unleashed." The Horseman explained.
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In Egypt, a young girl walked into the desert, a black buzzing cloud surrounding her as she walked away from her city.
In China, a small boy sat in the middle of a village as it fell to ruin around him, his mother screaming for her boy to come to her before being crushed by a falling stone.
In colonial america, a teenage girl was tied to a burning stake as she kept her eyes pinned to the sky as red light engulfed the town.
Claudia could hear the beating of hearts and the screams of terror in her head. The girl's eyes shot open.
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Mona jumped forward and punched Claudia in the face. Claudia reacted by jumping on top of Mona and knocking her to the ground. Claudia opened her mouth and leaned forward to bite Mona. Claudia sat upright and looked at the arrow which now stuck out of her chest.
"Oh My." Claudia said as she exploded into dust.
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Claudia's mind flashed, she could see every death hear the screaming.
"Somehow, I knew it was happening, I could feel it, it was almost all I could see. My own mother told the council I was a witch, that I'd been touched by evil. They came to my house and tore me from my bed. I was given a trial..."
Claudia's mind flashed again to Sarah crying as she was dragged from the courthouse to the large wooden stake.
"They found me guilty of witchcraft. They burned me to death, but before I died, I saw it. Our first sign, the red sky, It was an eclipse, the last thing I saw. After I died, the town was destroyed, nothing was left just death.
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"It's beginning again Claudia, you were the first. You have to help them, the chosen. They can't do it alone."
"Who are the chosen, and what can't they do alone?" Claudia asked.
"Stop the apocalypse."
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"Stop the apocalypse?" Claudia asked
"Yes, it's extremely important." Sarah replied.
"And how am I supposed to do this in spirit world here?"
"Wouldn't you like to know what you are?" Sarah Crenshaw asked.
"What I am!? I'm dead Betty Goodwife, there ain't much I can do."
"You haven't noticed anything funny? You were a vampire Claudia, hasn't that registered with you? The world isn't as normal as you thought."
It actually hadn't quite registered in Claudia's mind that she had been a vampire, she didn't remember how she died... again. It was like that was wiped from her memory. "Ok I'll bite what am I?"
Sheng Ji, China 1853
Shen Gueng Yi sat on his mother Mei Yi's lap as she stroked his hair black back from his forehead. He slept now, peaceful, the first time in a long time. The trees around them seemed ominous and lonely. Mei hadn't wanted her child to see the things he did but, life has a way of letting things liek that happen.
Shen Gueng was only 6 years old, yet what he saw within his head was something even the eldest of the village of Sheng Ji couldn't fathom. Mei knew not of what her son saw but she knew they wanted him dead for it. How that was fair she'd never know.
Shen looked calm as he slept but what was happenign within his mind was definately not. Blood, death destruction all shot through his mind burning their images on the innocent child. His heart rate quickened and a tear trickled down his cheek. Mei leaned forward and kissed her son gently on his cheek and wiped the tear away. The ground was by no means comfortable but Mei soon found herself slipping into the embrace of sleep.
Mei awoke to the screaming of Shen Gueng, were they there did they find him, them. No, they were safe, Shen had just woken from another of his nightmares, or visions, she wasn't sure what they were.
Mei and Shen both shot their heads to their left, there was a noise, a crack. Oh god, they'd found them. Mei slowly stood up and took Shen in her arms. Then she began to run. She ran faster than ever before. Then she stopped. Shen still clutched in her arms, sharp sound, then another. Mei took another step forward, another sound. Then she fell to the ground. Four arrows stuck out from her back.
Shen Gueng Yi screamed and scrambled from beneath his mother's body and knelt beside her. "Ma ma?" he asked. Shen looked up, his eyes widened, then he screamed and was picked up and carried away.
When they arrived back in the village of Sheng Ji, Shen was brought back to his father, who would have his son dead than be evil, as they thought. They believed that because of Shen, the darkness came, and the fire rain. Why? Because Shen saw it in his mind, and then came The Figure, the murderous beast which emerged to kill villagers.
The only way, they thought, to stop the madness and chaos was to kill the one who forsaw it. That was Shen Gueng Yi. His father held the boy through his screams and sat him down on the floor. Shen could feel it, the evil, it was coming.
The ground began to shake and the earth began splitting, villagers screamed and fell into the crevices and into the earth. Shen sat cross legged in the small home and the roof and walls began to shake. His father ran into the home.
"SHEN! SHEN!" He called but his cries were drowned out as the ground split beneath him and he fell into it.
Shen looked as the figure from his dreams came into the home. Shen's eyes widened at the sight of the beast. He tried to scramble away but the ceiling collapes upon them and blinded Shen.
Within hours, the village of Sheng Ji was no more, reduced to a crater in the ground, nothing was left living.
The figure, the horseman stood looking down into the crater.
"Damn." He said to himself out loud.
Claudia snapped back to herself, the whole scene had just played out in her mind. She looked at Sarah who still stood solemn in front of her.
"What am I?"
"There is no real word for what we're called. As i have said, i was called a witch and a fallen angel, touched by the devil. What we are is neither good nor bad. We are both. What we do, our duty is to stop the apocalypse Claudia." Sarah explained.
"So that boy in the vision.. Shen, he was like we were? An apocalypse stopper?" Claudia asked.
"Yes, he was."
"Well then I don't get it Sarah, why did they kill his mother and why did he die?"
"For the same reason they killed me. They thought he brought the things he saw, but he was given those visions and dreams to stop it from happening." Sarah told.
"Ok, I used to have the ocasional nightmare about stuff like that, but I didn't see it so clearly and so much until I died, or half died I guess."
"In 1907 The Horseman was defeated by one of us, it was sent to the hellmouth where it lay concealed beneath the earth. Then in 2003, the chosen one, Buffy Summers and potential slayers from around the world opened the seal which concealed the beast, releasing him.
I'm guessing, the best had some sort of spell upon him which blinded your sight. Until you were supposed to die. But when that vampire turned you, your essence was displaced, your visions came to you and drove you mad." Sarah explained.
"You keep mentioning these chosen ones. What are they?"
"The slayers, one girl in all the world, she had immense strength and capabilities far beyond humans. When one died another was called. Then a witch Willow Rosenberg released the power of the slayer and passed it on to all potential slayers of the world. You have met them, the ones in Jolten. Mona, Nika, Bianca and Paige, they are slayers."
"Mona? Seriously, but the girl is so small." Claudia gaped.
"When you were turned, I mentioned it displaced your essence. This disallowed another of us to be given the burden. It is very important that this happen or the Horseman will win."v "You said there are others, though." Claudia reminded the ghost woman.
"Yes but they are in their own areas, it is just as important they be where they are."
Claudia nodded her head. "So why am I so important? Why didn't the Horseman just kill me himself, it was a vampire.." It still seemed so odd to her. "a vampire who was supposed to kill me."
"You're power, where you were it was to much for him to have handled."
"My power, excuse me but I'm wasn't exactly oozing with super human abilities." Claudia smiled sarcastically.
"There is alot more to power than what you think. It's in your blood, our blood, our power."
"Ok, so why were you sent here to explain all this to me? It's not like I can make to big of a difference now can I, afterall I have gone the way of quality scripted television."
"Ummm, yes. This is the part where you make a choice Claudia."
"I have a question before I hear what my choice can be? However, judging from the dire tone in your voice I'm not quite sure I want to. Shen, he wasn't able to stop the apocalypse and neither were you? So why didn't the world come to an end."
"Oh, I almost forgot that..." Sarah's pale face showed mild signs of blushing. "I mentioned that, the rest of us are where we are for good reason. It's the hellmouths, there is mini ones all over the world. Sheng Ji, was one as was my settlement. They are like mini-mouths, they don't have teeth. Sunnydale was a big hellmouth, think of it as a mother. The Jolten hellmouth is like an aunt, not quite as large as the Sunnydale hellmouth but, it's big. The power that is generated from the hellmouth is huge, enough to initiate the apocalypse."
"Ok, point taken, now what's the choice?"
"Will you surrender that essence to the powers that be?" Sarah asked.
"Of course I will." Claudia answered quickly.
"If you do, you yourself will disappear, your thoughts, your memories, your soul everything will be gone."
Claudia thought about it for a moment. She nodded and then braced herself, she didn't know if it would hurt.
"Goodbye Claudia." Sarah whispered. "Meet your successor."
An image burned into the mind of Claudia, her successor.
Claudia felt weak in the pit of her stomach, then she was hit with a thought, how would The slayers know of her successor, they didn't even know about her. She had nothing sharp, so Claudia brought her hand to her motuh and bit down, blood emerged from the wound.
Falling to the floor Claudia used what was left of her energy to write the name MONA, in blood. She remembered what Sarah had said, her blood was her power before she ceased to exist and disappeared into oblivion.
THE END