New Year's Eve brought the gypsy elders and their three most-committed Hunter teams as muscle. Jenny had answered a final ultimatum Christmas Eve by passing on Xander's words. Uncle, do not arrive before the New Year and he'll not expect 'obeisance to be made in the old ways.'" An hour later he'd called back, and let her know to prepare for the arrival of the Elders of all the clans within a very short time, and that the Romani will report to her until then.
Xander and his group kept tabs on the newcomers, seeing if they would push things. Xander had decided that New Year's would be the time when secrets would be revealed to the entire group, the only stipulation being that the actual identities of Los Infierneros and the address of their base be left out of the Watcher reports. Xander had done some research, he'd said, and quietly taking aside Zabuto and Giles in his 'alternate persona' told them he trusted them personally, but without meeting their actual Council, wouldn't go beyond them in matters of trust.
The group had been escorted into Ted's 'over house' for the first part of the party, but guests had been told to plan a stay-over and to be awake for at least an hour beyond midnight as there would be a surprise.
The party had gone very well, everyone having a good time. Plenty of foods, some donated by various restaurants benefiting from timely interventions by Los Infierneros, gave a festive diversity compared to their normal lives.
At eleven-thirty, the door bell rang and the camera showed a group of older Romani, almost all men, waiting. Xander turned to Jenny Calendar, shaking his head.
"Jenny, let them in, but be warned," Xander told her gently, "They've tried my patience by this little half-hour power-play of theirs; it will be the Old Ways for them and theirs."
"What should I say to them?"
"Nothing, just let them in," he replied, nodding at Doyle and Kowalski to carry out orders already given, "Rupert, see you downstairs." He hit the button, and the floor began sinking into the depths as he and the other two made ready.
"Uncle, Elders," Jana addressed her people's leaders, "He awaits you." The group entered and looked around without being too impressed.
"I expected better from one claiming to be our King?" one of the old women told Jana, "This is drab."
"You would be best advised to keep your rudeness in check, crone," Xander stated from his chair behind a desk on the other side of the room, "Your presumptuousness to show before permitted requires a lesson. But that will wait." He gestured them to couches. When they hesitated, he raised his hand to show them his rings, pointed at them, then the couches again. They hesitated, then complied.
"You showed up before you were told, therefore it will be the Old Ways again," Xander informed them as he rose and began dressing in over-attire facing away, "This war against the darkness will be determined within the next generation, and the Romani will be there for the worst of it, and will come out of it known for what they've done. Jana, hand them the letter and the first journal from the desk please."
"Yes?Your Majesty," she gulped, the tension she felt in the room finally catching up to her as she found herself in a decisive moment in her people's history. Xander noted the hesitancy.
"Now, Jana," he responded, voice deepening as he finished donning his father's clothes, "You've been important to me before my parents moved on, do not hesitate with me ever. Only enemies and those who arrive early in contradiction of my directives need fear." He turned and almost as one they noticed the exactness in appearance of the son of Van Helsing and Valerious, her delicate features actually emphasizing the father's. Kowalski handed over the swords, Xander placing them on the desk, "Read the letter and compare the handwriting." He bent a metal rod placed into his hands by Doyle. He waited.
"Now, Jana has explained how I came into my heritage, and that Angelus our Enemy perished in that event," he stated as fact, "The next question is whether or not the Romani have enough fire of the soul and numbers to make a difference in the fight? Do they wish the extermination of the vampires and the dark enemies that influenced the near end of our people by the Nazis? Only Drusilla remains of the four vampires known as the Scourge of Europe. The other three and The Master have met their end in this town in less than ten months. The curse of Angelus I see now came about to release our family from the bondage of other Powers, but was stupid in its execution." He watched as the Elders grew angry. "You do not wrench a soul from the afterlife and torture *it,* you make sure the soul experiences humanity's best so that the *demon* is tortured. You should have blessed him with a soul and made him an entertainer for children; happiness and human joy would have been a hundred times more of a punishment to Angelus the Demon than brooding companionship with the soul. I will teach you how to make Justice and Vengeance one, a living thing and not just an idea ill-conveyed to those that came after my family's exile in time and space. So, acceptance of the truth and we get on with real exaction at the expense of the enemy, or denial and you return without hope of restoring the fortunes of your people? But first, a rebuttal to the untoward statement made by one old enough to know better." Xander nodded, and he stepped over to allow the elevator to rise.
At eight before midnight, the doors opened onto Ted's 'Blast from the Past' chamber, surprising and in comparison to the house above truly making a deep impression upon the Romani and Garoun Elders, a growl approaching almost a *feline* purr of delight escaping one Elder.
That Elder turned to Xander.
"I *feel* your presence and for the Clans, I accept your claim," he said, bowing deeply with his head in the manner of wolves to an Alpha, "And upon my return to New York will swear to the rest of the Clan Council that you are the One. But if I may, what is that odd feeling to the canine in you?"
"Before I was?unsealed I was possessed by the Hyena Primal Spirit," Xander replied, the Garoun Elder and his bodyguard staring wide-eyed at their now-acknowledged Lord, "While the Spirit itself was displaced, some parts of its presence lingered within me."
"If the Garoun sense you are as you claim, the Romani will abide also," Enjos, their best English-speaker, considered, bowing at the waist, "Your Majesty."
"Alexander," the young man corrected, "While I hold this position, unless the need exists in the future for excessive ceremony, there is little need, and indeed the added attention will give greater focus to our enemies."
"Yes?Alexander," the old man replied, "What are your orders?"
"The obeisance of the Old Ways is my right, but I will exercise it differently," Alexander Van Helsing replied, "And we will speak of it tomorrow around noon, return then. Jana, join the rest of us downstairs, please."
With two minutes to spare, Xander reached the bottom where congregated The rest of their group. The clock counting down, Xander found himself surrounded by Willow and Cordelia, determined looks in their eyes. He thought about the best way to handle things as the seconds to the new year counted down. The ball dropped, and he quickly pecked and hugged Willow, Cordelia, then Buffy in succession, feigning ignorance and playing a bit at the old clueless Xander of times now held onto only tenuously.
"Hey!" each of them said as he broke away to the next, including a blushing and surprised Kendra. Still dressed in the attire of his father, he stepped up onto a step stool and waited for everyone's attention.
"Xaan-der?" Kendra asked, "Why did you kiss me?"
"Well, eesa because I'm de one who usually kisses de hands of de preety ladies, no?" he smiled with a bad Zorro accent, "And to break the surprise to those of you who hadn't guessed that my roommates and I are Los Infierneros, dear Kendra. Tonight is special in many ways," he continued, now in speech-mode, "Because tonight I was visited by the relatives of Jenny Calendar, known to her Romani?gypsy?clan and tribe as Jana of the Calderash, and I acknowledged my birthright amongst them, and tomorrow I will direct them in the struggle I accepted when Rupert and Buffy entered our lives in Sunnydale. Mr.
Zabuto, you have been made to keep your word as to our identities, and I thank you for it, as I am not in conflict with your Council of Watchers, but I've decided to let you, Kendra and the others who don't know my heritage, to know yet another layer. My mother was Anna Jessica of Valerious, and my father was Abraham Van Helsing."
"You're the heir to the gypsy and Garoun leadership?" the Watcher asked to clarify.
"No, I am the King of the Romani and the Garoun," Alexander Van Helsing corrected the man, "And I have called for a final War against our demonic enemies and any human that furthers their corruption of Light. Even if it means it become eventually public knowledge."
"You mustn't reveal it!' the Watcher exclaimed, "It would mean chaos, witch hunts?"
"The last time my Romani kept quiet and stayed their collective hand, they were exterminated by the totalitarians and their demonic allies."
"Totalitarians?" Buffy asked Willow in a whisper, mostly following but the word eluding her.
"Nazis, Fascists and Stalinists," Willow whispered to her, "The ones that killed my great-grandparents. Xander has my vote."
"Mine too, Will," Buffy said as Cordelia joined her in reassuring half-hugs of Willow, "Me, too."
Hainsley and Vale carefully drew blood from Kakistos, currently the oldest known vampire in the world. They carefully walked into the White Room, itself currently a pentagram carefully marked for the ritual, and added four pints of blood to the four pints drawn from Drusilla to the pool of water and ash activate the restoration of the near-extinct Aurelian Clan of vampires as new offspring of Kakistos. Cyrus Vail carefully finished his part of the spell, using the inter-dimensional energies of the White Room to warp reality, turning the water into two hundred gallons of magicked blood.
Hainsley, with Vail assisting, completed the spell just before the new year began, the sounds of a hundred shrieking screams filling every part of the building as a hundred blood-portals to Hell brought into this reality five-score demons of great power to infest and assume the recreated bodies of a hundred vampires, the large quantities of blood staying their hunger and giving them each at lest the power of a hundred year old vampire. Those older received that their ash-restored bodies had held before without degradation of body by the energies, Kakistos in a circle in the middle with Drusilla unseen within the flash of dark-red light that faded, Kakistos' own form as tough as ever, but with the appearance and flexibility of his human host of centuries ago. Drusilla turned and enwrapped Kakistos with her entire body, her lusts and focus on the Oldest.
"Mm, Happy New Year, New Daddy," she purred into her King and Master's ear, "Shall we greet the Childeren now?"