'Into every generation, there is a chosen one.
One girl in all the world. She alone will wield
the strength and skill to stand against the
vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness;
To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers.
She is the Slayer.'
So said the prophecy of the Slayer.
In ancient times a group of tribal elders known as the Shadow Men used powerful magic to infuse a captive native girl with the heart and soul of a pure demon. This process granted the girl incredible strength, speed, agility, endurance superior healing and a predator-like instinct. She was the Slayer, called to fight the vampires, demons and other forces of evil that populated the Earth and threatened the innocent. Throughout time, the Slayers, with the aid of the Watcher's Council, direct descendants of the Shadow Men, have waged an never-ending battle against evil. Whenever a Slayer dies, another is called into service and the fight begins anew. Many of the tales of past slayers and their heroic deeds have been well-documented inside the halls of the Watcher's Council.
All except one.
It is the story of the Blood King, an ancient vampire that terrorized much of Europe during the Dark Ages. He roamed the countryside, summoning other vampires to his cause. Much of it was to quench his unending thirst for blood, but his killing spree served another purpose. It was to draw out the Slayer and turn her into his vampiric Blood Queen. A vampire with the powers of the Slayer could finally end the foolish battle between good and evil, and allow the Blood King to take what he perceived as his rightful place as ruler of the world.
One by one, villages fell to his growing forces before he set his sights on Paris. It was only when an alliance of the Watcher's Council, gypsies, Wiccas and human warriors, all led by the Slayer herself, drove out the Blood King's vampiric minions. The confrontation culminated in a grand battle between the Blood King and the Slayer. The immense Blood King dominated the fight against the much smaller Slayer, but in reality, it was only a distraction for a spell to be cast that would lock the powerful vampire's essence in an object for all of eternity. Just before the Blood King's razor-sharp fangs pierced the Slayer's jugular the spell was cast and the Blood King was no more.
The story of the Blood King was purged from all records, and the Black Plague was blamed for the mass deaths he and his minions caused. That object itself was locked away by the Watcher's Council, and given multiple safeguards for it never to be opened again. For if it was, the Blood King would be restored and he would consume the world with his cruelty, blood-thirst and insatiable lust for the Slayer herself. All life would suffer because of him.
*** Sunnydale, California. Present Day ***
A hooded figure knelt alone in a warehouse in front of an object. His hands were out in front of him and he performed incantation after incantation. The ground shook at times and the sky was filled with thunder and lightning after he finished one spell, before proceeding onto another. He performed light magic, dark magic, blood magic on the object, drawing all of the powers of the Hellmouth to complete his task. The man had gone to great lengths for this object to be opened so he could plunge the world into chaos.
Finally, it was done and Ethan Rayne slipped the hood off his head. He looked long and hard at the object before him, and recalled what it had taken for it to be discovered. The lengths he had gone to. What it had done to his very soul, but it was all worth it and for one simple reason.
"Chaos. I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son," Ethan whispered, a dark smile forming on his lips.
He knew the power of the Blood King resided inside that object and all anyone had to do was to open it for that power to be unleashed on the world. Then all he had to do was to sit back and watch the world plunge into absolute chaos. What better place to do this than Sunnyvale, California? He wondered just what the Blood King would do with Buffy Summers, her little band of Scoobies and his old friend, Ripper.