Melaka Fray
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- "I'm just one girl. No big hero, no protector of justice, not even a bona fide one-hundred-percent Slayer."
- ―Fray[src]
Melaka Fray is a Slayer, activated in the future. Melaka grew up in the slums of Haddyn, where she exploited her abilities to make a living as as a thief. Upon learning of her destiny as the Slayer, Melaka was forced battle the freaks known as lurks to save her community and the world, putting her into conflict with her twin brother and vampire, Harth Fray.
Melaka features exclusively in comic books, first appearing in her own mini-series Fray. She reappeared in Tales of the Slayers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. All of these stories are considered canon.
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Biography
Early life
Born in the future, Melaka Fray grew up in Versi, a ghetto-like district in the city of Haddyn,[1] with her older sister Erin and slightly older twin brother Harth.[2] As a teenager, she discovered that she possessed enhanced physical abilities but decided not to question it, rationalising that she was simply "good at stuff".[3] Due to her family's poverty and low social status, Melaka was forced to go "grabbing" for food, behaviour which earned her the disaproval of her sister. At the age of fourteen, she took Harth with her on a grab, and the twins were attacked by a lurk called Icarus.[4] Melaka tried to fight Icarus off, only to be thrown off the building's rooftop while the lurk fed on Harth, killing him. Melaka inexplicably survived her fall, despite early indications of spinal injury, only to be blamed by Erin for Harth's death. The two sisters parted ways, with Erin joining up with "the law" while Melaka continued her life of crime.[2]
Calling
By the age of nineteen, Melaka was a professional thief often hired by a "radie" named Gunther to steal expensive artifacts. She often looked after a local Versi girl named Loo, whose parents could often not afford to pay for the girl's medication.[1] Melaka was approached by a demon named Urkonn who told her that lurks were in fact ancient demons known as "vampires" and that she was destined to fight them. At first, Mel was reluctant to accept or even believe that she was really "the Slayer", espcially as she had never experienced any of the dreams that Urkonn described. However, after coming across a lurk while on a job for Gunther and being reminded of Harth's death, she agreed to train with Urkonn.[3] While fighting, Melaka came face to face with Icarus and was horrified by the sight of her brother's killer, forcing Urkonn to jump to her defence. After recovering, she decided to use Gunther to track down Icarus, but learned that he had betrayed her to the law. As Erin took her sister away, they were attacked by a group of lurks, who kidnapped Melaka and took her to their master: Harth.[2] Harth revealed to his sister that, as her twin, he had received her Slayer dreams and was aware of vampire history. When he was bitten by Icarus, he knew that the only way to survive was to ingest their blood, thus becoming one of them. Due to his dreams, Harth had become leader to the lurks and was determined to bring back the Old Ones. After the shock of meeting her supposedly dead brother, Melaka escaped and informed Erin of what had happened. Erin refused to believe her, so Melaka returned home and rejoined Urkonn, where she discovered Loo's lifeless body in her appartment. This motivated her to wage war on the lurks as revenge for what they had done to her loved ones.[5]
Melaka returned Loo's body to her parents, and was granted the Scythe—an ancient Slayer weapon—to aid her in the upcoming battle by Urkonn. Her attempts to unite the community of Versi against the lurks were initially ignored, but when she began hunting the lurks herself, she made her neighbours realised what a true threat they were.[6] This attracted the attention of Icarus, but before he and Melaka could truly face off, Erin appeared and crashed her flying car on top of him as revenge for murdering her brother.[7] Melaka led a small group of people, including members of the law, against an army of lurks, while Harth attempted to unleash the Old Ones on Earth. She succeeded in defeating Harth's giant demon, but her brother escaped, claiming that things were not over between them. Afterwards, Melaka confronted Urkonn, informing him that she had figured out he was the one who murdered Loo. Urkonn claimed that he needed to do whatever he could to motivate her against the lurks, and Melaka murdered him, doing it quickly because she considered Urkonn a "friend". She returned to her old job as a thief, but continued fighting lurks and preparing for anything else which came her way.[8]
Discovering her past
- "I am the only one in the world... but I am not alone."
- ―Fray[src]
Gunther sent Melaka on a "special" grab, one he believed she would enjoy. Opening a chest, she was confronted with a bizarre "Spider-Monkey" creature which stole her scythe and led her through Haddyn to a building containing the Watchers Diaries. Reading about the lives of past Slayers, Melaka came to the conclusion that, although she was the only one of her kind in existence, she was not alone.[9]
Meeting Buffy Summers
Sometime after Fray and Tales, Melaka and Erin have teamed up to track down Harth. In one attempt to find him they hijack a moving van and discover a lurk, who they interrogate about Harth's whereabouts, the lurk reveals that Harth has teamed up with a mysterious crazy woman, who speaks in riddles and is very powerful. Mel and Erin head back to Mel's new home, the building in which she discovered the Watchers' diaries in Tales, to find out who the mysterious woman is. Erin meets Melaka's new pet, Gates, the spider-monkey demon seen in Tales. Melaka reads about a building where she believes she can find answers to where Harth is. Erin drops her of on the building rooftop and leaves her to a fight an oncoming demon. Melaka and the demon fight but the demon is then transported away and is then replaced with Buffy Summers. After a small fight Buffy and Melaka, they both discover that they are both Slayers and the two soon trust each other. Melaka asks Buffy to follow her which she does, after some initial difficulty. Melaka takes Buffy to Gunther who get them researching the possibility that Harth is behind this. While on patrol, Fray is accosted by Dark Willow who shows her something which leads her to attack Buffy, and later Harth attempts to do the same; he has told Fray that Buffy going back in time will erase her timeline, and Harth that it will be erased should she not do so. Fray fights to keep Buffy from returning through the portal to the 21st century, and Willow stands in the way, and lets Buffy kill her before passing through. For a moment, it appears as if Fray and Haddyn are whited out from existence, but suddenly return and Fray and Erin are thankful for their continued existence. It is unknown if the future has been altered/retconned in any ways by this temporal event, however.
Powers and abilties
Melaka is a Slayer and possesses the physical powers of one, which includes superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, durability, and accelerated healing. Notably, she does not possess the usual psychic powers of Slayers such as prophetic dreams, as these abilities instead went to her brother Harth. She believes that this makes her special, as she has not inherited any traditional Slayer fighting techniques, making her unique and unpredictable; indeed, during their confrontation, Buffy has difficulty predicting Mel's fighting patterns.
Melaka is also an accomplished thief. Her usual weapons include a blaster pistol and the mystical Slayer scythe.
Appearances
- "Big City Girl"
- "The Calling"
- "Ready, Steady..."
- "Out of the Past"
- "The Worst of It"
- "Alarums"
- "The Gateway"
- "All Hell"
- "Tales"
Trivia
It is interesting to note that Mel has a facial scar very similar to that of the Wishverse's version of Buffy.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Big City Girl"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Out of the Past
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Calling"
- ↑ "Ready, Steady..."
- ↑ "The Worst of It"
- ↑ "Alarums"
- ↑ "The Gateway"
- ↑ "All Hell"
- ↑ "Tales"
External links
