DISCLAIMER:Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the property of Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon, and the WB. I don't own Highlander either, I don't know who does, but it belongs to them. The storyline i mine. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a crossover, Buffy/Highlander story. None of the characters from either the Highlander series or the movie are in this story, just the concept of immortals. This takes place after Killed by Death.
500 B.C. Egypt
Peter stood silently in the desert as he watched his friend and teacher approach. "Hello Candor, it been awhile."
"Twenty years, I think," Candor said with a shrug. Peter knew that Candor was old, old enough to remember the building of the pyramids. It always shocked him how the ancient immortal could shrug off such a long period of time.
"Twenty two years actually, though I doubt it makes little difference to you," Peter said. Having been around for only a hundred years Peter kept a little more accurate track of time than his mentor. He noticed the grave look his friend had, "So what was so important that you had to come all the way here from Greece to see me?"
Candor turned away from his student as he surveyed his surroundings. They had met outside the Great Sphinx, a building whose construction he well remembered. "Three thousand years ago they built that, give or take a few centuries. I remember it so well, after all I helped build it. I died the first time there when I was unlucky enough to be crushed beneath one of it's blocks."
Peter looked at his friend wondering why he had brought that up. "Yes, you've told me the story."
Candor looked away with a sigh. "I just wanted to look at it one more time before I die."
"What do you mean?" Peter asked stunned.
"For three thousand years I've helped man kind," Candor began. "And in all that time I've never seen them faced with a greater threat."
"Mankind is always being threatened," Peter replied. "Demons are always seeking a way to enter this world and claim it as there own."
"Yes and now they may have a way, Candor said as he reached under his robe. He withdrew a small medallion, a pentagram was engraved on both sides. "This is the Medallion of Tyrtes. Tyrtes was a sorcerer, fortunately for us he was a mortal one. He was the strongest and most evil person I have ever met. None could stand against him. I met him in Greece and barely managed to survive the encounter. Fortunately there was one enemy he could not defeat, age."
"If he was an immortal he would have been invincible," Candor continued. "He didn't care what he had to do, or who he had to kill to gain power. But he knew that one day he would die. So he constructed this medallion. Using the most powerful of magic he created it as a way for a person to summon demons into one's own body."
"Like a vampire," Peter guessed.
"No. A vampire is but one demon. This medallion would allow it's user to bring all the demons of hell to his aid, to actually become one with the demons while retaining his soul. Tyrtes wanted a way to live forever, he accomplished that but unknowingly he did so much more. One vampire is powerful, could you imagine an entire horde in one body. It would be an unstoppable force which would rule the earth for all time."
"What happened?" Peter asked.
"He died," Candor replied. "The spell he cast was so powerful that it his old body was unable to handle the stress and his heart stopped."
"So close to ultimate power," Peter said in awe. "So he failed, what's the problem?"
"He still constructed the medallion," Candor answered. "Anyone can still use the medallion and become all powerful. And unfortunately, I know of no conventional means my which it can be destroyed."
"So we hide it?" Peter guessed.
"That we also cannot do," Candor told his student. "The medallion is like a magnet, it draws people to it. We could throw it into the ocean but eventually someone would find it."
"So what can we do?"
"I am afraid there is but one thing we can do," Candor said sadly. "I studied Tyrtes research. I believe that whoever uses the medallion will draw an unimaginable amount of energy into the medallion. If whoever is using this energy is killed the energy will build up inside the medallion until it shatters."
"And you plan to use it and have me kill you," Peter said finally understanding.
"Not the most attractive course of action I know but it is necessary," Candor replied.
"Why you? I could just as easily activate the medallion. I doubt it's complicated."
"I'm weary. I've lived for so long and lost so many friends that I don't posses the same fire that you have. I doubt that my death will end the threat the medallion possesses. It will be broken yes, but that does not mean it can not be rejoined. I do not have the energy to guard the medallion, you do. All of my other students have either died or disappeared. You are the only one I know of who is strong enough to do this."
"Couldn't the medallion be controlled?" Peter said desperately seeking an alternative.
"Only by someone who is evil," Candor said. "The temptation would be too much for me, for anyone, to bear. Slowly the medallion would change it's user to meet the desires of the demons."
"So there is no other way," Peter said downtrodden.
Candor only nodded as he turned his back to Peter. He raised the medallion above his head as he shouted, "Demons of hell, creators of death and destruction, come to me, hear my call and bring me your power."
Peter watched as the winds began to swirl around them and a red glow emanating from the medallion enveloped Candor's body. Peter withdrew his sword as Candor's body began to convulse from the struggle between him and the demons. Peter raised his sword as Candor's body turned towards him. He saw the demon and all of it's hatred, and he saw his friend pleading for him to end it. Peter brought his sword down as he killed the man and the demon.
As the quickening began and lightening crackled through the desert Peter saw the the medallion break into four parts.
And thus Peter became responsible for the guarding of the medallion. He would pass the pieces onto the strongest of his students, one of whom was named Marcus. Marcus would assume the responsibility after Peter's death. A responsibility he would one day pass onto his favorite and most promising student, Alexander Harris.
Buffy sat quietly in the bus depot as she tried to pick where she would go next.
Two months ago Buffy had fled Sunnydale. She had been forced to banish the Angel, the man who she had loved and hated. She hadn't been able to remain in Sunnydale any longer after that and had had left without even telling her friends, not even Xander, the one who she had begun to fall in love with.
Buffy found her thoughts drifting to Xander. It seemed that she spent all her time either thinking of Angel or Xander. She had loved Angel, had started to fall in love with Xander, and she had lost them both.
"I wonder," Buffy thought. "Did I really stop the world from getting sucked into hell. Maybe that's where I am. Hell couldn't possibly be any worse then my life."
Buffy slowly felt her eyes begin to close. She hadn't been getting enough sleep with all the moving about and now her body was beginning to shut down. Though her life had been rather uneventful for her, having slayed only one vampire a month ago when she was in Dallas, constant travel on a bus did not make sleeping easy.
An image of Xander formed in her mind. Like her his life had become a living hell. He'd died, lost his parents, and then forced to destroy the demon that inhabited his father. At his parents burial Buffy had asked him if he wanted to talk, she remembered when he had taken her offer.
5/25/98 11:00 P.M. Sunnydale
Xander quietly walked beside Buffy as they approached her house. Two weeks ago Xander's parents had died and since then he had hardly said a word. Buffy desperately tried to start a conversation, "You handled those vampires well tonight."
It was true. Once Xander been around just to keep Buffy company now he could hold his own against the vampires. His quick blade had relived quite a few vampires of their heads.
"They weren't much of a challenge. You could have handled them yourself without much of a problem," Xander said as they arrived at her house. "Well here we are."
"I am the Slayer, shouldn't I be walking you home?" Buffy said.
"And I'm an immortal," Xander said, he almost seemed to spit the last word out. "There isn't much that they could do to me."
"Angel knows what you are," Buffy said worriedly. "He knows how to kill you."
"Wouldn't make much of a difference to me anymore. Good night Buffy," Xander said as he turned away from her and prepared to head to his own, but empty, house.
"It would to me," Buffy thought. Buffy knew someone had to get Xander to open up and it might as well be her. "Xander ... would you like something to drink."
Xander turned around. For a moment he almost refused, but the pleading tone Buffy used changed his mind. "Sure Buff, that would be nice."
Buffy led him into the house, seating him at the dining room table. She went to the kitchen and made them both a cup of tea.
Buffy returned to the table with the drinks. She knew her mother would be asleep by now so they wouldn't have to worry what they talked about. "So ... you got your last blood transfusion today."
"Yep," Xander said taking a sip of his tea. "Marcus assured me that being an immortal would prevent me from being turned into one of those fish monsters, but I'm not about to take any chances. I'm not sure being a monster would be a pleasant way to spend the next couple of centuries."
"And Marcus," Buffy said as she tried to keep the conversation alive. "He left for Japan today."
"Yeah, an old friend contacted him yesterday," Xander said. "Old as in known each other for a couple of centuries. Anyway he didn't really explain why but his friend needed to see him. It must have been really important because he left on the first flight he could."
"Oh," Buffy said unable to think of anything else to talk about.
Xander sat quietly for a few moments before he decided to bring up the subject that had been bothering him for the past couple of weeks. "Buffy, at the funeral you asked me if I wanted to talk about what had happened. Well I wasn't ready then but now I am, that is if you are still willing to listen."
"Of course," Buffy said thanking God that Xander had finally brought the subject up.
"I don't know where to begin," Xander said with a sigh.
"Wherever you want," Buffy said. "Whatever you want to talk about we can."
Xander looked down at the table, "It's strange that I feel so much pain over their deaths. We never were a real family, we hardly saw each other or had a chance to talk. Yet I feel so empty without them."
"They were family," Buffy said. "They were your parents and you loved them."
"They weren't really my parent," Xander said sadly. "Biologically they weren't. ..."
"Screw biology," Buffy said cutting him off. "They may not have given birth to you but that doesn't mean they weren't your real parents. They may not have been good ones but they loved you. So what if they weren't biologically related, the bond you had with them was much stronger."
"Yes, and I killed one of them," Xander said sadly.
Buffy saw the pain he felt clearly etched on his face. She suffered from her own pain, and the guilt of Xander's parents deaths. "I'm sorry I didn't kill Angel, if I had none of this would have happened."
"Chang killed my parents Buff, Angel just helped a little," Xander said. He looked at Buffy, he alone perhaps understood her pain. "I didn't realize before how hard this was for you Buff but know I do. I've never done anything harder then when I killed my father."
"But you did," Buffy said. "You were able to kill him. While I, the goddamn vampire slayer can't kill Angel."
"Angel is dead, at least the one we knew," Xander said forcefully. "You have to realize that. It's strange, when you found out that Angel had turned you said that there must still be apart of him left inside. I remember when Jesse was changed I said the exact same thing. Because he looked the same I assumed he was still the same, anyone would. But he wasn't, neither is Angel, neither was my father, when a person becomes a vampire they die no matter how much we hope that a part of them is still alive."
"And it will still be hard when you kill him," Xander continued. "When I killed Jesse it hurt, he was my friend. But when I killed my father I wanted to die, and I imagine you will to when you destroy Angel. But you might not have to, because I plan to. I promised that I would see that bastard reduced to ashes, and that is a promise that I fully intend to keep."
Buffy sat quietly, shocked by Xander's words. But she was glad to have gotten him to talk. She thought that she had done something to help him, perhaps they had managed to help each other.
Xander finished his drink and stood up from the table, "It's getting late and I'd better get home."
"I don't like to think of you being all alone," Buffy said. Since the death of Xander's parents Marcus had been staying with him. But with him in Japan Xander would be alone in the house.
"Being alone at home is nothing new to me," Xander said sadly as he headed for the door.
"Why don't you stay here tonight?" Buffy said, she knew that being alone would not help Xander. "My mom would understand and I'm sure we could find somewhere for you to sleep."
Xander gave her a slight smile, something that had once been a common sight but had now become a rare pleasure. "Sorry Buff but I don't think I'd sleep well knowing we were under the same roof."
As Buffy watched him disappear into the darkness she whispered, "I doubt I could either."
"And then a few days later I sent Angel to hell," Buffy thought.
Buffy picked up her bags. She didn't have much. A few changes of clothes and the small bit of money she had left. She had left everything else she had back in Sunnydale, from her diary to the katanna Marcus had given her. She didn't know why she kept moving she just knew that she didn't want to stay in any one place, none of them felt like home.
Buffy picked out her next location, "Let's try Florida," she thought. "It is after all the sunshine state, doesn't sound like a place vampires would like to live."
* * * * *
Spain
Xander studied his weapons as he sat on his bed meticulously cleaning them. In his right hand he held the rapier that Marcus had given to him when he had become an immortal. Xander knew the sword almost as well as he knew himself. The basket hilt was elaborately fashioned and covered with a thin layer of gold. A long thin, yet extremely sharp, blade of solid steel was attached to the hilt. His weapon was not nearly as powerful as other swords that would be wielded by immortals, but it was quicker and he knew that in one swift move he could strike a killing blow.
Xander glanced at the weapon in his left hand. Marcus referred to it as the main-gauche, or left hand in French. Xander still usually called it a dagger. A thin blade, almost a foot long, came off the hilt with a shorter quillion on either side. Marcus had told him it's purpose was for parrying the attacks of one's enemy's. But Xander had yet to get use to wielding a weapon in both hands so when training he normally stuck to just his sword.
Xander felt the now familiar buzz as the door to his room opened. He watched as his friend and mentor entered. He thought back to the events that had happened mere hours before that might also take this friend away from him.
Hours before
Marcus and Xander quietly walked through the university's garden. After the school year had ended Marcus had brought Xander here. Suffering from the loss of his parents and without Buffy around anymore to console him Marcus had decided Xander needed to get away. He had brought him here, to the university he had built over the place that had been his home almost a thousand years ago. Xander spent most of his days studying, anything from academics to the martial arts.
"This is such a beautiful place," Xander said. "It's always so peaceful." Xander often spent time in the garden, it seemed to ease the pain he felt.
"It use to be a field," Marcus said remembering his childhood. "I spent most of my youth harvesting grain here. Then later I built a house here. And then about a hundred years ago I had the school built here."
"How things change," Xander said.
"If you have the time to watch them," Marcus replied. "It's important that ..."
Both immortals paused as they felt the tingling in the back of their heads warning of the approach of another immortal.
"I don't suppose you are expecting someone and just forgot to mention it," Xander said. He looked around, the garden wasn't empty, a few of the universitie's other students roamed about, not the best place for a sword fight.
"This one is no friend of mine," Marcus said recognizing the immortal who approached them. He was tall, almost seven feet, and built like an ox. Xander noticed a chain that hung around his neck with a small medallion connected to it. A pentagram was engraved on it, at least Xander thought it was a pentagram, it was hard to tell because the bottom right portion was missing. "And he is not one you want to meet."
"Marcus, I see you are still enjoying the pleasantries of nature. Strange meeting you here again. We have to keep in touch, it's been nearly a hundred and fifty years," the immortal said with a Scottish accent. He turned towards Xander, "But who is your young friend."
"Alexander Harris," Xander said as he stepped forward fully ready to fight this unknown foe.
"Xavier McDouglas," the immortal said. "But I didn't come for you. And I didn't come for you either Marcus, not unless I have to. All I want is your piece of the medallion and I'll be on my way. Why I might even give you a whole year before I get around to killing you."
"And let you claim the prize," Marcus said with a shake of his head. "I don't think so."
"Oh well, I guess we'll do it the hard way," Xavier said as he turned away from them. "There a small mansion twenty or so miles down the road from here. Meet there at nine tonight. If you don't come I'll have to come after, and that would mean killing all of the innocents in my way."
"Who was that?" Xander asked as he watched the other immortal walk away.
"That was one of the most powerful and evil men you'll ever meet," Marcus said with a sigh. "He is also the man who killed my teacher."
1540 A.D. Spain
"This is a beautiful place you have here," Peter said as he surveyed Marcus' wilderness home. The house itself was small but the gardens surrounding it were huge and magnificent.
"That it is," Marcus said.
"You know you are going to have to spend most of your days in the garden. I don't see any servants you've hired to tend it for you," Peter said.
"You make that sound like it's a bad thing," Marcus said smiling, he looked forward to those long days of tending the garden.
"I guess that comes from growing up with nature all around you," Peter said.
"Perhaps," Marcus replied Marcus wondered where Peter had grown up, his teacher rarely spoke of his past. Marcus thought him to be an Arab, he certainly had a similar fighting style but he looked slightly different. Marcus didn't think he'd ever know for sure.
"And I'm so far away from civilization I don't have to worry about running into another immortal," Marcus said. Ironically at that very moment he felt the tingling in the back of his head indicating the presence of another immortal. "Of course I could be wrong."
Marcus turned to see who had found them. He got his first look at the immortal who would become his greatest foe. He was shocked by the huge size of the man and the large claymore he carried with him.
"Xavier," Peter murmured with a slight twinge of fear in his voice. "Marcus, get out of here."
"What?" Marcus said shocked.
"Why don't you let the boy stay," Xavier said advancing on them. "I can sense he has a piece of the medallion. If he stays it will save me the trouble of tracking him down later."
"Run Marcus," Peter said as he withdrew his sword and attacked Xavier. "You can not hope to face one such as he."
Marcus stood paralyzed as he watched the two experienced immortals fight. Peter's scimitar was faster then the eye could see, yet Xavier's inhuman strength sent Peter reeling. Marcus watched on in horror as Xavier thrust his sword into his teacher. As Xavier raised his sword above his head for the killing blow Marcus did as he had been asked and he turned and ran.
"Do you have to go?" Xander asked. He knew Marcus did not expect to survive the upcoming battle.
"Yes, I've spent centuries avoiding him," Marcus said sadly. "We've run into each other a few times. A hundred and fifty years ago I ran into him during the civil war."
"You were on the north and he was on the south," Xander guessed.
Marcus shook his head, "No, nothing like that. Despite some common misconceptions that war wasn't fought over slavery. Like most wars it was fought over money and power. Neither side was good or evil, like all wars good innocent people died on both sides. War is evil Xander, sometimes necessary but still evil, and I've avoided them as much as possible, my advice is do the same. This is perhaps my last and most important lesson for you."
Xander thought about this for a few moments before he asked, "Then how did you meet him?"
"I was an abolitionist during those times," Marcus said. "Help slaves escape to Canada for an attempt at a real life. At one plantation I encountered Xavier, he was the owner of the place. Now I never blamed the people who owned slaves, it was the way of life they had been taught, it was wrong but it was also a part of their culture. But what Xavier did was intolerable. He would beat anyone for the slightest fault, some that he would make up. I challenged him, the fight was long and hard but he was better then I. The only reason I came out alive was the lucky intervention of a few field hands. Seeing an opportunity one of them picked up my sword which I had dropped in the fight and ran him through. I left quickly, it's hard to explain why a person can heal a sword wound in a matter of moments. When I came back he had disappeared. I don't know what happened to him, I kinda hoped someone had come along and taken his head."
"Why?" Xander had to ask. "Why kill your teacher and go to all that trouble of tracking you down. I know there can be only one but this seems to be going a little bit extreme."
Marcus reached under his shirt and pulled out a small pie shaped piece of metal. Xander guessed that it was the final piece to the medallion that Xavier wore. "This is called the Medallion of Tyrtes, or at least it's part of it, there are three other pieces all of which Xavier possesses. Forged by the sorcerer Tyrtes twenty five hundred years ago it allows the it's user to summon all the demons of hell into his body. Such a person would become invulnerable."
"Why do you have a piece?" Xander asked.
"After it was created Tyrtes died before he could use it. It then came into possession of an immortal named Candor, Peter's teacher. To break the medallion Candor had to die and gave the responsibility of guarding it to Peter, who was the one who had to kill him. Peter passed the pieces off to his students, one which was me."
"How did Xavier gain the other three pieces?" Xander wondered.
Marcus sighed, "Xavier was born a little over a thousand years ago, he is only about a century older then I am. Xavier was given a piece by Marcus. Xavier became obsessed with the idea of the power he could gain. He left our teacher and where he traveled I do not know. When he came back he was powerful, and completely ruthless. He would kill anyone, mortal or immortal, who got in his way. He killed my teacher five hundred and fifty years ago and thus gained the second piece. That friend I went to see in Japan was another student of Peter's and he also had a piece. He wanted to see me because he believed Xavier to be in the area, he wanted to get rid of the piece so it wouldn't fall into his hands. When I got there my friend had already been killed. I never imagined Xavier would find me so quickly."
"And you are the last thing stopping him from ultimate power," Xander said now understanding.
Marcus slowly unfastened the medallion and handed it to Xander, "I was the last thing, now you are. Xavier won't expect me to give it to someone as young as you so you have time to get away."
Xander looked at the powerful object in his hand with awe. He also understood the huge responsibility that he had been given. "Why not just bury it?"
"The other pieces are attracted to it and Xavier would easily be able to find it," Marcus said heading for the door. "I put you in great danger by giving this to you. Xavier is immensely powerful and you can not hope to face him and win as of yet. Also he has countless servants to hunt you down. He'll send mortals, immortals, vampires, maybe even demons to hunt you down.
"Marcus, how do you know I can not beat him?" Xander asked. "I'm nearly as good as you are." It was true, many of there training matches had ended in stalemates had ended when both of them had collapsed in exhaustion.
Marcus turned around to look one last time upon his student. Xander had changed much from the boy he had met months ago in Sunnydale. The death of his parents had given him the inspiration and work ethic that would astound anyone who had previously known him, unfortunately it also led him to become sullen and more closed off. "Xander I have known you for but a few months. This may seem a long time to you but to me it merely more then a blink of an eye. But in that time you have showed more skill and promise then anyone I have ever known. You have the skill, and most importantly the heart, to be the last. You can not do this though if you lose your head to Xavier. Live and grow stronger and then one day when your ready, even if it's centuries from now, you send that bastard to hell."
"I will," Xander promised.
"Good, I believe that you are the one who can do it," Marcus said as he turned and headed for the door. He paused to ask one last thing before he left, "Has there been any word on Buffy?"
"No," Xander said sadly. Marcus had been away when Angel tried to send the world to hell and Xander knew he blamed himself for Buffy's disappearance. He believed that if he had been around he could have made some kind of difference.
"If I'm not back within the hour you get on the next flight off the continent," Marcus said as he left.
* * * * *
Xander waited two hours for Marcus to return. Finally he went over to the computer that Marcus had given and taught him how to use. He typed a brief letter which he sent to the Sunnydale High School library. The message simply read,
Xander then hurriedly gathered his small number of possessions, his weapons, a few sets of clothing, and the large amount of money Marcus had left him.
Xander looked at the plane schedule he had got trying to decide where to go. "Florida," he thought. "Always wanted to go there."
