Fic: To Die by the Sword (2/?)

[PChazzman@xxxxxxx]

Gasp! He's managed to write another part? Oh My!

TITLE: To Die by the Sword (2/?)
AUTHOR: Chazzman
E-MAIL: PChazzman@xxxxxxx 
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They all belong 
to Joss and the WB network. Please don't sue. 
SPOILERS: Season 5. 
SUMMERY: Highlander X-over challenge from Hhdouglas.
RATED: PG
DISTRIBUTION: Just ask me, please...
FEEDBACK: Is very welcome.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have not watched Highlander the series. Most of what I know 
about the characters is from other people's X-over fics.

To Die by the Sword

Chap 2

Ned Finkle stared at the television reports from Sunnydale. A lot of people 
dead via swordplay and a lot of destruction from an unknown explosion. It 
sure had the hallmarks of a bunch of immortals getting together and having a 
showdown. Still, that wasn't what interested him, it was the report of the 
severely young male injured who had somehow managed to survive the slaughter. 
Was he an immortal? Perhaps he was a newborn. 

A possible easy mark. Just his style. He had only been an immortal for 6 
years now and had had a limited number of heads to his name. All had been 
newborns, but he had felt an increase in his strength after each quickening. 
He knew better than to face any of the elder immortals yet. He was still 
learning.

Newbies however were another matter. Unprepared and still confused from 
their recent first death, they were easy pickings for those who were quick 
enough to take advantage of the opportunities. 

He went to his desk and pulled out a map of California. 'Sunnydale' was only 
a few hours away from LA. He could drive up and scope out the place. See if 
he could feel any immortals in the area. If he found something, he could 
always call in sick and check it out.

But he needed to work fast. Who knew how many other immortals might have the 
same idea?

********

Joe Dawson was now watching the 11 PM news report on the 'Sunnydale 
Slaughter' when Duncan MacCloud walked in.

"How bad is it, Joe?" the immortal Highlander asked.

Joe pursed his lips and slid the notepad across the counter. "In the past 
hour we've had eight reports about Immortals who have had a sudden urge to 
travel. One guess as to where."

"Sunnydale," sighed Duncan.

"Yep, and before you ask, No, none of those killed was an Immortal, that we 
are aware of. I've had no reports from anyone about this town before."

Duncan sat in silent thought for several seconds before suddenly looking up.

"Where's Methos?" 

"Don't know. Soon as the first reports came in he lit out of here like the 
devil was on his heels," said Joe. "You don't suppose he'd go down there to 
check it out do you?"

"It's hardly his style. Even if there aren't any Immortals there now, in a 
few hours that town is gonna be a real tourist spot for 'Easy Head-hunters', 
and I'm sure he doesn't want to deal with them."

"Maybe," said Joe, "but you should have seen the look on his face when they 
first announced the news. Don't think I've ever seen him looking that 
worried."

Duncan tapped his fingers lightly on the bar. Methos worried and possibly 
going to a hot spot of gathering immortals. This could be bad.

"Alright," he sighed. "Guess I'd better go down there and see what's 
happening."

"Next flight to LA isn't until 7 AM," Joe told him.

Duncan nodded and headed out of the bar. Joe pulled the notepad back towards 
him and wrote two more names down on it.

*****

Giles stared blankly at the glass of brandy in his hand. He had delayed this 
all day. Always finding something else more pressing that needing doing. 

Now however it was almost one in the morning and all his other tasks were 
done. Tara lay sleeping on the couch, courtesy of the tranquilizer he had 
slipped into her drink a couple of hours ago. Buffy was upstairs holding 
Dawn as she slept, again courtesy of Dr. Giles. Dawn had been blaming 
herself for Willow's death. She was, after all, the one whom Glory had been 
after.

Buffy had gone into the same quiet shock that she had when her mother had 
died. Giles prayed that they would have some peace for a while now, in order 
to give them time to recover from this latest blow.

His own heart ached with the loss of the girl whom he could not have love 
more if she had been his own daughter.

But she had not been his daughter.

And now it was his responsibility to let her parents know that she was dead.

He slowly picked up the phone and began to dial. He was halfway through the 
number when he stopped. It was rather late. It wasn't as if there was 
anything they could do at this time. Perhaps he should wait until the 
morning. Yes. They were probably asleep already. Why should he wake them 
now with nothing but the worst news any parent could ever receive? 

He set the phone down and took another sip of his brandy.

Morning. Yes. That would be better.

*****

Willow had stolen a doctor's coat before leaving the morgue to avoid any 
questions about the large hole and bloodstain on her shirt from any people 
she might meet. Tara had not been at either her own dorm room or at 
Willow's, so she was now heading towards the only other place she could think 
of. 

Buffy's house.

She was a little frightened. Willow had hoped that she could do this in 
small increments. First she would have found Tara and let her know that she 
was alive and more importantly, not evil. Then, together, they could have 
told Buffy, then Giles, then Xander...

Now it looked like she would have to face them all at once.

She stared at the house from the sidewalk, taking several deep breaths to 
steel herself. She was feeling strangely on edge. Her heart was suddenly 
pounding so hard that she could hear her pulse racing in her ears. She 
almost felt like she would be sick, except she hadn't eaten anything since 
breakfast so she had nothing to throw up.

She realized she was ravenously hungry. 

*But not for blood,* she thought to herself. This was a hunger for a nice 
thick burger or a steak or anything. *Maybe Buffy has some leftover pizza. 
Oh great, now I sound like Xander. 'Hi Buffy. I'm back from the dead and here 
to raid your refrigerator'. Ok, Rosenberg, get a grip. These are your 
friends. It will be alright. Just a little shock for them. Please Goddess, 
don't let Giles have a heart attack.* 

With that last thought she raised her hand and pushed the doorbell.

******

Cordelia sat quietly in the backseat of Angel's car with Gunn as Angel drove 
them home to LA. Although she wasn't asleep, she hadn't said a word since 
they had left Sunnydale two hours ago. Wesley and Gunn were asleep.

Angel had just taken the Colinga exit when the vision hit. Quickly he pulled 
into a gas station and stopped the car. Gunn held a cursing Cordelia.

"Little late on that one," she suddenly screamed to the sky, before she 
started to sob.

"Cordelia?" asked Wesley.

"It was Willow and Buffy and a bunch of guys with swords," she said whilst 
shaking her head.

"Cordelia," asked Wesley, "are you certain that it was Willow you saw?"

"Duh! Yes I'm sure. I've only known her bad fashion sense for 15 years. Ah!" 
she broke of as another wave of images assaulted her. After several seconds 
she recovered enough to say, "I think we'd better get back to Sunnydale."

"What did you see," asked Angel.

"Willow walking out of the morgue."

*****

She was exhausted and she couldn't sleep. A steady stream of tears had 
leaked down Buffy's face as she silently cried next to her sleeping sister. 
She had to cry now because tomorrow she would have to take care of Tara for 
Willow.

She had been trying to think about what she could have done differently, but 
drawing a complete blank. She was emotionally exhausted. Glory was gone. 
Dawn was safe. But the cost had been Willow's life. 

A tingling sensation in her head roused Buffy as she lay back on the bed with 
Dawn's head on her shoulder. Slowly moving Dawn to the pillow, Buffy quietly 
eased herself off of the bed and moved towards the hall.

The tingling was slowly growing in strength, and she felt the hairs on the 
back of her neck beginning to stand on end. Something was coming closer.

In her exhausted state she could only think of one thing that it might be. 
*Glory!*. Somehow she had escaped and was now coming back for Dawn! Her 
mind began to race as fear gave way to anger. Glory was supposed to be dust 
or dispersed or whatever it was that happened to gods when they died. Willow 
was dead because of her. Well the Bitch was going down now! Buffy would die 
before she let her hurt Dawn or Tara or Giles again. In fact she'd rather be 
dead than dealing 

The doorbell rang. Giles was just rising from his chair when Buffy came 
leaping down the stairs three at a time. Landing in front of the door, Buffy 
snatched up a sword from the umbrella stand next to it with her right hand as 
her left hand rapidly unlocked the dead bolt and grabbed the door handle. 
With a yell, she yanked open the door and charged outside with the sword in 
front of her.

At the same time, the phone began to ring.

*****

Methos drove out of the LAX airport's Hertz rental agency in a dark blue 
Cadillac de Ville. He had entered into the navigational guidance computer 
the address that he needed to get to, and it was displaying the route map and 
an estimation of how long it should take him to get there. Two hours and 12 
minutes.

It had been several years since he had seen her. He had purposefully avoided 
all contact. She had had enough to deal with at the time. Becoming the 
Slayer. Her parents divorcing. 

When she had blown up the High School he had almost made this trip then. But 
then he had caught a glimpse of her in the background of one newscast with a 
group of friends. But today's news story had been too much for him to sit 
back. The prophecy was in motion.

He pressed down on the accelerator. 

End Part 2