Title: Immortal Convergence Author: Kay Email: kaygrr@hotmail.com Feedback: Do you really want to see me beg? My happy dance is way more entertaining. Website: ssfdu.tripod.com/kay/journal.htm (Sandy rocks) Archive: Hey, just ask first Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Pairing: Xander/Wesley, Xander/Wesley/Spike, Duncan/Methos, Spike/Methos, Giles/Richie...etc. Rating: PG Sequel: None Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the characters of the show don't belong to me in anyway whatsoever. Mutant Enemy, I live in envy of you. The same goes for Highlander and Rysher - they may be your toys, but I'm going to play with them. Niener. This story is written for enjoyment, not for profit. This whore only works for feedback. Litigation would be a waste of time, people. I'm a member of the Starving Student Sect. Summery: A renegade immortal on the Hellmouth puts Sunnydale in danger, and it's up to the Scooby Gang and some visitors from Seacouver to put things right. Warnings: spoilers up to Graduation II...I think. Xander returned from his summer a month ago, but that's about it. No Anya, no Tara ( I *like* Tara). There is Riley, though. As for HL...say it with me people: Richie isn't dead! Let's just pretend that in the next to last season, Ahriman was vanquished without a certain never-to-be-mentioned incident occurring, K? And the final season of HL never happened, either. Hell, if I'm going to be messing about with the characters, why not mess around with time, too? I know we've been through this before, but here's a quick rundown on the characters from HL: Immortals: people who, after they die a violent death, come back to life. They cease to age, will recover from any injury or death except beheading, and can sense when others like them are near. They fight each other to the death, and when one beheads another the winner absorbs the loser's power, called the Quickening. At the end of 'the Game', the final Immortal remaining gets 'the Prize', some sort of immense power. They cannot fight on Holy Ground and they take challenges singly, fighting one on one. Richie Ryan: died when he was in his early twenties; student of Duncan MacLeod, he has been an immortal for only a few years. He has a tendency to be a hot-head, but he is a good guy over all. Duncan MacLeod: in his thirties, he died four hundred years ago in Scotland. He holds to the ideals of chivalry and honor, earning him the nickname of 'Boyscout'. Adam Pierson: the current alias of Methos, the oldest Immortal at five thousand years. He has been many things and holds to a code of survival above all else, for himself and his friend. I personally am in love with this man. Joe Dawson: a mortal, he is a Watcher, a member of an organization dedicated to tracking the interactions of Immortals. A Vietnam vet, he is a close friend of Duncan's. Also, he's pretty damn cute himself. So I was reading all the HL crossovers that popped up a few months ago and I enjoyed the hell out of them. I decided to try my hand at one, and this is the result. A word about the pairings...they are all James and Sandy's faults. James, because of an off-hand comment that sent my mind off in rapturous contemplation of the possibilities of Wesley and Xander together. Sandy, because she put up with me rambling out ideas for this fic and came up with quite a few of her own. And I guess I can blame Karen too - she didn't do anything to stop me, after all. Thanks, y'all Part One/? One hand rubbing at his forehead in small, soothing circles, Richie Ryan squinted through the windshield, searching for a late-night dinner. He had been driving back up to Seacouver from a short vacation in Mexico, touring through California on his way. It had gotten late enough that he wanted to pull over and get a hotel room for the night. He'd gotten off at the exit for Sunnydale, liking the name of the town and figuring he could find a cheap place to stay. Right now, all he wanted was a diner. He had a raging headache, which he figured was brought on by skipping lunch and dinner. He wanted something to eat and a Coke. Maybe he could charm the waitress out of a couple of Tylenols, too. Richie frowned. For a town off a major highway, there sure weren't many places open. He finally found a diner with a flickering neon open sign still lit and pulled in. Both hands rubbing at his temples, he entered and claimed a table. The waitress approached him warily. Richie wasn't sure why - it wasn't as though he looked intimidating. He was always going to look the same as he did at the time of his first death: barely in his twenties, with curly red hair and blue eyes, there were no lines on his face, nothing to commemorate any of the trials he'd faced, the enemies he'd defeated, the lessons he'd learned. Except in his eyes, maybe - Duncan always said he gave everything away with his eyes. He smiled at the waitress and begged her for a hot meal, a Coke, and some aspirin. She looked him over carefully, then relaxed and smiled back at him. "Sure thing," she promised, heading back toward the kitchen. She came back right away with a tall glass and a few white pills. Richie downed all the aspirin and the soda right away, but it did nothing for the headache. His head continued to throb, the pain almost enough to kill his appetite. He still smiled gratefully at the waitress when she brought him a stack of pancakes. As he was digging into the pile, the door chimed and someone else entered the diner. At the same moment, the pain swelled nearly unbearably as he was hit with the awareness of another Immortal's presence. Dropping his fork, he squinted up at the newcomer, hand inching toward his hidden sword. The guy who had just entered the bar looked even younger than Richie: with dark hair that was just beginning to cover his ears and a long sleeve shirt over baggy blue jeans, he looked just like any other teen-ager. The assessing look he threw at Richie told him that the stranger knew just what they were. The dark-haired man didn't approach Richie right away; first he took the time to call out a greeting to the waitress and barely-visible cook. "Hey, Nancy, Lou. How're things tonight?" "Quiet," the waitress answered cheerfully, pouring a large cup of coffee and stirring an obscene amount of sugar into it. She handed the mug to the stranger. "You doing all right, Xan?" "It's quiet out there, too," Xan answered. He sipped at the coffee and approached Richie, pausing a few feet away from him. "Mind if I join you for a sec?" The redhead looked him over carefully. He couldn't see how the other Immortal could be concealing a sword, but he'd been fooled before. Still, Richie felt confident. He'd been taught by the best. "Take a seat," he invited. Xan nodded and sat down across from him. "Just passing through?" "Basically. I was thinking of getting a hotel room." He casually picked up his fork and took another bite of his dinner. "Are you looking for a fight?" Xan looked curious, nothing more. "Not especially." Richie tried the trick Duncan always used on him, but he couldn't read the other man's eyes. The gaze that met his was merely interested, giving nothing away. "Good." Xan took a drink. "That always ruins a night. If you're not here for me, then I suggest moving on. There are nice hotels up off the next exit, only about twenty miles away." "What is this, some sort of territory thing? This is your town, and you don't want anyone else in it?" Xan laughed. "Yeah, in a few minutes I'm going to go piss on the sidewalk just to make my point. No, I'm really thinking of you. Sunnydale's not a real good place for people like us." He grinned. "You know, those of us with the extended warranty." Richie couldn't help grinning back. He liked this guy. "What do you mean?" "That headache you've got? It's not going to go away." "How did you know?" "Sunnydale does that to everyone of us that I've ever met. Sucks, doesn't it? That's the main reason I'm suggesting you move on - it's going to make sleeping a bitch." Xan finished the rest of his coffee and stood up. "If you decide to stay, go to the inn about three miles up the road, the one with the pirate sign. It's on the outskirts, so you may actually get some sleep." He headed toward the door, calling out good-byes to the others as he went. Richie motioned the waitress over. "Who was that guy?" "Xander? He's a nice guy. A local." Her tone was guarded, like she wasn't telling him everything. "He comes in a lot of nights, checking up on us. He's a good kid." Richie nodded his thanks, then gathered up his things and paid the bill. He was going to trust his instincts: he liked Xander and was going to try the next town up the road. ***** Once he reached Seacouver, Richie knew right where to head to find his friends: Joe's bar. It didn't matter that it was eleven in the morning; they'd be inside, he was sure. He wanted to talk to all of them about the guy he'd met in California. He parked his car outside and banged on the door until he heard the lock click open. Joe Dawson jerked the door open. "Jesus, Rich, what's the hurry?" He leaned forward on his cane, blinking in the sunlight. Richie grinned at the older man. Although he'd been creeped out by the thought of Watchers, Joe had become a close friend. "Are Mac and Adam here?" "They're in the bar. What's up?" "I've got a story and some questions for all of you. Come on." He led the way back to the bar. Sure enough, Duncan MacLeod and Adam Pierson were sitting at the bar. "Hey, guys!" "Richie, I wasn't expecting you back so soon!" Duncan's look of welcome turned to one of concern. "You look exhausted." "I drove all night." "What on earth for?" "I didn't intend to. I pulled off the highway last night to find a place to sleep, but then the weirdest thing happened. As soon as I got off the road, my head started killing me. I stopped at a diner and this guy walked in. He was one of us, and he told me that it was the place that was giving me the headache, that it gave one to any Immortal who came to town. I decided to take him at his word and as soon as I got on the road, the headache was gone. It felt so good, I decided to just finish the drive." He looked expectantly at the other men. "Have you ever heard of anything like that before?" Duncan shook his head, but Adam was up and off his chair. "Where did you pull over?" "Some little town called Sunnydale." "Shit," muttered the older man. "Did you get this guy's name?" Joe asked, pulling out his cell. "Let's not involve the Watchers just yet," Adam said, holding up his hand. "This might be something we want to take care of ourselves." He pinned Richie with an intense stare. "This is very important, Richie. We need to know everything you can remember about this guy." A little unnerved, Richie shrugged. "I don't know...I was eating when he walked in. The waitress gave him a cup of coffee and called him Xan. They talked, and then he came over to me." He repeated the conversation they'd had. "Then he left, and I asked the waitress about him. She didn't tell me much - I don't think she wanted to tell me a lot. All she said was that he was a nice local boy." "Local boy? No way." Joe shook his head. "No way could a pre-Immortal last long enough on the Hellmouth to hit his teens before his first death." "Hellmouth?" Duncan asked. "You want to do this or should I?" Joe asked, looking at Adam. "I will. I'm going to assume neither of you know nothing about the Hellmouth." Adam sat back down and stretched out his legs. "It's in Sunnydale. It's a not very imaginative name for the mouth of Hell." "What?" Duncan shook his head. "Are you serious?" "This from the man who recently defeated a demon that returns every thousand years to end the world?" Adam's smooth voice was thick with sarcasm. "There are more things than just demons wandering the earth, although there are more than enough of them. Monsters, ghosts, and the Hellmouth are out there, too. Most of these creatures are attracted to the Hellmouth." "If these monsters are all over the place, why haven't I run into any of them before?" Richie asked. "You probably have and you just didn't know it. Most of them avoid our kind, anyway." "Unless they're hunting you," Joe muttered. "What?" This time it was Richie's turn to ask. "Some of these creatures are attracted to us. To the power of the Quickening inside of us. A few of them can even take that power from us." "What would that do to an Immortal, to lose the Quickening without losing his head? Would we go back to be mortal?" Duncan asked. "No. We just die. They can do the same to a pre-Immortal, although it is more usual to kill the young ones, then take their Quickening after they've revived." Adam shook his head and drummed his fingers on the bar. "How the hell did this guy last so long?" "We've got a Watcher in place down there to make sure that no one hangs around there." Joe said. "He hasn't reported any Immortal activity in years." "Is it the Hellmouth that caused the headache?" Richie asked, rubbing at his forehead. "Yeah." Adam sighed. "I'm too old for this. I'll go home and pack. Meet you back here in an hour, Joe?" "I'll be ready," the other man promised. "What's going on?" Richie asked. "We've got to Sunnydale and check this guy out. If he's just living there, than we need to explain the danger he's in and get him away from there. If he's there to cause trouble..." Adam's voice trailed away. "I'm coming," Duncan said. "I would have thought you'd had your fill of battling demons, Highlander." Duncan just shot him a flat look as he grabbed his coat. "I'm coming, too." Richie liked Xander; he wanted to think that the other Immortal was just unknowingly in the wrong place and he wanted to help him. He yawned hugely. "I'm not driving, though." He took up Duncan's offer of a ride and followed him out of the bar. Demons, monsters, and Hellmouths. What next? *****