That passage was taken directly from The Handbook For New Watchers, and no, I don't mean The Watcher Handbook. It would seem that there are two types of Watchers in the world. The resources and collective might of the Watcher's Council seems abysmal next to what I have learned about this Watcher's Society. There are some similarities between our two groups, although those similarities do not go far. One similarity, other than the name, would be that there are Watchers from both groups based around the world. Another would be that the Society of Watchers are made up almost entirely of historians and researchers, and they have several libraries of information on Immortals located around the world. The Watcher's Council also has a library, and most of us would be considered historians in a way, although our area of expertise is limited mostly to the supernatural world.

That is where the similarities end, however. Where the Council has continued the fine and distinguished practice of keeping everything on paper, the Society of Watchers have taken a keen interest in computers. Also, the Council uses magic and "outdated" weaponry to prepare the Slayer to fight. While I am told that the Society has quite a collection of swords and other close-combat weapons, they do not actively train others to use them.

What they do is observe and record the lives and goings-on of Immortal human beings who can't die except through decapitation. It would seem that, with the exception of a few demon breeds, beheading is a weakness for everyone.

A few days ago, I knew very little about the Watcher's Society and the Immortals they Watch. All I did know, I heard in passing during my training. Now, however, my ignorance on the matter has changed considerably. Buffy, Willow, Anya, Tara, and Dawn have also gained a rather unique perspective on the whole thing. It would seem that Xander already knew quite a bit about it all without needing to be told about it from me.

The Gathering has come to Sunnydale, and I fear that Xander, like so many Immortals before him, will not emerge the victor. In the meantime, his friends watch on, hoping for what would appear to be the impossible.

Watcher of Buffy A. Summers

*****

It was the time of the Gathering, when all remaining Immortals would fight to the last one standing. This was the time when the phrase all Immortals uttered, 'There Can Be Only One!', took on its true meaning.

Immortals all over the world felt the pull toward the small town near the Californian coast, and none of them could resist. At first, Immortals would have enough presence of mind to sell off their belongings or divide them among their friends and spouses. However, as time went on and the pull became stronger, the Immortals would go to work one day and be gone the next without any warning given to those around them.

The Society of Watchers had never been more alert or busy. Field Watchers were in a frenzy trying to keep track of their assignments. They all knew that every Immortal would get to Sunnydale eventually, but the Watchers still had to record the actions each Immortal took on the way. Although there would soon only be one Immortal left alive to observe and record, there was much more work to be done until then.

For one thing, some Immortals didn�t even make it to Sunnydale. Many fights to the death took place in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the smaller towns around them. Southern California had never seen such a large wave of decapitation murders before in its history. Police Departments swapped notes, tracked down possible suspects, and spent much time trying to determine the ones responsible, but they never got close. After all, none of them ever would have suspected that the one responsible for one murder would be the victim of the next. None of them would have suspected that when Detective Jerome Rodriguez of the San Diego PD went missing that his disappearance could have had any connection to the deaths until his headless body was discovered in an alley in Los Angeles. In effect, the Californian police remained clueless to what was really going on. It was clear that some sort of cult was behind it, but who exactly made up that cult was impossible to determine.

Months passed as this rash wave of murders continued. Finally, the murders seemed to subside before coming to what appeared to be a dead stop in all towns except one, Sunnydale.

By this time, the thousands of Immortals who had all come to participate in the Gathering had been reduced to a mere few hundred, and those few hundred all came directly to Sunnydale. Sunnydale was where the real fighting was to take place, and they all knew it. The wave of murders in other Californian towns had been merely a prelude to the real show. Only the meanest, cleverest, devious, luckiest, and best remained alive.

Of this group there were many famous faces such as Duncan MacLeod, Methos and Amanda. There was also Xander Harris, the sole Immortal who had already been in Sunnydale before the Gathering began. Xander, a young man who had been Immortal for only a few years, had very few heads to his name, but what he lacked in power he more than made up for in experience. He had fought things worse than Immortals for years before his Immortality had come into effect, and he would likely fight those things for many years to come, if he survived. His chances were just as good as the others, for the fights were an equal amount of luck and skill.

*****

He'd lost another shirt. He'd lost another pair of pants, too. Miraculously, his jacket had stayed intact, although that might have been because he'd had enough sense to remove it before the fight started. His shoes had more or less remained intact, too, although he guessed they now had a life span of two weeks. His socks were ruined along with his underwear. Basically, when he got out of his car in his apartment's parking lot, the people he passed by couldn't help but stare. It was Sunnydale. Brutal, mysterious murders happened every night and sometimes during the day, and it was common to see Xander and his friends carrying not guns but swords, crossbows, and stakes around town. Still, despite all of that, it was very uncommon to see someone with shredded clothes step out of a car and enter an apartment building as if he belonged there.

Thankfully, that was still uncommon. Soon, it wouldn't be. Xander had felt it for weeks; he knew, like all other Immortals, that the Gathering was coming very, very soon. It was so near at hand that it could take place in a matter of hours or days.

That night, he'd fought one challenger; two nights ago, he'd fought another. Before then, two weeks had passed in between challenges. Xander knew that the number of Immortals in Sunnydale, normally at a grand total of one, would rapidly increase over the next twenty-four or more hours. Then, it would be a free-for-all. When that happened, Xander would cease caring about anything else, and he knew that his only desire would be to play the Game. His teacher had told him that before she, too, fell in the Game some months back, when the Immortals first started arriving in southern California.

Although he'd been Immortal for two years, he was no novice. His teacher, Virdianée, had been four thousand years old. He'd been taught by one of the best; Immortal women rarely lived over a thousand, and to have survived four millennia as one was astonishing. She'd taught him everything he knew, giving him an edge that Immortals who trained under different teachers didn't have. Still, it hadn't been enough to save her; she'd lost to a forty-five hundred-year-old man. Xander had killed him after the man had absorbed Virdianée's Quickening. Although he'd been lucky that time, Xander was not a fool; every challenge he fought, no matter how incompetent his opponent might be, could be his last.

He was careful in every one. So far, it had kept him alive, and he'd collected many heads to his name. He'd lost count, but he was sure that the numbers of Quickenings he'd taken didn't exceed over a hundred just yet.

Xander was tired of it, although not tired enough to just give up, not that he could if he wanted to. He'd fight his best in each challenge. He didn't know if he'd win the Prize. He wasn't counting on it, but he would live for as long as he could.

With that thought, he entered his apartment. Anya was there, waiting. He shed his ruined clothes before taking a solitary shower to wash off the blood before climbing into bed next to her where they proceeded to be very busy for several hours. Quickenings had different effects on Immortals. For Xander, they gave him increases in stamina and adrenaline. If Xander and Anya couldn't get together after a Quickening, then Xander would be stuck on a Quickening high for days before he could sleep, let alone sit still.

Anya worried about her fiancé. She worried that they wouldn't get married if Xander lost a Challenge, and the chances of Xander surviving the entire way through the Gathering were over a hundred to one. Xander was worried about that, too. For that night, however, both of them forgot all about their fears and just concentrated on each other.

*****

Early the next morning, Xander and Anya were awakened by a telephone call from Buffy asking them to come to Giles' apartment for a Scooby meeting.

Despite their energetic love making during the night, Xander was still feeling very energetic and got ready to go without much effort, despite the slight lack of sleep. Anya, however, was feeling sore from the night's activities, and she was feeling groggy. Still, she also got up and got dressed. She, too, knew that any second might be the last second she had with him. Xander made sure to slip his sword into his jacket and the jacket onto his shoulders before they left.

When they got to Giles' place, they found the whole gang waiting for him. "It's started, hasn't it?" Buffy asked Xander without any preamble.

"Yeah," Xander answered. There was no need to ask what 'it' was; the gang knew he was Immortal. Although they hadn't discussed the Gathering, it would take very little deduction to connect the headless bodies Buffy undoubtedly ran into on patrol the night before with Xander's warnings that the Gathering was coming for his friends to come to the conclusion that it had finally begun.

"We can leave tonight," Buffy suggested. "We'll get you out of town. You can stay there for a few weeks."

Xander sighed, shaking his head. "I can't avoid the Gathering. I want to, believe me I do, but everyday the urge to fight grows stronger. Temporarily killing me and then leaving me that way until there's only two Immortals left in the world won't work, either. The other Immortal would hunt me down�or we would hunt each other."

Xander turned and glanced out Giles' window at a dark night. He couldn't see any figures outside, nor did he feel any buzzes, but he was certain that the body lying at the curb wasn't a drunk or a homeless person.

He turned back around to face the group, regarding them all with tired, resigned eyes. He was tired of the killing, but there was no way out of it. "I have to keep playing the Game until I either win the Prize or I'm dead."

Before he even knew what hit him, Willow's arms were wrapped around his waist and the redhead was squeezing the life out of him. Xander smiled down at her as he felt tears form in his eyes. "Wills, I don't feel like dying of suffocation today."

Willow loosened her hold but wouldn't let go. "I don't want you to die," she mumbled into his shirt. "Promise me you won't die."

Xander's eyes snapped shut in pain. "You know I can't, Willow."

Buffy's arms wrapped around another section of his stomach, above Willow's hold. Both girls held on with all their might and Xander let them. He was only a little surprised to feel Giles' arms join in the hug. He had been, after all, the only father Xander ever had. What did surprise him was when Tara joined in. The two of them weren't the best of friends, but Xander didn't care. This might be the last time he saw his friends, and he wasn't going to spoil it by making quips about Tara's friendliness.

Anya was the only one who didn't join in, which Xander understood perfectly. He knew they would say their own goodbyes in a moment.

For now, though, he was content with the group hug with the rest of his family. They stood there for long moments, none of them wanting to let go. But, eventually, they must, because sooner rather than later, the call to fight in the Gathering would be too strong for Xander to resist.

*****

Block, parry, block, dodge, strike. Strike, swing, feint, strike, block, block, parry.

Panting, Amanda and her opponent kept up the dance of sword striking against sword. Her opponent, the only other female Immortal still alive as far as either of them knew, was also breathing heavily. However, she was panting more than Amanda. Amanda would win this fight; that was for certain. Both of them knew it, but the doomed woman didn�t plan to give up easily.

Several minutes later, Amanda saw an opening; her opponent's guard had dropped considerably, leaving her left side more exposed than her right. Amanda took the opportunity without a moment's hesitation.

A few seconds later, the woman's head lay on the ground several feet from her body. Her body had barely hit the ground when the Quickening struck.

When it was over, Amanda lay on the ground, unable to move for several moments. Before she could regain her breath, however, another Buzz blossomed in her mind.

Shakily yet determinedly, Amanda got to her feet. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and the blood from her healed arm before turning around. A man she didn't recognize stood at the far end of the alley.

Amanda walked toward him, stepping over a second body on her way. Two of her challengers were now dead and rotting in the alley behind her, and she was determined to make this man the third.

Ten minutes later, his body had joined the others. His Quickening was a powerful one, and after it, she collapsed in a heap on the asphalt and couldn't move.

She stayed that way for three hours, ignoring the stench of the bodies and the flies gathering around their corpses. She only got up again when she felt another Buzz.

*****

Across town, Duncan MacLeod had taken up a not-so-permanent position. Instead of waiting for the Immortals to come to him, he found himself wandering away from each fallen combatant until he came across the next one.

At first, he wondered how eerie the citizens of the town would think it would be to come across headless bodies all over Sunnydale. Soon, however, thoughts of that sort had disappeared from his mind as all his concentration turned completely to fighting.

The sun was setting after what had to be ten challenges. He knew what that meant. The lucky Immortals that had made it this far were being flushed out; the real competition was yet to come.

*****

Xander hadn't even left Giles' apartment complex's courtyard. He'd already fought and won one challenge in the enclosed space and was busy fighting a second. His second challenge of the day was much more skilled than any Immortal he'd ever faced, and they were rather evenly matched. The victor in this fight wasn't as clear as with the last one.

Xander's friends watched, worried and tense, through Giles' open door and through the Quickening-destroyed window.

Buffy wanted desperately to jump in and save her friend. However, she knew that both her Watcher and her Xander-shaped friend had made good arguments when they tried to dissuade her from doing just that. Xander had stated, both frequently and firmly, that none of them could interfere. Giles had added to that, lecturing that Immortals were skilled sword fighters. Even without swords, they were very deadly. Normally, Buffy might have stood a chance against them, but with the Gathering here, none of the Immortals were thinking clearly, and were therefore unpredictable. If she got in the way of two Immortals, they might kill her without a second thought in order to get back to the fight. Even Xander might do so without even realizing it.

Not only that, but with Quickenings going off everywhere, they could easily be hurt be their destructive properties.

Therefore, the Scoobies stayed inside, enacting the role another group of people had fulfilled for centuries: they watched. However, they also did one more thing: they prayed.

*****

Six or seven blocks away from Xander, and five blocks away from Amanda, Methos had made slow but sure progress. He'd taken out fifteen Immortals already. Half of them had been extremely lucky to get that far, in his opinion, while the others were much more skillful.

A few blocks away from him was Gerald Hemmings, a headhunter for a thousand years. So far, he'd taken out seven people and was busy fighting an eighth opponent with a female fighter waiting her turn. Gerald's best friend and teacher, an ex-Viking named Nort for short, was only one block away. He'd taken out four people so far, all with exceptional skill.

*****

The day progressed quickly into night. Barely a moment seemed to pass before the sun had risen again, beginning another day. The second day after the second night brought to light headless bodies lying seemingly everywhere over Sunnydale. Their murderers were nowhere to be seen, although if one listened hard enough, one would hear the clang of steel on steel in the background. That background could mean anything from the next street to an alley down the road to a whole neighborhood away.

None of the combatants had gotten any sleep in the last twenty-four hours. None of them needed to; Quickening energy kept them wired enough to fight. However, no Immortal could live off Quickening energy alone. They were great energy sources, but they were poor substitutes for water, food and sleep.

By the time the sun had set on the third night, seventy-two Immortals remained alive.

Their skill levels could be conceived of in two ways. Many would consider them the best of the best; many of themselves would consider themselves just plain lucky. Any of them could die at any time. Having survived so far was nothing close to being a morale booster; they were too tired to think of it as such.

Because of their mutual tiredness, an unspoken truce was declared for the night. Although the urge to keep fighting was strong, the urge for a break was even stronger. Immortals returned to their motels or camped out in their cars, assuming those cars and their hotel rooms were still intact. Some of them broke into restaurants that had closed temporarily when the Gathering began; others ordered room service, while others had the presence of mind to buy food from stores that had remained open that week. Some homes, abandoned because of Quickening damage, had leftover food still in their fridges; some of the Immortals made good use of that food and the rest of the houses.

Xander, the only resident of the Hellmouth, was the only one to go home.

Part Two

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