Xander

My head hurt. I don't know from what exactly. It could have been from the booze, or from being subjected to at least three separate spells and being the caster of another extremely powerful spell in the span of a few hours, or from having one huge revelation dumped on me that I was still in shock over. It could have been one big combination. Whatever it was, it was giving me a headache. Normally, Immortals like myself wouldn't get headaches, but these weren't normal circumstances.

Bloody hell. My entire life, all two millennia of it, could be described as one big abnormal circumstance loaded with paranormal and supernatural adventures, with its own file cabinet drawer full of random information in Agent Spooky damn Mulder's office.

Forget about a drawer. That day's events would get its own filing cabinet. Spooky would have a field day.

Okay, so I was a little drunk, too. Not too much, unfortunately, and I was sobering, thanks to that wonderful Immortality that I had going for me. I would have been completely under the influence if it wasn't for the fact that I had promised to meet the rest of the Scooby Gang over at Giles' apartment.

I walked there instead of driving - I was a little drunk, after all. During the walk over, I thought about what had happened that day - not that I could think about anything else.

I thought I knew Methos inside out, but boy, was I wrong. I didn't know what to do next. Methos had given me his Ivanhoe - meaning it was entirely my decision, too. Damnit, I was so mad at him. I was also disgusted. What do you say to the friend you've had for twenty centuries after you've just found out that he was once a mass murderer?

It was so complicated, too. If my younger self had been in complete charge right then, I would have known what to do without thought - I would have taken his head. Methos was a killer, just like Angel. However, my younger self wasn't in complete control. My older self had just as much say. I was both of them, after all - one wasn't dominant over the other. The older Xander had seen more shades of gray than the younger one could ever dream about. He-I'd-done things that the younger Xander would have been disgusted with. I've never come close to killing a third of the world's population, true, but I knew what it was like to do something horrible and feel disgusted with yourself over it afterwards, to be overwhelmed with guilt and absolute horror. I also knew what it was like to stop feeling, to stop caring. That's what Methos had said happened to him to make him become a Horseman. It didn't excuse what he did, but it explained a lot.

My older self had also known Methos for two thousand years, and two thousand year-old friendship was hard to throw away. I'd come dangerously close to doing that only an hour or so ago. The first time, when I'd almost completed the Eradication Spell, I'd been under another spell's influence, sure, but the second time, when I held my own sword to Methos' throat, I'd been under my own power. That friendship had been the only thing keeping me from swinging that sword.

As I walked to Giles', I was in conflict because, when Methos had told me he'd changed, I'd wanted so much to believe him. Part of me had believed him. The other part had wanted to believe he was lying. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he probably had been telling the truth. He really had been my friend. Sure, he was a selfish bastard, but he was loyal. He'd never gone behind my back to the bad guy, and he'd never given me any reason to think he'd slip back into the role of Death of the Horsemen.

I guess the real problem I had was confronting him again and telling him that. Also, I couldn't just ignore the fact that he'd killed so many people, even if that had happened over two millennia ago.

I needed some more time to think it over. I no longer felt as angry toward Methos as I had before; now I felt mainly tired. The anger was still there, waiting not far beneath the surface, but I was nowhere near the level I'd been in that other dimension. If Rectanon performed another emotion "Increasing" Spell, I doubted I'd already be angry enough that the spell would slip me into a blind rage again, which was a good thing. I was still angry, but I'd calmed down somewhat.

As I reached Giles' street, I forced myself to focus on other things. One thing I need to do was call Amanda and find out what she'd seen from Marc's past that made her so subjective to the emotion-increasing spell in the atrium. I was also worried about Marie and I hoped that Marc would get to her soon. As long as I knew that Marc was keeping her out of harm's way, I'd know she was in good hands.

One mystery I hadn't really had time to think about before was the reason behind Rectanon letting us go. Now that I thought about it, I wondered why Rectanon or his master Porat had wanted the six of us in the first place.

The possible answer to that question came as a slap to the head as I walked down the steps into the courtyard before Giles' apartment. The Watcher had discovered a prophecy about the Merged One, which obviously had to be me, before this whole mess had started. I'd forgotten all about it when I was in sent to the other dimension. Now I couldn't believe my stupidity; I'd long since drilled it into myself to never forget important details like prophecies, although finding out that Methos was once homicidal would distract anyone.

When I walked into Giles' living room, I found the entire gang waiting for me. Buffy was sitting at Giles' desk playing with a stake. There was a book on the desk, but she was obviously not paying much attention to it. She tossed the stake up and down, catching it by the non-pointy end before tossing it up again. Whether she was bored or tense, I couldn't tell. Willow and Oz were snuggled up against each other on the couch. Oz had one of Giles' books open in his lap while Willow had her laptop. Giles was sitting in the chair next to them. He had placed a stack of books on his living room table and had a large tome open in one hand with a cup of coffee in the other. Anya sat on the floor across from the sofa, also researching.

It all looked so normal that it brought a small smile to my face. At least some things never changed. It made me wish everything was still good between the rest of my friends.

I was from two different worlds; one where Methos, Marc, Marie, Amanda, and I were the only ones that mattered, and another where these mortal people before me were all I needed. Sure, the worlds had blurred a little in recent times, but they were still distinctive. In one world, I was an eighteen-year-old boy who was just starting out in the real world. In the another, I was a two-thousand-year-old bastard who had attracted more demonic attention over the centuries than any Slayer. There were so many differences between those two lives, never mind that I was still me in both of them and the only true difference between them was that in one world I was younger while in the other world I was older.

Which was probably one of the big reasons why Methos? big, dark secret was affecting me so much. I couldn?t believe that he had changed so much. I?d fought demons for two thousand years, and I hadn?t changed my philosophy toward that in all that time. How could anyone change so drastically from a mass murderer to a lone survivor, lurking in the shadows? And now, I am so not thinking about Deadboy right now.

When I walked in, all of them looked up and at me. Anya stood immediately and walked over, developing me in a tight hug before grabbing both sides of my face and pulling me in for a very enthusiastic kiss. When she pulled back, she was smiling happily, obviously glad to see me. I smiled back, just as glad to see her. I don't think any of the others understood why Anya and I were together, if all she thought about was sex. I, however, knew that wasn't true. She only thought of sex half the time, and over the years I knew she'd get better. I had the advantage of marrying and watching the Anya that had gotten transported with my back to 2 BC mature into a woman, and knew this other version of her could just as easily do the same.

I shook my head clear of those thoughts. I couldn't get swept up in them now, no matter how preferable they were to thinking of recent events.

Anya and I sat down on Giles' stools. "What's the what?" I asked them, curious about the number of books lying around the room.

"We've been researching the prophecy I found about you earlier today," Giles answered.

He walked across the room and held a book in front of me. Unlike the Old French book he'd given me to translate that morning, this one was written in a demon language I vaguely recognized. "It looks like a cross between Carthaginian, Ancient Fyarl, and Old Pithian."

Anya leaned across me to get a better look at the book. "Looks like gibberish to me. Oh, with a touch of Justillianavan."

I started when she mentioned Justillianavos; not that she would have known it would have such an effect on me. She didn't know what had happened, after all.

"I don't understand it, either," Giles admitted. He turned the page. This page was written in Latin, which Anya and I both understood very well. "Thankfully for us, it's already been translated."

I took the book from Giles and scanned the prophecy. It appeared that the shortened version Giles had discovered at my apartment that morning had only been the first verse. A second verse had been added on in this volume.

The second verse wasn't appealing. With trepidation, I glanced up at Giles. "Is this all of it?"

"We're not sure," Giles admitted. "We've been trying to determine if there are more verses of the Prophecy of the Merged One, but so far, we haven't had any luck. I plan to take some more of my books out of storage tomorrow. If you have any more volumes, it would be very helpful for you to get those as well."

I thought it over. "I've got some at my house in Paris that might help, and some more at my house in Chicago-"

"You have houses in Paris and Chicago?" Buffy interrupted.

"'Houses?'" Willow repeated, eyes wide. "As in more-than-one?"

"Does seem to be overkill," Oz commented.

Anya hit my arm. "I knew you were rich, but you never mentioned you owned any houses. How come you haven't bought any houses here? There are so many better places for you to live than in that stupid apartment of yours."

Gee, and I'd wondered why I hadn't told them about that before then. Not that it was my biggest concern at the moment. Marie, Methos, and let's not forget about the lovely prophecy dedicated to me, kind of took preference.

"Before we get too far off the subject, I think we should discuss the meanings of the prophecy, if you all would be so kind," Giles said, sarcasm thick in his voice.

"Yeah, what does it say exactly? Giles wouldn't tell us until you got here," Buffy told me.

I translated the page into English for the others' benefit.

In the light of shadow, in the dark of day,
The demon brings to light what was hidden away
And the Merged One and his companions of old
Will face evils and perils never before told

In the blackness of sunlight, in the shining eclipse,
The demon?s master will come to exist
The Merged One and his friendless crew
Will face troubles in lies and perilous truth

"I so don?t like the sound of that," Buffy said.

"Yeah, it?s not all that friendly, is it?" I said, sighing.

"It doesn't sound finished," Oz commented. "There are probably more verses somewhere."

"Probably," I agreed. After all, prophecies could never be this short. To make them this short, pigs would have to sprout wings and fly and cows would have to be jumping clear over not only the moon but the asteroid belt, too.

Assuming they haven't already. Hey, in my world, anything is possible. Finding out your best friend was once a homicidal maniac springs to mind.

"I?m pretty sure the first verse has already happened," I told the gang.

"Oh?" Giles asked, pausing in the motions of selecting a second book in the stack for me to view. "When would you say it happened?"

"Today. Adam and I were transported to another dimension via this Hilliactican prayer. We weren?t the only ones, though. Marc, Amanda, another one of my students named Marie de Champagne, and another Immortal named Duncan MacLeod were all sent there."

"What did the others see?" Willow asked.

"Amanda was intent on Marc, so she saw something pretty bad from his past. MacLeod only wanted to comfort Marie, so whatever he saw appealed to his sense of chivalry. Methos saw something from Amanda?s past, although it didn?t seem to affect him as much. I saw something from Methos? past. Marie saw the hyena incident from my past, and Marc experienced a bad moment in MacLeod?s memories."

I wondered what had happened to MacLeod and Amanda. I hadn?t really tried to find out. Assumedly, they were in Paris again, but it now occurred to me to worry about whether Amanda would come here looking for Marc. I sighed. That was something to worry about later. Marc had headed for Los Angeles to talk to Marie. If Amanda came running to Sunnydale, she wouldn?t be able to find Marc. Until I was sure she was calm enough, I wouldn?t tell her where to go.

Giles was deep in thought. After a while, he nodded. "Yes, those events do seem to fit into what the first verse foretells. 'The Merged One and his friends of old' would apply to you and your Immortal friends, and 'will face evils and perils never before told' certainly does describe the six of you experiencing each other's darker memories that you had previously kept secret."

"What about the first line, ?In the light of shadow, in the dark of day??" Oz brought up. "It doesn?t seem like that line would apply to what happened in the other reality."

"True, but while I?m sure the first line of the second verse has some relevance, I believe the first line of the first verse is there simply for dramatics." Giles shrugged.

"That's probably what it is," Anya agreed. "Most prophets like to dress up their prophecies at the beginning, get the reader hyped up before the actual prophecy begins. It gets the everyday commoners interested enough to pay to hear about the full prophecy."

"Prophets made money by telling others about their prophecies?" Willow asked, doubtful.

I shrugged. "It?s why there are so many false prophecies out there. Everyone wanted a little bit of prophet?s profit."

Oz studied the second verse. "If the first line of the second verse is to be taken literally, there?s going to be eclipse-related badness."

"Anything that needs an eclipse is bad news," I commented.

"Like the Mayor?s Ascension," Buffy said.

"Exactly," Giles agreed.

We all thought about our graduation ceremony in silence for a little while. An eclipse was very bad news.

"There?s an eclipse in a few days," Buffy said. From the near-panicking expression she wore, she looked a little worried about our chances. "I saw it on the news. It?s going to happen on Saturday."

"That doesn?t give us much time," Oz said.

"What else does the prophecy say again?" Willow asked me. "Does it say what?s going to come, or how to stop it?"

"It says that the demon?s master will come to exist," Anya repeated. She looked around at everyone with a false, chirpy smile. "I?m thinking of leaving town again for a few decades. Anyone with me?"

I squeezed her hand. When she looked at me, I gave her a sympathetic smile.

"You said this Master Rectanon said he was the servant of Lord Porat?" Giles asked me. I nodded. "Perhaps Porat will 'come to exist.'"

"Huh? How would that work?" Buffy asked, confused.

"Yeah, if he?s already the servant of Porat, then that would imply that Porat already exists," Willow added.

Something tugged at the corner of my mind. "This all feels familiar?" I said, answering my friends? questioning looks. It felt as familiar as the other dimension had been when the other Immortals and I had arrived in it. Unfortunately, I was having quite a bit of trouble recalling what was so familiar about the prophecy.

I snapped my fingers when something finally fell into place. "Eclipse, coming to exist ? it?s a Transmogrifying Ritual."

Everyone, even Giles, looked at me in confusion. "A what?" Buffy, Willow, and Giles asked together.

"Transmogrif-am I the only one who watches Munster reruns? Eclipses usually only strengthen spells, but there are a few rituals that actually require a natural eclipse for the ritual to be successful, unlike the Mayor?s Ascension which caused a supernatural eclipse. A Transmogrifying Ritual is one of them. In it, a being or object in any shape or form - solids, liquids, gases, inanimate, animate, all of that ? can be transformed from its natural state to an another state. Also, Transmogrification Rituals tend to require lots of strong empathic energy, and Rectanon would have gotten plenty with that little emotion-enhancing spell he cast on me and the others back in the atrium."

Anya and Giles understood what I was saying quickly; Oz, Willow, and Buffy still appeared confused.

"Of course," Giles said. "A Permanent Transfiguration Ritual. I believe I have a book about that somewhere."

"What does that have to do with Lord Portal?" Buffy asked.

"Lord Porat," I corrected. "Porat could be an energy or gaseous demon ? something without solidity or liquid-ness. Most of those types of demons don?t require something as grand as a Transmogrifying Ritual to become solid, but if that?s what Rectanon is planning, then this Porat is very powerful, very huge, or both."

"When you say huge, do you mean Mayor huge, or bigger huge?" Buffy asked.

I bit my lip. "I don?t know."

Everyone looked pale now. It was worse than we?d thought. "You don?t sound too sure about that," Willow asked, hopeful.

"I?m not," I answered, sighing. I did that so often that I could paten it. Things just had to keep getting worse and worse, didn?t they?

Oz quipped, "Looks like we?ve got a few days to find out."

"Yes, and we'll need to speed time researching the specific ritual. If there is any similarity between Transfiguration Rituals and Transmogrification Rituals, then is bound to be more than one. Correct?" Giles asked, looking at me.

I nodded. "Unfortunately."

"Yippee," Buffy muttered.

We were in for more long hours of research to find out how to stop the latest big bad. Yep, some things never changed.