Disclaimers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, Greenwolf Corporation, Fox Television Productions, Mutant Enemy, and UPN. Highlander: The Series belongs to Gaumont Télèvision, Rysher Entertainment, and Davis/Panzer Productions. Any copyright infringements were not intended. This story was written for entertainment and not for profit.

Spoilers and Timing: This takes place before "Wild at Heart" on Buffy, a year after the end of Highlander: The Series, and not long after Highlander: The Raven. It contains spoilers for the Highlander episodes "Archangel," "Comes a Horseman," and "Revelation 6.8" and spoilers for the Buffy episode "The Pack".

Note: This is the sixth story in my "An Immortal Life" Series, a fan fiction crossover series between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Highlander movies and TV series, and Angel. It would be helpful if you read the five stories that take place before this one. They fall in this order: Too Late, Need, An Alternative, Mes Amis, Merging, and then Sidelines.

Special thanks go to my beta reader, Kimberly Lynn Workman.

This story is dedicated to Rob Clark, Teri, and DumbOldDork, three of many fans I owe a lot to.

Summary: Imagine: Six Immortals, some of which are mere acquaintances while the others are close friends that know all the right buttons to push. Now imagine all six of them thrown together without any easy chance of escape, and all of them still have their swords on them…

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

In the dimness of dawn, in the blinding dusk,
The Earth will crumble with the Merged One dust;
What has always been, will disappear forever more
And the Earth will become what is at its core
Unless the Merged One and his friends of new and old
Can band together and face the heat and cold

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 friends of time
Shall either Triumph or Forfeit at the End of the Endless Rhyme

*****

Everything had gone so unlike anything I ever would have expected.

It was a nightmare.

Marie, one of my students, had gone catatonic. Marc had almost been taken over by a Dark Quickening that wasn't even his. As for Amanda and Duncan…I had no idea what they were doing, or even if they were dealing with what had happened to them.

As for Methos…

Methos' dark secret had come out. The secret he'd kept from me so cleverly, so…I'd trusted him more than anyone, more than the Sunnydale gang, Amanda, Marc, and Marie put together, and he'd lied to me. He let me believe he was someone he wasn't.

And now, he was going to pay.

I didn't know how. I didn't know if one of us would end up dead when this was over, or if we'd both walk away without the friendship we'd formed over twenty centuries. I didn't know if we'd recover from this and move on.

All I did know was that I was the one holding the sword, and I was the one standing above Methos with the sword posed to strike. Methos, just awoken from unconsciousness and half sprawled on my couch, was at my mercy. His fate rested solely on how the next few minutes played out.

*****

Methos ducked under another vamp's fist and blocked its next move. His fist connected with the bloodthirsty vampire and the demon's head snapped back. Methos quickly staked him. There were no more vampires that I could see. Methos turned and shot me a glare. "You'd better get back to full strength soon, Alex, or I might just have the urge to let them tear you to pieces," he growled.

I stood leaning against a tree, trying to catch my breath. Ever since Jake Melville, one of my enemies, attempted to kill me through a Quickening draining ritual, I haven't been at my full strength. That was over a month ago, but although I’d improved I still tired easily, and no matter how hard I tried I could never get my hands to stop shaking. I was feeling considerably better, but there was no way that I would be winning any fights until I had all of my strength back.

"Relax," I said between pants. I was breathing heavier than he was, and I had done very little of the fighting. The thought made me wish that I could slow my breathing a little, but my attempts to do so weren't accomplishing anything. "It would be harder to put me back together, wouldn't you think?"

"Who said anything about putting you back together?"

I glared at him and glanced at Marc's prone body. He, Methos, and I had been on our way back to my apartment from one of Sunnydale's fine drinking establishments when we were attacked. All of them were dust now. I hadn't done much of the dusting; after delivering one punch I ended up watching the rest of the fight from the sidelines. Marc got drained and had yet to revive, and it looked like the old man was planning to blame me for living in a place like the Hellmouth. It wouldn't be the first time.

My breathing returned to normal, but my body was still shaking. Gods, I felt as old as my age. I hated feeling weak, and I wanted to get back to full strength soon. Damn Melville and his rituals.

I felt so useless in any fight. I was Immortal. I knew how to handle myself. I wasn't supposed to be useless. The last time I felt useless had been…when was it? Oh, yeah. My senior year in high school, before I became Immortal. All I was good for back then was a demon chew toy. Looks like I hadn't seen the last of that.

I felt a Buzz and glanced down at Marc's body. It spasmed and Marc gasped for air. He slowly sat up, groaning, and pressed a hand to the side of his neck. "Please tell me that someone staked the guy that drank me."

"He did," I said, pointing a damnedly shaking hand at the old man. "I socked him, though, if it makes you feel better."

"Yeah, thanks," Marc said as he stood up and brushed off his clothes.

"Can we go, please?" Methos asked impatiently. "I'd rather not run into another group of Xander's friends."

He was really starting to get on my nerves. "My friends? It's you who's attracting them, Adam," I accused. "You with your Welsch accent. Vamps can't tell it apart from an English one, and around here, that translates into 'Watcher's Council Member.' It's like you're holding up a big neon sign that says 'bite me.'"

"Okay, knock it off," Marc said, stepping in between the two of us. "By the gods, you two are worse than Amanda and I!"

"We are not!" Methos and I shouted together. Our heads snapped back to face each other's, and at the same time, on impulse I think, we both said, "Jinx."

Marc rolled his eyes and threw his arms up to the heavens before giving up. As he walked away, I heard him mutter, "My elders act like children. If I'm going to be like that when I turn Alex's age, someone just take my head now."

Methos watched him go before turning to me. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Xander. Let's just get out of here, shall we?"

"Yeah," I said, feeling tired. If I didn't get to my own bed soon, I was sure that I would collapse.

*****

Ever wonder what it would be like to meet your future self? You see it often enough in movies like Time Cop or in TV shows like Star Trek. I met my future self once. It was over half a year ago, actually. He shot me in the chest, tied me up, and left me in his motel room for a few days. Why? So he could prevent a part of his past from occurring again in my future. He got sent back in time two thousand years, and during those few days when I was tied up in his motel room, he was able to break the cycle and I never went back in time like he did.

Then, five months after that little incident and only a few weeks ago, he and I merged. How, you ask? I got all of his memories, his personality, and all of the little neck scars he'd collected over the years, all in only a few minutes one lovely morning. So now, I'm both people: I'm Alex LaVelle, two thousand year old man who has collected quite a few enemies over the years, and Xander Harris, nineteen year old friend to the Slayer, who has acquired quite a few enemies himself by associating with Buffy. Both of them are me now.

So not only do I know what it's like to meet my older self, I also know what it's like to meet my younger self. It's been a really strange year in both of their-er, in both of my-experiences.

The morning after Methos, Marc, and I were attacked, there was another Scooby meeting scheduled at my apartment. Anya woke me up around nine with a kiss. I don't know why the ex-Vengeance Demon was even attracted to me. She wanted sex and always managed to mention it in every conversation no matter what the topic was. She understood that I couldn’t give it to her yet because I was so weak, but she was willing to wait. I didn't know how long she would wait, but if she stuck with me this long, she might just be in it for the long haul.

"Hey," she said. "Time to wake up. Your friends will be here soon, and I am not letting any of them see you naked."

"Right," I said, yawning as I sat up. I got dressed and ate breakfast as quickly as possible.

The gang had taken to meeting at my place since Melville performed that ritual on me. They did it not only because it was "easier for me" but because of my library. It was small, but I had quite a few books that Giles had been searching for years. Many were even originals, and the ex-Watcher hovered around them whenever he was at my apartment. It was amusing since he couldn’t possibly understand half of the languages the books were written in. Even I couldn’t translate one or two, and I’d lived for two millennia.

Buffy was the first to arrive that morning. "Hey Xander, Anya," she greeted them as she sat down at the table. "Ooh, muffins." She greedily reached for the tray of blueberry muffins Anya had placed on the table. When she leaned forward, Buffy winced in pain and placed a hand on a spot on her back.

"You okay, Buff?" I asked her, concerned.

"Just a little sore. Ran into a particularly nasty demon last night."

"What did he look like?" Anya asked.

"Yeah, maybe we can help. We've both had quite a lot of experience with demons," I said.

She blinked and glanced from Anya to me. "Right. Forgot that in all the pain. He had three horns, one on top of his head and the other two on the sides, and he had this red, scaly skin."

"Did he have a tail?" Anya asked.

Buffy shook her head 'no.'

"Sounds like a Gillardo Demon," I said. "Better be careful. If one Gillardo came to Sunnydale, then his family is probably nearby."

"Great," Buffy muttered. "Thanks, Xand," she said, smiling at me. "You wouldn’t happen to know of an easy way to kill it, would you?"

"Go for the eyes," Anya suggested. "If that doesn’t work, try to pierce his genitals. That tends to work with anything."

Buffy gave her a grossed out look, glanced down at her food and pushed it away, apparently having lost her appetite. Anya was right about either of those places being very effective, but in light of Buffy’s expression, I decided not to say anything.

The doorbell rang again and Anya answered it. Giles, Willow, and Oz entered, in that order. "Ooh, muffins," Willow said, mimicking Buffy in words and expression. The redheaded witch was already biting into one before she sat down in a chair. Everyone else grabbed one of Anya's homemade muffins and the meeting began.

Buffy told everyone about her encounter with the Gillardo Demon and Giles confirmed my guess after Buffy gave him a description. She seemed to trust his opinion more than mine. Not that I could blame her; for years, I'd been the guy who wouldn't know a thing about a certain demon until after hours of long, boring research. Then, suddenly, I have two thousand years of memories and experiences with so many demon types, not to mention the human kind, that even Giles had trouble keeping up with me.

My Sunnydale friends were getting used to the fact that I had information, but they hadn't quite broken out of the old routine just yet. As for me, well, when I merged with my older self I knew that nothing would be the same again. I decided to use all of my knowledge to the best of my ability; not only knowledge I'd gained through two millennia as Alex LaVelle, but also the knowledge and insight of my younger, less jaded self, Xander Harris. I’ve been getting used to it for a month now. The rest of the Scooby Gang were simply getting used to at a slower pace.

It didn't take long for the meeting to finish. I told the gang about the vampires Methos, Marc, and I had come across the last night, and then the meeting was over. Giles decided to stay behind to take another look at my library. Anya left to go somewhere, she didn't tell me where, and Oz and Buffy headed off for classes. Willow stayed behind, which was unusual. Usually, she'd be leading Oz and Buffy back to the UC-Sunnydale campus, eager to get back to the learning.

"Everything okay, Wills?" I asked her as I stood up, leaning against the table for support.

"Sure, sure, everything's good," she said, trying too hard to sound chipper. She dropped the act and looked uncertainly at me. "I need to tell you something."

"You know you can tell me anything, Will."

She looked over at Giles. He was looking through a book written in a language that I knew he understood. It was obvious the ex-Watcher wasn't paying any attention to us. She turned back to me. "It's just…I know we haven't been really supportive of the whole merging thing and I just wanted to let you know that we're getting used to it, me included."

And I was just thinking of that. I hadn't expected her to bring it up, but it made me smile anyway. "I know," I assured her, and she smiled gratefully before continuing.

"It's just hard, 'cause I grew up with you, and I knew you. Then suddenly you're two thousand years old and I don't know you as well as I used to. So I, um…I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

"I want you to tell me everything. I've seen you get this far away look in your eyes sometimes. Not like when another Immortal gets close – it’s more like you’re thinking of something else. Adam and Marc do it, too, so I know it's got to be an Immortal memory thing. Whenever you do that, I want to know what you're thinking about. I want to get to know you as well as I used to know you. Can you promise me?"

I promised, even though I wondered exactly how much I could tell her. There are bits of my past that I wasn't proud of, and I was unsure that Willow would understand if I ever told her about them.

If I had to edit out those bits, I'd do so, but now was not the time to make that decision.

"How about we get together tonight? It’s been awhile since we had a one-on-one," I suggested.

Willow’s face lit up. "Sure. That would be great."

I felt the Buzz, warning me of the approach of another Immortal. There was a knock on the door. I slowly made my way over to it. If it was an enemy, I didn’t want Willow to answer it and risk getting hurt.

It was Methos. "Hey, Adam. Where's Marc?" I asked casually, at ease. Last night hadn't been anything unusual, not really. Our bickering was hardly worth mentioning, so why waste words on apologies after the fact?

He sauntered in. "Well, he was headed over here with me, but then he spotted some young girl and decided to spend the day with her instead of us."

"That just breaks my heart," I said, deadpan, before grinning.

"I'd better get going," Willow said. "I've got a class to get to in another hour. See you later, Xander, Adam, Giles."

"See ya," I called after her.

Seconds after she’d left, Giles looked up from his book and spoke his infamous line.

"Oh, dear Lord."

"What is it, Rupe?" Methos asked him as he settled down on the couch. I could tell that he was trying to suppress a groan; he'd learned quickly in the weeks he'd been here what those three little words meant. I felt the same way.

Giles glared at him. Methos had quickly found a nickname Giles hated more than G-Man, and never missed an opportunity to use it.

The ex-Watcher walked over to me and held a book open for my inspection. "See this inscription here? Below this picture? Please tell me that I was wrong in the translation."

"Depends on what your translation says," Methos told him sagely, nodding his head as if he’d just imparted some grand piece of wisdom. I merely ignored him while Giles gave him an annoyed glance.

The page was written in Old French. I began to translate:

"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 fight together against an evil never before told."

"Great," Methos said, rolling his eyes. "I guess the 'Merged One' would be Alex, right? And his 'companions of old' would have to include me." He sighed. "I should have stayed in Paris."

I also felt like groaning. "Giles, can't we go for one month without a prophecy? Is that too much to ask?"

"It's not like I control them, Xander," Giles said, defensive. I knew that, but complaining had always been a favorite past time.

Methos took the book from me and scanned the book, then scowled down at it when he confirmed that my translation was correct.

Giles looked worried. "Our translations more or less match. This is not a good sign." I fought back another groan. "I'll have to look into this." He stood and placed the book in the crook of his arm. "I'll get back to you as soon as I find something, maybe schedule a research party this afternoon after Buffy, Willow, and Oz get out of classes. Hopefully, there won't be anything to worry about."

"Giles, how many 'Merged Ones' do you know?" I asked him, resigned. He wisely decided not to reply and left instead.

"'The Merged One and his companions of old,'" Methos repeated. He was deep in thought, and his chin rested on steepled hands. I don't think he realized that he was speaking the Old French dialect the page had been written in. When he spoke again, he hadn't switched back to standardized English yet. "I do not like that prophet's word choice. Not at all."

I didn't like it, either. That line wasn't the only one I had problems with. It said that the 'Demon brings to light what was hidden away,' and I was worried about what that meant. I pondered over it as I entered the bathroom.

A thought struck me as I was closing the door behind me. It was a memory I'd half buried, and it showed a rider dressed in white, sitting astride a pale horse. In my mind, I watched as a short movie played in my mind. The pale rider drove his horse over a hill and down into a burning town, screams accompanying his sword’s path whenever it slashed on either side of the charging horse, leaving behind a path lined with corpses…

I jerked my hand away from the doorway. I'd forgotten all about the disturbing memory of Methos that I'd received from Samuel's Quickening during the whole Jake Melville situation. Samuel had been so sure that the masked rider was Methos, and I'd picked up that certainty in his Quickening. I also felt a surge of anger, also originally Samuel's, when the movie played through my mind.

I shook my head to clear it. I could ponder about what it meant later. Right now, I had a brand spankin' new prophecy to worry about. Oh, the joys of being the 'Merged One.'

I was opening the bathroom door again when I heard a scream. It was Methos, and he was screaming in pain.

Adrenaline coursed through me and I flung the door open as fast as I could. After getting that intense flashback, a scream from my oldest friend set me even further on edge and made me very impatient to get back to my living room.

I quickly exited the room, only to almost lose my balance when my legs gave out from under me from the exertion. Damn Melville and his power hungry balls. I was panting no matter how hard I tried to stop. When I looked up, however, I froze, my eyes mesmerized by the first thing that caught my eye.

A box sat on my coffee table. It was at least 12’’ long, 9’’ wide, and 10’’ tall. How it got there was beyond me. It hadn’t been there even ten minutes ago. I looked around the rest of the room. On the other side of the coffee table, my black plastic couch was splattered with beer, and its former container lay on its side on the seat. Methos was nowhere to be seen; when I concentrated, I found that I could no longer feel his Buzz. Where the hell did he go? I thought, worried and bewildered.

I approached the box cautiously. It could have been some sort of booby trap for all I knew. I’ve seen them come in smaller packages. It could have done something to the old man.

I realized, as I drew closer, that it wasn’t really a box but a chest, painted black with gold trimmings. Demonic symbols of some sort decorated the sides, and an intricate design made up of spirals, curves, and dotted lines surrounded a drawing carved into the lid. The drawing was of an ordinary house cat poised to strike.

As I approached it, grabbing onto furniture to avoid falling to the floor, the cat’s eyes glowed a deep, scarlet red. I stopped and watched it warily. That was when I heard the chanting. It was soft and seemed to come from the air surrounding the small chest. I recognized it as a demonic language, Hilliacticanese. My Hilliacticanese was a little rusty, and several minutes passed before the words clicked and their meaning became clear in my mind.

Piilla, hooroos, Pilaa, Loorom. Piilla, hooroos, Pilaa, Loorom.

Demon, Immortal, enemy, depart.

My eyes widened. A thousand thoughts flew through my mind, but one of the primary ones was, Oh, shit. This is so not good. The chest was chanting an ancient prayer that asked a Hilliactican god to dispel demons and other supernatural creatures, and I had a feeling that it was about to be answered.

A mist rose from the cat’s eyes. Before my weakened body could even walk out of the way, the gas had traveled straight to my eyes. I jerked at the contact. Everything appeared out of focus. The entire room spun before my eyes, and before I realized it the box was getting closer and closer to my field of vision. It seemed to get bigger as well. The cat’s figure dominated over mine. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from its eyes. I watched as they grew in size until they were all that I could see.

I screamed. All I felt was terror and pain. Something was happening to me. I was being sucked into those eyes, those huge, overpowering eyes…

Everything went black.