Same disclaimers as before.
Chapter 2
Brazil 2004
“By the way, the name’s Lindsey. Lindsey McDonald.”
The redhead began to look him up and down skeptically. “You didn’t happen to used to work for Wolfram and Hart did you?” she asked as she stared back down at her whiskey.
“So you’ve heard of me?” he asked somewhat amused.
“You know that I could turn you into a rat with nothing more than a flick of the wrist, right?”
“Ahhh, so you have heard of me then?” Lindsey now took his whiskey and downed it in one quick motion before continuing. “May I ask from who?”
“Friend of mine out in LA, runs your old firm.”
Lindsey groaned and signaled to the bartender for another whiskey. “God, who doesn’t know that pain in the ass?”
Willow, who as the bartender came over with Lindsey’s whiskey, put her hand over her glass, which she also had just downed, indicating that she was through. “Hey, that pain in the ass happens to be a good friend!”
“Oh come on. You’ve got to admit that he can be a bit on the annoying side. Mr. All High and Mighty with everyone else, while I brood alone in my office.” said Lindsey.
“Well….maybe just a little. But then again, who am I to talk? I mean I help save the world practically on a daily basis; I have great friends who love me, and if I do say so myself, I’m a kick ass witch,” the alcohol was certainly beginning to affect Willow, “yet here I am, going shot for shot with an evil lawyer. That is pretty miserable. Certainly more pathetic than brooding in an office.”
“Hey, I resent the evil comment! I was just…..misguided.”
“Misguided huh? Is that what you call trying to raise a demon whose sole mission was to tear Angel limb from limb?” asked the bemused redhead. She certainly wasn’t threatened by this man, in fact, he almost had a calming influence on her. But that wasn’t going to stop her from poking holes in his reasoning.
“Well…uhh…okay, okay, in hindsight that wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but I’ve changed.” Looking back at her incredulous stare, “What? I mean it. I’m legitimate now.”
Willow couldn’t hold it back any longer, and burst out into a fit of laughter. “You sound a lot like this guy that I used to know, saying how you’re all legitimate now. No longer evil.”
“It’s not that funny.” He mumbled as the witch continued to laugh.
“So saying that I believe you for a moment, what are you doing here? It certainly isn’t for the whiskey?”
“Wait, you believe me? Wow, I thought it was going to take a lot more than that.” Lindsey replied incredulously.
“Well, what you did wasn’t all that bad. I mean I tried to end the world once and I was given another chance. So why not give you a chance and believe you? Plus, its not like anyone hasn’t tried to kill Angel before. Keeps him on his toes” said the redhead as if it was no big deal, “But you didn’t answer my question, why are you here?”
“I’m here for you” was the simple reply as Lindsey finished his last shot.
“Well I’m flattered, and well, as far as men go, your not too bad looking. But, you see I like my partners to be a little more womanly, and I’m not talking about feminine men, not there is anything wrong with those types of men. And I tend to babble when I drink,” said the redhead as she took a breath, “It’s just that I like women. I’m gay.”
Now it was Lindsey’s turn to laugh. “Not that you aren’t cute or anything, but I’m here to guide you.” Upon her expression, “In a professional manner of speaking.”
“What do you mean?” asked the now curious redhead.
“Well you see part of my crusade against Angel involved pretending to have visions of people in trouble in order to make it seem as though Angel was no longer the favored champion. Long story short, the senior partners’ punishment for me for trying to kill Angel was to turn me over to the Powers That Be, who in turn, thought that it would be amusing to really give me visions. Well this has gone on for the past three months. I’ll get this painful vision of someone in trouble and it is up to me to help. For the first month I tried to ignore the visions, you know because I was still…misguided and all. But the guilt began to become too much. So I began responding to the visions, helping when I could. But, I’m not a champion. My role is to provide purpose to a champion, give them reason to fight the good fight. Which brings me to you, Ms. Rosenberg. You, my dear, are a champion of the PTB. Like it or not, it’s your destiny. Ever since you did that slayer activation spell you’ve been on the list. You’re a champion.”
To say that Willow was in shock would be putting it mildly. “But, I don’t want to be a champion. Can’t they take me off of the list? And what do you mean give me reason to fight the good fight? I have reasons. Plenty. And they’re all good ones too.”
“No, they can’t take you off of the list. And what about the fact that you are still guilty from the end of the world incident? And correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve been questioning yourself recently. You’ve begun to wonder if it is worth it for all that it costs you, all that it has cost you. Especially tonight” came Lindsey’s smooth response.
“What could you possibly know about the significance of tonight?” came Willow’s venomous response.
“I’m sorry, I’m over stepping my bounds on our first meeting. Is there somewhere else more private where we can go to talk?” asked the dark haired man.
“What makes you think that I trust you enough to go somewhere more private with you? Just because I believe you are no longer misguided doesn’t mean I’m going to go wander off into the night with you. I’m not that…” Willow never got to finish her response as Lindsey clutched his head in pain.
“Urgh…girl outside in the alley….alone…three vamps, large vamps.” Lindsey’s body began to relax as the vision faded and asked the bartender for another whiskey, which he gratefully downed as soon as it was poured. He then stood up looking over at a now conflicted Willow who was debating the pros and cons of trusting this man. “Well, you coming to save the innocent?” he asked her as he produced a stake from the inside of his right boot.
“Just remember,” she said as she finally stood, “rat.”
With that, the redhead followed Lindsey into the night. Lindsey was a couple of paces ahead as they rounded into the alley. The scene they came upon was just as the seer had described it, there were three vampires two of which were behind a petite brunette who was dressed to go clubbing. The third vamp was approaching the girl from the front and had his back turned to both the witch and seer. All three vamps looked as though they were football players before they were turned, probably linebackers. Lindsey was silently praying to himself that this witch was all that she was hyped to be or else they were going to end up being desert for these three.
Lindsey ran up to the vamp who had his back turned to Lindsey and immediately staked him through the back. Willow came running up to Lindsey to face off against remaining two, who were looking extremely pissed at not only being interrupted, but also because their other cohort was now dust. Willow surveyed the seen, calculated her options, and made her move when the vamps threw the girl aside to focus on the two threats of the seer and witch.
“Lindsey! Cover your eyes!”
Lindsey, never one to question an instruction in the heat of battle buried his face into the crook of his arm. Willow then balled her right hand into a tight fist, muttered something in Latin and slowly began to open her hand. As her fist unclenched a bright light began to illuminate until her palm was completely open and a bright flash filled the alley. This rendered the two remaining vamps into piles of dust.
Willow looked over to Lindsey who still had his eyes covered, “You can look now.”
Lindsey surveyed the area, counted the two new piles of dust that weren’t there before he covered his eyes and looked questioningly over to Willow, “What did you do?”
“Ball of Sunshine,” the redhead said as she moved towards the victim to check her for wounds. Seeing nothing other than a few scrapes the witch and seer walked the lady back to the bar to call for a cab.
After both Lindsey and Willow saw the girl safely off into the cab they stood outside the bar, Willow looking up into the sky, and Lindsey looking down the darkened street.
“She always loved the stars.” Willow said. Thinking of Tara made her want to believe this man. Her love was always a great judge of character. Willow just wished her love was here now to tell her if she were making the right decision by trusting this man. “Let’s go back to my motel room, we can talk privately there,” Willow said, now moving her gaze from the sky over to Lindsey.
“I thought you didn’t trust me? Or did that little exhibition in the alley prove to you that I’m not a threat?”
“Neither,” cheerily replied the witch “I just realize that I can turn you and any threat you pose into some small creature that gets its exercise by running on a big wheel.”
Lindsey chuckled and thought to himself, ‘Well, at least she has a better sense of humor than Angel.’ “Lead the way.”
Willow began the small trek to her motel while thinking to herself, ‘Well at least he’s somebody to talk to.’
Seacouver 2004
Tara was now exhausted, though in the long run, the quickening she received from the beheading of her latest foe would make her stronger, it now only made her want to go home and rest. The only problem was, she didn’t feel like being alone tonight. She walked back into ‘Joe’s’ after discreetly hiding the now decapitated body of Anders Holichek and collecting his sword into her duster to give to Duncan.
“Hey Joe.”
The bartender immediately stopped his cleaning and walked over to the end of the bar where she was now again seated, “How’d it go?”
“You see me standing here with my head still attached don’t you?” she asked with a playful mirth to her voice.
“Right, stupid question. Can I get you anything?”
“Could you call a taxi for me?”
“You going back to your apartment?” Joe asked with some concern. He didn’t think that tonight was a good night for Tara to be alone. He knew what happened to her two years ago today.
“No, I think I’m going to head over to Duncan’s, he should still be up.”
“Okay, say hi to MacLeod for me.” With that Joe walked off to call the cab as Tara sunk into her stool.
After ten minutes, the taxi came, and fifteen minutes after that Tara found herself being dropped off in front of ‘DiSalvo’s Gym and Dojo’ which was owned by Duncan MacLeod who also happened to live in the loft above the dojo. She went around back and began to climb the stairs two the second floor loft. She made it to the third step when she felt the buzz of another immortal. Only this was different than at the bar because this buzz not only had more power to it, but it also had a warmth and kindness to it. Not many other immortals could sense anything special about the buzzes they received; Tara figured it was just related to her ability to read auras as a witch.
Once she reached the top of the stairs, she didn’t even have to knock, as the door opened to reveal a man with flowing black hair that went down to his shoulders. He had broad shoulders with thick black eyebrows that matched the color of his hair. Tara always thought that he looked of Egyptian decent because of his naturally tan skin and regal facial structure. This always got a laugh out of the Scot, who now stood before the blonde in a loose long sleeve gray shirt and a pair of black sweat pants clutching a katana with a ivory handle carved into the shape of a dragon’s head.
“Expecting someone?” queried the blonde.
Duncan’s eyes which were alert and focused when he opened the door went softer as he recognized the blonde, “Aren’t I always?”
“Do you always greet friends like this?” she asked nodding to the katana blade which was still pointing up in a battle ready position.
Duncan looked down sheepishly to his sword and put it inside the door and motioned Tara to come in. “Rough night?” he asked as she came in and crossed to the couch.
“You could say that. Ran into an old friend of yours, Anders Holichek. Seemed real eager to kill your student and then come for your head.”
“And?” he asked with the same concern that Joe had expressed earlier. Tara was like a daughter to Duncan and he couldn’t stand the thought of some immortal looking for his head going for Tara first.
“You know both you and Joe asked me that. Do you think I could be talking to you right now if I were missing my head?” Tara proceeded to take off her duster before sitting down and handed Duncan the sword that she had claimed off of her victim.
“True, you wouldn’t,” replied Duncan as he took the sword and put it into a closet to be cleaned and inspected later. “How you holding up?”
“He nicked my arm, but its already healed.”
“That’s not what I meant,” said Duncan “I know what today is. After all, I was the one that found you.”
Flashback
Sunnydale 2002
Duncan MacLeod was born in 1592 in the Highlands of Scotland. He is immortal; he is not alone. There are others like him, some good, some evil. For centuries he has battled the forces of Darkness, with Holy Ground his only refuge. He cannot die unless you take his head. Now is the time of the Gathering, when the stroke of a sword and the fall of
a head will release the power of the Quickening. In the end, there can be only one.
It was dusk. Not exactly the best time to be taking a jog through Sunnydale, but that was exactly what Duncan MacLeod was doing. He knew what Sunnydale was, he knew about the Hellmouth, he knew about vampires and demons. Being over 400 years old, you tend to see and hear a lot of things. But being 400 years old, Duncan also knew how to take care of himself. With his katana strapped to his back, he was idly jogging through one of Sunnydale’s many cemeteries. To the casual observer one would think that he was asking for trouble. He knew about vampires yet he was jogging through a cemetery when it was dangerously close to nightfall. However, jogging through a cemetery, Holy Ground, was also his way of letting his guard down to the other types immortals, ones that liked to carry swords around instead of a massive overbite.
About a quarter way through the cemetery, MacLeod felt the familiar buzzing in his head alerting him to the presence of another immortal. He stopped dead in his tracks and surveyed the cemetery seeing no one, yet the buzz was strong enough where he felt as though he were right on top of the other immortal. Then realization hit him. Looking down and over to his right, MacLeod saw a freshly dug grave that looked like it had just been filled in today. There wasn’t even yet a headstone; so new in fact that the sod hadn’t even attached to the dirt yet. There was someone in that grave that was going to wake up real soon. It was odd in this day in age that immortals were buried before they could reawaken in a morgue. This town, Duncan figured, must not even wait for the bodies to get cold before they put them into the ground. Of course, this being a Hellmouth, he figured the morgue was probably the busiest place in this whole town.
It didn’t take Duncan long to locate a shed that had a shovel. He came back to the unmarked grave a peeled off the layer of sod that had been laid down and began to dig. Being six feet under, digging up the grave took about a half an hour. With only one interruption from a vamp that lost it’s head to Duncan’s sword.
Duncan looked down on the simple yet elegant coffin, deciding how to go about doing this. He knew he had to get whoever was in there out, he just didn’t know if this is this immortal’s first death or not. If it is their first death, it is going to take a lot of explaining of why some stranger is digging them out from a grave. With a deep breath, he moved to the side of the coffin so that he wasn’t quite standing on it so he could open it in these tight quarters. Upon lifting it he saw the occupant of the coffin, a young blonde woman with blonde hair in a beautiful blue dress. She couldn’t have been more than 25. Then came the loud gasp for air associated with the reawakening from death. The fresh oxygen must have triggered the final stage of the reviving process.
Blue eyes stared up at brown. ‘Why is there a man standing above me? For that matter, where am I for him to be standing above me?’ She tentatively took her gaze from the stranger to caution a glance to each side. Noticing white satin on each side of her and looking back up past the man to the night sky, she began to put two and two together. ‘I’m in a coffin. My coffin!!! Why do I have a coffin? I didn’t have a coffin before?’
Judging by the genuine confusion on the girl’s face, Duncan realized that this was her first death. “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. My name is Duncan MacLeod, of the Clan MacLeod and I really need you stand up and come with me.”
“A-a-a-am I a v-v-v-vampire?” Tara fearfully asked. She didn’t feel like a vampire. She didn’t feel like drinking blood. This only served to confuse her.
“No, you’re not a vampire. What’s your name?” Duncan reached his arm down to help lift the girl from the coffin.
When she took his arm, she read his aura. There was a lot of power inside of this man. But other than a few gray areas, this man was genuinely good hearted. He seemed as though he could be trusted.
“T-t-tara. Tara Maclay,” she was trying to get her stutter under control, but with her confusion, it was quite difficult.
Upon being lifted from the grave Tara began to take in her surroundings as Duncan began to fill in the grave once more. She was definitely in a cemetery. She definitely was just pulled out of a coffin. Which means she was dead. If she was dead, where was Willow? This thought made her heart constrict and it became very difficult to breathe. Duncan noticed this as he finished putting the sod back onto the gravesite.
“I have a motel room not far from here, if you come with me, I promise to explain everything,” he spoke gently to Tara.
Taking a deep breath to control her stutter, “Okay, but just so you know, I am a powerful witch, and I will turn you into a rat if you try anything funny. Then after this little talk I need to be getting home, I need to find out if Willow is alright.”
“I’m afraid that is one of the things we need to talk about, you can’t go home. To everyone that you know, your dead.”
“B-b-but, I-I-I need to see W-W-Willow.”
“Come on, I’ll explain at the motel,” with that he took Tara’s arm in his own, and they began to make the journey from the cemetery to the motel that Duncan was staying at.
Upon reaching the motel, Duncan led Tara into his room and pointed to a chair in the corner of the room, gesturing for Tara to sit down. “You’re going to want to sit down for this.”
Tara, still a little unsure of this whole situation, took the offered seat. She began to pick nervously at her sleeve. It was then she realized what she was wearing. It was her blue long sleeved dress that Willow had bought for her as a gift. It was part of a surprise evening that her love had planned with dinner and dancing at a fancy restaurant that had a piano player. It was a spectacular evening. Remembering brought a slight tear to her eyes from the happiness that was overwhelming her. This brought her back to the situation at hand. The one thing that this stranger had said that had rattled her very soul,
“What did you mean by I can’t see Willow again?”
The question sort of set Duncan aback. This certainly wasn’t the first question he thought she’d ask. “Well, its sort of a long story. How about I tell you about what we are, and take it from there?” Seeing her nod in the affirmative, Duncan began with his story. “We are immortals. We do not age and we do not die. We aren’t demons. We’re perfectly normal, except if we die, we wake up. Unless our head is separated from our body. Now you may be wondering if this can be a common occurrence, losing your head. Unfortunately, it is. You see, there is very little that we know of our origins. None of us know who our parents are. It takes other immortals to tell us who we are. All that is known of immortals is why we exist. And that is for the Game. In the end there can be only one immortal, and he or she will receive the prize. We don’t really know what the prize is. Some have speculated that it is all of the knowledge contained in the world. Now, someone who had all of the knowledge in the world could do a lot of good. Conversely, someone could also use this knowledge for evil. But back to the point, immortals fight one another for this prize. This is generally done with swords,” with that, Duncan pulled out his katana from the back of his shirt to show Tara, who immediately got a frightened look in her eyes. But when he turned the sword so that ornate handle was pointed towards Tara instead of the blade, she relaxed slightly.
“Go on, take it,” Duncan gently pushed the swords toward the young girl. He had to fully gain her trust, and he figured by giving her his weapon after telling her how he could be killed was a step in the right direction.
Tara took the offered sword and held it close to her face, intensely studying the carving of the handle. “It’s beautiful. But why are you t-t-t-elling me all of this. Ar-r-r-en’t you just going to take my head and b-b-be done with it?” Tara was becoming more and more confused by the minute.
“No, I don’t plan on killing you. And I’m telling you this to help you understand the situation that you’re in. Whether you like it or not, you’re now in this Game. You’re going to have other immortals, ones unlike myself, who will want your head. You’re going to have to learn how to protect yourself.”
Tara took a deep breath. She was trying to process everything that this man was telling her, but it was all beginning to overwhelm her. She took another deep breath, she wanted to talk without stuttering, to try and hide her uneasiness, “So, I’m immortal which means I won’t age and I’m going to live forever unless another immortal comes with a sword and takes my head, which would permanently kill me.”
“That about sums it up. Except for the main rules involved with immortality. For example, fighting is always done one on one. It is also always with swords or axes or something of that nature, no guns. And you never fight on Holy Ground, doesn’t matter what religion. And most importantly, your immortality for the most part is to be kept secret.”
“Okay, now say I learn how to defend myself, what happens when I fight another immortal, can I let them go, or do I have to,” Tara took another deep breath, oxygen seemed to be an issue over the course of the evening “take their head?”
“You could let them go, but they’ll just keep coming back, until they eventually win. And when they win, they won’t show you mercy.”
Tara was adding all of the pieces together in her head and was starting to get an answer that was making her sick to her stomach. “So, if I want to live forever, all I have to do is decapitate any immortal that wants to fight me?”
Duncan looked at the girl solemnly before replying, “For 400 years I’ve been asking myself the same questions that you are asking yourself in your head: why me? What did I do to deserve this? Is life worth killing over? I haven’t been able to answer all of my questions yet, but as for the killing, the best I can rationalize is that it is a necessary evil. Sometimes you have to kill for the greater good. I don’t necessarily even want the prize. I just don’t want someone to get it who is going to abuse it, destroying everything that this is good in the world. That is why I fight. For the greater good.”
“But why can’t I tell Willow about this? She would understand. You don’t know what we have gone through together.” Tara was beginning to sob, almost hysterically, “And I don’t know if I can do this without her.”
Duncan moved from the bed over to the chair where Tara was crying. He gently took the sword from her shaking hands and set it on the floor. He then gathered her up into his arms and set her on the bed. He then sat next to her stroking her hair in order to soothe the poor girl. Duncan didn’t know why, but he wanted to protect this girl. He could see so much good in her, so much innocence. He hated being the one to tell her that though she is going to live forever, the life that she once knew, the life that she once loved, is over.
“Tara, I know this is hard on you right now. But trust me when I say that it is for the best. Imagine the danger that she would be in. If you have all of these immortals looking for you, they’re going to use her as your weakness. Believe me, I know. I’ve loved mortal women before. It for the most part has not ended well. But it is not my decision to make, it’s yours. You have to ask yourself though, if you love this Willow as much as you seem to, then are you willing to expose her to the life that we lead?”
Tara had stopped the hysterical sobbing and brought it down to a low whimper with some tears and sniffles mixed in. She began to process all of Duncan’s words and began running through a series of scenarios in her mind. ‘She is a Scooby. She’s seen worse. But could I live with myself if something ever happened to her because of someone who was after me? What would it be like for her to grow old, while I don’t?’ But the one question that that she asked herself that nagged her the most was, ‘Do I want her to see me kill to survive.’ Tara knew that the pain Willow must of gone through with her death was unbearable. But she knew it was probably easier this way. If Willow thought she was dead, it would be easier for her to move on than for Tara to tell her that she was indeed alive but they couldn’t be together because Tara didn’t want Willow spending her life as a target. Tara believed that this was the only way. No matter the pain that it caused her. A clean break for Willow.
“No, I won’t put her in any more danger than what she lives with. But what do I do now?” She began to cry again at the thought of her new life.
“This is going to be hard on you. But if you let me, I can help. I want to help. I can train you, teach you what you need to know in order to live. Come back with me, and I can help you through this.” Duncan still wasn’t quite sure why he was doing this. If Methos was here, he’d be saying it was his boy scout complex. But he felt for this girl. All of this pain, all of this grief. She was going to need a mentor, someone to help her through the tough times.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go.” Was Tara’s final response.
End Flashback
Seacouver 2004
Both Tara and Duncan came out of their memories of that night at the same time and looked at each other.
“It hurts.” Tara was the one to finally break the awkward silence between the two friends. “Being without her, it still hurts. I thought it would get better over time. But it just gets worse. I wonder what she is doing? How she is doing? If she is happy?”
“It may never get any easier. I still think of Tessa everyday, and everyday it hurts,” Came from Duncan.
Tara had heard all about the past of Duncan MacLeod. From what she had gathered over the past two years, she knew that in over 400 years Duncan had never loved anyone like he had loved Tessa Noel. Unfortunately Tessa was killed in a mugging gone wrong. Tara thought that at least she was lucky enough to know that Willow was still alive. She could feel it because her heart and soul still belonged to her beloved redhead and Tara would feel it if Willow was gone because then she herself would feel empty. More empty that she already felt.
“I know Mac,” Tara stood up and stretched her muscles as she continued to talk, “its just a bad night, I think after some sleep I’ll feel a little better.” Tara knew it was a lie, but she didn’t want to talk about Willow anymore tonight. It hurt too much.
“You can stay in your old room if you’d like,” offered Duncan.
“Thanks, I’ll take you up on that offer.”
Duncan got up from the couch and hugged her, “Everything is going to be alright Tara. You’ll see.” He then kissed the top of her head and went off to his own bedroom leaving Tara to her thoughts. She could only hope that Duncan was right.
TBC
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