Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Chapter Five.

Xander almost moaned in pleasure when he took his first sip of coffee. He was sure that he looked horrible this morning as the night before he had pulled a double patrol with Molly to cover for Spike who hadn't showed up.

If Xander actually cared about Spike's welfare, he probably would have been worried. As it was though, he just vaguely hoped the Vampire was still around, because as he had gotten used to the snarky comments and stalker-ish habits, it would be strange to be without them. Also, having another super powered member on the White Hats team helped enormously—not that he would ever admit such a thing to the Vampire. Ever.

Xander rubbed his eyes tiredly and bit back a yawn. He had already called in to work and told them that he wouldn't be able to come in for the day. Thankfully, his boss knew about Xander's double life; Molly had saved his life a few years prior, so the man was very understanding. Even helpful, when he could be.

Molly, the current vampire slayer, sat down across from him and laid her head on the table, "Never movin again." She mumbled into the table.

It had been a bad night; the Ubervamp's had swarmed them just outside their post by the High school. The three potentials on their squad had done remarkably well, especially considering that they had no advanced strength. Unfortunately, Vi had been thrown across the field, and while nothing was broken she would be sore for a good while, Xander had tried to convince her to stay home from school today—it hadn't worked. The girl was determined to never miss a day of school unless she was in the hospital.

Leah, and Candice, however, had stayed home from school, claiming to be too tired. "How's your back?"

"Mm. Better. Still sore though." Molly murmured tiredly.

"You took some pretty hard hits last night. Are you planning on going to class today?"

"Yeah." Molly replied, "Professor Stevenson's giving a lecture on modern art, but it's not till four."

Molly was twenty one years old and had been a Slayer for five years. In the beginning, Xander hadn't thought that the kind, passive girl would last long as a Slayer. Kennedy had only lasted three and a half years, and she had been trained from birth, where's Molly had only been found as a potential two years before she was called.

She had surprised them all.

"Are Candy and Leah up yet?" Xander asked idly.

"Cand, is." Molly replied, her head still on the table. "Leah's still out like a light though. Girl needs to set her priorities straight; she's burnin 'erself out."

Xander agreed with a small nod. His girls, for that's what they were, had been living with their lives on the line for so long, very few of them actually prioritized schooling or friends as important. Not anymore. He wished with everything in him that they could live their lives like the teenagers that they wanted to be, instead of the warriors they were being forced to be.

A faint ringing started up from in the living room, and a moment later, the sound of the television faded. "Xander!" Candice cried out, "Phone!"

"Duty calls." Xander said ironically. He stood and limped to the living room, his ankle was wrapped tightly, and the swelling had gone down, so he was sure it wasn't broken. He hoped.

Sometimes he really wished he healed as fast as Buffy and Molly. Even the potentials healed faster than him. It sucked being the only normal one around.

"Yeal'lo." He asked. He gave a nod to the fifteen year old blonde teen, and gestured for her to go back to her cartoons.

"X-xander? It—it's me. Willow."

Xander frowned. Willow hadn't stuttered since high school. "Will, what's wrong?"

Molly appeared in the door way, all signs of tiredness gone, and Candice muted the television.

"It—it's not bad. It's—r-really good actually."

Xander's frown deepened, "Will, are—are you crying?"

"Dawn's alive."

Xander's jaw dropped, and he felt his eyes widen, "Y-you're sure? It's not – It's not just a new scheme of The First? You're sure?"

"We're sure. Tara knew right- right away. But- but I did a spell to confirm, and—and a blood test. It's her. Xander, it's her. She's alive. Dawnie's alive!"

"I'm on my way."

"Who is Dawn?" Molly asked after the phone was placed safely back on its cradle.

Xander wasn't surprised that she had heard both sides of the conversation, even though she was across the room. She was a Slayer after all. "Dawn- Dawn is—" His voice broke as he realized just what he had been told. Dawn was alive. Alive! After thirteen years.

"Xander?" Candice asked carefully with wide eyes, "Are you okay?"

Xander ignored Candice's heartfelt question for the time being and faced the mantle of the fireplace in the corner of his living room. It had a picture of the Scooby's before they had graduated from High school. Oz, Cordelia, Him, Willow, Giles, Buffy, and in the slayers arms, her tiny innocent little sister. The purest of them all. Dawn.

"Dawn was- is, Buffy's little sister. She—she disappeared thirteen years ago. When The First appeared for the first time, it took her form almost immediately. That's when Buffy came back to Sunnydale to stay. We all assumed she was dead, but—but apparently, she's alive. She's at Central right now."

Central was code for Buffy's place. It was called Central because that's where the majority of the action took place. It was also where the majority of the Potentials lived.

Molly looked at Candice and then back at Xander. "Go, I'll stay with the mini's."

Xander nodded once and then he was out of the room.

Dawn whistled slightly as Buffy led her upstairs. The first floor of the house may not have looked any different, but the second floor looked nothing like how it used to.

"Impressive, isn't it." Buffy said appreciatively.

"I'd say." Dawn gave a second whistle, "How does this work?"

Buffy shrugged, "I'm not magic girl."

The second floor was around eight times the size it should have been. There were twenty doors along the too long hallway instead of just the five that there used to be. Five of the doors were painted a pale blue, and the rest were all white and had two metal name plates on each, except for one door at the end that had one name plate, and the door across from it that was blank.

"The blue doors lead to recreation rooms, and each bedroom has an en suite bathroom." Buffy commented as they walked down the long hallway.

"Huh." Dawn murmured, "I have got to find out how they did this. The energy it must have taken alone- It's unimaginable. We'll I suppose not unimaginable, the Hellmouth quadruples the effects of even the smallest of spells after all. It's part of the reason that the Hellmouth is so dangerous; even those who elsewhere wouldn't have the magic abilities to float a pencil, can summon demons, control the elements, practically anything, really. I'm actually a little curious to see how much of Willow and Tara's powers are their own, and how much of it is just being amplified by the Hellmouth Energy."

Buffy sent her a look but didn't say anything. After a few more moments of walking Dawn speculated, "I'm guessing that this is Potential central?"

"How do you know so much about what's going on?" Buffy asked as she led Dawn down the hallway. Her voice was tinted with suspicion, even though she tried to hide it.

"Funny story, that." Dawn replied, "I was minding my own business, working on a translation, when this short guy appeared in the middle of my living room. He startled me so much that I threw my book at him. Turns out he's some sort of Balance Demon, named-"

"Whistler." Buffy hissed. "I hate that guy!"

"Me too!" Dawn agreed, "He was all; it's your sacred duty. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. You need to go back. The end is nigh, blah, blah, blah. I really didn't like him." She said all of this with a Bronx accent.

Buffy stopped at the end of the hallway and pushed open the unmarked door. Dawn's eyes widened, it was her room exactly as she had left it thirteen years ago. The walls were pale purple to match the bedcovers, and there were pictures of her and the Scoobies, along with pictures of her and her old best friend Janice. Dawn walked into the room hesitantly, and it felt like she was walking into the past except for the fact that the room now smelt more of Buffy than of her.

"You- you kept it all?"

"I couldn't get rid of it." Buffy admitted as she sat down on the bed.

Dawn sat across from her so that they were both sitting crossed legged facing one another. Dawn really looked at her sister for the first time that day. Buffy really did look much the same, except for a few age lines around her mouth, and a slight sickly pallor to her skin. She also had a very faint scar going across her cheek that wasn't there before. In all, Buffy looked to be in her mid twenties instead of mid thirties. She looked good.

"You have questions about… about things I've told you today?"

Buffy nodded, "Actually, I didn't get much from your conversation earlier. I didn't say anything, but you weren't speaking in English for most of it."

Dawn blinked, "Really? I hadn't noticed. If—if I do it again, just tell me. Sometimes I don't notice."

"You're good with languages, then?" Buffy pressed.

"Yeah. You could say that. I found out when I was around twenty two that if I looked at a language for any length of time, I was able to understand it. Some languages take more work than others, but most of them come to me as easy as English. My teacher theorizes that it has something to do with how I was created,"

"You told your… teacher?"

"He knows everything. He's immortal, like me, but he's been immortal for around four hundred years now. He's a great guy- actually, I hadn't realized it before, but since it was pointed out to me, I can't help but notice the similarities. He's like a less broody version of Angel, without the darker half. His friend Adam calls him the 'Boy-scout.' Basically, he's the kind of guy you want on your side. I was lucky he came across me, instead of someone else."

Dawn looked away from Buffy to take in her room again. It awed her how many memories this place brought up, even if personally, she hated the color purple now-a-days. Dawn forced her mind back on tract. "How about we play twenty questions?"

Buffy looked slightly relieved, "Deal."

Dawn had imagined anger, yelling, and violence, in her little family reunion. She had never imagined this awkward silence of two complete strangers not knowing what to say to one another. For most people, thirteen years was a lot of time, but Dawn was getting used to the fact that in the eyes of an immortal, a hundred years went by very quickly. Ten years was nothing.

"You start." Dawn decided.

"Why did you leave?" Buffy asked instantly.

"I was stupid and scared… and I felt like I was only a burden for everyone else. You had so much to deal with already; I didn't want you to have to deal with me on top of that." Dawn pointed to the jewelry box on top of the dresser, "Before I left… I had been stealing, from nearly every shop in town, the magic box included. I don't know why I did it, but I think I was hoping to get caught, because then, at least someone would pay attention to me."

Buffy looked as if she had swallowed something sour and her eyes darkened slightly with self recrimination. She grabbed Dawns hand and intertwined their fingers, "I'm sorry, Dawnie…"

"It was a long time ago, Buffy. It's okay now." Dawn replied, just as softly. She perked up slightly, "So, how did you become a councilor at a high school? Did you ever finish your schooling?"

"That's two questions, but I'll answer anyhow. The first day the high school opened, Kennedy, the Slayer after Faith died, called me and said that there were ghosts in the school. She was in grade nine at the time, and apparently, the ghosts had pulled her and two other students into the basement. She got locked in the boiler room, and called me on her cell phone so I could come help her out. I ended up destroying the talisman that had summoned the ghosts and got Kennedy and the two kids out of the boiler room."

Buffy shook her head ruefully, "When we got back upstairs, Principal Wood saw us all. He saw the two teens give both me and Kennedy a hug, and then he saw the three of them wonder off down the hallway. He approached me, and somehow had it in his head that I was Kennedy's mother, but said that he was impressed on how I had gotten two social outcasts to not only make friends, but look happy. So, he gave me a job."

"Just like that?" Dawn asked skeptically. Inwardly she was wincing at bits of the story. When Spike had mentioned a slayer coming to replace Faith, Dawn had imagined someone older, but if she had only been in grade nine, the girl would have only been thirteen or fourteen when she was called. That just… wasn't right. Buffy had been fifteen when she was called and she had barely been able to handle the stress of it. How was someone even younger supposed to deal?

"Well, I had thought so, in the beginning, but three years later, Kennedy was killed during the school day when a demon had tried to open the Hellmouth while school was still in session. Around twenty students were killed, though it would have been more, possibly all of them, without Kennedy's interference. Principal Wood called me during the battle, and told me to bring back up. It had been my day off."

"So he knew about the supernatural, and knew about your place in it? And that's why he hired you?"

"Yeah. But he kept me on because I'm good at it. But anyway, back to Wood. He's actually the son of Nikki Wood, one of the Slayers before me."

"No he's not." Dawn replied with a slight shake of her head, though she didn't elaborate any further.

"and no. I never finished my schooling." Buffy finished. She took this time to ask her next question, "Where have you been the last thirteen years, and what have you been doing?"

"Million dollar question…" Dawn murmured. "For the first three years away from Sunnydale, I was in Washington. After that- after I died and woke up, I was found by the man that became my teacher. He brought me to Paris; because I was afraid you would find me and think I was a demon that needed to be slayed. I stayed there for five years learning from Duncan—my teacher. I left shortly before what would have been my twenty fifth birthday, and I've been traveling the world since."

"When I was twenty two, I discovered my talent with languages, and set myself up as a prodigy linguist. I actually have quite the reputation, and make a pretty decent wage. It's mostly freelance; people call me when they need something translated, I take a look at it, decide how much it'll cost them for me to translate, and go from there."

That wasn't a lie; it just wasn't the whole truth. Dawn wasn't sure if Buffy was ready to know just what being immortal entailed. She had just gotten her sister back; she wanted to bask in her presence for at least a week before she was kicked out and told never to return.

"Yes?" Duncan asked into his cell phone.

"Mac, it's Joe."

"Joe? What's the problem?" Duncan asked immediately. Joe sounded incredibly worried about something.

"Amanda was here. She was edgy, and said she needed to be somewhere. She wasn't herself, Mac."

"Amanda was there? Last I heard she was in Canada." Duncan said. "Did she say where she was going?"

"Yes. Some place called Sunnydale."

Duncan almost dropped his phone, "I'll be on the next flight out."

"Macleod, what's going on?"

"I don't know." Duncan admitted, "But something is not right. Amanda and I talked yesterday, and we agreed that it was best if we stayed far away from Sunnydale unless we were forced. So ether something happened to Marie or something is happening to Amanda. Neither option is something I want to think about."

Xander didn't bother to knock, he just let himself in. Straight away, he found himself in Willow's arms. "Willow, where—where is she?"

"Buffy and- Dawn, are—are upstairs. It's amazing Xander, she's here, and she's alive. She looks really good too. Almost—almost too good. Too young. I didn't want to pry though, so—so she and Buffy are talking." Willow babbled happily.

Xander smiled and tightened his hold on Willow briefly before letting go. The two friends walked to the kitchen, and Xander smiled at Tara and the uber-mini's Mia, Yuna, Ashley, Gwendolyn, Sandra and Felicia. They were called uber-mini's because they were all under the age of ten. Mia and Gwen were seven, Ashley was nine, Yuna was five, Sandra was eight, and Felicia was six. Their watchers had shipped them to Sunnydale when The First had destroyed the Council three years previous.

It was a Pro-D day at the Elementary School.

"Hey kiddo-s." He greeted.

"Xander!" all but Mia cried out happily. Mia just nodded in his direction- she hadn't spoken since her watcher had been murdered in front of her.

Ashley, possibly the most cheerful child he had ever met, threw herself off her chair and tackled him into a hug. Xander went with the motion and spun the young girl around causing her to laugh happily.

Tara smiled and went back to making lunch for the thirteen people currently in the house. The six uber-mini's, a mini who was home sick, Willow, Buffy, Herself, Dawn, and now Xander. "Sandra? Would you please go get Kara?"

Sandra nodded, causing her brown pig-tails to bob up and down. "Kay!"

Xander sat down at the table and looked at Willow who was standing with her arms wrapped around Tara. "How is she?"

Willow pulled away from Tara and took the chair Sandra had just vacated, "She's good. Healthy, and- she looks happy and- and strong. She's confident in a way she never was before. She's all grown up, and we weren't there to see any of it—but—but maybe, maybe it's a good thing. She looks happy, and she got to grow up away from the Hellmouth."

"So it's a good thing she ran away?" Xander asked skeptically.

"No- no. That's not what I mean. Maybe?" Willow stuttered. She continued hesitantly, unsure of how to put her thoughts into words, "It was horrible for—for us when Dawn ran away. But—but we only ever really thought about how it affected us. Our only thought was to find her- and bring her home. B-but what if it wasn't bad for her? What if running away from here, gave her a chance at life that none of us ever got? We always assumed that—that she needed our help, and that she just wanted us to find her, so that we could rescue her and bring her home- and then The First took her form, and we realized that we had failed her."

Willow paused and then lumbered on, "What if- what if she never wanted us to find her. What if she didn't need us to rescue her, because by getting away from the Hellmouth, she had rescued herself?"

Xander wasn't sure what to say to that.

Sandra and the thirteen year old potential Kara walked into the kitchen. Kara looked terrible, her face was gaunt and sickly, and her eyes were red and glassy with fever. She swayed slightly and the little girl beside her steadied her.

Tara looked over her shoulder. "Kara honey? How are you feeling?"

"Not so good." The potential admitted. She sniffled slightly and sat down at the table.

Xander was about to comment when Buffy entered the kitchen followed sedately by someone he hadn't thought he would ever see again. Dawn.

"Dawnster?" He asked, half afraid she would vanish if he so much as blinked.

"Hello Xander." Dawn replied softly. She walked further into the kitchen and her eyes swept over the six uber-mini's, the sick mini, and the four Scoobies. She then discreetly scanned the room for all exits and visible weapons before letting the tension in her shoulders relax.

Xander noticed her paranoia, but didn't call her on it. Instead he stood and approached her hesitantly. She was shorter than him, but not by much, meaning she was taller than Buffy, Willow and Tara. Willow was right; she did look good, though she was also right about her age. Dawn didn't look twenty eight. She didn't even look like she was in her twenties.

Dawn stopped walking just before him, and he pulled her to him. "Don't you ever scare us like that again!" He said reverently into her hair. "Never again. Okay?"

"I'll try." Dawn murmured as her arms wrapped around him tightly.

Dawn felt more overwhelmed today than she had since Richie had died, and that had made her into a head hunter for nearly two years. Though after her breakdown at the school, she had managed to stay mostly calm and composed. She kept reminding herself that these were her family, and if they wanted nothing to do with her, she would do the ritual and go back home. Seeing them though, made the thought of them rejecting her hurt all the more. She didn't want them to hate her.

Dawn breathed in the scent that was so uniquely Xander. "I'm sorry for not letting you guys know that I'm okay." She apologized.

Xander pulled away but kept his hands on her shoulders, "You're here now. That's all that matters."

Dawn smiled, but it held a bitter edge to it, she waited till he was sat at the table and cleared her throat to speak to the room at large, "I can't stay."

Buffy's fists clenched slightly, while Willow and Xander cried out. Tara just waited patiently for Dawn to explain. The kids looked back and forth between the adults, before Kara lifted up her plate and led the younger children into the living room.

Dawn watched them go until they were out of her sight, she then sighed and started her story, "Ten years ago, I found out that the bus I had been on had been hit by a semi-truck. No one survived."

Tara let out a horrified gasp and gripped Willow's hand under the table.

"That was my First Death. I am what is known as an Immortal. I don't know how or why, but I can only guess it has something to do with how I was created. I am not alone. There is an entire race of people like me. We are Human, but after we die our first death, we never age, and we heal in seconds." To prove her point, Dawn grabbed a knife off the counter and swiped it across her hand. She held the hand out in front of her and watched blue sparks dance across the skin, knitting her palm back together. There was no scar.

Xander leaned forward slightly to see better.

"Unfortunately, Immortals are incredibly sensitive to certain energies. The Hellmouth is one of those. I can't stay here, because the Hellmouth is screaming in my head. Also- if another Immortal attacks me here, things could get very bad, very quickly."

"Wait, another immortal? Why would they attack you?" Buffy asked. When they had talked earlier, Dawn hadn't gone into the subject of her immortality. She had said that she only wanted to go over it once.

Dawn winced at the question; she had hoped they wouldn't pick up on that. This was it. This was the moment she had been dreading, the moment of truth. Dawn readied herself to get out of the house as soon as possible if this went south.

"Since the beginning of time, Immortals have played The Game. There are only three rules. No fighting on Holy Ground. No interrupting an ongoing challenge. And… the most important rule of all… There can be only one."

"What- what is The Game?" Tara asked hesitantly.

Dawn looked down and spoke softly, "We fight each other to the Death. The battle ends when one immortal takes the head of the other, in the process, they gain all of that immortals knowledge, power, and possessions. The goal of the game is for us to continue taking each others heads until there is only one left. The last Immortal left gets the Prize."

Dawn started pacing the room, eleven steps forward and eleven steps back. "No one knows what the Prize is. Some say that it's invulnerability and absolute power. Some say it's the ability to pro-create. Some say it's the ability to finally die and go to heaven, while others say its mortality. No one knows, but the time of the Gathering is near."

Everyone in the kitchen was looking at her with an almost horrified fascination.

"There are those that distance themselves from The Game. People who hide on Holy Ground and people who just run away from challenges and live their lives in fear of having their head taken. I decided early on that I couldn't hide. It's not in my blood to hide from a problem and hope it goes away. I don't like the fact that I have to kill people, it makes me feel sick to my stomach- but the thought of being killed; having my head taken, is even worse. When your head is taken, your essence, your soul, is absorbed by the immortal who took your head, or if your head was taken by a mortal, it'll go to the nearest immortal. It means that in a way, they become you. Your personality fades, but you're still there. Your life is theirs. Your memories are theirs. You are theirs."

"Immortals don't get to die- they just- they—we get taken over."

Buffy closed her eyes as if in pain. While Willow went over some other things that Dawn had said, "You can't have children?"

Dawn shrugged lightly and shook her head, "No. No immortal can. We are infertile."

"Oh Dawnie…" Willow murmured sorrowfully.

"So you see Buffy? Why I didn't come home? You're a Slayer, and I'm—I'm a monster. I may be Human, but- but-"

Buffy stood and walked so that she was standing in front of Dawn; she raised her hand and a second later a loud clap noise resonated across the kitchen. Dawn raised a hand to her face at the stinging sensation and looked at Buffy who had tears in her eyes. Buffy started speaking in a harsh, but passionate whisper, "You are not a monster. You didn't choose to be Immortal. And you certainly didn't make up that—that game. You do what you have to do to survive. The Immortals you fight, they're playing the game too—they know the risks."

"Buffy—I'm as bad as any Vampire. They kill to survive too."

"They don't have souls. They don't feel guilty for their actions." Buffy argued. "Just the fact that you feel guilty for what you have to do proves that you're not a monster. You're just a girl who was put into a situation you have no control over."

Buffy could relate.

A/N: Okay, I have a plot and everything worked out for this fic, but it may be slow coming with the updates. I've had a lot of inspiration for other projects lately. Please, tell me what you think about this fic, and my writing style. It's been... a while since I wrote anything, and I fear my writing has suffered because of my hiatus. Thank you, and I hope you readers have enjoyed what I've written so far.