AUTHOR: Tisienne Blue

E-MAIL: tisatko@msn.com

DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to their respective studios/ producers/ creators, except for Serena, who has the misfortune to belong solely to me...*G*

RATING: a hard R, I think...

NOTES: this is a b-day fic for Nat, and she wanted a Buffy/ Angel/ Highlander X-over fic... Pretender is in there just for me. The totally suck 5th season of Highlander never happened in my world, though...*G*

PAIRINGS: W/A; Ser/Jarod...

DISTRIBUTION: Charity can have ot, of course, cuz she's the goddess of fic-dom... anyone else I've said yes to before for anything of mine is also good... otherwise, ask and I'll probably say yes...

FEEDBACK: Would be nice... and gets you a dedi, too...*giggle*

DEDICATIONS: Hmmm... to Mystra, for listening to me about this one... Also, to: Ali, Kitti, Witchy, Caroline, and Darla... thanks for the feedback, luvs...

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"She did WHAT?" the tall redhead almost screamed, staring at Adam's lanky form. "HOW? And WHY?" She turned and began pacing angrily through the living room. "Of all the... self-centered... irresponsible... FOOLISH things to do..." She turned back towards the two men, glaring at their surprised expressions. "Well, THINK about it! What happens if she... what if something happens? How does HE," she gestured at the vampire, "Get OUT of here? What if he's stuck in this damned apartment forever?"

Methos was stunned at Serena's attitude. He'd thought she HATED this Angel character, but she certainly wasn't acting like it; in fact, she was acting like... "Ohhh... no," he said loudly, "Serena, don't tell me that you...

The woman shook her head, not understanding what he meant at first, then shook it even more when she finally figured it out. "Oh, Gods, Adam, of COURSE not! I mean, I LIKE him, but... no. Not now; not ever!"

Angel was confused by whatever it was they weren't saying, but he pushed all of that aside as he considered his situation. The girl he loved had left him behind while she went after a God, and an ANGRY God, at that... he was trapped in his apartment, and he couldn't go to her, regardless of how much he wanted to. He thought for a moment about the time she'd uninvited him from Buffy's house, and he forced himself to resist the hope that was suddenly singing through his veins in place of blood. "Maybe," he said, interrupting the two immortals, "Maybe if one of you went into the hall and... invited me out? I mean, I'm not SURE, but... it might..."

Methos shook his head in amusement when Serena nodded. "It's not going to work, you know," he said smugly, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the chair behind him, "I'm fairly certain that she would have thought of that."

The redheaded woman glared half-heartedly at him from just outside the apartment door. "You're probably right, Adam," she said with a sigh, "But it couldn't hurt to at least TRY it. Come out, Angel," she said quietly, shifting her gaze to the dark-haired vampire.

He took a deep breath, although he wasn't sure why, and stepped forward, slowly this time, only to be stopped yet again by the barrier that had restrained him just a few minutes earlier. "Well... damn!" he muttered, ignoring the chuckles coming from the other man in the room. "What now?"

Serena stepped back inside, watching as the vampire sat down on the couch, with a puzzled expression on his face. "Well, I'd STILL like to know what she thought she was doing..." she said sternly, slipping in to a nearby chair.

"Oh, that's EASY," the vampire said, meeting her eyes. "Willow was protecting me the only way she knew how. It's obvious, isn't it?" He pulled his gaze from hers and stared fixedly at a spot on the far wall, speaking aloud. "There are a lot of things that I'd never lie to her about, but... I guess she knows that this isn't one of them. And I DID lie to her... I told her I'd let her go do this... that I wouldn't try to protect her from her destiny, but... I had every intention of following her, even when I said it!" He smiled slightly at the fact that she knew him so well. "And I was still badly hurt at the time! I got even more determined when she pulled that healing spell on me, though, so..." He sighed deeply then. "I guess she wanted to make sure that I'd be all right if she... well, just IF."

The redhead shook her head slowly, her amazed eyes turning to her former teacher's. "He's insane..." she muttered.

Methos grinned and crossed to the woman he'd trained over a century earlier. "No, Serena... he's in LOVE. He knows, intellectually, that there's nothing he could do if he were there-- other than distract her, of course-- just as YOU know the same about your Jarod." He crouched down before her, a wry smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. "And THAT," he said sharply, grasping her hand tightly in his own, "Is why you're still here, yourself! You can't go after him unless it's to help Angel, here, go after Willow... not without having him think you don't trust him, so..."

Serena nodded sharply, pulling her hand from his. "Yeah. But it's MORE than that, Adam... I'm still worried about that Miss Parker woman we saw at the hotel. I mean, from what J's told me, she's not stupid, and... our little ruse was none too stable, so..."

Angel was once again confused, but this time, he wasn't going to put it aside. "Um... guys?" he said quickly, breaking in to their conversation, "What ruse? And who's this Miss... whoever, and What does ANY of this have to do with Serena's boyfriend?"

Methos smirked slightly at the steady widening of the vampire's eyes as Serena began explaining to him about Jarod... Of course, his OWN eyes were wide with shock, too, when she went into detail, but... he chose to ignore that little fact.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"All right, pet," Spike said quietly as the three of them got out of the car Jarod had rented, "Where's this THING we're supposed to fight?" He glanced around him, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, but then again, he didn't know the neighborhood. It looked quite nice, actually, and somehow that disturbed him more than anything else about the situation. It would have been reasonable, he thought, for a pissed-off God to be lurking about, stirring up trouble, in one of the seedier parts of town, but... HERE? In this bastion of middle-class Parisians? It just didn't seem... appropriate, for some reason. "Well?" he demanded, glancing wildly around him.

"I don't know..." Willow murmured softly, scanning the night along with him and Jarod, "Not exactly, but... it's nearby; I can FEEL it!" And she could, too. She didn't know how, but... for some reason, she'd been able to feel the God growing stronger and angrier ever since they'd left the apartment, and... she was glad that she'd ensured Angel's absence from their little... date with Sauverna. If he'd come, she'd have been too distracted with worrying about him to fully concentrate on what she was supposed to do. And he WAS still at the apartment; she could tell, but... she DID wonder exactly who it was that had followed them across town. She smiled slightly and shook her head. Whoever it was, she'd worry about them later, because right now... right now, she had a furious God to deal with. Her eyes stopped roaming completely, and widened as she began making out an enormous form taking shape in the sudden bank of fog before them. "Uh... guys?" she said softly, pointing with her chin until they saw it, too. "I think that's it..."

Jarod stared up... and up... and up, his mind almost entirely frozen by the shock of what he was seeing, because... OK-- immortals, running around trying to whack each others heads off; vampires, stalking the night, feeding on humanity? THAT he could deal with, but... this thing was completely outside the scope of his ability to believe. It had to be at least ten or eleven feet tall, and its skin was... and it's FACE! He shuddered slightly, his hand reaching desperately for Willow's, crushing her fingers with his. "What... what the HELL?" he managed to say, before he found himself suddenly airborne, the witch's hand no longer in his. He flew what HAD to be a good twenty feet-- or so the still-analytical portion of his mind told him-- before his head met the side of a stone building with a sickening sound like a ripe melon being dropped from a third story balcony, and that was all.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Well, where ARE they?" the brunette woman purred dangerously, a sharp, angry smile on her face as she searched the darkness with the computer-man and the Doctor she knew didn't really WANT to find Jarod. She'd known that something was slightly off about the couple she'd seen at the hotel, but their almost-explicit banter had thrown her off her stride, and it wasn't until earlier that morning that she'd gotten confirmation of what she'd begun, during the night, to suspect. The tall, dark-haired man with the accent hadn't been the Jarod Johnson registered there, and in fact, when pressed, the desk clerk had said that Mr. Johnson sounded like an American! Fortunately, she'd seen the redhead leaving the hotel that evening with another dark-haired man, and she'd taken a chance on following them. It wasn't until the couple had gotten out of the car in front of a nice little apartment building that she'd been sure that THIS man was, indeed, the Pretender she'd been chasing for so long. She'd called Sydney and told him to drag his wrinkled old ass over there ASAP, and to bring the sometimes inept little monkey of a hacker with him. Fortunately for them, they'd arrived just before Jarod had left-- this time accompanied by a different redhead, and a man with a truly horrible bleach job-- and they'd followed the car the three were in, only losing them when they'd needed to look for parking.

Broots shivered slightly at the tone of the woman's voice, glad once again that HE wasn't Jarod. "I... I don't know, Miss Parker. I TOLD you you should have let one of us out, but did you listen? Noooo... of COURSE not..." He thought he'd said the last part too softly for her to hear, but when she spun and glared at him he swallowed hard, realizing that her hearing was better that he'd thought. "W... well, you SHOULD have..." he muttered, not really willing to back down.

Sydney smiled slightly, amused by the almost sibling-like interaction between the two. "He's right, Parker," he said jocularly, his eyes sparkling slightly in the darkness, "You really..." He cut himself off, his eyes flying to the intersection in front of him when he heard a strangled yelp in what sounded like... "That was Jarod!" he cried, running towards the sound with the other two right on his heels. They rounded the corner, only to stop short at what they saw.

"What the HELL?" the tall brunette said, shocked, "Syd... what IS that thing?"

The older man shook his head before thoughts of the man who was like a son to him took over. "I don't know, Parker," he said shakily, "but... LOOK!" he pointed.

Broots really wanted to look at whatever it was that Sydney was pointing at, but... his eyes were completely attached to the enormous... whatever that was in front of him. He'd never seen anything like it before, and sincerely hoped that he'd live long enough to get the hell AWAY from it. "Uhhh.... uhhhh...." he managed to say before falling silent and backing away. Fortunately, the... THING had all of its attention focused on the little redheaded girl and the blond guy... The blond guy who had something WAY wrong with his face! "Uhhh..."

Miss Parker, on the other hand, was more than happy to pull her eyes away from the whatever it was, and she followed the direction of Sydney's gesture, her eyes growing even wider when she saw the wide trail of blood starting almost ten feet from the ground on the far building. She followed it down slowly, until she was focused on the still and lifeless body on the ground where the trail ended. "What?" she said softly, refusing to admit, for a moment, that it could end like this. "Is that... Sydney, is that JAROD?"

Sydney nodded, suddenly feeling very old. "Yes, Parker," he said softly, tears in his eyes, "Jarod is... dead..."

The woman closed her eyes for a moment, fighting her own tears. Yes, she told herself, they had been enemies, and yes, she'd spent the last few years trying to take him back to a world he didn't belong in, but... He'd also known her better than anyone else EVER had; even her poor, dead Tommy... and she'd miss him, even while she rejoiced for him that he'd never have to exist in confinement, never be taken advantage of again, and... She slowly slipped along the wall beside her, crouching as she ran from building to building until she was right beside him, and she crouched down, the fingers of one hand gently closing his blank, brown eyes. She leaned over, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead. "Go in peace, Jarod," she murmured softly, pulling a handkerchief from her jacket pocket. She reached out to the wall with it, gathering one of the small lumps of brain tissue that was stuck there, and wrapped it up, putting it back in her pocket before standing and retracing her path to her companions. "He's free, Sydney," she said softly, meeting his shattered eyes, "And I've got the proof right here in my pocket." She surprised herself just as much as she did him when she reached out and pulled him into a tight hug. "It's over," she said, quickly releasing him. "Let's go home..."

The devastated older man glanced behind her at the thing that was still staring silently at the redhead and the blond beside her. "What about THEM?" he said disinterestedly.

Miss Parker glanced once over her shoulder, taking in the frozen tableau. "What ABOUT them?" she finally said, taking his limp hand and starting back towards their car, "We don't know them, and frankly, I don't WANT to. Whatever they're into, I think it really needs to stay OUT of our report..." She glanced behind her once more, focusing on the last member of their little party. "Broots!" she hissed, "Are you coming?"

He didn't even realize that he'd been frozen there for almost three full minutes; not until he heard her say his name. Fortunately, that was enough to snap him out of it, and he turned and ran around the corner, following her and Sydney as though the hounds of Hell itself were on his tail... and for all HE knew, they were.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

She'd been stunned when the God had decided to kill Jarod. There was no other word for it; just... STUNNED! Of course, that had only lasted a moment, and even though she grieved for the now-dead man, she had more important things on her mind... like how to keep Spike and herself from meeting the same fate! And so she grabbed on to the vampire's cool hand, pulling the energy from his demon and combining it with her own before flinging it out, raw, at the God. It seemed to be working, because none of them had moved at all for at least a few minutes.

She could feel the probing tendrils of intent at the edges of her mind, and tried to pull even more power through her link with the blond, but... it wasn't going to do any good, and she KNEW it! Spike just didn't have enough strength in his body to replace what they'd lost when Sauverna had killed Jarod. "Sauverna!" she shouted as she felt Spike's hand slip from hers, "Sauverna!" She didn't quite have the nerve to look at the vampire, but she knew he wasn't dust... he was just laying on the ground in a dead faint. "Sauverna, don't... don't hurt him..." she begged as she felt the cresting wave of hatred and pain hovering over them, "Please!" She almost fainted herself when she felt the energy recede, and she stared at the God in confusion. Her confusion quickly turned to shock, however, when the God's enormous, mis-shapen form began to shrink in on itself, and she was suddenly confronted with the shape of a small redheaded girl, even smaller and younger-looking than SHE was. "Sa... Sauverna?" she said breathlessly.

The God stared at her emotionlessly. "Who are you, girl?" it demanded.

"I'm Willow..." she almost stuttered, barely managing to speak above a whisper, "Just... just WILLOW..."

The God looked at her for a moment longer before slowly circling the slightly trembling mortal. "And why are you here?" it asked in an almost purring tone, smiling slightly when the girl shivered more. "Tell me!" it cried angrily.

Willow jumped slightly at the suddenly harsh tone coming from the harmless-looking girl. "You... you've been HURTING people!" she exclaimed, suddenly angry herself. "You've been making people hurt others, and... I'm here to STOP you!" She glared at the God's slight form when it began laughing. "And don't laugh at me, damn it! My friend is dead, the man I love is cursed, and I'm probably going to DIE here myself, so shut the Hell up!" She growled slightly, her eyes beginning to glow bright green. "My entire LIFE has been one big exercise in futility, and now you-- YOU!-- have the nerve to laugh at me just because I have ZERO chance of making you stop whatever it is you're doing? Well, FINE, then!" she cried, the tendrils of cold fire shooting out from her and wrapping around the God's smaller form.

The God stood still, amused by the girl's temerity... as if something as weak as the power she possessed could hurt IT! And yet... it had been so long since there had been anything other than anger... and the amusement made a small crack in its armour... and it started to feel, and remember. It shrugged of the girl's power irritably, and chuckled at her shocked expression. "Yesss..." it said quietly, a slow smile spreading across its face, "You'll do quite nicely..."

Willow looked, frightened, at the God's anticipatory expression. "Wha... what do you want? I mean, other than to just... kill me?"

The God smiled even more at the girl's small voice. "Yesss... I DO want your death..." it said silkily, stepping closer as it continued to speak.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Angel stared sadly at the rug in his living room. And after what he'd just heard, he knew that it was HIS living room, not his and Willow's. "She... she's going to die." he said again, his eyes closing tightly against the pain of it. He'd always known that the humans around him would grow old and eventually pass away, but... he'd thought that he'd have more time with his love. There was supposed to be a chance, after all, according to the damned legend... "But I thought you said there was an IF... didn't you? Because the words 'And IF they succeed...' seem to be stamped in my memory, and for some reason, that memory has YOUR VOICE, Adam!" He was glaring at the immortal now, wishing that he could be Angelus for just a moment.

Methos swallowed hard, and looked away from the vampire. "I... I DID say that, but... the Legend, it's... tricky, at best. The translating, alone..." He sighed, hearing Angel growling low and deep. "Look, I... I went back and read it over again, but the problem is that... Look, Angel, this Legend, it started back before even I was born, and... a lot of it was handed down verbally, but... as near as I can tell, the God wants to kill her. There's a chance that she'll take it with her, though, and..." He sighed, looking away from the pain in the other man's eyes. "I think that's what the 'if' is about... I think that she and her companions are either already dead or well on their way to it."

The vampire transferred his suddenly commiserating gaze to the redhead in the nearby chair. "I'm sorry, Serena..." he began before stopping. "Wait a minute... why are you so calm about this?" he demanded.

Serena sighed deeply, her eyes closing for just a moment. "Jarod may die," she finally said, "But... unless he's decapitated, he'll be back..." She closed her eyes again against the hope in his gaze. "J's one of us, Angel, but..." she trailed off then, not wanting to say it out loud.

"But Willow isn't..." he finished for her sadly. He thought for a moment, and stood, ignoring their surprised glances. "I'll be in my room," he said softly, "Getting my affairs in order."

Methos watched him go, turning to Serena after the bedroom door had been firmly shut. "You don't think he meant..." he began, faltering.

The redhead nodded slowly, her hands gripping each other tightly. "Yeah... I do." she said, understanding completely.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"What do you REALLY want?" the God asked the redheaded witch again, still staring at the scrap of parchment in its hand.

"I told you that already," Willow said wearily, meeting the blue eyes for what had to be the thousandth time. "I've told you again and again! What do YOU want?" she demanded, sighing when she got the same answer. "Fine," she said, a moment later, "You want my death? TAKE IT, then!" She stood still, and barely shook at all, when the God reached deep into her soul and... tugged. She screamed, but she barely shook, at least until she fell to the ground, motionless.

Sauverna stared down at the still girl. "Thank you, Willow," she said with a slightly smug smile, and "I'll never forget you..." She bent down and tucked the scrap away in the girl's front pants pocket and kissed her on the forehead before rising and walking off into the night, smiling.

End-- pt 19

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