Notes: **Methos is the only character from Highlander used continuously here, and the story starts with him and Buffy being an established couple. *Joe Dawson, Amanda Darieux/Grayson, and Duncan MacLeod make brief cameo appearances. *Buffy is Immortal, and has been since she drowned at the hands of the Master. Willow wasn't responsible for her being brought back after her header off of the scaffold. That was simply Immortal recuperation-though Buffy revived several times in her grave and it took her a long time to dig herself out. Her Immortality had been kept a secret from everyone, because she didn't want to be treated any differently. Dawn was the only one told of her Immortality, and only because she caught Buffy and Methos sparring, and watched Buffy heal a mortal wound in five minutes. *Methos is still the oldest Immortal in the Highlander universe. He started out as Buffy's teacher, and they went from there. His legal identity is Adam Pierson, still.   *Spike went to Kampala and withstood the Trials, regaining his soul. But, he hasn't returned, yet. That will be explained later. Hopefully. He did fall in love with Buffy and eventually assault her in her bathroom. *Methos was still Buffy's teacher at this point, and told her who he really was, and what he had done when he rode with the Horsemen, trying to help her deal with everything and explain how much people can change when they have to. They became a couple shortly afterward. Spike never met Methos, or knew about him. *Cordelia ascended as a Higher Being, and Justine framed Angel for Holtz's murder. Connor buried him beneath the ocean. *This story takes place approximately a year after the BtVS season 6 finale and the Angel season 3 finale. Season 7 of BtVS and season 4 of Angel never happened. Sunnydale, California 2003 Buffy shouted a warning as the Hellmouth opened and the beast that lived in it rose from the fissure, lashing out with its tentacles. Xander was thrown across the room to hit the wall at an odd angle, the snapping sound his neck made echoing in the sudden silence. The beast looked around, then gave a hissing laugh. “Free,” it lisped, pulling itself out of the fissure, completely ignoring Buffy and the others. Anya, once again Anyanka, let out a hellish shriek and raised a hand toward the beast, looking satisfied as it caught fire where it stood and turned to ash a moment later. "Vengeance," she whispered. The beast, however, was the least of their worries. Demons of all kinds swarmed from the Hellmouth, some of them leaving the ruins of the high school immediately in pursuit of grander chaos, but most staying to fight the world's last defense. Methos, the world's oldest Immortal, leaped into the fray, Ivanhoe swinging in precise movements to rend demon upon demon limb from limb. Unfortunately, some of them seemed unperturbed by this, simply growing a new limb to replace the one he'd shorn off. No matter what they did, the demons' numbers weren't decreasing. If anything, they seemed to be gaining more opposition for each demon they slew. Watching as Buffy was felled by a sword through her stomach, Methos admitted that they were losing the fight, badly. A moment later, a green-skinned demon with bright red antlers shoved its clawed hand through his back, and blackness claimed the Immortal. Los Angeles, California 2002 the beach In a state of limbo, Cordelia watched in horror as Connor betrayed Angel and buried him for all eternity in a tomb of water. Despite her newly found powers, she was forbidden from interference, and it made her heart twist in her chest. Shortly after consigning Angel to his watery eternity, Connor and Justine arrived back at the shore. Looking out into the deep stretches of the ocean, Connor couldn't remember where they had put his father. All the better, since he was having second thoughts. “Connor…I have something to tell you,” Justine said, sounding horribly guilty. Looking at her, Connor felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. “He didn't kill Holtz, did he?” Justine shook her head. “No. Holtz wanted Angelus to pay for murdering his family. He wanted to be sure that the vampire was blamed.” Turning an intense look on Justine, Connor demanded, “Who killed him?” “He asked me to do it, and to make it look like a vampire kill,” Justine said quietly. “And I did it.” His blue eyes darkening in rage, Connor backhanded Justine, watching with some satisfaction as she collapsed onto the sand and didn't move, unconscious. “I hate you,” he said angrily, then turned and ran. Los Angeles, California 2003 The Hyperion Hearing an odd sound, Fred woke groggily. “Charles?” Gunn stirred beside her on the couch. “Yeah. M'up.” “What's that noise?” she asked quietly. Frowning, Gunn listened, hearing a sound  that seemed to be a combination of helicopters and truck engines. A moment later, all the glass on the first floor exploded inward under gunfire, and they both collapsed to the floor, unmoving, their bodies riddled with bullets. Seacouver, Washington 2003 Joe's Blues Bar Joe Dawson hung up the phone, his face gone completely white at the news he'd just been given. The two Immortals sitting at the bar knew from the look on their friend's face that something horrible had just happened. “Joe?” Amanda ventured, looking worried. Snapping out of his daze, the aging bartender looked up at his two friends, a wounded look in his eyes. “That was Adam Pierson's Watcher,” he said gruffly, picking up a rag and cleaning the bar, obviously just a means to keep his hands busy and avoid looking his friends in the face. “What happened?” Duncan demanded. Abandoning the rag to lean heavily on the counter, Joe replied, “There was  a Quickening, Mac,” he said. “But there were only two Immortals in Sunnydale! Buffy and Methos would never have fought each other!” Amanda argued, having seen the two together. Joe shook his head. “They didn't fight each other. Something happened that the Slayer Council is keeping quiet about. The building fell down, and there was a Quickening,” he said. “Adam's Watcher said it was the biggest he'd ever seen. It leveled the town, Mac,” he told his friend. Duncan MacLeod's face was ashen. “Methos is dead.” He said what Joe was unable to. Joe nodded silently. “Buffy, too, they think,” he informed them quietly. “How?” Amanda questioned. “They don't know. But a smaller Quickening followed after the first one,” he answered. “They think when the building collapsed, they were both decapitated somehow. No one has been inside.” The phone rang again and Joe picked it up numbly. “Dawson,” he said tiredly. He looked at Duncan, covering the mouthpiece. “The Tribunal wants to know how Adam Pierson, your student, had a Quickening strong enough to level a town, Mac.” Still looking somewhat shell-shocked, Duncan shrugged. “He's dead, Joe. No reason to keep his identity hidden. No one can hunt him now.” Nodding, Joe turned back to the phone. “Adam Pierson never existed,” he said into the receiver. “What your people saw was Methos' death,” he informed. There was a moment of silence, then Joe laughed bitterly. “Told you? And then have some idiot leak it so that the headhunters went after him? Not likely,” he said. “He didn't use the Council to hunt. You put him in research, remember? In fact, you put him in charge of finding himself, and he made sure that it didn't happen. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got funeral arrangements to see to,” he bit off, then hung up the phone. Deflating after hanging up the phone, Joe sighed. “Christ…I never once thought I'd outlive him.” Middle Earth The Golden Wood Legolas Greenleaf froze at an odd sound, tilting his head to one side and listening intently. Suddenly, the feeling of magick in the air intensified, and there was a blindingly bright flash of light. Alarmed, the Prince of Mirkwood headed toward the source of the disturbance. What he saw when he reached the clearing was enough to stump even the eldest of the elves. A white-blue nimbus of light hung suspended mid-air, images flickering in its recesses. Suddenly, the glare cleared, and Legolas' eyes widened at the place he saw through the portal, a scorched, barren wasteland with disgusting, evil looking beasts roaming about freely. He watched, enthralled, the last few moments of the warriors' fight, flinching as he saw the blonde woman run through, followed swiftly by the only man left standing. They fell without a sound, not relinquishing their grip on their swords even in death. Suddenly, the bodies of the two fallen warriors shimmered and then were propelled through the portal, landing gracelessly at Legolas' feet and making the elf emit a startled yelp of sound. With the corpses' arrival, the view in the portal shifted to an underwater scene, evidenced by the brightly colored fish that swam to and fro. An odd rectangular object came into view and was revealed to be a concrete tomb of some sort. When the glass lid came into sight, Legolas frowned at the expression of haunted betrayal on the face of the dead man. The tomb shot out of the portal, and would've taken Legolas' head off if not for elven reflexes that made him duck just in time. The portal glowed golden suddenly, and the elf Prince raised his eyes to see what would happen next. The view was of a golden-hued chamber, empty save for the shimmering marble pillars that supported the ceiling. A doorway composed of golden light opened to one side, and a woman in white robes stepped into the room carrying a small infant, then headed toward the portal, stepping through and landing nimbly on her feet in the soft grasses of Middle Earth. Legolas had never been so shocked in his long life. The woman smiled at him apologetically. “Sorry to drop in on you without asking, but there was nothing else to be done,” she said, setting the baby on the ground, swaddled in its blanket. She made her way to the tomb and raised her right hand, where a metal bar of some kind suddenly materialized. Legolas watched in fascination as she used the bar to pry open the glass lid of the concrete casket, and the water shifted as the man inside sat up, sputtering. The woman smiled. “Welcome back to the land of the living…Sort of,” she told him. The dark-haired man blinked at her. “Cordelia?” She nodded. “Yeah. Complete with new super powery parlor tricks. C'mon, we have a lot to do.” The man climbed out of the concrete tomb and froze, spying the baby laying nearby on the grass, asleep. “Is that-?” Cordelia nodded. “Connor,” she finished. “The Powers let me bring him. But, since Quartoth's time is faster than ours, he could only come through here as a baby. He wouldn't be as old here as he had been when he came back from Quartoth.” “Where is here, exactly?” the man asked, picking up the sleeping baby and holding him close. “Middle Earth,” Cordelia said. “C'mon, Angel. We've got to help the others.” Startled, Angel looked past her to the bodies that lay haphazardly on the ground. A sword was shoved through Buffy's body, and she was completely still on the grass. As was the man who lay nearly disemboweled next to her. “Oh, God. Buffy,” Angel gasped. Cordelia put a hand on his arm comfortingly. “She's Immortal, Angel,” she told him softly. “If we take the sword out, she'll heal. Methos will wake up on his own in a few minutes.” Giving her a disbelieving look, Angel crept closer to the two bodies. Making an exasperated sound, Cordelia strode forward and yanked the sword from Buffy's body. “For a vampire, you're way squeamish, Angel,” she complained. “I used to be in love with her, Cordelia. Sorry if seeing her dead is a little off-putting,” Angel defended, making a face as she pulled the sword from Buffy's prone body, the blade making a horrible wet, sucking sound as it came free from her flesh. Not sure what to make of this strange occurrence, Legolas crept forward, nocking an arrow to his bow. “Who are you, and what is your business here?” he called out. Cordelia turned to Legolas and grinned. “I was wondering when you were going to say something, Legolas,” she told him. “How do you know my name?” the Prince of Mirkwood demanded suspiciously. “I only know what the Powers wanted me to know,” Cordelia told him. “They probably knew you'd be pointing a bow at us when we got here, so they sent a message for you,” she said. “You're supposed to ask someone named Galadriel what she makes of us, but take us with you as proof. Apparently, they don't think Galadriel will believe you about us unless we're there.” Angel touched Cordelia's arm. “Why are we even here, Cordelia? Why not the Hyperion?” Sadness clouded her face abruptly. “The End of Days has come, Angel,” she told him quietly. “The Hellmouth has opened, and unleashed the legions from Hell upon Earth. Our world has been destroyed.” Angel shook his head in denial. “No…It can't be!” Tears brimming in her eyes, Cordelia shushed him with a finger over his lips. “It is. We did our best to stop it, but it wasn't enough, Angel,” she said. Looking over her shoulder at the bodies behind her, she told him, “Buffy and Methos stood on the mouth of Hell itself as it opened and tried to fight the forces of evil back, but there were only two of them against the entire army, and they died almost immediately. For every demon they killed, ten more sprang from the Hellmouth to take its place. Even the Immortal couldn't take on tens of thousands of demons, Angel.” “What about the others? Fred, and Gunn?” Angel demanded. “They were killed. Wolfram & Hart attacked the Hyperion right after the Hellmouth opened. They never stood a chance,” Cordelia told him softly. "Lilah went to Wesley's apartment and shot him in the back." “Everything that was good, human or demon, is dead, Angel,” she said. “Willow, Xander, even Buffy's sister, Dawn. They're all gone. Every Hellmouth in the world opened at the same time. Giles led the Watcher's Council to try to stop the one at Stonehenge from erupting, but they couldn't.” A shuddering gasp of pain turned their attention to the bodies that lay behind them, and Legolas watched in awe as the dark haired man who had been dead scant moments before sat up, cursing vehemently. It didn't sound like English. “Methos,” Cordelia called out to him. The man turned to look at her with narrowed eyes. “How do you know that name?” he demanded, looking ready to fight. Cordelia regarded him fearlessly, one eyebrow raised. “I know a lot more than you would think,” she told him succinctly. “I'm also the one who brought you here before the demons could get the bright idea to cut your head off and make you stay dead. A little gratitude would be nice.” Methos glared at her, then turned his attention to Buffy's still form, drawing her into his arms and holding her as she took her first, painful breath and regained life. “Did we win?” she gasped out. Methos looked questioningly at Cordelia. “No, we didn't,” she answered. Buffy seemed to deflate. “Then it was all for nothing,” she murmured. “We fought with everything we had, and the world still ended. We never stood a chance, did we?” “Of stopping it? No,” Cordelia admitted. “But, we weren't meant to stop it. The Powers sent us here so we'd survive it.” Buffy stood up and began pacing angrily. “Why? Why send us here? We're obviously useless to them.” “No, we're not,” Cordelia said. “They knew we could never stop the End of Days. But we can take our world back.”