Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy belong to Joss. The Immortal concept from Highlander doesn't belong to me either. I'm not making any money.
Sunnydale an hour before dawn was quiet. Even though people weren't willing to give up their night lives, they seemed to know that as the night wound down the danger increased. Vampires got hungrier, and they either had to find someone to kill or drag back to whatever hidey-hole they had, or choose the less favorable options of buying stale blood or spending a day hungry.
On the rare occasions she had done a pre-dawn patrol Buffy had found it to be favorable hunting as desperate vamps attacked anything that moved, and malicious demons who wanted nothing to do with humans took advantage of the few hours.
That's why when she'd had to open the Doublemeat this morning she'd decided to do a little early-morning slaying. Now that the patrol was over she had to head home and get her uniform.
That thought was interrupted by the clashing of swords. A normal human couldn't have picked it up from the distance, but she was thenSlayer, and she did have superhuman senses.
"You're very good for your age," a voice, barely close enough to be understood, said smugly. Buffy used that to get a better judge of location and cut through an alley.
She drew her back up weapon as she did, a sword, and cursed the fact she was out of crossbow bolts. It would be so much easier to diffuse the situation without throwing herself between two guys with swords.
"Got to be to survive this town," another voice answered. A very familiar voice.
"Xander!" Buffy poured on more speed.
Xander and his mystery attacker were just in sight, still crossing swords, when the attacker moved in, pulled something out of the back of his pants and shoved it into Xander's chest.
"You'd think with all the demon fighting you do, you'd be more prepared for dirty tricks."
Not knowing what breed of demon she was facing she went for the surefire kill.
"You monster!" Buffy yelled decapitating the creature as it raised it sword to desecrate Xander's body.
It was a clean cut and the head rolled off cleanly. Buffy was shocked when lightning exploded from the body, shocking her and knocking her unconscious.
When she recovered she managed to drag herself over to Xander, and pulled the knife out of his chest.
"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner. God, what am I going to tell everyone? Willow's going to be heartbroken. But at least you're in a better place." She started to sob as she sat by his corpse.
"What, did you move me out of Sunnydale while I was out?"
"Oh, god!" She crawled away from him going for the stake in her waistband and the cross around her neck.
"Whoa, easy Buffy! If I was a vampire a knife to the heart wouldn't have dropped me. You know that!"
"Right, right. But if you WERE Xander then a knife to the heart would've killed you. How do I know you're who you look like."
"How would I have known you were around? And if I didn't why would I want to look like me? I haven't wanted to let you all know about this, but give me a chance, and I promise I'll explain."
******
Buffy hadn't had time to wait for an explanation. So he followed her home and waited on her porch as she got ready for work.
Xander watched sadly as Buffy dutifully walked around the fast food place making sure everything was in place for the day. He was also feeling pretty crappy since he'd had the power to give her a better job. She could do so much better than this. But hopefully once she had some money in savings she'd have time to find a better job.
"Immortals. Sounds kind of weird."
"Compared to what we deal with?"
"Well, yeah, it does. I mean why would these guys train you if they were going to try to behead you eventually? And what if someone who could be Immortal doesn't die violently? Wouldn't the "Game" be missing a piece?"
"I don't know. I think older Immortals teach newbies like me so we survive, get more life experience, and it's like we're worth more.
Plus maybe they're hoping someone will beat them. I think there's a lot of Immortals who aren't that attached to the idea of living forever."
"When did it happen?"
"On the road trip."
"Wow. That long."
"Yeah. And you should see the way I healed up before I found this witch to hide it. Lots of mini-lightning bolts."
"I can't believe we never knew."
"I've tried to hide it. Of course you must've had some idea."
"None."
"Buffy, Olaf was hitting me in the head with a hammer that you used to hurt a god."
"I just thought you could handle it."
"Well, I'm flattered you think I'm Superman, but if you did then why don't you ask me to do more stuff."
"I'm just trying to keep you and the whole gang safe. I don't know what kind of abuse the average person can take. I was never even in a fight till I became the Slayer!" Buffy was silent for a bit as she continued to working. Then she spun around and Xander was almost hit in the face with the rag that flew out of her hand. "Wait a minute."
"What? What did I do?"
"The thing at the wedding. The guy who showed you the future. You had to know you weren't him, or he wasn't you, er... whatever."
"Yeah, I did. But the future he showed me, with Anya getting old and the kids who weren't mine was mixed in with something else. I always looked exactly the same. That kind of reminded me of this whole thing."
"Okay, but fake claiming to be you, shouldn't you have been a little more suspicious."
"I just figured he was a friend of Anya's trying to me convince I wasn't good enough for her. Took me weeks to figure out what he showed me was to convince me she'd be unfaithful and ruin my life."
Xander looked down at his watch. "I've got to get ready to get to the site, and it looks like it's about time for you to open."
"We'll talk more later. And I wanted to say I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"You know, for being so hung up on heaven, when you probably won't get to go for a long time."
Xander shrugged as he got up. "I never thought much about the afterlife, even before. I figure as long as you, Willow, Anya, Dawn,
Tara, and everybody are alive I figure I don't need to think about it."