-Author's note- If you haven't seen the movie Highlander, I recommend you watch it. I really loved the main enemy in it, The Kurgan, and wanted to see him faced up against Buffy as well as being some sort of competition against Angelus, kind of a device to bring Angelus and Buffy together. It's been a while since I've written, I really appreciate reviews and advice. Hope you enjoy it! -Author's note-
She was over the unease that accompanied her patrols in the graveyard these days – the rocky blend of heat, anticipation and the stalking stare that was Angelus made the slayer anxious and restless – her breaths often varied from long, hard intakes of air as the hair stood tall on the back of her neck, to short, rapid ones as she felt her heart speed up at sounds as subtle as snapping twigs .
She was tense, alert.
It'd been two months since her lover reclaimed the form of his demon – malicious and manipulative Angelus, scourge of Europe, comfortable and as far as Buffy knew permanently residing in the clutches of Hell mouth-sanctuary Sunnydale until Buffy and all her friends were dead. As if things could get any worse.
Buffy was constantly trying to avert rising darkness and demons on a day to night basis. A vampire as cunning and unmerciful as Angelus was the last thing she really needed. She thanked whatever powers that be that at least Spike was reduced to a wheelchair, but Drusilla was another story. The wickedly evil vampire was gifted to anticipate the Scooby gang's moves if a new plan to stop Angelus was formed – her darkness was punctuated with an endless torment of insanity – Drusilla was a ticking time bomb of evil as great as Angelus's – perhaps you could say she was just as dangerous. But Buffy had been through all these dangers and fears in her mind over and over – what else was she supposed to think of; what else could possibly be just as important and time consuming as anticipating the next moves of the three very old, very unpredictable vampires such as them. She groaned when it hit her.
Tomorrow's algebra test.
Her sweep of Restfield Cemetery came up short, no new dead guy pushing their way to the surface of a fresh grave. Buffy was thankful, as hard as she tried not to think about it, vampires did mean the death of an innocent, something that only started to really dawn on her after she turned 17 and she lost her boyfriend she loved so shamelessly to her now greatest enemy.
Giving one last offhanded glance around the foggy landscape, Buffy bent down to pick up her sports bag and leave – the extra baggage she began to take on patrol had become somewhat of a safety blanket – filled with miscellaneous weapons, half a dozen stakes and the trust worthy glass confinement of holy water. She exited through the front gate and as she began her descent back home underneath the chilling glow of an almost full moon, she could hear the faint sound of metal clanking. Whipping her blonde hair to hear where the source of the sound was coming from, she headed south onto Weatherly Drive, slightly picking up her boots.
The noise became more distinct, and eventually she recognised the sound of sword against sword – only two party members, but definitely a serious battle. She hurried to the source of the sound, an alley way that gave home to a local butcher's bins, and as she rounded into said alley she was greeted to the image of a man – a very large man - decapitating the head of his opponent.
Buffy's instincts kicked in, but before she could approach the victor, he stumbled back as if pushed by some unseen force, and a fierce wind picked up pushing Buffy a few steps back herself.
The man was unafraid, but trying to gain his composure, he thrust his arms outwards to reveal the bloody white shirt he was wearing, detailed with numerous holes only a series of bullets would explain.
A massive sword was being held in his right hand, silver and crafted with spikes at the handle.
The man's eyes were closed and he embraced himself for whatever was next, a storm accompanied the sky with dark clouds, and the windows of the buildings that enclosed the alley way burst, shattering glass and raining it onto the ground below. Buffy was startled by the noise, and covered her ears just as the man bellowed, "There can be only one!"
As he put his hands back together, he held his sword up high and the piercing crack of thunderous lightning connected to the tip of his weapon. The new source of lighting enabled Buffy to see the man's face; pale white skin with dark, sunken eyes – wide lips held together in concentration to whatever force was consuming him, cracked and pale, matching his skin tone. The man's hair was black as night, held back into a low ponytail that rested just at his shoulder blades. His shirt was accompanied with a black leather jacket, worn and detailed with safety pins that appeared to be holding the only remaining sleeve to the shoulder of the jacket. His pants were black too, Buffy couldn't tell if they were leather or not, but they went with his dark, punk attire. He was a sight to be seen, handsome yet unbelievably scary, as if he were plagued by demonic or evil intentions. Buffy hesitated, but once the bizarre environmental power had completely exceeded, she ran to attack. 'Fight now, ask questions later'.
The man was caught off guard as he received the first blow to the face, a punishing kick that made his head whip back, and then just as fast received a hard punch to the torso.
However, before Buffy's left fist could connect with scary-guy's face, he caught it easily in his large palm like a baseball to a mitt and crushed down, breaking a couple of her fingers.
"Hello, pretty," the man said sadistically, it seemed to rumble out of his throat with an eccentric deepness – like rocks in a dump truck.
Buffy's eyebrows furrowed and her mouth slowly opened in pain and surprise at the man's shocking strength, and before she had time to escape his grip with her free arm or legs, the man's other arm punched into her torso throwing Buffy into the brick wall. With the air effectively knocked out of her, the man had her trapped between his body and the wall as he held his hands up against both sides of her head.
"What's a young girl like you roaming the dark streets by herself, attacking men three times their size?"
Buffy swung out her legs in response, to push him away from his dominating entrapment, causing her opponent to stumble back and laugh.
"I see. Guess you're not as weak as you look. What sort of demon might you be, pretty thing?" His smile was amused and confident, similar to Angelus's, she noticed.
"Try Slayer. What the hell are you?"
"Slayer?" The mysterious man asked in surprise. "I haven't encountered a slayer in at least a century."
"So you're a vampire?"
Her opponent laughed, a deep bellowing laugh that could have shaken the ground they were standing on. "Vampire? No, unsure if it'd even be possible. Maybe. But then what would be the point?"
"Enough with the cryptic. I just saw you cut off as guy's head. Who are you?" She kept her guard strong, fists held high.
"You're a bossy thing, aren't you," the man grinned. "I am the Kurgan, and I'm not in the mood to play with a slayer or answer a triage of questions. Get out of my way, or die." The Kurgan looked at the small slayer whose eyes stayed confident and challenging. Buffy flexed her already healed fingers, and reached into her jacket for the dagger she kept in the breast pocket. "So be it." The Kurgan stated.
He lunged first, bringing the sword he had down on her, to which she had quickly dodged, to deliver a solid kick to his back. He fell forward and turned his head to anticipate where her next move was coming from – she liked to kick – and he reached out and grabbed her vulnerable leg, forcefully pulling her down to the ground with him. The Kurgan got up to completely face the blonde, who had already performed a graceful kip-up to get onto her feet. Feisty, he thought, and began to laugh as he peddled back in the alley as she reigned a series of blows towards him, each effectively being blocked. He eventually got the upper hand to counter her attacks, and he threw out his sword just as she jumped back, slicing through her maroon sweater and slashing the fine skin of her stomach. It was her turn to dodge and block his attacks as he began to force her backwards, after more kicks and head punches she found herself once again trapped against the dead end of the alley. The Kurgan laughed at the slayer's misfortune, and thrust the sword towards her face, to which Buffy at the last second avoided and therefore trapped the Kurgan's sword into the stone wall. He grinned and his hand quickly abandoned his sword, grabbing the blonde by the neck and pinning her to the wall.
"You put up a good fight," he growled, for once leaving Buffy a bit shaken. "But I have the rest of my life to kill you. Until we meet again, pretty." He punctuated his words with a trace of his finger down Buffy's face, causing her to suddenly feel strange and hot at the power she felt underneath his touch. He pulled his sword out of the wall, almost effortlessly, and then turned his back and left the slayer in the alleyway, gasping for breath as she held onto her neck.
