Disclaimer: I do not own Buffyverse, Highlander or anything else you may recognize

So I saw the 1986 Highlander film yesterday, and you know me- decided to think of some crossovers. With MCU and Buffyverse mostly.

So here's a one-shot idea with Buffyverse which my friend Brainstorm Sorcerer suggested to me.

Now I only know the film, though I read up about other stuff in the franchise, and the TV series I plan to watch soon. Plus, I heard Anthony Stewart Head played a role in the first Season too.

Originally, was gonna make it a long one-shot but decided to make it a short story of 3 chapters instead, this one will be the shortest, other two will be longer.

Also, I had to tag this as a crossover between the shows here, because I didn't find Highlander in the movie category, unless it has another name there.

Anyway, thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for the help, and if there are inaccuracies on the Highlander side, remember, new fan, so I should be excused for now.

Chapter 1- I'm still here

"Dawn?"

Buffy paused at the open door to Willow's room open and looked inside with an expression of dread before walking inside, seeing Tara's body, still lying there in a pool of blood, speckled with moonlight and shadows.

Buffy whispered. "Oh god."

"I didn't ... want to leave her alone."

Buffy turned and found Dawn huddled in a little ball, in a corner formed by the wall and a side-table, crying.

"Dawn. Sweetheart", Buffy knelt beside Dawn. "Come on. Honey, we need to get out of here, okay?" She stroked her sister's hair. "Dawn, sweetheart. Be strong for me, okay?"

Xander walked in, looking at Tara in dismay.

"Dawn, we need to go downstairs."

Dawn was crying. "I don't understand."

During that time, some lightning cracked in the sky in spades.

Buffy pulled Dawn close and hugged her. Dawn continued crying.

"I don't understand either."

"Wh…..what's going on?"

The voice, or rather, to whom it belonged, made them all jump, as they turned and their eyes widened on seeing Tara slowly sitting up, a confused look in her eyes.

The lightning stopped at that moment.

"What the….?" Xander trailed off.

Tara slowly got up, and Dawn pushed past Buffy, hugging her tightly as she started crying. "Tara! Oh my God, Tara…..I thought you…" Whatever the girl said was muffled by her sobbing. Tara, while still confused over what was going on, realized Dawn needed comfort and hugged her back, stroking her hair while looking at the confused Buffy and Xander.

"Tara, how did…..?" Buffy trailed off.

"What happened?" Tara asked, looking at the moonlight. "It was daytime a while ago, I was with Willow here, and her shirt…..there was blood on it."

She noticed there was blood on Buffy's shirt too. "And your shirt has it too."

"Tara…." Xander trailed off as she turned to him. "How did you….you were…"

"I was what?" Tara asked, still not knowing it.

"Let's all change into clean clothes and go downstairs and talk", Buffy suggested, finally controlling herself.

A while later, all four were downstairs with Buffy, Tara and Xander having changed clothes, as their previous ones were stained with blood. Dawn was still wrapped around Tara, not letting her go, and Tara decided to let it be that way, since apparently Dawn had been crying next to what was her corpse for hours.

Tara was touched and horrified both, touched because of how much the girl cared about her, and horrified because of the fact that she had found her body in a pool of blood, the traumatizing sight would be engrained in her mind forever, and add to her nightmares of losing her mom and Buffy, even if the latter and Tara herself were alive now.

"I was shot?" Tara asked after Buffy and Xander were finished explaining. "Through the heart?"

"Based on where the blood was on your shirt, yeah", Buffy nodded. "Willow said the same."

"And you were pretty…..well, not alive when we came here", Xander sighed, trying to purge the image of his friend's dead body from his mind.

"But how did I…..?" Tara trailed off, touching her chest, feeling something, but there was nothing, no pain, it was like nothing had happened to her.

Yet the blood on her previous shirt, the shocked yet relieved reactions of the other three in the room, and the fact that there had been blood on Willow's shirt during daytime, and she had woken up at night, was proof enough that she had been shot through the heart by a bullet and died.

And now she sat with Buffy, Dawn and Xander, alive and well.

But there was something a lot more important than the mystery of her survival.

"Willow, where is she?" Tara asked immediately as she got up, still letting Dawn hold onto her hand.

"We don't know, but Warren's a dead man when she finds him", Xander said, and Tara had mixed thoughts about that.

She actually did think that Warren deserved to die. He was a misogynistic monster, and even if he hadn't intended to kill, he had very much intended to kill Buffy, who was a good friend of hers, all because his fragile masculinity could not handle the existence of a strong woman.

Plus, the guy had killed her, right after she and Willow had reunited, she could never forgive that.

But Willow, she had just barely recovered from her addiction, and now she was on an even darker path than then. If she murdered Warren, it wouldn't make her feel better, she'd just want to lash out in her anger on someone else, perhaps Andrew and Jonathan.

And it wasn't completely on Willow. She had absorbed the dark magicks after the loss of Tara had shattered her, killed her inside too. So in a sense, Warren had murdered both of them.

Now that she was back, she was going to bring her Willow back to life too, Warren would get what he deserved, but it had to happen without Willow's soul and goodness being the cost.

Tara then realized she could feel Willow, her power was great now, and so was her pain, turmoil and thirst for vengeance, and the power was evil.

Tara shuddered, but knew she had to stop Willow, and sensing her made finding her easier.

"We have to find her", Buffy said as she looked up at Tara. "You have to come with us an-"

"I am coming with you", Tara assured. "I am."

She then kneeled down to Dawn and stroked her hair and face, noticing the tear stains from the now dried up tears. "Dawnie, I need to stop Willow from doing something she can never come back from, and I don't think you should go."

"But I don't want to leave you", Dawn whispered, her voice quivering.

"It is not forever, just a little while, okay?" Tara assured, kissing Dawn's forehead. "I'll come back with Willow."

Dawn seemed to relent and finally gave a nod. "Okay."

Now it was time to save Willow.

Well, some characters from the other fandom shall show up in Chapter 2, but guess why Tara is alive? *Winks*

Thank you to Brainstorm Sorcerer for the idea and help again.

Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.