Chapter Three

"I faced these guys when they tried to make Angel kill himself, "Buffy continued. "What were they doing here though? Oh no, they were after Spike."

"You're coming with me," she said, pushing me towards the basement. As I went down the stairs I saw a large hole in the cinderblock the wall and a set of empty chains and manacles. The redhead and the teenager followed us down the stairs.

"We need to know what they want with Spike," Buffy said shifting her gaze from the manacles to me. "I appreciate what you did for my friends, but if you aren't going to be part of the solution, then we're going to have a problem. Are you going to talk or are we going to have to give you dirt naps until you feel like talking?"

Dawn said, "Dirt naps?"

"We'll bury him alive."

"But that'll kill him," Dawn said.

"No it won't, but I don't think he'll like it too much. What's it going to be Mr. Lazarus?"

I decided it was time to put most of my cards on the table. She had discovered my greatest fear and weakness and the black robes seemed to be her enemies too. Ever since I had been buried alive by a Chinese warlord and only saved by an earthquake I'd had nightmares about it. I still didn't trust her relationship with the vampire though.

"I'll talk."

"Good," Buffy said. "Now go over to the wall and chain yourself up. Its obvious rope won't hold you. Willow you watch him while we take care of Andrew upstairs and clean up the house a bit. I'll be back."

As I waited, I watched Willow rub her head and then pull out some trinkets and perform some kind of ritual. After a few minutes and a mismash of words in six langues I knew and two that I didn't she seemed to finish.

"What was all that about?" I asked. "I heard the word for 'heal' in at least five different languages."

"Just a little spell to take my Excedrin-sized headache away," she answered.

"So you're a witch. I've known a few over the years."

We didn't talk anymore until Buffy and Dawn came back down the stairs carrying a couple of folding chairs. The blonde slid one over to me and sat facing me in the other one. "Ok, now tell me your story."

"First, could you get me something to eat and drink?" I said. "I have a strong constitution, but even I start feeling a little ragged after a few days without."

"Sure," she answered. "Dawn would you please get our guest something to eat and drink?" The teenager went up the stairs. "You can start by telling me your name."

"Well the name that's on all my current official documents is Conrad Lange," I said. But I was born with the name Casca Longinus. That was over two thousand years ago.

"You look pretty spry for a guy that old," Buffy said.

"As you guessed back at the other house, I'm something more than human, but I started out as a typical Roman legionnaire. I was posted to Judea and one of my duties was crucifying Jewish and Roman criminals."

"Oppressing the Jews, not good," Willow said.

"If it makes you feel any better, I fought with the Israelites during the Six-Day way in 1967. Also in the Second World War when I heard a Jewish freedom fighter tell me about the concentration camps and ovens I deserted the German Panzer corps on the Russian Front and made my way to Berlin and confronted Hitler about it. I shot him when I became disgusted with his answers."

"Killing Hitler, that's pretty heavy," Willow said.

"You don't know the half of it. I also killed Jesus Christ."