Chapter Four

I saw looks of disbelief on their faces at first and then of revulsion. That was better than I expected. The few other times I had told this story, it had mostly been laughed off.

"I didn't know who Christ was except some Jewish religious trouble-maker being put to death along with two common criminals. I was ordered to end his suffering by sticking a spear through his ribs. Right before I did that, he said to me-'Soldier, you are content with what you are. Then that you shall remain until we meet again. As I go now to my Father, you must one day come to me'. I didn't think much of it at first, but as the years wore on and I didn't age I began to suspect."

"The first I time I recovered from fatal injuries I started to figure it out. I could be injured and my heart could stop and I could stop breathing, but my body would heal and I would come back to life again."

"That's incredible," Willow said. "What happens if your head gets cut off or something?"

"Thankfully that has never happened, although I have come close a few times. I did have my hand chopped off by a fanatic once, but a traveling companion sewed it back on for me and it healed in time. Also I had my heart cut out in an Aztez ritual and I put it back in my body and it healed."

"Eww, that image gives me the wiggins," Buffy said. "What have you been doing all these centuries?"

"Like the Man said, I've stayed a soldier and fought against or with just about every army on the planet at some point. Most times I've been a grunt but sometimes I've been a general. I've killed more men and bedded more women than I can remember."

"Then why haven't we heard of any immortal kiddies running around the world?" Willow asked.

"Either I'm naturally sterile or becoming immortal made me that way. I suppose I could try to use modern medicine to help with that, but I don't want to pass this curse onto any one else. I've had so many friends and lovers taken from me by violent death or disease and old age. After awhile I tended to try and avoid making attachments."

"Bummer," Buffy said.

"At least it is some small consolation knowing that all my enemies will die before I do."

"May not be so true in the case of the First Evil," Willow interjected.

"Ok that explains you, now explain how you ended up at the bottom of that hole," Buffy said as she slid her chair closer to me.

"You're accepting my story that easily?"

"It's a whopper," Willow said, "but we've heard far stranger. We'll verify it later, but for now we'll take you at face value."

"Thank you," I said. "You have to understand that in the modern world, its becoming harder and harder to hide my immortality so I tend to stay out of big national armies and concentrate on smaller missions."

"That makes sense," Buffy said.

"It also keeps me off modern battlefields where you have more than a fair chance of getting blown into very tiny bits. I not sure how my restorative powers could handle that and I don't want to put it to the test. Also I have grown somewhat weary of killing people just because they are wearing another uniform. Mercenary jobs involve a lot of killing for no good reason, but occasionally I do get to go after someone truly deserving like your vampire friend Spike."

"So you were after Spike," Buffy said. "Why?"

"Money and curiosity. It seems Spike killed a Chinese girl during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and her family still remembers. One of her great, great, great cousins is a silicon valley millionaire and decided to use me to help exact revenge for his family. I don't know why this girl was special, but its not my money. I was in China during the Rebellion and wanted to see how this thing played out."

"I know why the girl was special," Buffy said. "She was a vampire slayer. Like me."