(Tidbit: Chapters 1-8 are two pages longer than my longest completed original story, 'The Demon Realm', which is 61 pages in length. This story is also my longest incomplete story - now in second is 'Games of Chance #4: Mysterious Magick' at 55 pages.)

(I've now explained the whole Harry-Agents situation. I hope everyone is less confused now :-). But don't worry, I'm not done confusing people. More is yet to come.)

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CHAPTER NINE

"He's who?" both Buffys asked, puzzled.

"He's Methos," Xander repeated. "From Highlander: The Series and the fourth movie, Highlander: End Game."

Methos' eyes widened. "I'm a fictional character in your reality?" he asked. His eyes narrowed. "Just how much is mentioned in these movies and TV series?"

"About you personally? Adam Pierson, Death, and Benjamin Adams," Xander replied. "That's all."

Methos glanced away and bit his lip as his mind raced. If he was telling the truth, and Methos knew he was, then this mortal knew more about him than anyone still alive. Methos didn't like the thought, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.

"You mind explaining, Xand?" Buffy asked. She and the others looked at him expectantly.

"In our reality," and here he motioned from himself to Buffy and Harriet, "there's a TV show called Highlander. I used to watch it while it was still airing. It's a show about Immortal human beings that can only be killed through decapitation. They go around fighting each other for the Prize, which the last of their kind will receive when every other Immortal is dead. Methos here is the oldest living Immortal. He's five thousand years old."

Methos only winced further as everyone turned astonished eyes to him. They'd never before met a man who'd lived for fifty centuries. The media on Xander's world was much more detailed than he would have preferred.

While the others were still recovering from the fact that the man before them was fifty centuries old, Xander asked Methos, "So how did you get here, anyway? You said something about the Hunters…"

"Yes," Methos said, hesitant now about telling them the rest of his story. Then he just sighed and resigned himself to it. "The Hunters are a group of mortals that detest my kind and go about killing us on a regular basis, even though it is no business of theirs. They don't even restrict themselves to the bad ones; they hunt us all equally." There was pain in his eyes as he said this, but he quickly went on. "They finally caught up to me in Belgium. I had been able to elude them for some time. Unfortunately, they had magic on their side while I did not; they were able to find me this way."

"It hadn't been the first time they'd tried to kill me. Instead of another attempt, they decided to do something else. They lured me into a trap, I'm sorry to say. The alley they'd chased me into had a false bottom; part of its surface had been replaced by a portal and then covered by an illusion. The warlock among them had been very skilled. Before I knew it, I was falling through the portal. I ended up here."

"Hardly seems like the best move on their part," Moody said. "If they'd wanted you to suffer, they should have sent you to a hell dimension."

Methos smiled. "I'm pretty sure they thought they did. Traveling between realities is not easy, and it is likely that they just got the coordinates wrong. Not that this is the place I would have liked to have ended up in, mind you. It didn't help that I got dumped in the middle of a forest full of plants dead set on taking my head personally." He regarded all of them. "I am told that is how you were found, suffering from the effects of the hamadryad's pesticide."

"The home-a-what?" alt-Buffy repeated.

"Hamadryad," Tonks said. "It's a tree nymph." She looked a little sheepish. "With a name like mine, you tend to learn all about nymphs quickly."

Methos was nodding in agreement. "Yes, it was a tree nymph. It is vulnerable whenever it strays away from its tree, which it must do whenever it, um, communes with nature. That was how Kin Frag was able to kill it." He shrugged. "Those damn birds and their trees tend to be nothing but pests."

He looked away from them to a spot in the not-so-distant past. "That was three years ago. It didn't take long for Trig to find me and take me prisoner. Everyone really seems to enjoy doing that," he added with annoyance.

"What's the deal with Trig, anyway?" Buffy said. "We've all figured out that's he's the Big Bad. How did he get that way when everyone else here is on the short end of the stick?"

"That's another long story. The best person to explain that would be my wife," Methos said. "She should be released from her shift any minute now-"

The door opened. The same demon woman who had cured Harriet from the nymph's pesticide entered the house. She smiled uncertainly at them before crossing the room and sitting down in Methos' lap.

Methos said something in Runean and she nodded. She turned to them. "Hello. I am Clarin." Her eyes narrowed as she studied them. "I see that my husband has not done a good job as host."

She gave him a stern look. He gave her an innocent one back. She rolled her eyes and stood. She left the room and returned a few minutes later with a tray of bread and drinks. She offered them the food. Everyone accepted except for Moody, who politely declined before opening a flask and taking a drink.

Clarin set the tray on the table before seating herself again in Methos' lap. "Now I must ask all of you for your names," she said.

They gave them. She nodded in satisfaction. "Methos tells me that you have questions about my people's history. I will tell you only if you agree to tell us how you got here once my husband and I are done with our stories. Agreed?"

The seven guests looked at each other before nodding. Clarin began her story. "Runeus was once as advanced as my husband's world. It was long before my time, but I know that it is true because of what has survived from the past. We lived in peace with each other then. That was before Trig turned against us. He had been a research expert in magic and scientific magic, which I'm told isn't the same as science. He'd been very famous for his breakthroughs in our people's magic. He'd personally discovered many useful spells that we had never been able to find before, even after several centuries of effort." Her face twisted into a scowl. "He'd been considered a savior for the magical maladies and cures he'd uncovered, among other accomplishments."

"One day, however, everything changed. No one can remember exactly what happened, but Trig suddenly went rogue. He took many of his discoveries along with many he'd kept secret and took over. No one on the planet was powerful enough to face him and win. Many tried and all of them failed. Armies went up against him, and none of them survived. Billions of my people died." Her eyes closed tightly in pain. She may not have been there, but she still mourned.

"Trig wanted power. He didn't care how he got it, or if he would end up being the last of his kind. He discovered that there were passageways to other worlds and realities, places with more power to conquer and more Runeans to rule over. He didn't care what happened in this world because there was an unlimited resource available to replace whatever was lost here. That is how he sees it, anyway. He hasn't been able to tap into any of these realities on his own, but he has been trying for a long time."

"There are only a few thousand Runeans left alive. We are too weak to fight against him. Our magic and our forces are too small. The Foul One was our dictator, and we were forced to pay homage to him for many years." She turned and smiled at the Immortal man she was straddling. "Or we were, before Methos arrived on this world."

Methos rolled his eyes. "You know very well that I would have had nothing to do with it if I hadn't been forced to. Don't make a hero out of me, love."

Clarin only smiled indulgently.

"So why did you get involved?" Buffy asked.

Methos continued his explanation now that his wife was done. "Well, after I'd ended up in the Runean forest via the Hunters' portal, I was unfortunate enough to be captured by one of Trig's sentinels. It took me to his fortress."

His face became stony as a cold fury raced through his eyes. "Needless to say, Trig was very interested in seeing me. I was the proof that alternate realities could be accessed and entered. He decided to experiment on me."

Clarin took his hand and squeezed. He blinked and smiled at her. "I don't know how long I was in that lab. He kept me so doped up on magic drugs that I couldn't think straight, let alone move. It was through me that he discovered the way to access power from other realities."

"How?" Moody asked.

"Through complete absorption," Methos replied, a haunted look in his eyes now.

"What does that mean?" Harriet asked, utterly confused.

Methos took a deep breath. "It means that Trig discovered a way to take an entire reality, convert it to magical energy, and then absorb it all into himself or a test subject. It is similar to a Quickening, in that respect," he told Xander, the only one besides Clarin who would understand the reference. "Once the reality had been absorbed, nothing of it would remain. It would essentially be erased from existence. Everything within it - the people, the plants, the animals, the Earth and every other planet in the reality's galaxies - all of it would be gone."

The seven newcomers, even Moody, stared wide-eyed at him as they took this in. Methos and Clarin looked grimly back. "Good Lord," Shacklebolt said under his breath.

"How often has he done this?" alt-Buffy asked quietly, stunned.

"For himself? Never," Clarin replied.

"He used me as a guinea pig," Methos said. "He didn't know what effect absorbing an entire reality into a person would have, so he experimented on me."

"You mean…he actually absorbed whole realities into you?" Buffy asked, disbelieving.

"Yes," Methos said seriously. "It was…the most painful and exhilarating experience I have ever had."

He addressed the Slayers and Aurors, "When one of my kind dies, the closest Immortal absorbs that person's very essence into themselves. It is called a Quickening. It can be painful and the most extraordinary experience ever and is usually both at once. A single Immortal's Quickening is nothing compared to absorbing an entire reality." He closed his eyes tightly. "The pain…it is past excruciating. I cannot describe it accurately. I…"

Clarin positioned herself behind him and rubbed his shoulders, hoping to ease some of the tension. Methos leaned into it. It was clear who had helped him live on after the horror that he'd very clearly experienced.

Methos took a deep breath. "Trig targeted my own reality first." The fury returned to his gaze. "Everything I'd known - MacLeod, Joe, Amanda, the cultures and peoples and everything I'd lived and experienced for five thousand years, hell, even the Hunters, all of them were gone in an instant, absorbed into me. The world that I alone more than anyone else could claim as my own was destroyed."

Now, he was shaking, and not even Clarin's touch could console him. "Everything was just erased. I continue to be the sole survivor of an entire reality, the only thing left to indicate that it ever existed."

Clarin glanced up from her husband at their guests, her eyes filled with tears.

Not one of them knew what to say. It was just too much information to take in.

It was a while before Methos managed to calm himself down again. It had been three years, but after five thousand years on Earth, the pain was still fresh.

"Genocide…" Shacklebolt murmured under his breath.

Tonks shook her head. "No. Worse."

After another long moment, Buffy cleared her throat. "H-How did you escape? I assume you did, seeing as how you're no longer in Trig's fortress and all."

Methos smiled bitterly. "I didn't. Not at first. The absorption…it was just too overwhelming. Trig wasn't done with me, either."

"You mean he did it again?" Tonks said, aghast.

He nodded. "Yes. Four more times, actually."

"Four?" they exclaimed in almost-perfect unison.

"Trig was convinced that he could control me, and for a while there while I processed everything, he could. He made the absorption of the other realities possible by locking onto the patterns of four of my alternate selves. Then, for lack of a better term, he merged us and absorbed the rest into me."

"Merged?" Xander asked, confused.

"Along with the energy of the absorbed realities, I acquired my doubles' memories, power, and skills, but I remained dominant throughout." He paused, remembering. "I think I was there for months in Trig's lab. The memories of my doubles overwhelmed me as much as the energy. I know that Trig took notes throughout. Apparently, he liked what he saw. He was planning to do it again but I finally snapped out of it and got the hell out of there."

" e hadn't realized just how powerful I'd become, but he and I quickly learned differently. He thought he could control me, and indeed he could have if he'd been prepared to sacrifice all of his resources to do it. I was the sole collector of the Prize from five different realities and that was only a small portion of the converted energy I'd absorbed from five realities. I had the memories, skills, and abilities of five different mes. That's a lot, put together."

He gave a shaky laugh. "Like I said, I got the hell out of there. I was still too confused or I would have finished off that bastard right then and there. I probably could have when he was so unprepared." He smiled at his wife. "This time, it was Clarin's team that found me."

"We had no idea what he was," Clarin said, stifling a giggle. "None of us had ever encountered a human male before. All we knew was that he'd come from Trig's Fortress. Some wanted to kill him in case he was working for the Foul One, but he managed to convince us otherwise." She rolled her eyes. "You always were a fast talker."

"When I need to be," he replied. He continued, "Once the…jumbo Quickening, I suppose you could call it that, settled down inside me, I agreed to help the Runeans destroy Trig for good. I wanted revenge. Trig was and is too powerful to allow him to continue. He'd already erased my world, as well as four others that my alternates had considered to be their own homes. I've been determined to destroy him as payback ever since, in any way possible."

"And how did you get this revenge?" Moody asked. "Assuming that anything you've told us is the truth."

"We turned Trig's instruments against him," Methos replied. "It took us many months. Trig had spent the time repairing his instruments." He smiled. "It would seem that my out-of-sink Quickening managed to wreck his lab a good deal in my escape. It was a simple matter of waiting until he'd repaired them. Then we attacked. Trig wasn't even prepared for it; he'd just expelled a good deal of his own personal energy repairing his equipment, and he hadn't expected any of the remaining Runeans to attack him, ever. While he was distracted by the attack, Clarin's team and I sneaked into his lab and…re-arranged a few things. By the time he realized he'd been had, we'd already gotten a spell set up specifically for him." A devilish grin formed on his face. "He walked right into it."

"And what was the trap?" Shacklebolt asked, as curious as the rest.

"It was something I picked up from the knowledge of one of my doubles," the Immortal told them. "About how some demons in his reality had the ability to separate their enemies into several bodies. Parts of that enemy's personality and characteristics would be separated into each body."

Both Buffys and Xander exchanged a look. "I know what that's like, personally," Xander said, wincing.

Methos continued, "Once separated, each aspect is a good deal less powerful than all of them put together; they are also much more vulnerable. Once the demon had separated his or her enemy into different bodies, all he had to do was kill one of bodies and the others would die. We found a way to use this for our own means, and it worked. We successfully separated Trig's characteristics into seven different bodies."

Clarin scowled. "But then a massive portal opened, right over the fortress."

"Glory," the three Slayers and Xander all said together.

"Who's that, now?" Moody questioned.

"Nasty Hellgod who opened a portal that broke down all of the barriers between realities," alt-Buffy answered. "Believe me, you're lucky you never met her."

Clarin scowled again. "When the portal opened, the Trigs jumped through it before we could stop them. We've been preparing for his return ever since, because we knew he'd be back. All of them."

"And now he is," Clarin said.

Methos nodded. "Some of them, anyway."

"How many of them are there?" Buffy asked.

"Seven."

"Hang on-how do you know he's back?" Harriet questioned. "We never said that he was."

Methos looked at her with some surprise. "Oh, didn't I mention? I can feel his presence anywhere on the planet, and he can feel mine. Trig's Immortal."

-----

They tried for hours to break out of their dungeon cell to no avail. They tried everything they had available from brute strength to combined spells to yelling for help. Carter and Daniel had both lost their weapons at some point or they would have tried blasting the door with a zat or a bullet, but everyone doubted that would work anyway.

"Looks like we're stuck in here," Dawn 1 said. "Until Trig wants us, anyway."

"Assuming he wants us," Ron said in near panic. "He may leave us in here to rot."

"He didn't," Willow said, although she looked less than sure. "He couldn't have."

They continued to try to escape but didn't make any progress. During a break, Xander plopped himself down next to Sam. "Hey," he said, smiling slightly at her.

"Hey yourself," she said, smiling back.

"You seem to be taking all of this in pretty well," he said, gesturing. "Being wished through a portal to an alternate reality can't be the same as going through the Stargate or a Quantum Mirror." He paused and shrugged. "Not that I would know."

Sam smiled. "It's different, but it's also, surprisingly, the same. I mean, when you've seen one dungeon you've seen them all."

"But you must have questions," Xander prompted. He motioned to where Daniel stood with Willow a foot or so away. The archeologist was bombarding the witch with endless questions about everything.

"Oh, you betcha," Sam assured him. "I was actually going to quiz the other Willow to see if her answers differed from her double's."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Well, you have fun with that."

She smiled. "What about you? This sort of thing can't happen to you all the time…can it?"

Xander considered it. "The whole portals thing? That happens only once or twice a year, but it's still nothing too spectacular. It's cool to meet my doubles but even that isn't anything new." He shrugged. "Let's face it. We're both jaded."

A cry of frustration came from near the door. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look. Hermione was there and she looked about ready to blow a casket.

Ron approached her tentatively. "'Mione, it's okay. Maybe you should go and sit down for a bit…"

He tried to put a hand on her arm but she shrugged it off. "We need to get out of here!" was all she said.

"No one's disputing that," Daniel said, stepping forward. "But we need to stay calm. We can't let Trig know that he's gotten to us."

"Does anyone else hear that?" Dawn 2 asked tentatively.

Everyone listened. "Sounds like a rumbling," Sam commented.

The ground started to shake. Dust rained down from the crossbeams.

"Earthquake!" Xander said. "Everyone, take cover!"

-----

The village streets rapidly filled as everyone left their homes and businesses. The ground continued to shake, but it was to the sky that they looked, or rather to the north where they knew the Foul One's Fortress was.

The group of humans and Clarin also ran outside. "What's going on?" Harriet asked.

"There's a portal opening," Clarin explained. "It happened when all of you arrived here."

"What does that mean, exactly?" asked alt-Buffy.

"It means that another one of the Trigs is arriving," Methos said. Xander, the Slayers, and the Aurors had already explained how they'd gotten to Runeus, so the Immortal knew that only three Trigs had arrived so far.

In the far distance, something purplish, blue, and white erupted in the mint green sky.

"Now there are four here," Clarin said. "We must act soon."

"We are nearly ready," Methos assured her. "It will all end soon."

They watched as the multi-colored portal closed, leaving no trace of its presence behind.

"Do you know why Trig sent us out of the fortress but kept the rest?" Buffy asked Methos.

He thought a moment. "He is likely planning to convert your realities into absorbable energy for him to take into himself. The best way to do this is to take a person with a very powerful tie to his reality and use him as a conduit. I was the oldest man in my reality, which meant that my tie to my reality was one of the strongest. Strong ties can be achieved in other ways, however, such as through magic or by being a higher power of some sort."

"Like Willow," Harriet said. Her tie to the Earth was the strongest out of anyone Harriet knew.

"Or Dawn," Buffy said. She and her alternate exchanged looks.

"They're going to try to absorb our realities?" Xander asked, clarifying. "What happens to us when that happens?"

Methos considered the question for a moment. "Because he doesn't intend to use your friends as the receivers of the energy, just as the conduits, they will likely be converted into energy along with their worlds. This will likely happen to all of you, as well."

Moody growled. "They're not going to get the chance."

Methos smirked. "They won't do any absorbing until all of the Trigs are here. They plan to merge themselves back into one body before they are able to absorb other realities."

"I assume you have a plan?" Moody asked.

The Immortal nodded. "We have had a little under two years to prepare for Trig's return. Hopefully, it is enough."

"So, what's the plan?" questioned Xander. "Does it involve you going in there, crying 'There can be only one!' and then challenging all of the Trigs to a fight?"

"Only partially," Methos said. "Come back inside and I will explain."

Both Buffys grumbled a little as they followed him and the others back into the house.

"Too much talking and not enough slaying," Buffy muttered.

Alt-Buffy smiled at her. "I hear ya."

-----

Trigs 1, 2, and 3 stood on the roof of one of the towers of the fortress, staring up at the portal that had taken form. Someone fell through it. He landed smoothly on the roof a few feet away from them. Above him, the portal dissolved.

They smiled. Trig 4 smiled back. "It feels good to be home."

"You didn't bring anyone with you?" Trig 1 asked, astonished.

Trig 4 held up the wooden bowl and knife he'd crafted by hand. "Only these. Hopefully, it will be enough to absorb the entire reality."

"It doesn't really matter anyway," Trig 3 pointed out. "We'll get to that reality eventually. There are thousands of others to tap into besides that one, and we have people of humans to test as conduits already. They have power; strong connections with their realities are assured through them."

"We are still missing three of our aspects," Trig 2 pointed out. He smirked confidently. "Once they are here, then we can begin."

"You know, I don't remember Trig being that arrogant," a male voice said from behind them. The Trigs whirled around. To their astonishment, they saw two humans standing not more than ten feet away: one man and one woman. The man had dark brown hair and had an eye that was the color of obsidian. The woman beside him stood in contrast with her bright auburn hair.

The man continued, remarking to his partner, "'Course, it was kinda obvious there at the end, with the betrayal and all."

The woman nodded. "I'll say."

Trig 3's eyes narrowed. "Agents Harris and Rosenburg," he said.

"So the old boy remembers us!" Harris said, feigning pleasure. He smiled and waved. "Hey there, Trig! How ya been?"

"Who are these people?" Trig 1 asked, eyeing the agents with disdain.

"They are annoyances," Trig 3 assured him. "Nothing more."

Alex 'tsked' and waggled a finger at him. "Now, now, Trig. Is that any way to treat your ex-partners? After we killed that annoying Agent Summers to protect our little dirty secret, and all!" He sighed and shook his head at Willow. "Such a shame. There are no manners left in the world."

Willow grinned. "Assuming there ever were such things in this reality."

"Why aren't we killing them?" Trig 4 remarked with boredom.

"You know, I'd much prefer if it was the other way around, myself," Willow said.

Alex smirked. "Ready to die?" he asked the Trigs conversationally.

He and Willow held two vials in their hands. They threw them at the Trigs.

The demons screamed.