Title: A Lifetime Apart, An Eternity Together

Rating: PG 13 for now

Author: Specks

Disclamer: Mutant Enemy, Fox and all those network honchos and writers own all, I own nothing, don't sue.

Synopsis: Buffy/ Dark Angel crossover with Highlander elements. An immortal Buffy finds herself in Seattle, Max's world. The two meet and clash, what happens next? Read and find out.

Pairings: M/L and B/A with implied B/S

Spoilers: Not much of Dark Angel, up to first season finale I guess. Spoilers up to mid season six I guess.

Author's Notes 1: I would like to thank my beta readers Nina and Kate. Nina, without your expert guidance and dead on suggestions I would never have gotten this done. Getting a beta'd fic from you is always fun because you make it so, thank you so much for always going above and beyond. Kate, your ponderous nature and wonderful comments have helped me more than you know. I know it was on short notice for you to beta this fic, so I'm totally grateful you took the time. As for commas well.. Don't miss them too much. I'll probably become comma happy any minute now Heh heh.

Author's notes 2: Special thanks to Nina G. You constant prodding and impromptu suggestions have shaped this fic into something I haven't anticipated. Its greatly inspired me. Also thanks to my dialogue guru and penguin, I know I'm a pain but hey, that's why you love me. *G*

Feedback: Yes! I crave feedback, should I continue? Any ideas would be welcome as well. Pleas email me at slete130@netzero.net

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"What have I done?"  

The question echoed through the hollow reaches of Max's mind, mocking her. She knew exactly what she had done; it was what she'd been trained to do. She'd taken a life without thought, without hesitation. In one unthinking moment she'd shattered any and all illusions Logan may have harbored about her true nature; denial was no longer an option for him. 

From the moment she was created, Max had been designed for one thing and one thing only: to be the perfect killing machine. After she and the others had escaped, she'd been forced to relearn everything. Walking, talking, even thinking. She'd had to revaluate her entire perspective of life. Suddenly right and wrong took on a whole different meaning.  

Her Manticore education hadn't included morals and ethics, Max supposed it had to due with the fact that Lydecker felt any talk of morality would only confuse his obedient little soldiers, and they were right… Since being on her own, a leaderless soldier, she'd had to make some hard decisions. Decisions that would have been utterly simple at Manticore had suddenly become far more complicated. Instead of the black and white she was used to, everything was gray... Since the Pulse, circumstances were rarely anything but shady. 

 

All her life (if you could call it that) she'd had to deal with the trained killer part of her programming. Like a great white on the hunt, it always lurked just beneath the surface of her human façade, ready to pounce. Knowing that at any moment, the killer could emerge and strike amounted to a stark existence. That had been her reality, and now it would be his. 

 

Even now, she could feel his cold, piercing eyes on her back, demanding an answer, waiting for her to confirm the conclusions he'd already drawn. Dread engulfed her entire being and the room suddenly seemed airless.  Her lungs felt constrained; it was as if the molecules of air refused to fill them. No matter how hard Max tried, she couldn't force herself to relax. 

 

In desperation Max looked wildly about the room, scanning the furniture and décor, blindly looking for something which was not there. As if by losing herself to pure distraction, she could achieve a momentary reprieve from that inevitable confrontation with Logan. If she just looked around hard enough, pretended Logan wasn't there, pretended all of this was not happening, then maybe everything would be okay again. The rational part of Max's mind knew that was untrue, that everything wasn't all right. Nothing was all right, and perhaps it never would be again. 

 

Suddenly a glint of light caught her eye and halted her frantic survey, drawing her gaze to the mantle where something silver glittered in the light. Perched precariously on the edge was Buffy's ring. It was hard to believe that so small an object could be the cause of so great a tragedy. Despite of herself, Max couldn't help but let out a tiny bitter laugh. It was full of spite and loathing… self-loathing. How ironic it all was, that this tiny piece of silver would survive, while its mighty 5'3" owner laid dead.  

 

Taking the ring, Max placed it gently in the palm of Buffy's hand, positioning it so that her now lifeless fingers grasped the silver band. Buffy had died because of it, the least Max could do was see to it that she was buried with it. Her task done, her duty finished, with nothing else to preoccupy her, Max took a deep fortifying breath and closed her eyes, preparing herself for what was to come next. The long awaited confrontation with Logan. 

 

A split second later pain exploded in her lower jaw, and a stunned Max found herself flying into the opposite wall. She had enough presence of mind to brace herself for the impact, so she landed relatively unhurt, but her mind still reeled from the blow. Looking up from her position on the floor, Max's entire body went slack with shock. Standing nonchalantly not ten yards away was Buffy.  

Alive, breathing, and apparently picking up the fight exactly where they had left off.  

How was that even possible?! 

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 Buffy watched with a satisfied smirk as Max tried to clear the stars dancing before her eyes. As a rule, she didn't like to sucker punch people, but that bitch deserved it! 

 

"Call me Barbie, will you? Yeah, well, this is Mattel's latest creation, Karate Barbie, ready to kick some ass!'" 

 

Beneath her calm exterior, however, lurked true fear and concern. She had no idea what Max had seen or what she thought she had seen. Most importantly, she didn't have a clue as to how Max would react.  

This was not good.  

It was times like these thanked that Buffy thanked/blamed the PTB for the uniqueness of her immortality. Unlike other immortals, Buffy's lapse between death and life varied dramatically. Sometimes, like now, it was almost instantaneous. Other times it took up to 24 hours. Neither she nor Methos had been able to figure out what determined the timetable.  Whatever it was, she was infinitely happy that it decided now was a good time for a short lapse. 

 

Shaking herself out of her impromptu reverie, Buffy brought her attention back to her newly recovered adversary. The Claddagh ring burned in her hand, giving her a fresh reminder of why she was so pissed off in the first place. With a determined stride, Buffy stalked towards her enemy, hell bent on revenge. 

 



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Forever Eyes

Dark

Somebody's Angel

~Logan Cale