Buffy Summers ran until it felt like her lungs would burst. She couldn't believe after all that had happened to her what she had just been forced to see. Another man, run through with a sword, right through the heart. She hadn't known him, and granted he was trying to kill her, but even still the sight of it made her almost physically sick. He had the same surprised expression on his face that her Angel did when she had killed him. It had just been too much. She wanted out. She didn't want to be a slayer anymore. All it had brought her was pain. She had thought that by getting on a bus and getting out of Sunnydale she could escape it, but it seemed everywhere she went it followed her.
And that man, that horrible man. Who was he? Why had he forced her to see that again? Did he really think killing the other man would make her happy? Before she had killed Angel would it have?
He had said he was trying to help her, but for some reason she had difficulty believing that. Whenever he got close to her, she felt a strange buzzing sensation, almost like her slayer's ability to sense vampires. Only this one was multiplied almost to the point where she could hear it. Who was he? What was he?
Any other time, she would have reported the mysterious man to Giles, he would have researched him, found out his secrets and Buffy would have fought him. Now she was on her own and all she wanted was to get far away from anyone and anything connected with her past.
She was about to turn and head for a hotel she could see in the distance, when she felt it again...that strange buzzing noise she had felt before. Looking behind her, she saw the man in the trench coat, running to catch up to her. Her heart froze in her throat when she saw the determined look in his eyes. If she ran, he would catch her, she knew that for sure. Instead, she steadied herself and stood her ground.
As soon as he came within reach of her, she swung her right leg up, executing a perfect kick to the face. The man reeled back, obviously stunned at her action and gingerly touched his now bleeding nose.
"Bloody hell! What was that about?" He sounded genuinely surprised that she had hit him.
"You kill a man and you just expect me to let you come after me too?" She raised her fists. "I'm not that easy to take down buddy."
"I'm not trying to fight you," the man replied with restrained anger. "I'm trying to help you."
"Help me?" She exclaimed incredulously. "Sorry, but helping to kill people is not the kind of help I need thanks."
"If you'd just listen to me for three seconds so I can explain to you, that man isn't dead." The man was glaring at her now, his soft welsh accent carried a sharp edge to it. His patience was wearing thin.
"Oh no? I suppose anybody could survive a sword through the heart then!" She swallowed hard as she spoke, not wanting to dredge up that awful image of Angel once more. "He's just sleeping then is he?"
"He's not a person...at least not in the sense of a normal person." The man paused, clearly trying to think of a proper way to articulate himself. "He's an immortal. They are...a breed apart from humans. You can kill them countless times and they will only get right back up. The only way to truly ever kill them is to cut off their head."
"And you expect me to believe you....why?" She was stalling now, but she didn't want to believe this man, even though she could see nothing but honesty in his eyes.
"Come on slayer, you can believe in vampires but immortals are out of the realm of possibility? I know you're not that stupid, so perhaps you are just naïve."
"I am not naïve." She snapped, bristling at his comment. "And how the hell did you know I was the slayer?"
"I would know you anywhere." He said quietly. For a moment she glimpsed something deep and indefinable in his eyes. He looked back to her. "It's in everything you do. If that immortal were a bit older, he would have known better than to challenge you."
"Why did he?" She wondered, no longer on her guard. If he had wanted to harm her, he would have done so already. "You said these immortals can kill each other by cutting off their heads, yet...he challenged me. I'm not an immortal."
"Aren't you?" He stepped forward and glanced at her with his piercing green eyes. "Tell me slayer, did you die recently?"
"A year ago," she croaked, her eyes widening in fear at the prospect of what he was telling her. "But my friend gave me CPR and saved me. I was only gone for like...a minute."
"It was enough. That was your first death." The man told her gently. "You are an immortal."
She shook her head violently, refusing to believe what he was telling her. It couldn't be true. On top of everything else, she couldn't be....no. He was wrong!
"I'm not immortal and I'm not the slayer. You've got the wrong girl."
"So you didn't feel anything when I approached you then?" He retorted. "No humming in your body, no acute awareness of my presence. I'm immortal too slayer, we can sense each other."
"Get away from me." She growled, unable to process anything else. "I don't want to be whatever it is you say I am. Just get away from me."
"I can't do that." He replied somberly. "I don't know what it is you are running from, but you won't get far without my help. This is something that has never happened before and you have no idea of the consequences that could result from..."
"Consequences?" She exclaimed, suddenly furious with this stranger. "What the hell do you know about consequences? Cause me...I know a lot, and I'm out, I've had it! I can't do it anymore. So just go away and leave me in peace. I can't be an immortal and I can't be the slayer."
"You don't have a choice!" The man yelled back, the thin thread of tolerance finally snapping. "I don't care what you've gone through slayer, but you will not walk away from me. There is more at stake here than your aversion to responsibility."
"You think you can stop me?" She challenged. He blinked in surprise.
"What?"
"From walking away from here." She clarified. "You think you can stop me? You think you're strong enough to defeat the slayer?"
"You don't want to get into this contest with me child." The man warned. His voice shifted to a silky, dangerous growl that made her shiver despite herself. "You may be the slayer, but right now you are weak. Emotion has crippled you. Whatever happened to you has made you ineffective. At your best, you would have presented a mild challenge. Right now...well, you would be all too easy."
"You are far too impressed with yourself." She shot back with false bravado. "Look, the only way you are taking me is unconscious, so if you really think I'd be that easy let's put it to the test." She positioned herself for a fight and watched with sinking heart as the man sighed in resignation and prepared his attack.
She was stronger than him, but he was by far the better fighter. Within a few brief exchanges she was on her back and his foot was on her chest, shoving her into the ground.
"If unconscious is how you want it," the man said with a grin as he raised the but of his sword and aimed it at her head. "Then unconscious is how you'll get it."
And then her world went black.
