Methos was cursing himself. His student was about to die. There was no contemplating that, it was a certainty. Why in the Hell did he let the child leave the house in the first place? It did not seem likely for such a situation to occur. One in which his student would be challenged twice in one night. The kid was cursed.

This went beyond that. His student was about to die…and he froze. There was no chance he would have reached the battle in time. But if he could have gotten close enough, perhaps his Buzz could have served as a distraction. But there was no chance of that now. He was still to far away, and the man had Alexander on his knees. He could barely hear the words spoken by the Immortal, yet they pounded on him like a sledgehammer. He watched as the man raised his sword and began his swing for the decapitating blow. It would be over in a split second, but he would be damned if he was going to allow that son of a bitch to have the pleasure of his student's quickening. In the end all he could do was scream.

"NO!"

With eyes full of fury, a rage erupted within him that had been repressed for the better part of 3000 years. He raced forward with his Ivanhoe raised, his 'War Cry' on his tongue. He was still advancing when he suddenly found himself on his knees staring before him in utter shock.

Xander blinked himself from the darkness that he had been emerged in. Had it been for a mere moment or an eternity he could not say. Shouldn't he be in incredible pain? He always figured being beheaded would be a painful experience. That thought caused him pull out of his revelry and take stock of his surroundings. Bringing his vision into focus, what he saw before him didn't make sense.

Lying at his feet was a headless body. The head was laying a few feet off to the side, the golden hair was still slicked back. That didn't make any sense. Shouldn't he be the one on the ground? He clearly remembered the man standing behind him while he was kneeling on the ground. Hell, he even remembered seeing the blade coming towards him.

He looked down at his own blade. There was a sheen of blood covering it. Some seemed to be oozing off the blade while others looked as though they would stain the blade for the rest of eternity.

What the Hell had happened? He looked up and saw a man….Methos…on his knees just a few yards away. His Ivanhoe was lying on the grass just in front of him. Methos was staring at him with wide eyes. There were so many raw emotions going across the man's face that were slowly being reflected in his eyes.

Xander was about to call out his teacher's name when he noticed the slight shimmer of glowing mist emanating from the headless corpse at his own feet. The sight made him take a few steps back. He had seen this before. He was about to receive a quickening. All of his previous thoughts were pushed to the side. A new array of emotions took over. While he couldn't pinpoint them all, the two most prevalent ones were both extreme fear, and an even more extreme feeling of curiosity.

Lightning leapt from the body and into Xander. The energy seared every nerve in his body. Yet every sensation was amplified beyond belief. He had never felt such incredibly pain. Yet he had never experienced such mind, body, and soul numbing pleasure either. One would strike, then the other. They were so random in their intervals that there was no way to get used to it. Sometimes it felt as though they would merge and the power forced into his body increased exponentially. With those sensations came the memories. Those memories were not his own, but of the recently deceased Immortal. A thousand atrocities had been performed by that man. And I use the term 'man' loosely. What was worse, was the fact that he was reliving them as though he were the one to commit them. He had to thank whatever Deity was available when those memories, and the feeling associated with them, receded into a far part of his mind. He went from living those memories himself, to the, being similar to a well told and emotional story.

The energy from the Quickening began to grow in power. It grew to such an extent that he actually began to hover many feet into the air. The lightening was still entering his body, only to leave his body destroying anything in close vicinity. Tree tops were scorched and began to blaze asunder. All of the lampposts in the entire park seemed to explode outwards as one.

The lightning began to wrap itself around his body before shooting out into the atmosphere. How far away they reached was anyone's guess. The fact that they seemed to go out in all directions probably wasn't a good sign for the residents of the neighborhood.

The last of the quickening left the headless corpse and entered into Xander. The bolt seemed to enter and only grow in intensity. By the end, Xander felt as though he was screaming so loud he was going to rip his own throat out just by the sheer force he was using. Finally, the energy reached a crescendo and exploded from his, still hovering, body.

The shockwave was immense. Methos was thrown back several feet. For miles around glass could be heard shattering and car alarms could be heard going.

Xander lay on the ground. Entirely drained, and unable to move, Methos got back on his feet and made his way to his sword. Once he had sheathed his sword he warily made his way to the prone form of his student.

He slowly, and carefully, pulled his student into an upright position. He could see the weak smile on the young man's face. Alex's voice was so soft he almost missed the question.

"Adam, what happened?"

What the hell could he tell him. Screw that! How much did he understand it himself. It was simply amazing. He had been alive for at least Five Thousand years, he had seen many amazing things, and he was still witnessing new things, new miracles.

They decided that anything that was to be said should be said back at the manor. Helping Alexander onto his feet, he supported his student as they made their way back to their automobiles.