Adam stood there looking at his car in amazement. His nice little cherry red sports car was a wreck. There were multiple scorch marks covering the car. The hood was off to the side, the tires were completely shredded. All of the windows and mirrors were completely shattered. The damn thing was still smoking! And there was Xander's car. That black Porsche didn't have a scratch on it. It looked like it hadn't even been touched. Hell, it even looked as though someone had washed and waxed it while they had been in the park. He shot Xander an incredulous look.

"You did this on purpose."

That only got him a sheepish smile before he rolled his eyes. Pulling the keys out of his pocket, Xander clicked the remote turning off the car's alarm. Coincidentally this action seemed to activate the other car's alarm which then started blaring. Adam just ruefully shook his head. He looked up just in time to catch the keys that had been tossed to him. Xander made his way into the passenger seat of the Porsche.

"I'm exhausted. Wake me when we get back home." With that he shut the door, leaned back into the passenger seat, and reclined it as much as possible. Closing his eyes, Xander just waited for Adam to get them back home.

Shaking his head, he tried to deactivate the alarm in his car to no avail. With a sigh he gave up and simply got into the Porsche and made their way back to the manor.

After inhaling some fruit and downing a few glasses of juice, Xander was feeling a lot better. Both he and Adam were sitting at the table in the kitchen while Adam was staring at him intently. Becoming weary of the silence, Xander decided to speak up.

"Just what happened tonight?"

Adam looked at him with a curious expression. "Why don't you tell me what you remember."

Thinking back, Xander could remember getting his ass handed to him. Everything had happened so quickly that he was forced to rely on instincts. While that wasn't the first time he found himself in such a situation, it was the first time that he had felt so far out of his league. His last memory, the blade coming towards his neck, reaffirmed this. That last memory caused him to bring his hand to his neck.

Even though the action was quick, Adam didn't miss it. With a sympathetic voice Adam asked, "Do you remember anything after you almost lost your head?"

The question made Xander shiver slightly, an unpleasant reminder of the fact that he should be dead now, and had no idea why he wasn't.

"I blacked out…the next thing I know I was standing behind the guy, and his head was no longer attached to his body."

Adam looked down into his own drink, trying to find the words to describe what happened. "You know…I've been alive for a long time…but I don't believe I have ever seen a human move as fast as you did." Looking up from his beer, Adam stared into Xander's eyes. "You moved so damn fast. It was more a blur really." He just shook his head. "You really have no memory of this?"

Xander shook his head. He had been trying to remember anything from when he had apparently blacked out, but it was to no avail. He was about to respond as such when he was bombarded with the short, yet vivid, memories.

He was looking up at the descending blade. A feeling of rage, primal in its nature, took hold of him. While most of his body was possessed by this rage, the rest of him was held by the essence of a warrior.

With an almost animalistic snarl, he spun and drove himself up and in a standing position behind the other Immortal. The sudden lack of having a body to decapitate threw the Immortal off balance. It was at this time that those warrior instincts took over, capitalizing on the position he now found himself, his katana flashed down and through the neck of the Immortal as though it wasn't there. There was a feeling of satisfaction that spread throughout his body. It slowly dissipated, and with it his mind came back in focus, leaving him staring down at the, now deceased, Immortal. It was just moments later that he would experience his first quickening.

With wide eyes he looked at Adam. The last time this had happened was when he was at P3 that first night, and even then he had some recollection of what was happening. Xander just put his head in his hands and groaned. This was going to be a long night.

Looking back up he could see Adam's worried expression produced from his groan. With a soft smile, he took a deep cleansing breath. "Suffice it to say, the memories just came flooding back, and what happened tonight has a lot to do with my past."

Before Xander could say much more he was interrupted by Adam. "Before we get into that…I wanted to know if you had come to a conclusion as to whether or not you want to remain my student." Adam tried to place a calm façade, but there was still a slight emotion of sadness that was able to seep through. "I understand if you didn't have time to come to a decision…you did have a rather hectic night." That got a snort from Xander. Adam continued, "I'm sure that Duncan would be willing to take you on as his personal student…something he's already begun." Xander smiled at this and was about to respond when Adam's cell phone went off.

"Hello?" Adam's eyes went a bit wide. "You're coming here?" Adam looked over towards Xander with a sheepish smile before he sighed. "No, we're both fine. It's been a long night…I'll tell you about it when you get here. Sorry I didn't call you sooner…things have been a bit hectic." Adam nodded his head a few times and a small smile crept onto his face. "Ok, we'll see you soon…Ok, bye."

Hanging up the phone he looked into Xander's inquiring eyes. "Speaking of the devil." There was a definite grin on Adam's face. "I sort of hung up on him in the middle of our conversation. I think I told him I had to find you. There may have been some small amount of distress in my voice." There was a sheepish smile that replaced the grin as Adam took another sip of his beer. "He actually hung up and hopped onto a plane. Duncan will be here soon. I'm sure he'd be willing to stay here and train you, or you could go with him if you would prefer." The small smile was gone and Adam seemed to be staring intently at his bottle of beer.

Xander looked at him with a sympathy and a small amount of confusion. "How did you know I as in trouble?"

Without looking up from his bottle, Adam just shrugged his shoulders. "Just a feeling."

Xander just shook his head. "Huh…well first of all I came to a decision before that nut challenged me." This seemed to draw Adam's gaze from his bottle. "Let me tell you a small bit of my past, then later we can get into the rest…it's going to be a long night." Adam simply nodded his agreement, starting to feel a bit of hope that he may not loose his first student in a very long while. "Anya was my fiancé. She was a woman that I loved until the day she died. Hell, I still love her even today. She was a Vengeance Demon for over a thousand years. I knew this, but I couldn't help but to fall in love with the human woman she became." Adam seemed shocked by this, really shocked, by held off any comments. "The man I've considered a father since my sophomore year in high school has a very colorful past. While nowhere near as colorful as yours, it was still pretty dark." Adam was looking at him intently while simply nodding along. "I've been fighting the darkness for years. I was even fighting along side a soulless vampire. I didn't trust him, but I fought beside him. Hell, one of the people I would trust, and gladly fight beside nowadays, she tried to kill me in the past." Xander paused to let that sink in. "I have no idea what 'Death' was like. But I've spent the past three months of my life living with you and I know that you are not him, not anymore. I won't hold something against you that happened thousands of years ago. Something that you haven't been in thousands of years." Xander looked at Adam. The man was trying to show a calm face, though he couldn't hide that relief that was flooding him.

Adam felt as though he was finally able to release a breath he had been holding in for months now. It was a feeling that had formed a few months ago, when he realized how alike he and his student were. It was at that time he realized that his secret would have to come out at some point and he wanted more than to just be sure that Alexander would have a good teacher. He grew to care for the child, and he wanted to be the one to remain as his teacher. He had talked about this on occasion with Mac, but hearing it from Alex was like a balm to his very soul.

Xander took a sip of his juice while Adam did likewise with his beer. Both men suddenly had dry throats. Xander was the first to recover and looked intently over at Adam. "I suppose now would be as good as a time as any to tell you of my past."

"Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to wait until Mac gets here." Seeing Xander nod along with a curious expression in his eyes, he decided to elaborate. "Mac has actually gone up against a demon…and lost someone very important in the process." He looked up to see Xander staring back with nothing but compassion in his eyes.

With a sad and heavy voice, Xander spoke. "We've all lost people at one time or another." Nodding his head and leaning back in his chair, he continued. "How long until he gets here?"

"He was calling from a cab. He should be here in about twenty to thirty minutes." Trying to keep the conversation rolling, Adam decided to change topics slightly. "I was thinking, since we both know of the supernatural, that I have Duncan contact a friend of his. She may be able to help you mask your quickening by using magic." He couldn't help but to smile at the hopeful look that appeared in his student's eyes.

"God I hope that helps. I don't want to be challenged every time I leave the house." With an incredulous voice he continued. "I tell you, it's almost like I've been cursed!"

After saying that both of their eyes grew wide. Xander shook his head. "You don't think…"

"I don't know. But it couldn't hurt to ask."

It was twenty five minutes later that Duncan had arrived. They told him an abbreviated story from earlier that night and the revelations that came about. Xander had a captivated audience for the next three and half hours while he regaled them with tales leading from his learning about the night life until the closing of the hellmouth and their dealings with the first.

Duncan told his tail of his experience going up against Araman. He talked of how he defeated the demon by denying it battle, but it had cost him dearly in the form of his student, Richie Ryan, when he had taken his student's head during a hallucination. His words were thick with emotion, and Duncan couldn't help but to feel a little betrayed that Methos had known of demons and had said nothing during the affair.

Methos had told him that, while he knew of the night life, he knew nothing of this demon. No matter the research he did, he couldn't find anything. He had not had any contact with the 'night life' in thousands of years and had no real contacts in recent times. He had promised that if he had any information that would have been even the remote bit useful he would have happily divulged the information. Especially since his ass was on the line with the rest of the world. This seemed to placate The Highlander to a good degree.

They all sat in the smoking room with the door closed to make their private conversation seem that much more private. They were all thinking about what sort of impact this would have on their future.

It was decided that Duncan would contact Cassandra and have her help if she were willing. He didn't have much doubt that she would come, but Adam was a bit worried that she wouldn't come if he were there, and had told them that he would take his leave for a short while until everything was sorted out. They had both told him that it wouldn't be necessary, but Xander knew that if it came down to it Adam would in fact leave to give him a better chance at surviving. Learning to mask a strong quickening using magic was simply too important, and if he was in fact cursed, Adam wanted to make sure that was removed before all else.

Now they were all sitting around the table in an introspective mood when Xander felt it. It was a slight tingle, the hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand on end. It was a feeling he learned to trust. It was always present when danger was present, or about to be present.

Looking around he took stalk of the room. Adam was still lost within himself, but Duncan looked to be quite a bit paler. His eyes were wide and focused on the middle of the room though there was nothing there. With a quick nudge he brought Adam out of his introspective gaze and locked eyes with him. Shooting him a look towards Duncan, Adam brought his attention to The Highlander and saw him with the same expression that Xander had seen moments ago. He called for his friend's attention, but he seemed transfixed on the middle of the room. He looked back towards Xander with a somewhat panicked expression to find him deep in concentration.

Sensing something was wrong, but not able to actually see it, Xander began to put himself in a meditative state that Leo had been showing him. When he opened his eyes he could feel the presence in the room. It was located where Duncan seemed to be transfixed. Through sheer willpower he made himself focus on that spot. A figure began to waver into existence.

It was a silhouette of a female. The silhouette began to waver and a person could be seen to form. It was a beautiful woman with blonde hair. Attractive features and a look of innocence.

He had no idea who she was until Duncan uttered one word.

"Tessa."

He looked over to Methos who was staring at Duncan with worried eyes.

"Who is Tessa?"

Methos looked over to his student. "She was someone who Mac loved. She died before we met, so I've only seen pictures of her. He doesn't talk much about her. What's going on."

"Tessa, long blonde hair? Complete knockout?" Adam simply nodded. "Deceased?" Adam simply nodded again. "Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!" He stood up and placed his coat on, when danger was in the area it was better to be safe than sorry. He made his way to the center of the room.

"Duncan, its not her" He said this while walking straight through the apparition of Duncan's long lost love. He made his way over to Duncan and kneeled in front of him, making sure to keep eye contact to the man who was not stating at him. "You remember the First Evil? The last big bad we faced? I think this is her, again." Duncan simply nodded while a tear cascaded down his face. Xander turned around to see that it was no longer Tessa he was looking at but Anya.

Feeling a lump form in his throat, he ruthlessly squashed it. 'It's not her, its some sick fuck that's trying to get to you.'

"Well, its looks like the 'One who Sees' has finally come into his own." Morphing into Buffy she continued. "It always made me crack up to be in the same room with you. You were one of the few beings that could actually see me when I'm present." Waving her hands at him "Due to your 'unique status.'" She looked him up and down. With a smirk she continued. "Glad to see you've got that eye taken care of…I was really worried."

"Yea, I'll bet."

Duncan had now collected himself and was seething in anger. "So this is the First? I'm not impressed."

"No?" The First in Buffy's form morphed into James Horton. "Why don't you just call me Araman then?" A large smirk appeared on his face. "Impressed yet?" Duncan's eyes went wide with that and he was mumbling to himself about beating him. "Oh please! You really think that be not fighting me I'd go away?" The First/Araman was laughing at the Immortal. "I was actually worried that you would defeat me when you returned. But then you decided that the only way to beat me was to deny me battle. Ha! I wanted you to believe it." The First morphed back into Buffy. "Our time apart has been well spent. I've got a present for you Duncan." Looking over at Xander, "The fact that I get two for one just makes this all the sweeter." With a girlish giggle, that did just not seem to fit, she faded away leaving her last words hanging in the air. "Let the games begin."

The three Immortals were staring at each other wondering what was going on when they all felt the 'Buzz' of another Immortal. They all stood and drew their swords, not quite sure what was going on. The 'buzz' was becoming intense and was gaining in power. They could all feel the other Immortal on the other side of the door when it exploded inward. With great force the door splintered and imbedded itself into the wall. As the dust from the exploding door settled a figure could be seen. The hate emanating from the Immortal could be felt in physical waves. As the 'buzz' died down, and the identity of the man in front of them could be made, both Duncan and Methos let out a gasp of surprise.

It was Duncan who was the first to recover.

"Richie?"