A/N: Sorry for taking forever to get this part out. I'm not going to project anymore how long the next chapter will take me, since work and real life keep me quite busy these days. I wanted to thank everybody for the large amount of feedback I received for the first two chapters, it was certainly more than I had expected, and I wanted to let you all know that it is very appreciated. To anyone having read the Clan Novel series by White Wolf: while the events are mostly taking place as described in the books (at least up to this point), please note that they are delayed by about 6-8 weeks. Therefore, the assault on Atlanta happened quite recently, and at this point in the story, Sabbat forces have only started to launch skirmishes into Washington D.C. Also, I slightly changed the order of certain events from early episodes of One Tree Hill to better fit my needs. Don't be surprised when I shuffle things around a little bit.

A cavern deep under the streets of New York City; August 17th, 1999, 4.32 AM EST

Calebros was sitting at his desk reviewing the increasing number of reports that came in since the Sabbat offensive had begun. His crooked spine was hurting him particularly badly tonight, and he contemplated going to rest early when the door to his room burst open without so much as a knock. Calebros almost jumped out of his seat, which was quite a feat for the large Nosferatu in this small and overly crowded room.

The members of the Nosferatu warren he was leading knew better than to disturb him like that, but when he saw Emmett, his first in command, enter the room with some papers in his hand and a look of concern on his face, his initial anger quickly subsided. If Emmett looked like that, then he was clearly bothered by something, and that did not happen easily.

"I'm sorry to burst in her like this and interrupt you, but…" Emmett started, but was quickly silenced by Calebros' stare. "I think you should read this." He handed the sheets of paper to Calebros, who took them with his clawed fingers, careful not to shred them to pieces by accident.

Calebros quickly scanned the pages, then sat down to read them more closely a second time.

To: C in NYC
From: R in London
Re: The Watcher's Council - Urgent, please advise!

Something happened at the Watcher's Council. All projects have been stopped over the past two days and all resources have been redirected to research of the attached writings by Johannes von Reden dating back to 1196 and their relation to current events. They seem to believe that the time for the prophecy has come. Not sure if this was triggered by Sabbat attacks in US. Text was discovered by Rupert Giles, who is the current watcher in Sunnydale, CA. It is currently unknown where this text came from. Agent teams about to be sent out to Atlanta and other US locations - will provide detail information for monitoring when available. We are currently diverting their attention to safe areas, but Travis is taking personal interest in the matter. Need immediate advice on how to proceed.

R-

Emmett watched silently while Calebros read through the attached text, shifting his weight from one foot to another while waiting for a reaction.

"Who knows about this?" Calebros finally asked.

"Aside from Roland and Lana, who is running the computers right now, it's just you and me," Emmett replied.

Calebros nodded and sighed. "Make sure it stays that way. Tell Roland to delay them as long as possible without being discovered. If he needs access to additional funds, make sure he has them available. If he needs to dispose of some people, then he has the authority to do so." He paused slightly. "And arrange for a meeting with him
tomorrow," Calebros said quietly, raising the papers he was holding to emphasize his point.

Emmett's eyes went wide. "How am I supposed to do that? He is not someone you can just call. As far as I know, he has not been seen in over 50 years." Calebros unlocked a drawer of his desk and, after a quick search, handed Emmett a sheet of paper. "Make sure this is printed in the next issue of the Times." Emmett nodded and left Calebros, who was so immersed in his thoughts that he had even forgotten about his back pain for the first time in weeks. Rest would not come easily today, after all.


Tree Hill, North Carolina; August 17th, 1999, 6.46 AM EST

"Good morning, honey," Karen said slightly surprised as Lucas was walking into the kitchen, already showered and fully dressed. "You are up early today, is everything alright?"

Lucas smiled at his mom while he walked to the counter and grabbed a fresh bagel from the breakfast basket. "Yeah, I just want to go and talk to Keith before heading to school."

"Oh right, you want to talk about that boy's car. What's his name again?" Karen asked.

"His name's Xander and he seems like a really nice guy. Just had some bad luck when he got cut off the road last night, and I want to help him out."

"Why don't you and Xander come by the café this evening after basketball training, I'd really like to meet him," Karen said as Lucas started to head out the door.

"That sounds great. Thanks Mom, I'll see you later."

"Have a good day at school, Lucas. I love you!"

Lucas looked back at his mom and smiled. "Love you, too"

Keith was just about to climb into his truck to drive to work when he heard Lucas call out for him. "Hey Keith, wait up!" He looked around and saw Lucas jogging towards him.

"Hey Luke! What brings you here this morning, shouldn't you get ready for school or something?" Keith asked in his usual gruff voice.

Lucas grinned. "It's good to see you, too, Keith." Keith laughed, as did Lucas. "I have a favor to ask, but I'll explain while we drive to the garage."

"Ok, hop in then," Keith said, leaning over to open the passenger door. Lucas climbed in and Keith started driving towards work. "So, what's the favor?" Lucas looked over to Keith. He really liked his uncle, who was almost like a father to him, and he hated that he couldn't tell him the whole truth. But until he talked to Peyton, he simple could not talk to anyone about what really happened the night before.

"You know, when I was on my way home last night, I witnessed an accident on Main & Spencer. Someone ran
a red light and cut off another car, which then crashed into a parked car while trying to get out of the way. The guy who was cut off is a teenager from California named Xander who was just passing through town, and now he is kind of stuck here until his car is repaired. The problem is that he doesn't have a whole lot of money to pay for the repair, and the car that cut him off just kept driving. I towed him to the garage, and I told him we would come by together
this morning to see if we could work something out."

Keith asked, "The other driver just kept driving?" Seeing Lucas' nod, he said, "You know I like to help, Lucas, but I can't work for free."

"But I could. I can do it on my off days, and maybe he could work off the cost of the spares. You've been saying for a while that you might want to hire some additional help due to all the work we've been getting lately, right?"

He is such a good kid with a really big heart. How could I say no to him when he wants to help someone in need? When Keith didn't answer right away, Lucas added with a grin on his face, "Would it help with making your decision to know that the car he crashed into was Dan's SUV?" Keith laughed loudly and looked over at his nephew. "I think it might. Let's take a look at how bad it is, and we'll take it from there."

"Thanks Keith, you're the best!"

The song on the radio ended and the moderator came on. "This is Ken Brown and you are listening to KOTH, the voice of Tree Hill. The next caller on the line is Steve. How's it going this morning, Steve?"

"Ken, you won't believe what I saw this morning when I was driving to work."

"What's that, Steve? Did Mayor Johnson scare the neighbors again with another pyjama show on his front lawn?" Ken asked and started laughing.

"No man, I was going down Main Street at around 5am this morning, and these two guys were chasing each other like there was no tomorrow. I swear to God, I was going maybe 45 because I was already running late to pick up my co-worker, and they just ran past me. Can you beep believe that? They outran me on foot!"

Keith and Lucas laughed. "Sounds to me like Steve was either still asleep or high on drugs. Why do these guys always call in with these bogus stories?" Keith asked chuckling. Lucas just shrugged and continued to laugh as he listened to Ken making fun of the caller, as well. "I don't know, but it's good entertainment this early in the day." Keith smiled and nodded in agreement as pulled into the parking lot in front of the garage. "Here we go."

Keith parked his truck and they both left the car. Keith started opening the rolling shutters of the garage while Lucas walked over to Xander's car and smiled when he saw Xander sleeping in the back seat. He knocked on the rear window. "Hey Xander, good morning!"

Xander woke up from the knocking and quickly sat up in the car, looking around confused and somewhat disoriented. He had a killer headache and every muscle in his body seemed to hurt. His vision focused on Lucas, who was watching him with a grin on his face while he opened the door and asked, "Tough night? You look like you've been partying too much."

Xander looked at him with a confused expression, trying to remember what happened the night before. Gradually, some distant images came back to him. Vampires fighting right outside his car. Him standing over a staked body. The police aiming their guns at him. Theo talking to him.

Theo. The memory of his voice struck something inside of him, and he felt himself shiver. He desperately tried to remember more of what happened after Theo talked to him, but it was all a blur right now, and the pounding he felt in his temples did not help.

"Xander, are you alright?" Lucas asked concerned. "Come on, say something!"

That snapped Xander out of his reverie. "Yeah, sorry for zoning out on you. I just have a killer headache and I'm feeling a bit under the weather this morning." He yawned, then climbed out of the car. "So how was the rest of your night?"

"Not bad. Called my best friend Haley after I got home just to catch up and watched some TV with my mom when she finally got home. And as I promised, I talked to my uncle Keith this morning." Lucas pointed to Keith, who had finished opening up the doors to the garage and was on his way over to meet them. Xander reached out and shook Keith's hand. "Good morning, Mr. Scott, it's nice meeting you."

Keith smiled and shook his head. "Please call me Keith. Mr. Scott is my father, and he is not here right now." Xander smiled back and nodded, while Keith started looking at Xander's car. "That looks pretty bad. The whole frame in the front seems damaged," Keith said and used some force to push the hood open. "We'd have to replace parts of the engine, for sure, but I can't even assess the full damage without dismantling it. Your radiator is totally gone, and your water cooler looks damaged, as well. We have to take a look at your transmission, too."

Xander listened to Keith and sighed. I can never afford the repair. So maybe this is the end of the road for me. I should have enough money to buy myself a bus ticked and go home. A feeling of sadness washed over Xander at that thought. Home, he snorted. I don't even know what that is anymore. He snapped out of his thoughts and asked, "So how much is all of this going to be?"

Keith scratched his head for a second and looked back and forth between Xander and Lucas before replying, "For your model, spares alone will probably run up to anywhere from $1500 to $2000, at least, and looking at the extent of the damage, I figure it takes about 25 work hours to get the repairs done once all the spares arrive." He had to suppress a grin when he saw Xander's shoulders slump even further and Lucas looking at him while raising his eyebrow and making small sideways nods towards Xander.

"Well, thanks for taking the time to look at it, at least. I think I just…." Xander trailed off when he saw both Keith and Lucas grin at him. "What?"

"How would you like to work for me for a few weeks? I wanted to get some help anyway, and this way you can work off the cost of the spares and together we can do the repair of your car in the evenings. And Luke's mom has a spare bedroom that I'm sure I can convince her to let you use, which is a hell of a lot more comfortable than the backseat of your car. So, what do you say?" Keith asked.

Xander was taken aback. These people did not know him and had no reason to be so nice to a stranger, yet here they were, grinning from ear to ear at his perplexed expression while waiting for him to answer. He cleared his throat and asked, "Are you sure? This is such a generous offer, but I can't possibly…"

"Of course you can, and yes, I am sure," Keith interrupted.

Xander started to smile and said, "I think we have a deal then."

You can always count on Keith to help you out when you need it. This also gives me a chance to work things out with Peyton, Lucas thought. If she'll talk to me at all after last night, that is. "Listen, I need to run and get to school, and I have basketball training later today so I won't be coming here to work in the afternoon. My mom wants to meet us at the café for dinner tonight at around 7," Lucas said to Xander. "You should come, as well, Keith. Mom's making her special."

"Homemade lasagna al forno? I'm there!" Keith replied enthusiastically. "Have a good day at school, Luke."

"Thanks. See you later, Keith and Xander"

"Bye Lucas. And thanks a lot for everything," Xander said and shook Lucas' hand.

"My pleasure. See you tonight."

Tree Hill, North Carolina; August 17th, 1999, 7.45 PM EST

Lucas was walking along the sidewalk of Main Street towards his mom's café, his sporting bag in hand and the wet hair still glistening in the evening sun from a recently taken shower. He felt exhausted. Whitey had worked the team extra hard tonight because he wasn't pleased with their physical condition during their game the prior night, so he had added an extra 30 minutes of cardio workout after an already exhausting training.

Nathan and most of his jock friends had been an ass to him again, and if it wasn't for Jake passing him the ball regularly he wouldn't have been able to score decently during their practice match. I only wish they would get over themselves and just treat me as part of the team. Thank God Jake is on my side, that makes it at least bearable, Lucas thought. He had tried to talk to Peyton about last night, but she had avoided him all day long like the plague, and cheerleading training was over before the basketball team got to leave, so he never got a chance to talk to her before she left.

He caught her watching him during practice a few times, though, and a smile crossed his face when he remembered how she always pretended to be focusing her attention somewhere else whenever he looked back at her. Things were complicated between them, and the fact that until recently she had dated his asshole brother didn't make things any less awkward.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he arrived at the café and entered to find Keith, Xander and Haley sitting at a table in the corner, their laughter carrying across the room as Xander finished saying something with a grin on his face and both Keith and Haley laughed hard in response. Haley spotted Lucas and waved at him. "Lucas, come on over, we've been waiting for you!"

Lucas waved back and made his way across the room and sat down, nodding hello to Xander and Keith. "Seems like you guys are having a good time. Sorry for running late, Whitey just kept working us like crazy tonight," Lucas said with an exhausted look on his face.

"No problem, Luke. Xander just told us some of the stories from his road trip, and Haley came over to join us for dinner. Talking about dinner, isn't that a sight for the gods?" Keith asked and nodded towards the kitchen, from where Karen was approaching carrying four large plates of lasagna. Lucas smiled at the ambiguity of what Keith had just said, not being sure if he referred to either the food, his mom or both. He knew that Keith liked his mom a lot, and he'd be more than fine with it if they ever ended up as a couple.

"Yeah, it is. And the food looks great, too," Lucas said with a grin on his face, which got even broader when he saw Keith blushing slightly. Haley looked at him with wide eyes and leaned over the table to playfully hit him on the arm, whispering "I can't believe you just said that!"

Xander watched the whole exchange from his seat and smiled. These are a great bunch of people. Lucas is lucky to have them in his life. He and Keith had talked quite a bit over the course of the day, which was a surprise because Keith didn't appear very talkative at first. It seemed like they shared a lot of views on what they considered important, and Xander had learned a lot about Lucas and his family.

"I hope you all will enjoy this, and if it isn't enough, there is more for second servings in the kitchen," Karen said as she set down the plates.

"This looks great, Ms. Roe. Thank you!" Xander said, looking at the plate front of him.

"He's right. This is delicious, Karen," Keith said in between bites after quickly digging into the pasta. Karen watched satisfied as everyone eagerly started working on their dinner before turning back to tend to her other customers.

Xander's eyes wandered over to Haley, and not for the first time in the past 45 minutes since she had introduced herself had he been reminded of how much she resembled someone else he had left behind. The way she tucked her hair behind her ear before eating and how she tilted her head while listening to someone who was talking to her, it all reminded him of Willow. A feeling of guilt washed over him. He didn't mean to hurt Willow when he left, but he knew he did. He was angry at Buffy, and if he was honest with himself, to a small degree at Willow, as well, but he left because he couldn't take it anymore and needed to get away. He didn't do it to hurt his best friend. Once he was on the road he felt better the longer and further he was away from Sunnydale, and a part of him feared that he would ruin that by calling her. The longer he was away, the harder it became to change that, so he never called. Sitting across someone who reminded him so much of her made him wish that he had spoken to her, to let her know that he was doing ok. From his conversations with Giles he knew that she had been taking him leaving particularly hard. Oh God, I have to call Giles. I can't believe I forgot about that.

"Is there a phone in here I can use? I forgot that I had to call someone urgently," Xander asked.

"There's a phone behind the counter, but you could just use my cell. Unless it's international it won't cost anything at this hour," Lucas replied and handed Xander his cell phone. Xander nodded his thanks and excused himself from the table, stepping out of the restaurant while dialing Giles's number.

Sunnydale, California; August 17th, 1999, 5.14 PM PST

Giles woke up to the sound of his phone ringing loudly. He looked around the mess in his living room where he had fallen asleep from exhaustion just a few hours earlier. After finding his classes on the table he got up from the couch, walked over to his desk and picked up the phone. "This is Rupert Giles speaking, how may I help you?"

"Yo, G-Man. How are you doing?" Xander asked, which caused Giles to wince.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" he asked in an annoyed voice.

Xander grinned and replied, "Oh, I don't know. Not often enough, I guess." He heard a muffled sigh through the phone before turning serious. "Any new information regarding our last conversation, Giles?" Xander questioned while looking around to make sure none of the passerby were listening to him.

"Well, the only related items I found in regard to the phenomenon you described were references to very old vampires, such as Kakistos, who lived so long that their skin grew as hard as metal, giving them a natural resistance to being staked by normal means. However, there have been no records of vampires that survived a wooden stake actually penetrating the heart. To be honest with you, I cannot explain what you saw, but it seems like it was a very rare occurrence rather than the norm and I don't believe we have to be overly concerned about this or that we will see this occur again any time soon."

"Oh good," Xander replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "then I guess I just won't worry that it happened again last night, right?"

"It WHAT?"

Tree Hill, North Carolina; August 17th, 1999, 9.12 PM EST

The sun had settled a few minutes earlier as Theo stirred from his sleep and looked around the dark room he was in. Where the hell am I? And what the fuck happened last night? He remembered nothing after talking to Xander aside from the fact that had fallen into a frenzy. Remorse washed over him as he imagined how quickly and mercilessly he must have killed the boy and anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path while the beast had control of him.

"I see you, Theophilus," a familiar-sounding voice said from behind him, and Theo whirled around in the dark to see a figure sitting on a chair across the room. He relaxed when he recognized who it was.

"What are you doing here, Itio?" Theo asked.

Itio was a physically small kindred compared to Theo. He appeared to be a middle-aged Asian man with short black hair and dark eyes that constantly wandered around, seeming to take in every detail. "The same thing you do, Theophilus. Following the Sabbat as it moves the attack northward. I just don't get in their way like you do." Itio bowed towards Theo and smiled. "It is good to see that you have regained your control. The beast had you firmly in its grasp last night when I finally caught up with you."

"Yeah, I am not sure why I lost control," Theo said somberly. "Did you see me kill any kine during my frenzy, other than the teenage boy I was with when it happened?"

Itio looked at Theo with a thoughtful expression on his face, almost like he was weighing his next words carefully. After a short while, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "As far as I can tell you did not kill anyone, and especially not that boy." Theo looked at him surprised. "In fact, when I finally caught up with the two of you, it looked more like your beast made you flee from his."

Theo blinked, not believing what he was hearing. "That's just not possible. He is a mortal, Itio, he does not have a beast. And in a frenzy I would have simply torn him apart. You've seen me before. I kill whole Sabbat packs in close combat, there is no way that a mere mortal would have survived."

"He is mortal, I give you that, but he is far from normal. Did you even look at his aura when you met him?" Itio questioned.

"No, I did not," Theo admitted.

"He is different, Theophilus. I have never seen anything like him. He doesn't have just one aura, it appears like he has several distinct ones. They seemed to be separate for the most part, but there was something else there that connected them. And one of them clearly resembled what you and I call our beast."

"That's ridiculous, Itio. The beast is a part of us, not a separate entity. And just like the aura reflects the current state of our inner being, it is simply impossible that is shows more than one identity no matter how complex that identity is."

Itio listened intently to Theo, nodding his head with his hands folded in his lap and a thoughtful expression on his face. "Normally, I would agree with you. However, I know what I have seen last night, and it does not match that at all. He was as much in a state of frenzy as you were. He matched you in speed and strength, and I think he might have been able to kill you if I hadn't stepped in."

Theo laughed in disbelief. "You got to be kidding me." The notion that a mortal was able to stand up to him, especially in the state of frenzy when the beast took control and reduced his instincts to the most basic form of fight, kill and survive was ridiculous.

Itio shook his head. "I wish I was, Theophilus."

"Ok, let's assume what you say is true, and you can fucking trust me that I don't believe so, how did you get us to stop trying to kill each other?" Theo inquired.

"I calmed your beasts enough for you to regain control. Some of the Nosferatu believe that our beast has something in common with the spirits of the wild and that of animals in particular. They say that, to a limited extend, it can be communicated with, much like they can talk to animals. It was risky, but it was the only thing I could do before it was getting too late. The sunrise was close, and I was glad to see that it worked before you both turned on me."

"What happened to him?"

Itio shrugged, "You mean Alexander? Nothing. He was very weak when he regained his self-control, and I brought him back to where you met him." Seeing Theo's look of alarm on his face, he continued, "Don't worry, I made sure he doesn't remember me. However, I couldn't change his earlier memories."

"He's a risk, Itio. He knows about the kindred. He knows about me. And he knows about the slayer, too. Paschek will never allow him to live."

"Paschek might be right," Itio replied after a moment. "But look at it from this point. He could be a great asset. One that our enemies are not even aware of right now. And let's face it, my friend. We are at war, and we need all the help we can get."

Theo couldn't deny that it looked bad right now. The Sabbat forces moved swiftly and brutally, gaining a lot of ground and killing scores of Camarilla vampires and ghouls in the process. This was not like the crusades in the past that were launched to wrestle control of certain cities from the Camarilla. This was an all-out assault that could potentially eradicate the Camarilla presence on the East Coast of the United States in a matter of weeks. Theo's orders were clear. To oppose the enemy forces and slow down their progress as much as possible while upholding the traditions of the Masquerade, which first and foremost demanded that humans were, under no circumstances, allowed to learn about the existence of the kindred. Any breaches in the Masquerade were to be dealt with at once and without any compromise.

"I need to get more information on Xander. Where he comes from, how he is related to the slayer, how he learned about the kindred."

Itio smiled and bowed. "We've been working on that already for the past 15 hours. I should have something to share with you over the course of the night."

Before Theo could reply he was interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing. He looked at the number and sighed. Justicar Paschek's direct line. "Here goes nothing," Theo mumbled and picked up the call.


Tree Hill, North Carolina; August 18th, 1999, 2.26 AM EST

Lightning lit up the night sky over the Tree Hill Cemetary as the ground was pounded by heavy rains that had started a few hours ago. The storm had moved in from the nearby ocean and kept anyone who was still awake inside their houses. Lightning struck again close by, followed immediately by loud thunder.

A lone black bird landed atop a recently erected gravestone. Defying the elements, it was pecking at the stone below, waiting. The rolling thunders grew louder, the wind intensified and another lightning struck a tree inside the graveyard. The bird crowed in excitement as it saw the earth in front of the gravestone move and a hand break through. The time for revenge had come.