Chapter 3.

Xander was huffing and puffing at the end of their sparring session, though Giles didn't look like he'd even broken a sweat. Still, Xander had landed a few hits and defended himself far better than he had thought possible. Though, far worse than his memories told him he could.

His memories had taken the measure of Giles' swordsmanship as well. He was impressively good for a mortal, and being left-handed made him a challenge for someone used to right-handed fighters. But Giles wouldn't have been a challenge to Methos. At all. But Xander was not Methos. He wasn't nearly in the same shape Methos had been. He wasn't even in shape compared to Giles, which was a depressing thought for the teenager.

"You fought really well." Willow tried to comfort him.

"Indeed." Giles agreed. "Perhaps we should have another go in a few weeks? I'd be curious to see what a few weeks of katas in this body could do for your swordsmanship. Because it was clear you knew all the moves that needed to be made, even if you couldn't make them quite fast enough." A couple weeks would also give him time to stretch and work out muscles that he hadn't used in quite some time. He didn't want to let the boy know just how close to his limits he had been pushed. "I'll have that practice sword for you tomorrow, if you like?"

"Thanks, Giles." Xander finished taking off his safety gear. "I think what I need to work on most is my endurance. So, I think I'll just run home now and see you guys tomorrow."

"Wait!" Willow put a hand on his arm. "Why don't you come to my house instead?"

Xander looked down at the hand on his arm but he didn't pull away. "I really just want to be alone right now, Wills."

Willow mustered up all her courage. "I know you want to be alone, but I don't think you should be right now."

Xander suppressed a sigh. She was probably right. In fact, he could almost hear Methos in his head telling him so. "Okay. Do you think you can keep up?" he smirked.

"I think I'll have Giles give me a ride." Willow shook her head.

"In that car? I'll probably beat you there." Xander said not letting go of the smirk.

"Probably."

"I say!"

"No offense, Giles. I just meant that you have a lot of stuff to clean up before you leave and I can take some shortcuts a car can't."

Giles quirked an unbelieving eyebrow at the boy. "Whatever you say."

Xander's lungs were burning when he reached Willow's house and let himself in. The ability to run fast and far were going to be the first things that Xander worked on. After all, the ability and willingness to run away had saved his life far more often than his sword ever had. And Xander wanted to live to the ripe old age of 100 himself. Just so long as he didn't have to live beyond that, he would be happy.

He waited patiently for Willow to get in... for all of 30 seconds.

Willow got in and called for Xander. No one answered. She checked the living room, then the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. No one. She called down into the basement but got no reply. She headed upstairs. She found Xander in her room, at her desk, playing chess on her computer.

"Ahem." she cleared her throat.

Xander shot up and into a defensive stance, but relaxed quickly. "Oh, sorry Will. I guess I got a little into my game." He was kicking himself for losing awareness of his surroundings. Something like that could be deadly in Sunnydale.

Willow was a little hurt. It had been a long time since they played chess together. Xander had stopped playing when they were still in elementary school. She hadn't really held back and kinda kicked his butt. A lot. "You wanna play a real person?" she offered.

To her surprise, Xander brightened at the idea. "Yeah."

Two hours later, Willow was still without a win and somewhat regretting offering to play. It was clear that Methos' memories were helping Xander. Still, she stuck it out for two reasons. One, because she now knew why Xander hadn't wanted to play with her any more and that was fair. Two, because she was learning so much more about chess and strategy than she ever thought she'd learn. Methos knew the rules for at least a dozen versions of chess, many that were no longer played, and could be considered a grandmaster at most.

It was the most fun she'd had with Xander since Jesse had died.

"Remember that book we found when we were researching the Master back in May?" Xander asked as they were watching TV later.

"The one that said that a demon leaving the earth mixed his blood with a human and created the first vampire?" Willow involuntarily shuddered at the drawings that were in that book.

"Yeah. Well, Methos had a theory about Immortals and thanks to his contacts in the Watchers, he was close to proving it. Now, he never saw any demons in his world, but he did see some limited magic. His theory went that there was one woman was cursed to be Immortal. Or it could have been like here, where a demon mixed his blood with hers to create an Immortal. Only she didn't die and come back to unlife. She continued to live. And she continued to procreate. For whatever reason she could procreate with humans but gave birth only to sterile offspring. She actually gave birth to every Immortal who ever lived."

Willow gasped. "That means that every Immortal..."

"Was killing off their half-siblings." Xander finished. "Like I said, it was just a theory, but he had proof that no recent Immortals were born less than 8 months apart, since the advent of birth certificates and accurate record keeping, except for a couple sets of fraternal twins. He also had a translation of a very old text that made it seem like the word 'The Gathering' had been mistranslated. It actually meant something closer to 'Family Reunion'. There may have been a time, before Methos' time, when all Immortals knew each other and thought of themselves as family. The rules of The Game would likely have been formal rules for ritual combat to the death at those Family Reunions. After all, if you're going to live forever, you can't just ignore each other until one of you dies.

"But like I said. It's only a theory." Xander finished. "He wanted to but hadn't gotten around to doing some genetic testing. It was still too expensive when his essence was transferred into me."

Willow wanted to say something, but didn't know what. Xander had already turned his attention back to the show they were watching, so she followed suit. But she made a mental note to talk to Giles about this soonest. Every Immortal Methos had killed had been a brother or sister to him. That was a lot of guilt to carry.

One good thing about living with parents who routinely drank away their money was that Xander learned the value of a dollar early. He also became good at saving money and hiding that savings in places his 'rents wouldn't look. What that money was for changed from year to year and sometimes month to month. Before he'd met the Slayer, that money was his ticket out of town and to start a new life on the east coast. Now he had a better use for it.

So, after leaving Willow's, Xander headed back to school. He'd had a flash of inspiration from Methos' memories of a way to make some money. He went to the computer lab and started going through pictures online of antique art for sale. Methos, despite being one of the oldest Immortals, was also one of the most adaptable and one of the early adapters of things like cars and computers. Or perhaps because he was adaptable, he was one of the oldest Immortals. Either way, Xander's computer skills certainly weren't Willow level, but he was pretty sure he could now pass his computer class at the very least. It took about half an hour before he found something he liked. Priced at just a few thousand dollars but with what he was pretty sure was incorrect information attached to it. Another hour of research in the library confirmed that Methos' memories in this case were true. Or at least true enough.

The next morning, he ran to Giles' house first thing to get the practice sword he'd been promised. He then stayed for breakfast and to show Giles a few of his most common katas. After dropping the wooden sword back at his house, he walked to the local art gallery.

"Xander!" Joyce smiled as he entered. "What brings you down here on a Sunday?"

"I want to buy some art." Xander smiled back.

Joyce was nonplussed for a moment. The Harrises were not the sort of people she expected to raise an art affectionado. She quickly recovered. "I see. Can I show you some pieces?" she waved around the gallery.

Xander pulled out the sheet he'd printed from the website. "I'd like you to buy this for me."

"Xander, this is very expensive." Joyce began. She stopped when Xander plopped down several stacks of bills.

"$3,000. That should cover the cost of the piece and a buyer's commission." Xander raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Joyce was mentally rocked yet again. "Xander, I can't take your money." she tried to dissuade him.

He just smiled. "Well, if you feel like working for free, you can just return what you don't spend on the vase."

"No, what I mean is that a piece like this is too expensive for a young man still in high school." She explained.

"I'm not buying this for my room, Mrs. Summers. I'm buying it for an investment. Hasn't Buffy told you about our archeology club?" Xander offered their cover.

Joyce looked at the sheet again and furrowed her brow. "...and you think it might be mislabeled?" It was a common enough occurrence and mislabeling could change the value of a piece drastically. Recognition began to hit. Her business sense and her love of discovering art overrode any qualms she may have had about dealing with a 17 year old boy. She looked at the piece and at the cash on her counter. "Will you be needing me to sell it for you as well, Xander?" she raised an eyebrow.

Xander nodded. "Mrs. Summers, I think I would like that."

She offered her hand. "My clients call me Joyce. Come back into my office and let's draw up some paperwork."

A/N: Methos/Xander's theory on Immortals comes from my own musings when I was thinking about how they could integrate with the Buffyverse. In my theory there's at least one Mother Immortal who gives birth to every Immortal in the game then abandons them shortly after they're born. Since all Immortals are foundlings, it's really the only theory that makes sense to me. It also makes the Highlander verse much darker than you might otherwise think.

The activity in 'The Gathering' in the timeframe of the Highlander series can be explained by the world growing smaller. The world had built up a large number of Immortals and then it became easier to travel and easier to find old friends and old enemies. Technology: bringing people together... and helping them behead each other.