(Set before 'Anne')

He thought he knew everything about the family he grew up in, about its history, about himself. He was wrong. Something happened to him and his whole world turned upside down.

It was a night that seemed all so quiet and regular but then Xander really should have known by now that those are the times when trouble is only just around the corner. He had been out to a local store buying food for the house as his parents were too busy getting drunk and arguing to notice that there was no food in the house. He was just closing the boot when he felt a strange and unfamiliar feeling wash over him. Like a buzz or a chainsaw going off in his head causing him to frown and grimace. What was going? Had all the times he listened to loud music against the advice of his mother finally caught up with him? Xander looked around in confusion. He heard a man across the street mutter "Bugger!" and looked over in that direction. The man saw Xander looked at him and started walking away.

Feeling an irresistible urge to follow despite the hellmouth vibes he was getting right now Xander decided to follow the man. "Wait!" Xander called out but the man continued walking. "Wait stop!" The man ducked into an alley way and Xander followed, not for the first time his curiosity won its daily battle against his better judgement. The man spun round in the dead centre of the alley and pulled out a sword from his coat. He held it close to his body. It looked like it had been used constantly, unlike any of Giles' swords, which had been used only once or twice.

"Look I really don't want to do this but if you are interested then let's make it quick!" The man told Xander with a grim expression on his face and when he got in a fighting stance, Xander knew the man holding it was very experienced with using a weapon like that.

Xander himself was at a loss of what to say. He only met the man a minute ago and now he was standing before him with a sword looking like he was about to do some serious damage to Xander's organs. "Huh?" Xander said rather helplessly.

The man studied Xander for a long time before finally lowering his sword. "You don't know who you are do you?"

"Who I am?" Xander asked nervous as to how this conversation was going. He was very nervous, and when he gets nervous, he tended to start babbling. He usually tell jokes to cover his nervousness, but at the moment, he couldn't really think of anything hilarious to say, so he just babbled. "I'm Xander Harris. Why would you ask me a question like that?"

The man looked at him almost sizing him up. "It has happened soon, hasn't it?" The man asked him. "Maybe not more than a few weeks ago."

"What are you talking about?" Xander asked completely confused now.

"Your death," the man replied simply.

Xander felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. How could he have known? No one knew, not Giles, not Willow, no one. Xander had already began to convince himself that it hadn't happened, that it was all just a bad dream, a nightmare but this man who he had never met was telling him that it was real. What was going on? "How could you know that?" Xander whispered in shock.

"How did it happen?" the man asked.

"Vampires," Xander uttered. The old Harris luck had either run out or finally kicked in depending on how one looks at it. One night walking home after a night of patrolling he had been jumped by two vampires, and they drained me. When he woke up, he couldn't believe it. he knew I had died there was no other way around it. His first thought was that he was a vampire, but he didn't have any desire for blood and his heart was still beating. He went home and waited until daylight to be sure, but when he finally plucked up the courage to stick his hand out into a beam of sunlight, it didn't burn, which left him relieved, but still very confused. Did he go running to others to look for answers? No they were still focused on locating Buffy and trying to maintain their grip on their sanity so he pretended it didn't happened. Denial was an old friend of Xander's and one that he could rely on but now this man had answers to his questions. He had to know what all this was about. "What has happened to me?" Xander asked almost dreading the answer.

The man huffed looking like he was being put upon. He put the sword into a hidden sheath in his trench coat. "Come on," the man told him monitoring on Xander to follow him. "We have a lot to talk about!"

The man, Methos as he explained told Xander the most bizarre story he'd ever heard and considering that the young man had fought vampire masters, fish people and evil blue demons that come in various boxes. He told me I was Immortal, and that I would live for a long time if I was good at using a sword. He said that I would always come back to life from any fatal wound other than beheading, and that I wouldn't age a single day over eighteen for the rest of my life.

"Are you serious?" Xander asked the man after a long moment.

"Very serious I am afraid," Methos replied looking at the teenager.

All of this was shocking Xander considered but not impossible to his mind. After all, he was and still am used to all sorts of supernatural things. To learn that he wasn't normal, however, was the shocking part. He was used to being the normal one now that the group of Scoobies had swelled with a witch, a werewolf, a watcher, and whatever Cordelia was. "How did this happen?" Xander asked the centuries old immortal before him.

"Who knows," Methos shrugged. "How did any of this happen?" He said gesturing around. "Was it because some god created life? Or some gases mixed together creating a big bang? No one knows. All I know is that as long as there have been mortals there have been immortals. Sometimes many, sometimes few but always there."

"And this game you mentioned, it involves killing people?" Xander asked looking uncomfortable.

Methos shrugged again. "It's kill or be killed I'm afraid. Unless you are lucky enough to meet an immortal such as myself who doesn't like to fight. For the most part, immortals are very much like ordinary people. Some make a lot of money. Some lose a lot of money. Some travel the world. Some stay at home all day on the couch. But there are head hunters or dangerous types who simply go from place to place picking fights and taking heads."

"The gang won't believe this when I tell them," Xander muttered shaking his head.

"You are not going to that," Methos told Xander who looked at him in confusion.

"But I told you about them," Xander replied. "They are my friends; they deal in the supernatural on a daily basis! Buffy is a Slayer, Giles a Watcher! He must know something about immortals! Some way of reversing it or information on it." He was definitely going to *have* to talk to Giles and see if the ex- Watcher had ever come across any references in any of myriad texts that he'd studied that might help him understand just what was going on here. Surely G-Man would be able to point him in the proper direction if there was any information available, or at least be able to help him narrow the parameters of his search, if there wasn't.

"There is no way of reserving it!" Methos told Xander strongly. "Once you are an immortal you stay that way until the day someone takes your head. There isn't a magic spell or a book that will undo any of this. It is your life and responsibility now. Besides getting your friends involved is dangerous for both you and more importantly them!" Xander frowned at that and Methos took a breath before continuing. "This a dangerous game involving very dangerous immortals ones who will not hesitate in using your friends to your disadvantage. Blackmail, kidnapping even murder I have seen it all happen. So, if you value their lives, you will keep them out of this. It does not concern them and to involve them only places them in greater risk."

Xander considered the man's words. To never tell his friends. To keep this secret forever. "What happens now?" He muttered silently helplessly.

"Find another immortal hope they are willing to train you, learn about the various aspects of us and study fencing," Methos offered in a matter of fact fashion.

"But you just said that other immortals were out to kill me!" Xander cried out in disbelief waving his hands in the air. "Now you want me to go seek one out?! Besides why don't you teach me?"

"I am so not interested in that," Methos replied unimpressed at the mere suggestion of that.

"Oh! Come on! You are here and I am here!" Xander justified gesturing between the two men. "You haven't taken my head yet, so I am guessing you aren't one of those head head-hunters you mentioned! Why not?"

"I don't teach immortals," Methos stated simply. "Least not like that."

Xander grumbled this man was impossible he thought but then an idea came to him. It was a long shot but then Xander was in a fix and had little to lose. "Consider it the price of my silence."

"What?" Methos asked not understanding the last part.

"If you want me to keep quiet about you then you train me," Xander explained to the man. "Help me and in return I won't tell a soul about you. Scouts honour." He added holding up his left hand in the three-finger salute used by members of Scout and Guide organizations around the world when greeting other Scouts and in respect of a national flag at ceremonies.

"It's the right hand you twit!" Methos shot back at the boy before him. Xander gulped and changed hands causing Methos to roll his eyes as he considered his options. Seeing he had little choice in the matter he decided to simply agree to this deal. "Fine If you want me to train you, to help you understand more then you will have to do things my way," Methos explained. "That means no telling your friends."

Xander looked like he wanted to argue but knew he had little choice in the matter so simply nodded.