Title: You Forgot To Mention Hell, Horatio
Author: JR
Email: JRR42@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Status: Complete
Warnings: Nope. Not this time.
Category: Crossover with Highlander
Disclaimer: All other characters belong to their respective owners and are used without permission. This story is not intended to infringe upon any copyrights, nor is any profit being made from it.
This is what happens when you get involved with too many different fandoms.
Universe setting: For you Highlander fans, this story takes place sometime after ‘Archangel’ (sorry to all those Richie Forever people). Please forgive me for playing with the timelines of the shows, but hey, it’s fan-fic and I can do that ;-)
Thanks: As always, to Carrie, and to Marius, the oak and the ash to my birds in the forest.

The myriad of volumes that the Watchers’ Council sent on the demon Ahriman had kept the group members busy for days. The six Sunnydale residents and their Immortal guest spent their afternoons individually reading dusty book after dusty book. After a quick dinner of the take-out food de jour, they usually held a ‘group review’ to share and compare any new information uncovered during the day.

“So what will it be tonight?” Xander questioned as they decided to break for dinner. “Chinese? Burgers? Or that great old stand-by -- triple-cheese-meat lovers?”

“Oh God, not pizza *again*,” Willow protested, her face taking on a barely discernable greenish-hue at the very notion.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to side with Willow on this one,” Adam Pierson calmly intervened. Exchanging a friendly smile with the young redhead in question, the Immortal continued to speak. “There are actually four other food groups out there -- some even with items that *don’t* harden your arteries just by looking at them.”

“Hear, hear!” Giles muttered under his breath.

“At Willow’s suggestion, I took the liberty of phoning in an order to the ‘Lettuce Patch’ earlier,” Adam revealed.

“Salad?!?” Xander exclaimed. “Salad isn’t food. It’s what food eats!”

A mere four days away from his ‘time of the month’, Oz found himself nodding in agreement.

“Geez, Xander,” Willow chided as she rose carefully from her chair. The wound in her side was slowly healing, but it was still too early to remove the fifteen stitches that had been required to close it. “It’s not poison, just salad.”

“How do you know?” Xander called to the witch’s back as she headed off to the restroom. “What if I have an allergic reaction or something? Cordy,” the teen turned to his girlfriend in desperation, “how ‘bout an emergency Mickey D’s run?”

“Huh?” The cheerleader in question’s head jerked up at the mention of her name.

“Rabbit food verses Big Mac,” the dark-haired teen reiterated for his girlfriend’s benefit.

Much to Giles concern, such lapses in Cordelia’s concentration had been occurring at an alarming frequency as of late. Although her normal attitude and acid tongue still found many a victim among their little group, she could just as often be caught staring off into space, as if pondering the mysteries of the universe itself.

Since her elevation to a full-fledged member of the Slayerettes, Giles had come to realize the Cordelia wasn’t *quite* as vapid as he had initially believed. Still, the librarian whole-heartedly doubted her to be capable of deep philosophical meditation. That being the case, he was left to wonder just *what* she was thinking during those occasions.

Shaking off her malaise, Cordelia rejoined the rest of the group by opening another round of her endless bickering with her boyfriend. It was good to know, Giles thought to himself, that some things never changed.

At some point during their affectionate bantering, Willow slipped back into the library. The petite girl was readjusting the straps on one of the pairs of the brightly coloured baggy overalls she tended to favour wearing. Coming in to find her best friend and his girlfriend in the middle of one of their typical ‘discussions’, she rolled her eyes.

“Ready to go, Willow?” Adam asked while grabbing his car keys from the table.

“Sure,” she replied with a gracious smile.

The librarian watched the friendly exchange between the witch and the Immortal with more than a casual eye. Ever since the night of the Legion, something had changed between Willow and Adam. Something that Giles could not seem to put his finger on. It wasn’t anything untoward -- of that much, the librarian was certain. Unlike Angel, who had the ability to ‘blend-in’ with both adults and teenagers centuries his junior, Adam presented a much more...mature...impression. Perhaps that was why Willow’s and Adam’s sudden...closeness...left the librarian feeling a bit uneasy.

While Giles often thought of Buffy as his surrogate daughter, the young witch also held a special place in his heart. With her fierce intellect and pure determination, the Watcher often thought of Willow as his protege. Given the fact that her parents were often out of town, Giles had long ago taken it upon himself to keep a close watch over the girl.

Apparently he wasn’t the only one in the room to do so, Giles noted with a glance in Angel’s direction. For his part, the vampire was scowling at Adam’s departing back. Not for the first time, the Watcher found himself pondering Angel’s motivations. What, if anything, was going on between the vampire and the witch?

Giles’ own thoughts were interrupted as Angel abruptly rose to his feet.

“I’ll be back,” the vampire said softly to no one in particular. He really didn’t need to say anything else, though, since the guilt-ridden expression on his face was explanation enough.

Angel was going off to feed.

Despite the residual resentment the Watcher held for the vampire, Giles could not help but feel a bit sorry for Angel. Ever since his return from Hell, the vampire had worked so hard to redeem himself -- to once again prove himself worthy in the eyes of the Slayerettes. Even though his multiple violent attacks on Adam the night of the Legion were practically an involuntary response, his actions nevertheless cost Angel a great deal of hard-won ground in the eyes of the mortals with whom he worked so closely.

But not everyone was unnerved by the vampire’s assaults on the Immortal. As it had been for months now, Willow remained Angel’s closest friend and his fiercest advocate. This time, however, she was not alone. Adam Pierson had made a point of being friendly to Angel, especially when in the presence of the other, more skeptical Slayerettes.

Now, as he watched the obviously unhappy vampire vanish into the upstairs stacks, Giles found himself wondering what had disturbed the vampire more: the fact that his two strongest supporters had left the room, or that they had left *together*.

Lost in his thoughts, the librarian began to absent-mindedly move books off the table to clear a space for their upcoming meal.

Less than an hour later, Adam and the Slayerettes were once again elbows-deep in research. Only Angel was absent, following his evening habit of doing a quick patrol before returning to the library. Surrounded by legal pads and a half-dozen mostly empty Styrofoam take-out boxes, the assembled group was already deeply into their nightly review.

Xander and Willow had already presented what little new information they’d come across that afternoon. Cordelia was next to go, offering some inane connection between the world of high fashion and the rise of ancient demons as only she could. Stifling a sigh at the cheerleader’s bizarre leaps in logic Giles permitted his attention to briefly wander.

It was, he thought to himself a bit sadly, the beginning of the end of their collaboration with Adam Pierson. Earlier that day, the librarian had noticed that the amount of books provided by the Watcher’s Council left to be leafed through was down to practically nothing. Working together, the seven of them had managed to comb through the vast amount of reading material rather quickly -- with a fair amount of results to boot. Before the Immortal went his own way, however, there was still some work to be done.

Although they had not yet managed to uncover the key to defeating the Ahriman, they had pieced together a great deal of history on the Zoroastrian demon. Nevertheless, they kept at it -- fitting all of the miscellaneous tidbits and facts they uncovered about Ahriman into some kind of bigger picture.

The sound of Adam slipping into his ‘college professor’ mode dragged Giles’ attention back to the matter at hand. The Immortal was presenting the first truly interesting revelation of the evening -- some new information he’d come across in a book on Summarian folklore.

“So they believed that the demon *could* be vanquished by the chosen champion,” the Immortal spoke with an air of excitement. “The truly fascinating part is a paragraph that translates: 'Every champion shall have to find the path that only...’”

All eyes turned to the Immortal as his normally rich timbre trailed off into unexpected silence. Adam, however, was barely aware of the Slayerettes around him. Tension suddenly filled his slender body as he quickly sat up in his chair, his eyes focusing directly upon the double doors of the library.

“Adam?” Giles asked. When the man in question ignored the librarian in order to reach for the broadsword concealed under the massive table, the Slayerettes sat up and took notice. “Dr. Pierson?”

“Take the kids and go out through the tunnels,” Adam’s tone brooked no argument as he knocked his chair backwards in his hurry to stand. When they all failed to react, the Immortal spoke again, more harshly this time. “Get out! Now!”

Seeing their guest sink into a defensive crouch and holding the large Ivanhoe sword, the others were spurred into action. Pushing back their chairs, they rose as one, preparing to heed the Immortal’s proffered advice.

But it was too late. Freezing in place, all eyes turned to the heavy door as it slowly slid open. Silently holding their collective breaths, they waited to catch a glimpse of Adam’s latest challenger.

The right door silently began inching inward. A momentary flash of light reflecting off metal alerted all of the library’s occupants that the intruder was coming in sword-first. At their first sight of the weapon, Giles reached into the sling cradling his injured arm to withdraw the stake he’d secreted inside it. Glancing over at his charges, the Watcher was proud to see the students going through similar motions, arming themselves with their own concealed defensive weapons, ready to defend their ally.

Adam’s body was tense in anticipation, his gaze focused intently upon the sword as it continued to glide into the room inch by inch. A harsh creaking sound filled the air as the other Immortal finally, cautiously opened the door enough to enter the room.

Whatever Giles was expecting, it certainly wasn’t a petite sword-bearing woman.

Upon seeing each other, both Immortals visibly relaxed, lowering their weapons simultaneously. As the adrenaline pumping through his body began to dissipate, Adam’s expression quickly segued into a mixture of relief and exasperation.

“Amanda!” Adam chided. “What are you *doing* here?”

“I...uh...was just in the neighborhood?” the beautiful Immortal asked with a hint of humor and a smile that would stop most men right in their tracks. However, it appeared to Giles that Adam was immune to Amanda’s not-so-insignificant charms.

“Where the hell have you been? Joe’s had Watchers scouring half of Europe looking for you,” he admonished.

“You *were* worried about me,” Amanda grinned, although her smile held the faintest hint of real delight.

“Of course I was...,” Adam stopped himself, apparently unwilling to be sidetracked from finding the truth of why she there.

Rolling her eyes at the other Immortal’s stubbornness, Amanda took her first real look at the other people in the room. Giles could only guess that Adam appeared...a little out of place with himself and the collection of teenagers.

“I know you’re good at blending into the background, but don’t you think that impersonating a high school student is stretching it just a bit too far?”

“You know me, always out to try something new,” Adam responded jestingly. He then turned toward more serious matters. “These people are helping me with some research on the thing that is after MacLeod.”

“I see,” she replied quietly.

After a moment of silence, Amanda boldly walked forward, using her body language as a silent cue to be introduced to Adam’s new friends.

Stammering his way through a ‘how do you do,’ the Watcher took the opportunity to study the female Immortal -- for purely professional reasons, of course. Or at least that was what he told himself.

The simple fact was that Amanda was beautiful. From her rich, sable coloured hair in its short bobbed cut to her well-proportioned curves, it was painfully obvious that she was the kind of woman who turned heads wherever she went. But without a doubt, Amanda’s most striking feature was her eyes. The doe-brown orbs were a few shades deeper than even Angel’s, but the colour was not so much what entranced Giles. It was the depth he saw there -- a timelessness that betrayed Amanda’s true age.

The introductions to the rest of the teenagers was handled in true form. Oz gave her a shy hello, while Willow speckled hers with her typical brand of babbling. Cordelia seemed a tad bit more aloof than usual, but that really did not surprise the librarian -- not when there was a beautiful, mysterious stranger so close to the cheerleader’s boyfriend.

At the moment, Cordelia’s instinct seemed to be right on the money.

Giles was hard-pressed to keep from rolling his eyes as Adam introduced the female Immortal to a slack-jawed Xander. Even as his name was spoken, it was all the teenager could do to raise his eyes above her neckline. Knowing that everyone -- especially Amanda -- had noticed where his attention had been focused, Xander blushed in embarrassment. He spoke quickly, attempting to make verbal amends for his visual impropriety.

“Do all female you guys look like you?” Xander was so overwhelmed by Amanda’s presence that he had no idea that his last sentence was a jumbled mess.

“You’ll have to forgive Xander,” Cordelia said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s oxygen depravation. He loses the ability to speak coherently when all his blood heads south.”

“Close your mouth, kid,” the female Immortal winked at Xander, who immediately blushed again. “You’re drawing flies.”

“What are you doing here, Amanda?” Adam repeated his earlier question now that all the introductions had been made.

“It’s a funny story, actually,” she began, taking a seat at the table as she spoke. “I came home to find a lot of frantic phone messages from Joe two days ago, and it started me thinking , ‘You know, I haven’t been to the States in a while. Maybe I should go see some old friends’. So, when I got to Seacouver this morning, Joe told me that you’ve been having some...trouble lately, so I hopped the first flight down here I could find.”

“Joe *knew* you were back? Why in the bloody hell didn’t he call to tell me?” The Immortal did not sound happy at this turn of events.

“I think Joe might be a little...upset...with you. He said something about you ‘hedging’ on your promise to tell him all the details of what exactly you’ve been doing down here.”

The news that Adam hadn’t provided detailed information to his friend on his time in Sunnydale did not surprise the librarian. After all, what sane person would believe such a story? Then again, Giles quickly amended, it might be different for someone who was friends with a group of Immortals.

“Still, haven’t you ever heard of calling ahead? Not only did you almost gave me a bloody heart attack,” Adam fumed, “it could have gotten you killed.”

“Oh please, I was ready for you!” Amanda protested. “Talk about ingratitude. I just thought that you might want somebody to watch your back for a while.”

Despite her apparent selflessness, Adam’s expression betrayed his belief that concern for his well being was hardly the sole reason for her sudden appearance in Sunnydale.

“Who’d you tick off this time? The police or another richer-than-God art collector?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Adam!”

“Amanda,” the Immortal’s eyes narrowed in accusation.

“You know, that’s the thing about you, you’re always so distrusting,” she countered in a poor attempt to change the subject. It seemed, however, that Adam wasn’t willing to follow her sudden switch of conversational topics, so she reluctantly returned to her original train of thought. “It’s nothing really, just a huge misunderstanding.”

“Who. Is. It?” Adam asked relentlessly.

“Interpol,” she finally admitted before continuing on in a dismissive tone of voice. “You know how they are, always jumping to the wrong conclusions. I mean, just because the Heart of the Lion goes missing from the British Museum, *I’m* the one responsible?”

Recognizing the name from his tenure as an assistant curator at the institution in question, Giles’ eyes went wide. Speaking in an astounded whisper, the librarian could not help himself from double checking his facts.

“The twenty-carat sapphire from the coronation crown of Henry the Fifth?” the Watcher asked the question in utter disbelief.

“Yes!” Amanda answered emphatically before turning back to Adam. “See? Like I said, ridiculous!”

“You stole a priceless gem from the British Museum?” Giles clarified.

“No!” Amanda protested hotly. However, when she continued her tone was much more subdued. “Not exactly. It was mine long before it was theirs...”

“It was yours only after you stole it from Henry the *first* time, Amanda,” Adam scolded. “And, if memory serves, that was also the first time you nearly got me killed in one of your schemes.”

“Oh, please! As I recall, *I* was the one who ended up hanging for it!” Amanda reminded him, speaking more freely now that she knew the other people in the library were aware of the immortality she shared with Adam.

“I dug you up later, you ungrateful wench! *And* I was dismissed from the Royal Guard when I asked Henry to stretch your infuriating little neck rather than let you lose your head on the block!”

“It never would have happened at all if you hadn’t turned me in in the first place...” Amanda retorted before being interrupted by an awed voice.

“Y-y-you...knew...H-Henry the Fifth personally? B-both of you?” Giles asked shakily, but the Immortals were too wrapped up in discussing the 600-year-old event.

“Henry the Fifth? Was that the one Mel Gibson played?” Cordelia whispered to Willow.

“No, that was Hamlet. Kenneth Branaugh was Henry,” the redhead informed the brunette.

A loud crash coming from upstairs brought all the various conversations to an end. Both Immortals jumped out of their seats, drawing their swords as they stood. It was only then that Willow realized that she had never noticed when the Immortals had put them back into their coats the first time. Dismissing the thought quickly, she, too, focused her attention to the top of the stairs.

Angel was there, crumpled to the floor under the combined onslaught of the two old and powerful Immortals.

“Here we go again,” Adam groaned silently. He was already anticipating Amanda’s upcoming questions even as he grabbed her hand and led her towards the staircase.




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