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Chapter 4
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There was an awkward silence between Xander and Spike upon first meeting again after so much time had passed. Each was unsure of his position in the other man’s mind. Spike was used to hostility, although to be truthful the Whelp had been nice enough, though distant, during that harried last year after Spike’s return from Africa complete with soul. Spike didn’t think it was all because of the soul either. The boy had seemed to have become more thoughtful and less of a speak-first-and-think-later type of fellow.

For the past year, Xander had been ashamed of his prejudice regarding Spike. After the vampire's self-sacrifice at the Hellmouth, there was no way to delude himself that Spike was other than what he had claimed for a long while--a man in love and with good intentions. Clearly Spike had loved Buffy, in a pure no-conditiony way, too. Spike’s final act at Sunnydale, pure in its intent, made it impossible to ever think otherwise.

Xander had watched the dynamics in the household after Buffy had rescued Spike from the First Evil. He had seen many changes in the vampire, but more importantly, he saw much the same about him post-soul. Realizing that
Spike’s emotions were not really different, with or without the falsely important soul, had been like turning a light on in a dark house for the young man. Xander finally had to re-evaluate Spike on his own terms, not in the shadow of Angel/Angelus. Everything that had happened in the previous year, his walking away from Anya on her most important day and Willow going to the dark side of the force included,had also left Xander with much to ponder.

Xander had nearly sought out the vampire for a little chat after Spike had saved his other eye from Caleb’s cruel thumbs. It just seemed like there was
never a good time. So much happened so fast and Spike had withdrawn even further from the group after they had put Buffy out of her own house.

"Spike. Good to see you walkin’ among us again. Even better seeing you here helping to find Buffy. I think the good guys stand a chance of winning now that the whole team’s ready to go." Xander extended his hand to the startled and suspicious vampire.

Spike took so long to take Xander’s hand that the girls grew uncomfortable. Finally he shook it firmly and answered. "Nice to know you realize I’m on Buffy’s
side. Always have been. Well, not always; did try to kill her for a bit, but mostly on her side."

"Look, man, I think we need to clear the air a bit in a guy-to-guy way, no offense, ladies. Why don’t we slip down to the pub and have a couple and maybe I can whip your ass at snooker while we’re at it." Xander looked hopefully at Spike as he made the gesture of truce.

"Seein’ how we’ll need to be workin’ together and all…yeah. Besides, Buffy thinks of you like a brother. If I’m droppin’ back into her life, even for a short bit, don’t need to put her in that situation again. Always going to love her, even if she has moved on and all. What she wants and needs has to come first, you know?" Spike missed the confused look on Dawn’s face at his comment about moving on.

"Spike, Buffy thought you were dead. She only moved on because you were gone", Dawn started to explain.

"Later, Bit, okay? Lots of miscommunication and missed moments to deal with once we get the Slayer back, right?"

The boys’ night out proved to do the job and it was well past closing time when the two returned to Willow’s flat. Neither was in any condition to tell the girls how their talk went, but judging from the way the tension was gone, it had to have gone well.

As Willow looked at the two males snoring loudly on her couch where they had fallen into a drink-induced slumber soon after sitting down, a smile played on her
face. "Aren’t little boys cute when they start to grow up? I think they might even become friends when all of this is over. Who’d’ve thought that?"

Dawn couldn’t help laughing at the concept and the sight of the two "enemies" as Xander’s head dropped down on Spike’s lap. "Well, for that to happen, Xander better wake up and move where his head is or there’ll be no coming back from that!" She snickered as she shook her sister’s oldest friend to wake him.

"Come on, Dread Pirate Roberts, off to Willow’s guest room with you!"

Xander began muttering nearly unintelligible lines from Princess Bride as Dawn helped him to his room.

Willow carefully tucked an afghan around the sleeping vampire and called a soft good-night to Xander. "I’ll leave the light on, Dawnie. I don’t expect to fall
asleep that fast. I promise not to hog the covers either!"

~~~

Xander proved to be the key to getting Giles to open the few files the new Council had on The Immortal, a.k.a. Eduardo Medici a.k.a. loads of other names over the centuries. Xander managed to convince Giles that Spike was not now, nor had he been for a long time, an agent of evil. The fact that it was Xander insisting on Spike’s being reliable went a long way in making the case to the Watcher. Xander was not known as a great fan of the vampire, after all.

It was a somber group that gathered round the table in research mode. The environment had none of the feeling of camaraderie of former Scooby research marathons. Xander and Spike had an obvious truce and grudging trust. The Watcher and the vampire were another matter. They were all aiming for the same goal, but
there was no love lost there at all.

Willow and Dawn were confining their research to magic-based methods of locating the missing beings. Since being informed that Angel and Illyria were missing also, they felt it more likely that magic was going to be the best resource to find the three supernaturally enhanced beings and the human called The Immortal.

Willow wanted to do some tests on Dawn regarding any residual Key elements that might prove helpful if other dimensions were involved in the missing persons case.
Dawn had no problem with any test that might lead to the safe return of her sister.

Xander was looking at recent periodicals and on the internet for more current information on The Immortal with a view to finding out everything possible about his recent history. He liked to run with the jet set, so there was ample information available. The man had been everywhere the international spotlight chose to shine. He was front and center at the wedding of Princess Di and had escorted not one, but two, nominees to an Academy Awards ceremony just prior to his hooking up with Buffy. The man was everywhere, flashing his too-white smile in his tanned-to-perfection face.

Giles, rather predictably, was concentrating on information about the Senior Partners in general and Wolfram & Hart of L.A. in particular. He huffed quite
often at the obvious ties to evil and muttered about Angel making deals with the devil leading them all into this current dilemma.

Spike had had more than one encounter with the Immortal and was the first to find the references he had clearly expected on the being. He snorted as he read the various boasts that had been codified into "fact" in various tomes. From multiple sources he compiled notes on the most helpful information to share with the group.

The Immortal’s best known name seemed to have been the Count Saint Germain. He was a real mystery of history, that one. Said to have been born in the 1600s in Transylvania as the illegitimate son of Prince Franz-Leopold Ragoczy…or perhaps in Bohemia, the illegitimate son of a noted Rosecrucian…or even in 1710, in San Germano, Italy, the son of a tax collector. His appearance lent itself more to the latter of those choices.

He was said to have been an alchemist who discovered the secret of immortality. There were records of him in such far flung times and places as 1710 Italy in the
home of the Countess von Georgy (where he appeared to be around 45 years old) and as late as 1820 France, where the Countess d’Adhemar also reported him as being approximately 45 years old. The last reliable sighting was in 1897 France where the singer Emma Calve autographed a photograph of herself to him with the comment, "To Saint Germain, the great chiromancer who has told me many truths". This credited him with the "gift" of fortune telling.

Portraits of the man over the centuries perfectly matched the few photographs that Dawn had of her sister’s latest boyfriend.

There a man who had claimed to be the famed Saint Germain in 1972, but that was likely a hoax.

The things that the being currently known as The Immortal claimed of himself were startling in the extreme. He said that he had been a guest at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine. He said he had been a friend of Mary’s mother, Anne, and that he himself had suggested Anne’s canonization by the church at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.. He was known to speak at least 13 languages, from ancient
Sanskrit to the modern languages of English and French.

He was never low-key, living in the homes of the most powerful and influential families in Europe. He met many of them multiple times over the years and was
said to never age. Even such a luminary as Voltaire described Saint Germain as "a man who never dies, and who knows everything."

His many talents and lack of aging were attributed to his supposed discovery of the renowned "Philosopher’s Stone", that holy grail of alchemists from the time
of the Pharaohs of Egypt.

Whatever his true origins and exploits, it was unlikely due to alchemy and a stone. More likely it was a demonic alliance of the kind Hamilton and Eve had with the Senior Partners that had imparted them with immortality. Wolfram & Hart was older than recorded history, after all.

If this were the case, then perhaps the war started by Angel was not at an end, after all, and Buffy was yet another casualty. It remained to be determined
whether Medici, Saint Germain, or whatever his actual name was, had been acting on behalf of the Senior Partners or was swept up in the battle because of his relationship with Buffy.

Spike was certain that the key to finding Buffy lay in uncovering the role played by The Immortal in the whole thing. Had he courted Buffy just to be in
position to kidnap her when given the word?

Buffy didn’t seem to be his usual "type". Eduardo was adored by women and men of every age and nationality. He tended to be attracted to dark beauties like those from Mediterranean coastal countries, usually from wealthy backgrounds and good
education. A California blonde with the vocabulary of a valley girl and the sensibilities of a small town girl didn’t seem to fit his mold. As much as Spike
loved Buffy, he had a hard time seeing Eduardo Medici falling at the well-shod feet of his Slayer.

The bloody bastard might have spun his stories to the royals and nobles of days gone by, but Spike had a feeling the real story was one far more simple and
deadly than any told by the pretender to good family and bad science. More likely there was a contract somewhere in the files of some W & H office with the
real story. All Spike had to do was get a good look at the right files and they would be on their way to some answers.

Even Giles was impressed with this line of thought. He might never actually respect Spike, but he had to privately admit that he may have underestimated the
vampire’s research abilities.

The team, as Willow had insisted they consider themselves, met at a curry house near Willow’s flat to decide their best course of action. Giles was to be the main contact person, remaining in London and keeping all the communication lines open and passing important information on to the rest of the team.

Spike had nearly spit out his coffee at that choice. "You mean the same Giles that didn’t let anyone know I was back? The same Giles that kept important phone
calls from Willow that could have saved Fred? He’s our communication man? We’re doomed from the start."

"Spike, while I understand your sarcasm, I assure you that returning Buffy to her friends and family in all safety ensures my diligence in carrying out this
position."

"My God! Have you taken pompous pills or just rammed an additional stick up your arse, Watcher? You used to speak halfway decent Queen’s English. Somethin’ in
those Council walls turn you into a right prig, or what?" Spike stared at Giles as if he were some alien species under observation.

"Just because I choose not to mangle a rather lovely and versatile language in some ill-considered attempt to appear younger than I truly am does not make me a
prig, Spike."

"Right. Being a stiff-arsed, rigid anachronism’s what does it."

"Could you two please just let it go?!" Xander interrupted with an exasperated sigh. "Look, I don’t understand half of what either of you are saying, but
I know we all agree on the important stuff. We need to find Buffy and get her home safe. If we also find Dead Boy and that weird god girl you told us about, all the better. I’m going to use my manly charms to see how many of The Immortal’s exes have stories to tell. And before any of you say a word, I’ll have you know that I’m known in many circles as quite the ladies’ man lately." Xander still had the pirate mystique of the eye patch. It seemed to have given him a certain rakish charm that had changed his luck with the ladies. Many months in the company of all those potential Slayers had helped him in understanding the
fundamentals of appealing to women as well. After losing Anya, he had started to play the field in a big way. He had lost any desire to settle down, at least
for the present.

"Yes, quite. Let’s see then, Xander will be looking into former relationships of this Immortal, Willow will be using her coven contacts to attempt dimensional locators for the missing and what is it that you will be doing again?" Giles lifted his brow and stared pointedly at Spike.

"I’m thinking of strolling into the Wolfram & Hart office in Rome. Lady in charge there seemed to fancy me a bit when the Poof and I were there last. Figure I’ll turn on the charm and work my way into the lady’s … er … files."

"Well, that settles it. I’m headed back to Rome too. I’m not about to let you try to charm any snakes on my home turf without me." Dawn stood up and yawned.
They were all fairly tired from the hours of research and planning. "Andrew should be in on this too, since he was living with us when it all happened."

"Maybe not such a good idea", Willow pointed out. "We don’t know what Andrew might be involved in. He was always kinda wishy-washy when it came to choosing sides and he seemed to have a bit of a crush on The Immortal himself. I remember him gushing about Eduardo when he came to London the last time."

"Yeah, I’m with Red. Like the boy, but don’t trust him. We’ll play that one as we see fit later. Best not to let the boy know too much about what we’re up
to. We can try to get him to spill any information he might have. Niblet, that can be your target, heh? The boy seemed to have a soft spot for you and you
might get him to slip. Who knows, he might not even know that he has information."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got some jilted ladies to see to. I’ll be in touch." Xander headed out of the resturant and into the night.

"I’ll book us a flight out just before sunrise so we can get on the plane before it’s too dangerous for you, Spike. Not going to lose you again. I think one
of the middle seats on the big planes should be safe enough for a vampire?" Dawn looked worried trying to plan the travel arrangements for the ultimate safety of her resurrected best friend.

"’S okay, Bit. I’m used to getting about now. Mind, nothing as easy as the Wolfram & Hart perks, what with the private jets and cars with special glass, but I’ve never let a little thing like a bit o’ sun slow me any. Not likely to start now." Spike smiled fondly at the girl who was half of his heart.

"The Council will, of course, pick up all the valid expenses. Buffy is still the Slayer." Giles glared at Spike, "But I will be checking all the items charged to be sure they ARE valid."

Spike snorted and shook his head. Some things would never change. It was kind of nice to have some sense of security in the world gone mad. It was strange enough having Xander treating him like an equal, probably for the best that the Watcher treat him the way he had always done.