As if Sue didn't need any more complications, who is the Immortal hunting Eadglis's trail?

by Dana Short

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It was a bright morning when Sue awoke.

First off, she hit the shower, washed her hair, and got dressed, automatically putting on both the Bowie knife and the stiletto before pulling on her shirt and her pants.

That taken care of, she collected her cell phone, and called the increasingly familiar Seacouver number.

"Joe's Bar." Said some female voice.

"Uh, yeah, is Mike there?"

"Hold on a moment. May I ask who's calling?"

"Tell him it's Sue."

"Hey there Suzie-q" came another familiar voice, not Mike's.

"Hey Joe."

"You make it to L.A. yet?"

"Nope. I'm stuck in Memphis, and I have an, er, complication."

"A complication." Joe asked, an odd tone in his voice.

"Yes." She replied.

"In Memphis?" Joe asked again.

"Yes."

"Uh, this wouldn't be a complication which might last a long time, would it?" Joe asked.

Before she could answer, another phone picked up. "Hi Sue! Make it home yet?"

"No Mike. As I was just telling Joe, something has come up." She answered.

"You know, Joe and I were just looking at some reports. There seems to be a lot of activity right now in Memphis." Mike responded.

"Sue, you don't know anything about the young man who was shot by the cops, and then had his body stolen last night by necrophilic terrorists do you? We were speculating it might be someone who should have an eye kept on them."

Sue couldn't help but laugh at the mental imagery raised by Joe's question.

"Sue?" Mike asked in concern.

"Necrophilic terrorists. Heh. Uh, yeah. That was kind of why I was calling. Remember when I said I might have to leave the Watchers? Well, I think I need to tender my resignation right now."

"What?" Mike asked.

"Why?" asked Joe at the same time.

"I'm Immortal." Sue said simply.

"Come again?" Joe asked.

Realizing this was not the time to come clean on the whole situation, she rephrased herself "I said 'An Immortal'. As in sleeping in the room next door."

"How do you know?" Joe asked while Mike asked "What happened?" both pretty much at once.

"I, uh, put him there. After I broke him out of the morgue."

"You What!" Joe exclaimed.

"Now Joe, there must have been a good reason. Sue?" Mike intervened.

"I said I broke him out of the morgue." Sue clarified. "I saw him die, and I couldn't very well leave him there. He had no idea what he is."

"Why would you do something like that?" Joe asked.

"Well, you could say I wasn't acting quite myself lately." Sue replied, earning a long silence.

"Yeah, well you might have even more long lived problems. Cassandra seems to be following you." Mike finally responded.

"Mike," Joe began.

"Not only that, but another one is already there. Do you know Du..." Mike continued.

"MIKE!" Joe yelled.

"What?" Mike asked, frustrated at being cut off.

"Mike, that's enough. Let me handle this. Sue, given the circumstances, I can't accept your resignation at this point in time. I am sure you are aware of how badly you have broken your oath though, and I can't tell you how disappointed in you I am at the moment. At the same time, as you know, I myself have blurred the line before, when the Hunters were after Duncan. I know how stressful it can be to lose your assignment, and I understand the special circumstances surrounding your involvement in Eadgils's loss as well. I can even see how you might feel like saving another Immortal could help balance the scales, but you have to understand, this is part of why we can't get involved. First it is a balancing of the scales, then it is something else.

"Now, Mike, I can agree with your warning her about Cassandra, since she really does seem to be following Sue, but until we get this all sorted out, Sue, while I can't accept a resignation from you over the phone, I can and will suspend you from active service immediately. I will be terminating your network access and passwords as soon as I hang up the phone, so please don't try to access any Watcher resources. Mike, please don't pass along any information about other Immortals to Sue without clearing it with me, and Sue, if you encounter any other Watchers, please don't make contact with them. I will instruct them that you have been suspended, due to your circumstances, and ongoing contact with an Immortal. Is everybody clear?"

"Yes." Came Mike's voice in a flat monotone.

"Yes Joe." Sue responded. "And Joe?"

"Yes Sue?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Take care my little Susie-q. I know how difficult a spot you're in right now. Remember, at some point you will need to explain your actions, possibly even to a Tribunal. Our oath is not something to take lightly. Even resigning from active service doesn't relive you of it, you know."

"I know." Sue replied.

"Joe?" Sue asked.

"Yes, Sue?"

"Can you tell me about Cassandra? She's really following me?"

"Since she seems to be following you, I guess I can tell you what I know. She flew in to Savannah Saturday afternoon. She must have left within a few hours of Eadgils's death. When she arrived, she went straight to the alley where he had been killed. She looked around, never crossing the police tape, but she seemed unsatisfied about something. Saturday night, she checked into a hotel near the crime scene. On Sunday morning, she headed to Macon Georgia. She poked around a Motel 6 there for a while, prowled around the place, then specifically requested room 2152. She spent a few hours there, sleeping, we think, then late last night, she got back in her rental car and headed off towards Atlanta. She didn't stop there though, she kept driving all night long, and a while ago her tail checked in, saying she'd just arrived in Memphis. We did some checking, and it took us a while, but you stayed for two nights in room 2152 in the Macon Georgia Motel 6, didn't you?" Joe asked.

"Uh, yeah." Sue answered, a chill running up and down her spine.

"We thought so. We were about to call you and see where you were, and tell you to be careful." Mike added.

"Ok, although what can I possibly do if Cassandra comes after me?" Sue answered.

"Do you still have that Hunter's gun?" Joe asked.

"Uh, yeah. I haven't found a good place to dump it yet." Sue answered.

"You could always shoot her and run away." Joe replied.

"Um, Joe, that didn't work too well for the girl in Terminator." Mike offered.

"No, but it's about all I can recommend. Anything more would be a blatant violation of her oath. Sue, I know you wouldn't do such a thing, but if you were to kill an Immortal, under any circumstances, you have to know that there would be a full Tribunal, with you charged as a Hunter, right?" Joe added.

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Sue replied.

"Good. You know, even as disappointed as I am with you right now, I still care about you a great deal. I would hate to see a verdict of guilty levied against you. You know as well as anyone that the penalty for that would be death. But at the same time, I can't allow my feelings for you or my memories of your father to get in the way of my doing my job. Under these circumstances, warning you is about the best I can do. Do you understand?"

"I suppose so." Sue answered.

"Ok then. I'll let you talk to Mike alone for a bit. You take care, ok sweetheart?"

"Ok Joe. Bye." Sue replied.

She could then hear a thunk-click as the phone was hung up.

"Sue, you still there?" Mike asked gently.

"Yeah." Sue answered flatly, her emotions having run completely dry.

"You gonna be ok?"

"I suppose. As long as Cassandra doesn't kill me." She answered.

"Ok then. Adam was worried about you. He's the one who actually thought it might be you who was responsible for the 'necrophilic terrorist attack' on the morgue last night. Neither of us believed him, of course. I guess he knows you better than we do, heh? I didn't know you two had gotten so close in France." Mike said.

"I didn't either," Sue replied, "As I said I really wasn't myself last night. I'm not sure what came over me, I'd given Patrick a ride to town, and during the course I found out he was Immortal. Then, when he got shot, well, something must have snapped or something. I dunno. I still don't know what to do about it."

"Well, I have faith in you. Despite what Joe said, you have the potential in you to be one of our best Watchers. I'd hate to see you throw it all away because you ended up in a bad situation caused by a bunch of Hunters. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, Mike, I do." Sue replied.

"Ok then. I'll let you get going. You really might want to hit the road quickly if Cassandra is on your trail. I don't know that I believe even half the things in her chronicle, but even if I do only believe the other half, she can do some weird things."

"Ok Mike, I'll get out of here as soon as I can. I'll let you know where I am tomorrow."

"Alright. Take care."

"Will do. Bye Mike. And thanks for the warning about Cassandra."

"No problem. Bye."

As the phone went dead, Sue got up and looked around the room, then looked at the connecting door to the other room.

She went to the connecting door, and knocked on it as loudly as she could. "Patrick!" she called.

"Wha?" she heard faintly from the other side of the door.

"Get up, we've got to get out of here, pronto."

As quickly as she could, she packed up Ed's laptop, then turned to her luggage. She was just tossing her dirty clothes into a plastic bag when she felt the tingle of another Quickening coming into range.

Freezing for a moment, she looked at the door to the other room, then walked over to it and knocked again. "Patrick?" she called.

"Come in" he replied.

Opening the door, she stepped in, and found Patrick standing by the bed, clothed in the same outfit he had worn last night when they arrived here from the hospital. "My brain itches." Patrick said simply.

As she took another step towards him, she suddenly felt the edge of another Quickening brush against hers. Patrick cringed at the same instant, and said "The itch just got lots worse."

At that moment, there was a firm but insistent knocking at the door to Patrick's room.

Darting over to the window, Sue looked out.

"Housekeeping" came a male voice.

Through the window, Sue could see a cart, but nothing else.

Glancing at Patrick, she cautiously opened the door, and stepped back, wishing she had thought to put on at least one of the knives that morning, and forgetting that she had already donned them.

The open door revealed a man in Days Inn uniform, a maid's cart beside him.

"Sorry," he said. "I can come back later if you're not ready yet."

"Please do," Sue answered him, her heart rate slowly subsiding to a normal pace. "Also, please wait on the room next door, it's mine as well." She finished, gesturing towards her own room, and the open door in between.

"Ok. Have a nice day." The man said, backing out of the door, and closing it behind him.

"What's wrong?" Patrick asked.

"That itch you are complaining about, did you feel it last night?"

"Yeah, hadn't realized it, but I think I felt it all night long, was gone this morning. Does it mean I'm gonna die again or somethin?"

"No, that is an effect of the Quickening. It means there is another Immortal around." Sue answered nervously.

"So, I'm feelin you in my head?" Patrick asked.

"No." Sue said flatly. "We've got to get out of here. Now."

Returning to her own room, Sue grabbed the katana, and slipped it back into the pocket in the back of her coat. Stuffing the plastic bag containing her dirty clothes into her suitcase she zipped it up as well.

She then indicated the duffel bag and the suit case, while she herself reached for the Laptop and the back pack she thought would be aptly named the "Evidence Bag", considering the nature of its ever growing contents. "Can you get those two?" she asked Patrick, while collecting her cell phone and the keys off the dresser.

"Sure thing". Patrick answered, effortlessly lifting the two bags, one in each hand.

With a final sweep of her eyes around the room to make sure nothing was forgotten, they headed out the door, and to the stairs leading down to the car, Patrick in the lead.

It was as he stepped on the second stair down that his left shoe started to come off. When he moved his foot to place it on the third step, the shoe twisted, and Patrick started to lose his balance. Still clutching the bags out he swung his arms out and twisted in an odd parody of a ballet pirouette, then began to tumble backwards down the steps. About halfway down, his head bent at an odd angle, accompanied by a sharp "crack!", like someone breaking several pencils at once.

Landing at the foot of the stairs, his body laid still, his head at an impossible angle.

Sue headed down the stairs herself after him as fast as she could, but upon reaching him, she knew he was dead. She stood over his body, and couldn't even feel his Quickening.

She looked over at her car, and setting down the laptop and backpack, she moved to try and lift Patrick to drag him the short distance.

As she struggled to stand under his weight, she heard a soft, lightly accented female voice from over her left shoulder. "Hello Child".

Whirling her head around, she took in the sight of the woman behind her.

She was dressed in white. White pants, white shirt above them, and a long, white coat worn on top of it all.

Her dark hair flowed down over her shoulders, in shimmering waves.

"Let me help you with the other Young One. I am Cassandra. What is your name?"

Her heart pounding, Sue answered, "Sue."

Leaning over, Cassandra gently lifted Patrick's head and shoulders off the ground, supporting his head so as not to put any additional strain on his broken neck. "You have no reason to fear me, Sue. I have not come to harm you."

Putting her fears aside for a moment, Sue lifted Patrick's feet, and together, the two of them lugged him over to Sue's car, where she set him down and opened the back door, before they slid him in onto the rear seat, lifting his feet so they could close the door on him.

Suddenly Cassandra's hand shot out, capturing Sue's left wrist. Her eyes widened and she looked back at Sue. "You are an Observer? How can that be?"

Pulling her arm from Cassandra's grasp, she said, "It can't. I was a Watcher, but now I am one of the Watched. Or I will be, if I ever tell them, and they agree to let me go."

"Were you my Teacher's Watcher?" Cassandra asked.

"Teacher?"

"Long ago, I met him on the plains. I had been held a slave, for over a hundred years. Raped and tortured to death time and again by the Horsemen. Death was the worst. He seemed fixated on me somehow. Finally, one night I managed to escape. I fled into the plains, where I wandered for weeks, dying, and rising again to wander some more."

Sue listened, an image of Adam, or Death as Ed called him, floating to the surface of her mind, her memories of the happy grad student/researcher totally incompatible with the memories Ed had shown her, and even more so with the description she was hearing now from the woman before her.

"I was not going anywhere, you understand, just trying to escape from them. Anyway, one afternoon, I woke to see a rider coming towards me on a horse. As he neared, I suddenly felt him, as I had previously only felt The Four and my first thought was that it was Methos or Kronos, come to take me back. I turned and ran as fast as I could." Cassandra continued.

At the mention of the name Methos, Sue looked up again, another image of Adam flashing across her mind. He was the Methos Researcher. He couldn't actually be...

"He called out to me, in a voice I was unfamiliar with, but I still ran as fast as I could, panicked at the thought of returning to the hell of the Horsemen's camp. I was not watching where I was going, and I stepped in a hole of some sort. Twisted my ankle, and much like your friend there," Cassandra nodded at Patrick in the rear of the car behind them as they walked slowly back to the base of the stairs, and the accumulation of luggage lying on the ground beside them, "I fell and broke my neck."

Reaching the pile, Cassandra bent and lifted the suitcase and duffle bag Patrick had been carrying when he fell. She continued her story as she turned towards the car, leaving Sue to recover her own burdens, and follow her. "When I next revived, I was laying by a fire, wrapped in a blanket. Food was cooking nearby. There was a man, and from him I sensed the same power as I did from the Horsemen, but unlike them, he did not feel, I guess these days you would call it Evil. Back then there was not really a word I knew for the force of bad as opposed to good. In any case, he was different enough. But he was still a Man, and I a Woman, and so I knew I had to fear him. For the longest time, he just sat there across the fire, watching me. Finally he moved, and as he did I flinched a bit, fearing what I knew would come. Instead he handed me a stick, upon which was skewered a roasted fowl, and said 'Eat girl, you look like you are dying of starvation.' I was so shocked; I just sat there and did as he told me."

They had reached the car again, and Sue opened the trunk, allowing Cassandra to set the two bags she carried inside, before adding the Laptop and knapsack on top. "He then told me a story. He told of how he had been killed one day by an arrow shot by the hand of Death himself, yet Death could not hold him. He told of awakening amidst the ruin of his peoples, all slaughtered by the horsemen. He told of tracking the horsemen by foot, and finally chancing upon yet another man who Would Not Die. He then told me all he knew of Immortals in general, and finally, in a show of trust, he gave me the greatest gift I have ever received, either before or in the three thousand years since then, he told me how to kill them.

"He then offered to teach me the art of the sword. Despite my size, and gender, he thought I should be able to learn how to defend myself. We found a village, and he had the blacksmith craft a weapon for my size and strength, a thinner blade than was the usual back then, the sides fluted to further reduce their weight. I carried his blade for almost five hundred years before losing it in a battle. I cried the day I lost it, for it was the only physical remnant I had of my Teacher. I had thought him long dead, until I heard his call the other night."

"His call?" Sue asked, still not understanding.

"All this time, he has lived. My first true love, my oldest friend, the one I called Teacher. I never sought him out, for I thought him long dead in his quest to bring down the Horsemen. I had heard of how a great warrior, Immortal like they themselves had ridden into their camp, killed their followers, and scattered the remnants of their army before himself loosing his head to the one they called Death. The Horsemen broke up after that, Death just left, and without him, the other three fell to arguing, and eventually drifted apart. I had made it my quest to avenge my Teacher, to find Death and to kill him, thus closing the circle. But when I had the chance in Bordeaux a few years ago, I passed it up. Death himself had knelt at my knees, amongst the corpses of his three one time partners, one dead at his own hand, and I had wielded an ax, ready to cut off his head, but to my regret and dishonor, I stayed my hand." Cassandra leaned against the open trunk, her eyes haunted by the memories.

"Why? I mean, if after three thousand years, you finally had a chance to end it, why?"

"Because a man I love and trust, one who has shielded my honor in the past, he asked me to. And I granted him that boon, despite the pain it caused my soul. I laid down the ax, and I walked away, leaving Methos and Duncan in the lair of the Horsemen. I returned home, and wept for my Teacher all over again. I wept for my failure, both as his student, and as his vindicator."

Sue finally reached out, and closed the trunk. "Duncan MacLeod?" she asked.

Cassandra's eyes widened, "You know him Child? But of course. You were of the Observers, or Watchers. I had not learned their name in English, only in the French."

"I don't know him, but I know a friend of his. In fact, I know several friends of his." Sue explained.

"Perhaps I shall see him, while I am here. However, as I was saying, three days ago, I suddenly felt my Teacher. In my heart, my soul, and my mind. He was there, I knew right where he was, and then, he was gone. I could not believe it. After all these centuries, he still lived. It took me a while to find where to go, but I was drawn to Savannah. When I arrived, imagine my heartache when I found that he had died the day before. What I had felt had been his soul released at last from the bounds of life. While I was no longer shamed by my failure to seek vengeance for him against Methos, and the debt that man owes to me is one I have the power, and someday possibly even the will to forgive, but again the burden of avenging his death has been laid on me. And this time I saw the body. It truly was that of Eadgils, last speaker of the Flornlef, as I am the last Seer of the Trancatta."

"Eadgils?" Sue squeaked, her heart racing.

"I was right then. You did know him, Child." Cassandra continued. "There is more to my tale, however. Even as I sat searched in Savannah for clues to my Teacher's killer, I awoke yesterday morning and again I felt him in my soul. He still lived! But he could not, for he was dead, I had seen the body. I checked again, verified that the host I had seen was that of my teacher, before I followed my heart. It took me towards Atlanta, but I was compelled to stop in a town along the way. It was there that I so strongly felt the trace of his soul. It is a talent I have, I can touch a thing, and I can see images, or feel feelings, hear sounds, or remember memories if they are strongly enough associated with it. A room in a hotel in that town cried out with the memories, thoughts, and feelings of my one time Teacher, Lover, and Friend.

"But there was more. There was another trace there as well, a faint one. I followed again the trail of my Teacher, and it led me here, to this town, to this building, and finally to you. But I can tell from your Quickening, you, like your friend, are but an infant in the Game. You have yet to take a single head. So now that you know my story, I ask you, and ask you true, what can you tell me of my Teacher? Where has he gone, what has happened, and most importantly, WHO TOOK HIS HEAD?" The last few words Cassandra spoke had a force unlike anything Sue had experienced before in her life.

Up until then, the soft, spoken words of Cassandra had been soothing, almost mesmerizing. As she told her story, Sue could almost see the poor woman lost, starving, and frightened amongst the open plains of eastern Europe. She could feel the regard the woman held for her Teacher, and she could feel the pain and heartache the woman had suffered in the recent years. She somehow felt the longing compulsion which caused the woman to cross an ocean in search of a man she had not seen in three thousand years, and the renewed pain she had felt on finding him dead.

But with the last part, when Cassandra had asked her about Eadgils, her voice had subtly changed. No longer was it simply hypnotic, now it was compelling. Had Cassandra asked her to pull her blade and chop off Patrick's head, she had no doubt she would have done it. But that was not what the woman had asked of her. Instead of a simple task, she had asked the impossible. The geas thus laid on her soul was so painful, as a part of her strained with all it's might to form the words to tell Cassandra all that had happened, yet at the same time, another equally powerful part was fully aware she still had no idea what all had happened. She DID NOT KNOW where he had gone, or what had happened to him at present. She knew the mechanics of what Eadgils believed had happened. But Cassandra had not asked that, and surprisingly the part of her which struggled for independence from the part which wanted only to obey
Cassandra had no problem preventing the whole from bringing that up. So, she was left with only one part of the geas she could resolve, the last question laid before her. Entirely against her will, she opened her mouth, and a single word escaped, the pain it was causing her evident in her entire being. "Hhh-hunTERS!" she shouted at last, freeing herself from the strange spell.

Cassandra looked confused. "What sort of hunters? I don't understand, Child." Cassandra's voice was more normal sounding again, while still almost hypnotic in its cadence, it lacked the strength it had had previously.

Feeling like a weight was suddenly lifted from her soul, Sue shook her head, and glared at Cassandra. "What was that?" she asked.

"I'm sorry Child. I did not realize the use of the Voice would cause you such pain. You have a strong personality for one so young. I would be grateful if you could tell me what you know though. I must do what I can to help the soul of my teacher find peace. It stirs restlessly, and apparently is following you around. In my experience however, I have never seen a soul with so much strength after its passing. The traces he has left are almost like he still lives. Obviously he seeks vengeance against those who killed him, and he must think you can help him somehow. Were you the writer of his stories for your Watchers? Did you see his death?" This time the question was entirely without the compulsion it had had before.

Sue took a breath, and spoke. "I took an oath, on my eighteenth birthday, a year and a half ago. 'I am a Watcher. I take this oath to observe and record the lives of any Immortals I encounter. I will do so without interfering in their lives, nor allowing them to know of my presence. To this I swear and pledge my life, so help me God.' My very existence violates that oath now, Cassandra. I can not interfere. But I can tell you this much of Eadgils death. I was his Watcher. And I died my first death at his side. He died protecting me from rouge Watchers called Hunters. It was no Immortal who took his head. It was a mortal, and that mortal died, his very body laying atop the torso of the man he had killed. I know this because when I awoke, the sword was still in his hand. Eadgils's own sword. Any vengeance has likely been satisfied, as both the men involved are now dead."

"Two Mortals? And they killed both you and Eadgils?"

"They had guns. I shot one. Eadgils stabbed another. The one I shot had shot Eadgils dead, before I shot him. He also shot me, and then killed Eadgils before he died. There was one other, my supervisor, who had told them where to find Eadgils, who was really their target - they didn't know about me, heck, I didn't know about me at the time. The Watchers took him into custody the next day. I don't know if he has been tried yet, but when he is, and he will be, they will almost certainly find him guilty. The sentence for a Watcher who so breaks his oath so as to harm, let alone kill, an Immortal is simple, and consistent. Death. Vengeance will be served. You need not worry." Sue explained.

As a sudden gasp came from inside the car, Sue felt Patrick's Quickening spike back into her mind. Looking in the window, she saw Patrick suddenly sit up, rubbing his neck with his hand and look around the inside of the car.

Looking outside, he saw Sue, and he smiled, then he saw Cassandra standing a bit behind her, and he froze.

Opening the door, Sue said "Patrick, come on out and meet Cassandra."

As Patrick climbed out of the car, Cassandra introduced herself. "Greetings Youngling. I am Cassandra, Witch of Donan Woods, student of Eadgils of the Flornlef tribe. I mean you no harm."

Patrick stood to his full height, and proudly introduced himself in his lazy southern drawl. "Pleased ta meetcha Miss. I'm Patrick Wescott, student I guess of Sue." He added, reaching out his hand for a shake.

At that last, Cassandra raised an eyebrow and looked askance at Sue, while reaching out her hand to shake Patrick's.

As her hand touched his however, she gave a little jump, then just held his hand and looked closely into his face. "You have a cloud over you, Youngling. Someone has expended a great deal of energy to see that you come to harm. What do you know of this?"

Patrick looked bewildered, and said, "Nothing at all, Miss Cassandra. What kind of cloud?"

"Have you experienced an exceptional amount of bad luck lately?" Cassandra asked.

"Ya mean like getting killed on my Uncle's front lawn? For that matter, now that I thin 'bout it, loosin' my job, my wife, my house, 'an my life, all in 'bout six months?" he groused.

"Exactly like that. Someone has Cursed you. I will have to look into this. This is a misuse of the Power." Cassandra replied.

Then turning to Sue she simply said "Aren't you a little new to the Game to be taking on Students?"

Patrick piped in them, asking "Why, how long do ya gotta be Immortal before you can take on a Student?"

Cassandra replied with a wry smile, "I don't think there are any rules on the matter, but I do believe three days is a new record."

Patrick just gasped, and whirled around to look at Sue with shock, "Three days?"

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