Sue and the gang hit the road. It should be a fun trip - an Immortal pretending to be a Senior Watcher Researcher, an ex-Watcher pretending not to be an Immortal, who has been essentially possessed by the spirit of her Immortal subject, an active Watcher, and the only true Mortal of the bunch, who must not learn the truth about other two, as well as two known Immortals, one a three thousand plus year old witch, ant the other the newest Immortal, who is followed by a homicidal curse. All together in a single vehicle. Let's party!

Act II
Road Trip

Chapter Sixteen
Five For The Road
by Dana Short

Cassandra stalked the dealership, a bloody blade in each hand, and her heart, soul, and mind in total turmoil.

Death was here. Again, after all this time, she had to once more face her tormenter and original killer.

And he dared to call her his Student? What had he ever taught her other than pain, suffering, and terror? For almost a century after he first killed her he had held her as his personal slave. He had raped her repeatedly. He had deliberately punished her, and on occasion even killed her. From the time of her First Death to that night almost a hundred years later when she killed Kronos and fled almost naked into the darkness, he was the bane of her existence. Throughout that time she would have eagerly welcomed losing her head, if only to end it.

But worse, through the millennia since, he had not let her alone. Every night, she had faced him in her dreams it seemed. Again she would find herself being raped, or tortured, or simply forced to serve him. An endless torture spawned by the demons of her own soul she had never been able to put to rest.

She was painfully aware that he had saved her head not once, but twice in recent times. She had tried to kill Kronos in Seacouver, and failed. She had expected to die, instead she had awoken in the river, thanks to Methos. Then, when she had been captured by the reformed Horsemen, he had talked to her of Stockholm syndrome, and killed Silas, his own brother, to save her.

At the end of that nightmare, when she stood over his form, with an axe in her hands, ready at last to take his head and set her demons to rest, she had instead spared him at Duncan's request. She had managed to avoid the bastard for thousands of years, and had decided that the world was large enough that she would be able to avoid him for thousands more if need be. Now, however she had to face him again in person. She was so frustrated she wanted to scream. As if to give vent to her frustrations, a huge fireball suddenly erupted from behind her, making her pause in her aimless wandering, and focusing her mind back on the present, away from her tortured past.

She turned towards the parking lot, and her car, realizing that if nothing else, she needed to put away the swords somewhere.

As she approached the cars, she spotted Sue, still with her coat and purse, standing next to the Geo.

"Sue, can I have my coat back, please?" she asked, offering the Gladius in exchange.

"Sure," Sue said, handing over the coat and taking the short heavy roman blade instead.

"What should I do with this?" she asked.

"Put it in your trunk for now." Cassandra said, "You can give it to the Youngling later. He needs some sort of blade, and that will do for now."

Sue hefted the short blade experimentally. "It's all wrong for him, the balance is even off on this one. But you are right in that any sword is better than no sword at all, if you need one."

She turned to her trunk, and had just deposited the sword when Jack came running up. "Here you are," he said, looking at Cassandra and Sue. "Did Douglas get Patrick?" he asked, noticing his absence.

"No, Patrick's ok, more or less," Sue answered, gesturing to the form in the back seat of the Geo, "He's just a little dead at the moment - a pole fell on him."

"Yes," Adam piped up from where he was standing over by Sally, "One could call it a crushing blow to his ego."

"Very Funny, Adam."

Adam looked Jack up and down, then nodded, and walked over, a hand extended. "Adam Pierson, Researcher. Joe said to check in with you, that you were the Senior Watcher on station here in Memphis."

Jack glanced over at Cassandra, who was glaring at Adam, before accepting the hand and offering a firm handshake. "Do you think such introductions are appropriate, considering our present company?"

Adam looked around, and shrugged. "I see two Watchers, one ex-Watcher who has known me for a few years, one Immortal who from what I understand has known about Watchers for at least several generations, and a dead Immortal, who probably knows about Watchers, if not from his 'Teacher'," he said with a nod at Sue, "then from Cassandra here. And if he doesn't know yet, he will likely find out, because I don't see how he can share a motor home with us for any time at all without finding out what is going on."

"So, if Cassandra is ok, and Patrick was killed by a pole, I suppose that explosion back there was my assignment?"

Sally spoke up for the first time, "Sally MacGreggor, Cassandra's apparently inept shadow," she said, offering her own hand.

"Inept?" he asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"My 'Assignment' who wasn't supposed ta ken mae existence, had mae cell number. It dinna get nae worse than that." She replied, her accent thickening as she turned red in the face.

"How could she have your cell number" Jack asked.

"Most likely she looked it up in a directory at some point," Adam offered,

"I soppose." Sally answered, "As for wha passed in yon yard, I caught but the tail end o' the show, but mae n'mortal hacked thae head off thae other one. Then the lights came, an ya can figure the rest."

"Then I suppose that makes me without an assignment for the moment. Not that I mind, I hated the bastard."

"Don't say things like that too loud. Hunters may try to recruit you." Sue cautioned from where she stood beside the rear door to the Geo, watching as Patrick suddenly gasped and bolted upright, hitting his head with a loud 'Thwamp' on the roof of the car, and fell back down again.

"Is he dead again?" Cassandra asked, looking over.

"No, I think this time he's just in a coma. Either way, he'll get better." Sue said, stepping away from the car, and looking at Adam.

"Adam, why are you here, and did I hear what I thought I heard a moment ago, when you invited yourself aboard the Motor home?"

Cassandra's glare darkened, as Adam replied, "Well, I didn't fly from Savannah to Chicago and back out here to Memphis just to watch Cassandra take some scumbag's head, although that was a surprisingly welcome sight, considering the alternatives. I came out here for a couple of reasons, one to check on you, Joe, Mike, and I have been worried ever since the Hunters killed Eadgils. Also, I was hoping to interview Cassandra here for some information on Methos."

Cassandra snorted at that point, then suddenly her expression broke up into almost hysterical laughter. Over and over she started muttering "Interview me about Methos?"

Everyone just stood around looking at Cassandra, until she regained her composure. "Let me get this straight, YOU want to interview ME about Methos? YOU want ME to tell YOU about how he rode as Death, with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? ME?" She broke up laughing again.

"Apparently she has had a very stressful day. I'll have to plan on putting off any interviews for at least a while." Adam explained, looking at Jack and Sally.

Sue was now glaring at Adam, and simply told him, "Adam, we are going to have a LONG talk in the very near future."

Adam looked at her and smiled his most disarming smile as he said, "Of course we will. I'm sure you have more questions about Methos than you ever have before. And I promise to answer them all as honestly as possible."

Suddenly Patrick woke up again, this time sitting up without hitting his head, and he looked around. When he spotted Adam, he said "eep!", and wiggled across the car to exit on the Passenger's side, putting the vehicle between himself and everyone else.

Adam looked around, and came to a decision. "Jack, how far from being ready is the RV, did they manage to get one selected, purchased, or had they just arrived and been sandbagged by the idiot?"

Jack looked over at Adam, ignoring the laughing and cowering Immortals both, then answered, "They picked one out, argued about putting it in Sue's name, and paid for it. I was over with Phil and Marty playing musical parking spots with it, we had just gotten it out of the row, and were about to prep it ourselves when the Propane Tank decided to blow up. Probably both Phil and Marty are busy dealing with that for the moment, why?"

"We need to get this show literally on the road, and before more people come to join the party. Do you remember last night's Morgue incident?" Adam explained

"Yeah, why?"

"That was Sue and her so called 'Student', having a little fun." Adam said.

"The Necrophilic Terrorists?"

"More a case of a breakout than terrorism or necrophilia, I hope but yes." Adam clarified, turning to walk back towards both the office, and the fire still burning behind it. "We need to get that Motor Home and get out of here ASAP. You think that's possible?"

"I've got the keys on me, and as I said, it's out of the row, we were putting the other units back in place when the fire broke out." Jack responded, turning to follow Adam. "I've got a question though, what the heck is a Watcher, even an ex-Watcher doing with an Immortal calling her Teacher anyhow?" Jack asked, claiming Sally's attention away from the still cowering Patrick, and drawing her along in their wake, leaving the other three behind.

"I think it is a combination of over-correction on her part, from having had her subject taken out by Hunters on her watch, and baby bird syndrome on Patrick's part. The funny thing though is that of all the Watchers he could have chosen Sue may be one of the best suited for the task, other than me, perhaps."

"What do ye mean?" Sally asked, joining the conversation, and hurrying to catch up to the other two men.

"I mean, she was raised in a Watcher family, much like yourself, Sally. Add to that the fact that she was at or near the top of her class last year in all her subjects, INCLUDING Fencing. Plus I tutored her in non-fencing sword techniques, and fighting dirty if need be, so she would have at least a chance of killing an Immortal and running away, without accidentally taking his head. Trust me, she's good, possibly as good if not better than some Immortals."

"So, you don't see it as a conflict for her to teach an Immortal?" Jack asked.

"A conflict, not if she is not watching. And she's not. She basically resigned when Eadgils lost his head. A wise choice, no. She will likely have to answer to a Tribunal, and that won't be pretty, but some Immortals in the past actually had Watchers as instructors. Granted, they didn't know what the Watcher was, or at least I don't think they did, but there have been Immortals schooled by ACTIVE Watchers in the Chronicles. They were rather concerned about their ability to remain impartial and non-judgmental, and a lot of our current taboos have grown out of those incidents, but it is not entirely unprecedented. The only problem is the last precedent was close to a thousand years ago, as far as I have been able to determine from a search of the Database. I started looking into this when I heard about Sue's actions last night. I was actually the first one to realize that having just lost an Immortal, and feeling guilty despite the fact that she nearly got killed trying to stop the Hunters, she apparently decided to make amends by helping another one directly. I understand her motivation, even Joe and Mike were able to understand it once I explained it to them, but none of us are happy about it."

"So, ye don't think it is wrong for her to teach one of them about Immortals?" Sally asked.

"I'm not saying it is RIGHT, or that I agree with her, I'm saying I understand why she's doing it, and I'm saying it is not unprecedented. That's all."

As Adam, Sally, and Jack walked away, Sue looked over at Cassandra. "Cassandra, you Ok?" she asked.

"Yes, Child. I haven't had a good laugh like that in centuries. Methos is the Watcher researching Methos, and he wants to interview ME about himself!" She started laughing again.

Sue looked over at Patrick, who was finally getting a hold of himself. Finally he spoke. "Sue, I'm sorry."

Sue was confused. "Sorry about what, Patrick?"

"That I brought Death here." He said. "I honestly didn't know."

Sue looked back and forth between both Cassandra and Patrick. Finally she spoke. "Patrick, his name is 'Adam' now. Please try and use it, especially around anyone else. Cassandra, I'll take your word that Adam is really Methos, and that Methos was Death. But, I have to tell you, the Adam I know isn't anything like the monster you described."

Cassandra looked thoughtful for a moment, and finally spoke, "Child, you are the second person who has told me that. The first one convinced me to spare his life, despite the debt I thought I still owed for my Teacher's death. But that Scissors move you tried on me, he taught it to you, didn't he?"

"Yes. Why?" Sue asked.

"Because, after he killed me, he kept me as a slave for close to a hundred years. I saw him use that very move several times, usually with success."

"Well, when I first met him in Paris, he sort of took me under his wing. He said he had known my Father, which at the time I thought was odd, since he was so young, and my Father had died two years before. But I found out he had been a researcher with the Watchers for almost ten years, and that would have given him plenty of time to meet my Dad. He taught me more about Fencing and sword fighting than I knew I could learn. I didn't really understand at the time why he was so insistent, I guess he knew, even then, huh?"

"Yes. And the Methos I knew would have killed you right away, then if he had no use for you, taken your head as soon as you revived. Your existence, more than any argument Duncan ever made tells me he has changed more than I would have thought. But Duncan is a good judge of people, and he called 'Adam' friend. That alone was enough for me to let him live 'till he gave me a new reason to take his head."

"But, is he going to join us?" Patrick asked.

"Cassandra, this is more your call. To me he has been only a friend and a mentor. To you he was a monster. Can you handle his presence? If you can't I'll tell him to leave. He should go away if I insist. I think." Sue said, turning to the elder Immortal.

"It's ok Child. Perhaps it will help me to finally put some demons which have troubled my soul for millennia to rest."

"Then, I guess he'll be joining us. With Sally that makes us five. The RV was a good call, Cassandra."

"It was a feeling I had, I must admit. Perhaps there was more to my choice than I had realized at the time though." Cassandra said.

"So, what are we doing about the extra cars?" Patrick asked.

"That's a good question. Cassandra, where did you get yours from?"

"Mine is from Hertz. I can return it here for only a small extra fee at the airport. Likely Sally can do so as well. That should be our first stop, once we get the RV, and load your car on the trailer. I hope 'Adam' is not too long getting back here with it." Cassandra said, even as the sound grew of an engine, and something clanking like a bell.

The Motor Home came up the isle from the office, an empty front-wheel car trailer banging along behind it. As it pulled up to the parking lot, the window slid open, and Adam called out, "Sue, how fast do you think you can drive your car onto the trailer? If you think it'll take more than a minute, I'd recommend we head down the road a bit before anyone shows up. I'm frankly surprised no one has arrived yet to block us in."

Sue looked at the trailer, as the door on the opposite side of the RV banged, and Sally and Jack came around the front.

Sue came to a decision. "Go. We'll follow. Look for a good place we can all stop to transfer luggage, then while we figure out how to hook up my car, Sally and Cassandra can return their rentals."

Sally, speaking to Cassandra directly for the first time said, "I thin' I can leave mine at the airport. What about you?"

Cassandra laughed lightly and said, "I was just telling Sue the exact thing." Raising her voice, she called, "Ok, everyone who's heading to L.A., follow the Motor Home!"

Sue climbed back in the front seat of her car, firing up the engine even as Patrick climbed in and closed his door. Pulling out onto the street she followed the slowly moving Motor Home as two other cars, presumably Sally's along with Cassandra's, fell in line behind her. The motor home slowly sped up, then slowed down and pulled over to the side as a fire engine howled past on the other side of the street. Moving once again, they continued several miles, before pulling into a grocery store parking lot.

Sue pulled up behind the RV, stopping about five feet away, while Sally drove on past, to stop right beside the front, with Cassandra parking behind her.

Sue climbed out, and walked up to look at the trailer. It was a small affair, meant for the front wheels of a car to drive on, then it would hitch to the back of the Motor home, holding the front wheels off the ground, and towing the car on it's rear wheels alone, the front supported by the trailer's wheels, and steered by the hitch it's self.

Adam had climbed out, and Sue noticed Sally had the trunk of her car open, and was handing things to both Patrick and Adam. Cassandra had also gotten out of her car, and opened up her own trunk. She was in the process of lifting some bags out, when Sue ambled over to offer her assistance.

"Is there anything I can carry, Cassandra?"

"Yes, Child. Take this bag." Cassandra replied, handing her the same bag Cassandra had used to change that afternoon after their fight.

Cassandra herself took the larger, and heavier looking suitcase, setting it down and pulling out its handles, to tow it behind her as she made her way to the RV's door.

Patrick was just disappearing inside, a gym bag in his hands, and Adam was waiting with a suitcase about half the size of Cassandra's sitting on the asphalt next to him.

Cassandra followed Patrick inside, lifting her suitcase after her by the tow handle, and Sue headed in next, dumping the bag on top of the table.

Patrick, Cassandra, and Adam were all three crowded into the bedroom in the back, apparently trying to figure out how to stuff everything in there. Sue moved to the front, as Sally came in through the door, a large cloth shopping bag in her hand, along with her purse. "This is the last of my stuff. Just put it anywhere, we can sort it all out later. I'm off to the airport. Where do you want me to meet you?"

Sue thought about that for a moment, but she had never been to the Memphis airport, and had no idea if something as large as a Motor Home could even fit in it.

"You know, that is a good question. I don't think we can pick you up there, at least not in this," she said, "Adam! We can't hook up my car just yet!"

"What's that?" came Adam's muffled voice from in back.

"I think I should run to the airport with Cassandra and Sally." Sue explained.

"Why?" Adam asked, coming out of the bedroom, leaving Cassandra and Patrick to try and fit the bags into the small closet. "I assumed we'd just pick them up in the motor home here."

"I don't know we could get the RV through the airport, height wise, let alone towing a car. I think it makes more sense for me to follow them out there, and bring them back, then we can hook up my car to the trailer and get moving."

"Ok. I suppose that makes sense. Patrick can stay here with me to help get everything packed, and lay in some provisions from the store. I may also drop the trailer here with Patrick, and go fill the tanks up now, while you make the airport run. I think that's a good idea." Adam said, looking towards the back.

Sally nodded, and said, "Ok. Sue, I'll look for your car at the Passenger Pickup closest to where I return the rental car. Does that sound reasonable?"

"Sure." Sue answered, as Sally headed out the door, and climbed into her car.

Cassandra and Patrick finally emerged from the bedroom. "Cassandra, was that everything from your car?" Sue asked her.

"Everything but my coat, and my purse, Child. Why?"

"Sally's on her way to the airport already. I'm going to follow in my car, pick the two of you up, and bring you back here."

"What about me?" Patrick asked.

"You'll stay here with Adam. I think he is planning on dropping the trailer and leaving you to guard it while he goes to fill this beast up with gas." Sue answered.

"I'm supposed to stay, with Adam?" Patrick asked nervously.

"You'll be fine. Don't worry about it." Sue answered.

"What, what if some other Immortal comes by while I'm all alone? I don't even have a sword, and if I did, I'd be more likely to kill myself than anything else." Patrick asked.

"No one will come by. You'll be fine." Sue said, but Cassandra suddenly spoke up.

"Sue, normally you'd probably be right. But you are forgetting the Youngling's Curse. One way it could discharge its task is to bring another Immortal by to take Patrick's head, no matter how unlikely the odds against it are."

Patrick uttered another "eep" at that, and went white.

Adam asked, "What curse?"

"Someone put a hefty curse on Patrick," Cassandra explained, "I believe it has killed him no less than four times in the past twenty four hours already."

Adam looked at Patrick with a new level of respect, measured with no small amount of pity. "Perhaps you should ride along with Sue after all, Patrick."

Sue nodded, and said. "Fine. Let's get going then. Adam, are you still going to get gas while we are gone?"

"I think so. I'll hit the store first and load up on groceries, then ask directions to the nearest gas station. I should be filled up and back here before you are. If I'm not, please wait for me. I shouldn't be too long."

"Ok Adam." Sue said, heading to her car.

"Cassandra, I'll be looking for Sally at the Passenger Pickup, same for you?"

"Ok, Child. I'll look for you there."

Cassandra drove away, and Sue and Patrick climbed in the Geo and followed her.

---------------------------------------

Two hours later, Sue was back, with Patrick and Sally crammed into the back, and Cassandra in the front passenger seat.

When she mentally added their luggage to her own and Patrick's in the trunk, she realized that Cassandra had been right, even without including Adam, her car was just too small for four people to go cross country in.

The motor home was in the same place, although it was now facing the other way. Adam was standing outside it; a soda can in his hand, leaning on the rear bumper, with one foot propped against the car trailer, which had been disconnected from the RV.

"About time you got back. You realize it is almost eight?" he called out as Sue and the rest climbed out of the car.

"Sorry. We went as fast as possible, but traffic was bad." Sue explained. "Did you get everything taken care of?"

"Yes. I filled both gas tanks, topped off the propane, and stocked us up on food, sodas, and beer."

"Adam, if I find a single bottle cap," Sue began, thinking back to the kitchen in Adam's apartment in Paris.

"Cans. All cans, more's the pity." Adam interrupted. "I was more afraid of breakage than concerned with the taste of aluminum tarnishing my palette."

"Fine. Let's get my car hooked up then, and get this show on the road."

"I couldn't agree more. If nothing else, we have to get out of Memphis tonight. Worst case, we can stop at Little Rock tonight, and get an early start in the morning. If we all rotate shifts driving for about two hours each, we should make it to Amarillo Texas by this time tomorrow. If we can keep up that rate, we'll be in Los Angeles by Thursday evening."

Adam and Patrick took up positions to both sides of the car, as Sue climbed back in and fired up the engine, Cassandra and Sally closing the rear doors and backing away, to 'supervise', one on each side of the car.

Following Adam and Patrick's enigmatic and occasionally contradictory hand signals, Sue was able to drive her front wheels up onto the trailer hitch, and hold the car still while Adam secured the wheels to the trailer with some chains. She then got out and watched as Adam and Patrick secured the trailer to the tow hitch on the RV while Patrick held it in place.

Sue closed her door, locking the car, and followed everyone on inside the Motor Home.

Adam took up the Drivers seat, with Patrick parking himself on the couch, while Cassandra and Sally had disappeared into the back, presumably to check on their luggage. Sue closed the door behind her, and went on forward, and sat down in the still rear-facing passenger seat, as Adam fired up the engine. "Everybody set?" he called out.

At the muffled acknowledgements from the back, he put the beast in gear and headed out onto the road, turning towards West Memphis and Highway 40.

As he hit the on-ramp to Highway 40 west, Sally came forwards and plopped down on the couch beside Patrick, Cassandra joining them a few moments later, and claiming one entire side of the table, sitting on the bench lengthwise, with her back against the wall, and her feet sticking out in the isle between the couch and the table.

Sally looked across the isle at the Immortal. "Cassandra, how long have you known about Watchers?"

Cassandra got a far off look, then refocused her green eyes across the isle on her Watcher. "I think I ran into my first Watcher sometime in eight or nine hundred A.D. I wasn't really paying attention to the Roman Catholic calendar at that time. I was still living on the continent, in France. I realized one day that some girl was following me around. The next day she was there again. I left town that day, thinking she may have been a scout for some other Immortal, and not really wanting to fight. It wasn't a big deal, as I was living at the time in a Gypsy Wagon. The next town I stopped at, I again noticed the girl was following me. Now the big thing back then was almost no one traveled, other than the wealthy, and those like myself who could make a living on the road.

"This girl did not have the look of wealth about her, and she was not making a living by providing some transient service, she was spending her time following me. I still feared another Immortal, but I was also angered at the thought of one of us involving Mortals in their hunt. That evening, I confronted the girl, and when she tried to run, I stopped her with The Voice. I compelled her to tell me of the Immortal who had sent her. The poor girl just cried. I then released her compulsion, and instructed her to tell me instead of whoever had set her on my trail. She told me a story of the 'La sociáˆtሠd'Observateurs', a group of MORTALS, who knew of our kind, and watched us to create a record of our lives, our fights, and our deaths."

Adam spoke up from the front of the RV, "Cassandra, did she happen to recite her oath for you, and if so, do you recall it?"

Cassandra looked forward at the back of Adam's head, then back at Sally, and nodded. "Yes. I remember it, but it was an ancient form of French at the time. Her words were 'Je suis un observateur. J'engagepour voir les interactions entre Immortel sans le jugement et sans prend d'acte ou sans organise de n'importe quelle information sur remarquer et enregistrer que l'est venu de leur combat pourrait endommager. A ceci, j'engage que ma droite pour habiter.' or something pretty close to that."

"What does that mean in English?" Sally asked Cassandra.

Cassandra answered, "I'm not a linguist, so I may mangle this, but something along the lines of, 'I am an observer. I pledge to see and record the interactions between Immortals without judgment and without taking actions or without giving any information that could alter the fights for them or could cause them damage. To this, I pledge my right to life.'"

Adam spoke up again, "I would change a word or two, but not bad for someone who claims not to be a linguist."

Sally said to Cassandra, "There isn't anything in there about not interacting with Immortals, is there, as long as those interactions don't affect the outcomes of their fights, at least."

"No, there isn't. I don't know where that notion came from, however by the time they found me again in Glenfinnan, in fifteen eighty or so. The first full time Watcher I know that they assigned to me there was a local boy named Neil who they recruited, and who started keeping records on me from about fifteen eighty five. I decided to return the favor in about fifteen eighty six."

"What do ya mean return the favor?" Patrick asked from his seat next to Sally, who also looked confused.

"Now I know why I brought it!" Cassandra said, her face suddenly brightening into a smile, and her green eyes gleaming mischievously as she got up and hurried to the back or the RV.

Sue, who had been watching the whole thing from the rear facing passenger seat, asked, "Do you have any idea what she is talking about, Sally?"

Sally shrugged and said, "No. I'm just a Watcher. I think Cassandra is supposed to be the mind reader."

Cassandra was returning from the back again, an ancient looking brown leather book in her hands.

"Sally, may I present you with the first volume of the MacGreggor Family Chronicle"

"The What?" Sally squeeked, looking at the ancient book with its yellow pages.

"This is the book I started on the folks who spent their time recording the events of my life. I decided one cold winter night in fifteen eighty six that if Neil could record the events, both major and minor of my life, that I could do no less than the same for him, and later his nephew Brian. I continued to chronicle the events of Neil and Kathleen's life, and the rest of their family, from then on."

Looking at the back of Adam's head, she added, "The rest of the Watchers may be interested in this book as well. While it only continues through sixteen thirty, it does cover some interesting events regarding other Immortals as well."

"Like what?" Sue asked.

"Like how Neil's sister in law Mary, and her husband Ian MacLeod adopted young Duncan in late fifteen ninety two. How in sixteen oh three, they also adopted Ian's nephew Robert, after Ian's brother, Alastair died. And how Ian at the same time became Clan Chief, and his eldest son, Duncan became heir apparent to that position.

"How, in sixteen eighteen, Duncan killed his foster brother Robert, in a quarrel over a girl, Debra Campbell, who was Duncan's first love, but was Robert's betrothed, and also how Debra died that day, falling from a cliff.

"How Duncan died his first death in sixteen twenty two, came back, and was driven out of the community labeled by his own father as a demon.

"How Duncan's father, Ian was killed by an Immortal, Kanwulf the Viking two years later, and how young Duncan, knowing nothing of Immortals killed Kanwulf to avenge his father and left his body behind, head still firmly attached.

"How my first Glenfinnan Watcher, Neil succeeded Duncan's father as Clan Chief. Things like that." Cassandra explained with a smile.

"Wow!" Sally said, looking carefully at the volume in her hands. "But a lot of that had nothing to do with MacGreggors, why did you record it?"

"Sally, the world back then was large and empty, people few and far between. A community was basically all one family, whether in name, or in spirit. While I call these books the MacGreggor Family Chronicle, the truth is they cover many events in Glenfinnan, granted mostly the ones which impacted directly on my Watchers and their families, but no story is complete without the inclusion of the parts which help to shape it from outside. I included those parts which I could see. If someone were to take the records your family has kept of me, and lay it beside the records I have kept on them, the two together will create a whole which provides a greater picture of Glenfinnan than anyone would have been able to make themselves."

Adam from the front chuckled, "So, Cassandra, finally an answer for one of the questions I heard at the Academy long ago, 'Who Watches The Watchers?' The Witch Watches the Watchers."

"As if you don't have your own journals, Adam." Cassandra retorted.

Sue in alarm quickly tried to change the subject before Sally heard something she shouldn't, and asked Cassandra, "You said this book only runs through sixteen thirty, but you said the others as well. How many books are there?"

Counting the volume on Sally and her sisters, there are twenty seven of them." Cassandra answered.

"You, you have a book on ME?" Sally asked.

"Yes dear. You, your sisters Jenny and Patricia, and your father, your mother, and many others. I will not let you see any chronicle which contains records on any mortal still living. The rest of the collection, I will loan to you, or if they are interested, the Society through Adam." Cassandra said.

"May I read this one now?" Sally asked, lifting the ancient book held carefully in her hands.

"Certainly. That is why I got it out for you." Cassandra said.

"Sally, you might want to take it back into the bedroom and close the door to read it in there with the light on." Adam recommended.

Sally nodded, and carefully got up and made her way back to the bedroom in the rear of the RV, closing the door behind her.

The rest just sat quietly in the dark, while Adam drove on into the night.

========================== ==========================

Cassandra gets a shock. And more is learned about Sue and Eadgils.

Chapter Seventeen
A Meeting
by Dana Short
========================== ==========================

Sue awoke as Adam pulled the RV off the highway, slowing down as he took the ramp for the 430 south.

Looking down at her watch, she saw the time was after ten. Another look outside the window showed a Motel 6, with a glowing "Vacancy" sign, the glowing rates offering a room for the price of $37.99 a night.

"Where are we?" she asked Adam sleepily.

"Little Rock. West side. I was looking for a decent place to stay, but this was the first Vacancy sign I saw."

Sue looked over her shoulder. Patrick was asleep stretched out on the couch, snoring softly. Cassandra's green eyes were looking at her in the dark, seeming to glow softly, like a cat's. The faint light from under the bedroom door was the only sign of Sally.

"Ok. I assume we'll be moving on in the morning?" Sue asked.

"That's the plan. I was going to recommend a seven am wakeup call for everyone."

"That's fine." She said.

Cassandra spoke up softly, so as not to wake Patrick, "Do you think we can get adjoining rooms?"

"I doubt it," Sue replied, looking back at the motel, "Most likely all they have are standard doubles and queens. No adjoining suites. We might be able to get rooms next to one another. Why?"

"The Youngling. I don't think it is good to leave him alone. Too much chance for the Curse to do something unpleasant."

"I'll room with him," Adam volunteered. "If they don't have a double twin, I'll sleep here in the Motor Coach. He can have the front or the back. Makes me no difference."

"Let's see what they have available." Sue put in, "Before we start making final arrangements. But thanks, Adam. I appreciate it."

Adam pulled off the highway, and the second change in speed finally woke Patrick up. "Huh?" he said, as he rolled off the couch to land on the floor with a soft flump-splat-thunk as he hit the linoleum.

The bedroom door opened, and Sally looked out, book in hand. Seeing Patrick on the floor, she asked him, "Patrick, are you ok?"

"I'm not dead." Was his only reply.

---------------------------------------
The front desk informed them that they had four rooms left. One, with two Queen beds, two with single queen beds, and a final one with two twin beds.

Adam and Patrick took the double queen, while Sue insisted Cassandra and Sally take the other two with single queens, taking the double twin bed room for herself.

It was only minor mayhem for everyone to collect luggage from the RV, or in Sue and Patrick's case from the trunk of her car behind the RV. Sue herself collected the Laptop, and her large suitcase. Patrick gathered his one bag, and followed Adam, who was toting a newly acquired nylon expandable duffle bag himself.

Sue found her room, dumped her bags on the first bed, slid the security bolt home, and the curtains closed.

She then headed for the bathroom, stripping off her clothes as she went, pausing only to wrap her hair tightly before sliding into the shower.

She stood under the warm spray for quite a while, before shutting off the water, drying off with a towel, and opening her bag to get her sleep shirt and a fresh pair of panties out.

Putting her hair into a lose braid, she turned down the covers on the second bed, shut off the light in the bathroom, called the front desk to leave a seven AM wake up call, as Adam had recommended, and climbed into bed, shutting off the light. It had been a long day, and sleep was not long in coming.

---------------------------------------
Sue was again in the shapeless place that was at the same time anywhere, and nowhere.

She stood in the midst of the 'endless room', the wall visible a short distance away, smooth and formless, stretching into darkness above, to the left, and the right. In the center was a closed door.

Sue approached the door and knocked on it.

After her third knock, the door opened a crack, and Eadgils peeked out at her. "What do you want?" he asked.

"To apologize." She said.

"Apologize for what?" he asked.

"For being such a bitch."

"Ok. I'm listening."

"I'm sorry I was so mad at you. I know this hasn't exactly been easy for you either, as you knew perfectly well, when you lost your head, that was it. No more innings. Instead, you find yourself here. Stuck with me. And all I did was bitch at you about it. I know this wasn't your fault. I know you have done your best to help give me at least a fighting chance. And I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

Eadgils looked at The Girl. There were tears brimming in her eyes, and he could feel her sincerity in his very soul. Although all things considered, it was more likely it was her soul he was feeling. Whichever it was, she was sincere about the apology.

He opened the door the rest of the way, and strode on out. "Apology accepted, and offered back to you in turn. I'm sure it isn't easy for you either, having your entire life disrupted by the ghost of a dead man. I am sorry for all the trouble I have caused you."

Sue hugged him. When she stepped back, they were again in the "dojo of the mind", and she stood before him in a plain white gi, her katana held loosely in her right hand. "Want to spar, Teacher?" she asked, for the first time awarding him that honor, one which after a day with Patrick in her care she now truly understood.

That one question meant more to Eadgils than the apology which had preceded it, and they both knew it.

He pulled his ancient sword, and they began to spar.

As they fought, Sue started to tell him about her day, "Adam showed up today." She started.

"Death?" Eadgils said, missing a block, and getting sliced clean through the neck with a decapitating blow by the blade of Sue's Katana, the blade passing bloodlessly, but painfully through his throat, leaving a line to mark its passage which gradually faded.

"He is not Death. Whatever he is or was, he is different now."

"I'll believe that when I see it."

"Your student believes it." Sue retorted.'

"Who, you?" Eadgils asked, scoring a slice on her leg as her attention wavered slightly.

"No, Cassandra." Sue replied, again taking advantage of his momentary shock to swing her blade through his neck again, gaining yet another 'Kill'.

"Cassandra lives?" he asked, his blade dropping to the mat from nerveless fingers.

"Cassandra lives. Apparently in Scotland. She is coming along to L.A. with Patrick, myself, Adam, and Cassandra's Watcher."

"Cassandra? How is she? I thought she was dead long ago." Eadgils said, sitting down on the soft slope of the hillside under the shining afternoon sun, white fluffy clouds drifting through the perfect blue sky above, as slight breezes chased each other amongst the fragrant and colorful flowers scattered about amongst the emerald grasses.

"She is fine. She bought me a Motor Home today."

"She what?" Eadgils asked.

Sue proceeded to reiterate to him the entire day's events, starting with the early morning call from Joe and Mike, and running on through breakfast and the fight with Cassandra, through Cassandra's fight with the Finance Manager, and their subsequent departure from Memphis, and arrival in Little Rock.

"You beat Cassandra?" Eadgils asked again, the Dojo returning around them as he stood up and bent over to retrieve his sword from where it had fallen.

"Yes. With a move you taught me. I tried one Adam taught me, but it didn't work, she had seen it before, big surprise. But she was distracted enough by my tossing my Bowie knife at her for me to sink the stiletto into her heart. End-Game."

"I'm proud of you." Eadgils said honestly. "Perhaps you don't need me anymore after all."

"No, Ed. I think I may always need you, which is good, since it looks like I'll always have you. One thing troubles me though."

"What's that, Sue?" Eadgils asked, bringing his sword to a ready position, and starting another round of full contact combat practice with her.

"No one felt your Quickening in mine today." She said.

Again Eadgils faltered, and again Sue took advantage of his distraction and automatically sliced his neck in what would be a killing blow, were he not already dead.

"What do you mean no one felt me?" he asked.

"I mean that when I compared the strength of both my Quickening and Patrick's, they were miniscule compared to Cassandra's or Adam's. Heck, they were significantly smaller than that Douglas idiot. Which makes sense if he had six heads under his belt as he claimed. But my Quickening should be a lot stronger than Patrick's, not just marginally. Shouldn't it?"

"Yes, it should." Eadgils said, swinging back into motion.

Sue and Eadgils sparred on for what felt again like years, much as they had that first night.

At some indefinable point, the feel of the landscape subtly shifted, but neither one specifically noticed it. It wasn't until the power of a Quickening washed over both of then at once that either one noticed anything was happening.

Eadgils caught sight of something, or someone moving behind Sue. A familiar shape, and the sight of it again froze Eadgils, much as the mention of its name earlier did.

And as before, sensing his distraction, Sue went for the end-all neck shot. But even as she began her swing, a voice rang out in the Dojo "No!"

Sue's blade followed through its course even as Cassandra's scream echoed around her, her blade again slicing bloodlessly through Eadgils's neck.

Sue was suddenly knocked off her feet as Cassandra's body impacted hers, and together they fell into Eadgils frozen form, all three of them toppling to the mat.

Cassandra, in a panic looked at Sue, and cried, "You killed him! Why?"

Eadgils finally spoke, saying "Cassandra?"

Suddenly she whirled her head around, to look at the form she had previously been deliberately avoiding, the headless body of her ancient teacher and lover. Only it wasn't headless. Unlike the last time, when in Savannah she had seen the still, dead form of her teacher, this time he looked entirely whole and alive.

"Eadgils?" she asked questioningly.

"Yes, Cassi." He replied, reaching out and tenderly cupping the side of her head.

"I - I thought you were dead!" she sobbed.

"I am." Eadgils replied, softly. "And I thought you were long gone as well."

"I, I had heard you got killed by, by Methos. Three thousand years ago. You challenged him, and lost. I heard about it. And then, I had the chance to finally take his head, and avenge you, and I, I let him go, because Duncan asked me to." Cassandra was almost incoherent as she sobbed, her head buried against Eadgils's chest as he held her reassuringly.

"Hush, Cassi. It'll be all right." He soothed, stroking her dark hair.

It was night, and the stars above were shining brightly, the moon glowing hugely behind faint wispy clouds, just above some distant peaks. A campfire was burning between Sue, and Eadgils and Cassandra. Crickets chirped, and in the distance, a wolf howled faintly.

"It's ok Cassi" Eadgils repeated softly over the occasional crackle-pop of pitch exploding in the fire as the logs burned.

"Then, the other night, I felt you. And, I knew, I knew something was wrong. I had to come. I had to. And I saw you. I actually saw you this time. And I saw your body."

"It's all right. Calm down." Eadgils soothed, hugging her again. "Take a deep breath, ok? It'll be ok."

"No, it won't. Because I found your Watcher. I like her. She has a student. Did you know she has a student already? And she died for you. I liked her. But then, tonight. I felt you again. Like I did before."

"I'm here, Cassi. I'm not going anywhere." Eadgils said, again stroking her hair.

"And then, I found you. In the Gym. With your Watcher. And she had her sword. I saw her sword. And your neck. She killed you!"

"No Cassi, she didn't kill me. I'm already dead, I died in Savannah. You were right, you saw my body. But we were wrong. It wasn't the end. I'm here, now. With Sue." Eadgils said softly.

"No! I thought you might have been. I even thought she might have taken your head. I was ready to avenge you, if I had to. But no. She is but a Youngling, without a single head to her credit, other than her own." Cassandra explained.

"Perhaps that is it. Perhaps no one can feel me because she didn't beat me. Sue didn't take my head, Cassi. She died her First Death trying to save my neck. Somehow though, she got my Quickening. All of it."

"But, How?" Cassandra asked.

"I, honestly, don't, know." Eadgils said slowly, as a bell began to ring distantly, like the opening of a race, or a fire bell.

Cassandra looked around as the nighttime hillside faded into grayness, and her teacher faded with it.

Eadgils watched as Cassandra, Sue, and the hillside faded away, leaving only the bell, ringing ever louder.

Reaching out, Eadgils finally got his hand on the receiver of the ringing phone. "Hello?"

"Hello, this is Tom Bodett, and I'd like to tell you that you've just won a million dollars! Well, not really. But it is time for you to get up." Came the voice from the other end.

Eadgils swung out of bed, brushing Sue's hair out of his face, and looked around the room.

The memories of the last day, reinforced by Sue's retelling settled in his mind, and he knew he had to meet everyone, including Adam/Death and Cassi out front by the motor home at eight.

He went to Sue's suitcase and pulled the bottles of Shampoo and Conditioner out, along with a set of clothes, and padded barefoot into the bathroom for a shower.

---------------------------------------
Forty minutes later, Eadgils headed down stairs, laptop case over his shoulder, and Sue's repacked suitcase thumping down the stairs behind him.

Passing through the lobby without pausing, he headed out to the RV. When he was half way across the parking lot, he felt the telltale tingling of another Quickening. The door on the RV banged open, and a sleepy looking Adam stumbled down the stairs, looking around. Upon only seeing Sue's form approaching, he looked alarmed, and started searching around frantically for someone.

Suddenly he called out, "Sue! No! Gods, no!"

"What is it?" Eadgils called, confused.

"Please, tell me you didn't kill Cassandra last night!" Adam said, taking a step backwards towards the door to the R.V.

"Cassandra? No. I didn't kill Cassandra last night." He replied. Suddenly, Eadgils felt a second tingling on his mind, this time from behind. Turning his head, he saw Cassi!

"Cassi!" he called out, dropping the handle of Sue's suitcase, and ran back the way he'd come, laptop banging at his side.

Cassandra just stood there, just outside the lobby of the motel, looking at the scene before her in shock. A closer look at her face showed she had been crying.

Eadgils finally got to Cassi, and grabbed her in a tight hug, almost knocking her off her feet. "Cassi!" he cried, "It is so good to see you again!"

Cassandra looked at him, then whispered, "Eadgils?"

Eadgils nodded, and said, "Was that you last night, in Sue's mind?"

Cassandra's eyes widened, and she nodded again. "That was Sue's dream?"

"We don't know. It's anywhere, and nowhere. Things are different there. But what or where it is, I don't believe either one of us has figured out."

Adam had walked warily over to join them, and now looked at Eadgils with a quizzical expression, then suddenly his face fell. "No!" he almost sobbed.

"What is it Methos?" Cassandra asked, forgetting herself for a moment.

"No. Please, this is even worse than I thought." Adam said, reaching out and gently grasping Eadgils's chin, turning Sue's head to look into her eyes. "Please, tell me you didn't Channel him somehow?"

========================== ==========================

---

More [Meeting of Minds]

We learn that what has happened to Sue and Eadgils is not quite unique, as the world's oldest Immortal has seen something similar once before, and he tells the sad story.

Chapter Eighteen
Early Morning History Class
by Dana Short
========================== ==========================

"What do you mean, channel?" Cassandra said, looking at Adam in confusion.

"Once before, a long time ago. I had two friends. Immortals. They both knew me, but they did not know one another." Adam began.

"Euclopities had known me since just after I left the Horsemen, about two thousand years before, and we had been friends for the better part of the past thousand by that point. Rojor on the other hand was a newly Quickened Immortal. Less than thirty winters in his life and not a head to his name at that time. He was almost a student to me, since the mentor he had been studying under had lost his head the year before. I lived along the ocean at the time. My home was a reed shack, located atop some bluffs overlooking the sea. I was out one day when they both decided to visit. I still don't know what happened in my absence, but I believe Rojor concluded that Euclopities had taken Samuel's head, which he had. I returned to find them engaged in combat, and there was nothing I could do other than watch.

"Rojor and Euclopities fought alongside the edge of the cliff, it was a sight to see, the wind blowing inland, and the waves crashing below them. Then, all of a sudden the ground they were standing on gave way. And as they tumbled towards the waves, Rojor apparently got in a final telling swing against Euclopities. There were three separate splashes in the water below, the smallest of them caused by a lone head.

"I never saw a sign of the Quickening. Not a flash, not a spark even. Over an hour passed, before Rojor heaved his body ashore at the base of the cliffs. I made my way to him, but when he spoke to me, it was in Greek, not the language which he had always spoken, and he addressed me as though he were Euclopities, not Rojor."

Eadgils felt a cold chill run through his whole body, as Methos/Adam regaled him with his tale. The parallels to him and Sue were glaringly obvious.

"Are you saying that somehow the older Immortal replaced the young one?" Cassandra asked, with a glance at Eadgils.

"No, although that was what I also thought at first. Rojor truly believed himself to be Euclopities. And yet, at the same time, he knew things only Rojor had known before."

"I know the feeling," Eadgils said.

"Gods, I had hoped I was wrong. I am so sorry to hear that." Adam said, his face falling.

"Why? What more is there to the story that you haven't told us, Methos?" Cassandra asked sternly.

"For that first day, all I could tell was that Rojor had somehow obtained quite literally all that was Euclopities. All his skills, his talents, his knowledge, his memories, even his personalities. It was like the percentage of Rojor which was left had been diluted almost out of existence by the sum of Euclopities. But the next day, things had changed. It was more like Euclopities had faded. Even his Quickening was no longer there. He felt no stronger than he had before."

Again, Cassandra looked at Eadgils appraisingly, then turned back to Adam, "Continue."

"Well, we spoke long that day, and he told of his experience, how he was quite literally possessed by the ghost of the man he had bested. He was concerned that this was normal. I assured him it was not. He named the process, based on the one used by the spiritualists to contact the dead, he called it 'Leiden', 'Leiden de geest van Euclopities' as he said, which translates into English as channeling the spirit of Euclopities, or simply Channeling. It was as if he had been possessed by the spirit of the dead, and his people had many stories about this happening. He was frightened."

"Sue is still here, but so am I" Eadgils said, truly acknowledging the situation to Adam for the first time.

At that statement, Adam's face fell even more, until he looked like he would cry, "That was exactly what I most feared." He continued, shaking his head.

"For that second day, Rojor was fine, shaken by his experience, but otherwise fine. It was after the dawn of the third day that he started to truly lose his mind. He awoke the next day, his Quickening, like yours, again showing the presence of Euclopities. But more than that, he was cursing in Greek. When I asked him how he was, he looked at me as if I were a stranger, and attacked me with bare fists. I fought him off, and knocked him out. When he revived, he was rational again, but once more acted as though he was Euclopities. Throughout that day he would pause, as though hearing voices only he could here. I didn't know what to make of it. Late that afternoon, he started answering the silent voices, arguing with himself in a dozen languages."

"He must have been hard to deal with like that," Cassandra said, "Did he get better?"

A tear actually formed at Adam's eye, and started to run down his cheek as he shook his head. "No. Worse. The next day, he awoke before Dawn, screaming about the ghosts. 'Ik moet de geesten in mijn hoofd vrijgeven! De geesten ontkom!' he screamed, waking me from my sleep. He grasped a rock from the earth from outside my house, and pounded his head until he died, screaming all the time about the ghost in his head, 'De geesten in mijn hoofd!'

"When he revived, he was if anything worse. He tried to take my sword, but I fought him off. Somewhere, he got a stick though, and he shoved it in his head, killing himself again. I pulled it out, and he revived, to resume screaming and fighting. He had truly gone mad, screaming over and over again 'Verhuur hen uit mijn hoofd! Krijg hen uit mijn hoofd!' I tied him up, and gagged him so he couldn't scream any more or hurt himself again. His eyes were wild. I kept him like that for almost three days, for three days I cared for a genuine madman, screaming over and over about the ghosts in his head, and pleading for me to somehow let them out. It was the fifth morning after the fight that was the worst though. I awoke early, again before dawn, but it was to silence for a change. I looked over at Rojor's pallet, but it was empty.

"I climbed out of bed, and retrieved my sword. I could feel Rojor's Quickening at the cliff, outside the hut. I went out into the early pre-dawn light, and there I found him. Somehow he had freed himself from the bindings I had tied him with the night before. He must have climbed down the cliff to the sea below, because he now held Euclopities bronze blade in his hands. He looked at me with wild eyes, and said the longest and most coherent thing he had said in days, he said in a calm monotone. He said. 'Ik moet u doden om de geesten. enig je ziel kan doden de geesten in mijn hoofd te doden. Ik moet u mijn vriend doden. Dood alstublieft de geesten, alstublieft doodt mij.'

"Roughly translated, he said that to kill the ghosts in his head, he had to have my soul, to kill me. He then asked me to kill the ghosts, and to kill him. Before I could respond, he attacked. It was one of the hardest fights of my life, either before or since. You may have heard of someone who fights like a madman, well Rojor genuinely did so. He kept on long after he should have collapsed from his injuries. He came close to taking my head several times. It was only the rising sun which saved me, its first rays striking him in the eyes, and making him pause just long enough. Long enough for me to take his head."

Adam looked at Eadgils, and a second tear fell down his cheek, following the track of the first, and he said, "That was my experience with one Immortal Channeling another one. Pain, Madness, and the end of a friend and a student, at my own hand. Taking his head was the hardest thing I ever did, but what made it worse was what he said, even as I began my swing. 'Bedankt.' It meant, Thank you."

========================== ==========================

After a discussion about famous Immortals, Cassandra tells her story about her time with Methos to Adam, for the official Watcher record. Later, while on the road again, Eadgils finally corners Methos and gets the answers to some of his questions about the eldest's relationship with Sue. Adam tells more than expected, and Sue will learn something about herself which will shake her identity to it's very soul.

Act II
Road Trip

Chapter Nineteen
On The Road To Yellow, By Another Name
by Dana Short

Adam had regained his composure by the time Sally joined the rest of the group inside the Motor Home. They decided to eat breakfast on down the road, and with Patrick driving the first shift, Adam taking Shotgun, Eadgils on the couch, and Cassandra once more sitting at the table, Sally took the opposite side of the table, and stretched out as well.

"So, Cassandra, who would you say is the most famous Immortal you ever met?" Sally asked, "Would it be Elvis?"

"I don't think so. He was famous, no doubt about that, but I think the most famous would probably be the one the most people knew was Immortal." Cassandra replied, her eyes seeing beyond the wall opposite her, and into the past somewhere.

"I wasn't aware there were any Immortals who were famous for being Immortal." Eadgils replied from his position opposite Cassandra.

"What do you mean?" asked Adam swinging his seat around to face the interior instead of the road. "I can think of several generally known Immortals. Achilles for one."

"Achilles?" asked Sally, "Homer's Achilles?"

"The very same one. One of the earliest recorded accounts of a known Immortal on record." Adam replied.

"I thought he was a Greek God or something." Patrick asked.

"Greek, no. He predated the Greeks by several thousand years. No Achilles was an Ionian Warrior." Adam replied

"I thought Achilles was only vulnerable on the heal? Aren't all Immortals vulnerable only in the neck?" Patrick asked.

"That was what he told the Greeks, so that the Trojans would waste their time shooting and hacking at his feet, about as far away from his neck as he could get them. Pretty clever if you think about it." Adam explained.

"Wow. So how did he die?" Patrick asked.

"The Trojans hired a Minoan Immortal who was a mercenary into their army, by the name of Paris. He killed Achilles, cutting off his head, and later claimed he brought him down with an arrow to the heal, figuring that if people didn't know how to kill Immortals, it was safer for him." Adam replied.

"That's all well and good," Sally interrupted, "But I was askin' Cassandra 'bout the moast famous n'mortal she knew."

"I'd say it was James. I met him during my visit to the U.S. in 1833 to see Duncan." Cassandra replied finally.

"Who was James?" Sally asked, intrigued.

Eadgils's ears pricked up at the mention of the name and date. "Bowie?" he asked.

Cassandra nodded. "Yes. I met him in New Orleans. I didn't like the man. It was not well known, but he was a student of Jean LaFitte the pirate. They smuggled slaves. He told me he took his first head in 1831."

"Who was this James Bowie, how was he famous?" Sally asked confused.

Eadgils in a silent explanation fished the Bowie knife out of the holster on his back, producing the blade as if from nowhere, and handing it to Sally. "This is known as a Bowie Knife. Legend has it that James Bowie saw a rock fall from the sky one day, and used it to make his knife. He called it a Bowie Knife. Truth is his brother made it, James was useless at metal smithing. Always burning himself and dropping things."

Sally examined the carbon fiber blade and plastic handle with rubber grips. "This is nae metal, 'tis some sort o' plastic, or glass!" she exclaimed.

"That one is, yes. I like to carry it because the size and weight make it easy to conceal, but it is big and heavy enough to be useful as a weapon if I get forced into a fight. And since there is no metal in it, it doesn't set off metal detectors." Eadgils explained.

Sally looked Adam in the eyes, and said "I see what ye mean tha she is qualified ta teach a n'mortal." Her voice slurring with her distraction.

"How is this James a famous Immortal though?" Sally asked, "I naeer heard of him."

"Believe it or not, they have documentation of him being shot, stabbed, and run through with a sword in a single fight. Each time the Spanish thought him dead, he would get up and fight again." Cassandra replied.

Eadgils had been fishing in Sue's memory, and asked Adam, "Did you ever hear of a chronicle on him?"

Adam who had been looking mystified the whole time, shook his head, and said, "No. As far as I know none of the Watchers ever identified him as an Immortal. I wonder why?"

"Probably because he died his first death when he was shot by some guy named Wright in 1826, who he killed in a fight a year later, after being shot twice, and stabbed several times according to the witnesses. He lost his head to the Spanish Immortal Juan Almonte at the Alamo in March of 1836." Cassandra replied. "And before you ask, Juan lost his head to Duncan in 1842. That's about all I know about it."

"That's pretty amazing itself, I mean an Immortal, who was known to be an Immortal in the nineteenth century, but with no chronicle, and who wasn't known by the Watchers as an Immortal." Adam responded.

"Yea. Prhaps the lass was right, me talking ta my n'mortal." Sally said, with a glance across the isle at Eadgils.

"I thought the Watchers always kept an eye on the Immortals?" Patrick asked from the driver's seat.

"Nae, we try, but thae have a tenancy tae dissapear when yaer loookin right aet em sometimes." Sally grumbled back.

Eadgils proffered, "Some times you need a bit of privacy."

"I soppose. But it maeks fer a hard time o keeping thae chronicles." Sally muttered.

Silence descended, broken only by the constant rumbling of the road beneath the wheels, and the whistling of the wind outside.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

It was approaching ten thirty in the morning as Patrick pulled off the highway and stopped at a Denny's in Fort Smith for a late breakfast.

He had been driving the whole time, but the general consensus had been that cold dry cereal just didn't sound worthy of being eaten. Adam, who had forgotten to get milk, was the only one who actually considered trying fruit loops in beer.

They headed inside, and shortly were seated at a corner booth, having arrived between the breakfast and lunch crowds.

After the waitress had taken their order and gone back, Adam turned to Cassandra and said, "So Cassandra, is there anything you think you can add to the Methos records? I heard you knew him."

Cassandra choked on her water, and after spluttering for a few moments trying to catch her breath, she finally looked at him across the table, and said evenly, "Are you sure you would want what I would have to say in his record? Really sure?"

Adam looked her in the eye, and nodded his head slowly. "Yes. People change. But the records the Watchers have of Methos only go back to shortly after their founding, about three thousand years ago. Granted, your memories would only be able to add a small slice from before that time, but it would be a critical slice, and a slice which is NOT in the record at present. I think it needs to be, if for no other reason, than completeness."

Cassandra looked at him for a long time, her eyes studying his face. As she looked at him, the waitress came and went two times, laying out their food orders. Finally she nodded. "Ok. You're being honest. I don't understand the reasoning behind it, but you genuinely want me to tell my story to you. I can feel that. I suppose if nothing else, Sally here can add it to my own chronicle. Some sort of an appendix."

"Aye. I can do that. It would as good as anything show this was nae a waste of my time as well. I expect to catch eneaou grief from my Da when I get home. Prhaps a history o' Cassandra from afore there were Watchers would be enou tae get 'em off mae back."

"Ok then. I will start with the beginning. Some of this is already in the records somewhere, I am sure. But I might as well put it all down for posterity." Cassandra said, around a bite of grand-slam pancakes.

Sally pulled a PDA out of her purse, and set it to record audio, then put it down on the table, making eye contact with Cassandra, who gave her a smile and a nod.

"My name is Cassandra, and I am Immortal. I was found on the plains of the Arabian desert. Where I came from, no one could tell me, but the tribe's healer and wise man, Hijad told me he was led to me by the gods. He raised me as his own daughter, and schooled me in the ways of the shaman. I learned to commune with the world, and myself. I learned the arts of healing, and of touching the spirit worlds. I lived as his daughter for over twenty years, growing stronger and wiser. It was a happy life among the nomadic tribe I saw as my family.

"Then one day an Evil came. Our people, we didn't even have a word for Evil. But there was no missing it. It came in the form of another nomadic peoples, a plague, like of human locusts. They descended upon us and slew us all, including myself. I died in my Father's arms, holding his cooling body as a blade slashed savagely through my back, and into his as well before stopping. That was the end of my life, and the begging of my hell.

"I awoke later, tied up in a tent. There was a man there. He raped me first thing. He would do that a lot over the next hundred years. We didn't share language, but he taught me his name that night. It was a name I came to hate, and to love, but mostly to despise. Methos.

There were gasps from both Patrick and Sally. Patrick actually looked over at Adam, his face again draining of blood, as he inched closer to Sally, and away from Adam, despite the fact that Sue was sitting between himself and Adam.

"I was held as a slave in the horsemen camp for as I said almost a hundred years. Throughout that time, I was the exclusive property of Methos. He was not a kind master. Sometimes he would be downright cruel. Yet, over time, I convinced myself he cared for me on some level for some reason, and I for him. Often I would see him fight. He was savage and vicious. He was not the leader of the Horsemen, that was Kronos. But he was the brains, and the soul of the group.

"Over time, the others apparently grew jealous of his refusal to share me, and one night, Kronos came and took me to his own tent while Methos was away. That was the last time I saw Methos for a long time. In Kronos's tent, I was able to use a small knife to kill Kronos, and run away. It was about a month later that Eadgils found me, wandering in Eastern Europe," Cassandra said, looking this time not at Adam, but at Eadgils instead.

"He knew." Adam said softly.

"Knew what?" Cassandra asked sharply, looking back at him.

"That you had killed Kronos and escaped. He even knew about the knife you used, he had known about it for a long time. I don't remember where I read it, but he once told someone that watching you flee into the night was the hardest thing he had ever done. He could have stopped you with a single word to the guards, but he didn't. He let you go. Take it for what it's worth."

Cassandra froze again, and a single tear rolled down her cheek, before she reached up and wiped it away. "You believe what you say. That Methos could have stopped me that night, but instead let me go. Why would y-he do that?"

"Perhaps he thought you would be better off on your own, away from the rest of the Horsemen. Away from Kronos, Caspian, and Silas. Perhaps even away from Methos. He was not a very nice person back then." Adam replied softly while setting some money down to cover the tab, and sliding out of the booth to stand.

"'Tis a good thing he is dead then." Sally said, picking up her PDA and saving Cassandra's story.

"He's not dead." Cassandra said.

Sally dropped the PDA onto an empty plate, splattering boysenberry syrup across the table with a soft 'ploptk'. "He's nae?"

Cassandra looked again at Adam, and said with a sly smile, "No. The other three horsemen, they are dead. Sally, remember when I went to find Duncan, and ended up in Bordeaux?"

"Yea. Neither Joe or I could get ta ye."

"Well, it was the Horsemen. Kronos was reuniting them after almost three thousand years. But he failed. Methos, Silas, Duncan, Kronos, and Caspian fought. Duncan killed two of them, and Methos killed the other one. I had a chance to kill Methos, but Duncan asked me to spare him, and I did. I am glad I did." She said, her eyes still locked on Adam's.

Finally, she stood up, releasing Sally, who retrieved her sticky PDA and tried wiping syrup off with a napkin, before heading for the door in Cassandra's wake. Adam continued to stand where he had risen at the other end of the table, until both Patrick and Eadgils scooted around to exit from Cassandra's side.

He was still standing there when Eadgils reached the door, and stepped outside into the late morning sunshine.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Cassandra was seated behind the wheel, with Sally in the passenger seat, and Patrick already stretched out lengthwise on the couch by the time Eadgils stepped into the Motor Home, having waited at the door until Adam finally emerged from the Denny's and started across the parking lot towards them.

Eadgils took one of the benches alongside the table, as Cassandra fired up the engine.

Finally, Adam climbed in, pulling the side door closed behind him. Cassandra put the motor home in reverse, and backed into the parking lot, then headed back out onto the street, heading back towards the highway.

Adam looked at Patrick, then looked at Eadgils, and at the back room of the motor home. He said, "Would you like to join me in back? This seems to be a day for stories, and I have one I promised to tell you, and you owe one to me as well, I think."

Eadgils looked at him and considered it. He was still not thrilled about the idea of hanging around with Death. But Sue's memories showed him as a decent person, and there were questions which needed answers. Finally, he nodded.

Adam made his way to the back, and Eadgils got up and followed him, steadying himself with his hands against the RV's movements as Cassandra pulled onto the highway and changed lanes.

Once in the back, he settled himself on the rear corner of the bed, while Adam settled himself against the window on the opposite side of the bed. "So, are you really Eadgils in there? Or is it Sue? Or both of you?" he opened.

"Eadgils, but Sue is here somewhere, I just can't reach her, other than in the Dreamscape." Eadgils answered.

"Dreamscape?" Adam queried.

"When we sleep, sometimes, we are somewhere. Wherever it is, it isn't real. But we are both there. We can talk, I was even able to teach her to fight."

"I tried. I taught her fencing. She was ok, but she lacked the spark, no fire, no drive. It was like she didn't really take it seriously." Adam answered, remembering. "Patrick said she killed Cassandra. I find that hard to believe. Was that you?"

Eadgils shook his head. "I know. You gave the girl a good foundation. But it took a long time to build on that foundation until she could take my head more often than not. One thing we learned in the dreamscape, if you take someone's head there, all it does is hurt."

"She can take your head? After three days?"

"Years. At least, it seemed like years. Time is different there. It is hard to explain. Anyhow, I had to teach her how to handle a Katana, and how to FIGHT with other blades. You never taught the girl how to even throw a blade. But we had the time. I practiced with her that second night, and again last night. She was able to take Cassandra after the second night. By now, she might even be able to take you." Eadgils added, with a slight edge in his voice.

"If she had to, that is good. Why do I feel like you want to take my head yourself? What have I ever done to you?" Adam asked.

"You killed me, and slaughtered my tribe. And later, I believe you killed my Teacher, Ralas."

Adam suddenly froze. Then he closed his eyes and sank back on the bed, until he was looking up at the ceiling.

"Ralas. Yes. I killed Ralas. I took his head, and he saved, or perhaps gave me my soul."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Eadgils asked angrily.

Adam continued to lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. After a moment he spoke.

"It was a few years after Cassandra had left. I was becoming restless, and perhaps even more vicious because of it. Perhaps not, I can think of things I did for fun long before that time in looking back now that were crueler than anything I did then, but none the less, I was no longer satisfied with simply torturing and killing the petty Mortals of this world.

"One day, an Immortal openly approached our camp, and he called Kronos out. But Kronos was not there at the moment. I was however. I approached him, and told him that by coming here, he was seeking death. When he agreed, I introduced myself, saying 'I am Death. You can face me now, and if by some chance you survive, you can face Kronos later.'

"Oddly enough, I was more than half hoping he would take my head. As I said, I was bored and tired of it all. And when we met, I learned that he was good. Perhaps he was even better than I was, at least in an honest fight. But I wasn't an honest man, and I fought dirty. For that matter, I still do. In the end, I caught him with a deceptive move, and knocked him to the ground, my blade taking his head with the next swing. And then the Quickening began.

"I was hit with more force than I had experienced since my first Quickening, almost two thousand years before. I was out for quite a while afterwards, and when I was finally able to rise, I was still a jumble of thoughts and emotions. Had one of my fellow horsemen attacked me at that point, I would have surely been killed without a fight. I made my way back to my tent, and went to sleep.

"My rest that night was anything but restful. I was visited by ghosts that night, for the first time in my memory. I saw the faces of the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people I had coldly killed. And with each face, I felt a stab of pain at what I had done, and a bit of horror at what I had become. I awoke in the morning screaming. And with a new emotion in my mind; remorse. I had never felt remorseful before that day. Even when I let Cassandra go, I was more upset for my own impending loss, not sorry for how I had treated her. Until I took Ralas's head, all I was concerned about was me. But afterwards, I realized that the others, they felt the same things I did. They counted as well. And that realization was horrible.

"I left the Horsemen that afternoon. I simply took my horse, my sword, and a light pack of belongings and rode away. I did a lot of things in the next few years, including founding the Watchers, to keep an eye on my fellow Immortals. Not so I could hunt them, but more so I could avoid them, without having to hide on Holy Ground."

"So you started the Watchers? What about the Hunters? Did you start them as well?" Eadgils growled.

"No. They started themselves, after one of our fellow Immortals killed his Watcher, and his son decided to get revenge. Actually, this is the fourth outbreak of them. The past three times had always been contained. Twice I had to step in, like I am doing this time, and the third time, the Watchers managed to police themselves, using the mechanisms I had installed after the previous two occurrences. Since I did start the Watchers, however, and the Hunters are a splinter group from them, then I suppose you could lay the blame for their existence at my feet. Including the deaths of almost a dozen Immortals, including Darius. But they were not my intent at any time, and I have always done what I could to contain the damage caused."

"So, you are saying that the last three times Hunters sprouted from your child you were able to prune them back, what went wrong this time?"

"Technology. As you recall, it used to take weeks, if not months to send a letter across the ocean. Ideas could spread no faster than horseback. And areas were more or less isolated. When a pool of Watchers were contaminated by a desire to kill Immortals, they were separated by time and geography from the other Watchers. It gave myself and the Tribunals time to find out about them and take action before they could spread their attitudes to their fellows. The very cell structure I had set up after the second such outbreak also helped to isolate them. But now days, an email can cross the world in moments, and my very cell design works as well against discovery as it does to isolate contamination. And these days, with globe trotting Immortals, there is so much cross contamination between Watcher Cells anyhow; that the cell structure really doesn't work for them anymore, but it does work well for the Hunters. Almost too well." Adam replied sadly.

"So what are you, or the Watchers going to do?" Eadgils asked Adam.

"I don't know. I do think that the first step though is to break down the barriers between Watchers and the Immortals they watch. It is harder to dehumanize someone you know than something you study. Joe and Duncan, or the new relationship I see springing up between Sally and Cassandra, may be one defense. Adding a more aggressive Internal Affairs division may be another. I haven't quite figured out how to fix the problem this time. I certainly can't kill all the affected Watchers and replace their records with sanitized versions designed to delete the concept of hunting Immortals. That was what the Watchers did in India back in 1894, and while it worked for them there, that seemed a bit extreme to even myself. However that was the order of the Tribunal. Tribunals were one of my attempts to fix the problem back in 1629. While it worked, it had adverse effects on the Watchers themselves. But whatever it is, something must be done."

"1894, and 1629. When were the other 2 outbreaks?" Eadgils asked coldly.

"It would have been around 410 AD, for the first one. Three Immortals were killed, and I myself killed the two Watchers involved. Two of the Immortals may have deserved it, one was about as bad as we come, he caught and killed his Watcher, but the Watcher's brother was also a Watcher. He found out what had happened to his brother, and who had done it, and he wanted vengeance. He involved another Watcher who also had a scumbag for a subject, and they steered their Immortals together, setting them up so they would go after one another's heads. When the winner was still recovering, they took his head as well. If they had left it at that, and resigned, then I could have lived with it. But they then went hunting. They tracked down another Immortal, and simply took her head. She hadn't even been involved in a fight in over 400 years according to the records. But her Watcher saw them kill her, and sent in an urgent report. I myself responded, and I tracked down the pair, and killed them both.

"The second outbreak was in 1629, in Spain. I didn't find out about it for almost a year that time. In the meantime we lost track of seven Immortals, and five Watchers. Two Watchers were confirmed dead, but the others were just gone. I gathered three of the more senior Watchers, including one who knew who, and what I was. We went to Spain to investigate. Once there, we picked up the trail of another Immortal who was trying to find what had happened to his friend, one of the missing seven Immortals. Shortly after arriving in Segovia, his Watcher was attacked by three other Watchers. The three senior Watchers, and myself stepped in, and captured the three local Watchers. I must admit, the inquiry raised by the Watchers was more inline with the Spanish Inquisition than a modern police interrogation. They determined that the local Watchers had decided that Immortals were agents of the devil, and led by a local priest, they had set about to exterminate them, sacrificing them on Holy Ground, and burying the decapitated corpses in unconsecrated earth behind the church's grounds. The Watchers who disagreed with them, were buried in the regular cemetery.

While Adam was talking, the Motor Home had pulled over to the side of the road, and Cassandra had traded places with Sally, who had resumed driving, as Cassandra headed towards the bathroom just outside the rear bedroom.

"The Watchers cleaned their own house that time, although I assisted where I could. They called in assistance from several different areas, and went hunting the Hunters. They included the priest and the local bishop on their game list, because both were involved. Eventually though, they believed they had successfully cleaned house. Most of the local records had been destroyed, so the three senior Watchers went ahead and burned the rest of the records, along with what had been the local Watcher Headquarters to the ground. They established strict punishments for any Watcher who would so violate their oath as to harm an Immortal deliberately, noting how since Watchers swore their life, should they violate that oath, their life was the logical forfeit.

"That was the birth of the Tribunal system of Watcher Regulation. I think the time has come to modify that system somehow. But for the life of me I can't figure out what to do."

Cassandra emerged from the bathroom, and leaned against the wall, looking into the bedroom. "Methos, what exactly happened to you? You are not like the man I once knew, and yet you are still him in many ways."

"I told Eadgils when we came back here a couple of hours ago, but I guess I owe it to you to repeat myself. I killed Ralas. And his Quickening helped me to see the horror and futility of my actions. I hadn't understood what had happened myself back then. But about fifteen hundred years ago, I ran across Darius again, however he was no longer the war leader who I had met before."

"When had you met him before?" Cassandra asked.

"Summer of 410, in Rome. I met Alaric, Athaulf, and Darius, along with his assistant Grayson and Grayson's new student, Callestina. They were in the process of sacking Rome at the time. The whole band was very reminiscent of my days with the Horsemen. I tried to convince Callestina she would be better off with myself as a teacher, but she was in love with Darius and wouldn't leave him.

"The next time I came across him, it was in Paris, in 585, he was a priest living in the Basilica of St. Julien. The man I met that evening was as different as can be from the war leader I had met in Rome. I asked him what had happened, and he told me he and Grayson had marched on Paris, and there they had encountered a single Immortal, a holy man who set out unarmed to stop an Army, and much like Ralas and the horsemen, lost his head, yet met his goal. Darius took his head, and when he awoke, he was filled with such a different perspective that he dismissed Grayson and the army, and himself took up residence in Paris, later taking vows and becoming a Catholic Priest. Darius and I talked for hours that night. He called the event a Light Quickening."

Cassandra nodded, and turned back towards the front, saying over her shoulder, "We will need to talk later, Methos. I still have many questions, but I meant what I said this morning about being glad now that I spared your life, despite the misgivings I suffered afterwards."

=================== ====================

Eadgils watched as Cassandra made her way to the passenger seat, then glanced at Sue's watch. It was already well past 1 in the afternoon. He and Adam had been back here talking for over two hours, and he still hadn't gotten the answers he himself had wanted, specifically what was Adam's involvement in Sue's life. "So Adam, I know I'm not really Sue, but you promised to tell what you knew of her father, and your involvement in his life when you were not on the phone. Will you tell me?"

Adam looked at Eadgils again appraisingly, then nodded. "It was the second time I had been living in California under the name of Dr. Robert Helm. The first time had been back in 1820, when I met my sixty eighth wife, Maria Teresa Alvarado. It was kind of a private joke to use the same name and in a way it was also to honor poor Maria's memory."

"Sixty eighth?"

"Yes. She was a wonder. She could take me with a sword, she was so good. You may not believe it, but the Zorro legend, it's based on her. Gods, I miss that woman."

"You were married to Zorro?"

"No, I was married to Maria Teresa Alvarado, but she was a fighter against the Spanish oppression in California in the early 1800's. She drove the local government's corrupt officials insane, because they couldn't believe a woman could best them, and at the same time they couldn't even figure out who she was. Over time, the legend became one of a man they could neither identify, best, or catch. That was the core of the Legend Of Zorro. But Maria, she was all woman, trust me.

"But that was almost two hundred years ago. This time it was the early 1980's, and I was working at Memorial Hospital, in Gardena California. I was working as a General Practitioner, but two days a week I also covered the Emergency room and Trauma Center. It was a small hospital, only about 175 beds, and the work was interesting, and made me feel good. Trust me, finding something interesting to do that gives you a worthwhile feeling is one of the most important things in the world."

"Um, Methos, I WAS almost four thousand years old, I knew that. Sue may be but a youngling, but I well know how boring it can be to live a life without purpose. I learned that long ago."

"Sorry. I forgot, I keep looking at you, and I see Sue. Damn, I hope she doesn't end up like Rojor did. I'd never forgive myself. It's my fault she was a Watcher, you know. As I said, I was working at Memorial, but during the rest of the week, I was in private practice. I had an office in the Medical Center across the street. Two of my patients were Peter Danning, and his young, pretty, and very pregnant wife Shelly."

"Sue's parents." Eadgils said, an image of Sue's dad floating in his mind's eye, along with that of a picture of a pretty redheaded young woman smiling from the mantle place in the living room.

"Yes. Peter and I were friends. He had no idea I knew about Immortals, or the Watchers. He claimed he was a courier, but I knew his tattoo. It was like a joke to me, that he was one of the senior Watchers in the Los Angeles area, and I, the oldest known Immortal was his physician, and friend. And he never suspected me. Not even afterwards.

"His wife was due any week, and he was looking forward to meeting his son. Even though they hadn't wanted to hear the results of the tests, he was certain he was going to have a boy. It was one of the things we would joke about. Every week I would give him and his wife a wrapped box, with some clothes for the future Danning baby. And they would stack it into the pyramid in the baby's room, which he had painted a pretty sky blue. And only I knew that the boxes were all little frilly dresses, or shirts with butterflies and flowers. Of course, he thought they were baby sized baseball uniforms, or little boy shirts and pants. He pictured blue shoes, to match the walls, not pink ones.

"He doted on Shelly. It would be fair to say she was his life, and the greatest joy of it was the gift of the new Son she would be giving him. The living symbol of their marriage made flesh, as he once told me.

"One evening, as I was making my rounds before starting my shift I the Emergency ward, I felt the tingle of a pre-Immortal. I was in the nursery, and there, amongst all the other babies, was a genuine 'Jane Doe'. Her mother had apparently abandoned her in the dumpster behind the hospital earlier that evening, and walked away. I knew the truth was probably much stranger, but even I have no idea where we come from. I gave up trying to figure out long ago.

"It was that night as I was covering the Emergency patients, putting casts on broken bones, and sewing stitches in gashes and cuts that an ambulance rolled in. Trauma case, a car crash with a pregnant woman. The woman was bleeding badly and the ambulance people didn't expect her to make it to the hospital even, but they were hoping to save the baby.

"Imagine my horror when they rolled Shelly into the Trauma center. She was bad. It really was a miracle that she had made it this far. But she was alive. And awake. She looked into my eyes, and said her last words. 'Save the baby, Please Rob, for Pete. I don't think I will make it, and he...' she died. Just like that, her last words never finished.

"I did an immediate emergency c-section, to try and excise the baby, but it was too late. Probably it had been too late in the ambulance. There wasn't anything wrong with her, not a bruise on her, but all the same, she was dead. And, I realized so was Pete's life. He had just lost his wife, his daughter, and his future, all in one swoop. I knew what Shelly had been trying to say, what her last words would have been, I could hear her voice in my head, haunting me, '...and he needs something to live for.' Because, Shelly was Pete's life. She was his universe. And without anything else, anything more, he might well just give up and die. I had seen it before.

"There was one other person in the room with me, Nurse Hammond. She and I had dated off-and-on a couple of times, once we even had dinner with Pete and Shelly. She looked at me, tears coming from her eyes, and said, 'It's ok, Rob. There wasn't anything more you could have done. You can't blame yourself.'

"I looked again at Shelly, and at the still form of the baby in the bassinette. And I came to a decision. I looked up at Kelly, and I said, 'There is one thing. It is wrong, and illegal, but in this case.'

"She didn't understand me, 'What are you saying? What more can you do?'

"I then told her, 'There's a Jane Doe, up in the nursery. Someone abandoned her outside just this evening. I know, it's wrong, and as I said, certainly illegal, but, what if Baby Doe were to die, and Baby Danning went home with Pete?'

"Kelly looked at me, and at the dead baby, and her mother. She looked again at the baby, then she looked up into my eyes, and said, 'What if the baby's mother comes back?'

"I knew that wouldn't happen, but there was no way I could explain my reasoning to Kelly. Instead, I told her. 'Then she will be given the sad news that by dumping a new born baby in a trashcan outside at night in April, that she killed her daughter. I would rather give a man I know would make a good loving father a reason to live, than return a baby to a woman who could throw a child away like it was a piece of un-needed furniture. I know it is illegal, but I can't do it without your help. You know Pete, remember when we met them?' I asked, looking again at Shelly's still form.

"'Yes', she said, her eyes following mine. 'I remember. And I remember how much he doted on Shelly, and couldn't stop talking about the baby. I remember.'

"'Well?', I asked her.

"There was silence for a long time. I could hear the water drip in the sink, and the sweep hand click on the clock over the door, the one by which I would have to record the time of death, or falsify the time of birth. Finally, she looked away from Shelly, and again met my eyes, avoiding looking at the bassinette. 'Ok' she said faintly, then with more volume she went on, 'How can we switch them?'

"I thought about it for a moment, then I pulled out the paperwork, and marked down the time of death for Sally, setting it five minutes from the current time. I took the dead baby, and cut and tied off the chord, then wiped off the fluids, washing the tiny, still warm body in the sink until it was clean. She would have been a beautiful baby.

"We took her body, and wrapped it up in a blanket, then Kelly proceeded me out of the Trauma room, and into the hallway. We made our way to the elevator, and up to Maternity on the second floor. Kelly then headed in to talk to Nurse Jacobson, the Nurse in charge of the Nursery, while I made my way down the rows of babies, stopping before Baby Doe. With a glance to insure Nurse Jacobson was thoroughly distracted by Kelly, I quickly picked up Baby Doe, pulled her ID bracelet off, and slipped it over the still arm of the dead infant. I then cradled Baby Doe in one arm, and arranged the body in the crib, so it looked like it was sleeping. Another glance at the desk to insure that Nurse Jacobson was still distracted, and I slipped out the door, and back to the elevator.

"I carried Baby Doe back into the Trauma room, and proceeded to weigh her, recording her stats, hand, and feet prints for posterity, as the child of Peter and Shelly Danning, born at 10:28pm, on April 14th, 1984."

"You swapped babies, traded lives with the dead infant and the baby pre-Immortal?" Eadgils asked

"Yes. And it was worth it. Pete showed up at a bit before three that morning. I had to tell him about Shelly. 'I'm sorry Pete. She was dying when she came in, there was nothing I, or anyone could have done. Her last words, were about you, and the baby.'

"Pete collapsed into one of the yellow plastic chairs. 'Dead?' was all he said, his face crumpling, and tears welling from his eyes.

"'Yes, I'm so sorry.' I told him.

"'What, what about my son, the baby?' he asked, sobbing.

"Kelly had headed up to Maternity as soon as Pete had some in, and I saw her coming out the doors from the elevator even as he asked that, a squirming bundle in her arms. I looked back at him, and smiled, and said, 'Well, there is a slight complication there'

"He shuddered, and looked up at me longingly. If I had any doubt about what we had done, it fled in that instant, and I think Kelly would agree. Later she hit me for being mean to him then, and she hit me HARD! I looked over and waved Kelly forward with her burden, and told him. 'SHE's just fine, but I somehow don't think Jacob will be a very good name for HER.'

"Kelly gently placed the baby in his arms, and he looked into her small face in wonder, then he looked up at me and said, 'She, she's got her mother's eyes.' And you know what? She DID have the same light green, almost gray eyes as Shelly had had.

"Kelly looked over at me sharply, and I just shrugged. A few months later, when Kelly and I were out on another date, she opined that perhaps it was meant to be. That somehow God, or an Angel or someone had sent Baby Doe that evening specifically for Pete. I agreed with her, and I still do. There are greater forces than Man at work in the world, I have seen them myself, and I know it's true."

"What happened to the real baby?" Eadgils asked.

"The morning nurse found her dead at the start of the shift. The body was cold, and stiff. Since she had been left outside for an unknown amount of time, and had no real identity, there was no autopsy done, it was ruled natural causes, possibly aggravated by exposure. The mother could have been charged with the death, had she later turned up, but no one really looked. I made arrangements for her to be buried with her real mother though. I had to pay off the mortuary, to let me slip her into the coffin with Shelly, but it makes me happier to think of them still together."

The RV had pulled off the highway again, and was now driving on surface streets, somewhere. Eadgils told Adam, "I'm not sure if you did the right thing or not, or what Sue will think of this, but at least it answers several questions I had. Thanks Adam."

Eadgils climbed off the bed where he realized had been sitting for almost four hours, and headed towards the front, where he pulled Patrick's feet off the couch, dropped them on the floor, and sat down where they had been. "Thanks Patrick." He said.

Turning to Sally, he asked the back of her head, "Where we at?"

Sally turned left, onto another street, and answered, "Someplace called Hydro Oklahoma. I'm hungry, and so were Cassandra and Patrick, so we are following a billboard to someplace called the Graffiti Grill."

Patrick spoke up from beside her, where he was now sitting up, "It said they had pizza, sandwiches and homemade desserts. The picture looked downright tasty."

"Ok. I suppose I could stand to eat before it's my turn to drive." Eadgils said, looking back as Adam came up and sat at the table across from him.

Patrick looked nervously at Adam, as Sally pulled off the road and into a parking lot.

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They piled out of the Motor Home, and straggled into the classic Route 66 dinner.

Obtaining a table, they were seated, and put their orders in.

Finally, Patrick spoke, "Cassandra?"

"Yes, Youngling?"

"What makes you a witch?"

Adam interrupted at that point, "It's obvious, Patrick. She weighs the same as a duck."

Cassandra rolled her eyes and Sally snorted, then coughed, as she had been taking a sip of water when Adam spoke.

"A duck?" Patrick asked, looking over at Cassandra, then back at Adam.

Sally was grinning now as she answered. "A Duck. It is quite logical, you know. Witches burn. So does wood. Wood floats, and so do Ducks, so if she is a witch, then she must weigh the same as a Duck. Put her and a duck on a balance scale, and if it stays level, then she's a witch."

Cassandra was now looking askance at Sally. Patrick was still staring at Cassandra, as the food came.

Finally, after eating half of her sandwich, and noticing Patrick hadn't touched the pizza before him, she spoke, "It is not my weight, Youngling. Though at times I wish I was as light as a Duck. It is my Avocation, and partly my religion, though I am no more a Wiccan than I am a Christian."

"What do you mean?" he asked, finally moving towards his food.

"When I was young, I was trained to be a Healer. In those days, the Healer was not a doctor, though that was one of her primary tasks. She was also the equivalent of the wise-woman, shaman, or priestess. We didn't have any Gods we worshiped, though we acknowledged the existence of forces far greater than ourselves. But my learning was to study things as different, yet intertwined as what today is called Psychology, Biology, and parapsychology. Reading of emotions was a Talent I was given. Reading of minds is also possible, though not in the look into someone's eyes and listen to their words in your head as they are thinking, much of thought is in images not words, and an even greater part is in neither.

"But I was taught how to meditate, and in such a meditation, to bring my mind into congruence with that of another, allowing our thoughts to flow together, as essentially one mind. There were other techniques I learned, such as The Voice, a particular way of both speaking and thinking which can compel others. Then there was the Herbal Lore. Which plants did what, and how to use combinations of them to do anything from cure diseases to making people sleep, to killing or causing injury.

"I learned how to do all these things, and to touch my own spirit, and the spirits of the world around me. 'Mother Earth' or 'Gaia' as some would call it. I learned the ways of the spirit world, and some of the beings which inhabit it. Some are called Gods or Demons by various peoples. Ghosts, fairies, sprites. I learned what our people knew of them all, how to contact them, to bargain with them, to fight them if need be.

"When I was first living in Donan Wood, and the local people came across me, they found I was a healer. They were very happy to have someone knowledgeable in the arts living near by. But as the years passed, and they noticed I was not aging they began to fear my power. As Christianity came to the area, I was considered a Witch, and given the title, 'Witch Of Donan Wood', not as an honor, but to brand me as an evil to be frightened of. But I took their title, and I made it my name. Never did I cause harm, save to those who came to cause me harm themselves. When once a party came to burn me, for example, I admit I sprayed powdered pepper into the mob, blinding their eyes, and putting a stop to the whole lot of them. But I also led them back to the village one at a time, and washed their eyes out. That was the only time a concerted effort to 'deal with the witch' was made.

"Eventually, they came to accept me. These days I am a local legend, not really believed in by anyone who knows better. Sometimes one or two people will seek me out, ask me to help in some way, or to place a curse on someone. Those seeking curses, I simply send away, but those seeking aid I do my best for. My cottage is on Holy Ground, a blessed circle, so I need not worry for my head at home, and the woods are familiar to me now, after over a thousand summers and winters. Donan Wood is my home, and Witch is my title. Does that answer your question, Youngling?"

"Yes. I suppose so."

"Was there something else?" she asked.

"My, well, the Curse you said I have. What is it?"

"I mentioned the beings who live in the sprit realm? Someone has marked you. They have made a deal, or in some way compelled some of the nastier beings to cause you harm. It has more the feel of a voodoo curse, which is based on a bargain or an exchange, then a Gypsy curse, which is a compulsion, done as a favor for the cursor."

"So, someone asked these spirit thingies to kill me?"

"No, Youngling, far worse than that. They asked them to destroy you, and THEN kill you. Which they have done. I am wondering if the entities are starting to regret their pact yet."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it takes energy for them to affect the physical world. For them to influence events requires an effort. The amount of effort and energy depends on the type and amount of influence they exert. Beings like these, call them Loa, they will strike a bargain for some amount of energy, or something else they want, and in exchange they will accomplish a task. Usually, the payment they demand is based on the effort they will have to expend. A small life-force, in exchange for pushing someone at the right time to make the fall down some stairs, for example."

"So?"

"So, after they finished destroying you, they were supposed to kill you. Which they did. But, unfortunately for all the other parties involved, you didn't quite stay dead, now did you?"

"You mean, because I'm Immortal?"

"Yes. Tell me, how many times have you died in the past few days?"

Patrick flushed red. In the ensuing silence, Eadgils offered a reply for him, "He was shot, fell down the stairs, was electrocuted, and pounded by a pole. Four times."

Patrick shook his head, "No. Six times. I drowned in the bathtub last night, and slipped in the shower this morning on a bar of soap."

Cassandra nodded. "So, what they bargained to do, and thought would be done by now, they have had to go back, at least five more times to do the dead, and STILL you walk the earth. I think by now they are getting pretty upset with whoever commissioned them for this task."

"So, what happens? Do I just keep getting killed for the rest of my life?" Patrick asked.

"No, Youngling. I must find these entities and 'Call off the hit' so to speak. If they learn that they have been set an impossible task, they may well turn on the one who set them to it instead. Or, perhaps I can simply persuade them that they DID accomplish their task, that of making you die. That all the extra effort they have expended since then is just a waste of time and energy on their part, and they may as well report back, 'mission accomplished'. It really depends on which specific spirits, and types of spirits are after you, and who and how they were commissioned to this task."

"So, you can stop it, sometime soon?" Patrick asked. "'Cause I'm really getting tired of dyin'."

Standing up from the table, with the check in hand, she replied, "I can try, Youngling. I can try."

The rest of the party shuffled out to the RV while Cassandra paid the bill, and Eadgils settled in behind the steering wheel to take his turn at driving.

Once Cassandra had joined them in the car, Adam in the Passenger seat, Patrick and Sally on the couch, and Cassandra sitting at the table, Eadgils fired up the engine, and made his way back to highway 40, west.

He drove on into the afternoon, crossing the border into Texas, and finally pulling over in Shamrock for Gas, and to trade places with Adam.

Once the tanks were refilled, for the rock-bottom cost of only $145, Adam pulled them back out on the road, and headed off into the sunset, then the night beyond, finally coming to a stop at a Howard Johnson's in Amarillo Texas for the night at eight thirty that evening.

Everyone headed into the hotel, where Eadgils was again able to get a separate, but connected room for himself and Patrick, while Adam, Cassandra, and Sally were able to get their own rooms as well.

Eadgils carried in his laptop, which he hooked up, dialing in to check on his various accounts, and send messages to his various trustees to let them know he was still around, something he found ironic considering the fact that he was really already dead, and likely buried by now.

After a quick shower, he lay back on the bed, watching TV, until he finally drifted off to sleep.

========================== ==========================

Sue comes to grips with the realizations spawned by the revelations in the last chapter, and Cassandra tries to teach her some new tricks.

Act II
Road Trip

Chapter Twenty
Regrets And Memories
by Dana Short

Sue was crying softly as she sat in her old bedroom. The sky blue walls were covered here and there with boy-band posters, and other posters and pictures of interest to her from when she was growing up. Outside, a gentle rain was falling, punctuated occasionally by distant thunder.

Eadgils knocked on the door, and poked his head inside. "Sue?"

She looked up and nodded, motioning to a spot beside her on the bed.

Eadgils took a seat beside the quietly crying Sue, and reached an arm around her, offering a hug.

"He, he really wasn't my Dad, was he?"

"Of course he was. Sue, when you were little, who held you when you were scared, who bandaged your wounds? Who taught you the ways of the world, protecting you all the time, wasn't it your Father?"

Sue nodded. "Yes."

"Then he was as much your father as if you had sprung from his loins."

"But, it, It was a lie. I really wasn't his daughter. She died, with her mother."

"Sue, in my life I have seen many wonders, and many mysteries. Where we come from is one I have never heard of being answered, and trust me, many of us have tried to find our origins. But there ARE powers in this world greater than ourselves. I can easily believe that we do not come without a purpose. Tell me, Girl, what would have happened to your father had Methos not acted as he did?"

"He would have been alone."

"Exactly. Even had he known your origin, do you really think he would have loved you any less?"

"I, I don't know. He might have. Especially if he knew what I was."

"Really? Do you in your heart, where you keep his memory, truly believe that?"

Sue took a deep breath then let it out again, reaching up to wipe the tears out of her eyes. Finally she said in a small voice, "No."

"Then in every way that counts, he was your Dad. He loved you, and you him. That is the secret of a family, not the genes or blood; it is the love that ties people together. Cherish your memories of your father, and the stories he told you of your mother as well, for she certainly would have loved you as well. Besides, as Adam said, you have her eyes. Who is to say that somehow, you aren't truly the child born of their love. No one knows how we come to be; perhaps some power, seeking to save you from the accident, acted in some way we can never know? It makes as much sense as anything else."

"I suppose. It is possible, as much as anything else, I mean. At least I can believe it, because even though I never met her, it would hurt to lose my mother as well."

"Then don't lose her. Keep her in your heart, along with your father. That way, they can be together, for eternity."

"Yes. Thank you Ed." Sue said, sitting up straighter finally.

"You are welcome. I'll leave you alone, for a while. I'm sure you can find me if you need me."

Eadgils got up, and walked out of the room, as a ray of sunlight came through the window, and a bird began to sing in the yard outside.

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Eadgils sat in the Dojo of the Mind, his sword across his lap, and he contemplated both his current situation, and the stories he had heard that day from Adam/Methos/Death. Perhaps not Death, the man he had met today was not the person Cassandra had told him of all those years ago. Death would not have risked anything to swap out a dead baby for a live one to help a mortal for any reason. Death would never of spent time training Sue in the use of the foil. Death surely wouldn't have traveled all this way just to check on some potential Immortal, and make sure they were all right. He would have killed them long ago, and taken their head.

Based on his own experience with Darius, both before and after his 'Conversion', Eadgils could understand how the death of his Teacher could have so completely altered Death. To some extent, he wondered, was Ralas still around, inside Methos, acting as a conscience, much like he was haunting Sue's mind? On one level, he would like to believe so.

Eadgils rose at a sound behind him, and turned around, expecting to see Sue. The image of Cassandra standing before the open, uncivilized eastern European plains of millennia past surprised him. "Cassi?" he asked, hesitantly.

"Eadgils. Where is the child?"

"Last I saw her, she was in her room" he replied with a grin for his old student and lover.

"Her room?"

"Yes. She was still adjusting to what Methos told me today."

"What was that?"

"The story of how a Dr. Robert Helm came to switch the stillborn corpse for a newly found Immortal infant, to give a man who had just lost everything something to live for."

"How did he know about this, was it in a Chronicle?"

"No, Methos WAS Dr. Robert Helm before he joined the Watchers as Adam Pierson ten years ago. Quite a change from the Death we knew here." Eadgils said, sweeping a hand across the open expanse, light now by the afterglow of a recently set sun, the plants disturbed occasionally by the drifting breeze.

"I would say so. He does seem different. I understand now why Duncan asked me to spare him."

"Did you know him well, this Duncan?"

"He still lives. Duncan MacLeod can be found in Paris, or in Seacouver, depending on the season."

"I never met him. I crossed paths once with Connor, but never with Duncan. Probably for the best; despite his protests, I still think he has to be some sort of really clever Headhunter. Instead of going looking, they come to him. I have heard of too many Immortals losing their heads around him to ever feel comfortable."

"Duncan is a good man, Eadgils. He has honor, and will only fight when challenged, or to defend others. It is his reputation which draws the Headhunters to him, no deliberate act of his own. He even changes addresses fairly often, just to try and find some peace."

"If you say so, Cassi, I will believe you. You said you knew him as a child, so perhaps you are not the best judge; but he seems to be friends of friends of Sue, so he may not be bad after all. Who knows, if Methos, the Pale Rider himself can change from being a sociopathic killer, to a man worthy of friendship and trust, then anything is possible."

"I don't know yet that Methos, or Adam is worthy of the trust others place in him, but from what I have seen, I think I am willing to give him a chance. I hadn't considered it at the time when I was standing over him with an Ax in Bordeaux a few years ago, but he could have killed me in Seacouver, or let Silas kill me in Bordeaux, yet both times he acted to save my life. He even told me I should not blame myself for having thought I felt something for him, he even reminded me of the Stockholm syndrome, where prisoners come to associate with their captors. It was like he wanted to help me heal my wounds. And as I stood over him, he himself made no plea for his life; he just knelt at my feet, awaiting my judgment and sentence. It was after I had returned home to Glenfinnan that I was able to reflect on things more rationally, and I realized he may have WANTED me to kill him. I realized that by letting him keep his head, I may have been punishing him even more."

"I don't claim to understand, but I do think you are different yourself from the woman I knew three thousand years ago. She was cold, and haughty. She hid herself behind a shield of self importance, and she almost never laughed or smiled. I have seen you do both. The Cassandra I knew would have killed Methos for making a joke at her expense at dinner last night, but you, you almost played along."

"I think I have changed. I hope I have. A life lived for vengeance is not a life lived at all. Duncan told me that once, after Bordeaux."

"Great wisdom for one so young," Eadgils said, giving Cassandra a hug.

"It is so good to find you again, Larar."

"No one has called me Teacher in the old tongue for thousands of years, Cassi."

"You should teach it to your student."

"Sue can not be my student, Cassi. I am dead."

"You seem pretty active for a ghost." Cassandra said smiling up at him.

"But that is all I may be. That or a demon, possessing this poor young girl's body."

"You're not a demon," came Sue's voice from behind them on the hill, as she walked through the soft grass, climbing to join them at the top of the gentle slope they realized they had been standing on for some unknown time.

"How do you know what I am? Methos's story showed what happened the last time, insanity and death. Why that hasn't happened to you yet, I have no idea, but my fear is that it is only a matter of time."

"What you are Eadgils, is my friend, and my teacher. De bent Eadgils, Larar duen mi."

Eadgils stood in shock as Cassandra giggled at the ancient title falling casually from Sue's lips.

"I guess you don't have to teach her the old tongue after all," Cassandra said.

Sue looked at Cassandra and asked her, "What language is that, anyhow? It sounds like German, but it isn't."

"It had no name. It was a mixture of many different languages, some of which later evolved to Latin, Greek, even German, English, and French have echoes of it today." Cassandra replied.

"How do I know how to speak it? I never even heard it before Cassandra called you 'Larar'," Sue asked, diverting the subject slightly.

Eadgils tried to explain, "I'm not sure. It could be because the information, like everything else I know or remember, is actually inside your head, you just need to figure out how to access it. I know when I'm awake, I know things only you could have known, almost like an echo of you from the back of my mind. When you're awake, it's more like I'm just watching a movie or something. I know what's going on; I can see and hear everything you do, but I can't do anything. I've even tried to shout at you at times, but you never seem to hear me."

"I never shout at you. I don't seem to be able to even think when you are awake. For me it is like I just wake up, remembering what you did as though I was the one who did it, but I wasn't really there at the time at all. Does that make any sense?" Sue asked in confusion.

Eadgils looked to Cassandra then back to Sue. "Not to me. Cassi, do you have any ideas?"

Cassandra looked over at both Sue and Eadgils, then slowly shook her head. "I've never heard of an intermingling of minds and souls like this before. About the closest similarity I have ever heard of would be a Possession, although I never personally encountered one of those. I do know this though, when I first met Sue, she had the Quickening of a newly awakened Immortal. When I felt Eadgils yesterday, the Quickening was significantly stronger. That's another development I've never heard of before. I leaned long ago the basics of sensing, focusing, and shaping my Quickening, I taught the basics of those skills to Eadgils even as I figured them out myself back then. But I have never been able to suppress or hide it, and that would be a useful skill, if I had any idea how such a feat could be accomplished.

Cassandra shrugged and went on, "Since your Quickening seems to change, you are either doing so subconsciously, or you are truly two separate people in a single body somehow. If that is the case, one explanation could lead from the fact that this is Sue's actual body. Perhaps since her memories are native to it, Eadgils can read them, but since Eadgils's memories are not native to the body, they are only slowly seeping into the shared brain for Sue to access. As for why Eadgils can view Sue's waking hours, but Sue can only remember them, I am not sure. I would almost expect it to be the other way around, and it makes no sense to me. Then again, I don't even understand how I can be here, wherever this is. I'm not a Dreamwalker, yet somehow I have ended up here twice now."

"So neither one of you have any answers. Great!" Sue grumped, sitting on the mat in the Dojo, and laying her Katana across her lap.

Cassandra looked down as she realized she was now holding her own blade casually in her right hand, and Eadgils was holding his as well as he stood beside her on the mat. She looked around at the dojo which had reappeared as suddenly and unnoticeably as it had vanished when Sue showed up. "Does this happen often?" she asked Eadgils.

"More than you even notice, around here. I tend not to pay attention anymore, myself."

Cassandra looked again at her blade, then at Eadgils's, and grinned. "So, mein Larar, shall we spar?"

Eadgils nodded slowly. "It has been a long time."

Eadgils and Cassandra took up positions on the mat well away from where Sue sat watching them, and began to fight.

Cassandra noted that she did not seem to tire, that when she was cut, she did not bleed, but that it did hurt. Especially when Eadgils suddenly stepped in and moved in a way which seemed impossible, and his heavy blade sliced swiftly through her neck, in what she was positive was a terminal blow. Yet aside from the pain throughout her neck, there was no apparent damage. "That was, interesting." Cassandra said.

"Yes. You should have seen me the first time Sue did that to me here, when I was training her in handling the katana instead of a foil. It was the second time I expected everything to be over, and nothing happened. But it simplified training. She didn't have to pull her blows, and I could train her reflexes until she took the swings without hesitation. The girl is good, and she tends to 'kill' me more often than I do her anymore."

"How long - how long did you spend training her?"

"Only night before you fought her the other day, but time is different here. I don't know if you have noticed it yet or not, but we could stay here fighting for hundreds of hours, and never tire. While I've only had two nights to work with her here, if it was in the real world, it would have been several years of lessons. I think I have spent more time sparring with her here than I did with you those first hundred years."

Cassandra looked speculatively at the girl sitting on the mat, the katana cradled in her lap, then nodded. "She fought well when I tested her. I was shocked; I expected an easy victory so I could show the upstart child just how much she needed my help; instead I awoke on the floor, killed by a blow I hadn't expected, from a blade I had barely had a chance to see."

"I taught her that trick," Eadgils affirmed.

"It was not the only one she used in that fight. As I said, I was shocked by her skills. I was almost more shocked to see Methos's moves from her. But if you had long enough here to train her, added to what her 'Adam' showed her before she first died, it makes sense that I underestimated her. My ego is no longer quite as bruised."

"You should work with her though, I am sure there are things she could learn from you I would never know to teach her. Would you mind?" Eadgils asked.

Cassandra looked at Sue, who looked back at her silently from her seat on the floor.

"I would not mind, but would she learn, that is the question. The child told me in no uncertain terms she didn't need me as a Teacher."

Sue finally spoke from her position on the floor. "I'm sorry, Cassandra. I already apologized to Eadgils last night for how I had behaved towards him the night before we met. I think my bad mood carried over to you as well. I had been feeling more than a bit out of control with my life at the time, and I was rude at best. Please, forgive me for my attitude towards you. If you are willing to help teach me, I am more than willing to learn."

Cassandra looked thoughtfully at the girl seated at her feet, then looked back at Eadgils, and finally nodded. "Ok. Stand up, and let me take your measure again. I will see what I can teach you of fighting. Then, if we still have time, we will start on seeing what, if anything I can show you of using your own mind."

As Sue stood up and faced Cassandra, Eadgils grinned and slipped back into the shadows of the Dojo of the Mind, where he could watch his two students meet one another in combat, his first and his last.

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Sue sat before the campfire on the plains, listening to the voice of Cassandra speaking softly in her ears, and tried to visualize her Quickening as a field spreading out from her body. Eadgils had slipped away sometime after Cassandra had tired of sparring endlessly with Sue, stating that it was time to teach her other things. Things more difficult than merely hacking and slashing with a metal blade.

Sue was having little luck with sensing her Quickening though, and as she tried it occurred to her that perhaps this was not a lesson which could be learned here. She had not felt Cassandra's approach here, nor had she ever felt Eadgils's. "Cassandra?" she asked finally.

"I told you to be still, Child. You will never be able to feel your field if you keep interrupting instead of meditating."

"I am sorry, Larar. But I had a question. Can you feel your Quickening here?"

Cassandra was silent for a long time, only the crackling of the fire and the stirring of the soft winds disturbing the night. Finally she spoke in a soft voice, "No. I can't."

"Then perhaps I am not such a total failure after all," Sue said, sitting up and looking across the flames at the woman seated there. "This might not be something I can learn, here. I'm sorry for wasting your time."

"It was not necessarily a waste, Child. Perhaps in the daytime, when you are moving around in the real world, you can try to apply these techniques I have tried to teach you this evening. It may be that this time we have spent fruitlessly will instead have been little more than an investment. You seem to understand the principles, it is the applications you fail at, and if that's because this realm causes you to fail, then you may well have learned what I tried to teach, if you applied it in the waking world."

Sue nodded, and was about to answer when a distant alarm bell began to jangle.

Cassandra looked around in surprise, asking, "Do you hear that sound? It sounds familiar."

Sue nodded, and said "I think I know what it is, this has happened before now." Even as the fire faded, letting the darkness close in while the distant bell grew louder and louder.

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