Title: Eternal Flame
Author: scgirl_317
Summary: A beheading in Cascade draws media attention, but the victim is not who everyone thinks he is. This leads to rekindled loves, startling revelations, a moral dilemma, complicated explanations, and a mortal bent on exposing Immortals to the world (again). Flashbacks are in italics.
Spoilers: Takes place after the end of both series, so pretty much anything is fair game. Plus, this is set somewhere around the year 2000, after Highlander: Endgame, though there are only vague references to it.
Author's Note: I could not reconcile with existing Highlander cannon. 5.18, "The Modern Prometheus" places Methos in England in 1814, while 6.11, "Indiscretions" has him in New Orleans ten years prior. I could find no logical or feasible way for him to be in Georgia in 1820 and have both be true. So I decided to do what I normally do and pretend everything between 5.20, "Archangel" and 6.12/13, "To Be"/"Not to Be" never happened, thus negating any cannon established in said time frame.
The clock ticked closer to 1:45, and she could tell her students were getting restless. It was a common fact known among the faculty that the closer it got to the end of class, the antsier students became. Add to that the fact that probably half hadn't had lunch, and that made for short attention spans. She was in a good mood, so she took pity on them and let them go early.
Phoenix Red Hawk had been a professor of Native American history at Rainier University for about five years. When coming up with her current incarnation, she had decided she wanted to teach, passing on her vast knowledge gained from six hundred years of life among the Cherokee. It wasn't hard to fudge the credentials necessary to become a college professor, and computerized records made forging them even easier. The only catch was her eternally young appearance. No one thought she was old enough to be a college professor, but then, no one knew her real age.
The sun was nearing the horizon when Little Bird—who, in over five hundred years, would be known as Phoenix Red Hawk—woke. Her husband would be joining the hunting party that day, so she made sure to be up when he was. It had been nearly twelve moons since she became the bride of the chief's son at nineteen years of age.
Along with the other women in the village, she packed supplies for the men. They might not return until nightfall, so they would be in need of rations as well as water skins.
The sun had not yet topped the trees when the men set off. Little Bird joined her sister by the stream to check the traps that had been set the evening before. She had refused to give up her duties when she became the chief's daughter, and he had let her. They had checked all but the last trap when a loud cry from the village drew their attention. Fearing some trouble, they rushed back.
When they reached the village, the sight before them rooted them in their tracks.
A band of renegade warriors was tearing through the huts. The bodies of men who remained behind were bloodied and strewn across the ground. The attackers were killing the animals and raping the women. Little Bird cried out when she saw the beaten and bloody body of her mother.
Rage overcame her, but her small size worked against her, and she was easily overpowered. The renegade dragged her to the ground, and forced himself on her. She futilely fought against him, but his strength was too great.
Once he was done with her, he tossed her inside a burning cabin, blocking the doorway. She tried to force the barricade, but she was too weak. Flames consumed the hut, eating away at her flesh in the process.
Voices of mourning were the next thing Little Bird heard. Coughing to clear the smoke from her lungs, she sat up, finding the home she was in burned to the ground. Her clothes had been mostly burned away. However, her flesh remained as pure as the day before.
Before she could make sense of what had happened, a pair of arms enveloped her. She took comfort in her husband, knowing only that for some reason, the spirits had spared her.
She returned to her office and began sorting out her papers for the next day when the tingling sensation she knew all too well settled in her head. It had been years since she had last felt the buzz of another Immortal, certainly not since she had been in Cascade. She had thought she was safe, but apparently her haven had been compromised.
Keeping her desk between her and the door, she pulled her jian from its scabbard. The folded steel blade felt heavy in her hands, but not unfamiliar. It was one of the things she regretted about her continued existence, that it depended upon the deaths of others. But there could be only one; it was the one rule they all lived by.
The door to Phoenix's office opened and the encroaching Immortal entered. His dark features and large size would have him pegged him for the villain in any spaghetti western. She didn't recognize him, and she remembered the faces of every Immortal she had ever met.
"Who are you?" she asked, not needing to know why he had come.
The Immortal chuckled. "Is that any way to talk to a guest?" he asked.
"You came to me," Phoenix reminded him. "Who. Are. You."
"All you need know is what I came to do," he stated, pulling a sword out from underneath his black duster.
"Forgetting something?" she chimed, raising her own sword just enough to make a point. She nodded towards her still open door. "Our games aren't for spectators."
Sure enough, the hallway beyond the door was filling with students and teachers now that most classes had let out. The Immortal gave her a patronizing sneer.
"No problem. Some other time."
He placed the sword back underneath his coat and left the office.
"Better not be in this lifetime," she muttered at his retreating back, re-sheathing her sword once she knew he was gone.
Phoenix managed to return to her previous task and put on some semblance of normalcy that masked her inner tension. For days, she had had a sense that something was about to upset her relatively quiet life. Now, she was pretty sure of what was about to happen.
An hour passed after the Immortal had left her office when a knock at her door drew her attention away from the papers she was grading. All of her fears faded away when she saw who was there.
"Dare I enter?" Blair Sandburg joked, crossing the threshold.
Phoenix smiled, standing and rounding her desk to greet her beau of four years with a kiss. Blair always managed to cheer her up.
"Always," she replied, wrapping her arms around is neck.
Blair pulled back and studied her for a second. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," she lied all too easily.
"Come on, the lunch rush has cleared out from that café down the street that you like, so I'm taking you out for a treat."
"I guess I can leave for a little bit," Phoenix replied with false reluctance.
Blair smiled and waited while Phoenix locked up her office. The café was on a street that bordered Rainier, so they simply walked. They sat at a table outside and Blair ordered a chocolate gelato. Ordinarily, she would have savored the decadent desert, but instead she merely poked it with her spoon.
"Okay, Phoenix, what's up?" Blair asked.
"What makes you think anything's wrong?" Phoenix replied, filling with fear that she had been found out.
"You should be diving into this stuff," he pointed out. "Instead, you've hardly eaten three bites. Something's bothering you."
"I'm sorry, I guess my head's not all here," she shrugged. "Midterms are coming up. I'm behind on grading papers. I guess my head's back in the office." She looked up at him, hoping he bought her lie. "I'm sorry. Here I am drifting off. Banks gave you the detective's exam results today, right?"
Blair grinned, and that told her all she needed to know.
"Oh my gosh!" Phoenix jumped up and kissed him thoroughly. "I'm so proud of you," she whispered.
"Hey, the guys want to go out tonight to celebrate," Blair began.
She read his unspoken question. "Go. Have fun! You're a Cascade PD detective, now! If the guys want to take you out, let them. We can celebrate on our own later," she added seductively.
Blair nodded relieved as Phoenix returned to her seat and dug into the slightly melted treat. For now, she would forget about the other Immortal and enjoy the day.
Phoenix had been going over papers when her stomach finally decided to make its demands known. A glance at the clock across from her couch told her it was almost nine o'clock and that she'd been at it for several hours straight. Not wanting to make anything herself, she grabbed a jacket and headed down to the hot dog stand a couple blocks over.
She had gotten the food and was on her way back to her apartment when she felt the presence of another Immortal. She guessed it was the same Immortal that had come to her office that morning, but she hoped it was one on more friendly terms. Her cautious side winning out, she followed the buzz into a side alley and drew her sword.
The lone street lamp cast an eerie hue on the other Immortal, reflecting harshly off of his blade. The size of her opponent's falcion made her glad that her jian had been handcrafted of only the strongest steel.
The pair dispensed with formalities and immediately began circling each other. Phoenix was content to let him make the first move. She was at a size disadvantage, at five foot two versus his good six foot four, so she would have to outlast him.
The attacker swung, Phoenix barely dodging the blade as it passed precariously close to her neck. Using her smaller size as an asset, she easily ducked his advances, her strikes purely defensive as she waited for him to tire. She watched him, waiting for any opening or sign of faltering.
Eventually, it came. Her opponent over committed, his strike going wide, leaving his side fully exposed. She took advantage of his fatal mistake and struck, driving her blade deep into his side. He fell to his knees and she removed her blade and swung, liberating his head from the mammoth body.
She had a moment to catch her breath before the Quickening overtook her. The ferocity with which it enveloped her made it quite clear that this Immortal was a head hunter, and a good one.
Once the Quickening faded, she wasted no time leaving the body. Taking heads had been that hardest thing to learn when she learned what she was. She could easily count the number of heads she had taken in her six hundred years. She had no taste for killing.
She got back to her apartment and set the food on the counter. Having lost her appetite, she left it there and went back to her bathroom. She splashed some water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror. Even though it was impossible, she thought she looked like she had aged by at least ten years. Her stomach churned as the other Immortal's power settled over her; head hunters had never set right with her.
She had no mind to return to her work tonight, so she curled up on her bed, hoping she would fall asleep swiftly and that her dreams would not be plagued by her victory.
The mattress shifting woke Phoenix just over an hour later. Even in her altered state of mind, she knew not to worry. She could not stop the smile that came when Blair wrapped his arms around from behind her. Unable to resist, she turned over in his arms so she could bury her face in his shirt, inhaling his scent.
"You okay?" Blair asked.
"I will be," she said, looking up to meet his eyes.
"What happened?"
"Nothing you need to worry about," she replied, placing a light kiss on his lips to end the line of questioning.
Blair nodded. He knew there was nothing more she would say on the matter, so he did not press further. So instead, he simply tightened his hold on her, hoping he could keep away whatever devil had spooked her.