The Eye Of The Dragon

by Praetorian Guard

Edited re-post (see Author's Note.) Richie stumbles across the biggest cover up in immortal history.

Disclaimer: The characters from Highlander belong to Rysher. I'm just temporarily borrowing them and (unfortunately) I'm not getting paid for it. All other characters are mine. Please don't sue me if my historical time line is a little bit off. Do not post or publish this story anywhere else, without my express permission. Feel free to share it with others as long as the disclaimers remain intact.

Author's Note: I wrote and posted this story a couple years ago, but a reader (thank you Louise) was kind enough to point out to me that there were a few blaring, impossible-to-ignore inconsistencies, as well as a few hideous spelling and grammatical errors, so I did some editing/re-writing and I think I took care of most of them. If anyone finds more, please let me know! I always love reading reviews, good or bad (hint hint hint) so if you have a minute when you're finished, let me know what you think. Writers can't improve without criticism :-) Enjoy and, as always, thanks for reading!

Eye Of The Dragon

Here's the basic run-down of how the system works. Immortals fight to the death, the loser losing more then just his or her pride; the winner taking all that their opponent was, is, and could have been, whether good or bad, strong or weak, sane or otherwise. The Watchers record everything: who lives and who doesn't, where Immortals live, how they live, and who is involved in their lives. But did anyone ever think that maybe that wasn't all there is to it? Maybe there was someone else who kept track of everything, Watchers and Immortals? What if there was? The only question then is, if the Watchers watch the Immortals, who watches the Watchers?

Flashback:
Mid-January, 1976
Summer Robinson raced along the dark streets as fast as she dared. It was 3:00 am and she knew there wouldn't be anyone but rent-a-cops out at this time of night, but she couldn't afford the delay. Joe Dawson had called about fifteen minutes ago and something was very wrong. He had been shaking so badly when he called her that he had dropped the phone…twice. He hadn't said what was going on…just that he needed her to come over right away. She, of course, had left instantly. On the drive over she wondered what the problem could be. Joe was not the kind of guy to lose his cool. Maybe his temper, but not his cool.
Summer had been thinking about Joe so much that she wasn't really looking at what she was doing. She was jolted out of her thoughts as she hit a patch of ice and started to slide. As she fought to regain control of her car, it slammed into a snow drift and, having not taken the time to put on a seat belt, Summer was launched through the windshield. She flew through the air for about twenty feet and then hit the ground hard. The fall killed her instantly.
A few moments later she rolled over onto her back and groaned. It only took a few seconds to asses the damage she had done to herself. Besides the broken neck that had killed her, there was a broken leg, a dislocated shoulder, three broken ribs, multiple contusions and a concussion. It was a lot to handle all at once, but she could take the pain. Minutes later, she got up from the ground and brushed herself off. One look at the car and she could tell that it wasn't going anywhere. The snow drift was about four feet high and was practically as solid as ice. She reached over to the passenger seat and pulled out her jacket and sword. It was dark and no one would see it, or so she hoped. Slowly, she started walking in the direction of Joe's house. It was only about half a mile, and she thought about running, but running on a leg that was still healing was not a smart thing to do.
As she walked Summer began wondering why Joe had called her. She and Joe weren't particularly good friends. In fact, since he had become a Watcher about ten years ago, they had been pretty distant. They were, by no means enemies, but she didn't like the fact that it was his job to look after her. If there was one thing Summer didn't need, it was a baby-sitter.
As Summer looked ahead she could see Joe standing out on his front porch waiting for her. He appeared to have calmed down some and he gave her a concerned look as she limped up the drive way.
"You look like hell," he said as he ushered her into the house.
"And I don't feel much better," she replied, "but forget that. What's going on?"
"I, uh, found this under my door when I got home and...well just read it." He handed Summer a piece of paper with a few lines written on it. She read the note carefully, a couple of times.

For centuries I have watched you as you watch the immortals.

I observe, I record, and occasionally I interfere.
I am the Dragon Keeper.

In the bottom right hand corner of the page there was a little picture of a dragon, perched the shoulder of a person with no face, like a parrot on the shoulder of a pirate. Summer handed the page back to Joe.
"What do you think?" he quietly asked, his voice trembling. "I think that there's a hell of a lot more to this then you ever imagined." With that, she picked up her things and left.

Present Day
Richie Ryan decided that it was time to go. The twenty-one year old red head hated the way hospitals smelled and didn't think that he could take much more of it. Richie had come up to see his friend Tony, who had been injured while doing a motorcycle stunt show. Tony was asleep now and as Richie got up to leave a nurse came in to check on him.
"When he wakes up, tell him that I'll come by to see him later," he said to the nurse as he walked out. She nodded and smiled. As he headed for the door, Richie paused when he heard someone yelling.
"I must talk to Summer Robinson!" a man screamed as doctors wheeled him in on a stretcher. The doctors did there best to calm the man down, but he continued to yell. "You don't understand. She must know!" Richie ran over to the man as the doctors pushed the stretcher down the hall towards the Emergency Room. As Richie followed, a doctor stopped him and told him that unless he knew the man he would need to leave.
"Well, I don't know that guy, but I think I know who he's looking for. Why don't you let me talk to him?" The doctor looked at Richie skeptically but finally agreed. As Richie headed over to the man he heard a nurse tell the doctor that the man was dying and there was nothing they could do for him. The man, who had no ID on him, had been beaten and left out beside the road when someone found him. When Richie reached his side the man was still yelling.
"Are you looking for Summer Robinson?" Richie asked. The man's eyes widened and he grabbed Richie's hand with and incredible grip for someone who was close to death.
"Yes, yes, tell me where I can find her," the man insisted. Richie told him he didn't know where she was at the moment but he could tell her anything the man wanted her to know. The man smiled and nodded, then started coughing. Blood ran from his mouth as the doctors started to wheel him away.
"Wait," the man whispered, "tell Summer that I have learned the identity of the Dragon Keeper and I will take my secret to the grave." The man smiled and closed his eyes. A nurse checked for a pulse on the man's wrist, then pronounced the man dead.

As she had lifted his wrist, Richie noticed the Watcher tattoo. Richie quickly shook his hand free from the dead Watcher, shuddering. The doctors told Richie that he would need to leave how. Stunned and confused, Richie left the hospital went to see Joe Dawson.

Summer hesitated at the door of Joe's before taking a deep breath and walking inside. As she headed down the stairs towards the bar, she noticed Joe Dawson, Duncan MacLeod, and Methos sitting around a table. Richie was standing up next to the table. All of them looked up in surprise as she walked in. 'This can't be good,' she thought. The mood in the room was suffocatingly serious.

"What have we here? Richie, are you trying to be initiated into the old-timers club?" she asked, teasing them all.

After a moment Duncan cracked a smile, "Who are you to talk?" he teased back.
"You came," Joe said as she headed over toward the table. "I didn't think you'd show."
"I said I would, didn't I?" Summer said, walking up to the table, "What's up?"
"Spill the beans Joe, you've been holding out on us for an hour," Methos said sounding a bit annoyed. "He's been waiting for you to come," he said, smiling affectionately at Summer.

Methos had known Summer for more than half his life and she had proven to be a very useful person to have around. Not only was she an amazing fighter who was capable of taking care of herself and those around her, but she was also an incredible friend. She was patient and caring and nonjudgmental. She was also a great person to talk to and could keep any secret. She had known about Methos's past and all of the horror it included when she met him, but she had accepted him, not as the nightmare he had once been, but for the person he had become. Methos considered Summer to be solely responsible for helping him find himself. To Methos Summer was as close to perfect as humanly possible. Her only negative characteristic was that she was stubborn to a fault. Now, she wasn't one of those people who always had to be right. On the rare occasions when she was wrong, she admitted it...but when she knew she was right about something, no one could convince her otherwise.

Summer took off her three-quarter length coat and Methos caught a glimpse of the sheath of her sword as she laid the coat across a nearby table. She was wearing a dark green T-shirt that came a couple inches above her the waist of her jeans that fit snugly around her hips…nothing particularly fancy, but stunning on her, nonetheless. She was the kind of girl that every teenage guy dreamed about (if you didn't take into account the large sword tucked away in her coat.) Unfortunately for every teen age guy she was much older then she appeared. At the age of three thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, she didn't look a day over twenty-two. Summer, like Richie, had become immortal at a very young age. But it suited her well. She was about 5'6" with blue-gray eyes and light brown hair that came down just past her shoulders.

Summer sat down next to Methos and all eyes turned to Joe as they waited to hear the reason he had called them all.
Joe stood up and walked over to the bar, as if debating whether or not he really wanted to say anything. Slowly, he turned to face Summer.
"Richie has something to tell you" he said quietly. Richie told her about the events at the hospital as Methos and Duncan listened. Once he finished, there was complete silence, which was eventually broken by Joe.
"His name was Daniel Washington. He had been gathering information on the Dragon Keeper legend for about fourteen years. Every time I asked him how much progress he had made he always told me that there wasn't much information to be found, but apparently he had more then he told me about; enough to figure out who the Dragon Keeper was, anyway. And someone killed him for it."
Richie looked at all of them, still confused. "What's a Dragon Keeper?" he asked. Summer stared at Joe, never taking her eyes from him as she spoke.
"Congratulations, Richie," she said, "You've just stumbled across the
biggest cover-up in Immortal history." His eyes widened in disbelief.
"Don't tell me that you've never heard the legend of the Dragon Keeper," Methos said. Richie just shook his head, so Summer began telling the story.
"Here's what the legend says: About ten thousand years ago there lived a very powerful immortal named Nichodiemus. He was known as the Dragon because he was so old and wise. Nichodiemus was a blind wizard; a magician of sorts. He lived in a cave on the top of a mountain. Whenever he came down from his cave he always wore a medallion with a tiny pale blue stone embedded in it. Anyone who saw him said the stone seemed to guide Nichodiemus almost like an eye."

"Supposedly Nichodiemus was the first immortal ever and it was said that he knew the identity of every Immortal alive. He put a spell on the stone so that, should he ever lose his head, all that he knew would not be lost or fall into the wrong hands."

"One night, a group of immortals climbed up the mountain to take
Nichodiemus's head. When they got there, he appeared to be waiting for them. He clutched his medallion and told them that his eye had seen them coming. The men fought him, one by one, and Nichodiemus defeated many of them, but eventually he no longer had the strength to keep fighting and lost his head. But instead of his Quickening going to the man who took his head, all of Nichodiemus's power went into the blue stone in the medallion. When the Quickening was over, medallion was no where to be found. It is said that the stone went to an immortal that would be able to keep track of all the others, documenting what happened to them and if that immoral lost his or her head, the job would be passed on to someone else. That's how the Watchers got started. A mortal came across the record books and decided to take up the job. It was too large of a task for any one mortal, so many others were recruited to help. But the person with the Dragon's stone was still out there and the mysterious Immortal was given the name The Dragon Keeper."
"Nothing more was heard of the Dragon Keeper for thousands of years and the story became a legend. But about two thousand years ago the name came back up. Messages began to appear in random places all over the world warning immortals that the time of the Gathering was getting closer. Rumors were spread that the Dragon Keeper left the messages. Most mortals who saw them thought they were nothing more than an elaborate prank, but all Immortals knew the messages were real. The Dragon Keeper was feared by every immortal alive. It took a while, but when no more phantom messages appeared, things calmed down for another few thousand years, but the stories were still told. Then, again, about four hundred years ago the Dragon Keeper took the job one step further. Not only did the possessor of the stone have a record of every immortal, it also gave the person Nichodiemus's power to glimpse into the future. The power was limited by the fact that it was nothing more then a mere glimpse, but it was enough of a glimpse to discern what might happen. Immortals and their watchers started getting messages, warnings of things that were to come. The notes started out anonymous, but soon they were being signed 'The Dragon Keeper.' Messages have been appearing off and on ever since the end of the 16th century and the identity of the Dragon Keeper is still not known," Summer paused for a moment, "did I leave anything out guys?" she asked Duncan, Methos, and Joe.
"Not that I can think of. You covered it all...and then some," Methos
said with a grim smile.
Richie looked bewildered. "So let me see if I've got this straight…The first Immortal ever was a blind magician who lived on a mountain and used a little blue stone to see, and when the old guy lost his head his Quickening went into the stone and the person who inherited the stone got the record of every Immortal who ever lived and it also got all the guys magic?" he said, all in one breath.

"Something like that," Summer agreed. She had to smile at the way the young immortal rattled off the legend so nonchalantly.

"And whoever has the magic stone thing now leaves weird warning messages for other immortals?" Richie asked, looking even more confused.
Duncan only rolled his eyes. "Don't let everything Summer just told you go to your head," Duncan said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "The story of the Dragon Keeper sounds like a bunch of nonsense because that's what it is." Duncan has also known Summer for a very long time. Granted, not nearly as long as Methos, and he definitely didn't have the bond with Summer that Methos had but overall Duncan liked Summer a lot. He had always respected her opinions and valued every bit of advice she had ever given him, but the story of the Dragon Keeper had always seemed a bit hokey to him, to say the least. There were just too many inconsistencies in the story to make it believable. For one, Duncan didn't believe in magic, so that basically spoiled the whole thing. Secondly, if the records of the immortals had been so important, how had a mortal just stumbled across them? Plus, the number of immortals was growing all the time, and since every Immortal had at least one Watcher, it would be impossible to keep track of all of them. The story just didn't make sense.
"So, it's just a myth then?" Richie asked, now even more perplexed than he had been when he came to see Joe.
"Yes."
"No," Duncan and Summer said at the same time.
"The legend is true Richie," Summer said, ignoring Duncan's statement.
"No, it isn't. There is no proof that any of it ever happened," Duncan
said with an exasperated tone, "There weren't any phantom messages, and anyone who believes in them is a fool," Duncan paused, realizing what he had just said. He quickly tried to cover for himself. "You are no fool, Summer, but you put too much faith in fairytales."
Methos chuckled, "Dig that hole, Mac," he said.
Duncan only glared at him. "The stories about those messages are nothing
more then a joke."

Summer's eyes glazed over; a look that Methos recognized every time
Summer began to think of her past. It always made him worry a little.
"Oh, now you've done it MacLeod," he said throwing his hands in the air. "She's completely gone." Sure, everyone was entitled to reminisce, but when Summer got that look on her face it meant that she was going way way back. The cloud of suffocating silence drifted over them once again. The room was completely still for a moment. No one moved. No one breathed.
"Cheopa bana husk'hu," Summer murmured. Joe, Duncan, and Richie glanced at each other, completely clueless as to what she had just said.

"Sorry…What?" Duncan asked.
"Cheopa bana husk'hu," Methos repeated. "Cleopatra's Needles. They were two stone obelisks, originally built in Heliopolis by King Thothmes III about fifteen hundred years before Cleopatra's time and were eventually rededicated in her honor. When Cleopatra died they were moved to Caesarium, the temple she built for Mark Anthony. They stood there, guarding either side of the temple until 1301 when one of them fell, after an earth quake. In 1877 the fallen obelisk was moved to London by the British. The other one was moved to Central Park in 1881."
Duncan rolled his eyes again while Richie gawked at Methos.
"Thank you for that enlightening bit of history Methos, but what does that have to do with anything?" Duncan inquired.
"It has to do with everything," he replied, "one of the messages left by the Dragon Keeper was carved into the obelisk that now stands in London."
"Oh, come on Methos, not you too!" Duncan cried.
"Hey, I didn't say that I believed the whole story. I'm just saying that there was a message carved into one of the obelisks. If you don't believe me, go to London. Most of the engravings have worn off, but you can still read part of the message."
"Okay, so for arguments sake, say that there was a message. With all the Watchers and immortals that are alive right now, how could anyone be able to keep track of all of them?" Richie asked Summer, trying to make some sense out of everything he had just been told. Duncan raised his eye brows and waited to hear how Summer would answer Richie's question
"The Watchers keep track of all the Immortals, right?" Summer said. "So it's possible that the Dragon Keeper could have gotten on the inside. It certainly wouldn't be the only time that an Immortal has infiltrated the Watchers." Methos winced at Summer's remark. A while back, Methos had convinced everyone that he was a mortal named Adam Pierson. He had joined the Watchers and started working on the Methos Chronicles, a special record that was kept of the oldest Immortal alive: him. Although she had never said so, Methos knew that Summer had considered his joining the Watchers a cowardly thing to do. Nevertheless, she had stood by his decision and kept his secret, but Duncan had figured it out when he came to see Adam Pierson and felt the Immortal buzz.

Flashback:
"I just didn't think you existed," MacLeod said with a look of awe on his face.
"Oh, its good to be a myth," Methos replied.
MacLeod thought about this for a minute. "Yeah, no one hunts for a myth...or a Watcher."
"And what better place to hide? I'm in charge of finding myself and I make sure it never happens," he said with a smile.

Present Day:
Methos jumped back to reality as Joe spoke up for the first time.
"It isn't possible that another Immortal is posing as a Watcher," he said quietly, "When we found out that Adam Pierson was Methos, I did a background check on every Watcher I knew of. None of them were immortal."

Duncan turned to Summer, a small look of triumph on his face. "There, you see Summer?" he said, "the Dragon Keeper isn't real. It's just a legend. Now let's forget about this. I don't like fighting with you and I don't understand why you won't let this go."
"What I don't understand," she replied, in a steady voice as she turned to Joe, "is why you haven't told them. You're just standing there letting me ramble on about immortal legends and mysterious messages, and I sound like an idiot, I know I do, but you know I'm right. Tell them Joe." All eyes turned to Joe as he stood back at the bar. But instead of meeting their gaze, Joe just stared at the floor, not saying a word. "Joe! Tell them!" Summer insisted, "Tell them about the message you got." After a long moment, Joe spoke in a very strained voice.
"She's right. I got a message from the Dragon Keeper too." Duncan stared at Joe in disbelief. Taking note of the expression on his face, Joe quickly added, "But that was twenty years ago. I don't know what to think anymore!"
Summer sighed. This was an impossible group to deal with. Honestly, she didn't know why she was trying so hard to convince them of something they didn't want to believe.
At that moment a voice came from the top of the stairs. "Excuse me? Anyone down there?"

"Sorry," Joe called back, "we're closed." A tall skinny teenage boy came down the stairs toward the table where they were sitting.
"Oh yes sir, I know, but I have a package for a mister Duncan MacLeod," the delivery boy explained.
"That's me," Duncan said, standing up. He looked at the yellowish-brown envelope with no return address or identifying marks on it, "Who's it from?" he asked the young man.
"Beats me," he replied, "Someone dropped it through the mail slot at the delivery office this afternoon and left. The note that was attached, said that we could find you here."
Duncan absentmindedly thanked the kid as he continued to stare at the package. Once the boy left, Summer noticed the odd expression on Duncan's face.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"The only people that knew I was going to be here this afternoon are standing in this room. Who else could have known to send a package here?" he said with a suspicious tone.
"Open it Mac," Richie suggested, "and maybe you'll find out." Duncan
returned to the table he had been sitting at and cautiously opened the envelope. From it he removed a single sheet of paper. As he read it, his face paled.
"Duncan? Duncan, what's wrong?" Summer asked with concern in her voice.
"This isn't possible," he said, shaking his head, "this just isn't possible!" he tossed the paper down, hopped out of his chair, and backed away from the table as if the piece of paper had just turned into a snake. Summer walked over to the table and picked up the paper. On it were three typed lines:

What else is there for the Dragon Keeper to do?
I watch the watchers while the watchers watch you.
Why do you not believe?

In the bottom right corner there was the same picture of the dragon perched the shoulder of a person with no face that had been on the note Joe received twenty years earlier.

Methos and Richie read the note over Summer's shoulder. Methos glanced around the room. Everyone but Summer seemed to be either in a state of shock, or at a complete loss for words, but nothing every surprised Summer. It was impossible to tell by the look on her face how she felt. Over the years, Summer had become a master of hiding her emotions. Never once had Methos ever seen Summer lose her temper or even yell at someone. On very rare occasions she would become frustrated, and he imagined this to be one of those occasions, but she always managed to keep her feelings in check. He knew that it was because she felt like she had to take care of every one else. She was the one that everyone went to when they needed to talk. Often she would stay awake all night, just listening to him or Richie or sometimes even Duncan gush out their problems. She would sit patiently and listen, and then when they were finished, she would offer helpful advice or words of encouragement, never criticizing them for coming to her in the middle of the night. It occurred to Methos, then, that another thing he had never seen Summer do was complain. She had never complained when Richie woke her up at three in the morning to tell her about the latest girl to break his heart. She didn't complain about Methos joining the Watchers. And she didn't get mad when no one listened to her, despite the countless number of times she had listened to them.
After a minute or two of complete silence, Methos had to ask the one question that had been weighing on his mind all after noon.

"What are you thinking, Summer?" It took her a while to respond. She just stood there for a moment, as if looking for the right words.
"I'm thinking..." she paused and then corrected herself, "I'm hoping that maybe now you will listen." All eyes went sheepishly to the floor. Richie watched as she put on her coat and headed for the door. So that was it? She wasn't mad or upset? He almost wished that she would be…that she would get mad and yell at all of them for not believing to her. But he knew that wouldn't happen. Summer didn't get angry and yell. She just walked away, refusing to let them know how much they had hurt her by not listening. But Richie knew, and he couldn't just let her leave with out saying anything.
"Summer, wait!" he called out to her as she reached the stairs. She paused and glanced back at him waiting for him to say something. But he couldn't. He had no idea what he could say to make her feel better.
"Don't think that...we didn't mean to...I...you...don't just...what I mean is..." Richie's voice trailed off as he looked away from her, his face growing red with embarrassment. Nothing he was blurting out made any sense. She must have thought he was crazy. But when he finally got the nerve to look back up at her, she was smiling. Their eyes locked and Summer winked at Richie and then left without a word.

As Summer walked to her car, she could feel the tension building up in her even more. If she didn't find some way to relieve it soon, she was going to blow up at someone, and that was never a pretty site. When she reached the intersection where she normally turned right to go home, she turned left, and headed towards Duncan's dojo. Of course, there was no one there. The place was closed because both Duncan and Richie where still at Joe's. But she didn't think they would mind too much if she were to go in and workout for a while.

Once inside, she went to the locker she always used when at the dojo, changed and headed for the punching bag. After almost an hour of kicking and punching, she felt much better. She decided to keep going for another five or ten minutes and head home. It was then that she felt the buzz. She ignored it and continued to punch as the elevator began to rise. It came to a halt and a nervous voice called out, "Whose there?"
"Relax Richie, it's just me," she called back. A very relieved Richie stepped out of the elevator, sword unsheathed.
"Man, you scared me to death Summer!" he chided her.
"Sorry," she said apologetically, "hope you don't mind. I let myself in."
"Nah, I don't mind," he replied. "How long have you been here?"
"Since I left Joe's," she told him. "But I gotta take a shower and head home."
"Yeah, okay." Richie watched her go into the locker room and heard one of the showers came on. She reappeared a few minutes later, much cleaner and much less tense.

"Look, Summer," Richie began as she put her workout clothes back in her locker. "I'm sorry about what happened earlier. The story just sounds so weird, you know? It's not like I don't want to believe you, I'm just not quite sure what to think. "
"Don't worry about it Richie," she reassured him, "I'll see ya later." He started to tell her good-bye, but something made him stop.
"Hey Summer?"
"Yeah?" she turned to face him.
"You said you let your self in?" Richie asked.
"That's right."
"But you don't have a key," he said with confusion on his face.
"Didn't need one." She smiled mischievously.
"I didn't know you could pick locks," he laughed.
Something flickered in Summer's eyes. "There are many things you don't
know about me Richie. Many, many things." She was still smiling, but her tone was sad. Without another word, she was gone.
Summer headed out of the dojo, shivering in the cold wind as it touched her bare arms. The sun was setting and the sky was ablaze with fiery reds, yellows, and oranges. As she unlocked the door to her car, the last remaining bit of light caught a silver band around her finger. Summer stopped a moment and gazed down at the pale blue stone embedded in her ring.
'How can I convince them?' she thought, 'What will it take?'