"Do you know what immortals do?"

"Live forever?" Sam asked, deciding to pretend ignorance about the decapitations.

"Can you leave us alone?" Mac requested. This guy didn't need to know what his brother was going to be facing. He hoped he could find him another teacher. He had his hands full since Richie had become immortal a few weeks ago.

Sam nodded and wandered off. Maybe he could figure out how to get out of TV Land while Dean was learning the rules. Hopefully nobody would come along and chop his head off. Sam shivered at that thought. They needed to get back to the real world.

"There are things you need to know," Mac said, when Sam had left.

"Like what?" Dean asked, only half-listening. He was thinking about the Trickster again.

"Now is the time of the Gathering. In the end there can be only one immortal. Immortals with more experience than you are going to come after to you, to chop your head off and take your quickening. You're safe on holy ground."

"Holy ground? So, like churches and stuff?" Dean asked. Maybe he would just hang out at a church until the Trickster got sick of the whole game and sent them back home.

"Churches, cemeteries, monasteries, sacred places of any religion."

SSS

Sam wandered into a bookstore. Maybe he could do some research on how to get them out of this.

"Sam, did you find him?"

Sam looked up to see Joe, Duncan McLeoud's watcher. He wondered who he was supposed to find.

"Not sure," he answered

"Not sure? We lost Algernon hundreds of years ago. There was a sighting a few months ago. If we could find him again, that would be a real coup. If it is him, he's one of the few ancient immortals still alive. Want to see the picture again?" Joe asked, hoping that Sam had found him. Sam was one of their best researchers. If anyone could find him, Sam could.

"Yeah," Sam said, and found himself looking at a picture of Dean. Dean was supposed to be an ancient immortal? That couldn't be good.

SSS

Mac took Dean back to the dojo. He would need to protect him until he could find a teacher for him. Maybe teach him some basics while he was training Richie.

Dean's headache had been a gentle hum this whole time, but it was increasing again. He moaned slightly. "That's what we feel when another immortal around. It's how we prepare for battle."

"So, you brought me here to fight someone?" Dean must have misunderstood him earlier.

"No, that's Richie. He's a friend," Mac reassured.

"Hey, Mac. Who's this?" Richie asked, when they had gotten inside.

"This is Dean. He's new."

"Nice to meet you," Richie said.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, too," Dean said. He wondered where Sam had gone. He really wanted to figure out how to get out of here. It was ridiculous. Holding conversations with people who don't really exist. It was virtually reality and he wanted reality reality.

"Are you going to be his teacher, too?" Richie asked. He felt a little jealous, but certainly wouldn't say anything about it.

"No, I'm going to see if I can find him one, though. I've got a couple of ideas. It should only take me a couple of days to find a teacher."

SSS

"So, where did you see him?" Joe asked.

"I didn't," Sam said. He couldn't let Joe know that Dean was with Mac, when he had said he was brand new, but Joe thought he was ancient. Joe would probably interfere, tell Mac, and then Mac would kill Dean with no problem, thinking he was an accomplished sword fighter, trying to scam him. "Where would you go if you were an ancient immortal?" Sam asked, trying to act like he was actually interested in finding him.

"He's probably hunting. Maybe, he's after McLeoud," Joe hypothesized. He thought about warning him, but knew it was against the rules. And, McLeoud had just learned that Watchers had existed a couple of months ago. He had made his disdain known. He wouldn't heed his warning anyway.

SSS

The Next Day

"OK, I called a friend of mine and he's going to take you on as a student. He lives in Iraq."

"I don't want to go to Iraq," Dean protested.

"You'll be fine. Different cultures are good for you."

He most definitely was not going to Iraq and he needed to find Sam. They probably shouldn't be split up for so long or that stupid Trickster would beam them into completely different shows and they would never see each other again. A couple of months ago, that would have been fine, but he was finally beginning to forgive Sam.

Mac interrupted his thoughts. "We'll have to get you a passport and stuff, so you can leave in a few days. In the meantime, I'm taking Richie out to teach him some techniques. You should come, too."

"Actually, I need to find my brother," Dean said.

"Right, you'll want to say good-bye. Not a lot of us get that chance," Mac said, remembering how his father had called him evil when he had found out he wasn't dead. Mac had thought it was a miracle, but his father had banished him. Almost 4 centuries later, that still hurt.

SSS

Dean found Sam about to head into a bookstore. "Sam!" he yelled.

"Dean, you shouldn't be here, right now," Sam said, looking to make sure Joe wasn't around.

"He wants to send me to Iraq," Dean said.

"What? Who?"

"The Highlander guy. He found me a teacher in Iraq."

"Oh, I don't think you should go," Sam said.

"No kidding." Dean felt it again. "There's another immortal around."