Crossover: HL/SG-1 (roughly series 6 SG-1!verse, end series 3 HL!verse)

Characters: O'Neill, Methos, Sam, Daniel, DM, Teal'c, Hammond

For prompt: 094 Independence

Summary: Things may never be the same again.

There was a military man at his door. He was dressed in civvies, but Duncan hadn't spent almost four hundred years as a warrior without be able to spot a soldier out of uniform.

"Jack O'Neill, mind if I come in?"

"Sure." Duncan held the door open and let him pass by into his home. Now he understood: this was about the old man. Amanda had told him all about her little run in with Methos and his new friends, though he still found it hard to believe that he was suddenly being so open about his Immortality…

"What can I do for you Colonel?"

O'Neill barely even blinked at the use of his title.

"Methos sends his regards." The Colonel said with a smile, waiting patiently for Duncan's slightly flabbergasted response.

"There's not many people who know that name…" Duncan offered eventually, trying to feel out this man who knew far more than he should.

"Only one man in the entire US military, which is why he said I should come."

Duncan still wasn't sure why the old man hadn't come himself, but no doubt he had a reason. The safety of being surrounded by a base full of well-armed military that would take notice of someone in their company having their head lopped off was high on Duncan's guesses of why.

"And what brings you here Colonel?"

"We could do with some help on a mission we have on the books."

"You need me? Thousands of soldiers and the world's oldest man not enough for you? What can I possibly do that they can't?"

O'Neill cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable for the first time.

"I'm afraid that's classified-"

"Understandable." Duncan interjected. "It must be embarrassing too if you've come begging in person."

"But Adam said you'd never miss an opportunity to be a boy scout."

Duncan chuckled: that certainly sounded like the old man.

He was intrigued, but he still didn't like the idea that the military were seeking out Immortals. He knew it was a slippery slope once the military got hold of something they could exploit to their advantage, and all they would have to do is threaten to expose Immortals to the world and they'd have a nice bunch of slave soldiers.

Still 5000 years of experience had to be worth something…Methos wouldn't have set the military on to him for no reason. Maybe he really was needed…

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So here he was: stuck god only knew how many miles under a mountain surrounded by the military on all sides wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into.

Just as he felt the elevator begin to slow, O'Neill turned to him.

"Only you, me and Daniel know how old the old man really is, ok? I get the impression he's a little funny about his privacy."

Duncan snickered. "Having a large slice of the Immortal population looking to take your head will do that for you. And it's not just Immortals: has he told you about the Watchers?"

"A little, though I'm not sure I agree with the whole non-interference thing."

"Has he told you he's one of them?"

O'Neill glanced at him in surprise as the doors swished open.

Duncan continued. "He's the one they assigned to look for Methos."

O'Neill chuckled as he led the way down the hall.

It was only moments before Duncan felt the familiar sensation of another Immortal and he couldn't stop himself from putting a ready hand on his sword under his long coat, even though he knew that it had to be Methos.

And it was. O'Neill let them in through a drab door that looked exactly the same as all the others, but which opened to reveal a room full of artefacts and wonders that MacCleod would never have guessed might be in a military facility. He had to stop himself from going over and investigating some of the statuettes on a nearby shelf and paying attention to the smugly grinning Immortal waiting for him.

"MacCleod, how wonderful to see you."

"Methos you better start explaining yourself…"

"All in good time. I believe you'll be going downstairs to get briefed on the whole thing shortly, but first I thought it best we meet, just in case you decided to fly off the handle in the midst of all the nice airmen."

"I'm no' a total idiot."

"Really? I seem to remember from you've dived into rioting mobs to rescue people on more than one occasion."

"I resent the implication." O'Neill said pointedly.

Just then Duncan felt another presence and whipped round to face the door when he saw that Methos felt it too.

A sandy haired man in glasses came in rubbing his head, not even looking up from his book until he was a few steps into the room.

"Oh hello, you must be Duncan. Dr Daniel Jackson."

Daniel proffered a hand and Duncan took warily, unused to such a casual friendship with an Immortal he had never met before.

"Duncan MacCleod of the clan MacCleod."

Daniel seemed to remember himself. "Baraka, though I haven't used that name in some time."

"You're real name's Baraka?" O'Neill asked disbelievingly.

"I'm a little old for an English name Jack."

Duncan glanced between Methos and Dr Jackson. "The Colonel mentioned you know about…?" he gestured vaguely at Methos. "I didn't think anyone knew."

"He should do," Methos grinned. "He was my student."

"Student?" Duncan asked incredulously. "You?"

"I was a great teacher."

Dr Jackson muttered something unintelligible.

"If you're going to cast aspersions on my character you might want to do it in a language I haven't been reading for the past week."

"Just checking you were up to speed." Dr Jackson said innocently.

Methos turned resolutely to face Duncan.

"There is at least one more of us on base: a woman called Sallie Beckett. Tell me you don't have some long past with her."

Duncan considered. "Never heard of her before."

"Good, then we should all get along fine. General Hammond, SG-1 and Dr Fraser are the only ones who know about Immortals here and that was unavoidable, though I'm sure there must be at least one Watcher here for Beckett. She's with SG-13 though so we shouldn't be seeing much of her anyway. I just wanted to make sure we weren't going to have a problem. You seem to have a knack of knowing exactly the wrong people."

Duncan chose to ignore that the last part. "SG-13?"

"I guess it's time you found out what we do here."