The trip back to the mansion was uneventful. Methos made all the appropriate noises about how much he admired and adored the jet. It was a nice jet… had he been any less of a moral man, or had any place to park it, he might just procure it for himself.
Once again he found himself in Xavier's office, surrounded by the X-Men. The past few days or weeks of pain seemed surreal, like they had happened to someone else. But he was thankful that he had finally found the source of his horrid dreams. One more mystery unearthed, he could move on. He no longer felt the need to stay here, he knew they were safe. It was time to take up his robes as elusive-ridiculously-ancient-immortal-guy and he was glad for it. All these moral debates and introspection gave him a headache.
Storm sat beside him on the couch, Logan was leaning on the desk again and Scott was standing beside Xavier who, obviously, was not standing.
Storm laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. Methos was thankful that they had given him time to shower and dress before they called him here. It was terribly embarrassing to sit next to a pretty lady when one was smelly from a round of torture.
Xavier offered Methos a small frown, obviously tired and vexed. "I am sorry that we could not find you sooner and spare you from whatever it was they did to you…"
He was sincere in his apology, his posture and facial expression made it clear that he blamed himself for what had happened to Methos. Methos smiled reassuringly, "I'm sure I deserved it for something."
Xavier shook his head, still frowning, "I couldn't find you… You were in both the human and the mutant spectrum but so faint… I could fix only on a broad area where you might be… it took us too long to find you…"
Methos held us his hand, silencing him, "It is alright, I promise. How could you expect to find me when you didn't even know what you were looking for."
"What?" Scott asked, puzzled.
"He means," Logan offered gruffly, "That we have assumed he was either mutant or human, but not that he might be something different altogether."
"Sharp as a tack that one is." Laughed Methos, "That's precisely what I mean."
It was a testament to what he had gone through that Methos felt comfortable sharing such a thing with these people. They never need know the truth. But, he felt a certain kinship with them. They were all hunted people here. Hunted and hunters. Besides, sometimes it was nice to brag to people you knew would appreciate it.
"From childhood's hour I have not been as others were; I have not seen as others saw; I could not bring my passions from a common spring. From the same source I have not taken my sorrow; I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone; and all I loved, I loved alone."
"Poe." Xavier said, as Methos finished. Methos nodded, smiling.
"There was a time, when we were searching for you that you disappeared entirely. It wasn't for more than a few hours but it was as if you had died, and indeed we thought that you had. But when we had almost given up hope you reappeared, clear and sharp on both spectrums for a moment than fading again to what you had been before. That was how we found your location… what happened?" Xavier asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"That must have been when I died." Methos said plainly.
Storm's hand on his shoulder tightened momentarily. He looked at her, smiling, "Don't worry, I have a hard time staying dead."
"What are you then?" Logan asked
"What are you? What is anybody? I am myself, I am a man that cannot die." Methos said, deciding to edit out the specifics on that tiny detail, he wasn't stupid.
"How did you come to be this way?" Storm asked, curious…
"How did the stone become a stone? Because it always was a stone. I became this way because this is the way I have always been, I cannot remember being elsewise."
Methos felt proud of that one, circular logic was always fun.
"How old are you?" Storm asked.
Now that was a question that Methos had not intended to answer. He was having just about enough of show and tell time. Ignorance was safety when it came to survival. However, he was betrayed…
"5,000 give or take…" Xavier gasped… taking the answer from Methos' automatic thoughts…
"Hey," he said, looking at Xavier, "That's cheating." Then he turned to Storm and offered her a dazzling smile, "But don't worry dear, in my heart I'm not a day over 400."
Scott broke the momentary silence by asking an obvious but complex question,
"What will you do now?"
Methos thought for a moment then smiled and stood, "I think that I am going to get some sleep."
Methos left that night. He slipped out his window and into the night, melting away as if he had never existed. It was time to be elusive again, to fall back into his role as a living myth. Maybe he would look up Mac again, surely the silly sod was still around somewhere. Life was so much more entertaining when there was someone around to astound and annoy.
He left the grounds of the mansion and went into the outside world without even a backward glance.
It was good to be Methos again.
Later that day, in Cerebro, Xavier sat, concentrating. He skimmed through the red mutant spectrum, the white human though patterns than he focused on Methos specifically, remembering the feel of his thoughts... when he opened his eyes he saw the one faint dot that was Methos brighten and turn golden, then one by one, more dots began to appear and soon there were hundreds of them. All over the world. As he watched, new spots glared bright white and then glowed golden, a new immortal being born... Xavier smiled, removing the head piece. Sighing softly he turned to go teach his class, he hoped he wasn't late.
Oh goodness… I am finished… dear me…. That was argh, ah, rough. That's right, it has been a bumpy ride. When I posted this schlop so many years ago I didn't think that anyone was going to read it. But then people started reviewing it, so I updated it once or twice, but you silly buggers.. .WOULDN'T LEAVE ME ALONE. :) not that I am angry.. but it did push me to make a silly promise which I have kept in due course. So HA! I am done. Fin.
As promised, here are the poems.
Alone: By Edgar Allan Poe
From childhood's hour I have not been as others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then-in my childhood, in the dawn of a most stormy life-
Was drawn from every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightening in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.
Requiem, Robert Louis Stevenson
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the Grave and let me lie.
Glad did i live and gladly die,
and laid me down with a will.
This be the verse that you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be,
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
and the hunter home from the hill.
Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.. Methos says in total in the story.
Pain has an element of blank; by Emily Dickinson is also printed in total..
Now to go work on my novel.. yes i am writing a novel... wish me luck.
Rachel Oke