Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

About half an hour later, Rogue, Jubilee and Psylocke arrived at Macleod's loft. The others were arriving at the same time. As they flew over the red brick building, they could see a black Ford Thunderbird parking in the parking lot out back, with Gambit and Wolverine in it, and Macleod driving. It stopped, and they got out. Rogue, who was carrying Jubilee, and Psylocke landed not to far away from the car. They noticed as they did so that Macleod was watching them with an unbelieving look on his face. Then he went over and greeted the new arrivals.

"Is there anything you ladies can't do?" He asked them.

"Well," Jubilee started, "Rogue can't touch mmhmhmm." She was cut off by Rogue's hand over her mouth. Jubilee pried Rogue's fingers off and said, "Sorry."

"We'll tell ya'll everythin' ya need t' know when we're upstairs." Rogue assured him.

"And I'll try to reciprocate." Macleod said as Gambit and Logan came up behind him. "By the way, I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Duncan Macleod."

"Ah'm Rogue, and this is Jubilation Lee." She introduced them.

"Most people just call me Jubilee."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Macleod said. "Shall we go upstairs?" He gestured them to precede him up the stairs to the door with the sign DeSalvo's Martial Arts above it. They went up, and into the building. When they passed through a set of double doors, Wolverine and Psylocke looked around admiringly at the dojo they had entered. It wasn't too bad of a place, and they couldn't wait to try out the equipment.

"This is a nice place you got here." Logan said.

"Thanks." Macleod answered. "You know, I was watching the way you fought tonight. You guys are good. "

"You not too bad y'self." Gambit said.

"I've had a lot of practice." Macleod said as they entered the elevator. As he put the key in to start the elevator up, Psylocke noticed something,

"You're not bleeding anymore. In fact, you don't even seem hurt anymore."

Macleod stopped in his tracks. He hadn't realized that they had seen him get stabbed.

"I guess I have something to tell you too." He admitted.

When the elevator stopped, Macleod slid up the gate and let them all out. Richie, Methos and Amanda were all there, and to the mutants it appeared that they had known they were coming. Logan suspected it was just the sound of the elevator coming up. They went into Macleod's apartment, and looked around. This guy certainly liked old things. Richie said to Macleod as he went into the kitchen area,

"Hey Mac. Who are these people?"

"These are some new friends of mine. Say hello to Betsy Braddock, Remy LeBeau, Logan, Jubilation Lee and Rogue. Guys, these are Richie Ryan and Amanda, and over on the bed there, is Adam Pierson." He went over to the bed, and asked the man lying there, "I thought you had a room in a hotel?"

"Yeah, I do." He said. "But your place is so much nicer."

Macleod just shook his head in an exasperated way, and went back to the mutants.

"So, we have to talk." He gestured to the living area in the center of the room. "Please, take a seat."

"What happened?" Asked Amanda.

"Some big creature attacked Joe's and they helped me fight it off, using some weapons and abilities I've never seen before."

"Like what?" She asked. She came around the counter, and saw Gambit. And Gambit saw her. He smiled as he went to her, took her hand in his, and kissed it.

"Bonjour, cherie. De name's Remy LeBeau, but you can call me Gambit."

"Enchante." She responded. "I'm Amanda."

Rogue watched the display, turning green with jealousy. Finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"Ok you two, knock it off." She went over and forcibly pulled Gambit away. "What do you think you're doing?" Rogue's whisper was close to a snarl.

"Cher," he drawled, "you know Gambit loves you bes'." Rogue just sighed, and turned away in disgust. Amanda smiled as she moved to Macleod's side and slipped her arm through his.

Meanwhile, Macleod was telling Richie and Adam everything that had happened at the bar.

"So, I fought it, and it stabbed me. And while I was down, Logan, Betsy and Remy here jumped in and drove it away."

Richie looked at the three people he named like they weren't really there, and said,

"The three of them took out a demon of some kind, all by themselves?"

"Yes. But they have strange abilities I've never seen before. I couldn't see all the fight, but it looked like Remy was throwing something at it, and Betsy created a glowing sword out of nowhere, and as for Logan, I don't know what he was doing, but it looked like he was attacking it with claws…." He was very confused.

"Would you like us to explain?" Psylocke asked.

"That would be very much appreciated." Macleod admitted.

Logan looked like he was going to open his mouth to say something, but Betsy put her hand on his arm, and said to him,

"No, Logan, let me." She watched as Gambit sat down beside her on the couch, and then started.

"I know I asked this before, but, have you heard of Mutants?"

While Macleod was thinking, Richie answered,

"Yeah, I have. In the newspaper there are occasionally stories of people with strange abilities, that the press call mutants. Are you saying that's what you are?"

"Yes. The five of us are mutants."

"Well, that explains a lot." Richie said sarcastically.

"It does if you think about it." Psylocke countered.

"What were you three doing in Joe's?" Asked Macleod. "Did you know that thing was going to attack?"

"We were just there for a drink." Betsy said. "We had no idea that that creature would be there."

"Why did you attack it? Why endanger yourselves?"

"Fightin' off t'ings like dat is what we do." Gambit answered.

"We could ask ya the same thing, bub." Logan said to Macleod. "Why did you attack it? Why endanger yerself?"

"Well, I'm different from normal people." was all Macleod would say.

"We can deal with different." Logan leaned forward over the coffee table. "We told you about us, now it's your turn."

Macleod sighed, and hesitated. He looked over at Methos, Richie and Amanda, as if looking for their approval. They all sighed and nodded.

"I am Immortal." He finally said. "So are they."

None of the X-Men knew what to say. This wasn't quite what they were expecting to hear. When no one said anything, Macleod continued.

"I was born in the Highlands of Scotland, in the year 1592. I don't age, and I can't die, unless someone cuts my head off."

Jubilee did the math in her head.

"If you were born in 1592, and it's 2001 this year, that would make you about 400 years old." She looked up at him from her place on the floor, where she had been looking at the chess set on the table.

"Four hundred and nine, this year."

"That's pretty old."

"Not really." Macleod said with a glance at Methos.

"How do we know you's tellin' us the truth, sugah?" Rogue asked suspiciously.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Touché." Gambit said.

"You saw my sword." Psylocke picked up one of the chess pieces and looked at it. "And you saw Remy throwing cards at the creature. You have to admit that cards aren't a normal weapon. What more proof do you need?"

"I know what I saw." Macleod started. "But I still don't understand it. And I'm not entirely sure if I can believe what I saw. I mean, I saw your sword, but it could have been just a figment of my imagination. My eyes could have been playing tricks on me. And what man in their right mind throws cards at things?"

Gambit gave him the dirtiest look he could, and reached into his coat pocket for some of the said cards. But he didn't get a chance to charge them, because Wolverine had gotten up and was making his way over to Macleod. Jubilee jumped to her feet, and Macleod watched him as he came over and turned his chair to face him when he stopped.

"You wanna make sure your eyes ain't playing tricks on you, bub?" He held his right hand down at Macleod's chest level, away from him, and slowly extended the claws. As they got longer and longer, Macleod's eyes went wider and wider, until Wolverine's claws were fully extended. Then he jumped back out of the chair, caught his foot on the arm, and landed on the floor on his butt.

"Very smooth." Gambit commented as Macleod stood up. Macleod didn't look at him. His eyes were focussed only on Wolverine's claws.

"What are those?"

Jubilee went towards Wolverine. She hoped she could stop him if he tried to do anything. He just looked at her with a look that said he wasn't going to hurt him.

"These are Adamantium claws. Sure, ya, there ain't nothin mutant about them, but you have to admit they are a little different."

"You could say that." Macleod agreed as Wolverine retracted his claws. He stared as the skin between the knuckles healed. "You aren't a mutant."

"Yeah, I am." Wolverine looked at his fist, realizing that's what Macleod had been looking at. "I heal fast. That's my mutant power. Ya got a problem with that?"

"It's just, Immortals do the same thing." He held his hand out towards Logan, palm up. "Cut me, I'll show you."

Wolverine shrugged, and extended the first claw on his right hand again. "You sure?"

"Of course."

"Okay." He brought his claw down towards Macleod's hand. He sliced the skin on the palm. Not deep, but deep enough. It bled, as Wolverine expected, then stopped, and healed up. All the mutants gasped. None of them had expected that Macleod was actually telling the truth.

"You are Immortal!" Gambit exclaimed, looking up at Macleod. "All you are?" He looked around at all the others. They were nodding.

"Cool!" Jubilee exclaimed. She looked at Richie. "How old are you?"

He chuckled. "I've only been Immortal for 8 years. But both of them are over 1000 years old." He pointed at Methos and Amanda.

"Hey, hey! Leave me out of this." Methos said.

"You're in this whether you want to be or not." Macleod said. He turned to the mutants. "Now I have to ask a favor of you. You saw that big creature that challenged me. I have reason to believe that it was sent by someone that wants me killed."

"Why wou' someone wan' that, sugah?" Rogue asked.

"That's one of the worst parts about being Immortal. One of the rules is that 'There can be only one'. So, some of us go around with swords and behead other Immortals, and take their life force. Some of us try to live like normal people, with friends, jobs, lives. Others, though, all they can think of is being the "One". The rest of us have to protect ourselves."

"So, dat's what you was doin' wit' de sword." Gambit said.

"Yes. I carry my sword around with me all the time in case another Immortal wants to kill me. But there are sometimes Immortals that are cowards, and they get other people to wear me down, so I can't fight as well when the time comes. In this case, I suspect the Immortal conjured up that beast to wear me down. I have to ask you all to help me fight it."

"No problem." Psylocke said.