The Blood of Brotherhood by Merrie Thomas Part II
Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own Methos, Kronos, MacLeod, Amanda, Joe, Cassandra or any other characters from Highlander. If I did own them, I would be making new episodes instead of writing fan fiction in place of new episodes. Oh well. (sigh)
Summary: Methos and Kronos were brothers. In arms, in blood, in everything except birth. What exactly does this mean for Immortals?
Characters: DM, J, M, A, C, K, Valerie Viscount OFC
Author's Note: This is an alternate-universe story based around the events of Comes A Horseman and Revelations 6:8, WARNING if you don't wish to read about a Kronos romance, you may still read this story, but you won't like parts of it. Also, I live in the Midwest and I have traveled few places in my life, so I took some liberty and made some stuff up about the cities mentioned here. No offense is intended. Thank you to Clexian Kismet for your review. The following chapter is for you.
Rating: This story is rated PG-13 for language and violence.
Chapter Two
Kronos braced himself as the plane geared up to land. Of all included in flight, landing was by far the part he hated most. Seeming to sense his apprehension, Valerie grasped his hand lightly. Now, ordinarily Kronos would never have let such a thing occur, but he hadn't been his normal self lately. After 4000 years of life maybe he was finally beginning to change. And then again, maybe not. Who really knows? All Kronos would admit to himself was that he liked the feel of her hand there. He didn't like the fact that the reason her hand was there was because she thought she was afraid of flying, he wasn't really, but he didn't let that fact bother him. Much. He was surprised at how much he had gotten to know the red-headed beauty on the flight. They had exchanged stories and talked like old friends. Who knows, maybe he had known her in another life. After 4000 years, he had met quite a few people that were dead ringers for people he had known, and killed, thousands of years ago. He pondered this for a moment, thinking that maybe there was even someone who looked like himself out there roaming the world. There's a thought.
Valerie looked up at him, at Nigel, feeling something. She didn't exactly know what that feeling was. It couldn't be love. No, she told herself that she wasn't in love, not at all. But when she listened to his cultured voice and looked into his eyes, ice blue orbs that seemed to have seen thousands of years, she knew it was indeed love. She was shocked at this realization. How could she have let this happen? She was 25 years old, for pete's sake, not some head over heels in love schoolgirl. But she was. She had fallen in love with an almost total stranger that she had met on an airplane back home, not even knowing whether or not he felt the same way. She hoped that he did though. Oh, she so did not need this right now. Another relationship with a man she knew almost nothing about. He could be a mass murderer for all she knew. Nah, that was a stretch, even for her. He wasn't a mass murderer. He was a. . . a. . . she then realized that she didn't know what he did. They had talked all eight hours of the flight and she didn't even know what he did for a living. "Nigel, what do you do for a living?" she asked him.
"I'm a scientist, why do you ask?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, no reason. I was just wondering." A scientist? She didn't see that one coming. Not with looks like his. Maybe he was a mad scientist? She laughed silently.
"What are you laughing about?" he asked her with a puzzled look on his face. "Do you not believe me?"
"Well, you don't really look like a scientist at all. It's like I said earlier about your name. It just doesn't all seem to match. What kind of scientist are you, anyway?"
"I'm a virologist." he explained with a small smirk on his face.
"A virologist? You study viruses?" Valerie asked with a slightly shocked look on her face.
"Yep. Sure do. Been doing it for a while now actually." he said, looking amused all the while. "I also create them."
"Create them? What do you mean?" Valerie asked puzzled. "To help people or something like that? To make people better?"
"Or something like that. But you don't ever have to worry about that." Kronos said, looking out the window in thought. The plane had landed.
"If you say so Nigel." Valerie said, also looking deep in thought. She didn't know what he meant, but she didn't really care. What she did care about was where they were going from here. Would she ever see him again?
***
Joe watched as the three Immortals told stories and shared laughter. Joe admitted to himself that he envied them at times, people who could live forever. Never growing old, never dying. Telling stories about history first-hand because they had been there when it had happened.
But Joe also pitied Immortals as well. He knew that the price for immortality was indeed high. He knew some of what Immortals had gone through, because he had witnessed it first hand. They outlived everyone. All those they had ever loved in their long lives were dead now. And even if they weren't, they would die soon. As he would eventually die. And if they were Immortal, there was always the Game to take them away.
The Game. A brutal contest between Immortals to kill one another. To take each others' heads for some unknown prize, the winner of this prize being the only Immortal left in the world. With no one to share his or her feelings, Joe knew that they would most likely not survive. There would be no one to possibly ever understand what they were going through.
Joe prayed that none of his friends would be the One. And Joe knew he was damned for that thought because as he prayed, he was in fact praying for each of his friends' deaths. For them to be beheaded in some meaningless game and for someone else to be the One. Who knows what that person would be like? What they would become when they realized the sad truth of what winning the Game really meant? Joe knew that he wasn't the only one to have realized this truth. He couldn't be. Joe thought that perhaps Methos knew this somewhere deep down in his soul. He looked up at him, looked into his eyes, and saw Methos looking back at in some kind of recognition. Almost as if he knew what he had been thinking. Who knows, maybe he did know. He was 5000 years old. What kind of things could a man go through in that period of time? It was unimaginable to Joe, and probably MacLeod and Amanda as well, even if they didn't realize it. How could anyone ever possibly know what he had gone through? What being 5000 years old really meant. Were there any who did? Did Methos have any old friends left to share his stories with? Joe realized that he didn't know much about Methos at all. How much did anyone know about him?
***
Cassandra had to think over what she had learned from the young girl, Marie-Claire. Watchers. Why hadn't she ever heard of them before? She was 3000 years old! But she wasn't surprised to learn of their existence. She knew that Immortals had to have been noticed by someone. Someone who didn't forget. Someone who started an organization to keep track of us.
She had let the young woman go without any memory of what had happened tonight. Cassandra had no reason to keep her or hurt her. She had found out all she needed or wanted to know. She had the passwords for the Watcher database online. That is where she would find out wether or not any of them were still alive. And if they were...well, they were dead. Plain and simple.
***
Kronos walked down the walkway from the plane, his sword in hand in a long case, and looked over at Valerie. He really had no idea where to go from here. He liked Valerie, maybe even loved her, but he had no idea if she felt the same. He thought she did, after 4000 years he could figure out little things like that without too much trouble. He had become sort of an expert on human nature. Maybe someday he would get a job that accentuated that skill. He was only a virologist for the moment because he had been bored and it had sounded like an interesting profession. He also had a lot of knowledge of science that he was putting to good use. Of course, if he wanted to put his more extensive knowledge of terror to good use, returning to the old ways with plans to rule the world, he could also do so via one of the glorious viruses they kept in their containment freezers. It wouldn't take much to create something like that. Or to just steal a particularly nasty one for that matter. But Kronos didn't really feel like doing any of that.
He had tried to return to such ways before, riding with mere mortals, trash all of them, killing a few innocents here and there, but with none of the terror and fear he had achieved as the leader of the Four Horsemen. The leader of the Four Horsemen, that was what he was, who he was. And now he was in love with some American stranger, with no thoughts of rape or murder in his mind at all. Well, maybe a few stray thoughts here and there, but not enough to act upon. He looked up, noticing Valerie had said something, but not hearing it. "I'm terribly sorry, I was thinking to myself. What did you say?" he asked.
"I noticed." Valerie said with a smirk. "What I asked was, do you any family here? Brothers or sisters? That's why I'm here, visiting family."
"No, I don't have any family here, but I do have a brother..." Kronos paused, looking westward, "in Washington. Seacouver. I think." he answered.
"A brother, really? What's his name?"
"Um...Adam. Yes. Adam Pierson."
"Pierson? You don't have the same last name?"
"No, we have different fathers. At least, I believe so. I don't really know."
"What do you mean, you don't know? Were you adopted?"
"Yes, something like that. But we came from different families. He's my blood brother, though."
"Ok..." Valerie said, confused.
"Don't worry about it," Kronos explained. "I'll tell you about it to you later."
"If you say so." Valerie said, not quite satisfied.
***
Joe groaned at the sound of the phone from behind the bar. He had gone over to sit with the three Immortals, and had been taken in by their stories. MacLeod was in the middle of what was turning out to be a very interesting tale involving Fitzcairn, three young women, a lot of drinking in the local tavern, and a priest, and Joe wanted to listen to the rest of it. Who would be calling at this hour anyway? He sighed as he made excuses to the group, telling MacLeod to put a pause on the tale, and shuffled over to the phone. "Joe's, what can I do for you?" he asked the caller in an irritated voice. His irritation soon faded away to fear as he listened to what the caller had to say.
The three Immortals watched Joe as he talked on the phone. "Who do you think that is? And why would they be calling at this hour? The bar is closed." Amanda asked no one in particular.
"I don't know, Amanda, why don't you go over there and listen in?" MacLeod said with a knowing smile.
"I would never listen in to a phone call! What ever gave you that improbable idea?" she asked in distaste.
"Just the fact that you've done it before, and most likely will again." Methos answered for MacLeod.
"Why you little -" she halted her tirade as Joe came over to the table, his face pale.
"What's wrong, Joe? Did you get some bad news? Have a seat." MacLeod said, getting up to pull out a chair.
"Thanks, Mac. Actually, yes it was bad news. But not for me."
"What do you mean, Joe darling? You can tell us." Amanda said.
"It was for Methos." he answered, looking at the person in question.
"What do you mean it was about me? What happened Joe? Did something happen in the Watchers?"
"No, not in the Watchers, but I'm sure they played some part in it, whether they knew it or not. Someone knows who you are." he finished quietly. Methos sat back and closed his eyes, not saying a word.
"What do you mean, someone knows he's Methos?" Amanda asked.
"Yes. Someone called telling me to inform Methos that he was coming."
"Who? Did you recognize the voice?" MacLeod asked, casting a worried glance toward Methos, who still had his eyes closed.
"No. Whoever it was, I either didn't know them, or they were disguising their voice."
"Methos, you're in danger, you have to get out of town. Go to one of those places you're always telling us to go. Somewhere warm and tropical, and most of all, free of people. Especially Immortals." Amanda said.
"I'm not going anywhere." Methos answered her, finally opening his eyes to look at them. "Think about it. Where did this person call? Did he call my home, and talk to me in person? No, he called here, where he or she knew I would be at this very moment. I wouldn't be surprised if they were on their way right now."
"Then why are you still here? Let's get out of-" MacLeod was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass.
"It's too late, MacLeod. Whoever they are, they're already here." Methos told him, watching as the gas grenades that were hurled through the glass, fill the room with smoke.
"Methos we have to-"
"MacLeod! You must listen to me! If I get taken and you do not, find my brother! He'll know where to find me! His name is Nigel...Nigel Kretzlich....Colorado." Methos collapsed to the ground as the gas did it's work.
TBC
A/N: I have written more chapters for this story, but I'm not sure I want to post them if people aren't reading. So, if you are and just haven't reviewed, please do!! Thank you!!!
Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own Methos, Kronos, MacLeod, Amanda, Joe, Cassandra or any other characters from Highlander. If I did own them, I would be making new episodes instead of writing fan fiction in place of new episodes. Oh well. (sigh)
Summary: Methos and Kronos were brothers. In arms, in blood, in everything except birth. What exactly does this mean for Immortals?
Characters: DM, J, M, A, C, K, Valerie Viscount OFC
Author's Note: This is an alternate-universe story based around the events of Comes A Horseman and Revelations 6:8, WARNING if you don't wish to read about a Kronos romance, you may still read this story, but you won't like parts of it. Also, I live in the Midwest and I have traveled few places in my life, so I took some liberty and made some stuff up about the cities mentioned here. No offense is intended. Thank you to Clexian Kismet for your review. The following chapter is for you.
Rating: This story is rated PG-13 for language and violence.
Chapter Two
Kronos braced himself as the plane geared up to land. Of all included in flight, landing was by far the part he hated most. Seeming to sense his apprehension, Valerie grasped his hand lightly. Now, ordinarily Kronos would never have let such a thing occur, but he hadn't been his normal self lately. After 4000 years of life maybe he was finally beginning to change. And then again, maybe not. Who really knows? All Kronos would admit to himself was that he liked the feel of her hand there. He didn't like the fact that the reason her hand was there was because she thought she was afraid of flying, he wasn't really, but he didn't let that fact bother him. Much. He was surprised at how much he had gotten to know the red-headed beauty on the flight. They had exchanged stories and talked like old friends. Who knows, maybe he had known her in another life. After 4000 years, he had met quite a few people that were dead ringers for people he had known, and killed, thousands of years ago. He pondered this for a moment, thinking that maybe there was even someone who looked like himself out there roaming the world. There's a thought.
Valerie looked up at him, at Nigel, feeling something. She didn't exactly know what that feeling was. It couldn't be love. No, she told herself that she wasn't in love, not at all. But when she listened to his cultured voice and looked into his eyes, ice blue orbs that seemed to have seen thousands of years, she knew it was indeed love. She was shocked at this realization. How could she have let this happen? She was 25 years old, for pete's sake, not some head over heels in love schoolgirl. But she was. She had fallen in love with an almost total stranger that she had met on an airplane back home, not even knowing whether or not he felt the same way. She hoped that he did though. Oh, she so did not need this right now. Another relationship with a man she knew almost nothing about. He could be a mass murderer for all she knew. Nah, that was a stretch, even for her. He wasn't a mass murderer. He was a. . . a. . . she then realized that she didn't know what he did. They had talked all eight hours of the flight and she didn't even know what he did for a living. "Nigel, what do you do for a living?" she asked him.
"I'm a scientist, why do you ask?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, no reason. I was just wondering." A scientist? She didn't see that one coming. Not with looks like his. Maybe he was a mad scientist? She laughed silently.
"What are you laughing about?" he asked her with a puzzled look on his face. "Do you not believe me?"
"Well, you don't really look like a scientist at all. It's like I said earlier about your name. It just doesn't all seem to match. What kind of scientist are you, anyway?"
"I'm a virologist." he explained with a small smirk on his face.
"A virologist? You study viruses?" Valerie asked with a slightly shocked look on her face.
"Yep. Sure do. Been doing it for a while now actually." he said, looking amused all the while. "I also create them."
"Create them? What do you mean?" Valerie asked puzzled. "To help people or something like that? To make people better?"
"Or something like that. But you don't ever have to worry about that." Kronos said, looking out the window in thought. The plane had landed.
"If you say so Nigel." Valerie said, also looking deep in thought. She didn't know what he meant, but she didn't really care. What she did care about was where they were going from here. Would she ever see him again?
***
Joe watched as the three Immortals told stories and shared laughter. Joe admitted to himself that he envied them at times, people who could live forever. Never growing old, never dying. Telling stories about history first-hand because they had been there when it had happened.
But Joe also pitied Immortals as well. He knew that the price for immortality was indeed high. He knew some of what Immortals had gone through, because he had witnessed it first hand. They outlived everyone. All those they had ever loved in their long lives were dead now. And even if they weren't, they would die soon. As he would eventually die. And if they were Immortal, there was always the Game to take them away.
The Game. A brutal contest between Immortals to kill one another. To take each others' heads for some unknown prize, the winner of this prize being the only Immortal left in the world. With no one to share his or her feelings, Joe knew that they would most likely not survive. There would be no one to possibly ever understand what they were going through.
Joe prayed that none of his friends would be the One. And Joe knew he was damned for that thought because as he prayed, he was in fact praying for each of his friends' deaths. For them to be beheaded in some meaningless game and for someone else to be the One. Who knows what that person would be like? What they would become when they realized the sad truth of what winning the Game really meant? Joe knew that he wasn't the only one to have realized this truth. He couldn't be. Joe thought that perhaps Methos knew this somewhere deep down in his soul. He looked up at him, looked into his eyes, and saw Methos looking back at in some kind of recognition. Almost as if he knew what he had been thinking. Who knows, maybe he did know. He was 5000 years old. What kind of things could a man go through in that period of time? It was unimaginable to Joe, and probably MacLeod and Amanda as well, even if they didn't realize it. How could anyone ever possibly know what he had gone through? What being 5000 years old really meant. Were there any who did? Did Methos have any old friends left to share his stories with? Joe realized that he didn't know much about Methos at all. How much did anyone know about him?
***
Cassandra had to think over what she had learned from the young girl, Marie-Claire. Watchers. Why hadn't she ever heard of them before? She was 3000 years old! But she wasn't surprised to learn of their existence. She knew that Immortals had to have been noticed by someone. Someone who didn't forget. Someone who started an organization to keep track of us.
She had let the young woman go without any memory of what had happened tonight. Cassandra had no reason to keep her or hurt her. She had found out all she needed or wanted to know. She had the passwords for the Watcher database online. That is where she would find out wether or not any of them were still alive. And if they were...well, they were dead. Plain and simple.
***
Kronos walked down the walkway from the plane, his sword in hand in a long case, and looked over at Valerie. He really had no idea where to go from here. He liked Valerie, maybe even loved her, but he had no idea if she felt the same. He thought she did, after 4000 years he could figure out little things like that without too much trouble. He had become sort of an expert on human nature. Maybe someday he would get a job that accentuated that skill. He was only a virologist for the moment because he had been bored and it had sounded like an interesting profession. He also had a lot of knowledge of science that he was putting to good use. Of course, if he wanted to put his more extensive knowledge of terror to good use, returning to the old ways with plans to rule the world, he could also do so via one of the glorious viruses they kept in their containment freezers. It wouldn't take much to create something like that. Or to just steal a particularly nasty one for that matter. But Kronos didn't really feel like doing any of that.
He had tried to return to such ways before, riding with mere mortals, trash all of them, killing a few innocents here and there, but with none of the terror and fear he had achieved as the leader of the Four Horsemen. The leader of the Four Horsemen, that was what he was, who he was. And now he was in love with some American stranger, with no thoughts of rape or murder in his mind at all. Well, maybe a few stray thoughts here and there, but not enough to act upon. He looked up, noticing Valerie had said something, but not hearing it. "I'm terribly sorry, I was thinking to myself. What did you say?" he asked.
"I noticed." Valerie said with a smirk. "What I asked was, do you any family here? Brothers or sisters? That's why I'm here, visiting family."
"No, I don't have any family here, but I do have a brother..." Kronos paused, looking westward, "in Washington. Seacouver. I think." he answered.
"A brother, really? What's his name?"
"Um...Adam. Yes. Adam Pierson."
"Pierson? You don't have the same last name?"
"No, we have different fathers. At least, I believe so. I don't really know."
"What do you mean, you don't know? Were you adopted?"
"Yes, something like that. But we came from different families. He's my blood brother, though."
"Ok..." Valerie said, confused.
"Don't worry about it," Kronos explained. "I'll tell you about it to you later."
"If you say so." Valerie said, not quite satisfied.
***
Joe groaned at the sound of the phone from behind the bar. He had gone over to sit with the three Immortals, and had been taken in by their stories. MacLeod was in the middle of what was turning out to be a very interesting tale involving Fitzcairn, three young women, a lot of drinking in the local tavern, and a priest, and Joe wanted to listen to the rest of it. Who would be calling at this hour anyway? He sighed as he made excuses to the group, telling MacLeod to put a pause on the tale, and shuffled over to the phone. "Joe's, what can I do for you?" he asked the caller in an irritated voice. His irritation soon faded away to fear as he listened to what the caller had to say.
The three Immortals watched Joe as he talked on the phone. "Who do you think that is? And why would they be calling at this hour? The bar is closed." Amanda asked no one in particular.
"I don't know, Amanda, why don't you go over there and listen in?" MacLeod said with a knowing smile.
"I would never listen in to a phone call! What ever gave you that improbable idea?" she asked in distaste.
"Just the fact that you've done it before, and most likely will again." Methos answered for MacLeod.
"Why you little -" she halted her tirade as Joe came over to the table, his face pale.
"What's wrong, Joe? Did you get some bad news? Have a seat." MacLeod said, getting up to pull out a chair.
"Thanks, Mac. Actually, yes it was bad news. But not for me."
"What do you mean, Joe darling? You can tell us." Amanda said.
"It was for Methos." he answered, looking at the person in question.
"What do you mean it was about me? What happened Joe? Did something happen in the Watchers?"
"No, not in the Watchers, but I'm sure they played some part in it, whether they knew it or not. Someone knows who you are." he finished quietly. Methos sat back and closed his eyes, not saying a word.
"What do you mean, someone knows he's Methos?" Amanda asked.
"Yes. Someone called telling me to inform Methos that he was coming."
"Who? Did you recognize the voice?" MacLeod asked, casting a worried glance toward Methos, who still had his eyes closed.
"No. Whoever it was, I either didn't know them, or they were disguising their voice."
"Methos, you're in danger, you have to get out of town. Go to one of those places you're always telling us to go. Somewhere warm and tropical, and most of all, free of people. Especially Immortals." Amanda said.
"I'm not going anywhere." Methos answered her, finally opening his eyes to look at them. "Think about it. Where did this person call? Did he call my home, and talk to me in person? No, he called here, where he or she knew I would be at this very moment. I wouldn't be surprised if they were on their way right now."
"Then why are you still here? Let's get out of-" MacLeod was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass.
"It's too late, MacLeod. Whoever they are, they're already here." Methos told him, watching as the gas grenades that were hurled through the glass, fill the room with smoke.
"Methos we have to-"
"MacLeod! You must listen to me! If I get taken and you do not, find my brother! He'll know where to find me! His name is Nigel...Nigel Kretzlich....Colorado." Methos collapsed to the ground as the gas did it's work.
TBC
A/N: I have written more chapters for this story, but I'm not sure I want to post them if people aren't reading. So, if you are and just haven't reviewed, please do!! Thank you!!!