Disclaimers: Babylon 5 and Highlander are not mine. I'm just using the basis to write some interesting ideas down. This is an AU story.

Notes: 1. This takes places just after Phoenix Rising (S5 Ep12).

2. This story is a Crossover with Highlander.

3. The Game has been over for 50 years, revealed as a false feeling brought on by some compounds in the atmosphere (Vorlon tampering).

4. // … // indicates telepathic conversation.

Chapter 7 – Shadows, Vorlons and the Game

"Now that Marcus is awake again. Elizabeth, no sorry, Cassandra. Would you care to explain?" Sheridan watched as Elizabeth… Cassandra turned to the other one in the ranger cloak and made an exaggerated sweep with her left hand, motioning him forward. Sheridan heard him mutter about learning to keep his mouth shut.

"How big an explanation do you want?"

Stephen Franklin answered before Sheridan or Susan could respond. "Start from the beginning."

"Life started …" Methos was interrupted before he got any further.

"Of immediate relevance to this …" Cassandra was obviously hunting for a word. Zack provided her with one. "Situation."

"Yes, thank you. Now get on with it old man." Methos grinned, his little tactic had defused the tense situation. People were no longer ready to kill at the drop of a hat. He cleared his throat and started again.

"A little over six thousand years ago Earth was a little more advanced than we are now. This was not due to normal humans, but to the other sentient race to evolve on the planet, us." Methos realised that he was falling far to easily into this role of the storyteller, but he couldn't seem to stop. "We are, as far as we can tell, an offshoot of the human race. We have one advantage on homo sapiens sapiens, we are virtually immortal.

"Eventually a war came, an interstellar war. One which ended, because we refused to take sides, with the destruction of our culture and our memory. People wonder what happened to Mars, to the planets that used to be in the orbit which is now the asteroid belt. Our arrogance happened.

"With the destruction of everything we knew, life became harder. After the war was finished the species we now know as the Vorlons came to Earth. They finished what the Shadows had started, and then started teaching everybody the basics of survival in the rougher land they had left to us all.

"While some were teaching, others were starting the first manipulations on human genes to produce telepaths and installing an atmospheric distribution system for and series of chemicals that enhanced the evolution of telepaths. These chemicals had some effects that the Vorlons did not intend." He stopped his narration, they watched as a frown appeared on his face. "At least, I think they didn't mean for them to happen. Anyway, these chemical compounds worked correctly on the majority of the planets population. On us, in our latent immortal form they worked the same, it was with the full immortals that the damage happened on.

"The chemicals made each of us more paranoid. More likely to react with violence, they also masked the distinctive 'buzz' or 'aura' that every full immortal used to able to tell each other apart with. It was now uninformative, devoid of the emotions and the identifiers that used to be there.

"After the Vorlons left, the Shadows reappeared. They offered the last immortal on Earth a great prize, a reward. So began the Game, our greatest tragedy." Cassandra was watching the mortals stunned faces as Methos took a break from telling his story to take a drink.

"Well, keep going." Susan Ivanova's impatient statement seemed to stun everyone out of the stupor that the talk had put them into.

Sheridan watched as the explanation continued, he noticed that the woman who had declared her name to be Cassandra seemed to be relaxing, moving ever so closer to the man who was speaking. She didn't seem to be aware that as she relaxed she moved closer, nor did he seem to notice when he put his arm around her.

* * * * * * * *

Outside Psi-Corps Re-education camp 14, Mars

"You're sure we are supposed to be doing this now?" The question came again from Samuel. Mordechai rolled his eyes.

"Yes, dammit. You can decode the message yourself if you want." He held up a data crystal. Ever since he had found out about these camps fifty years ago, he had pledged himself to rescuing the people trapped in them. They were too much like the place he had died first. After all Hitler had called his 'relocation' camps, Dachau had been hell on earth. He just hoped the people in these camps were being treated better.

"No, that's fine. The ship is standing by?" Samuel's words had broken his train of thought. He still thought Nick didn't have enough people to do this, but then these were who was available.

* * * * * * * *

Babylon 5, Captain's Office

Sheridan was half-listening to the narrative on the search for the chemical dispensers and half-watching in astonishment the way Cassandra had snuggled into the man who's name he still didn't know and the way he seemed to accept it, if he even noticed it.

"So, Grace, Duncan, Nick, Amanda and myself found the control centre buried in the Himalayas and, after managing to decipher some of the controls, turned it off. That was some seventy years ago. Twenty years after that and the Game officially came to an end with the death of the last dedicated player. Now we immortals just live out our lives, as peacefully and safely as possible."

Zack nearly chuckled as the looks of thoughtfulness covered the faces of three mortals that he deemed friends, then he nearly choked as he saw the way the Captain had seemingly melded herself to Methos.

"May we ask some questions?" Stephen's question distracted everyone from the group 'look' at Zack as he coughed and spluttered at the end of the sofa.

"Of course, Stephen." Cassandra answered him, her voice softer than anyone there, save Methos, had ever heard. "Are you alright, Zack?"

"Fine, * cough * Never better."

"Just what is your name and how old are you?" Sheridan's question was definitely directed at Methos.

"Which name?"

"Your real one."

"Ah. It's Methos, and I'm somewhere around the six thousand year mark, age-wise." His nonchalant manner and the ease of his answer caught them rather by surprise. The sheer number of years rather surprised them as well. Even Marcus looked at him with a blank face.