A/N: Sorry if it gets a bit confusing here. Bri is Briseis and Alex is Achilles. If there's "" around either name it means the character in the play.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed: Elizabeth and Ashley Aiken, Clemen, Yavannie, Nathalia Potter, Meghan(). Your words were very nice and thanks especially to Yavannie for saying you admire me :o) I'm blushing!

Chapter 2

The auditorium was a buzz with activity when Alex slipped into it the next afternoon. Everyone was so busy that they never even noticed him there. He took a seat halfway down and watched as actors and actresses got themselves settled on the stage. The woman was on stage with them. He heard one of the girls call her Bri. He had almost convinced himself that it wasn't Briseis. After all, how would she still be alive? Unless of course she was immortal, like him.
Before too long they were all ready to start. Alex recognised the scene. It was the one where he died. The scene started to play with the actor playing Achilles bending to lift the fallen Briseis and Paris loading his arrow in the background. As the scene went on Alex felt as though he was in that same spot once more. He watched fascinated that the action picked up everything just as it had happened. It was nearing the end, when he had told Briseis to go with her cousin, when Bri stopped the actors. She seemed to be a critical director. "No you guys still aren't getting it right!"

She jumped on the staged and knelt beside "Achilles". "It's not about the lines here anymore. You could be saying anything, the audience won't notice. It's the emotion. You know you are going to die as soon as she leaves and this is your final act of courage. To get her to go to safety before she is killed too. And Leona," her attention now turned to the girl playing Briseis. "He is dying. You know this and you also know that it was your cousin who shot the arrow. You feel like it's your fault because Achilles came to save you. You're watching the only man you've ever loved die. Show some deep emotion." Bri jumped back off the stage and stood back a bit. "From the top of that scene."
"She's quite the perfectionist isn't she?" Alex was startled by the sudden voice next to him and turned to see quite an old man sitting beside him. "It seems that way."

"I'm sorry let me introduce myself. I am Professor Walsh."

"Alex."

"Do you know anyone?" Prof. Walsh asked, indicating the stage with his hand.

"No. It was more the draw of the story."

"Ah. I thought you had come looking for Bri. You've barely taken your eyes off her."

"Why would I be looking for her?"

"Because you are immortal are you not? I just assumed that there would be another round of the eternal game played soon."

Alex turned back to the stage. "I'm not here to kill her."

"Then why are you here Alex?"

"She reminds me of someone I knew long ago."

Alex turned back to look at the man. "She seems to know a lot about Troy." Prof. Walsh let out a small laugh as he stood. "She should do. She was there." He walked away nodding his goodbye and leaving Alex to dwell on what he had said.
The rehearsal ended and everyone left except for Bri, who was clearing up papers from her desk, and Alex who still sat in his chair. As the door closed behind the last person out Bri called out to him. "If you're here to fight me, can we please wait until after opening night?" Alex smiled and walked down to her. Her back was turned and the only light came from the stage so she never saw his face. "I'm not going to kill you. You have no reason to fear me. You're the only Trojan who can say that." She let out a bark of laughter. "You got that line perfect. What do you want? A role in the play?"

"No what I want is to look at your face again, Briseis." He knew he was taking a risk now. She might just be some Trojan woman who had witnessed the war and his final mortal moments. But the way her back stiffened when he said the name told him that it was Briseis all right. "Who are you?"

"I am the man to whom you gave peace to in a lifetime of war." She whirled to face him as soon as he said those words.
Bri was furious. How dare someone misuse those words. The words that she had kept hidden in her heart for centuries. They hadn't even been put into the play. She had poured the rest of her soul into the play but had decided to keep those words to herself. She whirled to face the man behind her. He would die for this, she swore. She looked into his eyes and almost fainted. It couldn't be. There was no way. She had seen him die. "Achilles?" her voice was barely louder than a whisper. His only answer was to lean down and kiss her. If there had been any doubt in her mind before there was none now. No man had ever kissed her like him. Her mind was racing though and she pushed him away.
She had caught him off guard and he stumbled back a bit, confusion on his face. "I watched you die." Her voice was strong now and belied none of the trembling she felt inside. "I know. I did die. For a short time. And then I came back as this. As an immortal. What about you? Did you not make it out of Troy alive? You had to have died a violent death to become immortal. What happened?"

"I made it out of Troy all right. Paris saw to that. I lived for another 2 weeks but I felt like I could not go on. I left the group of survivors and slit my throat. With the same dagger I almost used on yours."

"You killed yourself? Why?" "Because you were dead. I saw no reason to keep living. I had done as you asked and left Troy but had found nothing outside the walls. I thought we would meet in the Underworld." She looked at him long and hard. "If you were alive, why didn't you look for me?" He turned away. "I did. For weeks. I heard that you were dead though and gave up. I had no hope that you had the same fate as me until yesterday when I saw you in that bar. Even until a few minutes ago I was reluctant to believe it could happen." "Ah so you were the immortal in the bar. I wondered who it was. I was too concentrated on sorting out an argument than searching for trouble."

"I heard. So you wrote a play about Troy?" "It was a way to deal with it I guess. I keep trying to make it perfect though but there are parts I can't bring myself to relive. Or to share." "Like what I told you before you left?" "Exactly."

"Why?"

"Because..." she paused. She was centuries old now, not the innocent girl that she had been back then when she had barely dared hope that he loved her, but still she could not bring herself to believe she was lucky enough to have the love of the great Achilles. "Because it was too private. It made me believe something."

"That I was in love with you."

"Yes."

"It's true." Bri stared at him with something between shock, surprise and hope gracing her face. He gave a slight smile. "I should have told you in simple terms but I was a soldier. I didn't know anything about real love." He moved towards her again and gazed down into her eyes. "I'm sorry Briseis. I should have told you clearly how I felt before I lost the chance. I've wished that I had ever since." Bri knew she had to break this before she lost her self-control and herself as well. She slipped out of his hold and grabbed her bag. "I'm sorry. I have to go. I'm sorry," she said and she ran.