Same disclaimer as always. Credit goes to the creators of Highlander.

As Duncan advanced toward the stage, his sword in his hand Laville backed up slightly, dragging me with him. Based on what he told me his plan was, I rather expected him to say, "If I can't have her no one can, bwahahaha!" but he didn't. Instead he said, "Ah, Macleod. I didn't expect you so soon. Come to rescue our fair princess have you? Drop your sword, and I'll let her go."

"No!" I shouted, but I needn't have. Duncan just kept moving forward, sword in hand.

"Forget it. You're tricks won't work on me, Langley."

I could tell Laville, or, apparently, Langley, wasn't expecting that. He drew a sharp breath, and his grip on my shoulder tightened convulsively. I could feel the blade of his sword pressing into my neck and I thought for a heart-stopping moment I was really going to die. Fortunately for me Lav…Langley managed to get a grip and not slice my head off. "How did you find out my name?"

"I've got friends in high places," Duncan said. Joe! He must have gone to Joe, who looked up Laville/Langley in the Watcher files. Good old Joe. "Let her go. You've not killed a mortal yet. Let's not start now."

"I haven't had to," Langley countered. "Most of the people I've come up against had the sense to know when to give in." His voice was calm but I could tell he was agitated. Thanks to Richie and Joe, it seemed this encounter wasn't going the according to his carefully laid plan. I hoped that was a good thing.

"Let the girl go," Duncan said again, and even in the midst of my terror I took a moment to be slightly offended at that. Girl? "We don't have to do this."

Duncan had reached the stage by this point and stood just a few feet away. He sword was pointed down, but in a way that suggested it could be raised at any moment. Langley swallowed so hard I could actually hear it, and I knew that this was the critical moment. He thought he'd be facing Duncan with an advantage, but clearly that was no longer so. Maybe he'd just give it up as a bad job and leave. We stood there for a minute, no one moving, until finally Langley moved his sword off of my neck and thrust me to violently aside. With my hands tied behind my back and my feet bound together, I had no way of breaking my fall, but I managed to keep my balance enough so I landed rather painfully on my knees. "Oh, I think we have to do this," Langley said, and raised his sword.

Duncan expertly parried his thrust and said again, "Let Molly go. You know the rules. This is between the two of us. No outsiders."

"Fine." Langley sliced the ropes that bound me so quickly I thought for a second he was going to take some body parts with it, but he'd obviously done that before, because I was unhurt. When my legs were free I stood up shakily and stood there like an idiot, rubbing my wrists. "Go, now. Before I change my mind."

I looked at Duncan, wanting to say something, anything, but he just nodded at me. "Joe is waiting for you, Flora."

I nearly cried at his use of my given name, but I obeyed, and headed unsteadily to the door.

When I got to the lobby of the theatre I turned to peek through the windows at the fight, feeling a bit like Lot's wife, or maybe Orpheus, knowing I shouldn't but unable to resist the temptation. Everything felt so unreal at that point. I didn't know what time it was, or what day it was, my head was still aching from the drug, my knees were both scraped from my landing on them, and I had just spent what felt like an eternity with a sword at my neck. I wasn't thinking straight. If I were, I'd never have done what I did next.

I peeked through the window just in time to see Langley pull out a gun and aim it at Duncan. Like I said, I wasn't thinking straight, I wasn't thinking at all - all I knew was Duncan was in trouble, and it was my fault, and I had to help.

As I ran toward the stage, I heard the sharp crack of the gun; I saw Duncan falling. There was another shot, then Langley was over him, his sword poised to take Duncan's head. When I look back on it now, it was almost as if I was watching myself from a distance, I felt so unreal, like this was all happening to someone else. I don't even really remember reaching Langley, but I did, and slammed into him as hard as I could.

When I look back on it, I shudder to think how unbelievably stupid I was to do this, but apparently fortune favors fools, and the gun didn't go off, but flew out of his hand and into the wings of the stage, where it landed with a clatter. Langley and I both went crashing to the floor, and I managed to kick his sword away from him before crawling over to where Duncan lay.

He wasn't moving, and I wondered fleetingly how long it took to recover from being shot to death, before Langley came up behind me and grabbed me roughly by the back of my neck. "You're not supposed to interfere."

"You're not supposed to cheat," I replied, elbowing him in the stomach then twisting out of his grip, willing Duncan to hurry up and recover already.

His sword was still on the ground, and I dove for it, grabbing its hilt just a moment before Langley could. I held it to his throat, hoping my hand didn't shake too much. "Go. Leave now." I said, my voice coming out much more of a quiver than a command.

Langley just smiled. "You won't use that."

"How do you know?"

"You're an amateur. You're not even holding the sword properly.

Without meaning too, I looked down to check my grip.

That was a mistake.

In that one second of distraction Langley twisted the sword from my hand, hitting the side of my head with the hilt so I fell to the ground, dazed. I tried to roll away, but Langley stood over me, his sword pointing, once again, at my neck. "I'm sorry, Molly. As your professor, it falls to me to teach you a final lesson. Never interfere."

I barely had time to turn my head as his blade came down.

There was a scrape of metal on metal and I looked up to see Duncan rising like an avenging angel, blocking Langley's blade with his own. There was no witty banter, no grandstanding. In one swift, silent movement Duncan disarmed Langley then swung his sword for the final blow. I closed my eyes a second too late, and I knew the image of Duncan's sword cutting through Langley's neck would haunt me forever.

Everything was still.

Then everything wasn't. I watched as Duncan was buffeted by a violent wind that seemed to spring from nowhere, and I crawled away, terrified that something was going to hit me. This was the Quickening, and despite all my grandfather's descriptions, I wasn't quite prepared for the force of it. Lightening crackled from Langley to Duncan and he screamed in pain, dropping to his knees as the bright, white light surrounded him. The lights overhead surged then shattered one by one, and I curled up into a ball to as the glass fell like snowflakes around me.

And then it was over. The wind died down, and the world went quiet. I was probably in a bit of shock at this point, because I stayed on the floor where I lay, curled up like one of those hedgehogs, unable to move until I felt Duncan's warm hand on my back. "It's okay, Flora. It's over," he said in a soothing voice, rubbing my back gently until eventually I uncurled enough to allow him to help me stand. Then I did what any rescued damsel in distress would do in these circumstances.

I threw up.