Horton's house

About 30 minutes later, Methos finally arrived at Horton's house. Grabbing his coat and weapons, Methos jumped out of his car and raced to the front door. He pulled his gun out of his coat and hid it behind his back as he rang. No one opened; Methos rang again. When after three minutes still nobody had opened for him, he decided to try the terrace-door, he knew from his former observations was located at the other side of the house. While he hurried through the garden, he noticed voices that got louder as he came closer.

Methos could understand word - artefacts. A man, apparently O'Brien was saying, "…wrong. Immortals are no…"

Then, Methos heard an evil laughter interrupt, "You are a fool…Immortals are abnor…I should have kno…not trusted."

"James, please,…ow the truth now…stop."

Methos, panting very fast now, finally arrived at the glass-terrace-door and froze as he saw the forms of two men standing in the room, he could see through the terrace-door. As Methos crept closer, he identified Horton, who pointed a gun at O'Brien. Although threatened by the weapon, O'Brien seemed to be very calm as he tried to reason with Horton, who in contrast looked very angry; Horton's face was deep red and his voice trembled in hate as he glared at the other.

"You are a traitor, you gay-scum…I don't need any traitors."

The moment he aimed at O'Brien and pulled the trigger, Methos jumped through the glass door, trying to save his face with his hands against the glass. While he heard the glass shatter around him and felt it cut through his hands, he also heard the sound of the bullet, and knew that he was too late. He landed on the floor between the two men, rolled in one quick motion to his feet again and then attacked the totally surprised Horton immediately.

Horton did not have a chance against Methos, who sent him to the floor with one powerful blow to the head. Not waiting for the other man to recover, he grabbed the dazed watcher by his shoulder and once again landed a forceful hit in his stomach. When he heard the other cry out in pain, he let go of him and stepped two steps back while he pulled his Walter PPK and pointed it at Horton.

"Get up," he ordered with a very deadly and cold voice. Because Horton didn't obey immediately, but instead only looked at Methos with confused eyes, Methos aimed the Walter PPK at his right leg and shot without hesitation. He heard Horton cry in pain as the bullet grazed his leg.

"The next time I will aim a little bit higher," Methos informed Horton with a cold voice. "Get. Up. Now."

This time, Horton followed the order immediately, although he stared with hate burning eyes at Methos.

Methos pulled the handcuffs he had brought with him out of his coat and threw them to Horton. "Secure yourself to the chair," he ordered. After Horton had obeyed, Methos turned and hurried to O'Brien, who was laying motionless on the floor. Very concerned about his condition, Methos tried to move him to examine him better. As he felt something warm and sticky on his hands, he looked down - his hands were covered with blood. "No," he whispered while he felt fear rise in him. Horton is going to die a very painful death if O'Brien is dead, he swore to himself while he stripped the clothes off O'Brien with shaking hands.

After he had removed them, he finally was able to get a better look at the injuries. Methos let out a believed breath, the man would live, the bullet had obviously only grazed his left side. Apparently, the force of the bullet, had thrown the other man against the table behind him, where he had hit his head and then lost consciousness. Methos closed his eyes and thanked fate. After that, he began to look after the wound; he took O'Brien's coat and cut it into strips, which he used to bandage the injury.

After he had made sure that his friend would be all right, he got up again and walked back to his captive, who sat motionless on his chair and stared with hate burning eyes at Methos. As Horton witnessed the small cuts Methos had inflicted on himself while jumping through the glass-door, closing in front of his eyes, the expression of hate on his face deepened even more.

"Abnormality," he spat with a hate trembling voice into Methos face. "You are the reason he betrayed me." Horton's face was covered in sweat, his eyes burned in madness and his wrists clenched around the chair while his body trembled with hate. Methos was sure that Horton would have rushed upon him if he hadn't been secured on the chair. This man was a crazy and dangerous lunatic, there was no way to reason with him.

Methos felt the burning eyes of the other man look him over from head to toe. Then Horton angrily shouted, "What have you given him? Have you slept with him, Immortal scum? That's it, isn't it? You have seduced him with your pretty little face… Of course, he trusted you; the stupid fool wanted to convince me that you are all so good, you evil bastards…I should never have trusted O'Brien…should have known better than to associate with this gay-scum…Next time, I will make sure that I will be surrounded by real men and not cXXX-fXXXXX."

Methos shook his head in disbelief; the man obviously was totally out of his mind. Looking at the other man from a short distance, all what he could see now was a stupid creature, that was shouting in anger and hate at him, threatening him with words, but unable to really harm him in any way. At this moment, Methos became aware that the burning hate, Death had felt for the man, was completely gone, instead there was only abhorrence left, abhorrence of Horton.

He sighed, and looked Horton directly into his eyes. "You don't get it, don't you?" he spoke with a very calm voice, "there will be no next time for you… …You will die today, Horton."

Horton laughed, it was a crazy laugh. "You little scum, I'm not the only one. Kill me and my friends will come after you. We will erase you from earth; you will not rule… We will save mankind from you abnormalities."

At the last words, Methos laughed humourlessly while he shook his head again. "You are a fool, Horton. Your companions are dead, I killed them all… You wanted to save mankind from us?…Then let me tell you that you almost destroyed the world in your madness. If it hadn't been for a small boy, the Horsemen would ride again and there would be nothing left of your world…And then, yes, then Immortals would rule mankind…And it would have been all your fault, Horton."

Methos stepped a bit closer to Horton and continued with a deadly voice, devoid of any human feeling, to whisper into Horton's right ear. "You've read of the Horsemen, haven't you?… Kronos, Silas, Caspian and…ME."

As he stepped back, he saw Horton's face pale, a small flicker of fear appeared in the other man's face while he stared at Methos with wide eyes. Methos could see that the he had suddenly understood that he was not facing a new Immortal but a very dangerous and very old one instead.

"I really thought about giving you a chance, but you don't deserve one." Methos stared directly into his eyes before he continued with an ice-cold voice, "I, Methos, oldest of all Immortals, former Horseman known as Death, do condemn you to death."

As he pulled his sword out of his coat, he could hear the disbelieving voice of Horton whisper, "no, you can't be HIM…HE doesn't exist." Horton's eyes were full of fear as he looked at the deadly Immortal in front of him; he saw no mercy there, only the cold promise of his death.

Laughing coldly at the stupid creature in front of him, Methos swung the sword and beheaded Horton in one forceful stroke. He watched as the head fell down next to the body and rolled over the floor until it lay under a chair. The last expression on Horton's face was a mix of disbelief and pure panic. Looking down, Methos whispered, "fool." After he had wiped his bloodied sword off on Horton's clothes, he went to O'Brien, who still happened to be out cold, and carried him to his car.

O'Brien's house

About 20 minutes later, he had brought O'Brien to his house where he had laid him on his bed, and waited for him to recover. Another five minutes later, O'Brien finally moaned and then opened his eyes, which were full of confusion and pain. "What?" he asked as he recognized Methos sitting next to his bed. "What happened?…I was at Horton's."

Methos smiled warmly and explained, "Horton shot you. I jumped through the door and tried to overpower him…He is dead."

"Good," O'Brien answered while his features relaxed. "Good," he repeated, "It seems I misjudged him. I thought him to be a honourable and intelligent man, but obviously I was wrong." O'Brien looked at Methos. "He didn't give me a chance to explain, instead he called me a traitor; gay-scum, he shouted at me…I thought us to be friends… I was wrong, he only used my influence on the watchers; he was not interested in the real me… It also seems to me now that he hated me for being gay almost as much as he hated you for being Immortal." O'Brien shook his head in disbelief and hurt. "He wanted to kill me because I no longer agreed with him… I still can't believe it."

Closing his eyes for a moment, O'Brien remained silent. Then, he looked up again and took Methos's hand as he whispered, "thank you, my friend, for saving my life. I am deeply in your debt." Methos only smiled. "What are friends for?" Then he got up. "I have to leave you know, Sean, I have a young boy to take care of".

As he went to the door, he heard Sean's voice behind him, "Friday, 8 pm, at Geofres'?"

Methos turned, "sure, but you pay." Hearing the laughter behind him, he left the house.