Chapter 3, part 2

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Back out in the bar, the Immortals and the mutants were at a standstill, neither group willing to give up their hand, their secrets.

"So, what? Are we just gonna all stand here staring at each other for the whole night?" Logan growled, his claws still not retracted.

"Or we could see who heals faster: you or me," Talia suggested. "And, frankly, I've got a lot more practice under my belt than you do."

"Is that so?" Logan mocked. To take a good look at her, she seemed just old enough to be in the bar. Well, in the U.S. at least.

"Millennia worth." Talia deadpanned after a beat.
Duncan and Methos both shot wide-eyed looks at the smaller woman.

"Talia..." Duncan warned. Methos just clenched his fists at his side.

"Millennia?" Scott echoed. "You're kidding, right?"

"Not at all. That one over there…he's at least five thousand years old, give or take a century or a couple." Talia nodded her head at Methos from her new perch on the table. She jabbed the dagger she held down into the table next to her. Then she reached into a pocket and produced a small silver flute and began to twirl it through her fingers...over...under…over...under. She was forcing herself to be calm, hoping to present a non-threatening target to the mutants.

Methos spat out a few indecipherable phrases before moving over to the bar.

"Where do you think you're going?" Logan growled at the man.

Methos turned as he moved around the bar, reaching up slowly to remove a bottle from the shelf and twisting the cap off the beer. "I've died twice in as many days. I want a beer." He articulated each syllable, keeping his eyes locked with the other man even as he took a long pull from the bottle.

"What about you?" Piotr looked to Duncan, who just gave a little sigh of surrender.

"I'm a little over 400." The only way to get through to these people was obviously to be blunt.
"So that would make you...what exactly?" Logan snarled at Talia again.

Mirth sparkled in her eyes, as did wit. "Oh, a gentleman never asks a lady her age, now does he?"

"I'm no gentleman." Logan retorted, to which Talia merely inclined her head in agreement.

"Fine then." A soft smile played on her lips again. "How old would you like me to be?"

Logan blinked at having his earlier words thrown back at him. He was not quite sure what to do with this woman who was flirting with him one moment then threatening his life the next. 'Why do I keep meeting women like this?'

"You said 'millennia.'" Piotr reminded her.

Talia looked at the younger man, now devoid of armor....metal skin... whatever he had on a moment ago. "Have you ever seen a saber-toothed tiger?" she questioned him. Tossing the flute into her other hand effortlessly as she shifted her weight to face him.

"Yes...in the museum...the one you took us to last year, Scott." Piotr looked to the older man.

"So have I. They were exquisite creatures.....extinction is such a waste in retrospect." She let her eyes play over the people in the room, hoping the full meaning of her words sank in.

"Is that a threat?" Logan asked. His offensive attitude earned a deep sigh from the seated woman.

"I don't threaten ...I find it to be a gross waste of time. It is, however, a call for truce."

"Think about it," Duncan broke in, sheathing his sword, "If the world has enough reason to hate the both of our species, why would we make that even worse by going after you? Especially when you didn't even know we existed."

Talia looked at Methos as he finished his second beer and tossed it into the garbage. "Well, Methos, care to shed some light on the subject?"

"Methos?" Ororo asked. "So you really are..."

"Five thousand years old, yes." Methos bit out and moved from behind the bar.

"So answer the question, 'Methos'. " Logan demanded.

"Why did you work with Stryker? Why shoot up the school?" Scott asked.

Just then, Nadya walked into the room with Joe. Both were slightly relieved to see the atmosphere not as charged as before, though Logan still had his claws drawn. Nadya caught the tail end of the question and added to it.

"Why did you shoot at children?"

Methos looked at her eyes...red from tears. 'I hate it when they cry,' he thought to himself.
"They were tranquilizer darts." he defended himself again.

"Not the ones I had flying at my head, or at Bobby's! You guys had live ammo in that school!!"

"Oh, and your claws are so harmless?" Methos face twisted slightly.

"I didn't break into the mansion, now did I?!" Logan's voice grew louder.

"Enough!" Nadya shouted over the two arguing men.

Talia smiled at her tenacity. Piotr bit back his own smile at the sight.

"Answer the question, Methos!" Nadya looked directly at him. Then she pointed at Logan, showing no fear of the man with the claws. "And you..." she growled, "Shut up and let him finish!"

The Wolverine was quite taken aback by this small woman and found himself slightly speechless.

Methos sighed and then pointed to Logan's claws. "That's why."

Talia looked at the claws protruding form Logan's fists, then up at the man in question.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of attached to them. So you wouldn't have been able to steal them." Logan quipped.

"Please! I am not that stupid. 5,000 or so years have taught me a thing or two." Methos crossed his arms. "I went to the mansion because Stryker ordered me to...because I joined him with the intent of having the process done to myself." he finished.

"Process...?" Talia looked to Logan again.

Logan held up a claw, retracted it into his arm again, and then flashed them back out. Talia raised an eyebrow at that.

"The adamantium covers his entire skeletal system…the claws are just an added bonus." Methos explained. "His ability to heal himself kept him from being killed during the procedure."

"How do you know so much about it?" Logan questioned, more suspicious.

"Stryker had x-rays...and he liked to brag." Methos smirked.

"So...you wanted a metal skeleton?" Nadya looked back to Methos.

"Adamantium is unbreakable…" The old man trailed off, leaving them to draw their own conclusions.

"You son of a..." Joe breathed.

Talia chuckled. "Bravo.....a grand plan, o' wise one. Pity it didn't work," she said half-heartedly.

"Methos!! How...why..." Duncan made the obvious connection and was seemingly very upset at the old man's logic.

"What does that mean?" Nadya asked, looking around for an answer, which Talia supplied.

"He'd be unable to lose his head."

"Oh," Nadya's mouth formed the word. Then, quietly, "And that was worth lives...children's lives?"

"I've done worse!" Methos grimaced a moment; perhaps that wasn't the best way to defend himself.

At this point, the others in the room decided to join the conversation.

"Would some one mind explaining this?" Ororo asked, looking mainly at Talia.

The dark-haired woman gave a small shrug before explaining, "The only way people like us can die is to have our heads cut off. He wanted to avoid that."

"Well, avoid this!!!" Logan roared and then lunged at Methos, who managed to duck under the claws that came at his throat, but not the ones that slashed his side!

His hand instinctively flew up to the wound, blood streaming through his fingers.

"Logan, don't!" Scott bellowed.

"Methos!" Nadya shrieked for the third time that night.

Talia made to move but, this time, someone beat her to the interception.

Logan felt strong arms come around his waist and hold him in place as he thrashed, enraged. He contemplated slashing at the person behind him but stopped, realizing it had to be Piotr. The younger man had encased himself in metal once again and was holding Logan in check.

"Let me go, kid!!!" Logan snarled, his teeth bared.

"I do not believe that would be wise." Piotr answered, holding tight but not tight enough to cut off air flow.

"This is getting us nowhere." Scott said, running a hand through his hair.

"You should call the Professor," Ororo suggested, realizing the tensions in the room were running too high.

Scott nodded and pulled out the phone.

"Hey!" Duncan broke in. "How do we know you aren't going to call the police, or call in more of your...people?"

Scott and Ororo looked at each other, then about the room....a tall metal man holding on for dear life to another guy with claws while another bloody guy held his guts in on the floor, now pooled with two distinct blood stains that would need cleaning up. Then they looked back at Duncan.

"Um...never mind," the highlander said, realizing the stupidity of the statement and stepping back.

"Hello. Professor?" Scott said when the call went through. "Yes....well, it's gotten a little complicated. You see..." He recounted the events of the past day to Xavier for the next hour while the others listened.

Ororo talked with Logan for a while and THEN Piotr let the man go, after she had promised a good electric shock through his metal system if he didn't cool down.

Talia came to stand between him and Methos, who just sat and stared out into space as he leaned against the wall.

Nadya had moved over and was sitting on the stage, her head resting on her knees.

Talia kept glancing over to the younger woman, wishing she could go comfort her. She satisfied herself with glaring at Logan from time to time. The man had absolutely no self-control.

"What makes you think I won't try to take your head?" he had asked just before Piotr had released him, after Ororo and Talia had spoken with him. He was doing it to try to get under her skin.

The elder Immortal had tilted her head and placed her flute back into her pocket. "What makes you think I won't take yours first?" Again, she smiled sweetly at him. It was fun to alternate between the threat of death and playing the role of temptress, especially with this one.

"Metal bones, remember?" Logan tapped his neck.
Talia glanced down and then back up at his eyes again. "Wrong head." She quipped, "I doubt that will grow back."

Then she walked over and sat on the nearby table between Logan and Methos. The mutant did not make a comeback; he couldn't.

Talia drew herself back to the present and glanced over at the younger man: Piotr...the other person in the room who also seemed concerned for the woman by the stage. She watched as he shed his armor and moved over to sit next to Nadya. She smiled slightly.

Logan noted the smile and turned to look at the two. Then he looked back at Talia. She was smirking at him. 'Women!' he thought and then focused on looking everywhere in the room but at her.

It wasn't easy.

"Nadya? Ti kharasho? (Are you all right?)" Piotr asked as he sat next to her.

"Nyet, Piotr. Ya ustala (No, Piotr. I'm tired)," she replied.

"Poocheemoo (Why?)?"

Nadya sighed. "My life has been very strange over the past few years. Just when I thought things were settling down..."

Piotr bit his bottom lip and glanced down, sort of shuffling his feet. He glanced up at Talia. "How did they...?"

Nadya intuited the rest of the question and sighed. "They are born that way. No one knows how because Immortals cannot have children. They can be perfectly mortal, grow old, and die, if they aren't killed before their time. If they are, then they become Immortal. They can live for years and centuries, even millennia. But they must constantly fight. Other Immortals come for their heads; when you behead an Immortal, you gain their power, their life-force. It's called a Quickening. Talia is the oldest Immortal living."

"How old?"

Nadya smiled. "I think somewhere around 36,000 years old. She was frozen in ice for most of it, though. You should ask her about it sometime."

Piotr chuckled, his blue eyes twinkling. It was something Nadya found very beautiful.

Then he became serious. "And you...? Are you Immortal?"

"Me? No! Duncan was a friend of my parents' before they died and so he's watched over me ever since. Joe is also an old friend, thoroughly mortal, though."

Silence fell between them for a while and then she reached out, running her hand over the smooth skin of his forearm. "It's amazing…is it just armor?"

Piotr shook his head. "Something like that. It is rather like Logan's adamantium. Heavier, though."

Nadya glanced up at him, her finger stopping on the back of his hand. "Cool."

"Um...Talia?" Scott stood next to her and held out the phone. "The Professor would like to speak with you."

Talia took the phone from Scott. "Hello? Yes, Professor...a pleasure to speak to you as well...Yes, I would like to clear this up as much as you...Well, here is what I propose."

After a short while, Talia handed the phone back to Scott. He spoke into the phone a moment more, and then hung up. "He said you would give us directions."

Talia nodded, moved over, and grabbed a napkin to write down her address on.

"What's going on?" Logan asked.

"Were are going to have a....summit." Scott decided that was the best word. "We are going to meet together, and have a long talk, and get this mess straightened out. Without bloodshed, I should hope," he finished.

"What makes you so sure everyone will show up?" Logan snarled and pointed to where Methos sat.

The other man glared at him...even though it was, in fact, true.

"He'll be there...one way or another." Talia said matter-of-factly.

"I'm coming, too!" Nadya hopped down from the stage.

Duncan turned to say 'no' but she cut him off.

"Don't even think it, Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I'm coming. Ororo is my friend as well; I want to see this through and find out what indeed is going on here."

Storm felt something warm inside her at the young woman's insistence.

"Hey! Now that that is cleared up, can someone move him and please help me?" Joe called from over where Methos sat, now fully healed, the mop pulled out once again.

"Coming, Joe! Don't worry, it'll come out. Do you have vinegar?" Nadya then hurried over and moved Methos with a well-placed hard nudge with her toe, as though moving a stubborn cat. "Shoo!"

'Shoo? What am I?' he wondered to himself as he clamored to his feet.

Duncan spoke with Scott and Ororo, telling them where they could stay in town, even at this late hour. Meanwhile, Talia cornered Methos, her eyes flashing.

"Listen to me and listen good, child. You will be there, do you understand? You will explain yourself to the Professor and then we will decide exactly what is going on here." There was no room for argument; if he had tried, he would have found another dagger in the lung.

Methos simply pursed his lips and nodded slightly.

Then Talia's eyes grew dark and sad. "Attacking innocents, experimenting on children. You were no better than Horton. That is the most selfish thing I've ever heard of you doing, Methos. And I'm tired of asking why."

Then, she walked away towards the other group.

Methos was left alone with his demons.