Chapter 20 -- Final Chapter of Volume I
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Ororo saw them and lowered the ramp to the Blackbird, letting them in. "What happened, Duncan?!" she demanded.
At the sound of his name, Nadya turned to see the white cloth that Duncan carried; not only that, but the charred arm that hung beneath its hem.
"Oh, my...!" She suddenly became hysterical, tears running down her cheeks, screams of absolute panic issuing from her throat. Piotr was hard put to hold her where she was.
"Nadya, stop! You'll only hurt yourself even more!"
"I don't care, don't you get it?! I don't bloody care! Just kill me now! Please!" The hysterics continued.
Finally, Bobby appeared at the side of her chair, plunging a syringe into her arm. She quieted down almost instantly.
Logan and Piotr looked at him with shocked regard.
"Just enough to keep her quiet for now; she's hurting those stitches and losing blood. She'll go into shock if we're not careful," he explained.
"Sounds lahke she's already theyah," Rogue murmured, bending over the Professor who was beginning to wake.
"Rogue...so much fear...what's happening?" Xavier spoke quietly as he began to come around, squeezing his eyes closed at the ache in his head as he struggled to bring himself to consciousness and his power under control.
"The villa's burning...you were knocked out, sir." Bobby replied, coming to their side. "He--Methos is fighting Hayden…alone."
Professor Xavier sat up all the way and sighed. 'He's not such a coward after all.'
Nadya's head lolled back against her chair, tears still rolling down her face and her lips moving, though nothing came out.
'It is like watching Jason Stryker all over again,' Storm thought as she gestured for Logan to come to her. "Are you OK?"
He grunted as he took the co-pilot seat, retracting his claws. "I will be." He wiped his hands on his jeans.
"Good, because I need your hands to fly this thing." Storm remarked as the thrusters roared to life.
Logan took control and lifted the Blackbird off the ground.
"Can't...can't leave him..."
Piotr hung his head, almost in tears himself as the words dropped from Nadya's lips, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks as they pulled over the fiery chaos that had used to be Talia's beautiful home.
Logan's sharp ears could catch the frantic whinnying of horses in the stables below them. The fire had not spread there yet but he knew that, with a stiff wind, those horses-especially Nadya's-were doomed.
" 'Ro, this may sound really stupid at a time like this but..."
"But what, Logan?"
"Do you have enough strength for one lightening bolt?" he questioned hesitantly.
Storm regarded him. "I might."
Logan swallowed. It sounded so stupid, but the poor kid might lose enough today without losing her horse, too. "Do you think you can open the doors of the stable?"
Now she was dumbfounded. But when Logan looked at her, Storm understood. The Wolverine had a good heart under all the adamantium.
"I shall try." With that, she concentrated. The ice-blue of her eyes became pure white, like an overcast sky. It never ceased to freak Logan out.
The sky grew black, the clouds tumbling together, rolling over each other and growling.
"Storm, what are you doing?!" Rogue cried.
But the weather witch didn't answer, only concentrated harder. Suddenly, a slender fork of lightening surged out of the sky, striking the doors of the stable and blowing them right off their hinges! The horses streamed out over the hill and through the countryside, with a bright figure at the head.
Shadowfax.
Duncan, having laid Talia down, moved forward to look out the windshield of the jet. Then he turned to Storm.
"Thank you. She'll appreciate it."
Exhausted, Storm shook her head. "Do not thank me, Duncan." She gestured to Logan with her head.
Him? Duncan hesitated a moment and then placed a hand on the mutant's shoulder. "Thanks, Logan." Then he moved over to where Nadya sat. "Bairne, your horse is safe. Logan and Ororo saw to it," he whispered to the half-conscious girl as the jet rose further into the sky.
Just then, two Quickenings rushed over him.
They were below, in the garden. Where this had all started.
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Methos watched Hayden vault over the railing and down into the open garden, forgoing the steps ahead. He followed suit. The crunch of the mulch lining the flower bed barely registered to his ears.
'Can't let him reach the woods.'
Humans have to condition their bodies to best perform the necessary tasks for their particular field of interest. A runner builds the muscles and lung capacity to excel in that task. A swimmer likewise. A basketball player. So on and so forth. Human beings condition to perform at their best to win. Immortals are no different. Except a lot more is at stake if one should lose. Naturally, it follows that the muscles of the arm would be developed the most.Yet, it also pays to be able to outrun one's enemy if they are too strong. Methos preferred to avoid fights, so he also trained his body to be able to flee faster than his opponent would be able to pursue.
Or if he really wanted to catch the other....
Hayden felt the blade slice through his back twenty yards from the woods he had been focused on reaching. The searing pain was negated as he swung around to block the blow which followed through. Upper left to lower right. The Ivanhoe's weight clashing with his own blade jarred his arm.
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The Blackbird was hovering when Storm looked up and saw Methos catch up to Hayden. She alerted the others.
"They are to close together to try to electrocute the other." Storm stated.
"You up to messing with his brain, Chuck?" Logan asked the Professor. Xavier opened his mouth but MacLeod cut him off.
"It is one on one. To the death." He ran his hand over Nadya's hair where she had finally fallen asleep, the stress and the medication finally pulling her under.
"What if he loses?" Storm asked. Duncan smirked.
"He won't."
"Yer sure of that?" Logan scoffed.
"He's survived 5,000 years, and far worse situations than I've had nightmares. He can take a child like Hayden, given a fair fight."
"You all do this? Kill each other? Over and over," the Professor said. Though it was not really a question, the highlander answered.
"In the end, there can be only one."
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Hayden blocked the blow coming at his stomach-brought the blade around and down trying to make contact with flesh. Draw blood. Live. It wasn't working.
Methos had a feral grin on his face. He continued to beat the man back. Talia had wanted him to suffer. Make him regret what he had done. Inspire terror. He could have done that. He wanted to do that, but it is also wise not to push one's luck. Besides, he did not want to revert back to past ways; this whole ordeal had drug up far too much of the past as it was.
'Time to kill off one more memory.' He blocked the jab that was out to connect with his liver. Then he threw himself down in a roll as Hayden brought his blade around for another cut.
Logan watched as the two men tried to kill each other. It was...enthralling to say the least. He kept his opinion to himself, though; few people appreciate a good fight.
'Especially between guys that know what they are doing.' He watched Methos duck and appear to fall forward. 'One more than the other though...Ouch!' Logan grimaced as he watched Hayden fall.
Hayden had tried to impale Methos but that was blocked so he brought the blade around again. Only Methos was not there. The sudden blinding pain by his ankle and radiating up his calf alerted him to where the ancient horseman had gone. He was unable to stop himself from crumpling to the ground without his Achilles tendon to anchor him.
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"Can we get closer?" Logan asked Storm, who cast him a disgusted look. He shrugged.
"No, stay away from them." Duncan said hurriedly, even though Storm had no intention to indulging Logan's second request.
"Why?" He asked.
"Trust me."
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Methos brought the blade down on Hayden's wrist. His sword fell to the ground, hand still clutching the hilt. The felled man would have screamed but Methos' blade had found his lungs through the ribs of his chest. He instead made bubbling sounds, blood filling his mouth.
"See what happens when you can't let go of the past......it makes you wish you had!"
The sword pulled free and cut down. Hayden's head rolled and smacked up against one of the flower pots.
Storm clenched her eyes shut at the sight of the rolling head; Xavier flinched; Logan gave a silent cheer and MacLeod a sigh of relief.
"It's over." Storm breathed out.
"Almost." Duncan stood. "Back the jet up some. Don't ask me why, just do it." He wearily cut off Ororo's question, and she had Logan comply, scowling.
The Blackbird was moved off another 100 yards, but Logan, under Storm's direction, brought it up so as to see what Duncan was looking out of the window so intently for. Charles was the first to notice anything, even before there was really anything to notice, at least where sight was concerned.
"I've never seen....." He leaned forward and stared, mouth slightly open in awe.
Logan looked at the Professor then back to the figures, now smaller, in the garden. A strange mist had formed about them and was readily being absorbed into the victor.
"So what is....." The first flash of the Quickening cut him off!
"Storm??!" he exclaimed, flinching.
"It's not me....it's not...not lightning...I don't..."
"Quickening." MacLeod breathed out. The others heard but did not respond. They just watched in stunned silence as Methos was thrown about like a ragdoll by the force of the lightening.
A few stray tendrils of the Quickening struck the villa, flames already spread through it. They struck the gas line. The shockwave from the explosion caused the Blackbird to shift to the left.
"That's why I said to get back." Duncan would have smiled had he not been so tired.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Methos hated this part, hated the stiff muscles after it was done. He also hated the memories and visions that weren't his.
Hayden's mere 200-year-old Quickening wound its way into his subconscious; he saw everything the younger Immortal had seen and done. He saw Kronos and those feral eyes, the brutal teachings; he saw Hayden's imagination, his fantasies of killing Methos and taking Nadya for himself. He saw all the ways the Boy had planned to kill and torture her, make her suffer her Immortality.
Methos' teeth clenched, his grip on the Ivanhoe tightening as bolts of Quickening sparked and exploded all around him, lighting the once beautiful gardens on fire, as though to purge them from all that had happened, from the blood that had been spilt.
Finally, it was over and Hayden had disappeared forever. Methos sank to one knee, his sword thrust into the ground, and panted.
"I kept...I kept my promise," he murmured.
'So dies the last legacy of the Horsemen.'
Xavier sat aboard the Blackbird and just watched. He saw Methos sink to the ground, the flames all around him as the Quickening faded away.
"Take her down, Logan," he said quietly.
'So this is what started it all? This is what I saw in Cerebro? Remarkable. Terrible...but remarkable.'
Logan directed the Blackbird back to the clearing, a bit further back than before, lowering the ramp so that Methos could enter.
The ancient staggered up the ramp, MacLeod meeting him the last third of the way and helping him up into the jet. "Where's Talia?" Methos groaned, glancing at the Highlander.
Duncan looked up with his eyes, indicating that Talia was behind the old man. Methos turned to find the curtain-wrapped body sitting in the back of the jet. He staggered over to her, sighing. He'd been burned at the stake before, as he said; he knew what a pain this healing process was to be.
Still....
Leaning down, he whispered. "He's dead." Methos knew that somewhere, in that holding place that Immortals called death (the non-permanent kind), she could hear him. He could even imagine her smiling. Then the old man looked at MacLeod, then Nadya.
"Don't let the child see her. It wouldn't do her any good."
Duncan nodded, walking over to where the man sprawled, exhausted. "She's been crying for you, Methos. She's cried this whole time. Bobby finally had to give her a sedative."
Methos didn't answer, just sort of looked away. This was the first time in a long time that he had fought for someone else and not just for himself. It was then that he realized how much she had come to mean...how much they all had come to mean to him. How much they were family.
"And life goes on, three species strong," a voice came from the other side of the jet.
Joe smiled and leaned back against the wall. Everyone had all but forgotten him as he'd sat there through it all. It was the mark of a seasoned Watcher: able to be forgotten while in plain sight.
Mac just shook his head at his friend.
Xavier smiled quietly. "Back to New York, please, Logan."
End of Volume I
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Ororo saw them and lowered the ramp to the Blackbird, letting them in. "What happened, Duncan?!" she demanded.
At the sound of his name, Nadya turned to see the white cloth that Duncan carried; not only that, but the charred arm that hung beneath its hem.
"Oh, my...!" She suddenly became hysterical, tears running down her cheeks, screams of absolute panic issuing from her throat. Piotr was hard put to hold her where she was.
"Nadya, stop! You'll only hurt yourself even more!"
"I don't care, don't you get it?! I don't bloody care! Just kill me now! Please!" The hysterics continued.
Finally, Bobby appeared at the side of her chair, plunging a syringe into her arm. She quieted down almost instantly.
Logan and Piotr looked at him with shocked regard.
"Just enough to keep her quiet for now; she's hurting those stitches and losing blood. She'll go into shock if we're not careful," he explained.
"Sounds lahke she's already theyah," Rogue murmured, bending over the Professor who was beginning to wake.
"Rogue...so much fear...what's happening?" Xavier spoke quietly as he began to come around, squeezing his eyes closed at the ache in his head as he struggled to bring himself to consciousness and his power under control.
"The villa's burning...you were knocked out, sir." Bobby replied, coming to their side. "He--Methos is fighting Hayden…alone."
Professor Xavier sat up all the way and sighed. 'He's not such a coward after all.'
Nadya's head lolled back against her chair, tears still rolling down her face and her lips moving, though nothing came out.
'It is like watching Jason Stryker all over again,' Storm thought as she gestured for Logan to come to her. "Are you OK?"
He grunted as he took the co-pilot seat, retracting his claws. "I will be." He wiped his hands on his jeans.
"Good, because I need your hands to fly this thing." Storm remarked as the thrusters roared to life.
Logan took control and lifted the Blackbird off the ground.
"Can't...can't leave him..."
Piotr hung his head, almost in tears himself as the words dropped from Nadya's lips, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks as they pulled over the fiery chaos that had used to be Talia's beautiful home.
Logan's sharp ears could catch the frantic whinnying of horses in the stables below them. The fire had not spread there yet but he knew that, with a stiff wind, those horses-especially Nadya's-were doomed.
" 'Ro, this may sound really stupid at a time like this but..."
"But what, Logan?"
"Do you have enough strength for one lightening bolt?" he questioned hesitantly.
Storm regarded him. "I might."
Logan swallowed. It sounded so stupid, but the poor kid might lose enough today without losing her horse, too. "Do you think you can open the doors of the stable?"
Now she was dumbfounded. But when Logan looked at her, Storm understood. The Wolverine had a good heart under all the adamantium.
"I shall try." With that, she concentrated. The ice-blue of her eyes became pure white, like an overcast sky. It never ceased to freak Logan out.
The sky grew black, the clouds tumbling together, rolling over each other and growling.
"Storm, what are you doing?!" Rogue cried.
But the weather witch didn't answer, only concentrated harder. Suddenly, a slender fork of lightening surged out of the sky, striking the doors of the stable and blowing them right off their hinges! The horses streamed out over the hill and through the countryside, with a bright figure at the head.
Shadowfax.
Duncan, having laid Talia down, moved forward to look out the windshield of the jet. Then he turned to Storm.
"Thank you. She'll appreciate it."
Exhausted, Storm shook her head. "Do not thank me, Duncan." She gestured to Logan with her head.
Him? Duncan hesitated a moment and then placed a hand on the mutant's shoulder. "Thanks, Logan." Then he moved over to where Nadya sat. "Bairne, your horse is safe. Logan and Ororo saw to it," he whispered to the half-conscious girl as the jet rose further into the sky.
Just then, two Quickenings rushed over him.
They were below, in the garden. Where this had all started.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
Methos watched Hayden vault over the railing and down into the open garden, forgoing the steps ahead. He followed suit. The crunch of the mulch lining the flower bed barely registered to his ears.
'Can't let him reach the woods.'
Humans have to condition their bodies to best perform the necessary tasks for their particular field of interest. A runner builds the muscles and lung capacity to excel in that task. A swimmer likewise. A basketball player. So on and so forth. Human beings condition to perform at their best to win. Immortals are no different. Except a lot more is at stake if one should lose. Naturally, it follows that the muscles of the arm would be developed the most.Yet, it also pays to be able to outrun one's enemy if they are too strong. Methos preferred to avoid fights, so he also trained his body to be able to flee faster than his opponent would be able to pursue.
Or if he really wanted to catch the other....
Hayden felt the blade slice through his back twenty yards from the woods he had been focused on reaching. The searing pain was negated as he swung around to block the blow which followed through. Upper left to lower right. The Ivanhoe's weight clashing with his own blade jarred his arm.
...................................................................................................................................................................................................
The Blackbird was hovering when Storm looked up and saw Methos catch up to Hayden. She alerted the others.
"They are to close together to try to electrocute the other." Storm stated.
"You up to messing with his brain, Chuck?" Logan asked the Professor. Xavier opened his mouth but MacLeod cut him off.
"It is one on one. To the death." He ran his hand over Nadya's hair where she had finally fallen asleep, the stress and the medication finally pulling her under.
"What if he loses?" Storm asked. Duncan smirked.
"He won't."
"Yer sure of that?" Logan scoffed.
"He's survived 5,000 years, and far worse situations than I've had nightmares. He can take a child like Hayden, given a fair fight."
"You all do this? Kill each other? Over and over," the Professor said. Though it was not really a question, the highlander answered.
"In the end, there can be only one."
..................................................................................................................................................................................................
Hayden blocked the blow coming at his stomach-brought the blade around and down trying to make contact with flesh. Draw blood. Live. It wasn't working.
Methos had a feral grin on his face. He continued to beat the man back. Talia had wanted him to suffer. Make him regret what he had done. Inspire terror. He could have done that. He wanted to do that, but it is also wise not to push one's luck. Besides, he did not want to revert back to past ways; this whole ordeal had drug up far too much of the past as it was.
'Time to kill off one more memory.' He blocked the jab that was out to connect with his liver. Then he threw himself down in a roll as Hayden brought his blade around for another cut.
Logan watched as the two men tried to kill each other. It was...enthralling to say the least. He kept his opinion to himself, though; few people appreciate a good fight.
'Especially between guys that know what they are doing.' He watched Methos duck and appear to fall forward. 'One more than the other though...Ouch!' Logan grimaced as he watched Hayden fall.
Hayden had tried to impale Methos but that was blocked so he brought the blade around again. Only Methos was not there. The sudden blinding pain by his ankle and radiating up his calf alerted him to where the ancient horseman had gone. He was unable to stop himself from crumpling to the ground without his Achilles tendon to anchor him.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................
"Can we get closer?" Logan asked Storm, who cast him a disgusted look. He shrugged.
"No, stay away from them." Duncan said hurriedly, even though Storm had no intention to indulging Logan's second request.
"Why?" He asked.
"Trust me."
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................
Methos brought the blade down on Hayden's wrist. His sword fell to the ground, hand still clutching the hilt. The felled man would have screamed but Methos' blade had found his lungs through the ribs of his chest. He instead made bubbling sounds, blood filling his mouth.
"See what happens when you can't let go of the past......it makes you wish you had!"
The sword pulled free and cut down. Hayden's head rolled and smacked up against one of the flower pots.
Storm clenched her eyes shut at the sight of the rolling head; Xavier flinched; Logan gave a silent cheer and MacLeod a sigh of relief.
"It's over." Storm breathed out.
"Almost." Duncan stood. "Back the jet up some. Don't ask me why, just do it." He wearily cut off Ororo's question, and she had Logan comply, scowling.
The Blackbird was moved off another 100 yards, but Logan, under Storm's direction, brought it up so as to see what Duncan was looking out of the window so intently for. Charles was the first to notice anything, even before there was really anything to notice, at least where sight was concerned.
"I've never seen....." He leaned forward and stared, mouth slightly open in awe.
Logan looked at the Professor then back to the figures, now smaller, in the garden. A strange mist had formed about them and was readily being absorbed into the victor.
"So what is....." The first flash of the Quickening cut him off!
"Storm??!" he exclaimed, flinching.
"It's not me....it's not...not lightning...I don't..."
"Quickening." MacLeod breathed out. The others heard but did not respond. They just watched in stunned silence as Methos was thrown about like a ragdoll by the force of the lightening.
A few stray tendrils of the Quickening struck the villa, flames already spread through it. They struck the gas line. The shockwave from the explosion caused the Blackbird to shift to the left.
"That's why I said to get back." Duncan would have smiled had he not been so tired.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Methos hated this part, hated the stiff muscles after it was done. He also hated the memories and visions that weren't his.
Hayden's mere 200-year-old Quickening wound its way into his subconscious; he saw everything the younger Immortal had seen and done. He saw Kronos and those feral eyes, the brutal teachings; he saw Hayden's imagination, his fantasies of killing Methos and taking Nadya for himself. He saw all the ways the Boy had planned to kill and torture her, make her suffer her Immortality.
Methos' teeth clenched, his grip on the Ivanhoe tightening as bolts of Quickening sparked and exploded all around him, lighting the once beautiful gardens on fire, as though to purge them from all that had happened, from the blood that had been spilt.
Finally, it was over and Hayden had disappeared forever. Methos sank to one knee, his sword thrust into the ground, and panted.
"I kept...I kept my promise," he murmured.
'So dies the last legacy of the Horsemen.'
Xavier sat aboard the Blackbird and just watched. He saw Methos sink to the ground, the flames all around him as the Quickening faded away.
"Take her down, Logan," he said quietly.
'So this is what started it all? This is what I saw in Cerebro? Remarkable. Terrible...but remarkable.'
Logan directed the Blackbird back to the clearing, a bit further back than before, lowering the ramp so that Methos could enter.
The ancient staggered up the ramp, MacLeod meeting him the last third of the way and helping him up into the jet. "Where's Talia?" Methos groaned, glancing at the Highlander.
Duncan looked up with his eyes, indicating that Talia was behind the old man. Methos turned to find the curtain-wrapped body sitting in the back of the jet. He staggered over to her, sighing. He'd been burned at the stake before, as he said; he knew what a pain this healing process was to be.
Still....
Leaning down, he whispered. "He's dead." Methos knew that somewhere, in that holding place that Immortals called death (the non-permanent kind), she could hear him. He could even imagine her smiling. Then the old man looked at MacLeod, then Nadya.
"Don't let the child see her. It wouldn't do her any good."
Duncan nodded, walking over to where the man sprawled, exhausted. "She's been crying for you, Methos. She's cried this whole time. Bobby finally had to give her a sedative."
Methos didn't answer, just sort of looked away. This was the first time in a long time that he had fought for someone else and not just for himself. It was then that he realized how much she had come to mean...how much they all had come to mean to him. How much they were family.
"And life goes on, three species strong," a voice came from the other side of the jet.
Joe smiled and leaned back against the wall. Everyone had all but forgotten him as he'd sat there through it all. It was the mark of a seasoned Watcher: able to be forgotten while in plain sight.
Mac just shook his head at his friend.
Xavier smiled quietly. "Back to New York, please, Logan."
End of Volume I