Questions and Answers

Momentarily safe in a small cave they had uncovered, the three men exchanged uneasy glances wondering who would break the silence. John was so relieved that Rodney was still alive that he decided he really didn't care why his friend wasn't dead, and with a small grin he glanced at Pierson before holding a hand up behind Rodney's back and beginning a countdown. Methos grinned when the questions started before the Colonel had even managed to get to three and focused on keeping his Adam Pierson persona firmly in place. He didn't want to give away too much until he had a better feel for his new student.

"Alright, I've been patient enough. What exactly did you mean by immortal, and before you say anything else, I'm not asking for a dictionary definition here."

"Very well," Methos slipped into what MacLeod called his lecture mode, "immortals appear to be normal human beings until they die the first time."

"Die, you said that before, what do you mean die?" Rodney looked at John, "Does he mean die as in really die?"

Methos decided the best way to deal with the spluttering scientist was to just continue talking and was grateful when the Colonel leaned over and and hissed

"McKay."

Seriously, he was going to have to figure out how Sheppard managed to shut the scientist up just using the man's name. Nobody else on Atlantis seemed to have any luck at all in that area, and whatever the trick was he was going to have to learn it, for the sake of his sanity.

"The first time an immortal dies," Methos was unsuprised when this triggered another exchange between the two men in front of him and grinned at the short conversation.

"First time!" came out in a squeek that was quickly followed by another hissed "McKay."

"As I was saying, the first time an immortal dies, they stop aging."

Expecting another comment at this statement, Methos grinned again when McKay's mouth opened and then shut quickly when Sheppard elbowed him hard in the ribs. At this rate he was never going to get to finish his explanation.

"Alright, as much as I am enjoying the floor show, if you two would just stop for a few minutes, I'll hit the high points of the situation. It's not like there won't be plenty of time later on to go into all of the fine details.

"One, no one knows where immortals come from, and I'm sorry to tell you this if you don't know it already, but immortals are always orphans. Your parents, weren't your real parents."

Methos ignored the muttered "Well that would explain some things."

"Two, as mentioned previously, once an immortal dies they stop aging. You'll have to figure out how you are going to deal with that one eventually, but for now just now that you won't be getting any older – fitter yes, but not older." He continued over the spluttering and chuckling that greeted that comment.

"Three, in the end there can be only one immortal and you are now part of the Game." Stopping the inevitable stream of questions, Methos held up his hand and fixed his new student with a piercing gaze.

"There is still one way that you can die and die permanently – if your head comes away from your body it's over. Sometimes when immortals meet they end up fighting and when two immortals fight, they commonly use swords. Thus decapitation is not unheard of."

This time he decided to allow the question he knew was coming and was only slightly surprised when it came from Sheppard and not McKay who was looking rather subdued as he realized that things were not all roses in his new world.

"But why do they, why do you fight?"

"Why do people normally fight: power, greed, fear. I don't normally fight unless I am challenged and have no alternative. I'm not a headhunter, although there are those who go looking for new immortals as easy prey and others who go looking for old immortals for the power they hold. You see, when an immortal dies permanently, their power, life force, what ever you want to think of it as, is released all at once. We refer to it as the Quickening, and it is absorbed by whatever immortal is the closest. The older the immortal, the more powerful the Quickening and the more powerful the surviving immortal becomes."

"In the end, there can be only one, and that immortal will win the Prize – the knowledge and power of every immortal that has ever lived. The fight for the Prize is referred to as the Game, and it's a deadly Game. With very few absolute rules: One, no fighting on Holy Ground. And that's anyone's Holy Ground."

Methos continued over the question McKay started to ask. "You'll be able to tell if it's Holy Ground, trust me. We're bound to stumble over someone who has a temple or altar or something and you'll be able to feel it then. And two, duels are supposed to be one on one with bladed weapons only. Some take liberties with that particular rule, so it's best to be prepared. That's pretty much it as far as the rules go. I don't think there are any other immortals or preimmortals on Atlantis though, so unless we meet up with some from this galaxy, you won't have to worry about the Game until we get back to Earth. At which point, anyone who thinks you would be easy prey will find out differently."

Methos smiled grimly at the look of surprise that crossed both men's faces.

"But I've never even held a sword, how am I going to defend myself?" came from McKay at the same time understanding dawned on Sheppard's face.

"When's the first lesson? McKay with a sword is something I have to see." Sheppard was smiling, but Methos could see the warning in his eyes. The Colonel wasn't going to allow anything to happen to his friend.

"Initially, I'll be setting up a time to meet with him at least three or four times a week for several hours at a time. If you don't mind, I might take advantage of the time you set up where you've been training him."

Answering the unspoken question he saw in Sheppard's eyes,

"I've been watching him. I could sense he was preimmortal when I first met him, and I thought this day might come. As I said there aren't any other immortals on Atlantis. That leaves me to be his teacher, and I'll be damned if I let one of my students go around unprepared."

John nodded accepting the answer, before vocalizing his next question. "You said you stop aging the first time you die and that older immortals are more powerful and a greater payoff in the Game you play so I'm betting this is considered an unbearably rude question, but how old are you? You study ancient languages and civilizations, I'm betting you're a lot older than you appear to be and that maybe you know so much about them because you spoke those languages and lived in those civilizations."

Methos curse inwardly, he had seriously underestimated Sheppard's intelligence. He had been expecting this question from McKay at some point but had hoped the man would be to caught up in the initial transition that he would have some time to figure out how to respond. He had not counted on the overprotective boyscout of a best friend putting things together as quickly as he had.

"And if I say yes, what will you do?" Methos took a gamble on the honor of the two men in front of him knowing he could fight his way out of the situation but not really having any desire to end up stuck in the Pegasus galaxy with no way home. "If I were that old, it would put you in one hell of a good position when you got back to Earth if you had my quickening added to your own."

McKay rolling his eyes and snorting in disdain was not really the reaction he had expected. "Oh please," McKay's glare was only slightly more piercing than the one Sheppard was no aiming at him. "What the hell kind of person do you think I am? Oh I don't know, here's an idea, lets cut off the head of someone whose expertise we require and who is also the only person who has any idea of what in the hell is going on with me. How stupid do you think I am? Even I were to contemplate doing something so despicable, I assume some of the knowledge of the other person is transferred in this Quickening thing. God, like I want to be a linguist and have my brain cluttered up with all of that. Squishy sciences," McKay shuddered at the thought, "I'd never recover my sanity. Although, if you were Einstein .."

Sheppard chuckled at the look on Pierson's face. Evidently, this was the linguist's first time at being on the receiving end of one of McKay's diatribes. "Not quite the answer you were expecting was it?"

John's comment stopped the flow of invective from McKay and allowed Methos to shake his head and pose another question, "You do realize you have to learn . . ." Methos was cut off and John rolled his eyes. The man deserved whatever he got for asking such another monumentally stupid question.

"Of course I realize I have to learn how to fight. I'm not stupid and I don't want to die the first time I meet up with some asshole that thinks I'll be an easy target. That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. Decapitation is not really the way I thought I would die. Although, it beats being drained by the Wraith hands down. You shot me today, because you didn't know if I would revive old and withered or if I would regenerate back to this age after that Wraith killed me."

A dark shadow crossed McKay's face and having read the mission reports that had been sent back to Earth, Methos was fairly sure memories of a 10,000 year old Wraith and dead friends were haunting the man in front of him.

"I never thought I would say this to anyone, but thanks for killing me. I wouldn't have wanted to end up like that, without even the hope of death to free me. But, we don't know for sure that the Wraith can't kill us, do we. We could end up overloading them or we could end up becoming an all you can eat buffet."

Seeing the acknowledgement on Pierson's face, McKay continued.

"I would also guess that you don't know of any other immortals that have been involved in the Stargate program, so we don't really know how some of the energy weapons might affect us. I would imagine vaporization works just as well as decapitation so I think we need to start adding to the list of things that might be permanently fatal."

Looking down, McKay sighed, shook his head and decided that he had too many additional questions to even begin to address all of them and that if the man in front of him was going to become his teacher he probably shouldn't spend too much more time questioning Pierson's intelligence. Looking up he settled for asking one final question "So, any ideas on where I can find a sword?"