AN – Much longer and hopefully less confusing!

"Wait a minute? Are you saying that Tessa is in danger from this Ares?" Duncan demanded, looking from one man to the other.

"She's safe enough. Richie won't let anything happen to her." Connor tried to reassure.

Duncan wished he could believe that, but this Ares was clearly a seasoned Immortal and if Connor's reaction was anything to go by his student was still pretty green.

"He's just a boy! If this Ares is as bad as you say he is, he'll run the lad through and Tessa won't stand a chance." Surely Connor could see that his stripling of a student wasn't equipped to protect himself, never mind Tessa?

"It won't come that, Duncan. Richie knows he's not ready to faces Ares yet." Connor's words were resolute, but his eyes betrayed his concern. Duncan had never seen his usually implacable mentor look so worried. He wasn't at all sure that Richie wouldn't fight. The lad probably still thought he was invincible. The young ones were always too full of bravado.

"Of course, Ares may have other ideas," Adam picked up his wet coat, gave it a sniff, but put it on anyway. "Where was Tessa going?"

"I don't know. I didn't even know she was planning on going out. She said she was going to use today to work on some sketches." Duncan worried. There were a thousand places in Paris Tessa might have gone to. He had no idea where to start looking.

"Maybe, something came up." Connor walked over to where the red blinking light of the answer phone demanded attention and pressed the button.

"Ms Noel," A cultured French voice filled the room. "My name is Albert Dumas. I saw some of your work in the gallery of M. Collet and I would like to meet with you to discuss a commission. I have taken the liberty of booking a table at Les Arbres .." the message abruptly cut off, suggesting that Tessa had been screening her calls as she worked and had evidently decided that this one was worth taking.

"Is that Ares?" Duncan demanded.

"No," Adam answered, already halfway to the door. "But it gives us a place to start."

Duncan quickly reached for his sword and his coat and picked up the keys to the Citroen. "I'm driving," He flashed a quick, mirthless grin at Adam. "You can sit in the back."

"Why me?" Adam protested. "What about Connor?"

"Age has its privileges, laddie." Connor slapped him on the shoulder as he chuckled softly.

Les Arbres was a very exclusive restaurant, the haunt of many a celebrity and the occasional royal. As such, it was very protective about its client's privacy. Methos bit the inside of his lip as he watched Duncan trying to convince the maitre d' that he wasn't just a jealous husband, if things hadn't been so serious it would have been funny.

"I thought I told you not to follow me." Connor murmured, sotto voice.

"Actually, you told Richie. I just happened to be in the room."

"And you've never heard of leading by example?"

"You're here."

Connor supposed he had walked straight into that. Still, when Duncan had stranded himself here in the past by following Ares, he had felt duty bound to come looking for him. Except, his kinsman's priority was keeping the pre-immortal Richie safe and if he could find him then so could Ares. Which was all well and good, except Connor wasn't at all sure that his Richie could make it through what was to come without Duncan by his side. He looked over at his 400 year-old, student arguing with the Maitre d'.

"The lad needs his Da."

"Connor, it's not like his goldfish has died. Just because you can't find our Duncan, you can't just swap the genuine item with the reproduction model over there. They might look alike, but that one's never even met Richie."

"He's still the same man." Connor argued.

"Is he?" The bonds Duncan had forged with Richie derived from a particular set of circumstances. To expect to replicate those bonds in a different situation was asking for trouble in his opinion.

"You know Duncan. He can't help helping. All you had to do was look like you needed a hot shower and a square meal, spin him some tale of a broken sword and an evil Immortal and he was determined to protect you. He just needs a chance to get to know the lad."

"And if Ares decides to go after this Duncan, what then?"

"Duncan can take care of himself."

"Against Ares?" Methos shook his head. "He'll have no idea what he is facing."

"Ares can't kill him without voiding the prophecy. He won't risk that."

"Trust me, where Ares is concerned, death would be a blessed release. The only safe option is to keep the two of them as far apart as possible. Which is what I was planning on doing by the way, before you showed up."

"And to do this you had to pretend to be Richie?"

"Well, I could hardly tell him I was Methos could I? I wanted him to feel sorry for me, not think he'd just found the Immortal Holy Grail."

"And you couldn't have protected Duncan, as Adam Pierson mild mannered graduate student?"

Connor Macleod was possibly one of the shrewdest men that Methos had ever met. It was one of the things he most admired about the elder Highlander. It was also, on occasion, dammed inconvenient.

"I didn't want to risk bumping into myself." He hedged.

"In Tibet?" Connor's eyes narrowed. "You had Richie's old clamshell rapier. The one Harrish Clay shattered."

"I borrowed it."

Connor suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. Richie wasn't the sort to stand idly by whilst others took action on his behalf. Especially where his family was concerned. "How exactly did you 'convince' him to stay behind?"

Methos really wished Duncan would get a bloody move on "I shot him."

Across the room Duncan thanked the maitre d' for his assistance, slipping him a generous tip for his trouble before finally turning back to look at the others with a frown.

"Well, she was here. Apparently, Dumas is a something of a regular, so unless your man is in his late fifties with a beer belly and a bald head, I'd say he's out of the picture."

"Did she leave with him?" Adam asked.

"No, he took a cab and she decided to walk."

"In this weather?" Connor looked up at the unrelenting drizzle.

"She's an artist," Duncan shrugged. "She doesn't always think about practicalities when she's looking for inspiration."

In the back of his mind Connor recalled his Duncan telling him something about Tessa once going off on her own into the mountain wilderness around Seacouver.

"What was the commission for?" Adam asked.

"A memorial," Duncan frowned. "There's a small cemetery about three blocks down that has some fairly ornate family tombs. She could have gone there."

"Well, at least its Holy Ground." Connor paused as the guilty expression on his former students face, sparked a memory of another conversation in a different time and place. "You haven't told her, have you?" he realised. "About the Game."

"She's knows about Immortals," Duncan tried to defend himself. He knew he was in the wrong. He had no right to share his life with Tessa without ensuring that she knew the full implications of that choice. But he knew she would abhor the killing and he was terrified of losing her. "The Game isn't part of my life here."

"The Game is always part of our lives. Its who we are."

"Its what we do," Duncan argued. "And right now, I'm not a player, so there's no call for her to be worried."

"Will you still say that?" Connor asked in a deceptively mild voice. "When Ares has his sword to your Tessa's throat?"

"Well, she's not here," Adam scowled down at his left shoe, which had decided to leak. "Any other ideas?"

"If she was walking the quickest way back to the barge would be through that lane." Duncan pointed as he set off in that direction.

"Unless she decided to get a cab, or go another way entirely." Adam muttered.

"Come on," Connor urged. "I'd rather not let him out of my sight."

They followed the small path down the hill where it ended in a flight of steps which let out onto a cobbled area running along side the banks of the river.

"There."

Duncan's head snapped round to see where Adam was looking. Following his gaze, he felt an icy claw close around his heart. Because there on the left bank, Tessa was walking, juggling a baguette and her purse as she tried to politely extricate herself from the unwelcome advances of a man he had never seen before. Judging by Adam's expression it could only be Ares.

And they were on the wrong side of the river.

"Tessa!"

At the sound of his voice Tessa's head whipped round, only to cry out in pain and shock as Ares abandoned all pretence of entrapment and seized her roughly by the arm, the weak sunlight glinting dully off a short, stabbing sword, which suddenly appeared pressed to her throat.

"Well, he's nothing if not predictable." Adam's voice remarked.

"Shut up." Duncan hissed tightly.

"You're too late, Macleod," Ares called across the water. "She is mine now."

Duncan wasn't unduly surprised that this Ares should know him. It wouldn't be the first time an Immortal had come crawling out of the woodwork wanting to make a name by challenging him. But only the very worse sought to use his loved ones against him.

"Leave her! She's not part of this."

Ares mocking laughter taunted him as it floated across the water. "How little you know."

Duncan looked desperately down river to the too distant bridge. Even if he ran now, he would never be able to get there in time. If he cast off his coat and shoes and swam across, Ares could still plunge that dagger into her side before he even hit the water. It seemed they were at a stand off.

"If you want to fight. Fight me. Let her go."

"I'm not going to fight you, Macleod. I'm going to destroy you."

The throaty whine of a motorcycle engine seemed to come out of nowhere causing them both to look round. On the other side Ares tensed as he scanned the surrounding area. Duncan looked along the rain soaked banks, but on a day such as this the tree-lined walkways were deserted. Yet still the noise grew louder. Only at the last second did he think to look up as a motorcycle launched itself off the roof of one of the nearby buildings.

"Richie!" Connor exclaimed.

"That's your student?" Duncan's jaw dropped. This one didn't just think he was invincible. He was a reckless idiot to boot.

The motorcycle landed with a hard bounce on the cobblestones, but somehow the rider kept control of the machine and brought it round in a circle in front of Ares. Suddenly, the sweet smell of shaving foam cut through the air, as Richie squirted an aerosol directly into Ares' face, causing him to scream in agony and claw frantically at his burning eyeballs.

Dropping both his sword and his grip on Tessa in the process.

"Get on." Richie yelled.

Tessa didn't need telling twice, she hopped onto the back of the bike and wrapped his arms around Richie's waist, burying her head into his shoulder as he sped towards the bridge.

"Oh bugger."

Craning his neck to see what Adam had noticed Duncan saw a large jeep pull out from the shadow of the tress and move directly into the path of the bike intent on running it down. In a heartbeat Richie had turned the bike on a sixpence and gunned the engine to full throttle in the other direction. Only to have a second jeep appeared blocking the quayside in the other direction.

"They're boxed in." Duncan's voice rose with alarm.

Richie had obviously realised it too, because he brought the bike to a halt and whipped off his helmet, looking right and left. His eyes lit on a derelict stone staircase. Duncan watched as he looked back over his shoulder to speak to Tessa and saw her tighten her grip as Richie opened the throttle and coaxed the motorcycle up the staircase. When they got to the top of the second flight he turned the bike slightly so they were looking out across the river.

"What the hell is he thinking?" Duncan gripped the wall in front of him with both hands as he saw the two jeeps begin to converge. "He'll be a sitting duck up there."

"I think he has other plans." Adam observed dryly.

Sure enough, Richie revved the engine and nudged the front wheel of the bike onto the top of the flat stone banister that bordered the steps, then he released the throttle, allowing the bike to speed down the banister like it was a ski ramp, arcing off the end to sail across the river. Duncan heard Tessa gasp.

"He's going to get her killed!"

"He'll make it." Connor assured him.

Duncan glanced over sharply at the note of respect in his kinsman's voice. Connor Macleod was a good man, but a demanding and rather taciturn teacher. Many a time Duncan had pushed himself to the limit to earn even a hint of approval, He was almost affronted that this reckless tearaway appeared to have earned his teacher's respect so easily.

"I thought you were supposed to be angry with him." He pointed out, peevishly.

Connor turned his head and regarded him with a frown. "I was worried about him, Duncan. There's a difference."

Across the river, Ares climbed blindly to his feet and shouted something in a dialect Duncan didn't recognise, before he and his entourage melted away.

"Can he do that?" Connor looked at Adam.

"I don't know." Adam shook his head.

Not for the first time that day Duncan had the very real sense that his mentor was keeping something important from him. It wasn't a feeling he was used to and he didn't much care for it.

"Duncan."

Tessa threw herself off the bike and into his arms almost before it stopped. He held her close, feeling her shake as the adrenalin ebbed away. He pressed his chin against the top of her head. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, but left her head buried in his shoulder. "Who was that man?"

Duncan hugged her a little tighter. Now that the Game had found him again, he knew he would have no choice now but to tell her the whole truth. But was it fair to ask her to live such a life?

He wasn't sure he was strong enough to leave her as he should.

Only once he had her safely settled inside the car did the full enormity of the day's proceedings hit himand he rested his palms against the roof of the car and hung his head.

"Easy now. All's well, laddie. She's alive." Connor murmured softly in Gaelic.

It took Duncan a moment to realise that Connor's reassurance wasn't directed at him, but at his current student, who was standing, his blonde curls rippling slightly in the wind, with a haunted expression on his face. The rational, cultured part of him knew that he should be grateful to the boy for his intervention. But the primal, instinctive part of him, suddenly found a focus for all his worry and anger.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he also lapsed into his native tongue. "Are you out of your mind? Pulling a stunt like that?" he consciously kept his voice low so as not to further alarm Tessa, but the words were no less biting for that. "You might be Immortal, but she could have been killed, did you even think about that? Or would it take waking up with her bleeding to death on the pavement beside you to ram that message home?"

"Duncan, hold your peace!" Connor growled.

"What?" Duncan turned on his mentor. "You canna condone such recklessness. The boy's a damned fool. He needs a good thrashing!"

"For protecting her from Ares? Duncan you're not thinking straight."

"Protecting Tessa is my ..."

The sudden thrill of an Immortal presence let the words die on his lips as he scanned the surrounding area for the source of the danger. And froze. It could not be. In all the years Duncan had known him this man had kept his vow to minister from the sanctuary of Holy Ground and had never ventured forth into the world.

Until now apparently.

"Darius? What on earth are you doing here?"