"Felipe?" Duncan asked with undisguised surprise at seeing the younger man at the bar with Joe.
"Duncan! This… young man has been waiting for you. Told me a very interesting story while doing so." Joe replied instead.
"It's good to see you, Duncan!" Felipe offered him his hand.
"Did he tell you he's the son of Zorro?" Duncan asked as he embraced the younger man instead.
"He did. He also told me you saved his father, and that he's been a Watcher on and off for… how long?"
"Just for about forty years in total. Starting in the 1860s. But I never did any field work. Only research."
"He was also one of my mentors, apparently!"
"You've known about the Watchers for a hundred and forty years?" Duncan asked.
"A hundred and seventy-six." Felipe confirmed. "The friar you and Father saved from the fire was one. He gave Diego a pendant and the chronicles on you and Myrina. It's how he knew about you."
"I always wondered about that."
"You left Los Angeles before he trusted you enough to tell you."
"I see. So Methos was not the only one who infiltrated you!" Duncan told Joe with a knowing smile.
"I think I should recommend that all of our people to be screened. If they did it, who knows who else did? You wouldn't be in need of a job, would you, Duncan?" Joe inquired.
"No, thank you. As you know, I'm not very fond of your organization. Perhaps Felipe..."
"I doubt I will be of much help after I do what I came here to do."
"Why not? You're just here to give Duncan that information about Jacob Kell, right?" Joe replied.
Duncan looked towards him a little puzzled.
"I'm afraid that was a lie, Joe. No, I actually came for something else." Felipe confessed. "Duncan, perhaps you'd care to take a walk with me?"
The Highlander looked a little suspicious at the younger man, then conceded.
HZHZHZHZH
"What did he want?" Joe asked Duncan as he returned to the bar, about an hour later.
Methos was also there, sitting at the bar, waiting for him.
"To give me this." He answered, taking out a purple crystal from his pocket.
"An Amethyst?" Methos wondered.
"No… I've actually never seen anything like this." Duncan replied, looking lost in thoughts as he stared at the stone in his hands.
"Why are you looking at it like that?" Joe wondered.
"Yes. What is so special about it?" Methos inquired.
"It's a choice. One I never knew we had. When Felipe gave me this crystal, he actually gave me his power and Myrina's."
"You took their heads?" Methos asked in disbelief.
"No. It's what I'm saying. I didn't have to. All I did was agree to accept this crystal. It was just like any other Quickening, but… it was also different… I took the power of two Immortals at the same time, and nobody had to die!"
"A crystal that transfers the power of the Immortals? Just like that?" Joe wondered.
"Just like that."
"And where is Felipe? What happened to him?"
"I don't know… He wasn't there when it was all over."
The man they were talking about and his wife walked through the door, hand in hand, about an hour later, heading straight for the table Duncan was now sharing with Joe and Methos. Neither of the Immortals sensed their presence.
"Good evening!" Mya greeted. "May we join you?"
They all looked at them inquisitively.
"So what Duncan says is true…" Methos observed. "You are no longer Immortals. You found a way to give up immortality and did it?"
"Yes." She stated.
"But why?" Joe asked.
"Because we want a real life. We want a family, children, a house, a career; to grow old together and die of a broken heart if the other one dies first." Mya answered and Felipe looked lovingly at her. "Because we've seen all we wanted to see and lived all we wanted to live. Besides, I guess we were both feeling too old and wanted to remember how it was like to be young again." She winked at Felipe.
"But how did you even come across this crystal? I've never seen any reference anywhere pointing to its existence." Methos inquired, not daring to touch the stone.
"One of my father's friends, an archeologist, came across an old cave drawing while in Africa, and drew a copy for him. It was when the idea that the power could be transferred without violence first hit him. I have spent much of my life pursuing that discovery, to see if what he believed was, in any way possible. It was also the reason why I first infiltrated the Watchers." Felipe recounted.
"And you found it… Using our chronicles?" Joe questioned.
"No. There was nothing useful in the chronicles. And, trust me, I've read them all. No… We found it solely by chance, and only recently." Felipe replied. "Mya and I were vacationing in Egypt a couple of months ago… It was when we stumbled upon it in a shop. It was embedded into what the owner of a small gift shop was trying to sell as an authentic tribal crown. We both sensed it, as if the crystal was calling us. But it was not an easy decision to make… giving up the prospect of eternal life. Only time will tell if we were right in doing it."
"So… What will you do now?"
"We're going home. To Los Angeles. Neither one of us has been there in over a century, but it is where we first met… So we've decided it's also where we're going to live our lives." Felipe replied.
"And this crystal?" Duncan asked.
"We hardly need it anymore, do we? Perhaps the Watchers might keep it safe. Let others know there is another way." Mya told him.
HZHZHZHZH
"Well?" Joe asked Duncan a few weeks later. "Is it safe?"
"As safe as it can be." Duncan answered.
"I still think you should have let us handle it."
"Joe, we both know your organization hardly has a perfect record in protecting even its best kept secrets. This way, at least, it will not be used against my kind. Rather than nagging me about it, why don't you tell me if you are still determined to write that chronicle on Felipe?"
"There should be one, don't you think? And I intend to correct the one on Myrina, as well. I already asked for the last chronicle on her to be brought here. Perhaps I can insert there a reference on where you've hidden the crystal. Something well codified…"
"No."
"Then how will those who want to use it even know about its existence?"
"The same way Felipe and Mya did. Sheer luck. Trust me, it can be found, but only by those who will truly be looking for it." Duncan assured Joe, remembering he had hidden the crystal in the same cave where the wall drawing that had led Diego to assume its existence was found.
HZHZHZHZH
Felipe was watching the lights of the City of Angels from aboard a big white yacht named 'Legacy of the Fox'. His wife brought him a glass of champagne and joined him.
"It's a beautiful evening." She remarked.
"Nothing is how it was…" He replied.
Felipe had been a little disappointed about how little had survived of the pueblo he had, long before, left behind. A few buildings he remembered, most of them built around the time his father had died, were still standing. The De la Vega hacienda had been completely demolished, to be replaced by a private park serving a nearby mansion. The landscape itself was hardly familiar to him. The hills, valleys, canyons and ravines he had once known as the back of his hand had been replaced by blocks, huge mansions and film studios.
"Neither are we." She replied. "Do you think you can get used to it? To this town, again, as it is now?"
"Perhaps… I'll certainly try. I like it, you know? As it is now. It's a lot like Diego imagined it would be. I'm just sorry he is not still around to see it." Felipe said softly, tears forming in his eyes.
"He is here." Mya said, pointing at his heart. "As long as his memory lives, so does he. And you can always become a writer and tell his story as it truly was."
Felipe smiled and wiped his tears, turning around so that his wife wouldn't notice.
"Are we celebrating something, my love?" He proceeded to ask looking at the glass of champagne.
"Yes, we are. A few things, actually." She answered, looking intently at him. "The first one is that I managed to find us a home."
"You did?"
"Yes. It's a beautiful house. Brand new, finished less than a year ago. And get this: it's called 'The De la Vega Manor'" She said, gesturing the name as if it was a title written in the sky.
"The De la Vega Manor?"
"Comes with a park and a secret cave." She added with a wink. "My lawyer had been in negotiations to buy it for a while now, but the owners wouldn't part with it no matter how much I offered. Today I decided to give it one more try."
"You convinced them to sell it?"
"I didn't need to. All I had to do is tell them our names. You see, the name of the manor is not accidental. The house is owned by your family and, apparently, they always knew about us, and believed we would one day return home. Together.
"So that manor also comes with Diego and Victoria's descendants: a very nice old man who looks a lot like your father did at his age, his two sons, one of which is a 30-years-old doctor and the other a thirty-nine-years-old editor and owner of one of the town's main newspapers, the oldest son's wife, who is working for her family's business - a chain of restaurants, from what I understand -, and a very nice 18-year-old young lady who is looking forward to find out everything you can tell her about Zorro. It's a package deal, really. They had even designed the south wing as a partly-independent building, just in case we or just you would ever show up."
"That's incredible news, Mya!" Felipe said, taking his wife in his arms and kissing her forehead. "They really want us living with them?"
"They even agreed to sell us part of the house, just so that we'd never feel like guests there. Our names are already on the deed."
Felipe was overwhelmed, unable to stop his tears anymore.
"There's more…" She said.
"More than having a family again?"
"Yes… and no… Adding to that family, I would say. I'm pregnant. We're going to be parents, Felipe!"
"You realize I'm calling our first son Diego, right?" He uttered as he raised his wife in his arms to kiss her, feeling his heart beating so rapidly that, for a moment, he feared it might explode.
Felipe de la Vega finally had the life his father had always wanted for him, and he couldn't be happier about it.
The End
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AN: Thank you for reading this story. I loved writing it and I hope I did well by all characters. I didn't want to change anything about their original storylines when it comes to the characters of Highlander, so this is just adding to their stories, not modifying anything. If you find mistakes you would like to point out, please feel free to send me a PM and I will do my best to correct them.
In other words, if you did like it, make me happy and leave a review.