Chapter 2

Disclaimer: As much as I wish, I do not own Stargate: SG1, Highlander the Series, or any recognizable characters. Any character that you do not recognize are mine to use and abuse as I see fit. Everyone else will eventually be returned, but they might be a bit scuffed.

They made it back to the SGC and handed off the snake to the SGC's herpetology expert. After that, they quickly debriefed the General and endured the post-mission medical exam. No mention of Daniel being bitten by the alien snake was mentioned. Daniel hadn't decided if Dr. Lam could be trusted yet with his secret, so the less she knew about the incident the better. The only thing he said to his teammates was that his head felt weird, that things felt weird.

Dr. Lam overheard this of course and ordered a round of tests. Nothing came of the tests. Dr. Lam said that she wanted to keep him over night, but Daniel protested loudly enough, forcing a compromise. He couldn't leave base over night, he had to come and see her in the morning, and one of his teammates had to be with him at all times.

Vala immediately volunteered to spend the night with him, laughing at Daniel's obvious discomfort. He remembered the events on the Odyssey, remembered Vala and Cameron being in a relationship. It felt weird, to him, to have his friend's past-present-future girlfriend flirting with him. It just seemed wrong. He turned her down as quickly as possible.

Later, Daniel and Cameron were holed up in his office, writing up their after-action reports. Daniel was seated at his desk, behind his computer, diligently plugging away at the report that Landry wanted on his desk ASAP. Cameron was seated on Daniel's battered couch, furiously typing away on his laptop. It was a comfortable silence, only occasionally punctuated by Cameron swearing and asking how to spell the name of the village leader.

"You know you don't have to be here," Daniel said, looking over at his teammate.

Cameron snorted. "I know I don't, but technically I do. I'm not going to get on Dr. Lam's bad side by ignoring her orders. Going back to that planet and trying to tickle one of those damn snakes would be a smarter thing to do. Deal with it."

Daniel laughed. He was about to reply, but was prevented by a familiar sensation flowing over him. It demanded his attention, drawing his focus away from Cameron, forcing him to fixate on the door. He pretty much knew who was approaching his office, even though it felt slightly off and not quite right, but thanks to long ingrained habits that could not be dissuaded, he tensed, expecting the unexpected.

Methos didn't even bother faking politeness; he threw the door open and stalked into the room. He did pause momentarily to shut the door behind him, cutting off the possibility that the wrong person would overhear the wrong thing.

"Remote," Death demanded, holding his hand out to Cameron, not bothering to look at the human.

"You look like you are gearing up for some riding," Daniel observed, his tone mild, noting the dark look that clouded his long-time friend's face.

Cameron fished the tv's remote out from underneath him and slapped it down in the other man's outstretched hand.

Methos turned on the tv and switched the station from the Smithsonian Channel to CNN. "Watch," he said darkly.

A video was playing, showing two men fighting each other with swords.

"What the hell?" Cameron began but was quickly shushed by the two Immortals in the room.

Daniel turned his chair towards the tv he kept in the office and leaned forward to watch whatever Methos wanted him to see. Sam had managed, a few years back, to hook up the cable to the set. Vala had been quite pleased to find out that she could watch her soaps in Daniel's office.

The two figures were clearly fighting for their lives. It was not a stage-production. The men fought back and forth, swinging and clashing when their swords met. Both were expert swordsmen, but they were clearly getting tired. They would stumble slightly, over extend their reach, sometimes even miss the other entirely.

Eventually, the taller one, a blond-haired white male that looked to be in his early thirties, stumbled a bit too far, leaving himself open. The shorter man, dark hair, possibly Hispanic, took advantage of the other man's stumble and stabbed the taller one, causing him to drop to his knees. The shorter man's next move was to swiftly behead the other.

Immediately, a mist started to leave the body, followed by a small, localized lightning storm that attacked the victor, causing him to scream and his hair to stand on end. The look of ecstasy on the man's face was clear.

It was fascinating and revolting at the same time to Cameron. It was fascinating to him because he had never seen Daniel fight another Immortal and while he heard about experiencing a Quickening from Daniel, he had never seen one before. It was also revolting because the guy was enjoying it, enjoying the fact that he had just killed someone.

The Immortals were more horrified that their battle had been captured and put on display for the whole world to see.

"Is that what it is like?" Cameron asked Daniel, not knowing that Dr. Adam Pierson was also an Immortal.

"Not every time," Adam replied, shaking his head, "but close."

"How would you…," Cameron trailed off before it dawned on him suddenly. "Oh my God! You're like Daniel!" he then hollered.

Adam rolled his eyes. "No one is like Daniel, but yes."

"Wow! Were you a student of his? How old are you?" Cameron asked, not understanding that he was being rude.

Adam turned to face the mortal, a dark look still on his face. "Keep your voice down. The whole base doesn't need to know. Yes, I am an Immortal. No, I was not a student of his. As for how old I am, that is none of your goddamn business."

Cameron, realizing that he overstepped some boundaries, apologized. "Sorry. Daniel never told me if there were any others here like him. Are there any more?"

Daniel leaned back in his chair, massaging his temples, feeling a headache coming on. "I didn't tell you because it wasn't my place to reveal someone else's secret. As for if there are any others, if they want you to know, they will tell you." This was truly one of his greatest nightmares come to life.

"So, what now?" Cam asked, looking between the two men.

"Maybe no one saw it?" Daniel asked, his eyes closed.

Methos snorted. "It's on CNN. If they didn't see it there, they would see it elsewhere. I'm sure it will be on the Hollywood gossip shows soon enough," he said, his hands clasped behind his head, his eyes staring off into a distance he could only see.

The trio continued to watch the rest of the segment. They saw the victor stumble away from the now dead loser.

The next segment showed a conversation between Wolf Blitzer and another man, Heinrich Mann, according to the title popping up in large letters underneath his picture.

"Heinrich? Oh no," Methos groaned as he dropped onto the couch next to the lieutenant colonel.

"Another Immortal?" Cameron asked, earning him a glare from Daniel.

Methos did some deep breathing before replying. "Not everyone we know is an Immortal. Heinrich is a Watcher. One of the guys who watches us. I knew him from the Watchers Academy many years ago. I knew his wife."

"Wait! You are an Immortal who helped watch your own people?" Cameron asked, slightly perplexed. "Isn't that like a conflict of interests?"

"I did it to make sure others, especially the Watchers, couldn't find me. I wasn't using them to hunt other Immortals," he responded, looking offended.

"Why don't you want others to find you?" Cameron persisted.

"Because I am old, old enough to be a legend that others would be more than happy to prove true," Methos grumbled, clearly not happy.

"Daniel is old," Cam shrugged. "What's the big deal?"

Daniel sighed. "No one, outside of Jack, Sam, Teal'c, and obviously Adam here, knows how old I am. The Watchers think I am maybe a thousand, at the most. I did my best to change identities and conceal myself from most of the Watchers. The few that know how old I am are descended from my first Watcher and they are trusted. However, I don't trust most of them. The last thing I needed was a bunch of busy bodies getting in my way. The older you are, the more powerful you become, mostly due to the number of Quickenings you've taken over the years. Killing an ancient Immortal and getting their power can be something that drives a younger, psychotic Immortal to come after the old ones. And you can keep that bit to yourself."

"Oh," Cameron said, looking thoughtful. "Who is the Heinrich guy? If he is a Watcher, then why is he on CNN?"

Methos and Daniel silently watched the television, listening to what the Watcher was saying.

"His wife was killed a few years ago by the Immortal she was assigned to watch," Methos explained. "It was a risk that all Watchers knew could happen, but I remember her laughing that idea off. She really loved what she did and the thought of her charge turning on her didn't bother her. Anna really loved the challenge of it. Our old Watcher, Jim Abbott, told me about her death when it happened. I knew that Heinrich took it pretty hard. He adored Anna from the day they met, but he didn't like her being assigned to watch Luka Reeves. Luka was a mess and dangerous, but Anna liked the opportunity to watch over him. I guess he decided to burn all of his bridges and then torch the landscape while he was at it."

"So, what now?" Cameron asked, looking between the two Immortal men. "You go into hiding? Avoid everyone and everything until this blows over?"

Methos and Daniel both snorted in derision.

"This isn't going to just blow over," Daniel said darkly. "This is a nightmare. My nightmare. I've always feared that the public would know about us. There are governments and organizations that would love to know what makes us the way we are."

"So, you just disappear into the night?" Cameron asked.

Daniel shook his head "no" while Adam nodded in the affirmative.

"Which is it?" Cameron exclaimed.

"So, we just disappear and what will people assume? They will assume that we have something to hide," Daniel said to Methos.

"And we do. We have plenty of things to hide," Methos shot back at his friend.

"Where would we go on Earth where we would be hidden and safe?" Daniel argued.

"Fine," Methos said. "Off world then? How many worlds do we know of where we could just disappear? How many worlds owe you, specifically, a favor?"

"How many of them are still dealing with the Ori and the Priors? I can't just leave this mess behind," Daniel said, trying to be reasonable. "Have you talked to your Watcher buddies? Does Gavin even know about this?"

"Gavin is the one who showed me the report to begin with. I was planning on calling Joe and the others, after I spoke to you," Methos said, not wanting to out Siler and Scott. While Mitchell knew about him and Daniel and that was okay-ish, he didn't want to be the one to reveal other peoples' secrets.

"Dear gods," Daniel said, shaking his head at this strange turn of events. The same time, the day before, humanity finding out about the existence of Immortals was not a huge possibility, but now, here he was, standing neck deep in that particular mess.

"Keep your phone on, I'll call you later," Methos advised in English, then switched to ancient Greek. "Live. Grow stronger. Fight another day."

Daniel smiled, easily recognizing the mantra that Methos lived by.

With that, the other Immortal left them alone, off to call his friends in the Watchers.

Daniel, in the meantime, sent a quick text message to Siler, telling him to meet with him later that night. Scott was currently off-world and unreachable. He briefly thought about calling Josiah, his former student that worked for the current Vice President, but decided to hold off for now. He knew that Mitchell was watching his every move and he didn't want to reveal the others that he knew to the mortal. He trusted the man, but it didn't make sense to be cavalier with the knowledge of who's who in the Immortal world.

Soon after, he managed to get rid of Cameron, sending him off for dinner, allowing him to have a word in private with Siler, cluing him in on the news report.

Siler was, unsurprisingly, alarmed by the segment on CNN. He then checked his two social media accounts, on the fledgling Facebook and on Vampirefreaks, and saw how the news about Immortals was trending at an alarming rate on both platforms.

"What now?" Siler asked his teacher, looking aghast.

"To quote the Old Bastard: Live. Grow Stronger. Fight another day," Daniel offered. "And make preparations for a quick exit, if need be."

"On Earth or off-world?" Siler asked, his pale blue eyes looking troubled. He sat there in Daniel's office, on the couch, completely still, not fidgeting, silently wondering how this could have happened.

"Both? Maybe?" Daniel replied, looking at his former student. "I'm more worried about Scott. He is young and inexperienced. He's a good kid, but he doesn't know how to disappear, how to blend into the background. Hell, his family still thinks he's normal. There hasn't been an official death notification on him yet." The kid had died off-world, but didn't know it until he had gotten back to the SGC and had run into Daniel. The kid had fallen down a rocky embankment and had died. Scott revived, but thought, logically, that he had just knocked himself out.

Daniel had then taken on the role of being his teacher, teaching him about the rules of the Game between Immortals, and how to defend himself. Scott was a newbie; he hadn't even taken a head, which was fine with Daniel. He was more than happy for Scott to put off learning what a Quickening felt like. The kid had killed people in battle already, so he knew what it was like to take a life, but he didn't know how up close and personal it was to take another Immortal's head.

"Just promise me, if something happens to me, you will look after Scott," Daniel asked Roy, his eyes completely serious. "Maybe it is just my normal anxiety, but I don't have a good feeling about any of this."

Siler looked troubled. Daniel had, in his opinion, always had an air of optimism about him. No matter how dire the situation was, Daniel always found a way to look past the moment, to be optimistic about the future.

"Of course," was all Siler could say to his former teacher.

They spoke for a little while longer before the other members of SG-1 came knocking, checking up on their teammate. Siler then quickly made his exit, mentioning how some machine needed fixing.

Cameron looked between Daniel and Chief Warrant Officer Siler, unspoken questions filling his eyes.

"None of your business," he said, trying, and failing, to not sound harsh towards his team-leader. Daniel knew he was being rude, but the less said the better.

Mitchell, thankfully, didn't push the issue and let it go.

A/N: Well, what do you think? Hit the shiny review button and let me know. I always appreciate constructive criticism. It helps me improve my writing and storytelling.

Lori…I hope this meets with your approval. Rest up and let me know what you think.