He exited the terminal of the airport seeing the usual family members greeting one another in a sickening show of love and affection. People who obvious where in town on business, surprisingly a lot of them flagged down passing taxi's before anyone else managed to claim it for themselves or made there way towards the car rental office. There was also the obvious tourist who was always found in Paris following tour group leaders or trying to find there own way with confused looks crossing their faces.
Not wanting to watch the sickening scene before him he followed the flow of people towards the car rental office hoping to quickly get a car and then away from the airport. Not fully understanding why he'd suddenly got the urge to come to Paris in the first place he shrugged and pulled his coat closer to him.
The reason why he had come here in the first place was that he had a gut feeling that he was need and he always listened to his gut feelings. He could not remember a time that they had let him down. It was just the case of why was he here? And why now?
Once entering the car rental office he found the queue was surprising long and only two customer service people were behind the desk. He could tell it was going to cause the queue to move at a horribly slow pace so he sighed in defeat and joined the queue.
It was over half an hour when he finally emerged from the car rental office with the keys to a one year old Mercedes, at least he had a decent car. Making his way over to the lot that held the entire collection of rental cars he found the car in no time. He climbed in and quickly pulled out of the lot and headed into the centre of Paris, which is where he was been pulled.
He let himself be lead wherever it was he was been pulled only to find himself parking up but by the river Seine. A large size barge painted black sat docked to the bank of the river almost blending in with the murky waters.
Looking towards the barge he realised this was where he was been pulled towards. This was the place that he was meant to be all along he just knew it.
He sat there his coat pulled close to his body, as the interior of the car was cold. He watched the barge closely for any sign of why he had been pulled there. It was about two hours after he had first arrived that a woman he knew exited the barge. Samantha, what the hell was Samantha doing there? Samantha was meant to be back in the states with Romona.
Samantha moved quickly away form the barge, a look of sorrow clearly showing on her face. "Samantha wait!" a clearly masculine voice shouted from the barge and was quickly followed by the muscular dark haired Scot, MacLeod.
"No Mac, I need to find Saxton." Samantha shouted over her shoulder not turning to look back at the Scot that was quickly making his way towards her.
Finally reaching Samantha he turning her to face him and a look that begged for understanding crossed his face. "Please Sam, just wait and hear me out. It's not my fault that she kanna get over the fact that I was the one who killed Richie, but she needs to. I couldn't help what Ahriman made me down no more then she could help gaining Richie memories."
"I still need to go talk to her, try and make her understand that it wasn't you fault. She has Richie's memories and she should also have his faith in you. I just don't understand why she doesn't understand, can't you see I need to find out why?"
"Fine, but Sam, if she doesn't understand it's fine. I can understand why she wouldn't trust me, hell if Richie was here I'm almost positive that he wouldn't trust me either."
"Thanks Mac" Samantha quickly gave him a reassuring smile then turned out of MacLeod's grip and walked away.
Back in the car the lone figure watched her go and then got out of the car, knowing now was a good a chance as ever to do what he thought he was here to do. Walking down the steps towards where MacLeod was now watching as Samantha walked away, it wasn't long before he soon felt the presence of another immortal.
MacLeod also felt the presence and just like instinct he started scanning the area until they eyes locked. A puzzled look crossed his features, which quickly turned, into a smile.
"Conner, what are you doing here?"
Rather then get the answer to his question though Conner MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod pulled back his raincoat. His hand clasped onto the handle of his Katana and pulled it free from his coat.
"Conner? What's going on here?"
Still no answer, but now Conner had started advancing on Duncan.
"I kanna fight you Conner. I will not fight you." Duncan started to slowly back away from his advancing teacher regretting the fact that he had left his own katana back on the barge when he had come to chase Samantha.
Conner continued to advance and Duncan realised there was something wrong with his teacher. There was a look of pure evil shining in his eyes. It was then that he realised that the person standing before him was not his teacher, he didn't know what it was, but he know with all his heart that it was not Conner MacLeod of his clan.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
Still they're no answer from Conner as he continued to advance and before Duncan realised it he had been back into a wall. Nowhere else to run Duncan watched as Conner raised his sword above his head readying himself to strike the unarmed Duncan.
The sword came down swiftly and Duncan didn't know how he managed it but he caught the blade between his palms. Breathing a breath in relief he was not ready for the next attack.
Conner removed one of his hands from the handle of the Katana and with lighting speed sent a fist flying in to Duncan's face. The sound of bone braking echoed throughout the otherwise silent night and Duncan instinctively released the blade bringing his hands to his bloody nose.
The blade now released from its hold Conner pulled back the blade slightly then pushed forward with it, feeling the resistance as the blade pierced Duncan's chest a menacing smile appeared on Conner's face.
Felling the blade enter Duncan momentarily forgot about his broken nose and looked up, locking eyes with who he thought was a purely evil Conner.
The blade was removed from his chest and Duncan dropped to his knees. The pain of the broken nose was over took by the pain of the hole, which the blade of the katana had left. The energy felted his body leaving Duncan barely alive.
"Why?" were the last words that left Duncan's mouth as Conner brought the Katana down in a swift motion severing Duncan's head from the rest of his body, still without answering his question.
Joe was just walking down the steps towards MacLeod's barge when he saw the scene before him. Conner MacLeod, Duncan's clansmen with his sword in hand and Duncan slowly backing away from him heading straight for a brick wall where there would be no escape.
What in gods name was going on here?
He knew there was nothing he could do without interfering with what obviously was a challenge, even if it was a seriously uneven challenge. There was no chance that he would have been able to get to where the immortals were in time so he did his job, watched hoping beyond all hope that this was not going to be another case of a MacLeod ending the life of his student.
It happened in what seemed like a spilt second. First Conner swung his sword causing Joe to hold his breath and release it in surprise as Duncan managed to catch the blade. The Conner in what seemed like supernatural strength punched Duncan in the face turning the lower half of Duncan's face crimson. Duncan let go of the blade and put his hands to his face covering his obviously broken nose. Conner moved fast and plunged the sword into Duncan's chest.
Pulling the sword out, Duncan dropped to his knees and Conner made the final strike, swiftly decapitating Duncan.
Tears sneaked there way to Joe's eyes at what he had just seen. Flashers of a simpler situation appeared before his eyes and the lifeless body quickly turned from been Duncan MacLeod to Richie Ryan and back again countless time in a matter of seconds.
Time seemed to drag on for what seemed like years but yet only mere seconds passed before the fog started to rise and then lightening started to jump from Duncan's headless body and into Conner.
Conner screamed as the countless lightening strikes hit him causing insurmountable amount of pain. Moments stretched into to what seemed like hours as the pain continued.
Joe could not watch any longer, he turned away and knew he had to go tell Methos before reporting this to the watchers. He had a feeling that either Methos or Samantha would want revenge for what he had just seen.
Joe walked back to his car and quickly climbed back in. As soon as the door was closed there was nothing Joe could do to stop the tears that overtook him. The sobs shook his body and he could not believe how hard it was to breath.
No matter how many times MacLeod and himself had had disagreements; he had always considered him more like a brother then a friend. It had been hard loosing Richie in that manner but loosing MacLeod like that too it was just beyond measure.
He was not sure how long he had been sat there, tears freely continuing their path down his face. He had finally managed to get his breathing under control and wiped the tears from his face. There would be time later to greave for his friend, now he had to tell Adam about what had happened.
Twisting the key in the ignition he started the car and made his way towards Adam's apartment. The driving was done on almost on autopilot as Joe's thoughts were drifting back to the challenge between the two MacLeod's. The uncharacteristic behaviour of the elder MacLeod, which led to his clansmen's death, was way beyond anything Joe had ever expected from Conner.