C2: This story was archived on a C2 but I seem to have knocked it off somehow. To my shame I can't remember whose C2 it was but my apologies! I didn't mean to…
Author's notes: I meant to note that the Nathan Algren mentioned in the last chapter isn't mine. He belongs to whoever owns 'The Last Samurai." Also a lot of the early Nick/Amanda stuff is essentially a rehash of DOA since I don't know how many Highlander fans watched Raven. The Washington Post excerpt is from a real article about a real child. Hermaphroditic chimeras are extremely rare but do really occur though their physiology ranges from people who don't even know until they have testing do for a routine procedure to those like Ari.
T're: Welcome to the insanity! The story is written from Joe's POV. He turned his back on Methos so we don't know what happened to him after Joe started ignoring him in favor of Mac.
Trahloc: Well, I didn't let it sit quite so long this time. In all honesty I was almost ashamed to start it back up after letting it sit so long. I currently have two other just as complicated fics (one Pirates of the Caribbean and one Smallville/Highlander crossover) going right now. I'm trying to keep them roughly in balance writing wise so there may be some long silences but certainly not another year plus ever again. And while reviews are ALWAYS great and greatly appreciated I'll keep plugging away even if there aren't any. (I probably shouldn't have admitted to that)
Lamarquise: Since my reply to you got a little long I shuffled it to the end as a courtesy to other readers…
Q Me? Chapter 10: Wolfe's Tale
Mac met Sharpe's belligerent glare with a steady one of his own "I have no quarrel with you."
"If you have one with Ari, then you have one with me." He gave Amanda a half-bow and me a nod before joining Ari-El's granddaughter Catherine over by the stands. Mac turned to go.
"You go on. I'll catch up later." Amanda said quietly with her eyes fixed on Nick Wolfe.
Mac studied her for a moment "Could you use a little moral support while you wait?"
"Are you sure?" she said glancing at Ari-El who'd just made a very nice block.
He nodded "There's no point to fighting with a hologram. I'll stay if you need me and be civil."
"Well, at least one of us will be then." Amanda's quip wasn't nearly as light-hearted as usual.
I wasn't certain I could have made the same promise if I were Mac but Mac's a better man than I am. And while my Watcher curiosity was in over drive I almost wished we were leaving. This couldn't possibly be anything but awkward. Mac was in love with Amanda and she with him but they couldn't make a go of anything long term. They were an established not couple while she and Nick had (as far as my people could tell) never become lovers. They'd been more than friends, less than lovers and definitely in love. Add to that the fact that Nick Wolfe was none too fond of Watchers in general and me in particular and this could become a very…interesting afternoon.
I found myself a comfortable spot in the shade of the trees Ari-El found so offensive and watched the game. I did what I was supposed to I Watched with as much neutrality as I could muster. Ari-El was involved in almost every play in some way but he rarely scored preferring to pass the ball particularly to Liam but he didn't ignore the others either. All in all a solid player that would be an assent to any non-pro team but not a superstar. (Unlike Nick who was damn impressive on the court). That didn't jive with what I'd seen so far. No way that arrogant s.o.b. would be out there playing in public if he couldn't shine. Like Methos, the instant you thought you had him pinned down he morphed on you, but the more he morphed the more you saw what really made him tick underneath. What I saw was a man making sure his friend won a basketball game. Methos did the same kind of little subtle things for his friends. It was a very human and human gesture and it made me angry because I didn't want him to have any redeeming qualities. They won by a tidy but not embarrassing to the other team margin, shook politely, and Ari-El lingered to signed a number autographs. (Sheesh, a scientist with a fan club that was…wrong somehow.) The sight of all those innocent kids around that monster made my stomach clench. I wanted him dead. The new gun at my side was a heavy weight but like Mac had said there was no point against a hologram. Wait, grow stronger, and whack the s.o.b later. He looked up and winked at me. I wanted to stalk over erase that little amused smirk off his face. Nick chose that moment to wander up to Ari. He followed Ari's line of sight to me and almost immediately to Amanda. He shot Ari a furious glance and stalked off. Ari appeared to excuse himself from the kids and set off in pursuit of Nick. I couldn't hear the conversation from here but by Nick's face he wasn't a very happy camper. Ari and entourage (Richard Sharpe and the other two basketball players that I knew I'd seen the faces of somewhere) abruptly left leaving Nick, and more interestingly, Catherine behind. Nick just stared at Amanda for several long breaths before he finally seemed to make up his mind and headed in our direction. Liam glanced up from his own demonstration of the finer points shooting hoops and noticing the unfolding drama behind him tossed the ball to one of the older boys and started our way as well. Mac gave Amanda's shoulder a subtle squeeze and started to step away.
"Don't bother" Nick said just a touch too stridently. He swallowed and in a slightly gentler tone "I'm not going to be staying long." He focused on Mac and held out a hand "Nick Wolfe."
"Duncan MacLeod."
Nick blinked at him obviously familiar with the name if not the man. He gave Mac a quick up and down with his 'cop's eyes' "You're not what I expected."
Mac apparently decided he was more interested in information than in taking offense "What did you expect?"
"Honestly? Horns, a tail, a pitchfork, maybe a few plumes of sulfur." Now THAT was rich the demon had people thinking Mac was the bad guy. That was what really made Ari so damn dangerous, good people like Rebecca, Guinan, and Nick got sucked in by him.
I could see Mac stifling his temper, "I hope you'll make your own judgment instead of relying on Ari-El's."
Nick looked momentarily confused "Oh, it was Evangeline who seemed to think you were Satan incarnate. The only thing Ari every said about you was 'No, I'm not going to arrange his death' or some variation on it to her while she screamed for your head. He never actually mentioned you to me." He was speaking to Mac but his eyes kept wanting to flitter over to Amanda. "And while Evangeline wasn't exactly the most easygoing person I've ever met." You could almost taste the words 'iron-clad bitch' in his tone. "I always wondered what you'd done to earn the place of honor on her list of…infamy."
Mac only shrugged non-committally in response and Nick's eyes slid past Amanda to settle on me. Talk about stalling.
"Still a professional voyeur, Dawson?" Lots of contempt in that voice but if Mac could be nice then damn it so could I besides I probably deserved it. And it was fun to watch Amanda fume at being ignored.
"Observe and record" I said more cheerfully than I felt. Amanda made a great show of crossing her arms and glaring at Nick who blithely ignored her.
"I hope you're more honest in your reports than you are in person."
Apparently Amanda couldn't take it any more "He only lied to you because I asked him to. I was trying to save your LIFE, you infuriating"
"Oh is that why you shot me" he snarled cutting her off. It was a damn good thing the crowd had dispersed before the almost shouting (and at this rate likely to become shouting) started. I spotted Samantha across the courtyard and tried to remember who her assignment was because I was pretty sure it wasn't Father Liam Riley which could mean that we had yet another Immortal somewhere on the grounds.
"Of course it was! I explained this to you, Peyton's poison was going to kill you Nick, forever. And I promised myself that you weren't going to die because of me and I promised you that you were going to live. And I asked you to forgive me but if you want to hate me forever then that's ok because at least you have forever."
I decided (Watcher oath be damned) that this was a good time to study my feet because I didn't want to Watch Amanda on the verge of tears. I wasn't sure if they were of rage, or frustration, or sorrow for what might have been between her and Nick. Probably all three.
"I forgive you for that Amanda." Nick said quietly.
Amanda's smile could light up a couple of city blocks but as she moved forward to embrace Nick he sidled away nearly colliding with Liam (who I'd honestly forgotten was even here) in the process.
"Nick?"
"I forgive you for shooting me but I have a question for you. If you'd already decided that there wasn't an antidote and you were going to shoot me anyway why the hell did you wait so long? Do you have any idea what it was like not knowing if you're going to live or die by inches while your gut feels like it's being shredded for hours? I've never experienced pain like that in my life. And then even when you went off to fight Peyton not knowing if you were going to live or die you didn't bother to tell me." He swallowed eyes hardening "If you really believed shooting me was the only way to save my life why did you do that? Because if I hadn't crawled after you and shot the holographic projector Peyton would have killed you and I would have died, in agony, alone. Or worse Peyton could have shot me and done God alone knows what with me before taking my head. So what was it Amanda? Did you not want me to live without you? Or did you just want to be the heroine? Either way it was so selfish it's mind boggling."
Amanda just sort of wilted. It made me want to hug her (actually hugging Amanda has always been a dream of mine. Old, not dead.).
"No, no, Nick it wasn't like that." Amanda looked absolutely horrified. What he'd said was true but Amanda being her typical thoughtless self had never realized the implications.
"Then what was it like? Watching me died by inches knowing that in the end you were going to save the day?"
"I thought Peyton might have an antidote" she chirped.
"No, you didn't. And if you did you had no intention of getting it. From the instant you found out Peyton had poisoned me you planned on shooting me. So why did you leave me hanging until the last minute?"
"I saved your life, Nick" Amanda sounded out and out desperate.
"Actually, Ari is of the opinion that the poison would have triggered my Quickening without the bullet. And all things taken into consideration he's a lot more honest than you. And that doesn't answer my question."
Amanda licked her lips "I wanted you to see it as a gift not a curse and I thought if you went through all that first that, that you might see it that way."
"Sweet of you" the sarcasm was thick enough to cut "How dare you treat me like that?" He paused a moment. When Amanda didn't have a ready answer he spun on his heel to leave but Liam was in his way "I talked to her. You and Ari will just have to be content with that."
"You didn't talk to her, Nick. You just shouted at her." Father Liam countered quietly.
"I'm sorry" Amanda whispered gently. Nick turned to snap at her but he'd lost momentum and his eyes softened. It took a harder man than Nick Wolfe to stay angry at Amanda. There are a lot of female Watchers who wanted to claw her eyes out for that. "Please forgive me. I never meant to hurt you."
You could see a vicious retort wither and die before it ever reached his lips.
"I've been wondering for years if you were alive or dead, Nick. You could at least tell a girl what you've been up to."
You could see him wavering. Wanting to tell her to go to hell, wanting to walk away, and wanting to kiss her. In a lifetime of Watching I've rarely felt more like a Peeping Tom.
"Alright" he waved at the now empty temporary bleachers "Why not?"
I poked the ground with my cane "Is that an open invitation?"
Nick shrugged "The more the merrier."
Unlike Methos Nick made no concessions but Liam hung back and we arrived well after the others.
I claimed the only shady spot (because I sunburn they don't) as Nick began still looking like he couldn't make up his mind if he should kiss Amanda or slap her. Mac slipped as far back into the shadows as a man of his bulk and presence could, clearly trying to both support Amanda and give the two of them as much room as possible. Most men would have made this a fight but Mac wasn't most men and Amanda certainly wasn't anyone's idea of 'the little woman'.
"After you shot me all I could think was 'this is a nightmare. It has to be.' I didn't even want to think about a life in which I had to commit murder on a regular basis to survive. All that kept ringing in my head was of all things something Wilson said."
Who the hell was Wilson?
He glanced at Amanda "He asked 'What do you get when you cross a mortal with an Immortal'."
"'A train wreck'" Amanda muttered "'some things just aren't funny.'"
Nick nodded "Except you can't mix an Immortal with an Immortal either because in the end there can be only one." He knotted his hands into fists "I don't remember deciding to come here but this is where I ended up…."
"Oh, Nick" Liam's eyes bled with compassion "Come inside."
No questions, no demands, just friendship. Such a rare and precious gift. I silently thanked God that Sean hadn't killed Liam, it'd be a damn sham if the world lost a man like this. Salt of the earth. I wondered in a distant distracted way how many people my age even knew what that really meant. Salt was a preservative, it kept out the rot. I'd tried to do that as a cop by putting the bad apples in jail. Liam did it one well placed word or gesture (or basketball game) at a time by pulling back the ones on the edge. Liam had the better job and the harder one. Three fingers of something potent appeared in front of me. I didn't even notice the burn as it slid down my throat. A hand briefly on my shoulder, a reminder that he was here but no pressure.
"Amanda's alive."
A sigh of relief. I should have told him that from the start. "She shot me."
Liam settled opposite me, listening patiently. He's a priest. He's Immortal. He's had a lot of practice. And eventually the whole sorry tale poured out of me of Amanda's friend Janet, and her missing brother the 'cyber dick' (dumb name) who'd been murdered by the Immortal magician/computer geek Peyton who also had a passion for poisons because he'd tracked down Peyton's computer thefts (to the song of a 100 million). Of how Peyton had poisoned me and in the end Amanda had shot me. When I finished there was a cup of tea in front of me. I would have preferred another drink (or several). I wanted the fuzzy distance that being drunk would give but I accepted Liam's wisdom and sipped the tea instead.
"Nick, about Amanda"
The name was a knife through my heart "I never want to see her again."
Liam didn't bother arguing. "You're going to need a teacher, Nick."
A discussion we'd had months ago about what I would do if I discovered I was Immortal suddenly popped into my head "You knew" I gasped feeling almost as betrayed by Liam as by Amanda. I rose wanting nothing more than away from all things Immortal except now I was one. Where could I run from myself?
Liam planted himself in my way "From the moment I saw you. Some of us can tell some can't."
"But you didn't tell me."
"It wasn't my place, Nick." Amanda had spouted the same nonsense.
"What is this some 'Rule' I don't know? Don't let the new guys in until they're really one of the gang, forever."
Liam eyes still brimmed with compassion. It's tough to yell at a guy that understanding. "Nick, not everyone with the potential to become Immortal does" he ran a hand through his hair "Sometimes they grow old and die. Only God knows who will and won't and we leave it in his hands."
From Amanda it smacked of selfishness from Liam it was just a matter of faith. I've never been more tempted to hit a priest.
"You need a teacher."
"Why? I already know 'the Rules'."
"There's more to being Immortal than just knowing the Rules, Nick." Liam was trying to be reasonable while I just wanted to hit something.
"So tell me."
I was finally starting to fray Liam's patience a little. "I have someone in mind but I don't know if sh, he'll agree to it."
That broke through the emotional maelstrom I was trying to keep in check "An Immortal transvestite?"
Liam frowned looking a little unsure "Ailell is…one of a kind."
"I'm listening."
"Did Amanda" I winced when he said her name "ever talk about Rebecca?"
"Her teacher, yes" to hear Amanda talk the woman deserved sainthood. Not that you could trust Amanda. She shot me. She killed me. She did this to me. I wanted to strangle her. I'd wanted, I'd wanted to love her but how can there be love when there can be only one? I wanted to scream instead I took a deep breath and tried to be civil with Liam.
"Ailell was Rebecca's teacher."
I blinked at him. I must have heard that wrong. "But according to Amanda Rebecca was nearly four thousand years old when she died."
"I've never been able to get Ailell to tell me" Liam paused obviously searching for the right pronoun "Ailell's age."
We both spun at the 'tsk' that came from a one of the pews. "Liam, Liam I know you're priest but honestly don't you know better yet than to ask a lady her age?"
I hadn't sensed him. Maybe I wasn't really Immortal after all.
In spite of the situation Liam grinned at the man lounging on one of the pews. My first inclination was to say sprawled but there was something too planned, too focused about him for sprawl to be appropriate.
"Ah but you aren't a lady any more."
He slipped gracefully to his feet. Pretty, very, very pretty, this was a man who could easily pass as a girl in the right cloths even if he was a little tall. He was going to go through the rest of eternity being carded too. I said a silent thank you to whatever that I hadn't become Immortal at eighteen. The golden curls framing that too pretty face and tumbling around his shoulders were NOT improving his masculine image at all.
He gave Liam a teasing smile "I'm always both Liam. It's in the genes. It's hardly my fault that 61.23 of my cells are XX and 38.77 are XY."
A true hermaphrodite, wow. In my mind's eye I could see Professor Blake as clear as if he was here. I'd been planning to specialize in criminal law and had been less than best pleased to discover I was required to take an elective ethics class outside my major. I'd picked Bioethics hoping that I might at learn something useful about forensics. He always wore the same blue pinstripe shirt. I wondered if he had a whole closet full of the same shirt or if he had precisely seven shirts that he wore in the same order every week. I glanced up at the Washington Post article on the overhead.
Boy with Mixed Anatomy Adds to Scrutiny of In Vitro Fertilization
Doctors in Scotland yesterday reported the first known birth of a test tube baby with both male and female sex organs, leading them and others to wonder whether in vitro fertilization techniques increases the odds of this rare genetic condition. The child created through standard in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques is a "chimeric hermaphrodite', a medical term referring to two of Greek mythology's more fabulous creatures, the Chimera, which was a combination of three different animals, and Hermaphroditus, who was both male and female. The child is a biological chimera because he is the result of an unintended fusion of two separate embryos, which normally would have developed separately into two babies. He is a hermaphrodite because the two embryos that fuse were of different sexes which means half of the cells in the child's body are genetically male and half are female. The boy was born with both a testicle and an ovary and he is being monitored closely to make sure that no further complications arise as he develops. Chimeric hermaphrodites have been identified following natural conception but some scientist suspect that IVF pregnancies may produce them at a significantly greater frequency since IVF routinely involves the placement of multiple embryos into a woman's womb.
I forced myself back into the present with difficulty. I could smell the perfume of the little brunette that had sat in front of me that night. Would my memories always be this vivid from now on? I suspected so. I also suspected that a lot of the Immortals inability to let thing go was a result of this incredible ability to remember.
"And actually, Liam, my name is Ari-El." He wore his blue jacket as if it were a cloak. I filed that tidbit away. Maybe the really old ones got so use to cloaks that they weren't comfortable with sleeves.
"So do you change you name every time you change your...image?" I asked. Liam glared at me but I didn't care. I was pissed and I wanted to take it out on somebody.
"No, Ari-El is the name my mother gave me though I haven't used it in well over a thousand years." He wasn't taking the bait.
"If you're Immortal – why can't I sense you?"
He stepped right through the pew "Because I'm not really here."
"A hologram" I couldn't believe it – just like that sissy Peyton.
"Not in the least like Peyton" and with that he wrapped one of his long fingered hands around mine. I swallowed – the hand felt solid as a rock but his legs were inside the wood of the pew. How the hell had he known what I was thinking? He released me and greeted Liam.
"It's been too long." Liam complained.
"I told you long ago if you wanted to see more of me then you'll have to move away from here." He made Paris sound like a sewer. He turned and appraised me. I returned the favor. Long, lean, quick, with wiry rather than bulky muscle, I was willing to bet I could out bench press him and that he'd run circles around me. Young when he died but the intensely blue eyes were far too old for you to ever mistake him for eighteen. Cold eyes, icy cold. I suddenly didn't want to fight this man.
"Liam wants me to mentor you. What do you want Nicholas Charles Wolfe?"
Something in those eyes made me give an honest answer instead of the quip that was on the tip of my tongue "I don't know."
"A strange thing to not know if you want to live or die" he mused. "Even eternity is too short to waste time if you want to die Wolfe I have no interest in you."
Arrogant bastard "Is that why you couldn't be bothered to show up in person? Am I not worth the time?"
"I couldn't show up in person because I'm currently 813 light years from Earth."
"Are you serious?"
"Very. As my Student odds are you might even get to do a bit of interstellar travel."
Amanda's comment about doing things I'd never dreamed of might come true in a matter of days instead of centuries. I'd never even dreamed about becoming an astronaut but I'd grown up on Star Wars. Me traveling in space was just too big and too new for me to even wrap my already spinning head around.
"What's it like out there?" I asked awestruck.
"Why take my word for it when you could see for yourself?" he shot back.
I sat down on one of the pews "I don't want to have to commit murder just to survive."
He sat opposite me "Don't count this last year with Amanda as typical. I've gone whole centuries without a Challenge. Being Quickened isn't one long sword fight. There are plenty of ways to avoid the Game if that's what you want."
"And what about my friends, my family, everyone I know is going to grow old and die around me."
He sighed "The mortals will. The Quickened won't. The Gathering isn't upon us, Nick. Don't let the fear of it keep you from making Quickened friends."
"But in the end there can be only one." I protested feeling the first faint stirrings of hope.
"In the END there can be only one. This isn't the end, Nick. Anyone out there taking heads in the name of the Game is a murderer. Nothing more, nothing less" he canted his head to the side "I don't have a lot of time at the moment, Nick so I'll be direct. I actively direct a fair number of clandestine operations. You could be a useful asset to me and I could teach you a great deal about how to survive but the choice is yours."
"How do you know I'd be a good operative?"
"Nicholas Charles Wolfe, cloned July, 5th 1966."
I think all three of us shouted cloned at once. Nick actually rocked back a little.
"What do you mean cloned?" Mac asked.
"According to Ari the Quickening creates a copy of a real infant to inhabit. Sometimes there 'is a bit of displacement in time between the copy and the original and sometimes multiple copies are made decades or even centuries later' but the bottom line is at some point all of us had an identical, mortal, twin."
On second thought killing Ari quick was a waste. I wondered if I could get some of what was left of the Sanctuary staff to give me a hand in restraining him with medical Research's help we could learn a hell of a lot before. It was a warm day but I shivered anyway. Between Vietnam and over twenty-five years of Watching I was a long way from the idealistic kid who'd gone off to war but strapping someone to a table and proceeding to attempt to either drug or beat answers out of them with the intention of killing them afterward was way WAY, WAY, beyond the pale. Yes, he killed Richie and he deserved to die for that but maybe it was time for me to take a serious step back.
"Then at some point we all had families" Amanda breathed while Mac just looked stricken. Intellectually every Watcher knows that all Immortals are foundlings but it really hits you in the gut to see friends look that forlorn. Some like Nick (and Mac) were relatively lucky and got decent families. Some like Amanda and Richie got nothing at all. And I suppose after wondering for centuries where you came from it had to be comforting to know you really did have roots somewhere on Earth.
"I met my father" Nick said with a silly little smile "I wasn't going to. I mean my twin wrapped his car around a tree at seventeen, me walking in and claiming to be his long lost son just seemed cruel. But then he had a heart attack and Ari all but shoved me into the room. Turns out the guy was sending himself into an early grave over guilt for a scene between him and the kid that never got resolved. As drugged as he was I don't think he ever knew I wasn't Peter but when he got out of the hospital he got his life back on track as a result of our 'talk'."
That was damn sad, not that the guy recovered, but that Nick was so happy over that little bit of contact. It really brought home to me how rootless and rejected Immortals felt even if most of them covered it well. I'd never properly appreciated my own pain-in-the-ass family before.
"So what's your real last name?" Amanda looked almost giddy.
"Jenshen, my brother was Peter Jenshen, and I've got two sisters Martha and Mary, a couple of nieces and nephews. I've been thinking about keeping tabs on them" he shrugged "maybe lend a helping hand from time to time behind the scenes."
It occurred to me that that also explained the 'Immortal twin' phenomena. Photography allowed us to confirm what we'd long suspected. Otavio Consone and Lymon Kurlow, Nicholas Ward and Robert de Valicourt, and Melvin Korin (Kronos) and Korda, and Howard Crowley and Gerard Kragen (just to mention those that Mac had crossed paths with) were physically identical. Where Immortals came from was one of the biggest questions we talked about and why some of them existed as twins or even triplets with confirmed birthdates that spanned centuries had been one more piece of the mystery.
"It was chilling the way Ari just rattled off details of my life right down to the story behind the, as he phrased it, 'aesthetically unfortunate disgrace to the tattooer's art on your left buttock."
"So, what is the story of the tattoo on your butt?" Amanda asked clearly fishing.
"Not going there" Nick rebutted before continuing his story…
"OK, you've made your point but I don't know you and I have not idea what the hell you're doing. I'll pass."
"Ari, wait. Nick, no" Liam protested "You didn't even ask what he'd ask you to do, Nick. When I asked you what you would do if you found out you were Immortal you said that you'd try to become the best you you could be. I know a lot of us and I started thinking about who could help you do that best because as much as I love her it isn't Amanda."
That fanned the fires of my rage again "You've been looking for a teacher but it's in God's hands if I become an Immortal? Sell it to someone else Liam." I turned to go feeling utterly betrayed only to bounce off of a very solid hologram that was suddenly blocking my path.
"Not fair. Liam is a priest. It is his calling to shepherd his flock which includes three other youngsters whose Quickenings haven't been activated and since he can't train them it's his responsibility to seek Teachers for them."
"There are three more people that this is about to happen to who don't even know what Immortality is?" I looked from one to the other "Give me their names."
"No Nick" I hadn't thought that Liam could look anymore stubborn than he had about Sean. I was wrong.
"You won't be doing them any favors" Ari said.
"How do you know that?" I snapped.
"Because I'm a seer. Liam didn't call me Nick and I programmed every response into this hologram before I left Earth a week ago."
"Then you could have stopped this" I wanted to hit him even if he wasn't really here.
"Even if I stopped this death, Nick your lifestyle was eventually going to catch up with you. Better now than in ten years. You want to help people, Nick. You gave up law because you didn't want to do it in a court room. You wanted a more hands on approach how would you like to stop a few crimes before they happen?"
"Why don't you do it yourself?"
He shrugged "I can only be in so many places at once." Space was a vague dream – this was a real temptation. "My oath will not use you in any situation that you would find morally repugnant."
"Meaning that you engage in activities that I would find morally repugnant" I challenged.
"On occasion" he said without the slightest hesitation "when I think that the ends justify the means."
"And is that what you intend to teach me?"
He canted his head and studied me "Absolutely not. I like you better with that prickly morality intact." Something I couldn't quite identify ghosted through his eyes "It almost makes me miss my own. Your temper on the other hand could use more than a little cooling off before it gets you into more trouble than you can handle but that's up to you. And you have a somewhat overdeveloped sense of vengeance you should probably rein that in too."
"Wasn't revenge, it was justice" I said matching his tone.
"You can't lie to a clairvoyant telepath Nick even if you can to yourself. Murder is murder, don't dress it up under a pretty name and try to disguise it from me. I know far too much" That sucks.
"More than you'll ever know. Nobody knows better than I that ignorance is bliss. It's frequently fatal though and I hate dying. It's terribly disrupting to one's schedule."
"I imagine it is."
"Speaking of schedules I have other places to be. Richard is on his way. He'll be here in 6 minutes 22 seconds with you first assignment. I'll forward a suitable fee to Myers."
I had completely, totally, and utterly forgotten about Burt. "I didn't agree to be your Student."
Ari smiled "If you weren't going to agree I would have just called Liam and suggested Matthew McCormack as an alternative Teacher. I don't have time to waste. I have too many places to be and too much to do as it is."
Telepathic clairvoyant I wasn't sure if it was possible or not but I was too new to Immortality to question it. "How do you do it? Century after century?"
He paused and just watched me for several breaths "Trust me Nick you don't want my answer to that and the truth is you're not going to see five hundred."
That was actually comforting, I never wanted to live forever, "That doesn't really answer the question."
Again that watchful silence then "In the folly of my youth, I tried both to have a life and to serve my purpose. I denied the full breath of my Gifts and instead somewhat selfishly pursued the desires of my heart. In my middle years disaster due to treachery on several fronts proved that I could not have both. So to better fulfill my…destiny I excised the lion's share of my humanity. In all honesty, Nicholas Wolfe, I don't suggest it except in extreme cases and it would make you into little more than a psychopath. Somehow I don't think that's what you want."
Liam just stared at him in horror "You destroyed your own heart."
"Not all of it, just enough to grant me the freedom to do what is necessary. Making myself into a psychopath would have been an immitigable disaster. Liam, when you accepted your Calling you gave up certain things." Ari shrugged "My sacrifices were different than yours but we have both bound ourselves as living sacrifices to something we consider more important than ourselves."
"But Ari" Liam began but Ari had simply vanished.
"I hate when he does that" Liam spat with more anger than I'd ever heard in his voice. Then he just slumped into a pew. It was my turn to lay a hand on his shoulder. When he looked up at me he was crying.
"I've known her, him, whatever for 231 years Nick and I never even guessed. She saved my life, you know." Actually I hadn't. "After I killed Sean's mother" he closed his eyes. He hadn't meant to shoot an unarmed woman in the thick of battle and the mistake still haunted him 231 years later "I gave up my sword, forever. I was unarmed and alone and so terribly confused. I'd sworn to give my life to God but I had no real idea how to do it. I met up with another Immortal and when he realized I didn't have a sword he decided to kill me…"
I coughed as his blade slid into me all the way to its hilt. It didn't even really hurt then he yanked it free and there was nothing but pain. I spat blood and would have screamed if I could have caught a breath. So this is how it ends. God had rejected my offer of service and instead would judge me for my crime.
The jolt of the approach of another Immortal temporarily pushed back the gathering darkness.
"Whoever you are the battle is joined you can't interfere."
"I think" a woman's voice rang through the clearing "that we have very different ideas of battle."
My assailant, knowing that I was no danger turned to the newcomer. I swayed fighting to stay conscious and on my knees. The darkness was closing back in. 'Please God, don't let another woman die because of me.' I prayed silently.
There was a growl, a sudden crack followed by a crash and a masculine scream. The woman tsked "How careless of the colonials to leave that trap unsprung."
A dark haired angel looked down on me "It will be well Liam."
My last fading thought was 'How did she know my name?"
I gasped, my chest in a vice as I returned to life. I nearly panicked at the Immortal presence but relaxed as I realized I was on my angel's horse. Beautiful animal, too beautiful to be a real, earthly horse just as she was too fair to be a real woman. We halted in front of the sorriest excuse for a church I had ever seen. She gave me a gentle nudge out of the saddle so I dismounted.
"Good journey, Liam Riley, until we meet again." I glanced at the church and when I looked back she was gone…
"The place didn't look like much but I learned more from Father John in the three years I stayed there than from anyone else in my entire 270 years." He laid his head on the edge of the pew in front of him. "He's been a good friend across over two centuries. I need to pray, Nick."
I nodded but I did have one question before we parted "What do you know about Richard Sharpe?"
Liam blinked obviously already thinking about other things or perhaps already deep in prayer and frowned "Richard Sharpe is one of Ari's Students. He's about forty years younger than me but was raised in orphanages and on the streets as a thief. Took the King's Shilling to escape a murder rap fought his way up through the ranks to major before his first death. He's tough as iron and fanatically loyal to Ari. I suspect if there's dirty work to be done Sharpe is probably the one doing it for her, him."
Great, just great I thought as Liam disappeared deeper into the church.
I fought not to clutch my head in my hands as I felt a wave of Immortal presence wash over me.
"So you're the infant I'm saddled with, are ye" what I assumed was Richard Sharpe sneered from the doorway.
I glared in response. He a couple inches shorter than me, probably about 5'11", lean with a nasty scar over his left eyebrow that made him look tough as hell.
He swaggered up the middle aisle. "A Chosen Man are ye? Well, I didn't choose ye." He looked at me like I as a particularly suspect used car.
"Do you want to check my teeth too?"
"So ye think ye have what it takes do ye?" he asked as he circled me "Cause I don't. I don't think ye can go the distance."
I'd been wanting to hit something since I woke up after Amanda shot me. Hitting her was out of the question, you didn't hit girls, couldn't hit Liam, you don't hit priests, couldn't hit Ari, no point against a hologram. But this bastard would do just fine. He grinned ferally at me as he dodged my first punch which only made me madder. My second punch connected soundly but I staggered as he kneed me in the crotch and put an elbow in my kidney. If it was a dirty fight he wanted a dirty fight he'd get. He grappled me and I tripped him. We crashed backward against a pew with him taking the brunt of the damage. I staggered back though when he managed to ram his thumb into my eye. He connected with my jaw hard enough to make me see stars. I shook it off and gave back as good as I got. He was actually a pretty good boxer except I had to keep watching out for illegal moves. He feinted towards my face and then kicked me in the shin. I put everything I had into my next jab his jaw and at least one of my fingers both broke. He swayed for a bit but didn't actually go down. I watched in fascination as the bones in my hand knit. Sharpe worked his jaw a little and then grinned at me.
"Not bad. Feel any better."
Well, actually, in all honesty I did.
"Good. I'd hate to think I let ye break my jaw for nothing." His grin just widened "Ari said you were spoiling for a fight so I figured I'd give you one so you could concentrate on work."
"Do you really believe that Ari destroyed his own humanity?" Mac asked as Nick fell silent.
Nick glanced at him "I've spent the last eight years trying to decide of it's a load of bullshit or not. If you listened to Evangeline then Ari's got ice water in his veins and not a real, genuine emotion left to his name. She claims whatever vestiges of compassion or anything else you see is just an act."
"And what do you think?" Mac pressed.
"I think he still cares. I think there's more humanity left in him than he wants to admit to. He can be terrifyingly cold when it suits him but I'd swear I've seen him both legitimately upset and genuinely happy on occasion."
"Did you ever get to go up there?" Amanda had leaned back on her elbows so she could stare upward.
"Several times to the Moon. Ari's got a base up there that he likes to watch the Earth rise from." Rapture was the only word I could to describe the look in Nick's eyes "It's so different seeing her from out there. One long haul to Tuab-Neeg aboard the Phrathit." He shook his head "I'm not as much of a rolling stone as I thought. Going to the Moon to watch the Earth rise is great but going so far away that you can't even find Sol is" he shivered "not for me."
"I can't even imagine" Amanda whispered.
I could see him wanting to promise her a trip to the Moon and I could see him swallow it back down.
"So what have you been doing the last eight years?"
"Mostly? Saving lives wherever Ari sends me. Richard is in charge when Ari's otherwise occupied and he has me paired up with Felix though I occasionally work with Klahan or Richard himself."
Now I recognized the other two players. The blond was Felix Flavius. He was another one of Aganesthes students born in 60 A.D. First Death in 90 A.D. According to the chronicles he was an extremely talented musician and poet and an above average swordsman with an honorable streak that, by all reports, rivaled Mac's. Klahan was Siamese (or Thai I suppose) by birth and was thought to be less than two hundred but beyond that we hadn't a clue since we'd never had much luck keeping a Watcher on him.
"Between the four of them they run me ragged at sword play." Whatever else Nick was going to say was interrupted by a shout behind us.
A trio of gendarmes were in hot pursuit of fourth man. He whipped through the trees just as Nick and Mac rose to intervene. He turned and screened from the gendarmes by the trees took aim at the lead man. Mac shouted and he took a step back stumbling over the rake Ari had left in the path. The shot went wild into one of the tree trunks and the gendarmes bagged their man. Given that all of us had seen this particular drama before we pretty much ignored the police now that the excitement was over.
Nick drew a deep breath "Good bye, Amanda."
He made it sound very final.
"Where are you staying?"
"At Ari's." Given that the entire Watcher network hadn't been able to figure out where that was it wasn't exactly useful information.
"And the address?" Amanda asked hopefully.
"Sorry, it's a private residence, invitation only."
"Your stuff is still at the Sanctuary. Just give me a call if you want to pick anything up."
"Maybe" he allowed. "Dawson" he made me sound like something you found stuck to the bottom of your shoe. "Mr. MacLeod." He and Mac shook again. "Liam, practice Thursday?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world."
As we watched him walk away I noticed Amanda was crying. I hate to see a woman cry. Mac pulled her in close. Lucky bastard. It was only when I glanced away from them that I noticed Catherine watching us. What the hell did she want?
Lamarquise: I'm actually not dismissing Duncan's morals or good sense (though Ari certainly might hmm make that certainly will). There are definitely people who just seem to push Mac's buttons before they even really do anything. Byron (Mac was glaring at him LONG before Mike entered the picture) and St. Cloud (it was Mac's cocky hotheadedness that got Hamza killed) come to mind. Ari knows Mac's flashpoints and is consistently grating on his nerves so some of the hot temperedness is a result of that. Couple that with first the murder of what Mac thinks is a good man and finding out that Ari arranged Richie's death and you have a recipe for a very angry and not terribly willing to listen Mac. And Mac has in several episodes said 'you don't try to understand evil. You don't reason with it. You destroy it.' Even before Ari reveled himself as Ahriman Mac was getting a strange 'Ahriman vib' off of him.
As far as being harsh to Mac – sheesh he's not the one I cut the hands off, put the eyes out of, chained to a wall for almost 300 years while a over a HALF-DOZEN of his Students either died or went mad around him. Nor did I have his entire Clan murdered around him leaving him alone at 15 to raise two young siblings. All in all Mac's getting off relatively easy. (insert smiley face)
Ari does think that he is a god. Now whether REALLY he does have the moral high ground to condemn Duncan is open to question but he certainly thinks he does. He has killed less. He has saved more. He's just gotten back from a three month stint of eating poison to save people he doesn't even like. Not something we've ever seen Mac do (thought to be fair the question has never come up). On the other hand he's a sneaky, manipulating, busybody who thinks he knows best for everyone. Of course he could MAKE everyone do what he wants and doesn't, not that that's exactly something to pat himself on the back for. And to be fair Duncan is often far quicker to judge than Ari and to take the moral high ground so I think this is more a case of pot meet kettle than anything else. There WAS a time when Ari did have the moral high ground in spades but killing Enmerkar was a HUGE moral watershed for Ari and he slipped further into the grey zone than he's ever realized after that.
It's interesting that you brought up the moral question since this is really a story of conflicting moralities and wildly different ethical viewpoints. I think we all have a pretty good idea of what Mac's morals are after six seasons and a movie. Mac is perfectly willing to kill an Immortal to save a mortal (yes he can and has been merciful if HE judged them worthy of it.). For Ari not only is that an immoral act it's bordering on INSANE. While Ari is highly interested in preserving and promoting the welfare of the human species as individuals as far as he's concerned we're all terminally ill. Killing an Immortal – someone who ISN'T ill to save the dieing is mind boggling to him. To Ari Mac is nothing more than a hypocritical headhunter just waiting for the slightest excuse to commit murder. Now, as a mortal, I'm all for Mac's point of view but that doesn't actually make Ari's invalid. Ari is a nearly 10,000 year old Immortal, given how much human morality varies from decade to decade and person to person I'd be very surprised if Ari's morality was the same as ours.
Ari actually considers Richie to be far WORSE than Mac. Mac at least has the (to Ari) flimsy excuse that he is either avenging previous crimes or protecting innocents. Richie's first head was Mako who Richie killed when after he accidentally ran over and killed a girl. This alone would have made Richie an individual of highly questionable character in Ari's eyes. He then went on to kill other Immortals for the sole purpose of building a reputation (see Carter Wellan and if you read the Watchers Chronicles CD and listen to Joe by implication of the term heads plural several others). This makes him the lowest of scum to Ari. If Mac had passed the test they could move on to other things – Ari had no problem with that. If he failed then perhaps Mac would learn and the world would have one less murdering little brat. And to be honest by the time Richie's head rolled Ari was ready to nominate both of them for Darwin awards. If you watch the episode both Richie and Duncan do some spectacularly dumb things. And yes, I know, it's easy to say that when you're watching – if I was in the same situation I probably would have made the same (or even dumber mistakes) that doesn't mean that they weren't dumb mistakes. Did Ari lure Richie to the race track – yes. Did Ari taunt Duncan – yes. Did Ari take Richie's head – NO. And Duncan knew damn well the real Richie was at the track that's why he was there. This was the THIRD time he took a swing at Richie's head while mentally altered. ONE of them should have learned better (at least that's Ari's opinion and he's sticking to it.)