Disclaimer: Get off my back, would ya?

Ch. 2:

Methos sat in the Horsemen's hide out, an abandoned submarine base outside Bordeaux, reading a book. He was on the upper level, sitting in a wrought iron chair in front of a table. The table had three other chairs around it and four swords on it, one in front of each chair.

"Methos!" Silas called, climbing the stairs to where he was sitting. "Hey, Methos! What the hell is this place?"

"This is Kronos' idea of Camelot." Methos said dryly, turning the page.

"So, where are the stables, hmm?" Silas asked, sitting down. "The horses?"

Methos just shook his head.

"But how do we ride?" Silas demanded.

"Where have you been for the last 2,000 years, idiot?" Caspian asked, stepping out of the shadows. "Living in the woods? Do you think we can just mount up and gallop down broadway?"

"We can do whatever we please." Silas shot back.

"Right." Caspian said, mockingly. "Four guys on horseback. Wild masks. They'll think we're in a circus."

"They wouldn't think it for long, would they?" Silas said.

Caspian walked over, carrying a rat in a cage.

"We're having a friend for dinner." He said. "Tell me, what goes best with rodent? Red or white?"

"Eat him and I'll eat you." Silas told him.

"You're crazy." Caspian laughed. "You should have been in the madhouse, instead of me."

Silas grabbed his axe and Caspian grabbed his sword, and Methos simply went back to his book, as Kronos walked in.

"Put them down." He ordered.

The other two men hesitated.

"Do it now." he told them.

They quickly did as he said and he walked over to them.

"We never raise a blade against each other, isn't that right Methos?" he asked.

"You said it." Methos said brightly, finally looking up from his book and smirking.

"We are the Four Horsemen." Kronos said, walking around the table as Methos went back to his book. "No other band of men has ever been more cruel or more feared."

He held out his arm to them.

"Remember that." He told them.

Silas grabbed his arm and Caspian grabbed Silas'. Methos sighed and closed his book, standing up to take Caspian's arm and complete the square as Kronos took his arm.

It was afternoon in Romania when Duncan, Sekhmet, and Cassandra arrived at the asylum. A day too late.

"When did Caspari escape?" Duncan demanded.

"Some time last night." A nurse replied. "We found the Doctor this morning."

"Let's go." Cassandra said.

"Ignore her." Sekhmet said. "Did Caspari have any visitors?"

The nurse grabbed a folder to check.

"No." she told them. "There's nothing on his chart. Excuse me, I must give my statement to the police now."

She set the file down and walked off and Duncan quickly grabbed it.

"Come on." He said.

Cassandra followed him and Sekhmet sighed.

"Who put you in charge?" she hissed before also following him.

"Kronos and Methos already have him." Cassandra complained. "I don't know why we're wasting time in this hellhole."

"Because Methos wouldn't have missed this opportunity to leave me a message." Sekhmet told her. "It's here, we just have to find it."

"He did leave a message." Cassandra shot back. "He helped Kronos break Caspian out. I think that sends a pretty clear message."

"Duncan, make her shut up before I take her head." Sekhmet said, striding past him.

"Can you please try not to antagonize her?" Duncan asked Cassandra softly. "I prefer to not have to deal with an insane Sekhmet. The slightly unhinged version is bad enough."

They rounded the corner and stepped into Caspian cell to find Sekhmet kneeling on the ground.

"I told you he wouldn't betray me." She said fiercely.

She held up the matchbook he had dropped and handed it to Duncan.

"The Hotel de Seze, Bordeaux." Duncan read. "You're sure he left it?"

"See the drawings in the corner?" she asked, standing to show him where to look. "They're the hieroglyphs for lioness. It's Methos' nickname for me. Well really, it's what the men called me when I fought with them, but that's beside the point. The message is for me. He left it for me."

"The question is what for." Cassandra said.

"You think he's setting us up." Duncan said.

"Don't you?" she shot back.

He glanced at Sekhmet before sighing.

"Maybe." He admitted.

Sekhmet growled at him and walked out of the cell.

"You're wrong." She told them, rounding on them when they emerged. "He's trying to help. He wants to stop them. I don't care if you two go, I'm going to Bordeaux."

"I'm not going to let you go by yourself." Duncan told her, sighing. "I guess we're going to the Hotel de Seze."

"Why?" Cassandra demanded.

"It's the only place we've been invited." Duncan said, shrugging.

"Silas, my brother," Kronos said, leading the other three down a hallway, "why would we ride with sword and axe when today there are weapons of unimaginable power?"

"Weapons ready to plunge the Earth into generations of darkness." Methos said.

"If we choose." Kronos agreed. "What more could we ask for? What better time for us to come together than in the scientific age. Just think of what men like us could do. Me without conscience. Without fear. Think of the destruction, the devastation, the death. A world of anarchy and madness. Now, you think of that, and dream."

As they walked, Kronos pulled in front of them as Methos pulled back. He led them into a lab, and Methos was the last one in. It was like any other lab, with test tubes and other equipment. On one end, there were some monkeys in cages and they walked past them to a vault.

"The weapons of today are different, but it all comes down to the same thing." Kronos told them. "There are the conquerors and there are the conquered."

"You want to conquer the world with monkeys?" Caspian asked.

"Not with them." Kronos said, opening the vault. "With this."

Inside was a vial full of a clear liquid, sitting in a cooling vat.

"Glorious virus." Kronos said. "AIDS, Ebola, and now mine. It doesn't have a name, and it doesn't have a cure. Tell me Caspian, were you in England when the plague struck?"

Caspian just smiled.

"I was." Kronos said, grinning.

"You have a plan?" Caspian asked.

"I have a few thoughts." Kronos replied. "I have a few dollars, enough for a start. And now we have Methos, and now we'll have a plan."

"What did you have in mind?" Methos asked.

"Once we rode out of the sun, bringing death at the point of a sword." Kronos said. "There was no man, and no Immortal, who could stand before us. We were death on horseback. They called us the end of the world. Well, gentlemen," he picked up the vial, "I want to give them what they fear most. The Apocalypse."

Sekhmet bounded into the hotel before Duncan and Cassandra and right up to the desk.

"Hi." She said brightly. "We need to check in, and I also would like to know if anyone's left me any messages. Name: Eve Myles."

The desk clerk checked.

"I'm sorry, Mademoiselle, no." the man replied.

"How about Eve Pierson?" she asked, her spirits beginning to droop.

"No, Mademoiselle." He replied after checking.

"Duncan MacLeod?" she suggested.

He checked again.

"I'm sorry, Mademoiselle." He told her.

"Thanks anyway." Sekhmet said, smiling sadly.

She moved away and let Duncan finish checking them in.

"Dead end." Cassandra said as Duncan joined them.

"He left that clue." Sekhmet insisted. "He'll get in touch."

"He's done nothing but lie to you." Cassandra told her. "That's all he ever does."

"No." Sekhmet said viciously. "Not to me. He never lies to me. Not when it matters."

Cassandra glanced at Duncan, but wisely didn't say anything else.

The Horsemen sat around their table as Kronos paced.

"A bomb with the virus in a fountain." He said scornfully. "How many do you think that will kill? You've gone soft, Methos."

"I'm scared." Caspian said mockingly to Methos. "Are you scared?"

"It's a prelude." Methos said, annoyed. "Have you read Aristotle's Poetics? No, of course not, you haven't even seen Casablanca." He turned back to the others. "What is the first rule of great drama?" He paused for effect. "Start small, and build."

Kronos turned back to him, his interest starting to show on his face.

"A fountain to get their attention." Methos continued. "Then, a public pool, to kill a hundred. Then, a stadium to kill ten thousand, then…one drop of the virus in the city's water supply…" He spread his hands. "Within a week…"

"And then, a country." Kronos finished.

"You want to own the world?" Methos asked. "You offer them a choice. The Horsemen rule, or they all die."

"The Horsemen rule or the world dies." Kronos said, grinning. "Has a nice ring to it. I forgot how good you were, Methos."

Methos smiled modestly.

"We begin tonight." Kronos told them.

Sekhmet was out on the balcony of their room, watching the city go by, when Cassandra came out and joined her.

"He doesn't love you." She told the Egyptian softly. "He doesn't love anyone. He's putting the Horsemen back together, you have no idea what that means."

"I am over 5,000 years old, Cassandra." Sekhmet said wearily. "I know exactly what it means. And you don't know Methos as well as you think you do. I knew him when he was mortal. Young and strong. I knew him before the Horsemen, and I knew him after. I've seen what it did to him. So don't you dare try to tell me about him. Our love survived death and 5,000 years. It'll survive this."

"Why can't you see what's right in front of you?" Cassandra demanded.

"You and Duncan are young." Sekhmet said, leaning on the railing. "Compared to Methos and me, you are just children. I'm sorry for what he did to you, but until you know what he was going through, perhaps you don't know the whole story."

"And I suppose you do." Cassandra said. "Because he tells you everything."

"No." Sekhmet said, shaking her head sadly. "I know because I lived my own version of it. Most of the stories of Sekhmet aren't actually that exaggerated. I killed and pillaged and destroyed everything in my path for 2,000 years. When we were alive, Methos was the only one who could really control me, and without him…A whole continent cowered at my feet, and I loved it. And when they locked me away for my crimes, I spent 150 years wishing I could cut out the part of my brain that kept the memories of everything I had done. I wanted to kill myself, but I was too much of a coward. Even now, I see my actions in my sleep and I'm terrified. And Methos is the only one who can understand it. Because he's the only one who's lived it."

"I don't care." Cassandra told her. "He needs to die."

"We'll kill Kronos." Sekhmet told her.

"Kill Kronos, you've cut out the heart of the Horsemen." Cassandra told her. "Kill Methos, take the head. They both have to die."

"If you get your revenge, do you think the memories will end?" Sekhmet asked her. "Cause they won't. Killing can't erase what happened. Only living can do that."

"Nothing can do that." Cassandra said, shaking her head. "Nothing."

"Then I pity you." Sekhmet said, pushing herself away from the railing. "But I'm warning you now: You come after Methos, I'll take your head. And I'm much more dangerous than he ever was. I may have lost faith for a moment, but nothing you say could ever make me doubt him really. I will not allow you to hurt him. I won't let anything hurt him ever again."

She turned and walked back inside, leaving Cassandra alone on the balcony.

A/N: What do you guys think? To melodramatic? I think it might be in places, but this is a melodramatic episode, so I think its okay. Let me know what you think.

Abbey