Preface: After my character's initial debut in Sailor Moon Defenders, I tried finding out how I can expand the character's growth a bit more. It took a couple of years, but eventually, I ended up coming up with this story.

For context: This story coincides with the Defenders of the Earth series. Inspired by Marzena's story "Defenders of the Earth: This is Their Story", I created these chapters which would be set during certain points of the series, and the Defenders will be making at least one appearance during the story, hence the crossover.

Disclaimer: See chapter one!

Plot: (Episode: set during "Bad Day in Building A"; and during"Creation of Monitor") Tori begins her training with Amanda and learns she could be helpful with Duncan MacLeod when she returns to Seacouver.

Training

Tori looked at her Tachi as she was following Amanda to the training area. She looked up as the two women arrived at their training area. She looked to see a nice looking field, something like what she would see at the back of the woods.

They took a little drive to a small town outside Central City, which Tori felt made sense. Tori figured while some people did train with swords in this day and time, but it was still best to be safe than sorry with immortals typically not supposed to be known by mortals after all.

"Nice place for training, don't you think?" Amanda asked.

"I agree," Tori nodded.

"Let's begin, shall we?" Amanda glanced at her new student, "I'm going to teach you the way of the sword."

"I'm ready," Tori nodded.

"Good," Amanda nodded before she instructed, "start with putting the sword in your right hand, just behind the guard."

Tori did as instructed.

"Good," Amanda continued, "now feel the rhythm in your blade. Use your feet, through your legs, and put your left hand on the blade. It will give you power and control."

Tori followed her teacher's instructions. She continued following the instructions her teacher was giving her. Amanda had been around for over a thousand years, and knew exactly what she was doing.

"Your strength is in your blade," Amanda pointed out to her, "not your arms."

Tori even got a really cool sparring session with her first teacher. With this training session, Tori had proven to be quite excellent with her ability to use to sword. Amanda was impressed on how her student was handling it, from making her move, to blocking Amanda's blows, to dodging and gaining the upper hand.

"You're quite impressive," Amanda told her student.

"Thanks," Tori smiled, removing the sword from her teacher's neck.

"I'm impressed on how you get the idea of the sword," Amanda smiled.

"I amazed myself there," Tori replied, "I knew I was an expert at mechanics and technology, but this is a whole new level."

"Cool," Amanda quipped, "your a tech genius. I don't get smart students like you often."

There was a pause of silence as Tori glared at her tachi.

"So, you know Duncan MacLeod?" Amanda asked.

"I have encountered him a few times," Tori answered, "I first saw him when he picked up my friend Richie from the movies, and then I saw him take what you guys call a Quickening. I had no idea what that was after he took that guy's head. Then I saw him at the antique store with Richie and his girlfriend Tessa before I came here to Central City for Aunt Dale's funeral."

"Interesting," Amanda grimaced at the girlfriend part.

Tori could tell she had feelings for this man even though she had just met her, and barely knew Duncan himself. She knew Duncan was immortal, and he was Richie's foster father. Tori wanted to know a bit more about Duncan and perhaps help him out in the days to come, at least until that time of the Gathering came and it came down to having to take his head, God forbid.

"So, will there be other immortals like Davis," Tori asked, "the guy who nearly took my head?"

"Absolutely," Amanda answered, "like with your family's adventures, there are immortals who are good, and there are immortals who are evil. If an evil immortal wins the prize, the world as you know it will fall into eternal darkness which mankind will never recover."

Tori shuddered at the thought of that. Thank God Ming the Merciless wasn't immortal, otherwise she assumed he'd be going after the prize as well, but of course, there were other evil people out there who were immortal.

"And this prize the last immortal remaining receives would be all the knowledge and power of all the immortals who ever lived, correct?" Tori asked.

"That's correct," Amanda nodded.

"Where do immortals come from?"

"No one knows."

There was another pause of silence.

"If you were to take another immortal's head," Amanda spoke up, "not only would that be the end of that immortal's life and permanent death, but you would also receive that immortal's knowledge and power, and that is called a Quickening."

"Just like what I have recently witnessed," Tori nodded.

"I think you should head back for the time being," Amanda told her friend.

"Will I see you again?" Tori asked.

"Maybe," Amanda nodded, "given that you live in the same city as MacLeod, it is possible we'll meet again."

Tori nodded as she started to walk away with her sword.

"Tori?" Amanda called to her friend.

Tori faced her.

"Watch your head."

Tori nodded before she left the area, with Amanda following not too long after that.

-Defenders-Chronicles-Highlander-

Tori met up with April and the rest of the Defenders behind the mansion. She had been informed that they would take part of an outdoor picnic outside the mansion since the evening was good.

Sara and Abigail had returned home shortly after the encounter with the immortal Davis and agreed to keep in touch with the Defenders when they could.

"How did the training go?" April asked as the girls got their food and joined the others at the picnic table.

"I learned a lot more than I did before," Tori answered, "and I'm blown away with everything. How about you guys?"

"Ming thinks we are dead," April answered, "and we managed to find a base for the Defenders Headquarters."

"Is that so?" Tori quipped.

"Yeah," April nodded.

"I consider it a second home," Jedda added in, "as the base we found, it reminds me of the Skull Cave back at home."

Tori could tell Jedda was a bit homesick given that she was raised in the Bandar Village in Africa.

"How did you become immortal in the first place?" LJ asked.

"It was that immortal guy who shot me," Tori answered, "the same guy who nearly took my head. I wasn't prepared last time, but Amanda trained me to be prepared to take on guys like that creep."

"Any chance we'd be encountering other immortals like that creep?" Rick asked.

"I'm not sure," Tori shook her head, "the best chance of that happening is if Ming decided to come across another immortal or something like that, namely an enemy of Duncan MacLeod."

"Who?" Kshin asked.

"He is a well known immortal," Tori answered, "and an old lover of Amanda's from what she told me. He is also Richie's foster father."

"Richie?" Mandrake glanced at her this time.

"Who's Richie," Rick asked teasingly, "your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Tori exclaimed, annoyed, "he's a good friend of mine though."

"He's a friend of yours," LJ grinned, "and he's a boy, so he's gotta be your boyfriend."

"Take it easy, you guys," Lothar told the two boys.

"So," Flash asked his niece, "are we going to hear from you again after you return home?"

"We'll see," Tori answered, "when I'm not working in the Intergalatic Union Agency Headquarters, I will be working alongside Duncan MacLeod with dealing with these immortals."

She shot LJ a look when he was incorrectly pronouncing Duncan's last name and corrected him, "It's MacLeod."

"I gotcha," LJ nodded.

"Something tells me we might cross paths with this Duncan MacLeod," the Phantom spoke up, "I've heard about him from my village before, but I've never met him in person."