Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 15:27:05 CST Reply-To: "sraghava@st1.clc.cc.il.us" Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "sraghava@st1.clc.cc.il.us" Organization: College of Lake County Subject: Connections- Highlander ONLY Part 3 of 3 X-To: Nebojsa Barjaktarevic Last part of my story. All natural disclaimers apply. Enjoy. -----------------------* * *---------------------------------- Macleod said nothing and paused when he should have hung up the phone. "It's Jackson, wasn't it Macleod? WASN'T IT?!!?" "Yes, Vijay, it was. He's after you." "Good, I've been waiting for him. I'm going to avenge Jeannette. Somebody has to." "Why? I hate to say this Vijay, but just because she was Ramirez's student doesn't mean you have to avenge her." A teardrop fell from Vijay's eye. "I met her soon after Ramirez left her. We were lovers for nearly a two hundred years. For awhile I thought we'd be together 'til the Gathering. It was the news of Ramirez's death that broke us apart. We each had to handle it in our own ways." "Oh." "Cmon, Macleod. Down to the dojo, I need some practice. And bring your sword." Macleod picked up a practice katana (not the Dragon Head) and followed Vijay down to the dojo below the loft. "Vijay you're over two thousand years old. What do you want to practice with me for?" Vijay sighed. "Mac, I haven't had to take a head in close to fifty years. The only practice I've had is doing the forms. I need to fight against a living, reacting person." By this time they were downstairs. Vijay removed his overcoat and pulled a fine, ancient katana that reminded Duncan of Connor's but was somehow fancier. Vijay also pulled out a wakizashi. (*Author's Note: A wakizashi is in essense a miniature katana. The two weapons can be used in conjunction.*) Macleod looked at Vijay in surprise. Vijay followed Macleod's gaze to the wakizashi and laughed. "There's nothing in the 'Rules of the Game' that says I can't use multiple weapons, Macleod." Macleod looked ready to interrupt. "Yes, Macleod, most of our kind think that it is much simpler to use a single weapon, but I find that using the dashido gives me a significant advantage in any fight." (*Author's Note: Dashido is the term for the use of the katana and wakizashi used in conjunction.*) Again Duncan looked ready to interrupt. Vijay sighed, "Don't worry Macleod, I've had nearly 300 years of practice using both weapons. Now how about a little duel, eh?" Duncan could no longer find a viable excuse and so he prepared to face off against Vijay. Vijay started off the fight on the defensive, thus letting Macleod see how he used the weapons together in a fight. Macleod noticed that Vijay generally used one weapon to block his own katana and then used the other to slash or cut vital extremities. Suddenly Vijay converted to an offensive stance. In Vijay's hands the combination became deadly. One weapon was used as a feint while the other did the cutting, Vijay took the katana up to the neck area, forcing Duncan to block, Vijay took the opportunity to tap Duncan's sword from his hand with the wakizashi and kicked it across the room. "Game Over, Macleod." Duncan closed his eyes and tensed, if Vijay was lying then his head was forfeit. Vijay lowered both blades. "Don't worry Macleod, I'm not that eager to get a Quickening. I can wait for Jackson to come after me. He's killed enough to make up for my killing him. I must say, I'm famished, let's go get something to eat. How about Chinese? I'm in the mood for Peking Duck." -----------------------* * *--------------------------------------- Time passed. Duncan and Vijay dueled with each other at least twice a day. By the middle of the second week, Macleod realized that the hardest part of Vijay's forms was figuring out which thrusts were real attacks and which were feints to throw him off his guard to move an opening to another part of his body, usually his head. "In your hands, Vijay, those things are deadly, truly deadly. Now I'd like to know . . .", the phone rang. Since Vijay was closer, he answered. "Macleod's Gym and Dojo." "Awwh. Don't you make the perfect Secretary." "I want your head, Jackson. Where and when?" "Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!!! Calm down, Shankar. In due time. How about . . . ", with that there was a pause on the other side of the line, "tonight in the alley behind 12th and Jefferson, and Shankar . . . you come alone. I take care of Macleod _after_ I take your head. Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!!!" And in Jackson's hotel room, the maniacal laughter continued on into the night. -----------------------* * *------------------------------------ "Does he seem a little crazy to you or is it me?" Vijay closed his eyes. "About 100 years ago, he took the head of an immortal who had been put into an insane asylum. Jackson bullshitted his way through to Richard by claiming to be a psychiatrist. He took Richard's head one night when no one was looking. Since most of the inmates where crazy anyway, no one believed them when they told the nurses what they saw. Jackson was never the same afterwards. "How do you know all this?" "Richard was a former Student of mine. He wasn't exactly normal in the first place, but when he became Immortal, it put him over the edge. He tried to live in normal society for a while, but he wasn't right for it. So I checked him into a mental hospital, I thought it would do him some good and that eventually he would become sane. But, I think it only made him more insane. After he died I talked to the inmates and pieced together what the one who did it looked like. It was Jackson to a tee." "Vijay are you sure you want to face him now. You said it yourself, you haven't taken a head in 50 years." "It has to end now, Macleod. For Jeannette, for Richard, for everyone else he's killed, mortal and immortal. It has to END HERE!" -----------------* * *------------------------------------------ Vijay arrived at the designated alley twenty minutes early to give his eyes time to adjust to the reduced light output. He waited as his eyes adjusted, slowly, to the light. He shut his eyes and remembered his beautiful Jeannette, her flaming red hair, the fire of her eyes, the fire _in_ here eyes. It had been nearly 400 years since they had broken up, but he still loved her. He sighed, and whispered to himself, "It never gets easier, if anything, it gets harder and harder as the years go by." "Then perhaps, I can put you out of your misery, eh, Shankar?" Vijay opened his eyes and cursed himself. He was so lost in thought that he didn't feel the Buzz. <> he chided himself, <> "You'll not run away from this fight, Jackson. You die here." "I have no intention of leaving this alley until you're dead Shankar." Vijay pulled out his katana and wakizashi and began dueling in ernest. It was obvious to Vijay that Jackson had had practice against the dashido. Jackson was a good swordsman, but the dashido gave him a distinct advantage. Macleod, watching from the shadows, knew it was only a matter of time. The fight continued on for some time with Vijay picking away at Jackson, slowly wearing him down. Jackson put up a good fight and broke through Vijay's defenses a couple of times and made Vijay's left arm next to useless and then forcing him to let go of wakizashi. Vijay later came in for the finishing movement. He took his sword up and made to look like he was going for Jackson's forehead, and at the last moment, twisted his arms and slashed Jackson's chest and nearly chopped of Jackson's right arm. "For Jeannette, " he whispered. Jackson smiled toothily and prepared himself for a permanent death. *Whoom.* Jackson was dead. His body slumped over and began glowing brightly. The Quickening empowered him. He saw Richard. He saw Jeannette. He saw Jackson meeting Ramirez in 433 B.C. He heard Jeannette's voice speak to him. "I love you, Monsieur. I have always loved you." He saw life and death flash befor his eyes. He saw the lifes of hundreds flash before his eyes. Pain engulfed him, he became the pain. The pain kept rising until he neither knew nor cared if he lived. Then it died immediately. Vijay weeped for pain lost, and pain remembered. "JEANNETTE!!!!!" And finally the maniacal laughter ended. -------------------* * *----------------------------------------- "Goodbye, Macleod. I'm off.' "Where do you plan on going?" "I'm thinking Paris, to see it again through the eyes of a lovesick man in mourning." "Ha, Ha, Ha. You'll get over her, Vijay." "No, Macleod, I won't. Not even if I'm the one who gets the Prize. I'll never get over her. Goodbye, Macleod. We will meet again, I can feel it in my bones." ==> The end ---------------------* * *------------------------------------ Hope you enjoyed it. I'll most likely come out with a new Vijay series in a couple of weeks. Oh, BTW, even though Jackson was technically almost as old as Darius, he called him Old Man because the way he acts makes him seem an old man. Well, to Jackson, anyway. Please send all comments, advice, and suggestions to: Vatsan "Kinslayer" Raghavan sraghava@st1.clc.cc.il.us "What can I do to make you believe that I'm mortal?"-Q -"Die."-Worf --"Oh very funny, Worf. Eat any good books lately?"--Q. =========================================================================