Date: Sun, 5 Nov 1995 17:22:11 -0500 Reply-To: Mike Breen Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike Breen Subject: REVENGE AND REBIRTH I - The Dragon's Sword, Part 5 I took a tiny liberty with the date. You'll see in a bit. GUANGZHOU, GUANGDONG PROVINCE, CHINA, SEPTEMBER, 1544 Patrick O'Brien. If you said that name to him he probably would not have answered you, or if he had, he would have said that O'Brien had died ten years ago. Hejan Sheng looked at the catalyst for that transformation, his wife of ten years now. Ten years on this date. She was as beautiful today as she was the first time he laid eyes on her. She was still slim and slender, raven-black hair that shined in the light, almond skin that glistened. Her daughter Tai, who he had adopted as his own, was nearing thirteen years and was beginning to look as beautiful as her mother. Yi opened her eyes and said, sleepily, "Good morning, my husband." "Good morning, my wife," Sheng said. "Happy anniversary." "Are you?" Yi said. "Happy?" "Yes." "You know what the answer is, beloved." "I want to hear it again." "I am happier now than I have ever been," Sheng said, performing what had become a yearly ritual for them, "in my entire life." "All," Yi did a quick calculation, "three hundred and eighty seven years?" Sheng smiled and said, "All three hundred and eighty seven years." He leaned over to kiss her, then grew serious and said, "I _am_ at peace for a change, Yi, a _lasting_ peace. For three and three quarter centuries I was a warrior, fighting wars and killing both mortals and Immortals. I've done things I regret. I've been haunted by memories that would drive many men mad. It's because of you, Yi, my beloved wife, that I have been able to forget the pain, and forgive the deeds." Yi smiled contentedly. Then Sheng rose from the bed, looking at the morning light streaming through the silk curtains. "I have something for you," he said. "You do?" "Yes. An anniversary present." Sheng reached over to the table. Suddenly he felt as if someone had pulled _hard_ on the core of his being, forcibly removed a piece of himself, destroyed it, and replacing it with gaping emptiness. The force of it knocked Sheng to his knees. He clenched his fists at the sides of his head and squeezed his eyes shut. He bent down and pressed his head against the floor, all the time whispering "No, no, no!" Finally, he lost consciousness. "He wakes!" Sheng opened his eyes to the sight of a relieved Tai looking down upon him. "Mother, Grandfather," she said. "Father is awake!" Yi and Shu approached the bed. Yi sat next to Sheng and took his hand. Shu said, "What happened, son-in-law?" Sheng knew the answer, had known the moment it had happened. He said, "My Teacher... he's gone." "The two-thousand year old Egyptian you told us about?" Yi said. Sheng nodded. "You know this... how?" Shu demanded. "I felt him die." "You told us that he was possibly going to Scotland. How can you 'feel' him die that far away?" "Father..." Yi said. "No, Yi," Sheng said. "It's allright. He has a right to know, as do you and Tai." He paused before going on. "The Immortal who I last knew as Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez was probably in Scotland, and yes, I did feel him die. It's a kind of 'talent,' if you can call it that, that we have." "You feel each Immortal die?" Shu said. "No," Sheng said, sitting up. "This has happened to me only one other time when... another Teacher died. I don't understand how it happens, or why, but Immortals you have forged a connection with, _sometimes_, if the connection is strong enough, the Immortal is strong enough, and the conditions are right, you can feel their Quickening pass." "Son-in-law," Shu said, "I do not pretend to know about the ways of your kind, but I have to know... this would seem like something you would want vengeance for." Sheng nodded, and for the first time in ten years thought of taking his sword up again and returning to Scotland. Thought once again of the Irelander, Patrick O'Brien. "Do you know who would want your Teacher's life-force?" "Many Immortals would challenge him, for he was the best swordsman _I_ have ever met, but there is one called the Kurgan. If I had to venture a guess, I would say the Kurgan had found him at last." "Will you seek revenge?" Sheng looked from Shu to Yi to Tai and back to Yi. Looking at Yi, he said, "No. Not now. Not in this lifetime." Yi smiled and Sheng continued, looking now at Shu. "My duty to Yi and your household is partly why I will stay, and the fact that I have not been in the Game for over ten years. But mostly, love outweighs honor. The Kurgan will wait, he is not going to die any time soon." He looked at Yi again and said, "I cannot bring myself to leave you, Yi. I love you too much and would never be complete without you." Tears filled Yi's eyes. Shu said, "When you are well enough to walk, son-in-law, join me in the vaults. There is something I must show you." The Hejan family vaults were deep underground, beneath the house. Shu, torch in hand, waited for Sheng by the main door. Wordlessly he unlocked it and walked in. Sheng, also with a torch, followed. Several treasure cases, filled with valuables to be traded to the Portuguese and other Chinese further inland, were stacked everywhere. Shu stopped at a smaller case, about four feet long, and extreamly narrow. He placed his torch into a ring, and Sheng placed his in a ring beside it. Finally Shu spoke. "There once was a Japanese Samurai," he said, "who was shipwrecked off of the Guangdong coast during the return voyage to Japan after a spying mission. He wandered the wilderness, searching for someone to aide him in repairing his boat and returning to Japan. He was set upon by bandits who took everything, including his sword, and left him for dead. He was found by a Chinese girl who nursed him back to health. He found the bandits, recovered his sword, and slayed each of them in the most painful method he knew. "He returned to the small house he and the Chinese girl were sharing, to commit the Hara-Kiri, the ritual suicide, to cleanse his name of the dishonor of loosing his blade the way he did. But he found he couldn't, another dishonor. He had fallen in love with the Chinese girl. So he placed his sword aside and never picked it up again, and never returned to Japan. He wed the Chinese girl and they had five children. Upon his first born son he decreed that the sword would be passed down from him to his son through the ages, but never wielded in combat until some task was performed with it that would erase the stain of dishonor from the blade." Sheng began to speak, but Shu raised his hand to stop him. He said, "You ask why I tell you this story. The Samurai's name was Hejasami, and his first born son was my father. I never had the chance to pass the decree from him to my only son, so I pass it on to you, son-in-law. You have become my son in all but birth. When you leave China after both my and Yi's death, and you begin your quest to avenge your Teacher, you will use this as the instrument of your vengeance." He opened the case, revealing a sheathed dragon-head katana. "It is nearly two hundred years old." Sheng was silent, staring at the hilt of the sword. Shu removed it from its casing and handed it to Sheng. Sheng, entranced, took the sword out of the sheath. He took a few practice swings and said, "My god this is incredible. Father-in-law, I _can't_ take this..." "Nonsense, son-in-law. You _have_ to. The parallels between your story and my grandfather's are too astounding to ignore. He came to China as you did. He fell in love with a Chinese girl as you did. And he remained in China because love was stronger than honor, as you now do. You will restore _our_ family's stained honor, of that I am sure." BOSTON, MASS, UNITED STATES, OCTOBER 1995 "My God," Elaine said. "Your sword... you're the European out of my family's legend!" They had moved into the living room. Patrick sat on the couch between Rebecca and Elaine. Rick sat on Elaine's other side, Joe and Bernard sat in the chairs and Nancy refilled everyone's wine glasses before sitting on the floor. Patrick said, "Yes. And Yi obviously wasn't barren. It was me. Immortals can't have children, it's part of the package." "So," Elaine said, "You left China after Yi's death and took up the sword to avenge your Teacher." "Not exactly," Patrick said. "You see, I spent the next fifteen years thinking that was _exactly_ what would happen. It didn't exactly prepare me for what _would_ happen." GUANGZHOU, GUANGDONG PROVINCE, CHINA, SEPTEMBER, 1559 So much had happened since that day fifteen years ago. Tai had grown to become a lovely young woman who looked much like her mother, and had married Chi Han, the second son of an allied trader. Han had moved into the Hejan household, and he and Tai had three children now. Sheng and Yi were now grandparents. Shu, now an old man with very little strength, had turned most of the operations of the household over to Sheng, and Sheng had made Han his second as Shu had done with him. Sheng, for his part, had taken in a young Immortal five years after Ramirez's death, and had subsequently sent him on his way once his training was done. Very little evidence of the Game had entered Sheng's life since then, and truth be told, even before then. He had faced and defeated two Immortals while his Student was with him, and had faced a third, which his Student had defeated, completing his training. Aside from those encounters, Sheng had not faced any Immortals since before he had, as Patrick O'Brien, arrived in Spain asking his Teacher for advice about how to defeat boredom. The Game seemed part of someone else's life, not his. It seemed like a story told to him by someone else long ago and half-forgotten. In fact Sheng could almost _almost_ believe that he would grow old and die with Yi. Yi's youthful delicacy had evolved into striking beauty. Her hair was still raven-black, though it was beginning to show signs of grey. Her skin was still almond-colored and mostly smooth. Lines of laughter had appeared around her mouth and eyes, and her body was still slim and slender. Sheng grew more in love with her each passing year. Passion had evolved into tenderness, something that he was a stranger to. He hadn't been married to either Gwenna or Katherine long enough for the passion to evolve, both had died young. And as for Rebecca... she seemed, like the Game, part of someone else's life. Someone named Patrick O'Brien. Though Immortality was a part of Hejan Sheng's life, war, the Game, and Rebecca DeJeniere weren't. Everything was perfect, and Sheng had all but forgotten about the Samurai katana deep within the depths of the Hejan family vaults. This would change in short order. It was in September that the messenger came. Sheng was expecting something from a Portuguese ships in the harbor which was on its maiden voyage with a new owner. A servant answered the door and gave Sheng the message. The boy who had delivered it said, "I'm to wait for a reply from you, Hejan sir." "Very well," Sheng said. The message was written in Gaelic. Sheng inhaled sharply and read it. The message said, "To Hejan, or O'Brien, or whatever you call yourself these days. Meet me at the Buddhist shrine at Noon today. K. VonHoffer." Sheng violently crumpled the paper and asked for another, and a writing utensil. He wrote, in Chinese, "I will be there. Hejan Sheng." He handed his reply to the boy and sent him on his way, after giving him a gold coin. Then he went to see Yi. "_Why_ does he want you, beloved?" Sheng sighed and said, "He was a priest sent to exterminate a village who's people practiced an older religion. I was staying there, as was Rebecca. In order to stop the madness, I stabbed him in the heart with my sword, revealing him to his men as an Immortal. It didn't stop the killing, though. Rebecca and I barely made it out, but _he_ had to leave his Church. I've seen him only twice since. I thought someone else had gotten to him." "You don't have to go," Yi said. "I don't have a choice." "Then I'll go with you." "No," Sheng said. "You can't. What we do is for our eyes alone." Yi nodded as a single tear slid down her cheek. Sheng lifted her chin and kissed her lightly on the lips. He said, "We're meeting on Holy Ground. We cannot fight there." After some parting words to Han as to what to do if he _didn't_ come back, Sheng left the house and rode into downtown Guangzhou towards the shrine. He tied his horse out front and entered the building, unarmed. He would avoid a fight if he could, since he had been out of the Game for twenty five years now. He felt VonHoffer before he saw him, of course. VonHoffer turned around and said in Gaelic, "Been a long time, O'Brien." "O'Brien is long dead," Sheng said in Chinese. "I am Hejan Sheng." "Ah yes," VonHoffer continued in Gaelic. "You decided to re-invent yourself." "Forgive me," Sheng said, continuing in Chinese and smirking slightly, "but Gaelic is no longer my native language. I haven't spoken one word of a European language in a quarter century, so I am having a hard time understanding you. Perhaps if we both speak a language I am familiar with we can continue the conversation. Do you speak Chinese? I seem to remember that Gaelic was not your native language, either." VonHoffer sighed and switched to Chinese, saying, "What _is_ this, O'Brien? You're unarmed, dressed in those... _silks_." Sheng dropped the pretense of politeness and said, "I have found myself, VonHoffer. For the first time in my life I am happy. _This_ is my life now, _this_ is my home." "So you think," VonHoffer said. "I ran into a young Chinese Immortal several days ago after our ship docked. Imagine my surprise when he told me that his 'Chinese' Teacher wasn't Chinese after all, but an imposter. A weak man who has such a little sense of self that he had become absorbed into a culture that is not his own. A man who had been reshaped into something that he's not." "Perhaps you see that," Sheng said, "but years ago I was told by a wise old Immortal that the only way for me to change from the man I was to the man I could become was to come here. Forget the lives I lead and become something completely different for at least one lifetime. No, VonHoffer, I am not weak. A weakling is one who cannot change _himself_ to become part of another culture. And I am happy and at peace for the first time, and I am out of the Game." "Now you are at peace and out of the Game." "What do you mean?" "Just this... I came to China to make money, nothing else. I bought a trading ship and docked here, the trading center for the Far East, or in your case, the Far-Too-Near East. Imagine what happened when, as I said, a young Immortal told me, under duress, of course, that you were really European. The poor lad barely had time to spit that out, but I would have found that out anyway from his Quickening." "You didn't..." "I did." "You _bastard_!" Sheng went to grab VonHoffer by the scruff of the neck. VonHoffer backed off and said, "Holy Ground, Irelander. You forgot more than your identity, it seems. I'm going to leave you with a thought. I also met another Immortal Chinaman recently. It seems your Student took his friend's head and he'd like to exact revenge on his Teacher. I have, of course, hired him and given him focus." Sheng inhaled sharply and said, "Why don't you fight me, VonHoffer?" VonHoffer laughed and said, "What's the challenge of fighting someone who's rusty?" He turned to leave and said, "Be careful of what you find when you get home." He turned and left. Sheng rode hard and fast back to the house. He jumped off of the horse and raced into the courtyard, yelling Yi's name. A wounded Han raced out and said, "She's gone, father-in-law." "What??" "A man... with a sword..." Han collapsed. Sheng picked Han up and carried him into the house. He placed him in bed and began to dress his wound when Tai came into the room. "Father," she said. "Is he..." "No, daughter. He'll be allright. He's strong, and it's mostly the shock he's suffering from." He turned to her once the wound was dressed and said, "What happened? Where's mother?" "She..." Tai sat next to Sheng and broke down and cried, clinging to him like a little girl. "A man took her. Han tried... to stop him, but he cut him with his sword. He hit Mother with the... hilt of his sword and took her away. He said he'd kill me if I tried to stop him..." "Shh," he said. "It's allright. I'll get her back." "Of course you will," came another voice. Sheng looked up, startled, at Shu who stood weakly near Han's bed. He said, "You will get Yi back for us and kill the evil one who took her. And you will do it with this." He shakily held out his grandfather's sheathed katana to Sheng. Surprised and a bit startled, he took it by the sheath. Shu continued, "This is the task. This is what will erase the stain of dishonor from _your_ family. I will be joining my grandfather and father soon, and I would be honored to tell my grandfather that his dishonor has been cleansed. And I... I want to look upon my little girl's face one more time. And when it is done, the sword is yours." Sheng bowed his head low and said, "I will kill the one who took Yi from us. And I will bring her home. I promise you that." A day passed, then two, without any word from the evil Immortal who had taken Yi. Sheng closed in on himself, speaking to no one but Tai, spending all his time training with the katana. The unfamiliar weapon was, like Ramirez's, immediately part of his arm. And on the third day, as Sheng sat relaxing with a silent Tai, Ramirez's words came back to him. "I found the thing that completed myself. _That_ sword was what finally defined who I am, an Immortal, born in Egypt, traveled Europe, lived in Japan. It made me _me_. Perhaps you will find a weapon more suited to an eternal warrior than that clumsy hunk of Irish iron." He laughed out loud. "Father?" Tai said. "I was just remembering something my teacher said about swords," he said, staring at the katana. At that point Han came into the courtyard with a note. His wound still ached, but he was healing. He handed the note to Sheng and said, "I believe this is it." Sheng opened it and read the note. It said, in Chinese, "Hejan, if you want to see your precious wife again, she is in the caves outside of the city. Search each one until you feel me. Xiangu." Sheng stood, sheathed the sword and went to make his preparations. He searched a day and a half for Yi and the Immortal. Late in the afternoon of the second day, a day he realized was their anniversary, he felt him. He tied his horse to a tree and unsheathed the katana. He detached the sheath from his belt, left it with the horse and walked over to the cave. He was defanatly in there, and that meant so was... He heard a woman scream. Throwing caution away, he raced into the cave. He found her then, alone, in a chamber with one dim torch, with a knife in her heart. "YI!! NO!!" He raced over to her, tears welling in his eyes. "Please be alive," he whispered. "Sheng..." she whispered. "It's you I love, Sheng, my husband... Happy Anniversary..." "Happy... Anniversary to you, beloved..." he said as the tears slid out of his eyes. "Are you?" Yi said, reciting the yearly ritual, tears sliding down her cheeks as well. "Happy?" Sheng said "Yes." "You... know what the answer is, beloved." "I want to hear it again. Before I die." "I am happier now..." his voice broke, but he continued, "than I have ever been in my entire life." "All four hundred and two years?" Sheng smiled weakly and said, "All four hundred and two years." He leaned over to kiss her as the life left her body. Then he broke down and wept. As he mourned, he felt the Immortal approach. He said, "I am Xiangu, Hejan Sheng." "Why?" Sheng said, not turning from Yi's body. "She had no argument with you... no argument with _anybody_." "She's yours, and one of yours took my friend, so _I_ took one of yours." At that Sheng stood, katana in hand and faced the Immortal. Sheng had the benefit of height, but the other Immortal may not have been out of the Game. Sheng stared at him, feeling the anger bubbling to the surface, his hands gripping the katana ever-tighter. He lunged, which Xiangu skillfuly blocked. Kurdt VonHoffer stood outside of the cave, listening to the swords clashing. If either of them felt him there, O'Brien probably was too grief-stricken to pay him heed and Xiangu was too wrapped up in his own revenge. He laughed. Sheng hacked with the unfamiliar-yet-familiar blade, his anger serving to focus him, but his rustiness apparent. Xiangu could very well win this fight. He blocked an attack of Sheng's and disarmed him, sending the katana towards Yi's body. He sliced his thigh, sending Sheng to his knees. He raised his sword above his head, ready to make the fatal blow when Sheng rolled out of the way, towards the sword. He grabbed it with both hands and blocked Xiangu's new attack, stood on his newly healed leg, and, sneering, stabbed Xiangu through the heart. He looked at him straight in the eye and said, "For Yi." Then, screaming, he brought the katana slicing towards his neck, separating the head from the shoulders. The head fell and rolled towards Yi's body. Sheng picked it up before it reached her and hurled it outside. VonHoffer laughed again as Xiangu's head landed at his feet and the Quickening began. O'Brien would have some very interesting memories floating about his head after this. Sheng sat near Yi's body, crying again. The Quickening had revealed to him all her pain. Days without food or water, constant torture and rape and finally, as Xiangu felt Sheng approach, the fatal blow, all seen through Xiangu's eyes. He wept for her, as well as for himself. He would have to live with the Xiangu's memories of his torturing and raping of Sheng's most beloved. Gently, he lifted her body and the katana and began walking outside. And that was when he felt the presence of another Immortal. He exited the cave and was face-to-face with VonHoffer, sitting on his horse. "As entertainment," he said, "you are fascinating to watch, O'Brien." "I will kill you for this, VonHoffer," Sheng said. "Someday I will kill you." "Perhaps. Welcome back to the Game." He spurred his horse and rode off. "Oh no..." Tai said as Sheng entered the gates. "NO!!" Sheng paid her no mind, but carried Yi's body directly to their room, telling one of the servants to help Shu. When Shu entered the room he looked upon her face and said, "It is as it is." "Is that all you can say?" "Yes, for I will join her soon. When you are ready, Sheng, please come to my room." Sheng sat next to Shu's bed. Shu said, "I used to envy you. Eternally young and vigorous, forever championing good. Now..." "Now I envy you," Sheng said. "Yes," Shu said. "I will see her soon, while you will have to live with the memory and pain forever." Sheng closed his eyes and wept once again. "What will you do now?" Shu whispered, weakly. "I don't know. The sword... it will go back into the vault." "No, son-in-law. The sword is _yours_." "But... I didn't save her..." "You avenged her, which is an honor unto itself, and you did all you promised. You killed her murderer and brought her home. No, I _want_ you to have the sword." "Thank you. Father-in-law... I feel I must leave here. Han can run the trading empire, and he has two sons. I just... can't stay." "I understand. You will return to Europe and avenge your Teacher?" Sheng paused a long time before answering. Finally he said, "No, I don't think so. I'm not ready to become Patrick O'Brien again. Perhaps I will never be. Perhaps I don't _want_ to be." Shu smiled slightly as the life left him. BOSTON, MASS, UNITED STATES, OCTOBER 1995 The room was silent. Patrick had only told Joe that story in it's entirety, but Elaine needed to know, had the right to know. And so did Rebecca. Elaine broke the silence by saying, "And that's all? You left the Hejan household forever?" "All, more or less. But I didn't return to Europe for another eighty years, I couldn't. I had the same fears of returning to Europe as I had when I left originally, I wouldn't fit in to European society. And at that point, I don't think I would have tried to. I wandered around China and Mongolia, trained with an Immortal called Mei-Ling Shen and finally, on her advice, sailed to Japan." "Where Patrick met me," Joe said. "That's a story I'd love to hear," Elaine said. "That," Patrick said, "is a story for another night. It's late, and I have an appointment with my accountant tomorrow morning, and there's one more thing I have to do tonight." Patrick got up and exited the room. "What's he doing?" Elaine asked Rebecca. Rebecca sighed and said, "Something I wished he wouldn't." Patrick returned, carrying his katana by the sheath. He stopped in front of Elaine and said, "This is your family's sword. I am returning it to you." "What?!" Elaine said. "For me to continue to use this sword while the descendant of the rightful owner sits in my house would dishonor the blade, and Yi's memory," Patrick said. "While the Hejasami family exists, I cannot rightfully keep possession of it "I can't... I couldn't take that from you," Elaine said. "You have just as much right, no more right to it than I do. Shu gave _you_ that sword, and you were adopted into the family long before I was even an _idea_. It's _your_ sword Patrick, and honor or not, I can't take it from you." "Thank you," Patrick said, and left to put the sword away. Rebecca sat silent with a small smile on her face. Elaine looked around, confused, and said, "What just happened?" Joe said, "You have again given Patrick the sword." "Given?" "Patrick had this fool notion," Rebecca said, "that he had to offer the sword to you because you're the spitting image if Yi." "I _am_?" "Rebecca!" Joe said. "Do not make light of things you do not understand!" "Lighten up, Joe," Rebecca said. "I spent a good amount of time in the Orient too, around the same time that Patrick did." Joe looked at Rebecca sideways. Rebecca said, "Ok, I was in China and married into a rich family, as Patrick did, while he was wandering around Mongolia and Japan." Joe turned to Elaine and said, "Patrick-san had to offer the sword to you because you, not he, are the direct descendant of Hejasami, the Samurai, and _he_ is the rightful owner." "So I should have taken it?" "No," Joe said. "For you to have taken it would have also been a dishonor." "I'm confused now," Elaine said. "You're not the only one," Rick said. Joe smiled and said, "All you have to remember is, no matter how diluted, Samurai blood still runs in you veins." Stink followed the Asian girl and her boyfriend back to their small apartment in Brookline. He wrote down the address and headed back to VonHoffer's office. "The old Garden." VonHoffer said, pointing at the historic sports arena from his window. "What?" McKinley said. "The old Boston Garden is the perfect place to stage O'Brien's fight with Ramus." "Why?" "It's deserted at night, for one. It's also got tenants right now." "Ah," McKinley said. "The new Dan Ackroyd movie is filming there." "Exactly. We make sure O'Brien doesn't dispose of the body, and the next day, one of the film crew will find it. It's also got the added benefit of being in our friend Detective D'Gornio's precinct." <<>> (c) 1995 Mabnesswords =========================================================================