========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 14:39:34 -0500 Reply-To: Kevin Glover Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Kevin Glover Subject: REPOST STARTING OVER (1/1) Sorry everybody. I have no idea what happened the first time, but all that came out was a garbled mess, so here it is again. historian's note: This story is an attempt to bridge the Highlander films with the Highlander TV series. All three films are used, however the Renegade Version of Highlander II shall be considered cannon, not the abysmal theatrical film. All comments and opinions are welcome. Characters and concepts contained herein are the sole property of Peter Davis and Bill Panzer and no infringement on their copyright is intended. STARTING OVER by K. Patrick Glover New York 2025 Dr. Alexander Methos watched the patterns emerging on the EEG. He had never seen anything quite like it. The readings certainly weren't human, there was no question about that. He looked at his patient, the celebrated Connor MacLeod, lying on the table. He *looked* normal, damn it! "Perhaps you'd better start over, from the beginning." Connor sat up and grinned. "Believe me, now?" "From the beginning." "OK. I'm Immortal. The last one left. But something is happening to me. After using my power to destroy the shield, it's starting to feed back, becoming unpredictable." "Let's go back to the Immortal part. You said you were the last one. How many were there and how long have you been around?" "Since the dawn of time. There was a race here, long before your people, before the dinosaurs even. We were ruled over by a council of priests, but the council had become corrupted, manipulated by an Immortal general named Katana. A rebellion formed, and I was chosen by a wise man named Ramirez to lead it. He joined us together, with a kind of magic. But the rebellion failed. Ramirez and I were captured, most of our men killed." "Wait a minute, I thought you said they were Immortals?" "No. Even there, Immortals were a rare thing. I was one, and Ramirez and Katana. There were others, maybe thirty or forty in all. As punishment, we were sent forward in time, thousands of years. There, we were to live among you until the time of the Gathering. Then we would meet in combat. The winner of each battle would take the loser's head and with it his power. It is the only way we can die. The power we absorb from the fallen Immortal is called The Quickening. In the end, there could be only one. The final Immortal would gain the power of all the Immortal's throughout time. That was the Prize." "And you won?" "Yes. In 1985 I took the head of my final enemy, The Kurgan. The power I gained let me see into the minds of everyone, everywhere. I knew everything. When I had been thrust into the future, reborn in the Scotish highlands in 1518, I had no knowledge of The Game, no memory of my past life. Years later, in 1541, I met up once more with Ramirez, and he taught me what I needed to know to play The Game. I'm not sure if he knew anything of our origins at that point or not. If he did, he didn't share it with me. My memory of the rebellion finally returned in '85, when I took the Prize. I had the choice of returning to my own time, to rule as an Immortal, or living out my life here, as a mortal. I chose to stay. I married. She died two years later in a car accident. I walked away unharmed." "How? You said that you had become mortal." "I thought I had. It may have had something to do with Kane. He was an Immortal sorceror. I had left him trapped inside Mt. Niri over three hundred years before. But apparently, even trapped below Earth, forgotten, his existance was enough to prevent me from becoming mortal. He escaped his tomb in 1994 and I felt the Prize slip away from me. We met and dueled. By that time I had adopted a son, John, and Kane kidnapped him, tried to use him against me. Eventually I defeated him, took his head, regained the Prize. This time is was even stronger, and I knew things I had never known before. I developed a gift for science. I could forsee the danger Earth was in, from the destruction of the ozone layer, and I turned my talents toward that, creating a shield to protect us from our sun. In 1999 it covered the Earth, and remained until this year." Methos was fascinated. "What happened?" "Two things. A radical group discovered that the shield was no longer necessary, that the ozone layer had repaired itself, and the shield was being kept in place only to maintain a stranglehold on the world economy. And Katana, still fearing that I would one day return to my time, came forward to destroy me. It was a needless fear, I had no intention of doing so, and it proved his downfall. His presence in this time restored my Immortality, and his quickening gave me the strength to destroy the shield. I had thought, that once I was alone again, I would become mortal once more. That doesn't appear to be happening. I feel the power building inside of me, stronger then it has ever been. I feel like I might explode." "And you have no idea why?" "None." Methos nodded. "All right, let's run some more tests and see what we can figure out." *************************************************** "Well?" Connor asked. "You were right, it is building. And it looks like it's not going to stop. I think it has something to do with the shield. When you used your energy to destroy it, it absorbed itself into your quickening. It distorted it. Your now drawing energy from the Earth itself. And you'll keep on drawing that energy until you have it all." "But what will happen to the Earth?" "It'll be destroyed, along with every living thing on it, except you. As near as I can tell, you'll become a god." Connor shook his head. "No. This is unacceptable. There must be an alternative." "There may be one. Only one. You have the knowledge or the abilty to travel backwards through time?" "To where I came from, yes." "If you were to release your quickening into the time stream, what would happen?" "I don't know. Theoretically, it could create a lot more Immortals throughout time. There would no longer be only thirty or forty of us. There could be hundreds. It would change the odds on the Gathering drastically. I might not win. There may be to many of us for it to end in 1985. I don't know. I don't know how it would effect my past self." "Is it possible?" Connor thought for a moment. "Yes, I think so. But the quickening can only be released in one way. Someone must take my head, while in the time stream. A mortal would have to travel with me. And there's no way to tell what would happen to that mortal. He may be killed, he may become Immortal when that large of a quickening is released within the confines of time/warp space. And there's no way of telling where in time he'll end up if he survives." "Sounds like a hell of a ride." "I presume you intend to do this yourself?" "With all the risks that it entails, how could I ask anyone else? Is it a sound theory? Is this what we have to do?" "I don't see an alternative. I cannot allow the planet to die. I hope it does create more Immortals. I led a very lonely life. It would be nice to have a few more friends along for the ride. Do you think you can do it?" "You mean take your head? I doubt it'll be very pleasant, for either of us, but yes, I can do it. How do we begin?" "Like this." Connor pulled his ancient Katana from the folds of his jacket and handed it to Dr. Methos, then took his hand. "Hold tight." Methos blinked rapidly as reality fell apart around him. The world blurred and he felt like he was travelling backwards on a roller coaster. Connor was screaming. "NOW! BEFORE WE TRAVEL BACK TO FAR! DO IT NOW!" Methos closed his eyes and swung the Katana with all the force he could muster. He felt the impact on flesh and bone and opened his eyes to see Connor's head fall from his shoulders. The resulting explosion was spectacular. Lightning and energy leaped from Connor's body at an incredible velocity, exploding from the warp space and into history. Without Connor to anchor him, Methos felt himself being expelled along with the energy. He felt the impact of solid ground but it was dulled by the new energy that was coursing through him. It was true, he was one of them now. The first mortal ever to become Immortal. But where was he? Or more important, when was he? He looked around at the vast expanse of forest that surrounded him. And he smiled. It was going to be one hell of an adventure. THE END ************************************************************ * Kevin Glover kpglover@concentric.net * * http://members.aol.com/kevinglove/columbo.html * ************************************************************ * "In Times of crisis, it is of utmost * * importance not to lose one's head." * * M. Antoinette * ************************************************************