Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 17:19:32 -0700 Reply-To: Hank Wyckoff Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Hank Wyckoff Subject: (10C/10) The Duplicity -- HL Posting The Duplicity (10C/10) -- By Henry Wyckoff A Crossover between Highlander/Forever Knight/X-Files/A Poem by Rudyard Kipling/and Sharpe's Rifles A continuation of When the Veil is Lifted This concludes The Duplicity, and leads into part three of the five part cycle. THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN SPLIT IN ORDER TO OBEY THE MAXIMUM LINE LIMIT RULE LaCroix, Scully, and Powys were investigating a library. Most of the books were stolen books from libraries all over the world -- mostly history and mythology books -- but there was one book resting on an isolated table in the center of the room. It was an ancient book, with a title written in three languages: Welsh, Latin, and Old Norse. The title said: The Book of Loki. There was no mention of the author. "Interesting," said LaCroix, scanning the book. "It appears to be a religious text of some sort." "We don't have time for this," said Scully. "I can hear fighting downstairs -- they need our help!" "Don't mind them," LaCroix dismissed it all with a negligent wave of his hand. "They can take care of themselves. Axer singlehandedly slaughtered my invasion force, so he can take care of these inept cultists." Scully stared at him in shock, as LaCroix kept reading, oblivious to anything she might be thinking. "This is absolutely incredible! It's not only a religious text -- it's a history! Do you know what's even more fascinating, this is the holy book of the opposition! The Odinssons are opposed to those who follow this book." Powys sighed. "Nobody follows it any more. Loki is the trickster, and nobody follows him anymore... but one. The book is a war trophy of a religious war that was fought long ago. The Odinssons are the followers of Odin, who vanquished the Vanir, Jotuns, and almost all of the Dwarves. Then came Ragnarok, when the followers double-crossed the other Aesir and cut them down on the field of battle in a foul betrayal. It was Loki who fought against the conspiracy, but the King of the Aesir -- and his victorious followers -- have a way of writing the history books. This is the one true history of a time that all have forgotten or remembered incorrectly." They both turned around to face him in confusion. "If you look inside the cover, you'll find a single name indented into the wood. Put a piece of paper over it and lightly scrape the side of a pencil over it, and you'll see a single name: RAM. That's my real name." LaCroix inspected it. "It's true, but you could have peeked at this when we were looking elsewhere!" Powys recited the Latin portion, "'This is the chapter of Kanut, the descendent of Buri, who came upon the starry glass and the door...' Is that proof enough for you? I could go on if you'd like -- I have every verse memorized in each of the languages -- I couldn't have done that in a moment." They stared at him with even greater disbelief as he continued. "I am the High Priest of Loki the Trickster. Let me reclaim the last surviving relic of a long-past time, and then we can aid those downstairs. I fear that they won't need assistance in the fighting -- but that which feeds off of it." "What do you mean?" LaCroix was suspicious. "The Smoking Mirror -- it is the dark side of the Feathered Serpent, and feeds off the violence of men. It made out of the stars, and is a dark seed of chaos." "You're not making any sense," complained Scully. "That's all right," smiled Powys, becoming his care-free self once more, "I know what I'm talking about! Shall we go?" ***************************************************** If the fighting was described as a chaotic free-for-all, the description would be only mildly accurate. To say it was a brutal war would be slightly better, but not even close to the true reality. Sharpe's team and Nick's team entered the room from two different doors, and the blood really started to fly -- up until then, all Axer and the two young ones could do was hold them off. Though Sharpe's team was efficiently killing cultists, it was Nick's team that was really dropping the bodies -- except for Tracy, who kept at the edge of the crowd, killing only those few who decided that a woman was an easy target. Nick, Duncan, and Krycek were behaving like true berserkers -- to the full delight of the head priest, who was both surprised and overjoyed at the appearance of the weapons. Their faces were devoid of any rational thought. All they knew was the joy of bloodletting, and they sure let the blood flow out of the cultists. Axer and Richie, now that the cavalry arrived, began to fare a little better. They grabbed weapons off the dead cultists and began clearing a circle of bodies around them. Coleen, who had trained to use a sword for the last two years, found herself holding back and freezing. She realized that she couldn't kill any of them, even though she had no choice. When she gut cut or stabbed, she was glad it was her and not them -- until something snapped. Perhaps it was the realization that it was them or her, and they put themselves in this position. With the flick of a switch, she began to apply her training, which just barely managed to keep her own head from flying off her shoulders. The only thing that changed was her attitude, but it was enough to land blows on the cultists. Like an invincible tidal wave, they crushed any and all who came across their path. Within only ten minutes, the floor was covered with the blood and bodies of every last cultist -- except for the head priest, who was laughing hysterically. His New Jersey accent had left him, and he now called out triumphantly in Norse. The three immortals knew only bloodlust, and when they realized that nobody else was attacking them, they searched around for more enemies, and found a small band of people who were beginning to back off uncertainly. "Duncan?" asked Sharpe. "What's wrong with you?" Duncan didn't even recognize his own name as the three charged towards the new enemy. Even Nick, the vampire with a conscience, was howling with maddened glee. The head priest whispered, "The Invisible Ones come!" "I don't think so," said a voice behind him, speaking in Old Norse. The priest turned around in shock and found the one face that every Odinsson knows by sight. "Infidel!!!" It was a scream of rage and horror blended into one. Powys became enraged at the one and only insult that could ever affect him. Shaking with rage, he backhanded the old man, who fell and hit his head against the altar. He stared at the orb and dagger, knowing what must be done. ************************************************************ The three immortals stopped their advance, shaking their heads in confusion, aghast at all the blood and guts that were splattered all over their bodies. "What the --" Krycek tried to say as he gazed over all the dead bodies. A loud, triumphant yell in Welsh shook the room, cutting him off in mid-sentence. An energy strongly resembling the Quickening flooded the man, coming from the orb, the dagger, and the headless priest's body. The lightning came in pulses that slammed into his body again and again, faster and faster, until Powys was literally thrown against the wall. Then it ended. "It is over," he said in a weak voice. Then he collapsed. LaCroix and Scully were plastered with shock, neither one of them saying a word or moving a muscle. Their jaws were slightly twitching. Everyone looked at everyone else. "Do you think it's really over?" asked Coleen. She looked as if she were going to be sick as Mulroney checked all the bodies, stabbing every single one he could find -- some of them were spared by Coleen, and they howled in agony. "Not even close," said Sharpe. Axer put an arm over Coleen's shoulder. "You did good. There was nothing else for you to do." The smell of blood and spilled guts pushed her over the edge, and she dropped her sword, crying on his shoulder. Axer said nothing, except for a soft whisper, "Let it out, girl. There's nothing to be ashamed of." He could remember the sadness he felt after his first battle. Everyone else could remember too, and out of respect left Axer to comfort his student as she lost her innocence -- this day was the day she truly died in spirit and was reborn. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX The Epilogue The Raven was back in operation -- some quick-thinking employees had taken charge in LaCroix' absence. The blood, glass, and other leavings had been efficiently dealt with -- and the large quantity of missing liquor and beer attributed to theft. They had been so efficient that nobody even knew what had happened. Mostly everyone was in the back room, since they couldn't relax on the main floor now. The only ones missing were Krycek, Mulroney, and Powys. Krycek and Mulroney left separately while they figured they had better leave when they could. Powys had no obvious motive why he should leave. After the berserker episode, Krycek look really paranoid -- but took the two swords with him. Mulroney just plain vanished, but had talked to Powys before he left. Powys had refused to mention whatever it was that Mulroney and him had discussed, and he had vanished not too many minutes after he was drilled about it. After wrapping up events at the church, and following some leads -- two of those the escaping Mulroney and Krycek -- they all returned to the Raven. Those remaining had spent most of the night exchanging stories of what had happened, and what they did afterward. There were also a few of the 'how did you do that?' explanations as well. "That's pretty much it," Nick was saying. "We remembered going down the stairs, and the next thing we knew, we had blood all over ourselves." Tracy shook her head. "It was scary. You three were in a trance, and I couldn't get you out. Those weapons must have controlled you." "That's not reasonable," objected Scully. "There must be some simple explanation why it happened." "What do you think happened?" shot back Tracy. "I think that there must have been some gas in the air, or some contact poison on the weapons that induced a berserker rage. In Vietnam, the government did heavy experiments on that with some success." "Then why was I not effected." "Then it was something on the weapons, which you admittedly didn't touch." "They were spooky..." "What's more," continued Scully, "I think we've found conclusive evidence that this Odinsson cult was a front for a much deeper secret. While most of you were killing the cultists," she still viewed the mass slaughter with great distaste, "we found a lot of hardware used to brainwash people." "You also found the Book of Loki," countered Axer. "You saw as much as I did that their beliefs were too real to be a front. Two hundred people don't just sacrifice their lives to maintain the illusion of a front." "Or it could be both..." suggested LaCroix, who had remained quiet through most of this. "What if they are a cult that truly worships Odin, forcibly brainwashes ignorant people from around the globe, conducts experiments on their minds, and are also part of this hidden Truth," he nodded at Scully and Mulder, "that you search for. What if the mysterious organization that you have fought for the last two years has a direct link with the Odinssons?" Mulder looked totally shocked at the idea. "It would totally go against everything that we've learned." "But do you have any evidence to show that it's not the case?" asked Axer. Scully and Mulder looked at one another. Mulder said, "Er... No, but I have a gut feeling that they're too separate entities." "But we don't really *know*, do we?" asked Axer. "No." Skinner frowned. "Let me take another step over the line. Is there anything to suggest why it would be logically impossible for the cult and the organization to be the same?" "Perhaps it may be their objectives," suggested Mulder. "The organization was intent on doing human experimentation, and left some hints that they might have had dealings with aliens. I even have proof that the organization worked on developing an alien-human hybrid." Everyone raised their eyebrows at that. Scully scowled and Skinner shook his head. "Aliens," said Axer with a flat voice. "Immortals. Vampires," Mulder returned. The immortals looked at one another. He *did* have a point. Mulder continued, "The cult seems to have purely religious objectives. They're going after any immortal they can find, not caring what kind of immortal it is, simply because their 'god' commands them to." "Wait a minute!" said Sharpe. "I remember Mulroney mentioning that he WORKED for the Invisible Ones, while the cult worshipped it. How can you work for something that doesn't exist? What if this organization calls themselves the Invisible Ones, encourages the cults to worship them, and does genetic experiments on human beings?" "We sort of covered that ground already," said Axer. "I think we need more information to work with -- we're just stabbing in the dark... Maybe I should give Halscombe a call." "Who is he?" "The one Mulder loves to call Cancerman." "You KNOW him?" Mulder stood up. Skinner was only surprised because Axer claimed to know the man's name. "Sure. He and I go a long way back. We met about thirty years back when he found out what I was -- he was a young man then trying to earn a name for himself. He managed to get me captured, but he lost points because I not only escaped but demolished the whole complex, along with several extensive databases of unique data." "What kind of data?" "I don't know -- I didn't care at the time -- but it might have had something to do with genetics." "Too many hints, and not enough connections..." muttered Nick. "I think it's time we got back," said Skinner, standing up. He gazed most of them in the eye, "I hope you don't take it the wrong way, but I hope none of us EVER meet again." "We're not offended," smiled Axer. "I don't even remember who you are." Skinner smiled too and left. Scully had to practically drag Mulder out of the room, but he went willingly. ************************************************************ *********************************************************************** ** e-mail: wyckoff@ag.arizona.edu ** homepage: http://ag.arizona.edu/~wyckoff ** My fanfics are now archived in pkzip format on my fanfic page ** at http://ag.arizona/edu/~wyckoff/fanfic.html ** Also: check out the X-files creative archive at Gossamer ******************************************************************* ** ERROR: You just deleted 6 years of work -- MERCY KILL ? ******************************************************************* =========================================================================