========================================================================= Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 20:37:00 PDT Reply-To: Mike Goldman Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike Goldman Subject: "A Dangerous Game" (20/22) HL Story "Tonight, I shall end this..." They drove back to Joe's and made their way inside, grimacing at the rain that was beginning to come down harder. Anne helped Joe support Rory as they made their way inside and over to the couch where Rory dropped with all the grace of a Raggedy Anne doll, head lolling back against the wall, eyes closed, as she let the voices wash over her. Anne's mind was still reeling from the information she had learned but, remembering her patient, she opened one of Rory's eyes and checked their color. "They're changing back to brown." she notified them, a tremor in her voice. "Where's that journal, Richie?" Joe asked. "We need to see how this thing ended." Richie grabbed the journal off the table and leafed through it quickly, slowing in dismay as he reached the end. "The pages are gone!" he said in disbelief. "What?" Duncan and Joe said at the same time. Wordlessly, Richie held up the journal, pointing to the jagged edges where the paper had been ripped from the binding. They turned to the silent woman on the couch. "What happened?" Duncan asked. There was no response for a moment, then Rory slowly shook her head. "A couple of years later I ripped them out of the book--didn't want to think about it anymore Now I don't even know if I remember it correctly but Amanda was there and she'd know." Joe looked at Duncan. "Do you know where she is?" Duncan nodded, picked up the phone and dialed. After an exercise in how to make five minutes seem like five hours, Duncan signaled that someone had picked up the line. "Amanda?" he said, then gave them the "OK" sign that it was her. She apparently began to say something, but Duncan cut her off. "Amanda, we need your help..." he began and then related the story of what had been going on over the preceding days. To her credit, Amanda didn't interrupt with a thousand questions, just merely asked Mac to clarify certain points as he went along. Then she asked to speak to Rory. The conversation was short with Rory appearing to do all the listening. Then she wearily handed the phone back to Mac. "She wants you to put it on speaker." Mac complied and Amanda's voice came tinnily out to them. "Can you hear me?" "Yes, we can." Anne shouted to the speaker. "This is the way I remember it..." >> January 7, 1896 Amanda prowled restlessly around the garden. Where was Rory? The musician had brought her the note--the first communication she'd had from her friend in months--and now she was out here in the dark getting wetter and wetter while the storm growled overhead. A particularly bright flash of lightning made her wince.... Rory, dressed in boy's clothing that she'd managed to steal from the Opera costumes, ran quickly into the garden. As she rounded a corner, she tripped over an object in her path and sprawled on the ground. Wincing in pain at the gravel now firmly ground into her palms, she turned to free her foot from what she assumed was the log she had fallen over. The same flash of lightning Amanda had seen revealed to Rory the face of the young musician who had carried her request for help to Amanda. He stared up at her sightlessly, the gaping wound on his neck testifying to his fate. Jerking her foot back in horror, she fought down the urge to vomit and ran on....straight into something. "Amanda!" she cried, pulling back. "You were expecting?" Amanda asked, taking in Rory's outfit. "What are you wearing?" "I'll explain later. We need to go...*now*!" Rory cried, grabbing Amanda's arm. "I agree we need to get out of this storm, but what's wrong?" Amanda asked. "It's Stefan. He's here!" Rory responded, still pulling at Amanda's arm. "What do you mean he's here?" Amanda asked, putting her free hand on Rory's shoulder and forcing her to look at Amanda. In half-formed sentences nearly babbled due to her fear, Rory explained what she had seen. Amanda took a quick look around the garden, but couldn't sense another Immortal and Rory was obviously just about out of her mind and wouldn't be able to sense another Immortal if his sword was at her neck. "I don't feel him here now but let's get going just the same." She picked up her skirts and Rory stuffed her fallen hair back under her cap and they picked their way through the debris that the storm's wind had littered on the garden paths. They had just made it to the center of the garden when they both felt the presence of another Immortal. Amanda put herself protectively in front of Rory and drew her sword. "Whoever you are, you may as well show yourself!" she called. After a few beats, Stefan stepped out from behind a tree. >> >> "What happened then?" Duncan asked. "I offered to separate the bastard's head from his neck." Amanda responded, "but he wouldn't accept the Challenge and kept asking Rory to come with him." >> >> Amanda couldn't believe it as Rory stepped out from behind her and began to take a small step towards Stefan. "What are you doing?" she hissed, jerking her back. "You go with him now and you're signing your own death warrant!" "What choice do I have?" Rory asked Amanda in a dead voice, "if I go with him, I'll die eventually, and if I fight him here, I'll die now." "How do you know?" Amanda demanded, staring into Rory's eyes. "There's *always* a choice! If you fight him, you *may* die--but you may win!" "If you win," she >continued, "you have your life back." Rory looked at Stefan and then back at Amanda. "Your move." was all Amanda said. Rory stood motionless a few moments more and then pulled out her >sword. >> >> "Amanda," Joe interrupted, "the records we have of the event simply >state that you and Stefan were both in the garden and that you walked out with a stranger. The person who was Watching for us got hauled off by the local constabulary--seems he had a few pressing legal matters he hadn't bothered to attend to--and by the time another Watcher got there, it was over. Was there anything...strange about the Quickening at all?" "Joe, that was over 100 years ago!" Amanda protested. "It's important, Amanda." said Duncan. There was silence as Amanda thought. "The thunderstorm!" she suddenly exclaimed. "There was a huge storm that night with a lot of thunder and lightning and, just as Rory beheaded Stefan, a flash of lightning connected with her sword and then the storm seemed to get mixed up in the Quickening." "How?" Richie asked from his seat by the coffee table. "It was like the lightning somehow stopped the Quickening..it connected the two of them and everything just seemed to...pause for a moment. Then Rory kind of collapsed, the Quickening finished and we got the out of there." "Anything else?" "No, that's it." "Thanks, Amanda." Joe said fervently as Duncan added his thanks as well. Amanda said a few words to Rory and then rang off. Mac leaned against the fireplace wall as Joe paced back and forth. "Now what?" he muttered as his cane tapped silently on the carpet. "There may be a way we can reverse this." Duncan offered. Joe stopped. "How?" "When was the first time you noticed Rory was acting differently?" Joe thought for a moment. "On the way home from the hospital, I noticed her eyes had changed color for a few seconds." He stopped as the realization hit him. "Electric shock therapy." he said slowly. Mac nodded and motioned to the storm gaining force outside. "Maybe we could duplicate the situation." Joe looked over at the couch. "That means she has to let Stefan take over." Mac nodded again. "I don't know if it will work, but if lightning or electricity interefered the first time, it could happen again." "Excuse me." They looked over to see Rory with her eyes open and watching them. "You're suggesting that I fight you or Richie?" "That would be the general idea." Duncan allowed. "What's to prevent me from taking either of your heads?" "The fact that we're such great guys?" Richie tried. "Let's not push it." Rory responded, smiling slightly. "Rory?" Joe asked, "How much is Stefan aware of when he's in control?" "I don't know." she responded slowly. "I don't think either of us is entirely cognizant of what's happening when the other is in control, but I couldn't swear to what he knows and doesn't know." "And when he's in control?" "I...'know' I'm there, but I just seem to get swallowed up inside. It's like being in a dark room and not being able to see my hand in front of my face. There's no noise, no light, no nothing. I hear voices but it's as if they're whispering and I can't understand a thing that's being said. I feel like I'm screaming for someone to hear me, but no one answers." "I think," said Duncan, "you're going to have to let Stefan have control and allow him to fight one of us." And they had *me* locked up?" she said in amazement. "I don't want to be responsible for taking someone's head that way." Looking up into the light at them, they could see her eyes were beginning to deepen in color. "You don't have any time to argue!" said Joe. "Think--who would Stefan think he could easily beat?" "His vanity would say he could beat Macleod, but I think he'd go for Richie since he's new to the Game and Stefan has been in 'retirement' for awhile." was her opinion. "Then Richie will Challenge him." said Duncan. Richie looked up sharply. "I'm what?" he asked, as Joe and Anne both chimed in with their concerns about whether this was really a good idea. "Well, we can't just take her back to the psych ward and ask them to zap her again, so if the rest of you have any better ideas..." Duncan responded. They all looked at each other. "OK, so we don't." Richie finally said, "but how can we be sure there's going to be any lightning." "We can't." Duncan turned to Joe. "Do you have homeowner's insurance?" "Yeah." Joe responded slowly. "Why?" Lori mgoldman@cts.com Bass Player/Musical Director for the SJD Kick-Ass House Band CFW/WAR Chief for Smokin' Joe Dawson in the first HL WAR