========================================================================= Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 10:25:26 -0400 Reply-To: Jill Marie Spetoskey Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Jill Marie Spetoskey Subject: Mortals 7/14 (fwd) Just a reminder: send all the accolades to ks. Jill ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: k s gritten Subject: Mortals 7/14 A mid-story reminder: This FK/HL crossover is brought to you by the letters "k" and "g", and the number 244989. "Mortals" is a production of my fevered imagination. Local support has been provided by the NatPack. Very few of the characters belong to me; there are FK "Human Factor" and Highlander fourth season spoilers. Mortals 7/14 Richie came to consciousness abruptly. He hated that--the blurring around the edges of his memory that always accompanied a "death" left him with a dull headache. When he opened his eyes, he saw Nick Knight staring at him with an astonished expression on his face. "Uh, hey," Richie greeted him. "I hope that you didn't call the rest of the cops or anything." Knight watched as Richie pulled himself up off the floor, then said mildly, "I was just about to. Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Richie put a hand to his head, trying to decide the best way to explain this. "The most important thing is that Lisa McKenzie was just here, waving a gun around with a crazed look in her eyes. She took Joe and Natalie." Nick moved his hand to indicate Richie's figure. "And that?" "Look, I know this is going to sound really bizarre, but I'm immortal. I can't be killed. McKenzie knew that when she shot me, but she did it anyway to keep me from following them." Richie was impressed--Knight was taking this remarkably calmly. Knight merely nodded, then said, "Look, I know this is going to sound really bizarre, but your friend McKenzie was killed by a vampire." "What?" Richie stared at him, dumbfounded. Maybe Knight was crazier than McKenzie. "There's no such thing as vampires." Then he jumped back as Nick flashed a very vampire-looking pair of fangs at him. "Okay, who am I to say what is real and what isn't?" They regarded each other for a moment, each digesting the new information that they had received. "Now what?" "Now," Knight said, moving towards the door, "we start looking for Lisa McKenzie." ****** Joe Dawson awoke with a blinding headache. 'Man,' he thought, 'Is this how an Immortal feels when they come back from a death?' After he and Natalie had gotten into Lisa McKenzie's car, she had slugged them both with something, knocking them unconscious. He shook his head to clear it, then took note of his surroundings. He was in a small, windowless room, the only light coming from a crack underneath the heavy door. There was no furniture in the room, no furnishings of any kind. Natalie Lambert lay propped against the opposite wall, her eyes closed. Dawson pulled himself over to her, and took her hand to check her pulse. The hand tightened on his own, and in the dim light he saw that her eyes were open now, a single tear of pain and frustration collected at the edges. "Why did she just shoot Richie like that?" The accusation in her tone stung him. "Look, I know this is going to sound weird, but I promise you that the kid is okay. Shooting him doesn't hurt him." "He was dead!" she insisted. "He just seemed to be dead." He sighed. "Richie is an Immortal. The only way that he can be killed is if somebody cuts off his head." "Immortal? You mean that he can live forever?" He nodded his head, then pulled himself into a sitting position next to her, leaning against the wall for support. She was taking this remarkably well. Joe remembered Duncan telling him that the only way most people believed the story was if they actually saw one die and "wake up" from it. Joe unbuttoned his cuff sleeve and rolled it back, revealing the tattoo which marked his wrist. "You see this? It's the sign of a Watcher. We've been keeping tabs on Immortals for centuries." She rubbed her hand over the tattoo which was barely visible in the half-light, and nodded. "McKenzie had one just like that. He was a...Watcher, too?" "Yeah. He worked for me. A few days ago he disappeared, and I heard that he was heading here, to Toronto. I asked Richie to try and find him." Joe's story was cut off by movement outside the room. The heavy door swung open to reveal Lisa McKenzie, still carrying a gun. "Lisa," Joe said soothingly, "what are you doing? Let us go." McKenzie shook her head determinedly. "I can't," she said. "I need you both." "But why?" Nat asked, curious. Joe wondered the same thing. Revenge against him personally for some reason, that he could understand. But why had Lisa insisted on bringing Natalie as well? "Because you are mortal. Because you can both die." The words chilled him, but Lisa continued. "Because you both have friends who can't die." Her feverish gaze settled on Nat. "I saw them in the parking lot. I saw the vampires disappear into the sky." Her expression grew sorrowful, her face filled with torment. "Mike wanted to become immortal so that he could watch forever." Joe took in a breath sharply, dawning comprehension on his face. Things were starting to make sense to him, at last. Lisa's final words, however, offered him little hope. "I want to become immortal so that I can kill them all. And you'll stay here until I get what I want." With that, she left them again, slamming the heavy door shut behind her. Joe looked steadily at Nat, whose face was clouded. "I think that you have some things to explain to me, too."