Title: Dawn's Early Light Author: Athena Rating: General Characters: Joe Dawson Archive: 7th Dim - yes please, others please ask Feedback: Pleeeeeeeeeeease - to athena@bigtitch.freeserve.co.uk Disclaimers: The Highlander concept and characters belong to those people who make money out of this. This group does not include me. I'm only doing this for fun and because the muses won't let me alone. Acknowledgements: This was story was written for the Quickening Lyric Wheel - thank you to Tana for the lyrics. And thanks to Rachel and Sonia for the beta - you guys saved my life - again! Dawn's Early Light ================= >From the Real Chronicle of Duncan MacLeod by J Dawson, Watcher 10 November 1996 MacLeod just called from Bordeaux. He's OK. Koren- Kronos is dead. So are Silas and Caspian. Cassandra and Methos are alive. Something's up with those two, I can tell it from Mac's voice when he said their names, but I guess that's only to be expected. There's too much history between those three for that triangle to be worked out easily. I'm glad Methos is alive. Though now it's over, I guess I never really any doubts that he would survive. But Mac's OK. Mac's OK. You have no idea how relieved I am to write that. It's not only that he's alive. Somehow I always thought that if it came down to just him and Kronos it would be MacLeod who'd walk away. I wasn't sure he was all right when he first phoned, but then he started talking about Cassandra and Methos and asking about what happening here, then I knew he was OK. God, I've felt like this after every head he's taken. After Case, D'Estaing, Kantos and Clay I worried about them. But Kronos? Someone that old, that evil? Jeez, I haven't slept since he showed up. It wasn't the thought of Mac losing that scared me, but the possibility that he could win and then be overwhelmed by the Quickening. That has scared me since MacLeod took Coltec's head and started that whole scary business. I've been worried for Mac. I've been worried that each head he's taken would be the one to push him over the edge. To push him back into evil. To push him beyond the point that anyone, including Methos, could help him. But he's not needed today. Mac's OK. The relief made my hands tremble when I was holding the phone. The relief that the evil wasn't starting again. That I wouldn't have to go through what I did back then and watch a good man hit a woman. Hell! - hit me! Or try to kill his friend and pupil. I never want to go through that again. I know what Mac did when he got to France. I know he killed one of the best Immortals around in Sean Burns. But I would have preferred to watch that than see what I did in the dojo. I looked into a friend's eyes and saw something else look back at me. I never want to see that again as long as I live. It's not like I haven't seen someone go mad before. In 'Nam when I was out on patrol one time, defending the land of the free finally pushed Mick Kirkpatrick over the edge. We spent a night in the jungle with the Viet Cong all around us and Kirk talking to people only he could see. That was bad. But looking into Mac's eyes that time and him just not being there - that was worse. But not *the* worst. It's bad, but it's not what's been making me sick to my stomach with worry. I've been scared that that Kronos' Quickening might tip Mac so far into evil that there would be no way back for him. No tricks that Methos has learned to save him. That Duncan MacLeod would be totally evil. Because then he'd have to be stopped. Stopped. It's a nice word. It's the kind of word we Watchers use when we talk about dealing with a colleague who's stepped outside the rules. We 'stop' them. Like I was going to 'stop' Christine Salzer. The real word is 'kill'. And that's what I've faced since Mac killed Coltec. That if he went evil again, he would have to be killed. And it couldn't be an Immortal who could kill him. They would just be overwhelmed in their turn. No, if an evil MacLeod had to be killed it would have to be a mortal who did it. Me. Who else is there? Back in the dojo that time I held his sword to his neck, but I didn't use it. Didn't or couldn't? I don't know. I tell myself that I made a choice because I thought that there was a chance that the real Duncan MacLeod was still in there. But maybe I just hadn't got the guts to do it. But if he was gone beyond redemption? Well that's the prospect that I've had to face over the past few months. That I might have to kill my friend, Duncan MacLeod. It's little consolation that, under the circumstances, it would be what Mac wanted. Still, it's not going to happen today. Evil didn't win in Bordeaux. Not this time. Oh God, I pray it never does. For all our sakes. The End Lyrics: "The Star-Spangled Banner" written by Francis Scott Key Oh say can you see By the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed At the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars Through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched Were so gallantly streaming And the rockets red glare The bombs bursting in air Gave proof to thru the night That our flag was still there Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free And the home of the brave On the shore, dimly seen thru The mists of the deep Where the foe's haughty host In dread silence reposes What is that which the breeze O'er the towering steep As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam Of the morning's first beam In full glory reflected Now shines on the stream Tis the star-spangled banner Oh long may it wave O'er the land of the free And the home of the brave! Oh, thus be it ever When free men shall stand Between their loved homes And the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace May the heav'n rescused land Praise the Pow'r that hath made And preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must When our cause it is just And this be our motto "In God is our Trust"! And the star-spangled banner In triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free And the home of the brave!