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Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Sorry, but I'm going to keep you guys in suspense about it. Category: Crossover, strictly CC. (Sorry, but I'm gonna keep you guys guessing as long as I can.) Rating: TEEN/MATURE. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Prologue 1:
16 Years ago:
Roswell, Old Barrington Bar
Jeff and Nancy Parker had arrived to Roswell about a year ago. They both had bought an old bar and were planning to turn it into something more appealing to public and more 'Roswellian'. Jeff was studying the interior of the bar, when his mother Claudia walked in.
Claudia looked around, and asked. "Jeff, are you sure you are doing the right thing? I mean, this building is more ancient than some Indian burial grounds."
Jeff rolled his eyes. Sometimes his mother could be really annoying, but she was right. The building had seen it's better days, but he was determined. Parker's weren't quitters. And Jeff wasn't ready to start now. He turned around and said. "Mother, this place will do fine. Besides, it's in the most ideal place possible, right next to Main street. It only needs a small maintenance. Nothing big."
Claudia looked around again, and sighed. His son WAS stubborn, but she could only blame herself from it. SHE was stubborn aswell. Then she noticed that Nancy wasn't there, and asked. "Where is Nancy?"
"Upstairs, looking at the apartment."
Claudia raised an eyebrow. "You mean to tell me that you're planning to LIVE here?"
Jeff nodded. "It saves time, and since there is no rent, we don't have to worry about extra costs."
Claudia nodded her head, her son had a point. Than she thought about something. "How is she? You know...after the..." Claudia trailed off.
Jeff sighed. His wife had suffered a miscarriage, and was stricken for the loss of her son. She was the one who suggested the move, and Jeff acreed. But when the doctors told them that she couldn't ever be able to have her own children, she was more than determined to move. Start a new life. So here they were.
"Better, but not by much. She's going on, but without that sparkle of life she had when she was pregnant."
"Well, she has you and me to help her through. Come on, let's go help her out."
Jeff nodded, and they both walked to the back. Little did they know that they would be having an addition to the family. By the most unlikely way.
2 weeks later, 1:00 a.m, back entrance to Crashdown:
Claudia was tired. She had spent a whole day at an dig just five miles north from the reservation, and she was ready to pass out from fatique. True, adrenalin and coffee helped a lot, but the effects were dropping fast. ["I swear, I'm going to get a quick shower, and then I'm going to sleep to the noon. Nothing short of atomic bomb isn't going to wake me up."]
She was about to open the backdoor to the café, when she heard something. She stopped for a moment. Listening closely. She could have sworn that it was a cry. Cry from a baby. When she didn't hear anything, she shrugged. ["I must be more tired than I thought. I'm hearing things."] Then she heard it again. And there was no doubt about it. It WAS a cry. Coming from the dumpster.
Claudia started to walk towards the dumpster, the cry getting more clearly audible the more closer she got. She opened the dumpster, and her eyes widened in disbelief. There it was, a small baby. A girl, to be exact. Claudia reached for it, took her in her arms and started rocking her softly. Than she looked around. There was no one there. There was nothing that would tell that someone would have been there. It was like the baby would have appeared there out of nowhere. She looked back at the girl, and asked from herself, "How could anyone do this to you? Such a beautiful girl." The baby had stopped crying and was now looking at Claudia. Right into her eyes. Her big chocolate eyes kept their gaze at Claudia, and the baby started wigling a bit.
"Are you hungry, little one? Come on, Grandma Claudia is going to give you something to eat." ["And then I'm going to call the police. Who in god's name could do this to a small child so adorable."]
About thirty minutes later, Jeff walked to the kitchen, wondering who would be up at this hour. But he guessed it would be his mother, 'cause she was working at the dig. When he got there, he was greeted by the most strangest sight he would ever imagine. His mother was sitting in a chair, holding a small baby in her arms. His mother noticed him, and gestured him to be quiet. Jeff nodded, and Claudia got up from her chair and placed the baby into the small baby crib that Nancy had as a gift during the baby shower. Then she walked to her son.
Jeff was thunderstruck. "What is going on?" he whispered.
Claudia shook her head. "I honestly don't know, Jeff. I came back home about half an hour ago, and found her in the cafe dumpster. I already called the sheriff, and he said he'll be here first thing in the morning."
Then they both heard a voice. "Why did you call the sheriff for?"
Both Jeff and Claudia turned towards the sound, and saw Nancy standing there, looking very tired and confused.
Jeff answered. "Well, it seems that someone abandoned a small baby girl into our cafe's dumpster, and Claudia found her and brought her here. She called the sheriff to come here, and he should be here in the morning."
"With Child Wellfare official." Claudia added.
Nancy's eyes opened wide. "A baby?" she asked. "In a DUMPSTER!?"
After that, the baby started crying. Claudia was about to go to her, but Nancy beat her to it. She started rocking the baby softly, and cooed to her. "Who could do such a thing to you? Who could abandon such a beautiful thing?"
The baby stopped crying almost immediately, and both Claudia and Jeff were dumbfounded. It had took Claudia about 20 minutes to calm the child, and Nancy did it in a second. Jeff was smiling, a single tear sliding down from his eye. This was the sight he had hoped to see for a long time.
Claudia pulled him out from his daydream (or real dream, depends on your point of view) and said. "If you would be able to get her to sleep, we would be awake enough in the morning to talk to sheriff."
Nancy nodded, but she didn't have to do much of anything. The baby had fallen asleep and all Nancy had to do was to put her into the crib. They decided to place the crib into Jeff's and Nancy's room. Just in case the baby would wake up again.
Sheriff Harper walked in, along with with Child Wellfare official Karen Williams. Both of them shook hands with Jeff and Claudia. They were lead to the apartment upstairs, where Nancy was feeding the baby. She noticed the sheriff and said "Hello." to him. Sheriff raised his hat a bit, then turned towards Jeff and Claudia.
"Alright, could you tell me the whole story?"
Claudia nodded, and told the sheriff and the official how she had found the baby, and how she called the sheriff after that. The official was in deep thought, when sheriff spoke.
"Well, there's been no reports of missing babies in Roswell, or in the whole New Mexico area. Was there anything, ANYTHING that would tell us where she came?"
Claudia shook her head. "No. It's like she had appeared out of nowhere. The only thing she had was the towel that was wrapped around her."
Nancy asked, "So, what's going to happen now?"
The official spoke up. "Well, since there hasn't been any kind of report from a missing baby, and it seems to me that this child," official walks to see the baby, and smiles, "seems to be confortable here, we could arrange an adoption. If you would want that?"
Jeff's and Nancy's eyes shot open from shock. An adoption? Was this really happening or was this somekind of dream. Something that will disappear the moment they close their eyes. Suddenly, before Jeff could come up with an answer, Nancy spoke up. "Yes. Yes, we'd like that."
"Good. I'll come by tomorrow and bring the necessary papers, but you should take her by the hospital. Just in case."
After the sheriff and the official had left, Nancy and Jeff were hugging eachother senseless and Claudia was smiling slightly. Then Jeff asked from his wife, "So, since you agreed so quickly, have you thought a name for her?"
Nancy smiled and said, "Elizabeth. Elizabeth Ann Parker."
TBC...
Well, what do you guys think? Should I continue or dump this from the board?
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sat Oct 02, 2004 10:54 am, edited 43 times in total.
Wow! It seems that a lot of people like this fic. Well, in that case, I'll definitely continue. This is another prologue, but don't worry, I'll post part 1 today. Maybe in the evening. This prologue will answer to you what this fic is about. Enjoy!! (FB is a MUST!)
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Sorry, but I'm going to keep you guys in suspense about it. Category: Crossover, strictly CC. (Sorry, but I'm gonna keep you guys guessing as long as I can.) Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Prologue 2:
8 Years later:
'Welcome to Roswell' sign, Highway, 18:00 p.m
A car stops near the sign. The car is a black Pontiac Firebird. The driver steps out of the car and looks at the city ahead. He is in his mid 30's, about 5'9 and has a short dark hair. His eyes were a mixture of grey and blue. He's wearing a long black overcoat, black jeans and gray t-shirt. The lights are clearly visible even from this distance. He stretches a bit, leans his head to left and right. Then he sighs. ["I've been on the road WAY too long for my own good. I swear, I'm getting too old to drive across the whole frickin' U.S continent. I'm amazed that I haven't caused an accident yet."] Then he snaps his fingers. ["Oh yeah, I forgot. You've been driving through these roads so long that you know them inside out."] Then he looks at the city a bit more closer. ["Hm. I wonder how much things have changed here. I mean, it's been about 50 years since the last time I was there. I wonder if Howard Ridger is still alive. He WAS 30 when I met him. Ah well, better stop thinking about the past. I'm hungry."] With that, he got inside the car and sped of towards Roswell.
["Crashdown Café?! I swear, people are taking WAY too seriously that assumed crash. But I can't stop from wondering if something DID happen then. I mean, goverment was pretty adamant to cover it up."] His stomach suddenly growled. ["Damn! I must be hungrier than I thought. But then again, last time I ate was during breakfast."] With that, he gets out of the car and walks into the café. It's pretty late, so there aren't that many customers there. Some truckers, local sheriff and probably some regulars. He walks to the counter and looks around. The alien theme was pretty obvious. Mural of a flying saucer was on the wall and the waitressess were wearing really ridiciolous looking outfit. With alien head apron and silver antennae. He chuckled a bit. Boy, this town had it bad.
He was pulled out of his observation by a cough behind the counter. A man was standing there. "Welcome to the Crashdown. Can I get you anything?" he asked, looking a bit annoyed.
"Sorry, just stepped in. Do you have a menu I could look at?" The stranger asks.
"Yeah. Here you go." The man behind the counter says.
"Hmm. Interesting names." The stranger comments.
"Don't worry, the food IS good. Can I ask what are you doing here?"
"Actually, I'm the new history teacher to Roswell High. My name is Marcus Thorne." He offers his hand.
"The new history teacher? Wow, wouldn't have been able to guess that. I'm Jeff Parker, the owner of this café." They shook hands.
"You own this place?" Marcus asks, clearly dumbfounded.
"Yeah, owned this place for 8 years already. And haven't regretted it. So, can I get your order?" Jeff says.
"Well, I'll take the house special, and some coffee. I've been on the road so long, that I've forgotten what a good cup of coffee tastes like."
"Okay, your food will be ready in about 15 minutes. I'll get your coffee shortly."
"Thanks." Marcus says, absently looking around.
He hated to admit it, but this place certainly had it's appeals. The place had that, how to describe it, a sense of open mindness. Something that the general public definitely lacked. Then again, it was just a theme. Nothing else.
Then he felt it. The electric tingle in the back of his brain. But so ridiculously tiny, that he would have missed it. Even though he had felt it only 5 times over the centuries, he still recognized it. The 'baby buzz'. Which meant that there was a 'pre-immortal' around. He started surveying the café. At first he didn't find the source for the 'baby buzz', but then he saw a young girl running from the front door to the back, what he guessed would be the break room. The girl was about 8 years old, had a shoulder lenght brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing a cupcake dress, which she - considering the look on her face - didn't like to wear.
"Elizabeth, no running in the café!" He heard Jeff shout, albeit gently.
Even from the distance, he could hear the soft "Sorry, dad." Then Jeff walked over to him with his food. He started, "I'm sorry about that. I've told her a hundred times already that she shouldn't be running here."
"That's alright. If you don't mind me asking, is she your daughter?" Marcus asked, genuinely interested.
The was a bit of hesitation from Jeff. Then he answered. "Yes, she's my daughter. And now I better go and make sure that she is going to finish her homework. The waiter will give the bill to you."
Marcus was about to say thanks, when Jeff abruptly left. Which meant that he WASN'T girls real father. And that information, combined with the 'baby buzz' led him to believe that the girl INDEED was a pre-immortal.
When he started eating, his mind was going about a 100 miles per minute. ["A pre-immortal. Talk about a weird twist of fate. She's so young as well."] He was pulled away from his thoughts, when he saw the girl in question looking at him. Marcus looked at her, and noticed that she was wearing a regular set of clothes. She seemed a lot more calmer than she did about 10 minutes ago. He had to wonder. ["Does she feel it? The buzz? Nah, that can't be. No pre-immortal has ever been able to feel Immortals before. She's probably curious."]
Marcus smiled to the girl, and asked. "Is there something wrong?"
The girl shook her head.
Marcus smiled even more. ["Yep, this girl is definitely curious."]
"What's your name?" he asked.
The girl answered, "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."
["Hmm. Usually a good advice. But not in your own age-group."] "Well, my name is Marcus Thorne. And I'm going to be your future history teacher."
The girls eyes shot wide open. Then she was biting her lip for a minute. Then she said. "My name is Liz."
"Liz?" Marcus asked. "I understanded that your name was Elizabeth." ["Damnit! You moron!"] he scolded to himself. ["Don't you recognize a shortened name when you hear it!?"]
Liz narrowed her eyes at Marcus. "Only my parents call me Elizabeth," she said. "Everyone else calls me Liz."
Marcus raised his hands up. "I'm sorry, I've been on the road for about 13 hours straight, so I'm pretty slow at the moment."
Liz seemed to relax a bit. Although she was still looking at him with almost like an scientific interest. "That's okay, even the teachers at school get it wrong at first." Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean by 'future history teacher'?"
"Well, I'll be teaching the seventh and ninth graders. And you are still at second grade. So it will take some time before I'll be teaching you." Marcus answered.
Then they heard a voice. "Elizabeth! You haven't finished your homework yet!"
Liz turned slightly towards the voice. She seemed to be shaking her head. She turned to look at Marcus and whispered to him. "My mom is SO over-protective towards me. I can't do anything before I'm finished my homework."
Marcus nodded slightly. "If you want, we could have some small talk here. If you like. Though I'm guessing that you have some good friends to cover that ground?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Liz shook her head. "Nu-uh. Sorry, but if Maria would find out that I'm being friends with a teacher, she would beg me to convince you to talk to other teachers to ease of the test questions, and I like them as they are." With that, she walked back to the café.
Marcus chuckled to himself. ["That girl is smart! And perceptive! Hmm, maybe staying here isn't such a bad thing after all."] Then his smile disappeared. ["I better keep an close eye on her in the future. Wouldn't want her to suffer an accident. Well, at least not that young. Hmm. Someday she WILL be Immortal, and then her life will be changed forever."] He started to drink some of his coffee. ["In order to ensure her survival, I have to become her mentor. The problem is that I haven't ever had a student before. Then again, my mentor did say to me, 'Many things will happen in life, and sometimes we are forced to adapt to the situation the best we could. You are my first TRUE student, and I have taught you well to survive in the Game. If you choose to take a student of your own someday, think of it as teaching your own child to live. I did.' Heh. Who would have thought. That in the age of 2036, I'll be having a student of my own. Even though I have to wait a while..."]
After he had finished his meal, he paid to the waitress and walked to his car. He had things to do. Find a house. Go to see an old friend, and to make sure that Liz Parker would live long enough as a mortal.
TBC...
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Hmm. Either Prologue 2 didn't ring at the public or most of them haven't yet read it. Well, no worries. Here is part 1, so enjoy! (As I said earlier, FB is much needed.)
babybunny Your guess was off. Sorry. If you didn't know it already, you'll know now. If you haven't seen Highlander, don't worry. Things get cleared along the way. Btw, aliens ARE along the ride.
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Sorry, but I'm going to keep you guys in suspense about it. Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Part 1:
Present day:
Crashdown Café, Saturday, noon
Marcus Thorne walked up to the Crashdown. It had become a weekly routine to come over there and eat lunch. He really liked it here. People were nice, and he adapted to this small town's life without a problem. Howard was indeed alive, but not good. He had a cancer in his liver, and he only had a year left to live. Then again, he had lived a good life. At the age of 86, he had quite large family here. He had two sons and one daughter, and they all had children. Marcus was their teacher at the moment which was very unnerving to the kids. To look at a man, who was as old (or older) as their grandfather, and didn't look like a day over 30. (Actually, more like 26, but who's counting.) He HAD done some slight changes to his appearance over these 8 years. One or two wrinkles here and there, reading glasses and slight amount of gray hair. It wasn't much, but kept the illusion that he was indeed aging. He had to admit it. He was envious of Howard. He had a family. A legacy he could leave after he would reach the afterlife. Oh, sure. Marcus had three sons as well. Well, two actually. Both were around their 50's at the moment, and they were all adopted. They weren't his children in flesh and blood, but in his heart and soul.
He then noticed that he was inside the Crashdown, at the counter. In his usual spot. The café was reasonably busy today, and apparently Mr. Evans had showed up to his regular mooning place. For the past 6 years he had showed up to the exact same spot, just to see a glimpse of Liz. Even in his classes, Marcus could see that Max Evans was glancing towards her every time he was sure that she wouldn't notice. Unfortunately for him, Marcus always noticed this and pointed out to Mr. Evans almost constantly to pay attention. Which earned some laughs from his classmates.
Marcus smiled at the thought. Liz definitely had grown up over the years. She had turned into a beautiful young woman, and was really intelligent. He had done anything humanly possible to make sure that no harm would come to her, and he had succeeded, but now she was at that age, where emotional pain would be a lot more damaging than anything physical. He felt the 'baby buzz', and saw Liz emerge from the break room, Maria hot on her heels. Obviously something was going on in the mind of the DeLuca girl. Probably something conserning him or Evans. If he had to make a guess, it would be the latter option, but the look on Liz's face told him that it was in fact about both of them. Granted, very FEW people hang out with teachers, and even FEVER could call them family. Apparently Ms. DeLuca was about use THAT knowledge to get her grades up. ["No luck there, DeLuca. You have to work just like the rest of them. Just 'cause I consider Liz like my daughter, I don't cut her any slack."]
As a history teacher, Marcus had turned out to be phenomenal. All his students liked him. Heck, they even considered him 'cool'. Coming from the yonger generation, that was a biggest compliment he could ever receive, and he hadn't changed from his teaching routine's over the years. Usually students didn't bother much with history, but Marcus' own insight about historical events got them interested. Even hypnotized from awe and wonder. Hey, what do you expect? You can pick up a LOT of interesting things over the years that DOESN'T end up in history books, and it was the main attraction in his class. He could tell about things that even the historians had no clue about. A persons point of view from history as someone who HAS seen it, got the students motivated to history, AND get good grades out of it.
He was pulled out from the memory lane, when Liz walked up to him.
When Maria heard the bell ring, that indicated that another customer had arrived, she peered through the door's glass. Then she turned to Liz and exclaimed, "Liz! Mr. Thorne is here!"
Liz looked at Maria, confusion written at her face. "So?" she asks.
"SO!? Now would be the perfect time to ask him that he could cut it easy at my essay!" Maria exclaimed.
Liz looked at Maria and looked at her like she would have grown up a new head. "What? I can't do that! Besides, I KNOW what he'll say about it anyway." Liz said, shaking her head.
Maria crossed her hands over her chest. "Oh really?" she asks, with a glare. "And you know this how?"
Liz started to walk towards the café, and kept talking to Maria. "Maria, it's not his policy to cut slack to people. Besides, MY assignment is even harder than yours. It's not my fault that you decided to space out during class."
"Chica, you know that I have issues! Besides, what's so wrong about asking." Maria retorted.
Liz rolled her eyes and answered, "Because, he will say 'no' and nothing you OR I say won't change that."
Then Maria noticed something and decided pull her ace in her sleeve. "It seems that your secret admirer is here again." Maria said, nodding toward's the booth with the UFO mural.
Liz looked over to the booth and noticed him. Max Evans. For the past 6 years he had showed up and seated at that exact spot. Obvously always waiting to get a glimpse from her. Max noticed her looking at him and averted his eyes.
"Maria, I'm with Kyle. Besides, why I should care about this little detail?" Liz asked, confused.
"Well, if you don't go over there and ask the teach to cut me some slack, I'M going to walk over to Mr. Evans and tell him how you drool every time he's here."
Liz's eyes shot wide open. "You wouldn't dare!" she said, keeping her voice down.
Maria just grinned. "Watch me." With that, she started to walk to the booth where Max was seated.
"Alright! I'll do it!" Liz whispered, stopping Maria dead in her tracks. She then walked up to Mr. Thorne. All the while Maria was grinning like a idiot.
"Welcome to Crashdown, Mr. Thorne. What can I get to you?" she asked, all business as usual.
Marcus sighed. "Liz, it's Saturday, as in 'no school'. When there's no school, you can call me Marcus. I thought that you would remember something like that?"
Liz shook her head. "Sorry, sir, but as long as Maria is at earshot distance, I'll keep calling you 'Mr. Thorne'." She then raised her eyebrow and waited, tapping the notepad with her pen.
Marcus chucled slightly and shook his head. She was right, and she knew it. "Just the regular, please, and tell Ms. DeLuca that I'm not going to ease her essay assignment by one bit. If she can't focus in class, it's not my concern," he said with a smile.
Liz grinned at this. "I'll tell her that, and I'll be back with your order shortly." With that, she walked away.
Short time later, Marcus could definitely hear Maria's protests conserning his answer. He was right. The bell at the door pulled him out of his thoughts. Michael Guering walked into the same booth where Evans was sitting. Guerin was someone who Marcus couldn't read properly. He was almost constantly absent, but he still showed up to the tests, and DID fairly good with them. Which was interesting itself. Hm. Probably asked to read the notes from Evans. Still, he wasn't completely deaf to the rumors that went on from Hank Guerin, Michael's foster father. Marcus would guess that Michael's lack of presence during classes had something to do with Hank, but since he didn't asked any help, he couldn't do anything about it. Michael seemed to be in deep conversation with Max for some reason. Marcus shrugged it off. It didn't concern him. It's their holiday, anyway. No reason to bug into it.
Then he heard something really disturping. An argument. Coming from the table not far from the counter. He looked at that direction and found his earlier assumption correct. There were two men having an argument. He couldn't make out the details, something to do with money. Then, to his shock, one of them pulled out a gun and then there was a struggle. He was about to jump up and interfere, when there was a loud BANG. The gun had gone off. Then he heard a scream.
"LIZ!!!"
["That was Maria,"] he thought. He turned, and was about to faint from shock. Liz was laying behind the booth, a pool of blood forming underneath her. Marcus came out from his shock and ran up to her. He did a quick assesment to her injury. The bullet had hit her in her abdomen, right into the stomach.
He turned to look at Maria and yelled at her. "CALL 911!!!"
Maria nodded, clearly pale and shaking badly, but was able to make the call. Then Marcus noticed that the two men were about to make a run for it. He hastily grapped a ketchup bottle and threw it at the one who had pulled the gun. It hit him right at the back of his head, cutting his run short. He wasn't dead, just unconcious.
Marcus focused his attention back to Liz and did everything he could to keep her alive. He was able to get the bullet out, but he couldn't stop the bleeding.
When the gun had gone off and Liz had hit the floor, Max was about to run towards to her, when he felt Michael stop him.
"Don't Maxwell! You'll blow our cover!" Michael whispered, with little bit of force behind it.
"I have to help her!" Max nearly yelled.
"Look, Mr. Thorne is there, and most of the patrons are already massing to look what's happening! Do you honestly think you can pull it off?!" Michael asked, clearly concerned.
Then they saw the two men trying to run from the café. The gunners run was cut short by a ketchup bottle that hit him at the back of his head. Max looked towards Liz's still form. He noticed how Mr. Thorne was able to pull the bullet out, but was unable to stop the bleeding.
Max was stricken. He just couldn't move. He knew that his cover would be blown sky high if he helped her. He was so out of it, that he couldn't stop Michael from pulling him away. Then he whispered, "I'm sorry."
Unbeknownst to him, someone did hear their conversation, and that someone was Mr. Thorne.
Roswell General Hospital, 20 minutes after the shooting
"MAKE WAY!" The nurse shouted when they bursted through the door. Liz was being pulled in a gurney, and she didn't look too good. There was a loud *beep* sound coming from the heart monitor. One of the nurses was giving her heart massage. Mr. Thorne and Maria were head on their heels, thanks to skilled driving from Mr. Thorne's part.
"What is it?" The doctor asked.
"16 year old female, shot to the stomach and we were able to stop the bleeding. She was treated slightly at site by Mr..." the nurse trailed off.
"Thorne. I'm a friend of her family." Marcus answered.
"Her stats were somewhat stable, but then her heart stopped 5 minutes ago. We've given adrenalin and CPR, but there hasn't been any change," the nurse continued.
"Take her to the ER 2 now, and could somebody get the hold of Dr. Wallace!!" Dr. Hills then started to ask questions from Mr. Thorne. "Could you tell me what happened?"
Marcus relayed to doctor what happened and told him how he had tried to help her. Hills seemed to be impressed. "Well, we'll take care of her now. Try to get the hold of her family!" he shouted the last line behind the double doors.
Marcus nodded and turned to Maria. "Maria, I want you to call the Parker's and tell them what happened. Can you do that?"
Maria was still pale, but was able to nod slightly. She took her cellphone and started to make the call.
Marcus was concerned. Concerned? Hell, he was downright terrified! He hadn't felt this helpless since Vietnam, when he had lost his third son. He took his own cellphone and dialed up Claudia's number. He knew it by heart, since he and Claudia had became good friends 4 years ago. He hadn't been able to meet her sooner, 'cause she was at some dig at other state. Fortunately she was at reservation at the moment, so it wouldn't take too long from her to get here.
He waited for a minute. Then he heard her voice. "Hello?"
"Claudia? It's me, Marcus." He answered, his worry being crystal clear in his voice.
Claudia was getting concerned. "What's wrong, Marcus? Is something wrong?"
Marcus choked to the next words. "It's Liz, she was...she was shot at the Crashdown. Two customers started fighting about something, then one of them pulled a gun and it fired. Claudia, Liz's heart stopped on her way at the hospital. She's at the ER right now."
"I'll be there immediately," was her answer, and Marcus could definitely hear the concern in her voice. Shortly after that, she terminated the call.
When he was putting his mobile away, Maria walked to him. "Mr. and Mrs. Parker will be here in 5 minutes," she said. Then she started crying. Marcus pulled her to a gentle embrace, allowing a single tear to roll down his cheek.
Because he knew in his heart that the life of Liz Parker was now irrevocably changed, but he didn't yet know how.
TBC...
Hope you guys like it.
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:17 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Thanks ya all. It's good to know that you like my fic. So here is Part 2. Enjoy.
Anya Thanks a bunch. It's really nothing.
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Sorry, but I'm going to keep you guys in suspense about it. Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: TEEN, probably MATURE at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Part 2:
Roswell General Hospital, Emergency Room 2, 10 minutes later
Dr. Hills was getting desperate. The girls heart has been stopped for the past ten minutes, and he was running out of options. The wound had been fixed, amazingly, at site. By a civilian, and quite well in fact. Unfortunately the loss of blood had taken it's toll. He looked at the clock. It had been 10 minutes since she was brought in. Her heart had been stopped for about 15 minutes.
"Still flatline." The nurse said.
"Get the defibrillators!" He was getting desperate, and you could tell. "And WHERE is Dr. Wallace?!" he asked.
"He called in sick this morning," one of the nurses answered.
["Jeesus!! Of all the times..."] He took the defibrillators into his hands. "Charge for two hundred!"
"Charging..." the nurse said.
"CLEAR!!"
*THUMP*
"Still flatline," the nurse said.
["Damnit!!"] "Ok, charge to two hundred and fifty!!" He shouted.
"Charging..."
"CLEAR!!"
*THUMP*
Nurse shook her head. "Still flatline."
["This is it,"] he thought grimly. "Charge to..."
*beeb, beeb, beeb...*
"We have a heartbeat!" Nurse exclaimed.
["There indeed is a god up there!?"] Hills thought, amazed.
He felt it. He didn't want to, but he did. 'The buzz'. Which only could mean one thing. Liz Parker had died, and returned back. Marcus shook his head slightly, but apparently just enough that Claudia noticed. She said something to Nancy and Jeff, and walked to him.
She seated next to him. "Are you allright?" she asked, genuinely concerned.
["No! I'm not alright!"] he thought, but he couldn't say it outloud. He had dreaded this day for the past 8 years, and now it had blown up right in front of his face. He turned his head away from her questioning gaze and looked at Maria. Apparently she had called her mother here, and they were both crying openly. ["What do you expect?! Liz was like a second daughter to Amy! Can you blame her from shoving similar feelings to her as she would to Maria?!"] he shouted to himself. Then he turned back to Claudia and said. "No, I'm not," he answered as softly as he could, but the edge was there.
Claudia nodded slightly. She wasn't any better herself. 16 years ago, she had found Liz abandoned in the dumpster. Jeff and Nancy had finally had the child they both had wanted so badly, and now they were close to lose her. Still, Claudia couldn't shrug off the feeling that Marcus knew something else. It was like, he felt that he was responsible for this, but she knew he wasn't. Unknownst to Claudia, Marcus DID knew that Liz had died, and she wouldn't never be same again. Actually, when put into pespective, she would ALWAYS stay the same. Physically, anyway. Mentally, that's a completely different thing.
Claudia turned her gaze towards her son and his wife. God, they were devastated. Nancy was crying at the sofa and Jeff was pacing so intensively that he was wearing the floor to its foundation. Then she saw Marcus to look up. Then he got up started to walk towards the exit. She was about to ask where he was going, but was interrupted when Dr. Hills walked to the waiting room.
The silence was deafening. No one couldn't force themselves to ask the question. Surprisingly, it was Marcus who was able to ask the question, but it was the question that nearly caused everyone to faint. "She's all right, isn't she?"
Hills looked at Marcus with confusion. Then he said, "Yes. She'll make it."
Hearing this, everyone except Marcus let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. Claudia saw that Marcus was even more concerned about something else. Before she could ask him, his son question stopped her train of thought.
"Can we see her?" he asked, clearly relieved.
"Well, she's in the recovery room now, but I don't see any problem with it. Unfortunately I can let only her family in. If you wouldn't mind, Mr. Thorne, I'd have some questions I'd like answers," he looked at the older man.
Marcus sighed. "Alright, but make it quick. I have to make sure that the bastard who did this to Liz doesn't get away from this THAT easily," he said, with a VERY dangerous edge in his voice.
Hills nodded, and called the nurse to take the Parker's to the recovery room.
Marcus arrived the Crashdown just in time to see the man who he had stopped with the ketchup bottle. He nearly, NEARLY, smiled at image he saw. The guy was covered in red, that could be easily mistaken as blood. At least from this distance. ["Hmm. Apparently someone had the brains to call the police."]
He stepped out of his Firebird, and walked up to sheriff Valenti, who was questioning a customer. He then turned around and greeted him.
"Mr. Thorne. I'm surprised to see you here. Shouldn't you be at the hospital?" he asked, but his face was unreadable because of the sun-glasses.
Marcus shook hands with him and answered. "I was. The doctor said that she'll be alright."
Sheriff smiled. "That's good to hear. Kyle was worried sick when he heard what had happened. He drove off to the hospital about 15 minutes ago."
"Too bad he won't be able to see him until tomorrow," Marcus said. Sheriff nodded to this. "So. What's going to happen to him?" Marcus suddenly asked, indicating at the shooter.
Sheriff face seemed to grimace. ["Boy. This doesn't look good."] "Sorry, but not much. All the witnesses say that the gun went off by accident," he raised his hands when he saw that Marcus was ready to kill the messenger. "Whoa! That doesn't mean he's off the hook. He WILL be in jail for a time being, but with a good lawyer, he'll walk out in a week." After Valenti had said this, he immediately regretted it, and for a good reason too, because Marcus was seething.
["That bastard brings a gun to the restaurant and he even fires the damn thing in there, and he's ONLY going to spend a WEEK in jail!?"] Then he managed to pull himself together. He shot a murdering look towards the shooter. ["Believe me, we are NOT through."] With that, he stalked off to his car and sped away.
Sheriff Valenti shook his head. Thorne was someone who he constantly kept underestimating. He was also worried. He had identified the shooter, who's name turned out to be Gary Madsen, and he lived at the Trailer Park. If he read his instincts correctly, Thorne wasn't inclined to leave it to this. If he was right, when Madsen would walk out from jail, Thorne would be waiting for him, and God have mercy on Madsen's soul if he doesn't survive from THAT confrontation.
Marcus opened the door to his apartment and walked in. The minute he was able to close it, he walked directly towards the kitchen. Claudia had called him when he was driving home, and she had told him that Liz was still unconcious. He figured she would be. This wasn't exactly normal death by any means. Toast to modern medicine. If he (and Liz) would be lucky, doctor wouldn't dig into this TOO deeply. If he would, things would get ugly. To the immortals, anyway, and especially to Liz. He stopped dead in his tracks in front of a lickour cabinet. He pondered for a moment. Then he opened it and took a bottle of Scotch. He opened it and gulped about 1/5 of the bottles contents. After that, he took a glass and walked to the living room couch. He poured some of the Scotch to glass and gulped it down. He knew he couldn't get drunk that quickly, and the effects would last only about 2 hours after that. He hadn't gotten seriously drunk since American Civil war, and he wasn't inclined to start now. He would finish this bottle, and then he would prepare for Monday.
["I better keep my distance from her as long as possible. She isn't ready for answers yet, and she will be MORE distracted if I tell her tomorrow."] With that, he finished his bottle and walked to the basement door. He hesitated for a moment. He COULD always contact Connor or Duncan, but he knew that he was the BEST. Even Methos couldn't rival his skill in combat. Then again, even Duncan could take Methos on in a fight. Granted, Methos WAS older than Marcus, but he knew that Old Man was the type that disappeared to the masses of people. True, Marcus hadn't been in on the Game for 30 years, but he hadn't been sloppy either. He knew that if he wanted Liz to survive, he would have to teach her EVERYTHING he knew, but it wasn't his training he was worried about. He was worried about Liz's reaction to the possibility of eternal life.
He then shook his head, and opened the basement door. He passed the threshold and closed the door behind him.
Liz opened her eyes, but was forced to close them, when the light nearly blinded her. She groaned. ["Where am I?"] she asked from herself. Then she remembered. The Crashdown. The argument with two customers. The gun. Gun going off. The bullet hitting her. The feeling of blood flooding away from her. Her eyes shot wide open. She shot up abruptly, but was forced to lie back down, when she felt a tiny stab of pain inside her stomach. She started to breath calmly. ["Calm down, Liz. Just breath. I'm obviously not dead, which is a good thing, but...where am I?"] She opened her eyes slowly and fortunately for her, her eyes had adjusted to the light. ["I'm at the hospital?"] She then saw her mother sleeping at the chair in her hospital room. There were tear tracks on her cheeks. Then she heard the door open. Her father walked in, and he nearly dropped the coffee mugs he was holding.
"Liz?" he asked, his voice breaking.
Liz smiled slightly.
Nancy had started to stir, and when she opened her eyes, she vailed. "LIZ!" With that, she shot up from the chair and went to hug her daughter. Jeff wasn't that far behind.
Liz winced slightly and said. "You know, you're going to kill me if you don't let me breathe."
With that, both her parents backed off slightly. Nancy was crying from joy and Jeff walked to the door to call Claudia.
Nancy was able to find her voice. "Honey, are you alright?" she asked, with small sobs audiple in her voice.
Liz answered. "Yeah," she winced. "A bit sore though."
Jeff, Claudia and Dr. Hills walked to the room. Hills started to check on Liz, as Claudia went to her grand-daughter and hugged her. "You got us worried,little one," she said.
"Hmm. Are you all right, Ms. Parker?" Hills asked.
Liz looked up to the doctor. "Well, I'm a bit sore and there's this tingling in my stomach."
"Well, we'll run some tests, but I wouldn't worry about it too much about it. If everything looks fine, you should be able to go home at least tonight," he said empathically.
Liz smiled at this, and said. "Thank you."
Hills nodded and walked outside. He closed the door and watched how her parents started talking to her. Obviously STILL concerned about her well being. He stopped a nurse and gave her instructions concerning the necessary tests. He glanced at the clock, and decided to take a small break. He walked to the break room and once there, he took his lab coat off. He was now clad in jeans and t-shirt. There was some kind of tattoo in his right arm. He walked to his locker and opened it. He took a cellphone and pressed the speed dial. He waited few moments before the call was answered.
"The Blues Bar. Cameron speaking."
"Is Joe there?" Hills asked.
"Yes. Give me a minute."
Hills had to wait a few minutes, knowing ALL too well how Dawson's legs were. He was able to get himself a cup of coffee before Joe answered.
"Dawson speaking."
Hills answered quickly. "This is Hills from Roswell, New Mexico."
"Hills? Now why in hell would YOU call me here? You're not assigned to any immortal." Dawson asked, clearly surprised.
"Joe, I know all damn well that I'm not assigned to keep watch at any immortals. The reason I called, was that I treated a pre-immortal here yesterday." Hills answered.
There was silence at the other end of the line. "Are you serious? How would you know this, anyway? It's not like there would be another Immortal present there." Joe asked, starting to get curious.
"The reason I suspect it, is because I could swear that the person who brought her here is a Immortal YOU know all too well. You DO remember Marcus Pike?" Hills asked.
"Say WHAT!? You mean to tell me, that the toughest Immortal alive is in Roswell?! And he brought in a pre-immortal?!" Joe was definitely surprised by this.
"I'm positive. He HAS changed his appearance somewhat but I still recognized him. You know as well as I do that he disappeared 30 years ago from the Game. And no one knew how. Well, he's here. At the moment, anyway." Hills said, and took a sip from his coffee.
Dawson was pondering this information for a while. Then he asked. "What about the pre-immortal?"
Hills expression turned grim for a moment. "She died to her injury at the table. Fortunately I was the only doctor present. So I was able to hide her healing process from everyone else. She woke up about 15 minutes ago, and the reason I called, was that I would like to have her as an assignment," he answered.
"Don't you want to have Marcus as an assignment? I mean, he's almost as equally elusive as Methos is."
Hills rolled his eyes. "I think you answered your own question there, Joe. Marcus isn't someone who CAN be kept an eye on. You know that. No, better to keep an eye on the new Immortal. Besides, this is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me. I mean, I've always wanted to have an assignment with a new Immortal, and this is my chance," he answered.
"All right, Hills. You got the assignment. Just make sure that Marcus doesn't get a reason to kill you at sight. The last Watcher who was assigned to him lost him almost immediately, and HE was a seasoned veteran." Joe warned.
Hills nodded. "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on her, and I'll be careful not to alert Marcus' suspicions."
"What's her name, anyway?" Joe asked.
"Elizabeth Parker." Hills answered.
TBC...
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:18 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Special thanks to Calinia, NewYorker18 and spaceag05. Part 3 is a bit short. Sorry. But the next part is longer. Hope you can wait. Now. Onward with the show. FB is always appreciated.
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Sorry, but I'm going to keep you guys in suspense about it. Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Part 3:
Parker Household, Sunday, 19:00 p.m
Liz walked into her room and closed the door. Then she leaned on to it and sighed in relief. She loved her parents, but too much of asking 'How are you? Do you need anything?' and telling 'You should be resting. Let me bring you that for you.' was a BIT too much. She was tired. Fortunately Grandma Claudia had been able to convince them to give her some privacy. She glanced at the clock. 19:01. She still had about 2 hours to do her homework, but unfortunately she didn't have time to finish her history essay. She knew Mr. Thorne's opinion, but she couldn't help to be a bit scared to face him tomorrow. Then she heard a knock on her door, and Jeff walked in.
"I almost forgot. Marcus called about 2 hours ago and told me that he'll give you an extra week to finish your essay. He also said that he was sorry for not seeing you at the hospital." Jeff said.
Liz blinked her eyes for a moment. Did Marcus just give her 'extra time' to finish her essay? When did this happen? She shook her head slightly and said, "Thanks, dad. I'll thank him tomorrow."
Jeff nodded, and left.
Liz yawned a bit, and started to do her homework. She was finished in an hour, so it gave her some time to refresh a bit. Doctor Hills had told her that she should avoid taking a bath for about 2 days. So she decided to wash her teeth.
While she was washing her teeth, her mind had started racing. ["How come Marcus decided to give me a week more time for my essay? I mean, Carol Winters had a broken ankle, and he STILL hadn't given her extra time. Maybe you needed a near death experience to make him ease things for you?"] She mused, but then she abruptly stopped. She then looked at her stomach. ["How come I don't feel any kind of pain? I mean, even a little bit? I was SORE 2 hours ago. And now..."]
She stared back at her mirror, and just stood there for a minute. She hurriedly brushed her teeth and just stood there. Again. She took off her shirt and watched the bandaged stomach for a while. She then tentatively pushed the spot where she was shot. Nothing. No pain. Not even a slightest hint of soreness. She then started to search scissors. She knew that the doctor had said that she should keep it at least a day, but she couldn't help it. She was curious. She always has been.
She couldn't find them from the bathroom, so she went to her room. It took her about 5 minutes to find them. She walked up to the mirror she had in her room and stood there. She took a deep breath. ["God, I must be crazy if I'm even thinking about this,"] she thought. She then started to cut the bandage. It took her about 2 minutes to finish, and she took it off. What she saw, took her breath away. Or rather, what she DIDN'T saw. There was nothing, NOTHING. Her skin was flawless, no scar, no bruise, NOTHING.
Liz took a step back and collapsed on to bed. ["This isn't possible. There should be a mark, scar, something. NOT nothing. I've heard from fast recoveries, but nothing like this."] She started to rub her temples and took a deep breath. ["Ok, Liz. Calm down. It won't do you any good to lose it. I'm a Parker. We're too stubborn to become insane."] After this, she seemed to calm down a bit. Then she remembered something. It wasn't images, more like sounds. The ER. Hills' voice. The nurse's exclaim that her heart started beating, but there was something else. Something...she couldn't describe it. Like a electrical humm at the back of her head, but it had disappeared almost immediately. She then remembered something else. Grandma Claudia had said that Marcus had left the hospital almost as soon as he was sure that she was going to make it, but according to her, he didn't look like relieved. If anything, he was more concerned than he was at the waiting room.
["It could be a coincidence. Nothing more. Just a coincidence."] She told herself. Then again, she hadn't SEEN him since the shooting. Like he was avoiding her. Liz head started to ache from too much thinking. She decided to go to sleep. Because tomorrow was school day, and she would have a chance to talk to him tomorrow.
Little did Liz know that she wasn't the only one anxious for tomorrow. Because Marcus was waiting for this as well, and when Liz would reach to school, she would have a shock of her life. Literally.
TBC...
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Special thanks to angeleyes, Calinia, spaceag05, LittleBit and NewYorker18. This part is longer than part 3. So enjoy!
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Sorry, but I'm going to keep you guys in suspense about it. Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Part 4:
West Roswell High, Monday, 7:50 a.m
["Whew!! I made it."] Liz though. ["I swear, that alarm clock was deliberately trying to ensure that I'll be late from school. Thank God Grandma Claudia gave me a ride to school before she went to the reservation."] She pushed through the double doors and was greeted by a VERY hysterical Maria. "CHICA!! Oh my God, what are you doing here?!!" she practically yelled. Liz kept walking while she answered. "Maria, I'm fine. Granted, a little TOO fine for my own good, but fine. And you know what? It's bad enough that my parents are coming to me about this. If I'm fine, I SHOULD be at school." She stopped in front of her locker and started to open, all the while Maria was about to go ballistic.
"You mean to tell ME that you'd prefer being at SCHOOL than at HOME!?" she asked, clearly shocked.
"Liz, are you nuts?! You should be home!" That was Alex. He had heard Maria's ranting all across the hall, and he couldn't believe it. Sure, he knew that Liz was adamant to pass school, but this was ridiculous.
Liz rolled her eyes, exasperated. "GOD!! You two are WORSE than my parents!" she exclaimed. Clearly annoyed. She was about to grab her math book, when she was suddenly being hitted with the BIGGEST possible headache imaginable. Think of it like being hit with a sledgehammer, except from the inside, and ad as a side flavor a hit from a lightning. Her legs buggled slightly and she lost her balance. Alex was quick to balance her.
"SEE, I TOLD YOU!" Maria nearly screamed. She was about to say something else, when Liz brushed Alex off.
"I'm fine now," she said. ["Well, almost. That damn electric humm is driving me insane!"] She holded her hand on her temple, and she averted her gaze to the front door. She didn't know why, but for some reason she had to. Then she saw Marcus walk through them, and something REALLY weird happened. The electrical humm disappeared. Well, not completely. Now it was more like a soft buzz at the back of her head. She noticed something else as well. Marcus was about to go to the teacher's lounge, when he stopped dead on his tracks. He turned his gaze towards Liz, and saw the confusion written in her face.
Alex and Maria watched this with confusion. What the hell was happening? One minute, Liz is about drop on the floor and the next minute, she's standing there, looking at Mr. Thorne like he was a ghost. Then they saw Mr. Thorne disappear into the teacher's lounge and Liz seemed to pull herself together. "Are you all right?" Alex asked, concerned.
Liz nodded slightly. "Yeah, I am. I'll go talk to school nurse, just in case."
Both Maria and Alex nodded to this. They were hoping that if nurse would say Liz should go home, she would obey, but they knew better. This was Liz Parker, and when it came to school, she was a pitbull. She wouldn't leave here in the start of a school day. The bell rang. They said quick goodbyes and said that they would probably see at lunch. Liz started to walk to the direction of school nurse's office. Unbeknownst to her, someone had watched this interaction with interest. That someone was Michael Guerin, and he was curious.
He wasn't the only one who had seen this. Adam Hills had watched this interaction with even more genuine interest. He took a small book from his coat and wrote something to it. He then saw that Liz Parker was heading to the nurse's office, so he decided to leave. Fortunately, his shift didn't start until 9:00, so he had plenty of time to do some observing.
Michael walked up to Max and Isabel Evans, the only people he ever considered his family. He was deep in thought, but one thought was above everything else. ["Maxwell is gonna have a cow when he hears that Liz Parker is here. Which in itself is interesting, considering the fact that she WAS shot 2 days ago."] He was thinking about what he had seen this morning, but had brushed it off for now. At the moment he wanted to discuss about Liz's apparent recovery, and he knew that Max would blame HIM for stopping him from saving her.
He seated himself at the opposite side of the table and said, "Hey." Quite gruffly, actually, which got Isabel's attention.
"Michael, what is it with you? It wouldn't hurt to be a bit more polite sometimes," Isabel said, her face betraying nothing about her mood.
Max didn't even bother to answer, he just shot a glare at Michael and continued to eat his lunch. Or at least he tried.
"Look, it's not my fault that your brother nearly exposed us to the whole frickin' world. I don't know about you, but I don't fancy finding myself in a lab table to be opened up," Michael shot back, clearly annoyed.
Max was about to say something REALLY bad, but luckily Michael beat him to it. "Anyway, I came here to tell Maxwell that 'little Miss Scientist' is here at school."
"What!?" Max asked, definitely shocked. He had heard rumors that Liz had been allowed to go home, but he didn't even dare to imagine her to show up at school. "I hope you're not joking, 'cause it's NOT funny. She was shot 2 days ago, and you don't recover from THAT that quickly." Max said with a dangerous edge.
Michael wasn't phased by it. "I saw her at her locker with that DeLuca girl and Whitman kid." He grabbed a sandwich from Isabel's lunch basket, earning a shout from her.
Max was dumbfounded. How could she be at school already? Nobody, NOBODY recovered from a bullet wound that fast, and even if they DID, they still would be in some kind of pain. He was about to ask something from Michael, when he saw her.
Liz Parker was heading towards the table where Maria and Alex were sitting. And she seemed fine. Fine? Heck, she looked more than fine. She looked like she hadn't been shot at all. Which was impossible.
Isabel noticed this too and said to Michael. "Okay. So Liz is a quick healer, big deal."
Michael turned his head sharply towards Isabel and said, "Yea, normally I wouldn't care either, but what I saw this morning got me interested."
Both Max and Isabel looked at him and asked in unison. "What do you mean?"
Michael leaned in a bit closer. "You guys probably remember Mr. Thorne, right?"
Both of the Evans' groaned. Max from the fact that he would constantly make sure that he would get caught by him staring at Liz. Isabel groaned, because he was really hard teacher when it came to homework.
Michael said, "I take that as a 'yes'. Anyway, Liz apparently had a mighty headache, 'cause she nearly passed out." Max eyes shot wide from this. "What's weard is, that the minute Thorne walked through the front door, she seemed to get better. She was still holding her temple, but she WAS a bit better. Then Thorne did something REALLY weird. He was heading to the teacher's lounge, when he stopped and looked directly at Parker. He was standing there for a minute, then he left."
Max shook his head. "It could have been a coincidence."
Michael then turned his head towards the table where Liz and her friends were. They were deep in conversation, and it seemed that Liz's well being was the main topic. According to her exasperated look. He also saw Kyle Valenti to walk up to them and give a kiss to Liz. He turned his gaze back to Max, and saw that he was about to burst from jealousy. ["Damnit, Maxwell! You have it bad."]
"Look, you may think it is a coincidence, but I'm gonna look into it. I don't need your permission. See you later." Michael said and was about to leave, when Isabel's voice cut him short.
"You DO remember that we all have his history class after lunch?" she asked. This stopped Michael in his tracks.
He turned around and looked at her. He seemed to be considering about it. Then he said, "Yea, I do. I'll see you there." With that, he walked off.
Isabel's eyes widened. Along with Max's. Then Isabel asked from his brother, "Did he actually say that he's going to be at HISTORY class ON TIME?"
Max couldn't help but nod. "Yeah. Weird." Truth to be told, he WAS curious as well. More on to Liz's well being then anything else. He glanced at the clock and noticed that their lunch was nearly over. He started to devour his lunch as quickly as he could.
Liz was fidgeting. This was it. No turning back. She was excited and terrified, all wrapped up into one. She had a LOT of questions to her teacher, and she was hoping to get some answers. Because the whole day she had been distracted, because that damn humm had been quite loud. It hindered her concentration considerably. The class should have started about 2 minutes ago, and Mr. Thorne was nowhere in sight. Which got the whole class talking, because for the past 8 years, Mr. Thorne was NEVER late. Not even early. He was punctual and accurate like a clock, and now he was late. Just the fact that Michael Guerin had decided to show up was interesting enough as it is. THEN the humm decided to up the notch about a thousand times. It was getting so intense that she was sure it would rip her head apart. She put her hands on her temples to ease the pressure, but it didn't help.
This didn't go unnoticed. Michael noticed this. If his suspicions were right, Mr. Thorne should show up at any...
"Sorry I'm late. I had some last minute things to take care of," he said, as he appeared from the doorway. The minute he walked in, Liz focused her gaze at him. True enough, the humm subsided considerably. It was still there, like an itch she couldn't reach.
Marcus walked up to his desk and surveyed the class room. True enogh, Liz had her eyes focused on him, as he expected. He was fairly certain that she would be having questions. Plenty of them. Then he adressed her, "Ms. Parker, shouldn't you be at home?"
Liz sighed, and answered. "Sir, I feel fine. These ARE the last classes for today, aren't they?"
Marcus nodded. "True enough. I still expect you to bring me your essay next week." This earned gasps from the entire class. He then shot a glare to the others. They went quiet immediately. Then he noticed something REALLY interesting. "Mr. Guerin? What sudden urge pulled YOU finally into my class."
This statement earned some laughs from the class. Even Liz giggled a bit. Michael groaned. He shouldn't have come here. Mr. Thorne ALWAYS noticed if someone was absent, and this time wasn't an exception.
Marcus raised an eyebrow to him. "Well, since you decided to join the rest of us, hopefully you were able to write the essay." Then he slapped his forehead. "Oh, that's right. You weren't HERE when I gave that assignment, now were you?"
Michael couldn't do nothing else but agree. "No, sir."
"So it would only be fair that you would write it down till next week, wouldn't it?" Marcus kept on.
Michael nodded. "Yes, sir."
Marcus nodded. "Good. I expect both yours and Liz's essays at my desk next week. Is that understood?"
Both Liz and Michael nodded. "Yes, sir."
He then slapped his hands together. "GOOD! Now, all those who have wrote their essays as planned, you can bring them to me."
He was about to walk to his desk, when he suddenly stopped. "Oh, Ms. DeLuca. I hope that the incident at the Crashdown didn't stop you from finishing your essay?"
Maria got up with a huff and slammed the papers into his desk. Then she stalked off to her own desk.
Marcus raised an eyebrow. "I'm impressed. Now, the rest of you."
With that, students started to bring their papers to his desk. After they were done, Marcus started the lecture.
The bell rang, and the students started to file out from the room. Liz decided to linger a bit, intending to talk to Mr. Thorne. Maria noticed this and asked, "Chica, you all right?"
Liz looked up at Maria, "Yea. I just have to ask some details about the lecture."
Maria looked sceptical, but let it pass. "Ok. I'll come by tonight. Bye!" she said, and left the room.
"Bye!" Liz shouted back, just before Maria disappeared from the room. Now there were only her and Marcus. She was nervous. How would she approach him? I mean, you don't just walk up to a man and ask him, 'Hi, would you happen to be causing me this weird headache I'm having every time you're at least inside 50 feet distance?' Liz shook her head. No, she had to think something else. That choice was taken from her when Marcus spoke.
"I know you are confused, and I know that you have questions, but could you please hold your curiosity at least about an hour or so?" he said.
Liz blinked. He KNEW she had questions. Which meant only one thing. That he knew what was going on. She bit her lip for a moment. Her head was screaming her to demand answers now, but the rational part of her head wanted to wait. She was pulled out from her thoughts when Marcus spoke again. "Is there something wrong?"
Liz answered a bit too quickly. "No! I was just..." she trailed off, having no clue what to say.
Then Marcus asked, "Don't you have a shift at the Crashdown?"
Liz shook her head. "No, my dad gave the whole week off from it. Just that I would be able to recover."
Marcus snorted. "Not like you need any more recovery, now do you?"
Liz looked at him with confusion written on her face. He knew she had recovered far more quickly than she was supposed to be? ["Ok, that's it!"]
Liz decided to keep her calm, and just walked to his desk. Marcus raised an eyebrow to her, as if daring her to say something. She was about to say something, when he beat her to it. Again. "All right. What do you say that we talk about this at somewhere more private. There are still TOO many people here."
Liz was definitely dumbfounded. ["How did he do it? What, can he read thoughts or something?"] As if on que, she got her answer.
"I know what you are thinking, and no, I don't read your thoughts. Just that you're not the first one to make those questions," he said calmly. Then he said, "Let's go. We can talk about this at my apartment."
Liz's eyes opened wide. "What!? You want me to come to your HOME!?"
Marcus nodded. "Yes, if it isn't too much trouble."
Liz thought about it for a minute. She wasn't exactly going with a stranger, but now she felt this sudden urge to run and hide to someplace where she couldn't be found. She looked at Marcus' eyes and noticed that he was concerned. Of her. She bit her lip some more and then decided.
"All right. Let's go then."
Marcus nodded, took his coat from the chair and his briefcase and lead her to his car. All this time Michael had been observing them. Now he had a problem. He didn't have ANY idea where Mr. Thorne lived.
The drive from school to Marcus' home wasn't that long. Liz had taken the opportunity to watch her surroundings and noticed that her history teacher lived in very classy location. Some of the houses were quite big, more like mansions. Marcus' apartment though, was with two floors, but the only reason for that was the fact that he had a basement. It wasn't old, but not new either. When Marcus got out from the car, she realized that they had stopped. So she got out from the car as well and jogged to him.
When they got inside, Liz's jaw dropped to floor. There wasn't exactly a corridor to speak of, but the living room was breathtaking. There were paintings on the walls, a large bookshelf holding lots of books, some relatively new and some really old looking books. There was a sofa, couple of chairs and a coffee table. And really big TV as well. There were also two cabinets there. One smaller and one bigger, the bigger one seemed like a combination from two separate cabinets, and the usual stuff, like plants.
Marcus then asked, "Would you like something to drink? Though don't get your hopes up, I haven't had visitors here in the past 2 years."
"Yeah. Orange juice would be nice," she answered absentmindedly.
Marcus made his way to the kitchen, and Liz took the opportunity look at the bookshelf. There were so many books there. The most noticeable ones were from Shakespeare. She decided to look through one of them, and she picked 'Romeo and Juliet'. She took a moment to analyze it. It was worn, but still in good condition. The problem was, that it looked OLD. She decided to read it a bit, though she knew it by heart these days, being read it about a hundred times. What she saw at the index page shocked her. There was a signature and a dedication there. What the dedication said shocked her even more.
<center>'To an old friend and reliable critic, Marcus Adler. Anno 1620
William Shakespeare.'</center>
"He died about a year after he gave me that book." Liz heard Marcus say, and nearly dropped the book. He was standing there with two glasses. In his left hand was orange juice, and on the right was probably somekind of alcohol, she wasn't sure.
"Please, be careful with it," he scolded her. "It's first edition, written by the author himself." He put the glasses on the table and walked to her. He took the book from her hands and placed it back to where Liz had taken it.
Liz was about ready to faint. There was no way that the man before her would be nearly 400 years old. It wasn't possible. And now when she thought about it. ["Doesn't he seem a bit YOUNGER then he did when we came here?"] She walked to the chair and sat on it abruptly.
Marcus noticed this and walked up to her. He took the orange juice and gave it to Liz. She looked at it first, then at him.
"It's all right. It's not poisoned or anything." She took the glass from him, and he walked to the other chair. He said as an afterthought. "Not like it would have a permanent effect on you."
Liz looked at him, terrified. When she saw his eyes, she calmed a bit, and drinked some of it. It tasted good. Tropical.
Marcus was waiting, calmly. He was allowing Liz to make the first move, but even HIS patience wasn't that good. After 10 minutes of unconfortable silence, she asked. "How old are you?"
Marcus took a sip from his scotch while he pondered the question. Then he asked a question of his own. "Physically or really?"
Liz brow furrowed. ["What the hell does that mean?"] She ignored it and answered. "Both."
["Hmm. Good call."] Marcus thought. He gulped the rest of the scotch and set the glass on the table. "Physically I'm 26 years old, but I'm really about 2044 years old," he answered.
Liz's expression gave a whole new meaning to word 'shocked'. Her scientific mind was telling her that he was crazy. That there was no way that he was over 2000 years old. When she looked around the room, her eyes fell on to a painting above the TV. It was a painting of Marcus and someone else. She decided to look at the painting closer, and noticed that the other person in the painting was a woman. She had raven black hair, and was dressed quite elegantly. There was a plaque at the the bottom frame. It said.
<center>'Amanda and Marcus Williams. Anno 1697
Hendrijk Van Bols'</center>
"She is about 700 years old in that painting. I was in Holland at the time. Have to say, appearances are quite deceiving. She's about 1000 years old at the moment, if you are interested." Marcus said absentmindedly.
Liz looked at the painting again, and just couldn't fathom the idea that someone was that old. Then she was able to to ask two very important questions. She turned towards Marcus and asked. "What are you? What does this have to do with me?"
Marcus smiled slightly. He was expecting it. Took her long to find her voice, but it finally came. He gave a straight answer to both questions. "I'm Immortal, Liz. And now, ever since the day you were shot, so are you."
TBC...
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:25 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Special thanks to NewYorker18, Calinia (x3), angeleyes and spaceag05. You guys are the best. And to you too Killian. Glad you could join us.
Now here is some good news and bad news. The good news is that I'll be updating tomorrow night and sunday night. The bad news are that after that I only will be able to update one part per week. Sorry. But school is going to start next week, and I wont be having enough time to post every day. Sorry again.
Btw, () indicates translation. It's there only once, so you wouldn't have too big problems finding it.
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Liz Parker is having just a regular day at the Crashdown, when suddenly an argument between two customers gets out of hand, and she's shot. She is raced quickly to the hospital, but she dies en route. But before she is considered as a lost cause, her heart starts beating. Later on, her history teacher, Marcus Thorne, tells her that she's an Immortal. She'll be then pulled into the life of the Immortals, better known as 'The Game'. With no way out. But her apparent resurrection has raised other peoples attention as well. And Liz suddenly finds out that she isn't the only one harboring a considerably large secret. But how does Max Evans, his sister Isabel and Michael Guerin fit into this? Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Part 5:
Liz looked like a deer caught into car's headlights. Car? No, try a big frickin' truck. What Marcus had just said kept ringing in her head. Over and over again.
"I'm Immortal, Liz"
"And now..."
"...ever since the day you were shot..."
"...so are you."
She kept shaking her head. As if trying to wake up from a nightmare. She looked at Marcus, but his expression hadn't changed at all. He was hiding his emotions well, but his eyes definitely told her ALL too much. That he wasn't lying. She couldn't accept it. She just couldn't.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, no, no, no, NO!" she practically yelled the last word. "You...you're wrong. I'm not Immortal. I CAN'T be!! I mean, I'm alive!"
Marcus sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. Who was he kidding. These things NEVER were easy. Heck, even Connor MacLeod had needed convincing from Ramirez. Aw hell, even he HIMSELF had needed convincing from his own mentor.
He got up and started pacing, talking to himself. Liz was shocked once more. Because the language wasn't anything she had ever heard before.
"Hemmetti!! Miksi minä luulin että voisin vain sanoa tämän asian suoraan päin hänen kasvojaan? Tietenkin siksi, että luulit että hän ymmärtäisi mitä hänelle on tapahtunut. Mutta hän ei tajua kuolleensa. Enkä tietenkään ole vielä kertonut hänelle kaikkea. Parasta hoitaa se sitten alta pois, vai kuinka?" he scolded to himself.
("Damn it!! Why did I thought that I could just blurt this right to her face? Because you thought that she could understand what has happened to her. But she doesn't realize she died. And obviously I haven't told her everything yet. So better take care of it now, don't you think?")
Marcus stopped his pacing and looked at Liz. Her face had again given a whole new meaning to the word 'confusion'. Then he realized it. "You heard that, didn't you?"
Liz, if possible, was even more confused, but was able to nod.
Marcus shook his head. That was the FIRST time EVER when he had provided information conserning his birthplace. "I'm sorry, but I guess that I gave you too much credit. You HAVE the evidence, yet you still refuse to believe," he said to her.
Liz shook her head. "No, I don't. WHAT makes you THINK that I'm like YOU?!" she screamed. "WHAT?" she asked again.
Marcus just stood there for a moment. Letting her question to sink in. He thought about it, and then said. "The buzz."
Liz's brow furrowed. "What???" she asked, even more confused.
Marcus continued. "The buzz. That electrical humm at the back of your head. The itch you can't quite reach?" he said, indicating the back of his head.
Liz's eyes widened. She still could feel. Actually it had been there all this time. She was just so deep in emotional rollercoaster that she had forgotten about it. She rubbed the back of her head slightly, at the spot where she thought she could feel it, but it was deeper, WAY deeper feeling than that. She still couldn't believe it. She was about ask something, when Marcus answered the question she was about to ask.
"It tells to us when another Immortal is around. It's a two way thing. If you feel it, chances are high that the other one feels it too. I'm fairly certain that you REALLY felt it at this morning. When you were holding your head?" Marcus said, and raised an eyebrow.
Liz was speechles, and was only able to nod.
Marcus smiled a bit. Then said. "You really should sit down. Because it'll take a while until I've been able to explain this completely to you." He indicated the chair she had used before.
Liz nodded, and walked to the chair. All the while her brain was trying to process this. When she finally sat down, she asked. "Other Immortals?"
Marcus turned to look at her. She came out of it rather quickly. That was good. "At the moment, there are about 2000-3000 Immortals worldwide. I don't know the exact amount, and I don't have any way to count it. But it IS an estimate. And our numbers have never been below 1000," he answered.
Liz nodded, taking in what he said. She was able to think straight now, and was about to ask another question, when Marcus interrupted her. "Before you ask, would you like another drink? Something calming, maybe. How about tea?"
Liz blinked a moment, and said, "Strawberry." Marcus raised an eyebrow, and Liz shrugged. "My favourite," she answered.
Marcus nodded, and walked back to the kitchen.
5 minutes later, he came back with the tea. He gave it to her, and he walked to smaller cabinet. He opened it and took a bottle from there. He then walked back to his chair and started pouring the content of the bottle to glass. Liz took a sip from her tea, and couldn't help but sigh. The tea was amazing, and it DID have a calming effect. Now she was able to think even more clearer. She then noticed something what she had missed earlier. There was a sword hanging from its sheath near the bookshelf. She turned back to Marcus and gave a questioning look.
Marcus noticed this and answered. "I'll get into it later. It is important, but not at the moment."
Liz took a moment to think about it. Then she asked, "How did this happened? I mean, what are we? A race or just some people who have born like this?"
This was the hardest question to answer. Because even HE didn't know a complete answer. He had met Immortals who were older and wiser than he was, but even they didn't know about their origins.
So he decided to take the honest route, it always worked best. "I don't know," he answered.
Liz was clearly confused, but she couldn't ask anything, because Marcus wasn't finished.
"No one of our kind doesn't fully know WHAT we are. So far I been told, that as long as there has been humans, there has been us. From the very dawn of civilization to this very day. At first we are like humans, even age, until we change. We have wandered through out the ages, never aging, never dying and never feeling the feeling to belong somewhere. We have no permanent home. We are wonderers, always moving from one place to the other. Always taking a different identity to hide our TRUE nature," he said, taking a sip from his drink.
Liz managed to took this information in as well, although it was a lot more harder to take. That the fact that there were people out there that didn't age at all. People who would always be eternally young. ["Wait a minute!"] she thought. ["If I'M an Immortal, how come I'm looking younger then he does?"] Than she asked about it.
"Like I said before, we are like humans until we change," he said. Liz nodded to this. He then continued. "Well, you probably know a lot about different types of accidents a human being can suffer during their lifetime? The fatal ones?" Liz nodded again. "Well, the thing is, if we don't die from un-natural reasons, we grow old and die. So far I haven't met anyone that lucky. If we suffer a violent death, death that was given to us, not received, then we will change. After that, we wont age, wont get sick or even die from injuries. Ok, scratch the last one. We DO die, we just don't STAY dead."
This was a bit more harder to take in. The possibility to live forever? She took a gulp from her tea, and thanked the god from creating such a calming drink. Then she asked. "So, what you are basically telling me is this. That if I die from, say from a hit-and-run by a car, I would eventually 'resurrect'?"
Marcus nodded, but he had a sour expression in his face. She hadn't been able to put the pieces together. Then he heard a gasp, and a crash. The tea cup Liz had been holding had slipped from her fingers and dropped to floor, and it had broken. If he understood the reason for this correctly, she had put the pieces together, and THAT knowledge was the thing that made her sob. There was a tear sliding down her right cheek. She then asked, whispering. "I died that day, didn't I?"
Marcus nodded, his gaze on the floor.
Liz put her hand over her mouth and started sobbing. There were more tears falling from her cheeks. Marcus got up and started collecting the pieces of the fallen tea cup. He walked to the kitchen with them and came back a moment later with a handkerchief. He gave it to her and she accepted. He sat down on his chair and gulped his drink down. As he was pouring another one, Liz's sobs were subsiding. There were slight hiccups here and there, but she had calmed down.
"Do you want me to continue?" he asked.
Liz took a moment to take a deep breath, and nodded.
Marcus nodded, but he was depating whether to tell her the next part or not. Unfortunately he had no choice. If he wouldn't say it, she would find it out some other way, and either he or her adoptive family would be taking the blame. If he put the thought to perspective, he would gladly be in the receiving end. Before he continued, he said. "Liz, what I'm about to tell you next, will hurt you even more than what you just found out. So I'll ask again. Do you want me to continue?" When he received a nod, he continued. "Like I said before, no one knows where we come from, and as far as I can tell, not a single one of us knows their true parents, if we even have them."
Liz's brow furrowed from confusion. "What are you talking about? I have parent's. Real parent's. I've been with them my whole life."
Marcus sighed again, and took a big gulp straight from the bottle. Liz's eyes widened to this. ["That was the first time he REALLY decided to drink! But why?"] she thought. Then her eyes widened and she started shaking her head.
Marcus continued, unable to look at her. "No. The Parker's aren't your real parents. You're adopted. You, just like the rest of our kind, are a foundling. A baby who was seemingly abandonded somewhere, and no one had a clue where you were from. There was nothing that could tell the authorities about your origins. Nothing. There were no missing children reports, so that was out. No kidnappings either. Nothing. You just simply...existed. You were there."
Liz was crying openly for hearing this. Now she couldn't contain her emotions. Sadness. Hurt. Then betrayall. And finally...anger. She shot up from the chair and started yelling. "HOW THE HELL WOULD *YOU* KNOW THIS!!!?" she screamed. "HOW!? YOU ONLY CAME TO THIS SORRY EXCUSE OF A TOWN 8 YEARS AGO!! THAT WAS THE DAY WHEN I FIRST SAW YOU!! AND NOW, 8 YEARS LATER YOU TELL ME THAT MY PARENTS HAVE BEEN LYING TO ME!!? THAT I'M NOT THEIR CHILD?!! WHO THE HELL GIVES YOU THE..." but she was cut off by Marcus' outburst.
"DO YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT!?" he yelled. Liz's tirade was stopped. She had never seen him like this. He kept on. "AT LEAST YOU HAVE A FAMILY WHO LOVES YOU!! I DIDN'T!! DO YOU HAVE *ANY* IDEA WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE RAISED IN A VILLAGE 2000 YEARS AGO!!! *NO*!!! AND WHY IS THAT!? BECAUSE BACK THEN, PEOPLE WERE DOWNRIGHT HOSTILE!! I WAS BEING LOOKED LIKE A BIGGEST SCUM OF THE EARTH!! EVEN MY 'PARENTS' DIDN'T GIVE ME A SECOND THOUGHT!!! WHEN I *FINALLY* WAS ABLE TO FORM A GOOD LIFE, IT WAS TAKEN FROM ME!! ME AND MY *WIFE* WERE KILLED!! *POISONED*!!!!" he yelled, tears coming from his eyes. "I JUST *WISH* THAT I COULD FORGET IT, BUT I CAN'T!!! THE FIRST DEATH IS SOMETHING THAT EVERY IMMORTAL REMEMBERS!! FOR THE REST OF THEIR *UNNATURALLY* LONG EXISTENCE!!! SO YOU FOUND OUT THAT YOU WERE ADOPTED!? *BIG DEAL*!!!" Liz winced at this. "AT LEAST YOU *STILL* HAVE THEM!!! THEY'RE THERE, AND THEY WILL ALWAYS TREAT YOU LIKE A DAUGHTER THEY COULDN'T NEVER HAVE!!!" Marcus stopped abruptly, and turned his gaze to the floor. He had just revealed the very thing that Claudia didn't want Liz to know, but also something more. Something that would shock her even more.
Liz was stunned. She couldn't move. She couldn't think. Just a moment ago, the man she thought was always calm and peaceful, had blown up right into her face. But she was hurt. To find out that she had been lied to the whole time. What she wasn't prepared for, was even deeper pain from Marcus. Pain that surpassed her own by a thousand times. That he had lost EVERYTHING when he had died. He had nothing left when he had died. No parent's. No friends. No...
Liz started to shake. The disconfort of the situation had increased and broken through the roof. Then her mind started to work at the last sentence. ["They're there, and they will always treat you like a daughter they couldn't NEVER have?"] She then looked at him. "What do mean?" her voice breaking from her tirade before.
Marcus blinked a bit. "What?" he asked, he had seemed to be deep in thought.
"That they treated me like the daughter they could never have? What did you mean by that?" she asked, barely audiple to hear, but he heard it.
Marcus shook his head, "THAT is not my place to say. If you need to know, you have to ask from your parents," Liz winced at this, "or Claudia."
Then as a after thought, Marcus said. "Liz, you have to understand something. Just because you're not their child in flesh and blood, doesn't mean that they don't love you the same way if you would be. Or have you forgotten how overprotective your mother was when I met you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Liz nodded, and calmed down. She sat back at the chair. Marcus followed suit and sat on his chair. Then he said, "There's more."
This was it. Liz's eyes widened. "MORE!!!?" she yelled. It was already bad enough to find out that she was adopted. "I can't...this is too MUCH!" she said.
"Liz, you need to hear this. I know you are upset and probably going to overload from this, but this is the most important thing you need to hear. Because your very survival depends on it. Do you understand me?" Marcus said, worry edged on his voice.
Liz was confused, and it was starting to get to her. "I thought you said that..."
"Yes, I did say that we are Immortal, in the very sense of a word, but there is ONE way to kill us." Marcus said.
Liz's eyes widened. ["There is a way to us to die? Just ONE way to die? Even if I know this, how is THAT information relevant to my survival?"]
Marcus interrupted her thoughts. "Liz, I know what you are thinking, and BELIEVE me, this IS important. DEADLY important. So you can't interrupt me. You have to listen very, VERY closely. Now. Do. You. Understand. Me?" he said, emphasizing the last words.
What could she do? Her world had been turned upside-down and inside-out quite a few times already inside the past 2 hours. If what he was about to say was THIS important, then maybe it was something to pay CLOSE attention to. So she nodded.
Marcus took the bottle and took a gulp that emptied almost the whole bottle. He then waited for a while, just breathing there. Like steeling himself to something really important, or to her reaction. Then he continued. "Do you remember how many Immortals I said was out there at the moment?" Liz nodded. "Well, did you bother to think why there weren't any more like us out there, even when our amount is constantly building?" Liz shook her head to this. It made sense. If the Immortals came to this world as foundlings, that would mean that most of the babies found abandoned were possible Immortals, and they WOULD become one's eventually, if what Marcus had already told held true. Before she could think about it more thorougly, he continued. "Our life, the Immortal life, is called 'The Game'. It's some sick kind of a 'king of the hill' sort of thing. Except that the winner is the only one left alive. You with me so far?" he asked. Liz's eyes had widened, but she still nodded. She wished she hadn't. "The whole reason for the 'Game's' existence is 'The Prize'." He then hastily added. "Don't ask. Even *I* don't have a clue WHAT it is. Heck, even MY teacher didn't have a clue what it is. All I know is, is that whoever is the last one left alive, will gain it. This is the reason for 'The Game'." He paused for a moment, letting it sink in. Then he continued. "Now you are probably wondering how this 'Game'," he said it with a sneer, "is played?" Liz nodded. "Well, that's where the swords come in. You see, the only way to kill an Immortal, is to cut of his or her head," he emphasized his point by making a 'cut-throat' move with his thumb. Liz gulped, and instinctively put her hand on her throat. He continued. "Okay, maybe not the only one. Dropping into a pool of acid or lava kills you effectively as well. Now, the fights are always, ALWAYS, one-on-one. No ganging up. Fights are ALWAYS fought with a sword. What kind, doesn't matter. The new Immortals like you are off limits. You have to be able to defend yourself before you can be challenged. No fighting in a Holy Ground, because that is your only refuge. Indian, Christian, Buddhist, Native, doesn't matter. Any religious Holy Ground is your sanctuary and no harm will come to you in there. Always remember THAT in the future." he said sternly. Liz nodded. "Now, not ALL Immortals out there play the 'Game'. Yours truly included." he indicated to himself. "Still, there are others who play it. If not to gain the 'Prize', then for the sake of 'Quickening'."
Liz looked at him in confusion.
Marcus slapped his forehead. "Argh! Did I completely forgot THAT one!? Sheesh!" he scolded to himself. "Okay, a small mistake from my part, but easily fixed," he said to himself.
"Ok, 'The Quickening' is the very thing that grants us our Immortality. It is some unknown form of energy that has always been inside us. The 'buzz' is actually the interaction between our 'Quickenings'. The older the Immortal, the more powerful the Quickening is."
Liz nodded. If that was true, then it definitely explained the gigantic buzz she got from him. Why did she suddenly have a feeling that he was supressing it?
"When an Immortal is cut or just simply dies from something, the Quickening is the thing that will fix it. Did you get a paper cut? Worried about getting sick?Eternal youth? The Quickening regenerates your cells so fast, that your aging process is halted completely. This also explains your fast healing and inability to get sick."
Now Liz was fascinated, and this DID made some sense to her. Biology has always had been her favourite subject. Before she could start making questions about it, Marcus was moving on.
"Now, why is the Quickening so sought out? When another Immortal kills another Immortal, the Quickening is released, and absorbed by the one who was left alive. This makes that particular Immortal more stronger and better fighter, because when the person absorbs the Quickening, they gain the knowledge and fighting skills from the loser, and it also increases their time of recovery. Drastically."
Marcus took a sip from the bottle and continued. "Now, like I said before, not every Immortal out there are out to get you, or your head. Unfortunately most are, and they are called as the 'Headhunters'. Now these are the type of people whose main focus is to lop off heads, and gain Quickenings. Newbies or older, doesn't matter. All they want is your Quickening, and they will do everything they can to get it. They even cheat. Some ganging up against you or killing you BEFORE taking your head. There's one rule that even THEY don't break. 'No fighting on the Holy Ground'."
Liz couldn't help but ask, "Why?"
Marcus thought about this. "I'm not entirely sure, but my mentor told me that the last time when someone killed another Immortal on Holy Ground, Mt. Vesuvius erupted at Pompej."
Liz was dumbfounded and could only say, "Oh..."
Then Liz shook her head and asked, "Are you telling me that I have to learn to fight against other Immortals?"
Marcus nodded, and said, "And if necessary, to kill them."
Liz started to shake her head. "No. Nonononono no. I'm not doing it."
Then Marcus said something that got her thinking. "Do you then fancy yourself living as a nun in a convent for rest of your life? Which, by the way, would be a VERY long time."
Liz's jaw nearly dropped to the floor and she shouted. "NO!!"
"Then you don't have any other choice. You either go living in a convent, or learn how to fight. Considering your position, I'd say the second option is a lot more easier to accept," he said, making his point.
Liz was torn. She didn't want to learn to fight someone she didn't know. Let alone to kill them. She had to admit that living in a convent for all eternity WOULD be even MORE worse than that. Then she remembered something, and asked, "Do YOU know how to fight? I mean, you said it yourself. That you don't play the 'Game'."
Marcus' answer was NOT something Liz hoped to hear. "Yes, I know how to fight. Just because I don't play the 'Game', doesn't mean that I wouldn't be sucked into it. I have been lucky for the past 30 years. I have been able to avoid headhunters that long, and only because I decided to disappear from the face of the Earth. That doesn't mean that I haven't been PLAYED."
That last sentence hit Liz hard. If he meant it, it also meant that he (or she) wouldn't have choice in the matter. "So you're telling me that I have absolutely NO choice in the matter?"
Marcus answer was clear. "No. You don't."
Liz started pacing and pondering her options. If she wouldn't learn to fight, eventually she would be found and killed. Or she would be living in a convent for the rest of her life, which, in itself wasn't even an option. If she did learn how to fight, she would have a somewhat free life, but then she would be forced to kill someone, and that wasn't something she would be ready to accept. She kept pacing and thinking her options for about 20 LONG minutes. Then she stopped.
"Are you going to train me?" she asked.
Marcus was surprised. He HAD expected her to argue about this, but apparently an eternity in a convent had something to do about it. He just said. "Yes."
Liz nodded, turned around and asked. "Umm. I know this sounds crazy...but how does the Quickening work?"
Marcus knew what she meant. He had prepared to the possibility that she would be needing more convinsing conserning her true capabilities, but fortunately he was able to avoid it. Now though, she wanted to see it herself? Willingly? He stood up and walked to the bigger cabinet. He opened it and started to search something. Liz couldn't see what he was looking for, but then she saw a very BIG knife. The kind that Rambo had in the movies. He was holding it like he was born with it. He then looked at her and asked. "Which one?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want me to cut my own hand or your hand," he asked.
Liz did a double take hearing this, but pulled herself together and thought about it. ["If I'm truly an Immortal, it SHOULD heal pretty fast. If I'm NOT, then I don't have to do this, but...no, there's only one way to solve this completely."] "Mine," she said, extending her right hand.
Marcus nodded, and walked to her. He stood there for a moment, looking her eyes. She WAS scared, that was obvious, but there was something else in her eyes. A small glimpse of a possibility that he was wrong, and the need to prove it.
Marcus then took her extended hand to his left one. He held it that way that her palm was open. He looked to her eyes again. As if saying, 'Last chance to back off.' She held her gaze and shook her head. That was all he needed. He shifted his gaze to her palm, and brought the knife that way, that the point was slightly downward. Then there was nothing but blur, and two seconds later a large gash was formed onto her palm, blood was oozing from it.
Liz was stunned. She didn't feel a thing at first, but about ten seconds later the pain started. She grimaced and was about to pull her hand away, when she saw it. There was slight sparkle at the gash. Then another. Then there were more of them, skipping across the edges of the gash. Slowly closing it. Liz was amazed and fascinated by this. Marcus let go of her hand and went to the bathroom. Liz still stood there, transfixed by the sight in front of her. He came back with a towel and walked up to her. She hadn't removed her gaze from her hand. He took her hand and started to wipe the blood away from it. When he was finished, Liz was stunned again. There was a scar, true, but she KNEW that it had healed too fast. Then she heard Marcus cough a bit. She looked up to him.
"Liz, it's about 5 p.m. You should go back home," he said calmly.
Liz glanced quickly at the clock in the bookshelf. True enough, it WAS 5 o'clock. She had promised to Claudia to come home STRAIGHT from school, and she had turned off her cellphone to have some privacy. "Oh my GOD!! My parent's are going to KILL me!!" she exclaimed, already panicking.
Then she stopped and blinked. Then blushed. Like death was an option to her anymore.
"Yea. I think they will, but as you just realized, death isn't something that will slow you down. It IS quite late, though. Come on, I'll drive you home," he offered, but Liz shook her head.
"No. I have A LOT of stuff to think about, and I don't think that I would be able to process it if you'd drive me home. I'll walk," she said.
Marcus nodded. "Ok."
It didn't take too long to Liz to get ready, and when she was walking towards the street, Marcus, who was leaning to the doorframe, called out.
"When you are walking home, I want you to think two things."
Liz turned around and listened.
"First. When you face your parents, try to understand their decision from their point of view. You're right, they lied to you, but try to understand their reason for it, and how you would get THAT answer," he said.
Liz thought about it and nodded. Facing her parents was something she didn't want to do, even though they had been lying to her her whole life. If she could get her head cleared up, she might take the calmer route. Yeah, MIGHT.
"And the second?" she asked.
"This is a lot more harder thing to think through. Think about the concept of Immortality. Eternity. Eternal life and youth. Just think THOSE things through, and then you can understand what *I* have been through a bit better," he said.
Liz's brow furrowed to this, but she nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow at school."
Marcus smiled a bit. "That's stating the obvious, Parker."
Liz couldn't help but laugh a bit. He was right. Again. She then waved and started to head back to her home. Which was pretty long walk. 2 miles. Well, she would be having plenty of time to sort her thoughts and think about what he had said just a moment ago.
Marcus kept his gaze on Liz for a few moments, before turning back inside. He suddenly stopped. He hadn't lived over 2000 years old by being sloppy, and he had this feeling that he was being watched. When he didn't see anything suspicious, he closed the door.
From the distance, a figure emerged. ["That was close!"] he thought. If he wouldn't have hide himself, he would have been seen, and it seemed that Marcus had felt something. Nothing Immortal related, he was sure of it. No, he had felt him, and he had gotten lucky. Next time, he would find him. Because he never made the same mistake twice. Well, neither did he, and now he had to form a new way to watch over Ms. Parker when she was here. Hills took a book from his coat pocket and wrote what he had seen to it. Then he started to follow Ms. Parker. After all, she was his assignment, not Marcus.
Liz opened the back door and walked in. She then stopped when she heard noices from her home. Nancy was screaming her head off from worry, Jeff was apparently in a heated conversation with the sheriff and Grandma Claudia tried to calm Nancy, with not much of a success. Then Maria decided to walk in.
"Chica!! Where have you been?!! Your parents are going berserk and your mother nearly bit my head off when I didn't know where you were. And WHY have you turned off your cellphone?!! I tried to call you like a hundred times, but..." Maria kept on, a mixture of anger and worry in her voice, but Liz cut her off.
"Maria!!" This stopped her. "Look, as you can see, I'm fine. I just... I needed some privacy, ok? My parents were driving me insane with their worry, and there's the whole 'getting shot' thing. So I went for a walk," Liz said.
"WHAT?!!" Maria exclaimed. "Liz, you don't go for a WALK for 4 HOURS!!"
"Well, I did, and believe me, it helped." Liz said. Maria was about to make a remark, but Liz stopped her. "Look, I'll talk to you tomorrow at school, ok? 'Cause NOW I have to go to ream my parents." With that, she walked upstairs.
Maria blinked. Did Liz just brush her off? Besides, why would she need to ream her parents?
Nancy was panicking. First she had been worried. Then she had been calmed a bit when Jeff was able to convince her that nothing was wrong. When Maria had came to her shift, and told them that she hadn't seen Liz since school, she had gotten hysterical, and she had demanded answers from Maria. Unfortunatelu the poor girl didn't know anything, and Maria telling her about Liz's near fall wasn't helping any. An hour later, she was getting even more hysterical. Jeff had decided to call the sheriff, but wasn't getting anywhere. He couldn't exactly go searching for her, since she hadn't been missing for 24 hours. When Nancy had heard this, she gave Valenti a piece of her mind. Now, she was panicking and pacing, while Claudia tried to calm her down.
"Listen to me, Nancy. I'm sure she's just fine," Claudia said.
"Calm DOWN!!? CALM DOWN!!! I can't CALM DOWN! My little girl is out there, and in case you haven't forgotten, she was SHOT!" She yelled.
Fortunately Claudia wasn't panicking, but it didn't mean she should be over-reacting. "Yes, I remember, but she seemed perfectly fine in the morning."
"She can't be 'perfectly fine'. She was SHOT!" Nancy yelled.
Claudia sighed. Even though Nancy was right about what had happened to Liz, she didn't remember that Liz would have went to school anyway. Even if she would have been late.
"Mom?"
Everyone in the room stopped and turned towards the sound. Nancy exclaimed and ran to hug her daughter. Jeff finished his phone call with Valenti, and walked up to his wife and daughter. Claudia was just standing there, with a smile on her face. She always knew that Liz was stronger then others gave her credit for. Still, she would be lying if she'd say that she wasn't concerned. After what Maria had told them about her dizzy spell at school, she had started to reconsider her decision to take her to school.
"Where have you been?!" Nancy asked, rather forcefully.
When Liz looked at her, Nancy had to take a step back. Her eyes held a glare of accusation. Betrayal.
Claudia noticed this as well. "Liz?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" she said.
"Tell you what?" Jeff asked, confused.
Liz closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She had done what Marcus asked. She had thought about the possible reasons why her parents had been lying to her, but the whole Immortality just kept pushing back into her mind. She had managed to get some options to her head, until Maria interrupted her, and when she walked in, she wasn't thinking straight. Now, she was able to stop herself from yelling.
"Why. Didn't. You. Tell. Me. That. I. Was. Adopted," she said, emphasizing to every word.
Jeff and Nancy paled when they heard it. Claudias eyes got wide. This was something they didn't expect to hear. More like an explanation to her where abouts. Or even some form of an argument, but this?
Nancy seemed to be able to find her voice. "Honey? Who...where did you hear this?"
Liz took a moment to study her family. Jeff looked conserned and confused. Nancy looked like to be ready to faint. Claudia...well, she was thinking. You could tell. Her gaze was focused on Liz. Liz sighed and tugged a piece of her hair behind her ear. Then she said, "I was talking with Marcus at school, and...he...um, he mentioned something about...that..." there was a tear sliding on her cheek, "God, he said that you were scared to lose the only daughter you could ever have!" she finally said. "Mom, what did he mean by that?! Why did he say that when Claudia had found me that you were finally able to have a family?!"
Nancy's legs buckled a bit, and she fould have lost her balance if it weren't for Jeff. Jeff guided her to the sofa and seated next to her. Claudia on the other hand, she had a revelation. She HAD mentioned about it to Marcus, and yes, she even had said that Liz was a foundling. She couldn't figure out how he could have let something like this slip. She shook her head a bit and walked to her. "Honey, I think you should calm down a bit."
Liz looked at her Grandmother and sighed. She didn't mean to burst out like that. She walked to her mother and kneeled infront of her. "Mom, please. Don't lie to me. Don't tell me that my whole life has been a lie."
Nancy was shocked. "Elizabeth, I...we...the reason we didn't tell you that you were adopted, was because we thought that you would want to find them. And... God, Liz. You were abandoned into a dumpster. We didn't tell you, because we didn't want you to find parents who could abandon their child like a burden," she said, her voice breaking a bit.
Liz said, "Mom. I wouldn't have done that. I mean, sure, it would have hurt to find out that you weren't my real parent's, but you ARE the only parents I have. Besides, I never thought otherwise. You were so protective towards me. Like a real mother should be."
Nancy smiled at this. So did Jeff. They had dreaded the possibility that Liz would hate them for what they had done. Claudia had said to them that to Liz, they were her real parents, and nothing would change that. Sure, she would be hurt, but lies always hurt. Claudia decided to sit next to Nancy and said, "I think we all cleared something here today, don't you think?"
They all nodded in agreement, but Liz had one question left. "Mom. I still need to know what Marcus meant. About that you would loose the only daughter you could ever have."
Nancy looked at Jeff. They both were worried what to do. Could they tell her? But as Claudia had made her mind already and asked, "Do you want to know?"
Liz nodded.
Claudia glanced at her son and ordered without words to tell his daughter. Jeff nodded. "Well, the reason we were worried to lose you, was because we can't never have another child."
Liz closed her bedroom door. When she had thought that her life couldn't get turned over its axis again, she didn't know how wrong she was. She had HAD a brother. A brother who never had the chance to experience life. He had died to a miscarriage, and after that Nancy was completely unable to have children of her own. So they had decided to move to Roswell, and there, Claudia had found her. Abandoned in a dumpster. If she wouldn't have had her conversation with Marcus before she talked with her parent's, she wouldn't have believed that, but now...she couldn't help but wonder if it was more like a divine intervention. To give Jeff and Nancy a child they wanted so badly, and loving parents to a new Immortal. Liz smiled at the thought. Marcus was right. She was lucky. Before she had went to her room, Claudia had stopped her briefly and asked if there was more to it. Because she knew Marcus, and she knew he wouldn't let something like that slip THAT easily. Unfortunately, Liz was forced to lie, and said that she didn't know.
Now when an old lie was cleared off the table, there was a whole new one. She wasn't ready to tell them that they indeed HAD lost their daughter that day, in a sense of a word. She was changed. She glanced her right hand, and noticed that the scar of the cut had disappeared. There was nothing.
Her mind was racing too fast at the moment, so she went to her balcony. She sat down to the lawn chair and gazed the stars. Her mind drifted to what Marcus had said. ["The concept of Immortality."] she thought. When she thought about it, she would live forever. Marcus had seen almost half of the entire history of mankind. She would be able to see the future. Probably even able to travel to other planets. ["The future?"] Then her eyes widened. SHE would live forever. Never aging. Never dying. Her parents wouldn't. Her friends wouldn't. Alex and Maria. They would grow old and die. She wouldn't.
Now she realized why Marcus had asked her to thought about Immortality. It was both blessing and a curse. Every one who she had ever met would eventually die.
She sighed. Marcus had lived over 2000 years, and he had probably made mortal friends in that time. They all had died eventually. Liz couldn't help but to cry at the thought.
She was there about 20 minutes, until she came to her senses. She had hoped that she would have really died during the shooting. She looked at the table besides the chair, and noticed her diary. She kept her gaze in it for a while. She then took it and a pen. She opened it, and started writing.
'It's September 22nd. My name is Liz Parker. And I died two days ago. But do you know what is the most ironic thing about it? That after that day, I finally came to life.'
TBC...
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:29 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Special thanks to Corialjay. Here's part 6. Enjoy.
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Liz Parker is having just a regular day at the Crashdown, when suddenly an argument between two customers gets out of hand, and she's shot. She is raced quickly to the hospital, but she dies en route. But before she is considered as a lost cause, her heart starts beating. Later on, her history teacher, Marcus Thorne, tells her that she's an Immortal. She'll be then pulled into the life of the Immortals, better known as 'The Game'. With no way out. But her apparent resurrection has raised other peoples attention as well. And Liz suddenly finds out that she isn't the only one harboring a considerably large secret. But how does Max Evans, his sister Isabel and Michael Guerin fit into this? Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Part 6:
Parker Household, Tuesday, 21:20, Balcony
'It's September 23rd. My name is Liz Parker, and I'm an Immortal. What is an Immortal? Well, that's an interesting question. I don't know. Well, not completely. Well, I'll try to answer as best as I can. It seems that Immortals are people who have a REALLY long lifespan, emphasizing the word LONG. Like Eternity. Three days ago, I died. You see, that's how it works. Immortals usually live a normal, mortal life. Until they are killed. Whether by accident or murder. Then they can't die. Well, they (and I) CAN die, they just don't stay dead. I know. Weird, huh? Yes, you guessed it. When I died, I became an Immortal. Now, I don't age, don't get sick or even get scarred. It's an interesting feeling. I would be lying if I'd say that I wasn't excited. Because I'll be able to see things that I thought I wouldn't live long enough to see. Last night, I found out something else. Marcus had asked me to think about the concept of Immortality. To REALLY think about it. Then I realized something. I would live an eternal life, true, but everyone I know, my parents, Claudia, Maria, Alex, Kyle and god, even Pam Troy, they wouldn't. They are mortals, and they will eventually grow old and die. So here I am, able to live on, when they just...die. I think this is what Marcus wanted me to realize. That Immortality is both a blessing and a curse. I will live on, able to see things that other can't, but at the same time, everyone I have ever cared about, or even known, will die. To old age, a disease, accident or...no, that's an option I DON'T want to think about.
Well, Marcus is an exception. He's an Immortal too, you know. A REALLY old Immortal. I'm not talking over 100 years. No, sirree. No, he's over 2000 years old! I know! And he doesn't look day over 26! He told me that Immortals will maintain the youth from their First Death. So that means, that I'll be 16 years old quite a LONG time. Now when I think about it, I think it'll seriously prevent me from entering a bar or some other 'adult' place. I mean, I'm 5'1". And to everyone else, I'm always going to be under 18. Which I am, actually. Ugh! I'm getting a headache.
Well, if that isn't bad enough, there are about over 2000 Immortals out there, and most of them, according to Marcus, are decent people. Most of them aren't, though. You see, Immortals play this 'Game'. It's somekind of a 'Last man standing' thing, where the last Immortal alive wins something called 'The Prize'. Don't ask me what it is. Even Marcus doesn't know. Even the Immortals who WANT it don't know what it is. Marcus thinks that they are more after other Immortals 'Quickening'. It's the thing that grants us our Immortality. It heals us, protects us from diseases and brings us back to life when we 'die'. Now you are probably wondering how we can die if we are Immortals. Well, there IS one way to kill us. By decaputation. I know! It's sick to even think about it. When you really think about it, it makes sense. How do you live without a head? Even if you ARE an Immortal. Well, anyway, when Immortal kills another Immortal, the one who dies, loses his/hers Quickening, and the Immortal who stands there, absorbs it in. This makes them stronger and they actually gain the opponents fighting skills along with it. I asked more about it today, and he told me that it can be really addictive if you can't control it. The more older the Immortal, the more powerful the Quickening is. So that explains a bit more the reasons why 'headhunters' are after our heads. Yea, headhunters. That's what they are called, and it fits. Kinda.
Like every game, even this one has rules. Fights are one-on-one. With swords, nothing else. Or probably anything that can be used to cut peoples heads, Marcus was pretty vague about it. No ganging up. Which is a rule that most headhunters LOVE to break. At least according to Marcus. New Immortals like me are off limits. Basically because we can't defend ourselves. The last but DEFINITELY not least. No fighting on Holy Ground. And I mean ANY kind of Holy Ground. Christian, Buddhist, Indian, you name it. THIS is the rule even the headhunters don't break. Probably because last time something like that happened, the Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompej. So that's the reason.
So now I have to learn to fight against headhunters, who just want to kill me because of the Quickening, and Marcus is going to teach me. True, I could avoid it by living in a convent, but I don't fancy myself living there for like - oh, i don't know - ETERNITY. You agree? Good.
So, I'm going to be teached to fight with a sword, which itself is pretty wild. I mean, can you picture ME with a SWORD? Yeah, I know. Crazy. Unfortunately I don't have a choise. If I don't do this, it's either death or convent. And believe me, neither of the options is good. So I live and fight. I just hope that I can live as good life as Marcus has. Or better. He told me some seriously disturbing things about his life today.
When I talked with him, he told me that I should keep a separate diary conserning my Immortality. I can't help but to agree. If the wrong people would find out about us, it would become a world wide witch-hunt, and after what Marcus told me about Salem Witch Trials, I'll do everything I can to keep this diary hidden. Only to be seen by me, and no one else. It's getting late. I better go. I have things to do tomorrow. Go to school, then to train with Marcus, talk to Claudia and Maria, do homework AND find a time to shower. Which is something I'm going to do NOW.'
With that, Liz closed her diary and she walked back into her room. She pulled a loose brick off from the wall. Just above her bed. She put the diary there and put the brick back in its place. After that, she went to bathroom. Her mind wondered back to today's events.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
West Roswell High, Tuesday, 7:30 a.m
Maria and Liz had arrived to school just a moment ago, but the drive there had been really unconfortable. Both were silent, and neither of them was inclined to speak first. So there was silence. Liz was still deep in thought about her Immortality, and Maria was still mad at Liz for brushing her off. They were both at Liz's locker when Alex walked in.
"Hello, my beautiful ladies. It's such a good morning now, isn't it?" he asked, then said. "Ok. I sense a bit of hostility in the air."
Maria was still ignoring Liz, and she wasn't making things any easier. She had talked with her parents a long while before Maria had come to take her to school. Liz needed to do it. She wanted them to understand that they were still her parents. Problem was, that she didn't have a clue how much time she would have left with them. Something could happen. There just were too many ways for her to lose them. So she decided to make the best out of this with the only way she could. By talking to them, and it helped. Still, spending time with her parents was completely different then spending your time with friends. Friends who you have known the better part of your life. Because they WOULD know that something was wrong, and that lead to questions. Questions she couldn't answer. Not yet. But little did Liz know, that THAT choice was never in her hands to begin with. And she would find THAT out pretty soon.
Maria huffed and stormed to her locker, fed up with the silent treatment. Alex looked after her for a minute, then turned to look at Liz. She was still taking books from her locker. Alex frowned. Something was off. "Did I miss something here?" he asked.
Liz glanced back at Alex, and could see his worry. She just wished that she could tell him, but she couldn't. "I'm sorry, Alex. Maria is feeling bad when I brushed her off yesterday."
Alex raised his hands and said, "Woah there, Parker! Don't tell me that you ignored Maria?"
Liz nodded sadly.
Now Alex understood Maria's mood. Heck, she had given HIM a silent treatment that lasted a WEEK when he had ignored her, and that was when she had ranted about how she had scraped her knee. It was petty, Alex knew that, but the DeLucas always had to be the biggest drama queens, and Maria wasn't exception. "You DO realize that you have to apologize from her?" Alex asked.
Liz nodded again, knowing all TOO well Maria's temper, but she couldn't help it. She had more pressing matters to deal with then. Then she had an epiphany. Maybe she could let them in on one small fact. Nothing that would reveal her Immortality, but something that forced her to ignore Maria.
"Look, Alex. Why don't you try to talk and try to convince her to talk to me at lunch break?" Liz pleaded.
Alex nodded, "Sure, I can do that. I just hope that she doesn't start ranting about how selfish you are." Alex said, rolling his eyes.
Liz smiled. "It's more like a certainty. Look, I'll tell you both what was bugging me then, but I CAN'T do that if she isn't around."
Alex re-assured her, "Hey. I said I'd do it. It just might take a while. Look, I better go. My class is about to start."
Liz nodded. "Okay. See you at lunch."
Alex gave Liz a quick hug and started to make his way to his class. Liz thanked the stars for that, because the buzz decided to hit her then. She wasn't exactly prepared for it, so she grimaced a bit. It wasn't as bad now as it was yesterday. She could deal with it. She looked behind her, and true enough, Marcus was there. He nodded his greeting to her, and called the attention of another teacher. Then he walked off. Liz closed her locker and headed towards bio, her favourite class. She just hoped that Max Evans was able to concentrate on the class. Hey, you can always hope. Right?
Liz walked to the class room just in time before the bell rang. Most of the students were already there. But Max wasn't there. ["That's odd."] Liz thought. ["He's usually the first one here."] She brushed it off and took her seat. Miss Hardy walked in just a few moments later, with the rest of the students behind her. She then started the name call, and true enough, Max still hadn't shown up. Now Liz was beyound confused. She didn't focus on it, because the class started. Today they were studying the difference between human cells and plant cells. Miss Hardy gave each a toothpick and told them to take a cell sample from their cheek. Liz did this and placed it under her microscope. What she saw surprised her. Her cells LOOKED normal, but there was a slight electrical glow in them, and it was beginning to fade. Liz looked up from her microscope, and then around the class. Everyone were busy with their own assignment, so they hadn't noticed a thing. Liz looked at the cells again, only to discover that they looked normal. Her brow furrowed, but decided to go onward with the study. She knew that she had to talk to Marcus. He probably knew a lot more about this stuff then she did. She glanced at the clock. The class would be over soon. Then she would have math, and home room after that. Making up her mind, she decided to skip the home room and just go and talk to Marcus. Fortunately for her, Marcus didn't have classes before lunch.
She still couldn't help but wonder where Max was. For some reason, he never missed bio, even though he clearly hated it. Liz had a somewhat clear idea why he always was there, and that was her.
Michael was telling Max what he had seen yesterday, but Max wasn't exactly in a receptive mood. He had two reasons for it. One, he was going to be late. From bio. From seeing Liz. Second, Michael didn't exactly KNOW anything new.
"So you are telling me that before Marcus walked in to class, Liz was having the same kind of headache?" he asked.
Michael rolled his eyes. What had he just said? "Damn it, Maxwell!! Don't you get it? Something is going on, and that could be connected to us!" he exclaimed.
Max shook his head. "If it would have something to do with us, don't you think that WE would be feeling the same thing?" he asked.
Michael scratched his head. He hadn't thought about it. Then he said. "Then why did Liz go with him?"
Max raised his eyebrow. "You're asking me? I thought that you followed them?" Although he didn't like it one bit.
Michael raised his voice. "Well, it's not like I had a CAR! Besides, I don't have a clue where that guy lives!" He looked around and asked, "Where's Isabel?"
Max shot him a look. "She's at SCHOOL, Michael. Where WE were supposed to be."
Michael groaned. Isabel may have to be holding the same secret like they did, but she still wasn't iclined to hinder her academic life. Michael then said, "Look. I'll go snooping around and try to find out where Mr. Thorne lives. Then at LEAST I have a chance to find out what's going on."
Max didn't like it. Michael was being too paranoid. If this had nothing to do with them, it could blow their cover as surely as it would have been that day at the Crashdown. "Michael, you do realize that you are endangering us?" he asked.
Michael glared at Max. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Max continued. "You said it yourself, we can't bring attention to us, and THAT'S what you are doing at the moment. You stopped me from helping Liz that day, now I'll try to make sure that YOU don't blow our cover."
Michael glared at Max for a moment. Unlike Max, Michael knew what he was doing, and their cover would be safe. "Look, Maxwell. Unlike you, my head is on the level. Now let's go." He stalked to the jeep.
Max shook his head, but reclined.
Overconfidence is always a very bad thing, and Michael might believe that he was good at snooping around, when in truth, he was like a elephant in a porcelain shop. He was now trying to spy on a man who had been avoiding spies a million times more skilled then he was.
Marcus was bored. He always hated Tuesday mornings. No classes until lunch. Usually he didn't bother to show up here before his classes, but his main concern at the moment was Liz. Considering her body language, she was worried about something. If he could help in any way, he would. After Liz had left, he had made some phone calls. Trying to find a place where he could train her without raising too much suspicion. His own gym at the basement was the best possibility, but his home was too far away from Crashdown, and it would definitely raise questions why he would be always dropping Liz off, and he had no idea what Liz had talked with her parents about, and what she had promised them. He was reading a letter he had received this morning. Heh. You could always count on him to make a sudden appearance, and the general public of Roswell wouldn't know about it until two days before.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door. He turned and saw Liz standing there. ["Didn't she have home room?"]
"Can we talk?" she asked.
He nodded. "Sure, but we should go to someplace where we are not interrupted. The football field should be empty at the moment," he suggested.
"That'll do." Liz answered.
Marcus got up and put the letter into his briefcase, and then they headed to the field.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Marcus asked, getting straight to the point.
"What do you know about the Quickening?" Liz asked.
Marcus glanced back at her and answered, "To tell you the truth, not much. The same thing I told you. Why?"
Liz bit her lip. The she said, "We had this assignment at the bio, about the difference with human and plant cells. Well, we had to take a cell sample from our cheek."
Marcus nodded, listening with interest. "And?"
"Well, I took the sample and looked at it with the microscope, and I saw something." Liz continued.
Marcus' brow furrowed. "What did you see?"
"The cells had somekind of a electrical glow in them. It was getting dimmer and dimmer. I looked the cells again about half a minute later, and noticed that it was gone. I think it was the Quickening's energy that I saw," she said.
Marcus thought it over. Then he said. "As I told you, the Quickening is inside us. In every single cell we have. When we get injured, the Quickening then focuses on that particular spot and starts to repair the damage. The more powerful the Quickening, the faster the process is. I think that what you saw, was the Quickening stored on the cells, but when you separated the cells from your body, you caused a miniaturized effect of an Immortal's death. The Quickening didn't have a place to go, so it probably returned back to you and since the amount was so ridiculously small, you didn't notice anything different." Then he stopped, "Did anyone else see this?"
Liz shook her head. "No. Max was absent from the class, so he couldn't see it, and Miss Hardy was helping out Pam Troy." Liz thought over what Marcus had told her, and decided to look into it deeper.
Marcus nodded. "Good." Then he noticed her biting her lip. "Anything else?"
Liz sharply turned towards Marcus.
Marcus chuckled a bit. "You are biting your lip. You do that only when there's something bugging you. Now what is it?"
Liz sighed. "I want to tell my friends," she said.
Marcus looked her. "Let's go sit over there," he said, gesturing the bleachers.
Once they were seated, Marcus asked. "Do you trust them?"
Liz shot a look at him. "Of course I do!"
"Then why did you tell me?" he said.
Liz blinked.
Marcus sighed. "Liz. Normally I would have told you 'no', but you know them a lot better than I do. Well, Alex anyway. Ms. DeLuca on the other hand...even I know what kind of a drama queen she is. Do you honestly think that she would take it well?" he asked.
Liz thought about it. Truth be told, Maria always over-reacted to almost everything imaginable, and information like THIS would definitely get her freaked. Even that word is an understatement. Alex would probably take it a bit better, but he would think that she was crazy. Then she would be forced to prove it, and after that...well...she didn't know.
"You see, you COULD tell them, but if you think that they wouldn't take it well, in the end, you're the one that suffers. Best case scenario, they still would be your friends. Worst case scenario, well, I don't think I have to go there, now do I?" Marcus said.
Liz gave him a questioning look. "Sounds like you speak from experience."
Marcus sighed. "I am."
"What happened?"
"Do you remember Salem Witch Trials?" Marcus asked.
Liz nodded.
"Let's just say that I told someone I trusted and was put through the water test."
~*Flashback*~
Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
He looked around. The woman he loved was standing there, hatred edged on her features. Everyone he knew was there, ready to see if he passed the water test. The magistrate was standing behind him. The priest was praying for his soul. He snorted. ["What a bunch of crap!"] The judges assistant was tying a rock onto his leg. When he was finished, he checked his bindings. They held. Then his head was hooded.
"...in the name of the Father, the Spirit, and the Holy Ghost. Amen." The priest had finished his prayer. The judge gave the order.
He was pushed to the water, and he sinked. He reached the bottom of the lake rather quickly. He started to tug his bindings and he was able to remove them. One of the perks of Immortality. Drowning wasn't an option. He had found out that he was able to breath underwater a long time ago, and now that knowledge paid off. The water was freezing, and he would freeze to death if he stayed there too long. He removed the hood and glanced to the surface. There was no one there. He had passed the test, and he was deemed pure. He snorted again, which sounded rather ridicuolous underwater. He knew that if he would show up, he would be burned at the stake, and that was an experience he DIDN'T want to go through.
He grabbed the weight and made his way to the shore. Lucky for him, it was late, and no one was walking around at night in this town with all the 'forces of darkness' out there. He dropped the rock and he opened his bindings. Then he made his way to his home. He knew that the looters would come in tomorrow, but not before. He took his sword, some clothes and his money. He saddled his horse and left. Never looking back.
~*End flashback*~
Liz was pale after hearing this. "So you drowned?" she asked.
Marcus laughed. "No. Immortals don't drown. I WAS freezing my ass off in there, though."
Liz's brow furrowed.
Marcus looked at her and answered. "Quickening."
Liz slapped her forehead. ["God! The Quickening is in EVERY cell in our body. Which also include lungs. Which means that the energy breaks water into oxygen and hydrogen. Which means air, and ability to breath underwater."]
Marcus chuckled at this. "Don't feel so bad about it. Even I didn't understand it until electricity was invented."
He glanced at his clock and noticed that it was almost lunchtime. "Liz, what I just said doesn't necessarily mean that your friends would betray you. In the end, it's your call. All I ask is that you think your decision thoroughly."
Liz nodded, and she started to make her way to the quad.
Alex was worried. Maria had made it VERY clear why she didn't want to talk to Liz, but fortunately he was able to reason with her. Which wasn't easy when 'Hurricane DeLuca' was ready to release her rage on him. He still made it. He just hoped that Liz had a good reason to brush her off. Otherwise Maria would release her fury on her completely, and nothing would stop it.
Maria was getting impatient. "Ok. Where is she?"
Alex frowned. "Maria, you asked the same question 20 seconds ago. She'll be here."
Then he noticed Liz walking to them. She was obviously thinking about something important since she was biting her lip. A quirk both Alex and Maria were familiar with. Maria seemed to calm down a bit. Liz seated next to Alex, because she wasn't ready to face 'DeLuca rage' yet.
Maria, lacking tact at the moment, said. "So, could Miss All-high-and-Mighty finally tell us what has been bucking her?"
Liz winced at Maria's tone. Sure, she had been harsh yesterday, but not even nearly as harsh as Maria was at the moment. She knew that Maria always gave ten times more then she got, but now Liz wasn't in the mood. "Maria. I came here to tell you the reason why I was so rude to you yesterday, but obviously you don't care about it. So could you PLEASE drop the drama act," she said, rather forcefully.
Maria stared her for a moment. Then reclined. "I'm sorry, chica, but you have to admit it yourself, you were harsh to me."
Liz snorted. "Yes, I know. That still doesn't give you the right to slam it into my face with ten times more force," she said.
Alex, ever the voice of reason, intervened. "Look, both of you. This isn't helping. Liz, we're worried, and you said that you would tell us your reason for your behaviour yesterday. So could you please just tell us, so we could get this over with?"
Liz looked Alex for a second, then nodded. Maria apparently was calmed down a bit too, because she waited there.
"All right. First of all, I just want to say that I'm sorry, Maria. I didn't mean to brush you off, but I had just found out something that was taking my full attention then," Liz said.
Maria softened a bit, and said. "I'm sorry too, Chica. I was just hurt, and you were right, I did make a big deal out of it and shot it back at your face. What was it that got into you that badly?"
["Where to begin? The fact that I died and resurrected? The fact that my history teacher is 2000+ years old Immortal? Or that I'm one too? That I'm forced to learn to fight with a sword?"] she thought. Then she said. "I had just found that I was adopted."
Both Maria and Alex dropped their jaws. "Chica, are you serious?"
Liz nodded. "I confronted my parents after I had...well, you know." Maria nodded, but then she said. "Chica, I have seen your baby pictures. How could you be..." but Liz cut her off.
"They said that I had been abandoned as a baby. Grandma Claudia had found me hidden in the café dumpster." Maria gasped and Alex took her hand into his. "They also told me that I had had a brother."
"A brother?!!" Both Alex and Maria said.
Liz tugged her hair behind her ear. "Yeah. My mom had had a miscarriage and he didn't survive. After that she wasn't able to have children of her own."
There was a tear sliding down her cheek and she wiped it away. Maria then walked to her and hugged her. "I'm so sorry, Chica. I shouldn't have snapped at you."
Alex joined in the hug and they were there for a while.
From the distance, Marcus kept an eye on them. He figured that Liz had decided not to tell them about her new development. She had obviously told them something, and by the looks of it, it had something to do with her adoption. Marcus sighed and walked off from the quad. He had a class to prepare for.
About a block away from West Roswell High, same time
Adam Hills put the binoculars away and started writing in his book. He was able to read from lips - part of training - but unfortunately couldn't read the whole conversation. Just enough to understand that the conversation didn't have anything to do with Immortals. He then looked back at the quad and noticed that they were making a small talk. All the while they were eating. He then glanced at his clock. The lunch would be over soon, and so would be his break. He had to hurry back to the hospital. Before he did, he noticed something interesting.
There was a blonde woman making her way towards the school. He glanced at her with his binoculars. She was talking to the principal and found out her name. ["Kathleen Topolski. Hm."] He glanced at the car she had used and noticed it had Washington plates. He wrote it down and decided to make some calls. He had a bad feeling about this, but he knew he couldn't interfere. He was a Watcher. And Watchers never interfered into Immortals life. No matter what.
TBC...
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:30 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Special thanks to MsSilvermucki. I hope you continue to read my fic. Here's part 7. Enjoy. Unfortunately next part won't be posted untill next thursday. Sorry.
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Liz Parker is having just a regular day at the Crashdown, when suddenly an argument between two customers gets out of hand, and she's shot. She is raced quickly to the hospital, but she dies en route. But before she is considered as a lost cause, her heart starts beating. Later on, her history teacher, Marcus Thorne, tells her that she's an Immortal. She'll be then pulled into the life of the Immortals, better known as 'The Game'. With no way out. But her apparent resurrection has raised other peoples attention as well. And Liz suddenly finds out that she isn't the only one harboring a considerably large secret. But how does Max Evans, his sister Isabel and Michael Guerin fit into this? Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
Part 7:
Parker Household, Tuesday, 21:40 p.m, Bathroom
Liz was in the bathroom, getting ready to shower. The last time she had taken one was Friday night, and THAT was 4 days ago. She felt filthy. She was amazed that Maria hadn't commented on her hygiene. She started to take of her clothes, when a though crossed her mind. She glanced the bath tub. She had always found it calming to take a bath. Now, she hadn't had the time. She played back what Marcus had said at the bleachers. That Immortals couldn't drown. The idea itself was...intriguing. She had always dipped her head below the water level during a bath. As long as her breath held, that is, but now...
She started to fill the bath tub with warm water. Then she stripped the rest of her clothes. By the time she was finished, the bath tub had enough water. Before she would proceed with her idea, she needed to test it. She couldn't just dip in there immediately, in case it backfired. So she kneeled beside the tub. ["Ok. I can do this. If what Marcus said was correct, I should be able to breath normally. If not, then all I start to do, is cough. That option sounds a bit more appealing than choking to water when I'm IN the tub."] With that, she took a deep breath, and exhaled. Then she dipped her head into the water. She instictively held her breath, but still prevented herself from pulling her away from there. Then, she took a breath. Nothing. She opened her eyes. She breathed normally. She could breath, albeit the sensation was...interesting. Like breathing warm air. She pulled her head away from the water. She took few deep breaths. Then she smiled. ["That was fun."] With that, she dipped into the tub. She sighed. She felt like it had been eternity from the last time she had taken a bath. Then she realized something. If she did this, she needed a way to know when to come out. Otherwise her parents would be barging in. And if they found her underwater... Boy, that was something she didn't want to think about. She looked over the tub to her clothes. If she remembered correctly, her cell was in her room. "Grandma Claudia!" she called.
Few moments later, Claudia opened the door. "Yes, dear?"
"Could you bring my cellphone. Or you could bring my alarm clock," Liz said.
Claudia's brow furrowed. Then she realized it. "You are going to fall asleep here again, are you?"
Liz smiled sheepishly. She had been doing that quite often. Her parents were concerned about it, so they had told her to keep an alarm clock to wake her up. She had agreed.
Claudia nodded. "Give me a minute."
Few moments later she came back with the alarm clock. Liz took it and thanked her. When Claudia was about to leave, Liz stopped her. "Grandma?"
Claudia turned around. She could see worry etched on her grandchilds beautiful face, and she was biting her lip. A clear sign that something was bothering her, and Claudia had a good idea what it was. "Liz, you don't need to say anything if you don't want to. You'll tell me what's wrong when you are ready. I have time."
Liz looked her grandmother into the eyes, and said, "But that's the thing, Grandma. Time is a luxury *I* don't have." Then she winced. THAT didn't come out right. "What I'm saying is, that the shooting got me thinking. And...I don't want to lose you."
Claudia couldn't believe what she was hearing. Liz was worried of losing HER. She walked up to her and kneeled next to the tub. "Liz, you know I won't be with you anymore someday, but I WILL be here tomorrow. And next week. But I'm still HERE. I'll always be in your heart as long as you don't forget me."
Liz started sobbing a bit. Then she reached out and hugged her. Claudia held her there for a minute, letting Liz's sobs subside. Liz pulled away and swept her tears away. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't be, dear. You have just gone through a really dramatic experience, and the fact that we never told you about your adoption didn't help any. It's a good thing you let me know what has been aching your consious." Claudia said.
Liz nodded slightly. She had removed a small load from her heart, but not all of it. She said good night to Claudia, who said her own as well, and started to leave. Before she went, she said, "Just don't sleep here all night, you hear. Last thing I want you to get is pneumonia."
Liz laughed a bit, but Claudia's stern look told her that it wasn't a joke. Liz raised her right hand and said, "Cross my heart and hope to die."
Claudia nodded and left the bathroom. Liz leaned back into the tub. She wanted to tell her so badly, but she couldn't bear herself to do it. She WAS fairly sure that she wouldn't be able to get a pneumonia. Then again, cold water WAS cold, so it was possible. She took the alarm clock and set it to ring in the next 30 minutes. She placed it as near the tub as possible so she could hear it underwater. With that done, she dipped below the water and sighed. It gave her a whole new meaning of serenity. Before her Immortality, she couldn't really enjoy it. Now, she was more calm, at peace, than ever before. She found herself getting drowsy. She closed her eyes, all the while breathing calmly. Her subconsious started to work through rest of the events that day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
West Roswell High, Tuesday, 11:30 a.m, Principals office
Michael Guerin sneaked in. He had been lucky so far. Fortunately principal was busy with a substitute teacher to Mr. Singer. ["Not my concern. I hate geometry,"] he thought. He cursed under his breath. It was bad enough that Mr. Thorne had given him the essay assignment. Michael knew all TOO well that he couldn't copy some else's essay. Last person who did that was forced to go through the WHOLE history class again, and that idea didn't sound appealing. Then he exclaimed. "Jackpot!" He had found the teachers personal files. He finally found Mr. Thornes file. He started to browse through it. ["Hmm. Not much."] Then his face brightened. ["YES!! His home address."] He took a piece of paper and wrote it down. He then glanced at the clock. He had to hurry. If he would get caught HERE, he would have a hell to pay. For the rest of his life.
When he exited the principals office, he glanced around. There was no one at sight. Michael sighed in relief. ["I told you, Maxwell. I'm a lot better at keeping our cover."] He then stalked off.
Unfortunately for him, someone had seen him leave the principals office. Marcus appeared from the corner of the hall and watched how Michael stalked off. ["This is bad. Not just for my safety, but Liz's as well. Mr. Guerin here should REALLY learn to be a LOT more subtle. Ever heard of breaking and entering at NIGHT?!"] With that, he went back to teacher's lounge. He needed to get ready for class. After that, he needed to make a phone call to an old friend. Liz needed a sparring partner who wasn't TOO good, but good enough.
Liz was in deep conversation with Alex. Maria didn't have geometry today, and she liked to gloat about it. Alex liked it, though even he admitted that Mr. Singer could be really boring at times. Liz liked this. Even though she had been ignoring her friends only one day, it felt like forever. She was finally able to TALK with Alex, but it still pained her that she couldn't tell him.
Max Evans had showed up to class, amazingly. True enough, his gaze was still focused on Liz, but a bit more subtly than before. Liz looked him into his eyes, and this caused him to bump into his desk. This definitely got the class laughing. Even Liz giggled a bit. Max blushed into a very deep shade of red and sat down.
Then Kyle Valenti showed up. He walked straight to Liz and was going to give her a kiss, which ended to her cheek instead to her lips. Kyle was confused.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing." Liz answered.
"You know, Liz. For some reason you haven't been talking to me that much. I'm worried. We usually talk quite often, but now...what's up?"
Liz looked Kyle to the eyes. Ever since she got shot last Saturday, she had been thinking about her friends and family. Surprisingly Kyle had been her last thought as a boyfriend. Since last night, she had realized that she didn't LOVE Kyle. She wanted to, really, but she couldn't love him like that. She had yet to tell him about it. She was about to say something, when a blond woman walked to the class. This definitely got everyone's attention.
"Good day. My name is Kathleen Topolski, and I will be substituting for Mr. Singer who called in sick for the week."
"Good riddance," someone commented from the back of the class.
"Now, before we get started, I'd like to ask you one question. Because this IS the infamous Roswell, New Mexico, so bear with me. Does anyone here believe in aliens?" This earned some laughs from the class. Liz didn't exactly understand the question, but Max on the other hand seemed to pale a bit. Fortunately he was able to pull himself out from his shock.
Topolski then kept a name call. She stopped briefly when Guerin's name was called, but since he wasn't there, she moved on. When Liz's name was called, she asked, "Aren't you the one who was shot last Saturday?"
Liz was surprised by this. Sure, there had been some news in the papers, but nothing serious. Since there wasn't anything strange about it, even the tabloids had left the issue alone. "Yes," she answered.
"You seem pretty fine to be someone to got shot 4 days ago," Topolski commented.
Liz shrugged a bit and feigned innocense. "What can I say? I heal fast."
"Even so, why did you show up at school in the first place? I would think that you should have been absent for about 5 days at least," Topolski said.
"Well, I WAS feeling fine on Sunday. And I was feeling even better at Monday, and I didn't exactly have anything better to do at home," Liz commented.
Hearing this, everyone in the classroom groaned. Everyone there would have LOVED to skip school. Even IF they were REALLY sick, but trust 'Little Lizzie Parker' to show up at school, no matter what. There would be a day when they wouldn't be calling her by that nickname ever again.
Topolski was surprised by this. "So what you are saying is this. That you would much rather DO something then do nothing at all?" she asked.
Liz nodded and said. "Could we please start the class? We been at this for 10 minutes."
Everyone except Alex and Max shot a glare at her. THEY didn't want to be in this class, and if the class would end without anykind of lecture at all, it was a bonus. Topolski nodded and finished the name call. Then she went onward with the lecture.
The students were in shock, and even that was an understatement. Mr. Thorne had ended the class EARLIER. The kids weren't exactly quick to complain, but this was definitely news. The worst gossipers would make sure that everyone would know about this. Marcus didn't care. He had more pressing matters to deal with.
He took his cellphone from his pocket and dialed a number. Few moments later, a feminine voice answered. "MacLeod's dojo."
Marcus smiled. She definitely didn't like to answer Scotsman's phone. Partially because people called HIM, not her. Even though he had divorced from her a long time ago, he still found it calming to know that at least one of the women he had ever loved was still alive. Marcus knew that when he would open his mouth, he would be in trouble. "Hello Amanda," he said.
The line was silent for a moment. Then there was a yell. "MARCUS!!? WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!! I THOUGHT THAT YOU DIED 30 YEARS AGO!!! NOW YOU CALL TO DUNCAN ALL OF A SUDDEN AND IT NEVER OCCURRED TO YOU TO CALL *ME*!!! Ugh!" she then started to bang the phone on the table, so he had to take his cell away from his ear. Trust Amanda to be temperamental. Hell, that was the reason he loved her. Then he calmly said. "You finished?"
There was a huff on the other side of the line. "Not even CLOSE, Mister!!! I know we're not married anymore, but you could have told me that you were alive!!!"
Marcus sighed and said. "Yes, I know, but I needed to disappear from the Game, and that's something I did. I had to be dead to everyone. Even to you."
There was silence. Then Amanda said. "So I'm guessing that this isn't a social call," she stated, not asked.
"No. Is Duncan there?"
Amanda sighed. "Give me a minute."
Marcus grimaced. This was something he didn't expect, but life always made sure that it wouldn't get boring. Well, to Immortals anyway. He had to wait a while before Duncan answered. "Duncan MacLeod."
"Hello, Scotsman. Been a while, hasn't it?" Marcus said.
Duncan's voice got thicker from his accent. "Marcus!? Where the devil have YOU been. We all thought you had died?"
"Quoting Mark Twain, 'The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated', but as I said to Amanda, this isn't a social call. I heard a while ago that you had a student." Marcus said.
Duncan confirmed. "Yes. Although, that was a decade ago. He's capable fighter now. Able to hold hid own against the headhunters, even the vicious lot of them."
Marcus nodded. Just what he had heard. Only Connor had known that he was alive, and he had sworn to never let anyone know. Marcus had heard from him, that his kinsman had a student. Thanks from the call this morning, he had found out that he was experienced Immortal now. Even though he was only 20 years old. As a Immortal, anyway, but he was someone Marcus needed. He was TOO skilled to effectively train someone in a sparring match. He needed someone experienced, but not experienced enough, and this one filled the requirements perfectly. "Listen, do you think that he could come here. I have a student of my own, and I need a sparring partner for her."
Duncan was shocked by this. "YOU have a STUDENT. You never have had a student before. Why don't you spar with her yourself?"
"From a simple reason. I'm too good. It wouldn't be fair towards her. This is what I had in mind. I show her the ropes, but I wont be testing her capabilities until she can hold her own against your 'former' student, and I will be making sure that by the end of this year, she will be wiping the floor with him. THEN I will step in."
Duncan was in deep thought. "Ok. I'll ask him, but just to let you know, if he doesn't want to come, I will."
Marcus smiled. Trust Duncan to train Immortal without hesitation. "Not likely, Scotsman. Your kinsman is a lot better choice. Let me know if your student agrees."
Duncan said. "He's my friend and a student, but I'll let you know. I need a number to call."
Marcus grinned. "Doesn't your telephone display the number of the caller?"
"Yes," Duncan answered.
"Then use it. I have to go now. I going to show my student our training grounds," With that, he disconnected the call.
Liz was confused. Ms. Topolski was either really pathetic substitute teacher, or she has never teached geometry. The last possibility sounded more plausible. She and Alex were constantly fixing her mistakes during class. Topolski had been rather nosy about Liz's recovery. She had an unnerving feeling from Topolski. She wasn't Immortal, from that, Liz was certain. She was pulled out from her thoughts when she felt Marcus aproach. It seemed that she was getting used to his 'buzz'. It wasn't that bad now, which was confusing. It seemed to constantly fade away. The only time she could REALLY feel it was when he was about 10 feet away from her. Which in itself was confusing, because yesterday she could feel him constantly. She turned around.
"Why is it that this 'buzz' as you call it has been fading?" she asked.
Marcus was taken back by this. He had thought that she had got most of her answers back at the football field, but obviously she was making even more questions. Then his brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Liz rolled her eyes. "The Buzz. It's not as bad as it was on Monday. Then, it was nearly tearing my head apart. Now...it has been getting fainter and fainter, but it is still there. So what's that about?" she asked.
Then the realization hit Marcus. "Ah. You see, you're a new Immortal, right?" he asked. Liz nodded. "And I'm 2000+ years old." Again, Liz nodded. "Basically, your Quickening is adapting to my Quickenings power, trying to ease the 'buzz's' effect. The more you are inside my Quickenings influence, the more it get's adjusted to it. Don't worry about it getting numb. If anything, it should get sharper, so you should be able to even tell where the buzz is coming from. Do you understand?" he asked. Liz nodded. Another question answered. God knows how many there were left.
"Anyway, I was thinking that we could go check out the warehouse I bought as a training facility for us," he said as an afterthought.
Liz blinked. "I thought that we would be training in your home?" she asked.
Marcus smiled a bit. "True, it would be the BEST possibility concerning your progress. Unfortunately my home is too far away from Crashdown, and I think it would raise TOO many questions if I would be dropping you there all week."
Liz nodded. It made sense, and it would make everyone suspicious. Hell, they might even think that they had an relationship. That was something she didn't want her parents to think about, even though they knew better. She then asked. "Where is it?"
"About 4 blocks away from Crashdown. Close enough for you to walk home," he said. "But if you have to go home first, that won't be a problem."
Liz nodded. "So, when do we go?"
Marcus grinned. "Now."
With that, they walked to Marcus' Firebird and were about drive off, when Liz remembered that she had promised to go home with Maria. Marcus frowned. That complicated things, but he promised that he would pick her up from Crashdown. Before Liz went to Maria, she asked. "Should I take sweats?"
Marcus shook his head. "The training equipment won't be ready until next week. So we will be using school gym this week. We wont start training until tomorrow, and don't worry. School gym isn't being used this week, and during the weekend we'll be focusing on your training schedule more thorougly."
Liz nodded and said goodbye. Then she walked to Maria.
Marcus got into his car and drove off to his home. He had to pick Liz's sword from his collection. Something that screamed Liz, but considering her natural ability to care, that would be a problem.
When he had drove off from the parking lot, a jeep started to follow him.
Michael Guerin made his way to Max's jeep. Now when he knew Thorne's home address, he needed wheels. Unfortunately Maxwell was the one who had a car at the moment. On his way there, he saw Liz and Mr. Thorne in deep conversation. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he was adamant to find out.
Max noticed that Michael was coming. "Hey Michael."
"Maxwell, we need to follow Mr. Thorne around a bit," Michael went straight to the point.
Max's eyes widened. Did Michael want to spy on Thorne. "You DO realize that if we get caught, we're in serious trouble," he said.
"Look Maxwell, I just found out his home address, but since I'm lacking a car at the moment, you have two choices. One, you borrow the jeep. Two, you drive."
Max shook his head. "We should wait for Isabel," he said, and as if on que, she walked to them.
"Hey," she greeted them. When she saw their faces, she frowned. "What is it?"
"Michael here wants us to follow Mr. Thorne," Max said.
Isabel's eyes shot wide open and nearly screamed. "ARE YOU NUTS!!?" Then she lovered her voice. "We are going to end up repeating a grade if we get caught!?"
Michael was unfased by this. "Look, he's leaving. You either go with me or stay here, your choice."
Isabel shot a look at Max, who said, "He wants to borrow the jeep, and that's something I can't do."
Isabel shook her head in disgust. Then she relented. "Fine, but I swear, Michael. If I'm going to flunk a grade, I'll be holding you responsible."
When that was settled, they started following Mr. Thorne's Firebird.
He had made it, and just in time. He saw Ms. Parker to get into what seemed to look like a beat up Jetta. He checked his notes, and found out that it belonged to one of her mortal friends, Maria DeLuca. Even though it was her mother Amy who owned it. He then noticed how Marcus drove off. Luckily he went to another direction, otherwise he would have been spotted. Then he noticed something REALLY weird. A jeep had sped after Marcus' Firebird. He laughed. ["Do they REALLY think that they are able to follow HIM!? Stupid amateurs."] Then he noticed something weird. ["Now why would a bunch of kids be following him?"] Then he noticed the Jetta leaving.
Hills pulled himself together and started to follow them. He was a better shadow than most of the real agents in the government. The FBI were easily spotted, so were the CIA. The NSA were a bit more harder to see, but their military methods hindered it. The Watchers were the uber-spies. The best. Even British own MI-6 couldn't rival their expertice. Following a new Immortal was a hell of a lot more easier then an older Immortal. She hadn't been trained yet, so she wasn't aware of her surroundings, and Adam was one of the best shadows among the Watchers. Still, even he wouldn't be able to shadow an Immortal like Marcus. He grinned. Whoever was following him now, would be in for a big surprise.
He had been followed, and he noticed immediately who it was. Or more accurately, who THEY were. He had figured that Guerin would be following him, but that both Evans's would be accompanying him was something he WASN'T prepared. He didn't fancy them to follow him around, so he had losted almost 3 minutes later he had spotted them. He didn't held an illusion that Guerin didn't know his home address, because he was sure that he did. He had seemed like he had won a lottery when he snuck out from principal's office. Which meant that they would show up any minute.
When he got inside his house, he headed straight to the basement. He put the lights on, and the basement was lighted up. The interior was ingredible. There was practically anything you would need in a martial arts studio. Punching bag, mats, a set of different dummies and swords. LOTS of swords. Even staffs.
He walked straight to the swords and checked them through. There were broadswords, rapiers, short swords, two-handed swords, but above all, japanese swords. Katanas, wakizashis and what else. He checked them through again, but still couldn't find what he was looking for. Broadswords were out, they just didn't fit. He didn't even glance at the two-handed swords. Rapier was smaller, which would work, but it would leave her vulnerable from sides. Then he spotted it. He had made it 14 years ago, but he never knew why. He took it from its stand, and pulled it away from its sheath. He looked it through for a minute. Then he grinned. This was it. This had Liz written all over it.
Satisfied, he sheathed the weapon and made his way out from the basement.
Max pulled the jeep far enough from Thorne's home. He was surprised when Thorne had been able to lose them inside 5 minutes, and he had been careful, but according to Michael, not careful enough. Michael then jumped off the car and said, "You guys can go home or whatever. I'm going to go snooping his home."
Max warned him. "Michael, be careful. He saw us following him, which means that if you go inside his home and do something there, he'll notice."
Michael nodded, but soon ducked behind the jeep when Thorne came out. He headed straight to his car, carrying something. They couldn't see what it was. He then drove off.
Michael then stood up. "Just go home. I'll talk to you tomorrow." With that, he walked towards Thorne's house.
"Are you just going to let him go ALONE!?" Isabel asked from her brother.
Max nodded. "He may be on to something, or maybe he's just paranoid. Either way, he'll be the one getting into trouble. Right now, I don't want to take a punishment from Thorne, because YOU know he always makes his punishents academical."
Isabel nodded, but she still was worried. "Look, if there IS something going on, we have to help him."
"We will, but right now, we have nothing," Max said, and started the car. He figured that Michael could get home without trouble. The Trailer Park wasn't too far, so he could get home rather quickly. Usually that was the problem.
Michael looked as Max and Isabel drove off. He had wanted them to leave, because he was planning to find something out. If that meant waiting for Thorne, he would do it. If necessary, he would beat the answers from him.
["Finally!"] she thought. She had been doing her homework as fast as she could, so she would be ready when Marcus would come and pick her up. She had talked with Maria on their way to Crashdown, and it had eased Liz's heart a bit. But like with Alex, she still felt bad about the silence. She really wanted to tell her, but she just couldn't. It wasn't that she didn't trust Maria, but she KNEW that she would freak, and that was a problem. A big one. Then she felt it. The buzz. Which meant that Marcus had arrived. She dressed up a bit, because it was a bit cold out there. (For her anyway)
She was about to walk down the stairs, when she noticed Claudia sitting at the kitchen, deep in thought. Liz felt a pang of guilt. Grandma Claudia had been the one who had found her, and she really wanted to tell her. Still, Liz didn't know how she would react. That her grand-daughter had died and resurrected. Liz bit her lip.
Claudia was going through her papers from the dig, when she glanced to the living room. She noticed Liz standing there. Biting her lip. She stood up and walked to her. "Liz? Are you all right?"
Liz looked at her. No, she wasn't all right. She was so deep in thought that she missed Claudias question.
"LIZ!"
This pulled her out from her thoughts. Claudia asked again. "Where are you going?"
"I...I'm going for a walk." Liz answered.
Claudia frowned, but Liz stopped her. "No, Grandma. I wont be out THAT long, and my cellphone will be on this time. I just...I still have things to think about."
Claudia smiled a bit. "Honey, you and I both know that there is more to it than that. I really wish that you would tell us, or me. I understand if you want privacy, but dwelling on the issue usually makes it more worse."
Liz thought about it, and made her decision. She would tell her, but not yet. Tomorrow. No matter what. She hugged her grandmother and said. "Thank you, and you're right. We'll talk tomorrow." With that, Liz kissed Claudia's cheek and runned down the stairs.
Claudia was dumbfounded. Then shook her head. She wouldn't dwell on it. If her grand-daughter would tell her tomorrow, she would. She coughed a bit. She had been having those lately, but she ignored it.
Liz on the other hand had reached Marcus' car by this time. She got in.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
Liz shook her head. "No." She smiled a bit. "Actually, things couldn't be better."
Marcus nodded. Then he sped off to the warehouse he had bought.
Adam had been observing the Crashdown for a while. He had hid his car, because he knew that Marcus would know something was wrong if he would see it there. When Marcus' Firebird sped off, his cell rang. He answered to it.
"Hills."
He listened for a moment. Then his eyes widened. "WHAT! Are you sure? No, I'll deal with it. If she gets too close, that is. No, I can do it." He then rolled his eyes. "Look, Joe. I said I can do it. She just got here, so there shouldn't be a problem yet. Ok, I'll let you know if situation changes. Ok, bye."
He cursed under his breath. This was bad. REALLY bad. He would have to cut his time from Watching Liz to keep Ms. Topolski under surveillance. He pulled a Glock 9 mm from the small of his back. He checked the clip, put it back and holstered it. He then walked away.
Abandoned Warehouse, 17:35 p.m, 4 blocks away from Crashdown
Liz looked around. It was big, old and dusty. No wonder Marcus said that they would start training here next week. He was right when he had said that this was considerably more closer to her home. It made things easier considering traveling. She figured it would take at least an half an hour for her to get here. Maybe less if she ran, but that would probably cause attention. She glanced at Marcus, who was still talking to the phone. She could make bits and pieces from it.
"So he agreed...Uh-huh. Yea. What?! That's the reason he... Damn it, MacLeod! Okay, when is he going to arrive? Sunday? Yea, that'll do. Now you better listen to me, Scotsman! You make sure he behaves. Why? 'Cause I'm going to make it my personal MISSION to make sure that she wipes the floor with him, and a bit more extra. You got that? Good. Bye," He put his cell away and walked to her.
"What was that about?" Liz asked.
"Your sparring partner will arrive here on Sunday. Until then, we'll be focusing on your fighting technique. Both in sword and martial arts. We also will be spending a lot of time building your strength, stamina and agility," Marcus said.
Liz nodded slightly, then asked, "Aren't you going to spar with me?"
Marcus looked at her, then at the concrete wall few feet away. He walked up to it. He then glanced at Liz, and said, "Watch closely." Liz nodded.
Marcus then turned his gaze to the wall. Then he tensed. Liz eyebrow raised in confusion. Then Marcus clenched his fists and set into a fighting stance. Then, with a yell, he hit the wall with a perfect spin kick. The concrete caved in a bit under the pressure. He then pulled his leg from the wall. There was a neat boot shaped hole in it, some concrete dust on the floor and on his shoe. He then glanced at Liz, who by now was very pale.
"Did this made my point clear?" he asked.
Liz nodded, gulping. If he could do THAT to a concrete wall, she didn't want to know what he could do to a person.
Marcus then wiped the dust from his shoe. Then he walked to her. "I have something to you. Close your eyes," he said.
Liz looked a bit scared, but who wouldn't be after a display like THAT. Marcus smiled. "Don't worry. This has nothing to do with training."
Liz nodded and complied. Few moments later, Marcus asked her to open her eyes. She did, and what she saw took her breath away. There was a sword. Liz looked at Marcus with eyes wide.
"It's a Wakizashi. A japanese short sword. One of a kind, just like you," Marcus said.
Liz looked back at the sword. It was about 2'2 foot long, blade taking 1'65 foot from the whole lenght. The blade itself had very detailed carvings. A dragon on the other side, and some writing on the other. The blade had a strange orange color in it.
"The blade is forged from titanium, hence the color. Metal has been folded about 15 times. This sword is the most deadliest blade weapon in the existence. In very skilled hands, this weapon can cut a man in half, and it would take about a minute for him to realize that he was dead," he said. Then he looked Liz dead into the eyes, and smiled. "Take it," he said, extending the sword to her.
Liz was shocked. He was giving her a sword. She took a double take, and glanced at the weapon. As crazy as it sounded, she thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She glanced at Marcus, who just nodded. She then tentatively moved her hand to the hilt. She took a firm grib from it. Marcus then backed away and allowed Liz to hold it. Liz was stunned. It wasn't that heavy at all. She moved it around a bit, marvelling the craftmanship. She was about to take a test swing with it, when Marcus stopped her.
"Liz. You have never held a sword, so I wont allow you to test it yet. First we need to train with Kendo sticks. Then I will allow you to train with this," he gestured to the sword.
Liz nodded. Marcus then took Wakizashi from her hand and sheathed it. He then gave the sheat to her. "Keep this someplace where you have good access to it, and that no one else is able to find it. Since we won't be using it until next week, you better keep it hidden. If you want to train with it, make sure that you have plenty of room, and that you are alone. Do you understand?"
Liz nodded. She didn't think her parents would take it well if they would find a real sword from her room, but she had to be creative with it. There wasn't that much places to hide a sword, even though this one was small compared to other types of weapons.
They then walked outside, and Liz decided to ask, "Who is going to be sparring with me?"
"His name is Richie Ryan. Never met him, though. But according to Duncan, he is a capable fighter. Only about 39 years old. Been Immortal for about 20 years. Pretty young among Immortals," he answered.
Liz nodded. If she heard Marcus correctly, Richie would have been 19 years old when he died. Now Liz felt envious toward her future sparring partner. She was 16, for crying out loud. Then she sighed. What's the point. What had happened, happened. Nothing would change that. Then her brow furrowed. "What was all the talk about you making it your personal MISSION to quarantee that I'll mop the floor with him?" she asked.
"Duncan told me that the only reason why Richie agreed to this was that that he would have a chance to, and I quote, 'feel her out'," Marcus said.
Liz stopped dead on her tracks. She was dumbfounded. Then she got angry. Then she grinned. "Then I guess that I have to pay CLOSE attention during our training."
Marcus glanced back at her and noticed her grin. He grinned as well. Yep, this would be fun. He already felt sorry for Mr. Ryan.
Marcus was a bit tired. He had to run some interference with Liz's parents so that she would be able to hide her sword. He didn't know where she hid it, and he didn't care. If it was somewhere secure and secret, all would be well.
He walked inside his home and turned on the lights. When he looked his home, something felt off. He then glanced his bookshelf. Then he noticed it. For someone else it would have been unnoticeable, but not to him. Two of the books were moved. He took Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', and a diary he had had from Admiral Nelson. He then switched their places. Now they were at their proper places. He then looked around more thorougly. Nothing else seemed wrong. Then he saw it. The basement door was slightly open. He had made damn sure it was closed, and LOCKED. Someone had been in his home. He then checked the entire house through. He found only one item missing. A gift from Howard. Now he was angry. Whoever had took it made a big mistake. Because that wasn't just a gift from Howard. Howard had given it to his wife as a wedding gift. HE had married Marcus' adoptive daughter. A detail only he, her and Howard knew. When she had died 10 years ago, Howard had given it to Marcus. As a memory, and now SOMEONE had STOLEN it. He clenched his fist. When he would find the thief, he would be wishing that his parents would have never met.
For the first time in his life, Michael was worried. What he had found inside the house - or specifically from the basement - had scared him. Swords. LOT'S of them, and then this. He looked at the pendant. It seemed slightly broken and it had a symbol in it. A symbol he recognized. He put it in his pocket and sped off to his home. Even though he hated it. If he would be lucky, he would be able to talk about what he had found out tonight with Max. Now he had proof that Marcus knew something.
Unfortunately he had no idea how wrong he was, and when he would finally realize that, whatever he ever got from Hank, would be hundred times less then what he would receive from Marcus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Parker Household, Tuesday, 22:30 p.m, Bathroom
Liz heard something. A muffled ring. Then she opened her eyes. Her alarm clock! She had dozed off. She sat up rather quickly. She glanced around, then at the clock. It read 22:31. She sighed from relief. She hadn't been caught. She turned the alarm off and got up from the tub. She dried herself and wrapped a towel around her. She then took her clothes and her alarm clock and left. She put her clothes along with the rest of her dirty laundry. Then she went to her room. She dried her hair as quickly as she could and put on her pajamas. She was about to go to bed, when she realized that she wasn't sleepy. If anything, she felt more awake than she had ever been.
She groaned. It had been so relaxing that she felt like she had slept whole week, and now she wasn't tired at all. She even was fairly sure that she would be TOO chipper if she kept up all night. She glanced her backpack. She didn't exactly have anything to do. TV was out, because that would wake her parents. Then she decided to finish her essay. True, it was due next Monday, but hey, she didn't have anything else to do.
With that thought, she started working. True enough, she would be TOO chipper in the morning.
TBC...
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:33 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Special thanks to behrstars, MsSilvermucki, angeleyes and NewYorker18. Just do me a favor and don't stop giving me FB. I really need it. Here's part 8.
MsSilvermucki Sorry, but you have to wait. As for Topolski, she truly thinks that Liz is an alien, but is bound to be wrong about that assumption. And no, she doesn't think that Marcus is Nasedo. *My lips are sealed beyond that.*
Title: "Concept of Eternity" Author: Bored to Mundane life Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. If they did, Alex would have lived on and season 3 would have been a lot more different. The only character that belongs to me is Marcus Thorne. I also hope that Bruce Dickinson doesn't mind if I use him in this fic. Synopsis: Liz Parker is having just a regular day at the Crashdown, when suddenly an argument between two customers gets out of hand, and she's shot. She is raced quickly to the hospital, but she dies en route. But before she is considered as a lost cause, her heart starts beating. Later on, her history teacher, Marcus Thorne, tells her that she's an Immortal. She'll be then pulled into the life of the Immortals, better known as 'The Game'. With no way out. But her apparent resurrection has raised other peoples attention as well. And Liz suddenly finds out that she isn't the only one harboring a considerably large secret. But how does Max Evans, his sister Isabel and Michael Guerin fit into this? Category: Crossover, Roswell/Highlander, strictly CC. Rating: PG-13, probably R at some point. Feedback: Definitely appreciated. And definitely needed, so I know that my writing isn't going to waste. Afterall, this IS my first fic.
The clock-radio's alarm turned on, and the radio's music started to play out. Nancy Parker was a bit irritated this morning, so she slammed the radio, effectively silencing it. She groaned a bit. After 16 years, she STILL didn't get used to waking up this early. Her husband stirred a bit. Nancy rolled her eyes. Then nudged him. "Jeff, if we are going to keep the café running, you have to wake up."
Jeff stirred a bit more, then opened his eyes. He then smiled a bit, and pulled her to a kiss. Nancy was taken by surprise by this, but didn't complain. When oxygen became an issue, they pulled back. Nancy smiled, but then asked, "What was that for?"
Jeff pulled himself up and answered. "Just finally realized how lucky I am. Even with everything that has happened."
Nancy sighed. He was right. THEY were lucky, in every sense of a word. True, they had lost their son, but had found an angel to replace him. Nancy still couldn't stop thinking what her son would be like, but she knew that past couldn't be changed. She had Liz to take care now. Nancy was relieved that Liz now knew about her adoption. And that she still considered them as her parents. Nancy then gave a quick kiss to her husband and got up. She then glanced her dumbfounded husband. "Are you going to get up, or do I have to make breakfast alone?"
Jeff got up and started put clothes on. Nancy wasn't that far behind. When they reached to the kitchen, their jaws hit the floor. There was Liz, all bright and chipper, making breakfast. True, she was a morning person, but she had NEVER woke up THIS early. Around half seven, true, but certainly not THIS early. When Nancy thought about it, wasn't everything a bit TOO finished? The coffee was already done, and she was putting pancakes to plates. Which indicated that she had woke up BEFORE them. A LOT before.
"Liz?"
Liz stopped from what she was doing and glanced at her parents. She then smiled and said with un-naturally cheery voice. "Good morning. Did you guys sleep well?"
Both Nancy and Jeff blinked. This was new. Definitely NEW. They both asked again with a tone that definitely said that they were conserned. "Liz?"
Liz's brow furrowed. "What?" she asked.
"What's going on?" Jeff finally asked.
Liz was confused. "What do you mean?"
Nancy answered to this, "Liz, don't get me wrong, but you usually don't wake up this early, and the LAST time you made us breakfast was 6 years ago when you broke the vase my mother gave me. Now I HOPE that something as equally bad hasn't happened."
Liz sighed. She had to admit it, this looked like an apology, but it wasn't. Far from it. "Mom, Dad. I just..." she stopped, sighed, and continued. "Ever since I got shot, I've been thinking."
Both Nancy and Jeff looked concerned. Liz noticed this and said, "NO! I'm all right. There's nothing wrong with me. It's just that...I realized that I haven't spent as much time with you."
Then the situation dawned to her parents. She wanted to spend time with them. The near death experience must have made think that she would lose them TOO soon. Nancy smiled a bit. "Honey, we appreciate this. Really."
Then she added. "But seriously. As much as I want you to be my little girl for the rest of my life, you ARE growing up, and making a life of your own. So I understand that you haven't considered spending time with us."
Then Liz said. "But that's the thing. I WANT to spend time with you. I have been so wrapped up in my life that..." but she was stopped by Jeff.
"Liz, your mother is right, and as much as I hate the idea of you growing up and leaving someday..." Nancy shot a glare at him for this, but Jeff kept on, "...I know that you wont forget us. That's all I ask. I don't think that EITHER of us would mind just talking."
Liz gave a small smile to this. She knew in her heart that she wouldn't forget them. The problem was, she DIDN'T want to lose them. She had eternity, they didn't. She had considered to tell her parents, but vetoed that idea. For the moment, anyway. She would tell Grandma Claudia first, then to her parents. Then there was a tear sliding down her cheek. She then walked to them and gave them a firm hug. "Thank you," she said.
Both Nancy and Jeff asked, "For what?"
"For understanding."
They then started eating breakfast. They made some small talk, but one particular topic still didn't come to the daylight.
Maria shook her head. "Liz, there's something bugging you. What is it?"
["Oh, nothing much. Just that today I'm going to start my training to martial arts and sword play. Nothing big. I'll probably be half-dead when I get back home,"] she thought, but said. "You know that I haven't exactly been too close with Kyle for the past few days?"
Maria nodded. They had gotten out of the Jetta and were walking to the school. "So? Problems with the love life?"
Liz thought it over and said, "Maria, I don't love him."
Maria glanced at Liz. This was definitely interesting. "Ok girlfriend, what's up?"
By now they had reached Liz's locker. "Here's the thing. Since I got shot, I have been thinking about life. I mean, it's short. Anything can happen. Am I making sense?"
Maria nodded. "Definitely, Chica. I was afraid I'd lose you then. I just kept thinking what my life would be without you, and believe me, it wasn't pretty."
"That's my point. I realized that I haven't lived fully with my life. I haven't spent time enough with people I care about. But...with Kyle, it's different. I care about him, I really do, but...I just don't LOVE him, and now I don't know how to tell him."
Maria thought this over. "Chica, would a certain secret admirer have anything to do with this?" You guessed it people, she was referring to Mr. Evans.
Liz shot a look at Maria. "No, he doesn't. I just don't see that kind of future with me and Kyle. I know he isn't going to take this well." Then she felt the buzz. ["Wow, it's not that bad anymore."] She then heard the front doors bang open with enough force that they were nearly ripped off from their hinges. Then she saw Marcus' expression.
Marcus was angry. REALLY angry. You could even see the hostile air swirling around him. Everyone else noticed this too, and they were wise enough to stay out of his way. Liz was worried.
Maria asked with confusion written all over her face. "Ok, how come Mr. Thorne suddenly looks like he's ready to kill somebody?"
Liz shook her head, indicating that she didn't have a clue, but she was worried. Because she knew that Marcus wasn't exactly a man bent on to violence. After what she had seen yesterday, though, she only hoped that his anger wouldn't burst out as physical violence. Because if it DID, that poor soul wouldn't live very long. Then the bell rang.
West Roswell High, few minutes earlier, Parking lot
Max was confused. Really confused. "Ok. So you found this pendant from Mr. Thorne's home. So?"
Michael rolled his eyes. Didn't he just say it? "Maxwell, look at the symbol. Don't tell me that it doesn't look familiar?"
Max though it over and it did seem familiar. He just couldn't place it. Isabel then said, "Look, Michael. This pendant may be connected to us, but what makes you think that Mr. Thorne would know anything about us?"
"Because, this wasn't the only thing I found from his house," he said.
Now the both Evans siblings were interested. "Well?"
Michael continued. "I went to check out his basement, and you have no idea what there was."
Both Max and Isabel were getting annoyed. They hated mysteries, and Michael's sudden discreet aproach wasn't helping any.
"Swords," he finally said.
"Swords?" Max and Isabel asked in unison.
"Yeah. The whole basement was actually one big gym. Max, think of any kung-fu movie ever made and then you get the picture what it was like," Michael said.
"There were stuff that was REALLY old as well. Books, paintings, even drawings. Then there's that," he pointed at the pendant.
Just then, Thorne's Firebird drived to the parking lot, and Mr. Thorne stepped out. He definitely didn't look happy. He looked downright homicidal.
Max noticed this and said to Michael. "Michael, do you think that he saw you?"
Michael shook his head. "No way, Maxwell. I was out of there already 10 minutes before he got there."
Then Isabel asked, "Do you think he might have noticed the pendant is missing?"
"I don't know. It WAS at the open," Michael said.
Max then grabbed Michael from his hand. "What!? It was at the open for everyone to see and you TOOK it!?" he asked.
Michael was taken back by this. "Maxwell, he might..." he was about to say, but Max cut him off.
"Michael, you better hope that he doesn't find it from you, or else you are in more serious trouble then you have ever been."
Michael glared at Max. "He wont. I can take care of myself."
Max then grabbed the pendant and kept it in front of his face. "Not when it comes to theft, and you have evidence right here. So keep it HIDDEN," he said the last word quite forcefully.
Michael nodded and took the pendant. He then put in his pocket and they then walked to the school.
Kyle Valenti was curious. Liz had asked him to meet her at lunch time, but he didn't know why. Lately she had been distant. TOO distant. Kyle was concerned about this. When his father had told him that Liz had been shot, he had went to the hospital as fast as he could. Problem was, only the family members were allowed to go see her. He was able to see her the next day, but she had been asleep. He had been as much in shock as everyone else when he had heard that she was at school. Only after 2 days of getting shot? He had talked to her, or at least tried. She was distant then, and seemed constantly being distracted. She didn't talk about it, though. She had been spending a lot of time with Mr. Thorne. True, Thorne was like a second father to her, or more like a very cool uncle, but she never had spend THIS much time with him. Yesterday wasn't helping his situation. She was even more distant. In fact, she avoided his kiss. Now he really wanted answers, and he would be getting them. Just not the one's he wanted to hear.
"Hey, Liz," he said.
Liz turned around and smiled a bit. "Hey."
Kyle then sat down to the other side of the table. Then he went straight to the point. "Liz, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Us, Kyle. About us," she answered, tugging her hair behind her ear.
Kyle frowned. Maybe he was paranoid, but this didn't sound too good. Then he asked. "What do you mean?"
"Kyle, what do you see when you think about us? Really?" Liz asked.
Kyle was dumbfounded. What did she mean by that?
Then Liz said. "You don't know, do you?"
"Liz, I don't understand. Where is this coming from?" Kyle asked, concerned.
Liz sighed, ["This is going to be a lot harder then I thought."] "Kyle, ever since I got home from the hospital, I've been thinking. About life. What I realized, is that...God, there is no easy way to say this."
Kyle then took her hand to his own. "Liz, whatever it is that you need to say, say it. I can take it."
Liz shook her head. "No you wont, because I...I want to break up," she said silently, but Kyle heard it.
"What!?" he asked, shocked.
"Kyle, I care about you, really, but I don't LOVE you. I wish I could, but I don't. Now when I think about it, this has been going on for a while and I think that even you have realized it," Liz said.
Kyle shook his head, but he couldn't argue. He just couldn't. Because even before she got shot, they had been drifting apart. He didn't want to admit it, he just couldn't. He chuckled a bit. Trust Liz Parker to get an epiphany from a really traumatazing situation. He then looked at her. "Yea, I have noticed it. The problem is, I just refused to see it."
Liz smiled a bit. "Kyle. This doesn't mean that things are 'over' between us. True, we wont be a couple, but I hope that we could still be friends," she said, taking his hand on her own.
Kyle nodded sadly. "Maybe. In the future, but not yet. I'm... I need some time to think this through."
Liz nodded. She understood it. Heck, even she STILL had things to deal with. She had sorted most of them out, but new ones just kept coming. Then Kyle said something she didn't expect to hear. "Are you seeing someone else?"
Liz's eyes widened. "No! I'm not. If I WOULD, I think that even YOU would have found out about it. If not from Maria, then from your football friends."
Kyle nodded. He had hoped that she was breaking up because of someone else. He knew Evans' infatuation towards her. Who wouldn't? But it seemed that he still hadn't come out from his shyness. Besides, Evans would have been sitting here, wouldn't he?
Max looked the interaction between Liz and Kyle with interest. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but the look on Kyle's face told him that something was up. If he would have patience, he would hear it eventually. Rumors flied around easily at a school as small as this. He had even heard from other students that Thorne gave a whole new meaning to 'academical punishment'. They were given so much homework, that it would EASILY cover the entire course in one week.
Max groaned to the thought. If Thorne was THIS pissed, he didn't even want to think what would happen when it was their turn. As it was, he, Izzy and Michael would be spending the next two hours under his hateful glance, and he really hoped that Michael wouldn't get caught.
Hills had been watching the following scene with less then average interest. Just a broken relationship. He had heard from other Watchers that newbie Immortals usually were wonderers until they would find a mentor. Since Liz hadn't been deemed officially dead, she could lead a normal life. So far he was impressed by the girls ability to cope with the situation. He put the binoculars away and wrote the events to the chronicle.
Now he would have something else to do. Follow around Topolski. Joe had told him that she was an FBI agents. A profiler. Interesting. Joe had been worried that she would be onto a trail of Immortal, but Hills doubted it. True, she WAS interested from Ms. Parker, but there was something else to it. He just couldn't put his finger on to it. He had more pressing issues to deal with. He had to make sure that Topolski wouldn't find out anything solid information from Immortals. Because then it would get ugly. Government would have a field day with it. An Immortal soldier in their arsenal. A wet dream for the CIA. Black ops. could be accomplished with them without casualties. He reminded himself to pay a visit to Topolski's apartment later. Maybe he would be able to shed some light on to the subject.
He knew the rules, though, and his orders. If Topolski would get too close, she would have to die.
Liz was nervous. Usually she enjoyed Marcus' lectures, as did most of the students. This was different. She had heard the rumors. That he was angry at something, and to the dismay of students, he was taking it out on them. She felt the buzz, and a very angry looking Marcus Thorne walked to the class.
"Since these will be the last two classes of the day, I'm going to be straight with you. Someone broke into my house last night, and they took something I held GREAT value to. A pendant." Some of the students started to fuss about, but stopped when Marcus gave them VERY cold glare. "That pendant may not be valuable in a sense of a word, but the personal value is priceless. It belonged to my daughter, who died 10 years ago by a hit-and-run. She was only 4 years old. Since that pendant is the only thing I have left from her, I think you all realize why I'm SERIOUSLY pissed at the moment?" he asked. The whole class nodded. Max shot a glare at Michael. Amazingly Marcus didn't notice this.
"So, until I will find the person or persons who took it, who by the way are probably from THIS class, we will be having a pop quiz." To this, the whole class groaned. Liz seemed shocked. Not for the pop quiz, but the fact that Marcus had HAD a daughter. Considering the man in question, there was probably more to it then what he had said. She then decided to deal with another matter. So she raised her hand.
Marcus noticed this. "Yes, Ms. Parker?"
Liz lovered her hand and said. "Can I return my essay now, sir?"
Marcus raised an eyebrow to this. "You mean to tell me that you have finished it NOW?"
Liz nodded.
Marcus gestured her to bring it to his desk. Liz walked to him and put an essay on the desk. Marcus was amazed. It was 10 pages long. He quickly glanced it through. What he saw, amazed him even more. He then looked at Liz. "Ms. Parker, this is good. I'll have to read it more thoroughly, but this is GOOD. You may take your seat."
Liz nodded and thanked him. She then returned to her seat.
Then Marcus spoke up. "Since Ms. Parker did impressive job with the essay, I can only hope that Mr. Guerin has been focusing on his own."
Michael shook his head, and said, "No, sir."
Marcus nodded. "Mr. Guerin. You DO realize that you have to return the essay. Otherwise you wont be able to finish this class. Otherwise you will be stuck here for a, say, a year."
Michael gulped. "Yes, sir."
"Then I expect you to finish the essay on time." He put Liz's essay on his briefcase. "Now, the pop quiz."
The bell rang, and the students were GLAD that it was over. Mr. Thorne had been unbelievably creative with school work, but uncharacteristically nice to Liz. When some students pointed this out, he had explained that at least Liz had surprised him positively. He had then given to these students an assigment to work with. To describe the situation in Europe during the Black Plague. Marcus knew about it TOO much for his own good. He had been there. He had lost his third wife then. She had begged him to kill her, and he had complied. As she died to his arms, she had said that she would wait for him. Then she had died. Marcus didn't held any illusions about afterlife, but he could only hope. When it came to Heaven and Hell, he was sceptic. At time like that, he just hoped that she was someplace better. He had left from Europe entirely after that. All the while watching how people died like flies around him. He was pulled out from his memories by Liz. He could see that she was worried.
"You know, if you are angry, you shouldn't take it on students. I have a feeling that there was more to it than what you said," she said.
Marcus nodded. "I wasn't lying there. It IS a memory from my daughter. She didn't die to an hit-and-run. She died to old age."
Liz's eyes widened. "What?!"
"Liz, I adopted her a long time ago, and I raised her. About 48 years ago, she married Howard Ridger, who I met 2 years before that. Howard bought that pendant to her as a wedding gift. When she died 10 years ago to an heart attack, Howard sent me the pendant. Now you realize why I want it back," he said.
Liz nodded. Marcus kept surprising her constantly. He had children, and now grandchildren. Heck, he could have a whole lot of decendants out there. ["Wait a minute?! Adopted?"]
"Marcus, if you don't mind me asking, but why did you adopted her?" she asked.
Marcus nodded. Then he realized where this was going. He hadn't mentioned it, because it would be too much to take. Liz had coped with what she had at the moment quite well, but he knew that THIS information would break her. So he avoided it, for now.
"Liz, I'll get to it later. Now, I believe you and I have some training to do back at the gym?"
Liz nodded, and they went to the school gym. Liz had told Maria that she stayed there to do some studying. Maria had understood, considering the workload Mr. Thorne had given them.
Liz was beat. She had been put through a meat grinder and pulled back together again. She was lying at the mats at the moment, while Marcus was writing something to his book.
Marcus was impressed at the moment. Liz had exceeded his expectations. Her physical strenght wasn't great, but that could be worked with. Her agility and stamina had surprised him as well, but considering her build, that was expected. They still needed to work up a schedule to her. He then glanced at Liz. "You okay?"
Liz shot a look to him. "NO! I'm NOT okay! I'm tired, my muscles are aching and I feel like I've been stretched about two inches more height."
Marcus chuckled a bit. "True, you are hurt. Don't worry, the Quickening should heal your muscle ache in about 30-40 minutes. Or maybe in an hour."
Liz groaned. That meant she would be aching too long for her comfort. Then she asked, "So, is this going to be always like this?"
Marcus shook his head. "No. You have to take care of your own physical exercise. I know you a bit anxious to start your training with the sword, but bear with me. We have plenty of time."
Liz lied on the mat for a moment, taking in what he had said. She should be making it a habit to exercise. She then glanced at Marcus. At the moment, he was dressed up pretty casually. Black jeans, shoes and gray t-shirt, but for the first time she could see his arms without his jacket. She was impressed by what she saw. The muscles were visible, but they weren't nothing 'Conan the Barbarian' type of muscles. No, he was wiry, and his muscles were a bit larger than average. Then she asked a question from him. "Do you exercise regularly?"
Marcus nodded absent mindedly. "Every morning I jog for about an hour. Then I spend 30 minutes doing push-ups. Then another 30 minutes doing sit-ups. Another 30 minutes doing chin-ups. I usually start this around 4 a.m, but during weekends, I double it."
Liz's eyes widened. How the hell he could do something like that EVERY morning? Then she thought about it. It had to be the Quickening. He HAD said that it heals muscle ache, and since the Quickening got more stronger the older you got, he would heal a LOT faster from muscle ache. Which explained a LOT. She grinned. THAT opened up a lot more possibilities.
Marcus stopped writing on his book and said. "Ok, this is what I want you to do. Now, you will be responsible to your physical training, and here's something I have thought would suit you better. Jog daily. Not much, just enough that your muscles start to ache. Then a bit more, about 10 minutes or so. Then do push-ups and sit-ups as much as you can. Again, until you ache. Then push it a bit, but not much. About 5 to 10 more after it. Then rest. Since you are newbie, it'll take you longer to recover, so I suggest you do this afternoon. That way, you wont be tired in the morning. When you start to feel that these excersises are getting too easy, you can think about something else to spice it up. It's all up to you. Do you understand?"
Liz nodded. Then she asked, "How long does it take from you to recover from your 'intense' exercise?"
Marcus grinned, "Oh, about 5 minutes or so."
Liz's eyes widened from disbelief. Now she felt envious, and it definitely explained his build. He WAS strong, but he didn't need to be Mr. Universum to be strong. Besides, it would raise suspicion if his shoulders looked like barn doors.
Marcus glanced at his clock. "Hmm. It's getting late. We'll call it for today in an hour. NOW, well be focusing on something else." With that, he went to the men's locker room. He came back few minutes later, carrying two kendo sticks. Liz brow furrowed a bit. Marcus then handed her the smaller one. "It's about the same size as your Wakizashi, but a bit more heavier."
"Now, listen closely. We will be doing this for the next hour. It may feel boring, but believe me, you'll benefit from it. Now watch closely," he said.
Liz nodded. Then Marcus gestured her to back away. He then stood there for a moment. He then brought the kendo stick up that way, that he was holding it against his forehead. His eyes were closed and he was breathing calmly. Then, he started to move, and Liz was amazed. The way he moved, bordered deadly accuracy and grace, and it looked more like he was dancing. Kendo stick moved along with him, like it was attached to his hand. He kept at it for a few minutes, performing moves that would make Jet Li envious. Then he stopped, and Liz couldn't help but to applaud. "Wow! That was...WOW!" she said.
"It was a Tai Chi routine. Or better called as a kata. My own made. It allows a persons body to relax, while increasing their body coordination with the sword. It also allows you to practise without a worry to harm to yourself. If you master this, you should be able to perform any kata in the existence, with or without a sword. Now, come here," he gestured to a spot about 3 feet away from him.
Liz nodded and walked to the spot he indicated.
"Now. We both will be doing the kata you just saw, but a bit more slowly. You will perform it as best as you can. At some point I'll leave you to it alone and help out with any problems. Do you understand?" he asked finally. Liz nodded.
Then they started. During the first 10 minutes, Liz was having a problem with her balance, but with Marcus' help, she got a hang of it. Then, 10 minutes later, she was doing it alone, while Marcus was standing at the side, giving a few pointers. When the hour was over, she had been performing the kata with perfection for about 9 minutes. Marcus had to admit it, he was impressed.
"Very good, Liz. You exceeded my expectations again. Now, head to the showers and then I'll drive you to the Crashdown."
Liz nodded and headed to the showers. She actually felt a bit better, even though the kata she had been at for the past hour WAS difficult. She couldn't describe it, but she felt like...like tensed and ready to jump. ["Ugh. Better not dwell on it. Besides, I have to talk to Grandma, and tell her."]
Sheriff Valenti was tired, but not much. Roswell was a small town, and there was little trouble there. There was some youngsters speeding, but that was it. Now, all he wanted to do was relax. At the moment he wanted to check something out. He was worried. When he walked in to his home, he saw Kyle slumped on to the sofa, flipping through channels. He didn't look too good. "Hey, son. Is there something wrong?"
Kyle was pulled out from his thoughts when his father talked to him, "Hey, dad."
Valenti's brow furrowed. "Kyle, what's wrong?"
Kyle sighed, "Liz broke up with me."
Valenti sighed, he had not seen this coming. "I'm sorry to hear that."
Kyle nodded. "Yea, but do you know what is strange about it? That it was already going to this direction. It only took her getting shot for her to realize it."
Jim seemed deep in thought. Then he sat down next to Kyle. "What did she say?"
Kyle thought about it, "Well, she said that she didn't love me. She cares about me, and I care about her, but she doesn't LOVE me. It took me a while to realize that too, but I can understand. Although I still asked was she seeing someone else."
Jim glanced at his son. "Is she?"
Kyle shook his head. "No. I was thinking that maybe Evans had made his move, but scratched that possibility away. He was still glancing at her like a love sick puppy he has been."
Jim nodded. "Look, Kyle. I'm not exactly a right person to talk about this, but if you..."
"Look, Dad. I appreciate it. I really do, but I'm not in the mood to talk. Not now, anyway."
Jim nodded. "Ok. You sure you are all right?"
Kyle nodded, "Yeah. Might take a while to get over it, but I'm okay."
Jim nodded once more, and walked to the kitchen. Before he went there, he took a file from his coat. In the kitchen, he started to browse through it. Ever since he had seen the hostile look on Marcus's face, he got worried. He had never seen him lose his temper. Then again, Liz had always been like a daughter to him. Now he had to make sure that the man who had shot her by accident, Gary Madsen, would stay intact when he would get out. He didn't have to worry about that at the moment. Mr. Madsen was sentenced to jail for about 6 months. So he wouldn't be in any kind of danger, but Jim still couldn't brush off the thought that Marcus would be waiting for him when he would get out, and would give a piece of his mind to Mr. Madsen.
There was something interesting about the testimonies as well. Apparently, Mr. Madsen had been stopped by a hit on the back of his head. In this case, by a ketchup bottle. Several witnesses said that inside a minute, Mr. Thorne had grabbed a ketchup bottle and thrown it at Madsen. Effectively stopping his escape. Some of the witnesses noticed that there were two boys in a heated argument after the gun had gone off. It seemed that one of the kids wanted to go help Ms. Parker, but the other kid had stopped him. They had left the café shortly afterwards.
Jim was in deep thought. The way Marcus had stopped Mr. Madsen suggested that he had hidden talents, but what, Jim didn't know. Then there were the two kids. Mr. Evans and Mr. Guerin. He made a personal note to keep an eye on these individuals.
Marcus stopped the car in front of the Crashdown. Todays training session couldn't be considered intense by any means, but it would help him plan tomorrows training a bit better. Liz seemed to be fine at the moment. She was still sore from the intense physical exercise, but she was getting better. Tomorrow they would be focusing on basics of martial arts. He WAS surprised by the way Liz was able to quickly learn the kata he had created himself, but he knew that it was the mind that fought, the body was just a tool. So he would be focusing on her ability to think in combat, but that would be later. Now, the basics were first. Then the more advanced stuff would come.
Liz stepped out from the car. Marcus called out. "Liz!"
She turned to listen. "Tomorrow we will be focusing on martial arts, but don't wear sweats then."
Liz's brow furrowed. "But..." she was about say something, but Marcus cut her off.
"Liz. You need to be able to fight with equal grace with any kind of clothing as you would be with sweats. Because in a fight, you don't have time to prepare. I have trained with regular set of clothings for the past 15 centuries, and believe me, I haven't lost a single challenge yet. If you intend to survive, you have to be able to fight with every day clothes. Just to be on the safe side, bring along some extra clothing."
Liz nodded. It made sense.
With that, Marcus sped off to his home. Liz walked in to the Crashdown, and noticed that Max was there. In his usual booth. She grinned a bit. This might be interesting. She snuck behind Max and then said. "Looking for someone?"
Max had been drinking a cherry cola when she asked this, and he started coughing a bit. Liz giggled. He was so in deep thought that he hadn't even seen or heard her before it was too late. Then he glanced behind him and saw who it was. He then turned a bit more deeper shade of red than he already was. "Liz?"
Liz raised an eyebrow and kept smiling. "Yes?"
Max was nervous. He had wanted to come here and tell her. Hell, he had wanted to tell her for a long time, but he just couldn't pull himself to say it. That he loved her. That, and that he could have helped her when she was shot. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he noticed that Liz was sitting on the opposite bench.
"Could you please tell me why you are constantly sitting here? Because I know that food is good, but I don't think that you hang around here because of that," Liz said.
Max was taken back by this. "Um...I just...I wanted to see you," he managed to say.
"Well, I'm here now, and you seem to be still here. Is there something else?" Liz said.
["Where to begin?"] Max thought. "It's just that I was worried about you. You know, after the..." he trailed off, but was cut off by Liz.
"Shooting, yea, I figured. You DO know that you could have told this to me before? I mean, you have had some opportunities. Several, in fact," she said.
Max blushed. How did she do it? Keep such a level head in these kind of situations? She had never bothered to talk to him, maybe a few words at bio and ask what he wanted to order. She didn't have a reason to do anymore than that. She didn't know how he felt towards her. He just couldn't force himself to say it outloud. "Liz, I..."
"Look, Max. I don't have time to talk. I have homework to do, and IF I remember correctly, so do you. Because I'm farly certain that you have been here since the school ended," Liz said.
Max sighed. She was right. He had come straight from school to Crashdown. Mainly because he had heard that Liz had broken up with Kyle Valenti. He was sure that that was what he had seen at the quad. Then he nodded. Before he said anything, he made a mental note to talk to Liz tomorrow, and tell her what he felt towards her. "Liz, can we talk tomorrow? I have something to tell you."
Liz nodded. "Okay, but now I have to go. I still need to talk with Maria. Bye," she said before heading to the break room.
Liz was taken back by this. "What do you mean, Maria? Don't tell me that you tried to call, because my cell WAS 'on'," Liz said.
Maria shook her head. "I know, I was just about to call you. Grandma Claudia was having somekind of coughing fit. Luckily Dr. Hills was eating dinner here, he's up there with her now."
Liz's eyes widened. "How is she?"
Maria shook her head. "I don't know. Like I said, I was just about to call..." she was getting hysterical.
"Maria! Sniff some cedar oil," Liz said. Maria nodded and did it. She calmed down. Then they both went upstairs.
Parker Household, few minutes later, Liz's parents bedroom
Claudia felt fine now, and she didn't need her son fuzzing about her health. She was old, she knew that. That wasn't a reason for his son to have a heart attack. "Jeff, if you don't stop over-reacting, I might just die here out of a mischief." This stopped him.
"Mom, don't even joke about something like that. Ever," he said sternly.
Nancy asked from Dr. Hills, "How is she?"
Hills smiled a bit. "She's fine now. She did have some fluid in her lungs, but nothing severe. Have you had these before?" he asked.
"Since Monday when I have spent my time on that dig. That damn cave is so dank. Moisture is probably getting to me," Claudia said.
Hills nodded. "In the future, I'd appreciate it if you would keep a mask on. In your age, having this kind of cough could be dangerous. Luckily I decided to eat here instead at home." It was only a half truth. In truth he had come there to keep an eye on Ms. Parker. He had brushed that assignment aside and had helped the elderly Parker. Then the bedroom door opened and Liz walked in. Worry etched on her face. "Grandma?" she asked.
Claudia smiled. "I'm all right, dear. Nothing to worry about."
Hills nodded. "True. Just to be on the safe side, I want you to stay home for about 2 days, and WHEN you return to the dig, try to keep a mask on, just in case."
Liz walked to her grandmother and hugged her tightly. This had just made her more determined to tell her grandmother about her Immortality. Maria walked to the other side of the bed and hugged Claudia as well. After all, Claudia was like a grandmother to her too.
Hills was watching this with interest. Usually Immortals always severed all connections to their former life when they died their First Death, but Ms. Parker was an exception. Thanks to the modern medical science, it appeared that she had survived from the shooting, when in truth she hadn't. He was starting to unroll his sleeves, when Liz pulled back from the hug. She then noticed something weird on Dr. Hills right arm. A tattoo. A very peculiar one too. She shook her head to it. She SO didn't want to bug into someone's personal life.
Jeff shook hands with Hills and thanked him. Who in turn just brushed it off, saying it was nothing. He then took his coat and walked out from the room. Jeff and Nancy went to the kitchen, Nancy intending to make some soup. but Claudia said sternly. "Nancy, I don't need mothering around, and I don't need soup. What I need is a glass of orange juice. Vitamin-C always works better in this case." Both Liz and Maria laughed at this. Nancy rolled her eyes, but complied.
"Claudia, I have to go, but I'll stop by when my shift ends," Maria said.
Claudia nodded and thanked her. Maria then walked to the café. Liz was still sitting on the edge of the bed, and she had a worried expression. Claudia tried to re-assure her that everything was fine, but Liz wouldn't have it.
"Grandma, you should have told us! This is serious. Isn't it bad enough that I..." she stopped before she finished that sentence.
Claudia sighed. Liz had made it perfectly clear that she didn't want to lose her, and this situation didn't help. "Look, Liz. I'm fine, and NOW I know better. This won't happen again. It's not like it was a big deal."
Liz's eyes widened. "No big deal?! No, Grandma. This is BIG! What if you..." she stopped again, unable to finish her sentence.
Claudia took Liz's hand to her own. "Liz. I'm FINE, and I'm not going to go away. Not yet. True, I had a coughing fit, and it was because of my ignorance. I'm fine now, and that's all you need to worry about right now. Besides, I was afraid that I'd lose you when you got shot," she said.
Liz averted her gaze from her. This was it. "You did," she said in a small voice.
Claudia asked in confusion. "What?"
Liz looked straight into Claudia's eyes. "That day, when I got shot, I died."
TBC...
Next part is due next week. Hopefully on thursday. But keep your fingers crossed, because there might be a chance for a new post sooner.
Last edited by Bored to Mundane life on Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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It seems that a lot of people like this fic. Well, in that case, I'll definitely continue. This is another prologue, but don't worry, I'll post part 1 today. Maybe in the evening. This prologue will answer to you what this fic is about. Enjoy!! (FB is a MUST!) 
Either Prologue 2 didn't ring at the public or most of them haven't yet read it. Well, no worries. Here is part 1, so enjoy! (As I said earlier, FB is much needed.) 
Thanks a bunch. It's really nothing.