new fic (Forever is a Long Time Coming ) Highlander/Heroes PG
Title:Forever is a Long Time Coming Fandoms: Highlander: the Series and Heroes Author: karrenia Characters: Adam Monroe and Adam Pierson Rating: PG Prompt: different kinds of immortality Disclaimer: Highlander: the Series belongs to Panzer/Davis Productions as do all of the characters who appear here or are mentioned. Heroes is the creation of Tim Kring and NBC Television.
"Forever is a Long Time Coming" " by Karen
'Hurry up and wait time is all we've got," Adam Monroe muttered under his breath as he hurried to keep across the crowded street, weaving in and out of traffic; just another speck in the crowed, another piece of flotsam in the steady stream of life that was the city.
Others might have preferred to stand out, to be noticed, not Adam. He preferred to remain in the shadows, to blend in. In fact, if truth were told, he might even prefer it that way given the way circumstances were playing out of late.
It was safer, it was smarter. However a part of his rebellious nature, the part that felt chained up like a wild animal kept in captivity, who unable to take it anymore, would gnaw its own leg off to escape; wanted to shout and make a difference. And being safer and smarter had been the watch word since he had discovered his own abilities; and having been around longer than he might care to admit
Adam Monroe knew a thing or two about what caused the world to spin and why; more importantly he had a plan to make certain that the Company did not come with spitting distance of succeeding in their plans. It had become a sort of deadly game after all this time, like everyone involved even peripherally were nothing more than pieces on a chess board; moving the markers about, staying one step aside of his opponent; reveling in the satisfaction he got when he outsmarted them.
At this point he had simply no longer bothered to keep track of how many times he had managed to outsmart the Company; but it was a substantial number. The one time he had guessed wrong the Company, unable or unwilling to kill him, gambling on the fact that he might still serve as a valuable asset had instead captured him and locked him up.
If this was a game, all kidding aside, at this point he simply could not afford to lose; far too much was at stake. Adam Monroe grinned as he reached up to adjust the fit of the collar of the hood of the unremarkable grey sweatshirt, pulling it down closer to shade his face.
"These are the times that try men's souls. To seek, to strive, and never to yield. Don't recall who came up with that quote and I don't suppose it matters much in the long run. Still, when I'm through, the Company won't know what hit them." **
The wind had been blowing steadily from the east all afternoon and as evening approached turning the sky overhead from a robin's egg blue to a slate gray and finally black peppered with the pinpricks of distant stars Adam Pierson sat in a open-air cafe and sipped at the latest in a long series of beers had been all afternoon and wondered if he had read too much into a variety of news articles that had been circulating on the television news networks.
Normally he would not have bothered since he preferred to stay cheerfully uninvolved in the larger troubles of the world, and the smaller difficulties of his own; but somehow those difficulties sometimes found him.
Hiding in plain sight had worked this far, he figured, with a fatalistic shrug of his shoulders and muttered under his breath. "No reason to suspect that it should not work as well this time.'
As he finished up the last of the beer and nodded the waiter over to slip a wad of cash to pay for his drinks, he again considered the reasons he had been convinced to leave the West coast and come to New York.
One, considering the mess that he had left behind there, the outing of his true identity to a rogue branch of the Watchers; it had seemed like a good idea to disappear off the radar for a while. Mere distance would not let them forget about him entirely, but it would serve for the duration.
Two, Adam Pierson was not his real name, but it had become as accustomed to him as his own face that he saw in the mirror, as much as his own two arms and legs; Methos chuckled at the mental image thus invoked and went on his way, the daily newspaper tucked underneath his arm.
Two, he did have to wonder if there were more truth to the rumors and wild claims of people with strange and dangerous abilities seemingly all culminating here in Manhattan. His own curiosity and devil-may-care attitude would not let him this mystery unresolved, more so if the rumors were he had determined that he had find out the truth of the matter to his own satisfaction. **
Adam Monroe stood at the foot of the three story apartment building staring up the roof as memorizing its every line, every cracked and weather steel, wood and mortar line of it; as if it were his duty to recall it later in every detail. He had been at this for some time; oblivious to the ebb and flow of the foot and vehicle traffic that eddied around as if he were nothing more than another statue that fronted the rooftop at the very top of the building.
He knew what he had come there for and nothing would stop him in order to accomplish it. Stirring out of his self-imposed solidity Adam Monroe who several centuries ago had once been called Takezo Kenzi; and had had devised many other aliases in his time crossed the esplande that fronted onto the apartment building and was just pushing through the double doors when he was brought up short by movement in the shadows behind and to one side of him.
He shrugged and hurried on his way. Even for one such as he, who had lived as long as he had, was feeling especially pressed for time. If he was going to be successful he could not afford to become distracted, but the feeling of events slipping out of his control, of being followed made the short blond hairs at the nape of his neck stand on end. It was an extremely uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling; but Adam pushed past and hurried on up the stairs that led to the rooftop where the man he come to confront and then kill would be found.
Methos was not expecting trouble but when he sensed more than saw the blond man go into an apartment building his nerve endings tingled; the odd part of the entire sensations was that it was not even remotely close to the "Buzz" that he felt upon sensing the presence of another Immortal; more like his instincts warning him of more ordinary kind of danger; but still it was worth checking up on.
He followed the blond man in the nondescript hooded sweatshirt into the building at a distance where he would not lose him in the shadows of oncoming evening. "
The rooftop was curiously empty, when his eyes gradually adjusted to the change in light, the expanse was lit up by moonlight beaming down from the night sky overhead.
Methos did not know what he had expected but the man he had been following made street for a lone figure who stood at a railing that wrapped the entire rooftop garden in every direction except for the stairwell. Methos hung back, curious and expectant to see what would happen. **
Adam knew that when the moment came he would let his intended victim know the identity of his killer; in fact he was counting on it. Kaito Nakamura should have received the message he had sent to all of the original members of the Company; their pictures crossed with the symbol in red a slash across their faces.
In a way, it was no more than what they had coming to them, for every thing that he had done; as he set foot on the roof, it occurred to him with a rueful smile creasing his lips, in a way, it was almost a kind of justice for what they had failed to do. **
"You!" Kaito Nakamura exclaimed as Adam approached.
"Were you expecting someone else, perhaps?" Adam replied.
"You have no right to bandy words with me," the older Japanese man replied after a few moments of uncomfortable silence having quickly recovered his considerable composure.
"No. I would have thought I had every right," replied Adam.
"Do not do this. You will ruin everything that we have worked so hard to accomplish; and it is so close to the final culmination. Kaito Nakamura, even in this moment had not lost an iota of his considerable composure, but still he could not suppress a tiny shudder of fear.
Adam Monroe or whatever he name he chose to adopt was far more dangerous than he let on. He was not afraid of death, he just afraid that Adam would ruin everything he and his friends and colleagues had worked so hard and so long to accomplish.
"I know.." With a shrug, "After all, who would know better than I. You did this to me.": With that the blond man launched himself forward much like a mountain lion would attacking its prey and bringing it to the ground.
Methos was too far distant to make out what kind of weapon each other brought to bear, but he could make out a glint of steel either from a gun or a knife of some sort.
It was at that exact moment that of all the people on the rooftop that a shimmer and sound like a gun being fired broke the tension and another person appeared directly in the middle of the two men.
From his vantage point this one definitely carried a sword and in the uncertain light his tightly drawn features had much in common with the older Japanese man. There was far more going on here than was apparent on the surface. Methos knew he had accidentally stumbled on something that obviously someone had taken great pains to keep a secret; and he it more than a need to satisfy his own curiosity to dig deeper into this mystery.
He inched forward several steps in order to hear better what they were saying to each other.
"You? Both the blond man and the younger Japanese man exclaimed at the same time.
"I thought you were dead."
"I believed you to be dead, too."
"Don't get involved, old friend," warned the blond man in a tightly barely controlled voice and with that pushed past him to confront Kaito Nakamura and with that whirled around and shoved the slightly built older man out and over the edge of the railing and down.
"Hiro…" Adam shrugged. "This was inevitable, I hope you understand that, if not now than some other time." "NO! " The cry was laced with more emotions than Hiro Nakamura could bring himself to express at the instant in time as he saw his father tumbled end over end and on down to the street below.
He had wanted very much to prevent this from happening, and yet his best efforts had failed. No sooner had he said this but he then squinted up his face and the concentration on his face was evident even from the distance separating the little tableau from Methos' vantage point.
When the smaller man opened his eyes again there was a distinct difference in the air; the tension was still there, still unmistakable.
It took him several moments before he grasped what the difference was; everything on that rooftop was frozen as turned to stone, the pigeons, the dry, frozen leaves of late autumn, the wind that had shifted direction while he watched this strange confrontation play out to its end, the three men,; the one he had followed, the one who had been marked for death all were frozen in mid motion; the looks on their faces a mix of puzzlement, anger, fear and shock.
He could relate; this was weird, even for him and he had seen his share of weirdness in his time. However, the only movement besides himself was the short stocky Japanese man could move.
Was he responsible for this phenonemen and if so, how? Methos shook his head to clear it of the inevitable cobwebs and with his hands out in front of him as he swung onto the rooftop and strode over to have a look.
The only other person did not seem to even notice his presence, instead he stood by the railing where the older man had fallen to his death and stared down, as immobile as everything else around him. "And here I thought I'd seen everything." muttered Methos under his breath, wondering again if he might have made a mistake in letting the man who called himself Adam Monroe go his way.
He neither knew nor cared whatever grievance or urge for revenge had driven the man to push the older, slender Japanese man off the edge of the roof before the appearance of yet another Asian fellow armed with a sword. It was then that Hiro Nakamura noticed the intrusive presence.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Funny, I was about to ask you the same question. Relax, fellow. I mean you no harm. Actually, I'm more interested in who, " as he gestured with his left hand Methos pointed in the direction of the frozen, angry, tight features of the man he had followed up here in the first place, and added. "who the hell he is."
Hiro shook his head and turned away from the edge of the railing.
"That seems to be everyone's favorite question of late. He was my friend once upon a time, or at least I would like to believe he was."
Methos shrugged. "Happens to the best of us." "I don't mean to make trouble for you, and I certainly don't care what differences you had that drove you to do this?" Methos stopped and reached up to finger comb through the strands of his short cropped dark hair.
"How, how did you stop time.. I've seen a lot of strange things in my time, but I've never seen anything like that."
Hiro smiled. "It's complicated. " He paused and stepped forward. "It doesn't last very long and it there's so many unanswered questions; it won't end, not like this."
With that he stopped speaking and with a shove he pushed the still immobilized blond manr the edge.
"Well, that was rather cryptic. Care to try again?"
"Not really, replied Hiro as he turned around to face the strange man, wondering as he did so who the hell he was and more importantly why he had not been affected by his power to temporarily stop time; and why he should be so interested in Adam Monroe.
Hiro shrugged and figured that anyone who had lived as long as Adam or rather Takezo Kenzi had, was bound to have made more than his share of enemies over the centuries.
"Why don't you ask him yourself." With that shorter man again scrunched up his eyes, concentrating and the finally disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Methos rocked back on his heels shock registering on his features as the sounds and sights of his immediate surroundings came back, flooding the rooftop with their restored presence.
"Damn it! He cursed and then rushed to the railing to look down and out trying to peer through the evening darkness for the bodies of the two men that should be down there.
It was with a start that he found only one, sprawled on the street pavement below. It was then that Methos started to believe in the rumors, and that maybe, just maybe those rumors were true. He made a sudden decision in that moment. and while hee did not know everything he needed to know about the situation; but he was bound and determined to discover them whatever it took to do so.
He smiled then, a thin skimming back of his lips to show his teeth. "Now, this will be interesting. " With that he turned around and went back down the steps in the direction from which he had come from.
"Forever is a Long Time Coming" " by Karen
'Hurry up and wait time is all we've got," Adam Monroe muttered under his breath as he hurried to keep across the crowded street, weaving in and out of traffic; just another speck in the crowed, another piece of flotsam in the steady stream of life that was the city.
Others might have preferred to stand out, to be noticed, not Adam. He preferred to remain in the shadows, to blend in. In fact, if truth were told, he might even prefer it that way given the way circumstances were playing out of late.
It was safer, it was smarter. However a part of his rebellious nature, the part that felt chained up like a wild animal kept in captivity, who unable to take it anymore, would gnaw its own leg off to escape; wanted to shout and make a difference. And being safer and smarter had been the watch word since he had discovered his own abilities; and having been around longer than he might care to admit
Adam Monroe knew a thing or two about what caused the world to spin and why; more importantly he had a plan to make certain that the Company did not come with spitting distance of succeeding in their plans. It had become a sort of deadly game after all this time, like everyone involved even peripherally were nothing more than pieces on a chess board; moving the markers about, staying one step aside of his opponent; reveling in the satisfaction he got when he outsmarted them.
At this point he had simply no longer bothered to keep track of how many times he had managed to outsmart the Company; but it was a substantial number. The one time he had guessed wrong the Company, unable or unwilling to kill him, gambling on the fact that he might still serve as a valuable asset had instead captured him and locked him up.
If this was a game, all kidding aside, at this point he simply could not afford to lose; far too much was at stake. Adam Monroe grinned as he reached up to adjust the fit of the collar of the hood of the unremarkable grey sweatshirt, pulling it down closer to shade his face.
"These are the times that try men's souls. To seek, to strive, and never to yield. Don't recall who came up with that quote and I don't suppose it matters much in the long run. Still, when I'm through, the Company won't know what hit them." **
The wind had been blowing steadily from the east all afternoon and as evening approached turning the sky overhead from a robin's egg blue to a slate gray and finally black peppered with the pinpricks of distant stars Adam Pierson sat in a open-air cafe and sipped at the latest in a long series of beers had been all afternoon and wondered if he had read too much into a variety of news articles that had been circulating on the television news networks.
Normally he would not have bothered since he preferred to stay cheerfully uninvolved in the larger troubles of the world, and the smaller difficulties of his own; but somehow those difficulties sometimes found him.
Hiding in plain sight had worked this far, he figured, with a fatalistic shrug of his shoulders and muttered under his breath. "No reason to suspect that it should not work as well this time.'
As he finished up the last of the beer and nodded the waiter over to slip a wad of cash to pay for his drinks, he again considered the reasons he had been convinced to leave the West coast and come to New York.
One, considering the mess that he had left behind there, the outing of his true identity to a rogue branch of the Watchers; it had seemed like a good idea to disappear off the radar for a while. Mere distance would not let them forget about him entirely, but it would serve for the duration.
Two, Adam Pierson was not his real name, but it had become as accustomed to him as his own face that he saw in the mirror, as much as his own two arms and legs; Methos chuckled at the mental image thus invoked and went on his way, the daily newspaper tucked underneath his arm.
Two, he did have to wonder if there were more truth to the rumors and wild claims of people with strange and dangerous abilities seemingly all culminating here in Manhattan. His own curiosity and devil-may-care attitude would not let him this mystery unresolved, more so if the rumors were he had determined that he had find out the truth of the matter to his own satisfaction. **
Adam Monroe stood at the foot of the three story apartment building staring up the roof as memorizing its every line, every cracked and weather steel, wood and mortar line of it; as if it were his duty to recall it later in every detail. He had been at this for some time; oblivious to the ebb and flow of the foot and vehicle traffic that eddied around as if he were nothing more than another statue that fronted the rooftop at the very top of the building.
He knew what he had come there for and nothing would stop him in order to accomplish it. Stirring out of his self-imposed solidity Adam Monroe who several centuries ago had once been called Takezo Kenzi; and had had devised many other aliases in his time crossed the esplande that fronted onto the apartment building and was just pushing through the double doors when he was brought up short by movement in the shadows behind and to one side of him.
He shrugged and hurried on his way. Even for one such as he, who had lived as long as he had, was feeling especially pressed for time. If he was going to be successful he could not afford to become distracted, but the feeling of events slipping out of his control, of being followed made the short blond hairs at the nape of his neck stand on end. It was an extremely uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling; but Adam pushed past and hurried on up the stairs that led to the rooftop where the man he come to confront and then kill would be found.
Methos was not expecting trouble but when he sensed more than saw the blond man go into an apartment building his nerve endings tingled; the odd part of the entire sensations was that it was not even remotely close to the "Buzz" that he felt upon sensing the presence of another Immortal; more like his instincts warning him of more ordinary kind of danger; but still it was worth checking up on.
He followed the blond man in the nondescript hooded sweatshirt into the building at a distance where he would not lose him in the shadows of oncoming evening. "
The rooftop was curiously empty, when his eyes gradually adjusted to the change in light, the expanse was lit up by moonlight beaming down from the night sky overhead.
Methos did not know what he had expected but the man he had been following made street for a lone figure who stood at a railing that wrapped the entire rooftop garden in every direction except for the stairwell. Methos hung back, curious and expectant to see what would happen. **
Adam knew that when the moment came he would let his intended victim know the identity of his killer; in fact he was counting on it. Kaito Nakamura should have received the message he had sent to all of the original members of the Company; their pictures crossed with the symbol in red a slash across their faces.
In a way, it was no more than what they had coming to them, for every thing that he had done; as he set foot on the roof, it occurred to him with a rueful smile creasing his lips, in a way, it was almost a kind of justice for what they had failed to do. **
"You!" Kaito Nakamura exclaimed as Adam approached.
"Were you expecting someone else, perhaps?" Adam replied.
"You have no right to bandy words with me," the older Japanese man replied after a few moments of uncomfortable silence having quickly recovered his considerable composure.
"No. I would have thought I had every right," replied Adam.
"Do not do this. You will ruin everything that we have worked so hard to accomplish; and it is so close to the final culmination. Kaito Nakamura, even in this moment had not lost an iota of his considerable composure, but still he could not suppress a tiny shudder of fear.
Adam Monroe or whatever he name he chose to adopt was far more dangerous than he let on. He was not afraid of death, he just afraid that Adam would ruin everything he and his friends and colleagues had worked so hard and so long to accomplish.
"I know.." With a shrug, "After all, who would know better than I. You did this to me.": With that the blond man launched himself forward much like a mountain lion would attacking its prey and bringing it to the ground.
Methos was too far distant to make out what kind of weapon each other brought to bear, but he could make out a glint of steel either from a gun or a knife of some sort.
It was at that exact moment that of all the people on the rooftop that a shimmer and sound like a gun being fired broke the tension and another person appeared directly in the middle of the two men.
From his vantage point this one definitely carried a sword and in the uncertain light his tightly drawn features had much in common with the older Japanese man. There was far more going on here than was apparent on the surface. Methos knew he had accidentally stumbled on something that obviously someone had taken great pains to keep a secret; and he it more than a need to satisfy his own curiosity to dig deeper into this mystery.
He inched forward several steps in order to hear better what they were saying to each other.
"You? Both the blond man and the younger Japanese man exclaimed at the same time.
"I thought you were dead."
"I believed you to be dead, too."
"Don't get involved, old friend," warned the blond man in a tightly barely controlled voice and with that pushed past him to confront Kaito Nakamura and with that whirled around and shoved the slightly built older man out and over the edge of the railing and down.
"Hiro…" Adam shrugged. "This was inevitable, I hope you understand that, if not now than some other time." "NO! " The cry was laced with more emotions than Hiro Nakamura could bring himself to express at the instant in time as he saw his father tumbled end over end and on down to the street below.
He had wanted very much to prevent this from happening, and yet his best efforts had failed. No sooner had he said this but he then squinted up his face and the concentration on his face was evident even from the distance separating the little tableau from Methos' vantage point.
When the smaller man opened his eyes again there was a distinct difference in the air; the tension was still there, still unmistakable.
It took him several moments before he grasped what the difference was; everything on that rooftop was frozen as turned to stone, the pigeons, the dry, frozen leaves of late autumn, the wind that had shifted direction while he watched this strange confrontation play out to its end, the three men,; the one he had followed, the one who had been marked for death all were frozen in mid motion; the looks on their faces a mix of puzzlement, anger, fear and shock.
He could relate; this was weird, even for him and he had seen his share of weirdness in his time. However, the only movement besides himself was the short stocky Japanese man could move.
Was he responsible for this phenonemen and if so, how? Methos shook his head to clear it of the inevitable cobwebs and with his hands out in front of him as he swung onto the rooftop and strode over to have a look.
The only other person did not seem to even notice his presence, instead he stood by the railing where the older man had fallen to his death and stared down, as immobile as everything else around him. "And here I thought I'd seen everything." muttered Methos under his breath, wondering again if he might have made a mistake in letting the man who called himself Adam Monroe go his way.
He neither knew nor cared whatever grievance or urge for revenge had driven the man to push the older, slender Japanese man off the edge of the roof before the appearance of yet another Asian fellow armed with a sword. It was then that Hiro Nakamura noticed the intrusive presence.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Funny, I was about to ask you the same question. Relax, fellow. I mean you no harm. Actually, I'm more interested in who, " as he gestured with his left hand Methos pointed in the direction of the frozen, angry, tight features of the man he had followed up here in the first place, and added. "who the hell he is."
Hiro shook his head and turned away from the edge of the railing.
"That seems to be everyone's favorite question of late. He was my friend once upon a time, or at least I would like to believe he was."
Methos shrugged. "Happens to the best of us." "I don't mean to make trouble for you, and I certainly don't care what differences you had that drove you to do this?" Methos stopped and reached up to finger comb through the strands of his short cropped dark hair.
"How, how did you stop time.. I've seen a lot of strange things in my time, but I've never seen anything like that."
Hiro smiled. "It's complicated. " He paused and stepped forward. "It doesn't last very long and it there's so many unanswered questions; it won't end, not like this."
With that he stopped speaking and with a shove he pushed the still immobilized blond manr the edge.
"Well, that was rather cryptic. Care to try again?"
"Not really, replied Hiro as he turned around to face the strange man, wondering as he did so who the hell he was and more importantly why he had not been affected by his power to temporarily stop time; and why he should be so interested in Adam Monroe.
Hiro shrugged and figured that anyone who had lived as long as Adam or rather Takezo Kenzi had, was bound to have made more than his share of enemies over the centuries.
"Why don't you ask him yourself." With that shorter man again scrunched up his eyes, concentrating and the finally disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Methos rocked back on his heels shock registering on his features as the sounds and sights of his immediate surroundings came back, flooding the rooftop with their restored presence.
"Damn it! He cursed and then rushed to the railing to look down and out trying to peer through the evening darkness for the bodies of the two men that should be down there.
It was with a start that he found only one, sprawled on the street pavement below. It was then that Methos started to believe in the rumors, and that maybe, just maybe those rumors were true. He made a sudden decision in that moment. and while hee did not know everything he needed to know about the situation; but he was bound and determined to discover them whatever it took to do so.
He smiled then, a thin skimming back of his lips to show his teeth. "Now, this will be interesting. " With that he turned around and went back down the steps in the direction from which he had come from.