Prologue
Reconnaissance Mission
Planet P7X4238
"Well they certainly weren't very friendly," Jack O'Neill muttered sullenly, holding a thick square of gauze to his forehead where a small stone had hit him.
"I told you they wouldn't be," Methos shrugged, rubbing his shoulder. The rock hadn't been very big, but whoever had thrown it had put their all into the gesture. A few shots from a zat gun and the attendant electrical show that went with it had frightened the rest of the villagers off, but not before they'd done some damage, however slight that was.
"How did you know?" Samantha Carter asked, easing a knot out of her thigh.
"Call it deja vu, Major," Methos smiled grimly. "I sort of knew their ancestors."
Daniel Jackson looked up from where he knelt over his pack. "I thought I recognized the clothing style. Early Mesopotamian, right?"
"Very early," Methos agreed. "Pre-bronze age, in fact."
"Must have been caught up in a Goa'uld slave run," O'Neill commented, checking the gauze to see whether the flow of blood had stopped. "Good enough," he mumbled, tossing the pad aside. "Come on, let's get back to the gate. Teal'c!" he called and the dark skinned Jaffa, who'd been guarding the clearing while they saw to their wounds came over. "Take point," he ordered as he stood. "Carter, watch our asses."
"Yes, sir," she responded as they moved out.
Methos fell in beside O'Neill and Daniel, also keeping an eye out for any villagers who might have gotten their courage back. He doubted it, but there was always a first time.
They'd walked about half a mile before Daniel finally spoke up. "Deja vu, huh?" he asked softly. "How many times did it happen?"
"Enough," Methos responded lightly. "People weren't very friendly towards strangers in those days. Not if they looked substantially different from what they imagined a normal human should look like. You couldn't even call it racism. It was just otherness that was frightening."
"What did you do?"
"What any sensible being would," Methos shrugged. "I hid. Found some nice comfy caves and stayed well away from everyone."
Daniel looked shocked. "For how long?"
"I don't know," Methos admitted with a dismissive shrug. "A few hundred years, maybe more. I didn't keep track. It's all a sort of blur to me now. Just hunting for food and trying to stay alive, mostly."
"So you knew you were Immortal?"
Methos sighed, finally giving into the idea that the questions wouldn't stop until something else distracted Daniel. "I knew I was different, but I didn't know why. Five thousand years ago I had no memories, remember?"
"Right," Daniel nodded. "So, how did you find out?"
"The same day I took my first head," he murmured, remembering the moment. "I was fishing."
"Fishing?" Jack asked, suddenly interested.
Methos grinned. The colonel had been listening, but unlike Daniel never dreamed of asking prying, uncomfortable questions. "Not for sport, for food. The lake wasn't very big and it was close to one of the villages I avoided, but I wanted some water reeds for making rope and I was hungry, so I fished."
"What happened?" Daniel asked as they started to climb one of several hills that led back to the gate.
"A man showed up. Not much different from the villagers in looks, but he had an ax. A very big bronze ax. He shouted something to the effect that he was going to cut off my head and swallow my soul, which as you can imagine rather shocked me. I was used to sticks and stones - being driven away - although one village headman decided he wanted to eat my demon heart which was what made me hide in the first place. But no one had ever just come out and said they were going to kill me without reason. And he wasn't frightened of me, which I found puzzling." Not to mention, he thought wryly, that his stomach had been twisted in knots and his head buzzing so loudly he'd though he'd lose his mind.
"Well, he obviously didn't take your head," O'Neill pointed out.
"No," Methos agreed. "He might have had an ax, but I had a fishing spear - and I wasn't shy about using it. Idiot never even got close."
"Then you took his head," Daniel surmised.
"I'd like to say yes," Methos grinned ruefully. "To say that I stood there all proud and manly thinking, 'Take my head, will you?! I'll show you, pond scum!' But I was just as terrified of him as the villagers were of me."
"Why?" O'Neill asked, surprised.
"I'd never seen bronze before. And he hadn't been the least bit afraid of me. I knew I wasn't a demon, but maybe he was. When I finally pulled myself together and got my spear out of his chest I stopped to look at the ax. He revived while I was examining it and I was so startled... I mean, he came back to life just like I did and he'd already said he wanted to eat my soul. So, I hit him with it. And that's when my fear turned to anger and I chopped off his head along with some other bits and pieces."
"Sounds messy," O'Neill grimaced.
"Extremely," Methos allowed. "But then, what did I know? I thought if I hit it enough times it would stay down. And somewhere in there his Quickening showed up and I thought, 'Run!' So I did, but it caught me. After that," he shrugged. "I had some of his memories and I knew what I was. And what I was supposedly supposed to do."
"Not a very pleasant introduction to Immortality," Daniel commented softly as they reached the Stargate.
"No," Methos agreed, watching Carter punch in the address home. "But it got me out of those damn caves. And no one threw stones at me anymore - because now I had a big bronze ax and I wasn't shy about using it."
To one side of him, Jack was snickering, while Daniel looked appalled. The gate opened and they headed through. Another mission accomplished. Sort of.
Go to next part.