Duncan looked at the young man he was herding away, and couldn't help but wonder how he could not have seen it before. It was the same feeling that she had made him feel... the same need to protect. *Must be getting old...* The past was catching up to him- Duncan hoped that this time, it wouldn't turn out the way it had, all those years ago...

*This is definitely not the time to think of that- maybe never...* Shaking himself out of the brooding that he was prone to falling into, Duncan told the young man in his arms, "You're going to be spending tonight at my place, okay? I don't think that you should be alone- not when there's someone like that out there." Subaru looked up at him for a moment, and then nodded.

"Duncan-san. Thank you... if you hadn't been there, there would have been one inevitable ending to that encounter. Even if I am immortal, that is not a fact that I want him to know... and he would have found out quite easily after he'd killed me, and I came back to life." Duncan couldn't help shaking his head at the matter-of-fact way Subaru accepted his death. He hadn't heard fatalism like that in a long time...

*Damn it- I'm not going to think about that now...* Duncan started to move a little faster, and soon he and Subaru were in front of Duncan's newly-rented apartment. As Duncan unlocked the door, he commented, "Actually, this place is about as furnished as yours- I just moved in, and didn't have any time to put anything in here."

Subaru looked in and saw that Duncan had been telling the truth. There was nothing in the living room besides a couple of chairs and a telephone on a little table. As Subaru stepped out of his shoes, he murmured, "That's all right. Emptiness... it's not such a bad thing." Subaru's half-introspective voice made Duncan give him a sharp look.

Subaru noticed and raised a hand. "Don't worry- I'm not going to do anything." He sat on one of the chairs with his arms around his knees, his feet resting on the edge of the seat. Seeming oddly strong and vulnerable at the same time, Subaru's green eyes locked with Duncan's. "This is just the way I am, whenever I see him... I can't help it. I know what he is, and yet-"

Sighing, Subaru buried his face into his knees. A moment of quiet while Duncan recalled a heartbreakingly similar position from another, then a continuing whisper. "He would have had me today, if you hadn't been there. I suppose you are my protector in this, ne? Duncan-san... I am truly grateful, but I wish that you had not gotten involved."

Duncan sat down on a chair next to Subaru, and put one hand on his shoulder. The contact made Subaru's head come up to meet Duncan's eyes again. "Subaru, don't worry about me. I've faced his kind and worse- trust me on this." Subaru, about to protest, looked into those confident eyes and was unable to do so.

"I hope for your sake that you are right, Duncan-san. That is all..." Duncan leaned back in his chair, taking his hand from Subaru's frail frame. Looking up at the ceiling, he said in a curious tone, "What would you have done, if I hadn't been there?" Subaru thought for a moment, and replied, "Died, most likely. I would have been both too angered and saddened- my combat skills would have been severely impaired."

Subaru smiled a little forlornly. "Not that I would have truly died, but I would have failed at killing him. And from what you say, I suppose that I can just wait for him to die..." Shaking his head, Subaru let his feet slide off the seat to the wood floor. "But he was telling the truth. Our reckoning... it's approaching, and quickly. I should be pleased. After all, this meeting has been the only thing I've been dreaming of- that, and of the other fight..."

As Subaru started to fall to his brooding again, Duncan interrupted him. "Subaru, don't be so certain that this is what you want. Trust me- everything is different now that you're an immortal- very different. You don't have to be the person that you were before your first death. There are opportunities open to you- things that you can't even imagine..."

Subaru smiled, and started to speak. "Duncan-san. Trust *me*- nothing changes the fact that this fight has to be fought-" Duncan's angry glare cut him off. "There is nothing that is destined to be. There is no such thing as fate for any immortal- trust me on that." Duncan's eyes focused inward as he let the memories take him back. "Let me tell you of another student I had...

"Mr. MacLeod! Don't forget your umbrella! The weather's beastly outside!" Duncan looked back and took the umbrella from the young clerk. "Mr. Randall, thank you. I do think that I would forget my own head if it weren't attached..." Duncan sighed at his own bad joke and then started back to his flat. "It is rather terrible weather, isn't it?"

While contemplating whether or not he should go rouse up one of his drinking buddies, Duncan stopped short as he felt the presence of another immortal. The buzz was strange- weak and ill-defined, for lack of a better term. Drawing his sword and discarding the umbrella, Duncan headed toward the immortal.

Finally, he came upon what had called him- the body of a young woman who had just recently died, which was now lying in a ditch. She seemed to have been beaten badly, until those wounds had killed her, and then had been left for dead. Duncan looked at the girl for a moment before sighing. Putting his sword away, he picked up the rather dirty corpse and started toward home. *How do I get myself into things like this...*

Duncan was glad his flat was so near, as he had no idea what he would have told a Bobbie if one had chanced to bump into him while he had been carrying the corpse. *It's a good profession, that- however new it may be... but it would be annoying if one were to bump into me like this...* However, he got to his apartment without any mishaps, and gladly let the body down on the floor inside his apartment.

Looking down at the still-dead immortal, Duncan wondered what he was going to do with her. Seeing the way she had died, he guessed that she was newly awakened, as most immortals would have a sword out long before such damage could be done to them... He sat down in the chair, and waited until the girl took a long breath, signifying her return to life.

"Who- who are you!" Duncan looked down at the girl, who was clutching at her dirtied clothes and looking at him with wide, frightened eyes. Holding out his empty hands in a conciliatory way, Duncan said in a gentle tone, "Miss, please calm down. There are a few things that you need to know... What's your name?"

The woman looked at the wet and bedraggled gentleman in front of her, and whispered, "Mary. Mary Peele..." Duncan gave her a gentle smile, and told her, "Miss Mary, why don't you sit here a bit? Would you like something to eat?" Putting her at ease with his charming manner and promise of food, she nodded hesitantly, before sitting at the chair that Duncan had just vacated.

A moment later, Duncan brought back some bread and cheese from the kitchen, along with a cup of tea. "How do you take your tea, Miss Mary?" Duncan handed her the bread and cheese, their hands accidentally touching. She flinched away violently from his touch, and then blushed. "I- I'm sorry, Mr-"

He gave her the cup of tea, and said, "My name is Duncan MacLeod, and I have a feeling that I am about to give you very strange news. Will you promise that you will not tell me I'm crazy until the end of my story?" Mary gave him a tentative nod, and then let him begin. "My name is Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod, and I am two hundred and fifty years old..."

"Mary! What are you doing?" Duncan came upon the girl as she sat, mesmerized, by the shine of his sword's exposed blade. "Duncan! I was- I was just wondering when I was getting my sword... I can't rely on you forever- not if what you've told me is true. And if I have a sword, if I have strength, I can-" Duncan shook his head.

Taking the sword from Mary, Duncan said in an exasperated tone, "Mary, you know that your family thinks that you're dead. You can't go back to being mortal Mary with her loving father and mother anymore- you know that." Mary had told him of her family with such longing in her voice that he was half-tempted to let her go back- but he knew the trouble a resurrection from the dead could bring... *Father...*

"Mary- trust me- as your teacher, as someone who knows more... you can't go back... not for anything." Mary bit her lip, and then nodded, before she turned her head. Duncan looked at her with some unease in his heart, but then nodded. *She's a good kid- won't tell me who killed her, but I don't blame her for not wanting to say... She'll be all right.*

Still, he couldn't help but be bothered by the occasional strange light her eyes seemed to have... It came out the most when she told him about her family. "Maybe she should see her family- they seem almost too good to be true. They sound like people who could accept- What am I thinking?" Duncan shook his head ruefully. "Having a pretty girl like that around must be bad for the brain..."

"Mary? Where are you?" Duncan came back to the apartment with the foodstuffs that Mary had asked for. Ever since they had become lovers as well as teacher and student, she had become much more domestic, even insisting that she cook for him. Duncan did not mind- having such a lovely, quick young woman around in any fashion was happiness for him.

*Has it only been 3 months?* Duncan couldn't help but feel that it had been longer- she was such a presence in his life now. He just wished that she would stop with the secrets... he didn't mind her going out, but couldn't help worry every time she left on her strange trips... *What could she be looking for, anyway?*

He noticed that her sword was gone as well- it had been a gift for her from him... she had been so happy with it... *Almost too happy? No- she was just glad she could take care of herself now...* Duncan saw the note that she had left on the table. *'Twas a good idea, me teaching her how to write...*

:Duncan- I must do this. I am sorry. Mary:

"What the hell does that mean?" Duncan started to pace, until he felt the buzz of another immortal approching him. "Mary? Is that you?" Duncan opened the door, and was shocked at what he saw. It was Mary, but totally different from his cheerful student. She stood with a bloody sword in her hand, and was pale as a ghost.

"Mary! What happened? Did you take a Quickening?" Duncan glanced around and then dragged her through the door. "What do you think you're doing, going around with a sword like that?" Duncan tried to think of something else to say to fill the silence, until she spoke. "Duncan... did you know that you can make someone scream awfully loudly with a sword?"

She turned vacant eyes upon him, and Duncan shuddered at the fully surfaced madness- the madness that he had tried to ignore... "Mary- what have you done?" She giggled, and started to twirl the sword around. "My nice family- my sweet family.. they're gone now... They're finally gone- all of them. Especially my father... I made him scream the most..."

Still moving the sword so he could not get close, she smiled at him. "He was the one that killed me, of course... he and my mother, and my brother... I wasn't bringing in enough money by selling my body, and they were drunk anyway... When I awoke from the beating they gave me to this place, I thought that I was in heaven..."

Mary gave Duncan a firm look. "But you tried to tell me that vengeance wasn't mine- that this beautiful gift that God had given me to take my holy revenge wasn't to be used in that way... how could you? You betrayed me-" She thrust suddenly, trying to spear him with her blade. "You tried to help them, and after I'd given you what they had made me sell... after I'd given you what my father had taken from me-"

Duncan gave her a helpless look. "Mary- please. Don't do this. I don't want to have to-" As her blade came too near his neck, he instinctive raised his blade to parry. This made her even more furious, so that she started to attack harder, faster. "Mary- don't! No-" As she tried one last thrust, her balance gave out, and she tumbled to the ground. Her sword fell to one side of her, it's clang signaling the end of the fight.

Duncan fell to his knees next to her as she started to sob, keening and crying out for her family. "Mary, I-" Her eyes came up suddenly, it's mad light freezing him for a moment. Her hand dropped to the sword on the ground and raised it so that it was coming straight for Duncan's neck. Duncan ducked and then raised his sword.

"Mary, I'm sorry-" His sword came up and decapitated her cleanly. As he knelt with the sword, her Quickening came to him, weak and quick. She had not lived long enough for there to be any power to her. "Mary... why? Why couldn't you just forget- why couldn't you just tell me..."

"Duncan-san." Duncan opened his eyes and saw his new student in front of him, his green eyes filled with concern. "That was how Mary and her quest for vengeance ended. Don't be stupid. Don't be blinded... She had just cause- none would argue that she did not... but-" Duncan sighed and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long time since he'd thought about her... she may only have been in his life for a few months, but she had left a mark.

Subaru looked at the man who suddenly seemed to have truly lived all of the four hundred years that he claimed to have. Strength and experience- that was what he had... "Duncan-san. Your Mary... she did not end well... perhaps I will not, either. But-" He sighed. "It does not matter. It truly does not matter... I have been driven for too long to this end, and I don't think I can stop it."

Duncan gave him a helpless look as he saw another student walk toward self-destruction. "Don't you understand that there is not too long for you? Not anymore- you are immortal! Can't you see that you aren't locked into some fate?" Duncan grabbed Subaru's shoulders, his frustration at the whole mess breaking. "Look at me, and tell me that you're going to at least think about doing something more with your life!"

Duncan looked into those wide, green eyes and suddenly, time seemed to stop. "Subaru-" Subaru smiled gently, and leaned his forehead on Duncan's forehead. "Thank you, Duncan-san. It's been a long time since anyone's cared like you do for me. Not since Hokuto-neesan... and she-"

Subaru lifted his head suddenly. Fiercely, he said, "No, Duncan-san. I cannot let the fight go. I am sorry- but my sister- Seishirou-san... There has to be an end." Duncan looked down at the eyes, burning with a fanatic's fire. If he didn't care so much... if he knew that there was more to life than his narrow focus of death and love...

A sudden decision- and yet, not so sudden. Duncan knew that it had been floating in his mind since he had noticed the similarities between Mary and Subaru- not just the imbalance, but the fact that he was attracted to both of them... "Subaru. Decide after you've lived..." and Duncan's lips reached down to touch Subaru's.

/Food?/
/Soon... though it will not be the one you have been asking for.../

Seishirou looked for the aura of Subaru's protector... it had been strangely distinctive and powerful, though he was no magic user. *Perhaps I can take this strange annoyance out on this other... after all, he does know my identity...* Sakurazukamori's smile was dark and satisfied as he started to hunt...

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