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The next night, 3AM, in the computer lab of the Taelon facility, in Nevada, Methos was actively typing on the terminal to access the needed informations, while Liam was guarding the door. They had arrived here, masked and dressed in black, thirty minutes earlier. Doc had studied the blueprints of the base during the afternoon, therefor, entering without being seen had been quite easy for the two friends. It had been fifteen minutes now that Methos had been hacking in the computer and Liam was getting more and more nervous. The more time they stayed in the same room, the more chance they had to be discovered by the Volunteers who walked down the corridors by night. The result would be desastrous, for sure.
"Hurry! Hurry!" Liam thought, not willing to disturb Doc in this delicate occasion. Liam was nervous and preoccupied. He had the feeling that something very umpleasant would happen very soon, he did not know what. But he had this impression of doom in the deepest part of his heart. Finally, Doc's voice ended these black thoughts : "Yes! That's it. I'm finished. Let me load it in my global.... Here. All is in there. We can go now! "exclaimed Methos as he did what he was saying.
Once the mission finished, they could go back to safety, by the same way they had come, hoping that no Volunteers would come upon them. Liam checked to see if the corridor was empty and urged Doc to follow him silently. If the first steps were uneventful, their luck ended quickly, as they has arrived near their portable ID portal. It had been discovered by three volunteers who were waiting for them, guns in the hand.
At this frightening sight, Liam and Doc retreated toward the corridor they had come from, in a corner, protected for a few minutes. They had both a weapon and knew how to use it, even if Liam seemed surprised by this revelation. Soon the Volunteers who were preventing them from escaping had been knocked out. They would be free and safe in a few seconds, they thought while running to the portal.
Once again, luck was not on their side as Volunteers reinforcements arrived by the other side, behind Liam and Methos, who had stayed at the rear. In the few seconds needed by Methos to notice them, he had pushed Liam out of the way, toward the portal. But in the same moment that Liam was saved by his friend, Methos was aimed at by one of the volunteers and shot down, wounded in the chest.
At this moment, time seemed to stop for Liam. He turned around, saw his closest friend fall, his face pallid, his eyes in which surprise, panic and pain were fighting with sorrow. Liam felt his heart miss a beat, his rage raised suddenly and instictively his energy redirected itself toward his hands. His shakarava, uncontroled by the hybrid, but reflecting his inner turnoil and passion, took their revenge on Doc's murderers. They were projected on the wall and fell dead on the floor, any danger eliminated this way.
Liam, tears flowing on his cheeks and denial written in the eyes turned his gaze toward his fallen friend, ran to his sides and sat down next to him, craddling his head on his lap. Methos was still conscious but the blood that was flowing down to the floor was draining his life out of him. Liam could not bear the idea of loosing this man who had taken such an place in his life these past few months. He would soon be alone again. Such a good man, generous, understanding. He had gave his life saving him. That was maybe the worse and more painful idea that entered Liam's mind. He felt responsible, guilty of an other death. Doc should hate him now !
But it was only astonishment that was painted on Methos features as he had seen something he had thought impossible: energy had been propelled from the bare hands of Liam, a natural weapon integrated to his body. That only meant a thing: Liam was not human ! One more thing they seemed to have in common. It seemed that this thought would be one of the last before his body would betray him to heal itself in death.
The emergency of the situation then dawned in his old mind. Methos was indeed aware of his medical state, as pain was nearly unbearable. His lungs were slowly filling with blood. He would die drawn, not very pleasant, as he remembered it. It was not what worried him, however. The most important was to escape from here, so he would not awake as a prisonner and a guinea pig to the Taelons. He had to do something, to say something to Liam before it was to late. He had to calm the child whose sorrow was unmistacable and tell him what to do. Methos was panting, choking, breathing with more and more difficulty, but he managed to whisper a few words in Liam's ear.
"Liam,.... listen to me... it's... important....Calm down.... please.... I need.... your help.... please.... Don't let ....me.... here... Don't ....abandon me.... in their.... hands.... I won't.... be .... dead.... long... please..." he pleaded between painful respirations before falling in unconsciousness and sliding in death.
"What ? What do you mean ? ..." he asked, stunned by the strange request. But soon, the fatal event hit him hard, taking away once more people he had come to trust and love. "No ! Not you too ! Stay with me ! Please ! Nooooo !" he cried heartbroken as Doc's stopped to breath. Sorrow was overwhelming, the feeling of loss and loneliness was intense and tears were running freely down his cheeks to drop on Doc's peaceful face. He did not know how he could go on living after loosing his last friend. This was so unfair ! Fate was so harsh on him, taking away from him every one. No, it could not be possible. There was certainly a way.... In a last gesture of loyalty and goodbye, he pressed his had on Doc's and initiated what would have been a sharing if Methos had been still alive. And suddenly he felt something, he did not know what. He only had a faint eeling of hope, of familiarity, of , yes, that was it, of... Life ? What did it mean, he did not had a clue, but this feeling made him react.
He was finally able to think about the present situation and its emergency and eventual consequences. He had to move away from here before any Volunteers reinforcement would arrive. He had to go with his friend's lifeless form, he had to respect the last wish of his friend. He had not understood the meaning of this last request but would accomplish it till the end, no matter what. Hadn't he heard Doc say that he would not be dead long, whatever it meant. Hadn't he felt that their was still some kind of hope threw the sharing ? Maybe there was a chance that he would revive somehow. Liam was ready to believe anthingg that would reassure him that he would not be alone again. He therefor took the body on his shoulders and activated the ID portal that would explode within two minutes after he would have left the Taelon facility.
One second later they were in the same warehouse where Methos and Liam had arrived a few months ago. Liam put gently his burden on the floor and sat beside him, craddling his head on his lap, rocking slowly the dead body. He had finally the occasion and time to cry for his friend whose life had been sacrified to save his own, and unconsciously, to wait for whatever wonderful event would happen.
That was at this moment that he noticed the small blue lightening that covered Doc's chest, closing progressively the awful and bleeding wound. That was not an unknown energy to Liam. The more he saw it and felt it, the more he could recognise the same power that was the nature and heart of his shakarava. Wonder and surprise had no time to settle in Liam mind as he heard, disbelief written on his face, a sudden and seemingly painfull gasp for air from his friend. A quick check of his pulse revealed that Liam was not mistaken: Doc, who, Liam had no doubt about it, had been dead three seconds before, was now alive. How ? He could not tell for the life of him. But the only thing he knew was that he was happy this had happen. Doc would explain him everything, anyway, he was sure of it.
Liam abandonned himself to this overwhelming feeling of hapiness and relief while his friend was regaining consciousness suddenly. The first feeling Methos was aware of, when he woke up, was security and reassurance. He felt safe in the protecting arms of his young friend. He had granted him the favor, even if it had seemed certainly very strange to him. And now, the relief that Methos could read on Liam's face was more present than any signs of rejection and surprise that he had expected. Of course, Liam had also some kind of secret, and it should male him a lot more understanding and accepting. They would have to discuss it, it was a necessity now. There would be no more secret between them, finally.
Methos had recognised the warehouse as soon as he had opened his eyes. They could not stay here. They would have to go to Liam's apartment, the nearest secure place they knew. They would talk there. For now, with a groan, he sat up near the kid and, locking his eyes with Liam's, studying intently his reactions. "Um... I think we have to talk... about what happened, what we are. It's time for us to trust each other, don't you think? (Liam then nodded, impatient) It seems that each of us has seen something we were not meant to..." He then stopped his explanation as a strong and mean buzzing presence washed over him.
"Oh, no! Not now !" he exclaimed before calming himself in front of the Kid who seemed startled and impatient to have any kind of explanation. But Methos couldn't involve him in this battle, the last one. It could be very dangerous and he did not want Liam to get hurt. One way or an other, he had to find something to send the Kid away for enough time. "Listen, Liam. We should go to your place, I think it will take some time to explain everything, but whatever happens, know that your frienship was one of the most precious thing I had in this world in this time". And with this words, Methos suddenly knocked out the kid with a violent hit in the back of Liam's head and eased him gently to the floor. It was the best thing to do, really.
Methos then took his sword in his firm hand, got out of the warehouse into the dark street, to go toward his destiny whose face was Cassandra's.
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When he got out of the warehouse into the dark and nearly deserted street, Methos wondered who it would be, who the last other immortal would be. Who would have managed to kill the others. His unspoken question did not remain unanswered very long. At the other side of the road, a slim and energic figure appeared, coming out of the shadows into the street light. Cassandra. It had to be her, Methos thought. The whitch had tremendous powers, even if not great physicall strength. She was able to come in anyone's mind and show them, during their fight, what they feared the most, what froze them at once in stuppor, and she could then kill them as easily as if they had been comatose. She had survived accomplishing this treatrous murders for millenia. No doubt she had used it against the last others, now all dead if Methos was right.
Methos knew Cassandra very well, knew her passion to get to him any way she could, knew there was bad blood between them and that it would be finished this night. Their story had never been ended as it should have been. He had discovered her, given her first death, enslaved and raped her, fallen in love with her and made her slave life as easy as he could untill finally, 3500 years ago, he had let her flee the horsemen camp and himself. She had loved her at the end, he knew, a Stockolm synodrom, but, remembering all along the centuries what had been done to her, she had gone mad and focussed on only one thing: taking her revenge on him and his late brothers, using anyone as a tool to this goal, including her pupil and lover Duncan MacLeod. She had tried to kill him fifteen years ago, leading to the death of the three Immortal that had ridden with him during nearly 1000 years, the Horsemen. She had never understood that he had changed and redeemed himself for more than 3000 years. She had left him alive but was gone bitter and had sworn she would see him die or die herself doing it. It seemed that she would be right after all.
While Methos prepared himself mentally and physically to the battle to come, knowing that there was no way out of it, Cassandra appeared very eager to finish finally their business in a blood bath. There was no humanity in her eyes, only the wild desire to kill, to end a life she loathed so much, as if her soul was dead, reimplaced by her murderous rage and passion directed in hate only. She had some doubts about the power of her whitchcraft on him. She knew his age and experience with her would be a shield for him against her. She had to find the good angle to enter his mind, to find the fear that would be his death. For now, she had harsh words to give his nemesis, Methos on a bitter sweet tone, words meant to anger and destabilize him in the hope he would make mistakes and get killed. In basic swordmanship, she knew she would have no chance against him.
"So we meet again, you murderous rapist, lying bastard ! I always knew the day I'd kill you would be blessed by the gods and expected impatiently by the millions you have slayed coldhearted ! This day has come and I feel wonderful !" she exclaimed, madness in the eye.
"Good for you, ***** ! So it is you ! I would have thought that you'd be dead a long time ago, my little worthless slave ! " Methos was not impressed and replied mechanically in order to let her believe that her words had reached their goal and angered him, disminishing his fight abbilities. However, he knew not to give any attention to this hateful speach. If he did not feel quite calm, worried by the presence of his friend, twenty meters away from here, and by his previous death, two minutes ago, that had let him a little weackened, he was not the nervous man he let Cassandra see. She had a master strategist in front of her, after all, someone who had fought more battles than anyone else in the whole world. She would understand that soon, but too late.
"Don't call me that, bastard ! I'll show you what the slave has learned since she went away, Death" she spat, disdainful, trapped in her own devious snare. She was now as unstable as she had hoped he would get and Methos had noticed that.
"As you wish, Cassandra. Stop babling and fight !" he told her coldly, raising his old Ivanoe sword that had been his last shield for more than eight centuries. Cassandra, in a rage, ran towards him and assaulted him, her blows wide, violent and strong. Surprised at first, Methos had barely avoided the result of her anger. But soon, instinctively, he parried all her assaults, knowing she would only manage to tire herself. In the next five minutes, he kept on the defensive strategy while she did not even manage to touch once. That's the moment he choose to start the offensive. With a large and powerful blow, he nearly disarmed her and slashed her right shoulder. Cassandra lost her balance and fell on the hard floor, escaping the letal blow Methos had initiated.
That lucky event gave her the second he needed to invade his mind. She searched frantically and finally found the hole in his mental shield. At the exact moment he was going to chop her head from her neck, she sent him the vision that would paralyze him with pain and sorrow. She sent him back a few minutes earlier, when the volunteers were aiming their weapons at his young friend, Liam. Only this time, he had no time to push him out of the way. The Kid was killed by them, in front of a powerless Methos. That was the worst scenario he could have formed in his mind and the fact that it had nearly happened only ten minutes earlier had not permitted him to exorcise this particular fear, was making the whole thing ten times worst. Methos was overwhelmed by disbielif and sorrow from this loss that would let him once more alone and would reap away such a brave and innocent soul. Cassandra seemed to be the certain winner of this deadly fight, as Methos' mind was locked in his nightmare and his body appeared frozen on the spot, unshielded and vulnerable to any assault from the treatrous whitch.
At the same time, Liam, who had been back in consciousness for two minutes, alone in the warehouse, and had heard some weird clashing metallic sounds, went out of the building to witness the strange swordfighting duel and the dangerous position in which Methos was. Even if he could not understand the meaning of this anachronical display, he saw that Methos would die if he did not react and avoid the slashing move the furious woman had began. He then did all he could think of: he shouted " Doc, be careful !"
Awoken by this voice that prooved him that his friend was still alive and that it had only been one of Cassandra's trick, Methos took notice of his surrounding and his sword, as on his own will, moved as a snake and fended off her blow, before stabbing her in the heart. The next second, she was dead and beheaded in a swift move. He had won, everything was finished.
Methos then turned around to see the startled and horrified, as well as relieved face of his friend who, once again, had saved his life. Liam seemed to be willing to walk toward him and ask him what had arrived and if he was fine. But he could not let him happen. He had not time, as he had noticed the blue electricity lightening escaping from Cassandra body and crawling slowly but strongly toward him. The quickening would come to him very soon, the most powerful that had ever existed. If Liam was near him then, he would certainly die. Methos had to prevent him. " Liam, no ! Stay where you are ! Stay away from me, whatever happens to me ! Don't worry !" he shouted at the last second.
The next thing Liam knew, Doc was hit by huge flashes of lightening that lifted the man up in the air, as if he was a mere doll. The loud cry that escaped his friend's throat sounded horrified to Liam. He did not understand what was happening in front of his disbelieving eyes. Doc seemed to know what would occure to himself and had told him that he should not worry. How could he think he would be alive after such a treatment ? What was it ? Who was this man he had thought he knew ? But, in the last previous fifteen minutes, Doc had been resurrected and healed miraculously, had been swordfighting with a strange and furious woman, had killed her skillfully and was now the plaything of an horribly huge lightening maëlstrom. He had so much questions in his mind, but, in spite of every thing, Liam was willing to trust his friend who, after all, had never done anything against him. On the contrary, Doc seemed willing to protect him from something. He would do as he had been told: he would wait the end of this mystery and the revelations that he knew would come.
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Barely five seconds after his final victory, Methos was hit by the first flash of lightening of Cassandra quickening, the ultimate Quickening. The intensity of the blow was huge and quite unbearable. Flash after flash, energy was entering his body, traveling along every limb, in each cell of his body. The pain made him cry and shout so loud and firsely that Methos had soon lost his voice. It hurted so much that he could not think of anything else. His body and his mind was a giant ball of pain. And it seemed it would never end, it was so long that Methos had lost trace of the time he had even been in this situation. The tendrils of electricity had lifted him up in the air were he was floating between flashes and violent winds from the Quickening. Methos was terrified, he knew he had lost all control of the situation end that did not have anyway to determine what would hapen next. He had to sufer through this like a doll, to give up all initiative in the matter. Finally his body had absorbed all the energy from the quickening.
Methos did not fall on the ground, however, as it seemed that this quickening would not be as any other one he had lived through. The power that had entered in every pore of his body redirected itself then toward his brain and reached his mind. In a few second, his ind was bombarded by the millions and millions of flashes that represented the feelings and knowledge of every immortal who had ever walked on this earth, immortal whose quickening he now had been rewarded in this final victory, this ultimate prize. He had now a direct access to each of their memories and thoughts. Methos knowledge of humanity seemed now unlimited, every man, woman, child, from every civilisation, culture, country or time had give him this precious present. He was the One. He would be the ambassador and the defensor of every human being that existed and would ever exit. He was now aware of any feeling and ideas every human could have lived or conceived. He would be compassionate, even more than he already was. He understood them all, now. It was his personnal present to humankind.
His final gift from the quickening was certainly the most important thing to Methos. It was the ultimate revelation. The informations he had never been able to access during his life was shown to him as a legacy from his ancestors. His origins and the meaning of his immortality. In a vision, he suddenly understood everything. Five thousands years ago, a prison bakk had crashed on earth, in Ireland, near the Ocean, in a huge explosion. The sphere had been damaged in the process as the securedly locked door opened as soon as the fire had been dead. A translucent blue being had then walked out of it, greeted as a god by the witnesses, members of a tribe settled a few meters away from the impact. They had offered him everything he would have desired and had finally organised a religious festivity in his honor, during which the new god had been presented with a woman, their princess, to take her as a wife and goddess.
Hagel, for such was the god's name, had been very pleased by their efforts to help him. He knew that these local sentient beings were quite primitive, compared to his species, the Kimera. But their kindness and generosity appealed to him. Furthermore, he was, thanks to the crual Taelons, the last member of his wise and old people. He was compelled to create children to prevent his species'death. Kimera were nearly immortal beings, made of pure energy. He ha himself lived for four hundred thousands years, but the past hundreds thousands, spent in a comatose state induced by the Taelon prison ball had weakened him greatly. If he wanted to do something, it would be right now or never. He had only to hope that these humans would have enough strength and resistance to support the process.
His gift, his wife, the young woman named Minea was indeed a beautiful girl, her brown long hair flowing down her back, in a magnificent contrast with her pure white skin and her blood red lips. A smile was gracing her pretty and regular features and illuminating her wide green and expressive eyes. She seemed to enjoy any precious moment of life and give love freely to every one around her. She was charming, smart, healthy, the preect gift for a god, a jowel, the pride of her tribe. Minea was happy of the honor given to her to become a goddess on her own, even mire since she had been seduced by this unknown, glowing, wise and gentle god. She would love him till the end, she had sworn to him, by the time the wedding ceremony had fnished. She trusted him completly. She would do so till her death.
Hagel, who had had no physical contact with anyone, as it was a religious taboo for these humans to touch their god, was still in his pure, glorious and shining form when he decided that he would accept this ceremony as a sign that his wife was willing to bond with him. Coming with her in the center of the sone circle, he took her in his arms and initiated a joining. His energy form wrapped himself around her and lift her up high in the sky, as if they were a new star shining in the night. Hagel sent his reassurance to the frightened girl, sending her the pictures of his life, the hope of this gesture and his thanks for what she was going to give him. He then sent his core energy through her, impregnating her. They had now conceived a child, a little Kimera whose human genetical part would be overwhelmed and progressivelu destroyed by Hagel's Kimera legacy. In a few hours, a new pure Kimera would be born.
But, as soon as Hagel had gently put down Minea on thee ground, he noticed that something was going terribly wrong. His new mate was not from a specie strong enough, he discovered a little bit late. She was dying in front of him, taking their unborn child away from him. The pure energy that was the main constituent of baby had irradiated his mother deadly. If he wanted his son to even be born, Hagel had to do something to disminish greatly the foetus's energy intensity, to make him more human. Nothing could be done for the mother, it was too late. Hagel was overwhelmed by sorrow and guilt, but could not abandonn himself to these destructive feelings. Instead, placing his hands on his unconscious wife's womb, he progressively extracted spark after spark half of his son's core energy, replacing it by human genes, from the mother side. As this process xas ending, a small ball of fire was floating on the top of the couple, a ball made of the child, something that had been reaped away from him but that essencially was still his.
The child would live, his father had taken care of that. After feeding the dying mother with his own energy, the Kimera had managed to keep her alive for the few hours necessary to the child's gestation before the birth. When the time came, both parents were exhausted, barely alive, only will maintaining them conscious. As soon as the baby, in perfect human form, was posed on his mother heart, Minea stroked his face, kissed him, told him she loved him and died. His father had a few more minutes before he would be obliged to get back in a stase in the Taelon prison ball for who knew how long. He took his son in his arms, locked is eyes with the smart ones of his baby, who had heritated of the genetical memorise from both his father, along with all his species' and his mother. His beautifull baby, his hope, his Methos in the Kimera language. He told his farewell and recommendation in Methos'ear, on a sad bu resignated tone.
"Know my child, my Methos, that both your parents loved you. We can not stay with you anylonger, but I'll be watching you from where I'll be sleeping. I'll always protect you against every danger you will meet, as long as I'll be alive, you won't ever die. I swear it to you. But you'll be alone in this unknown world from now on. You won't be like anybody else her. You are not complete, and till this moment you won't be able to continue our bloodline. Half of your core energy is gone for now, all around the world, loged in human beings who will have a very long life thanks to it, thanks to you. But, never forget, my son, that this spark of energy quickening their body rhythm from their head is yours and yours only. One day, in millenia, they will come back to you, and you will become then the Kimera you were meant to be. I have seen it in your future. Your body will be able then to accept what is really his. You will be complete then. Trust me. For now, live on, grow stronger, in your mind, your soul, your intellect and your body, and we will fight our enemies and our fate another day, then. I love you and I hope I'll see you again. I'll visit you in your dreams. Farewell my son ! Farewell my Methos!"
With this words, Hagel kissed his baby son and put him down, next to his dead mother body and left for his lair, heartbroken. He was leaving his son in a hard country, the prey of a hard fate. But he could do nothing else. Was it better if he had died for nothing, unable to protect Methos anyway, unable to look afer him through their mental link, link weakened because of his comatode state? No. It was crual but it was the only way. Hagel hped Methos would understand that one day, and forgive him. He loved him so much already. That was his last thought before he fell unconscious in his closed cell.
The child, abandonned by his parents, was left in the middle of the human crowd who had been shocked and angered by the whole event. They had witnessed everything, seen every part of the joining and the birth, constated their princess' death and heard the god's last speach to his son. If some old kind women were at first willing to help this baby, fear and rejection was the general feelinf. And when, ten minutes after the god had left, the baby started convulsing and growing up to his adult form in a few seconds, everyone's mind was settled. That was no god. That was a demon, who had come to steal their girl and left them his horrific and demoniac offspring. Their judgement, made in panic, was cruel and deadly. They stoned the one hour old child, in adult form, to death, and left his body for the beasts, taking with them their precious princess. The next minute, they took the prison ball to the shore and threw it in the Ocean depth, where it stayed during 5000 years.
One hour later, Methos took his first gasp as an immortal being. His human part only had been dead. His Kimera core energy had regenerated his cells and given his body its life back. He would never age, get ill, be permanently injured or die. His energy, his quickening had assured him that much. But the psychological shock of his brutal murder, so young, so innocent, this unfair punishment inflicted to a new born baby, had left marks in his soul, heart and mind. If his brain had somewhere all his geneticall memories written for ever, Methos had forgotten everything from his past, even the way to access this permanent information. The only things left to him was his given name, the language of his mother, the advice from his father, both persons he could not even remember having ever seen : "live, grow stronger and fight another day". It was the beginning of a lost, long and lonely wandering existence through the world, through the centuries.
But Methos was not the only one immortal being who would walk among humankind. They were born from the little ball of Methos core energy which had been extracted from him when he was in his mother's womb. This little star had gone up in the sky and devided itself in hundreds of sparks that found their way in every country into a few human beings, who, upon being hit by this flash of light, were genetically modified. By themselves, these men and women and their normal descendants were not noticably changed, except from this new gene addition. But if two of them mated, the woman would be driven to isolate herself to give birth the same day to an immortal child, bearer of Hagel's son's spark of core energy, the quickening. Immediately after that, the mother would irremediably faint and die, her body desintegrated by the radiations. Thanks to that sacrifice, the child would be immortal after its first death and carry on Methos' spark of light, legacy and life, untill, one way or an othern Hagel's sonwould take it back one day. Being imperfect hybrids, not really humans but far away from being Kimera, they were baren. They could however recognise each other through their spark of energy that, coming from the same being, seemed to recognise each other as identical matter.
They could have lived for millenia in a perfect peace. But, from what Minea's tribe had heard, a legend was created and, in the space of two centuries, it had beentold all around the world, saying that a immortal race had been born from a god or a demon, who had said that among all of them, only one would be left at the end, with the power of all the others in him. The legend became a rule and pushed these immortal beings to kill each other, in order to steal the spark of energy from each other. Little did they know that there had ALWAYS been only one real immortal Kimera being, Methos, Hagel's son, the quickest, the smartest among them, the one they owned their immortality to, the source from whom their quickening came, to whom their quickening would go back in time.
And right now, after the last fight, Methos had finally recovered his whole and magnificent core energy, which had grown stronger all these past years. He had now a full access to his ancestral memories, from both his parents. He knew everything about the kimera and he was going to be one in a few more seconds. Still in the air, the changing had started in Methos as soon as his core energy had been given back to him. It had gone through every one of his cells and eliminated the effects of his human genes. He was becoming every second more translucent, more glowing and shining. Finally when the processus was ascomplished, he was a full Kimera, however joining in his body Kimera and now sleeping human genetical material. He was strongest than his father had ever been, as his energy had been multiplied by the millenia. When it was done, he was gently put down on the ground, and then after a few seconds, Methos took back his human appearance, to hide his true nature.
He was now a complete being, whole, mentally and physically. He felt a great joy exploding in his mind and flowing down his new found body. He was pure energy, locked in a human appearance. His horizon was widening breathtakingly. Expanding his consciousness toward the whole universe, he could sense all the sentient being living everywhere. The human nations, the skrills' specie, the Taelon commonality, the Jaridians people, they were all there, in his mind's reach. He could touch them all. And nearer, in his very proximity, Methos could even feel what he thought he had lost forever: the presence of another kimera. Then it dawned all on him: Liam. All went clear in his mind: the dream, the innocence of the child, the shakarava. Liam was his brother, his father's other son. Joy exploded on Methos face as he realised he would never be alone anymore. Someone was with him, and would always been there. Of course Liam was really to young to evolve as he had himself done. But one day, it would happen. Till that day, Methos would be the protective and loving big brother his baby brother needed, the supporting friend ha had himself lacked in the first days and centuries of his life.
Overwhelmed by happiness, he walked down the street to Liam, who had not understood what little he had seen , because of the blinding light that had been wrapped around Methos during the whole quickening. His eyes were wide with shock and wonder, and full of questions, just as Methos had anticipated. He decided to prevent them by answering them immediately, in another kind of communication. He however asked first in a reassuring and soft voice "Do you trust me, Liam ?" and as Liam nodded immediately, he continued, instructing him gently "Give me your hands and you'll understand everything at once." Methos then placed his hands in Liam's and initiated a deep and affectionate sharing.
Through this telepathic link, he sent his love and all his protective feelings toward his new found brother, and explained him his story from the day he was born till the present moment of their mutual discovery. He sent millions of pictures and impressions into his baby brother's brain, so he could know absolutely everything about him. He also read Liam's short life story and feelings from the child's willing mind. He received in exchange from Liam an intense happiness and joy for having foud a brother, someone who would guide him through life and be there, so he would never be alone anymore. Hope was overwhelming in both their soul. It was definitely the beginning of a new life, one they would be ready to go through, reassured and protected by each other's presence. They would have to face difficult moments, to fight for their freedom, their ideas, their future, their life. They would have to protect humankind and all the sentient species from themselves and their extinction, including the Taelons. There was so much they could do together. There was so much happiness and hope in this instant that their heart was jumping in their chest and that their spirit was sending all over the universe a loud mental cry expressing these overwhelming feelings.
When the sharing was ended, a few minutes later, the two brothers, tears of joy flowing down their cheeks, fell in each other arms and stayed in a comforting and reassuring hug they both needed to be sure they had not been dreaming. But no, every thing was real. When they finally ended the contact, their eyes met the sun rising at the horizon, bringing on a new day, a new life for both of these distant brothers, now united for the better or the worst.
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