Story Announcement "Hope Triumphant II: Sister"
Parda (darkpanther@erols.com)
Mon, 17 May 2004 12:49:10 -0400
TITLE: Hope Triumphant II: Sister
AUTHOR: Parda
MAIN CHARACTERS: Cassandra, Alex MacLeod, Methos, Joe Dawson, Connor MacLeod
SUMMARY: Tribune Joe Dawson restructures the Watchers, Methos takes a long
vacation, and Cassandra sets out to change the world.
WARNINGS: Long story (250 pages). Death of major characters
RATING: PG13. (Romantic pairings of F/F and F/M, but no details)
DISCLAIMERS: Cassandra, Alex Johnson MacLeod, Methos, Connor, Duncan,
Amanda, Joe, Maurice, Rachel Ellenstein, John MacLeod, Grace, and anyone
else you recognize from on-screen are not my original characters, and I
didn't come up with the idea of HL. No money is being made from this story.
Elena Duran, Emory, and Evann are visiting from other universes, and
whatever happens to them here is not canon unless their authors (Vi Moreau,
Listen-r, and Robin) want it to be. The section "Duende" (Methos and Elena
on the cruise) was co-written by Vi Moreau and Parda. The section "The
Darkness" (at Le Blues Bar) was written by Emory's creator, Listen-r. The
characters Sara, Colin, Jennifer, Mitzi, Maureen, Rhee, and everybody else
are mine.
NOTE: This story is set in the HL3 universe, so the events of the movies HL2
and HL4 don't happen here. This story is a sequel to "Hope Triumphant I:
Healer" (posted May 2000), which follows the novels "Hope Forgotten" and
"Hope Remembered." (I apologize for taking four years to finish this story;
it was harder to write than I thought it would be.) Links to all these
stories (and links to stories about Evann, Emory, and Elena) can be found at
www.erols.com/darkpanther/ .
Since this story is so long, I'm just posting this announcement and a link
to the story (http://users.erols.com/darkpanther/HL%20Hope/HT_2.htm ). If
you'd like to see if the story interests you, here are the first few pages.
=========================
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HOPE TRIUMPHANT II: SISTER
by Parda
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CHAPTER 1
(World population: 6.65 billion)
=========================
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THE MANIPULATOR
Geraldine, New Zealand
October 2006
--------------------------------------------
"So, Alex, are you ready for us to start changing the world?" Cassandra
asked as the two women stood on the top of a high mountain, looking down.
"Yes," Alex said, for they had spoken of this before, and she had merely
been waiting for Cass to finish healing the traumas from her long and
sometimes bitter life. Apparently, Cass had decided she was done. Alex
asked carefully, "Was it Methos being here at Duncan's wedding that ... ?"
"In part, yes," Cass answered. "I'll never be able to forget what Methos
did to me--what he was to me--but seeing him these last few days... It's
helped me to realize that he's not the only one to have changed. So have I.
I'm done with the past now; I'm ready to look to the future." She turned to
Alex and smiled, brilliant, beautiful and utterly determined. "I'm ready to
change the world."
They looked out upon the patchwork of New Zealand farmland and grassland,
and out farther to the silver edge of the sea, that seemingly limitless
expanse of wave and wind, while Cass spoke of their shared dream. "We could
have a world where children are protected, where women are safe, a better
world for men, too."
"In time," Alex said. "I won't live to see it completed, but you will."
"I might," Cass said. "Then again, it could take a thousand years."
"You've lived three thousand already; what's one more?" Alex asked, because
Cassandra (like Duncan and Methos and like Alex's husband, Connor MacLeod)
was an Immortal, a strange off-shoot or mutation or God-knows-what of
humanity who healed almost instantly and never aged. Alex hadn't believed
it when she'd first learned of Immortals' existence nearly fourteen years
ago, but after watching Connor take a sword thrust through the shoulder and
then heal, and after discovering that he'd been born in 1518 and had
wandered the world ever since, Alex had had no choice but to believe.
"Even if I can't live in that world," Alex said, "I want my children and
their children, and their children, to have the chance."
Cass nodded, the sunshine brightening her long auburn hair to red and gold,
a halo of flame. "Then let's begin," she said, and they started down. When
they reached the road that led to Duncan and Susan's farmhouse, Cass said,
"We're going to need help, Alex. You and I can't do this alone."
"So that's why you're going on the cruise with Elena and then the tour with
Amanda."
"That, and other reasons." Cass's smile held a more than a glint of
mischief. "I think it'll be fun. But yes, they're promising recruits.
We'll see."
"What about Methos?"
"I don't want him involved in any way," Cass declared. "Not interfering,
not helping. I don't trust him, and I don't want him anywhere near me."
She stared straight ahead as they walked down the road. "That man sends
shivers down my spine."
Alex knew very well that not all of the sparks flying between Cass and
Methos this last week had been angry ones. "Do you mean that in a bad way?"
Alex asked. "Or a good way?"
Her lips thinned, and the word came out as a whisper: "Both."
Alex let out a silent whoosh of realization. This wasn't just about not
trusting Methos; Cassandra didn't trust herself, not where her former
master-lover-nemesis was concerned. It seemed she wasn't completely done
healing those traumas after all.
~~~~~
"And off she goes and she's gone," Methos said, coming onto the farmhouse
porch later that afternoon. He and Alex watched Cass's car disappear down
the dusty road. "Hong Kong, didn't she say?" Methos asked.
"She did," Alex replied, but Cass hadn't said anything to Methos about the
cruise with Elena next week, so Alex didn't either.
Methos had leaned both elbows on the porch railing and was looking sidelong
at Alex with his changeable hazel eyes. Alex turned to look straight at
him. Methos was attractive, witty, and charming ... and an Immortal who'd
spent at least one thousand of his five thousand years butchering or
enslaving people, Cassandra among them. Back in the Bronze Age, he'd been
one of a band of raiders called the Four Horsemen, and he'd "tamed"
Cassandra to his will. She'd spent over a year servicing his every whim
before she'd run away. Methos had changed since then, Duncan insisted, and
it seemed to be true. Alex had actually enjoyed Methos's company this last
week, but she didn't trust him. Neither did Connor, and neither, of course,
did Cass.
Methos looked back out at the road. "And later this month she's going to
meet Amanda." He didn't sound as if he believed it.
This morning at breakfast, Amanda's announcement had surprised Alex, too.
"After I leave here in a few days and take care of a little business deal in
Australia," Amanda had said cheerfully, "Cassandra and I are going to tour
the Mediterranean together." Beyond their immortality (Amanda was over
twelve hundred), Cass and Amanda didn't seem to have anything in common--at
least not yet. They would see. But Alex wasn't about to volunteer any
information to Methos, so she seated herself on the porch swing and said
merely, "Cass hasn't had a vacation in a long time."
"She could certainly use some R&R," Methos observed. "She's seemed a bit
tense."
"Oh, come now, Methos," Alex said. "She didn't try to take your head even
once."
"Miss Manners would be so pleased," Methos said, the dry wit sharpening to
sarcasm. "Beheading one of the groomsmen at a friend's wedding is often
considered rude." He turned around and leaned his back against the railing,
looking at Alex again. "You like Cassandra, don't you?"
"We're best friends," Alex replied and went inside before he could ask her
anything more.
=====
"Do you like her?" Methos asked Amanda that evening, as they lay on the
floor of the guest cottage near MacLeod's farmhouse.
Amanda rolled over onto her stomach, taking most of the blanket with her and
leaving Methos's backside bare. "Who?"
"Cassandra."
"Oh." Amanda yawned, an enticingly delicate motion that involved the tip of
her tongue and her very white, very sharp teeth. "Her." Amanda shrugged.
"She's interesting, she's going to show me places that Rebecca lived in, and
she's older than I am. I think I could learn a lot from Cassandra."
And that was not, Methos reflected, a good thing. Amanda already knew
entirely too much about entirely too many things.
"What about you?" Amanda asked, propping her chin on her hands and, in doing
so, making a most intriguing display of her breasts. "Do you like her?"
"Who?"
Amanda clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Cassandra."
"Oh. Her." Methos dragged his attention up to Amanda's face. He shrugged.
"She seems interesting."
Amanda smiled knowingly and said, "She doesn't like you." Methos shrugged
again. Amanda smiled again and said, "But I know she did like
you--sometime." Her fingers started stroking the outline of the bicep on
his sword-arm. "When did you two meet?"
"Years ago."
Amanda wrinkled her nose at him, because of course, that answer could mean
anything for an Immortal. Her fingers danced their way along his collarbone
and down to his chest. "How did you meet?"
He'd slaughtered Cassandra's family, her friends, and her. Then he'd taken
her to his tent, strangled her to death to teach her to behave, stripped
her, staked her out spread-eagled on the ground, and waited for her to
revive before he raped her. That had been the first day. It had gotten
worse.
Methos shrugged once more and let his fingers start doing a dance of their
own, starting at Amanda's spine and working up to the nape of her neck.
"Oh, you know," he said casually. "People run into each other here and
there." He smiled in invitation and ran his fingers up into her dark hair.
"Let's not talk about her now."
"No?" Amanda asked, all wide-eyed innocence, while her fingers did wickedly
knowing things.
"No," Methos said, his fingers traveling back down her spine and then
farther down, and after that neither of them was interested in discussion of
any kind.
~~~~~
The next day, their last together in New Zealand, Amanda brought up the
topic of Cassandra again ... and again and again and again. Methos didn't
answer, no matter what Amanda tried, and she tried an amazing variety of
techniques. Methos decided to frustrate Amanda's curiosity more often in
the future. He hadn't had such fun in years.
"How many times have you been married, Amanda?" Methos asked after dinner,
by way of changing the subject yet again.
"Enough to know I'm a single girl at heart," she said, smiling at him under
lowered lashes. "You?"
"Sixty-eight."
An elegant eyebrow was raised as her mouth quirked in amusement. "Really.
Looks like the next one should be a lot of fun." She curled up on a corner
of the couch and tucked her feet under her, sipping at her wine and looking
out the window at the enormous totora tree in the back yard. "Duncan seems
happy with Susan."
"He does," Methos agreed, sitting in a nearby chair. These days, most
marriages started out happy. Not very many finished that way. And between
a mortal and an Immortal ... Methos reached for his beer. "Till death do
us part" sounded all very fine, and he had no doubt that both Connor MacLeod
and Duncan MacLeod planned to live up to their vows, but Methos had yet to
see a relationship between a mortal and an Immortal that didn't disintegrate
after twenty years: not parenthood, not friendship, and most definitely not
marriage.
The two pairs of MacLeods--Duncan and Susan, and Connor and Alex--were in
for a very rough ride. Alex, Methos knew, was going to be hit hardest of
all, since her husband's former lover was currently her best friend. That
wouldn't last very long.
"That's it!" Amanda said, snapping her fingers and snapping Methos out of
his thoughts of Mrs. Alex MacLeod. Methos turned to see Amanda looking upon
him rather the way a cat looks upon a bird. "When she's around you," Amanda
said, "Cassandra acts just like an ex-wife."
"I've never married an Immortal," Methos replied easily. "So I've never had
to divorce one, either." He finished his beer and changed the subject
again, picking a topic he knew Amanda didn't want to discuss. "What's in
Australia, Amanda?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "A man with a camel."
"I've had camels," Methos said. He'd had horses, too, but Amanda didn't
know about his time with the Horsemen. Not yet, anyway. Amanda was an
inquisitive creature, and Cassandra had plenty of reason to share what she
knew. Methos shrugged mentally. He certainly couldn't forbid them to spend
time together, and no power on earth could stop women from talking; he'd
learned that millennia ago. But even if Cassandra did tell her, Amanda was
neither innocent or naïve. She wasn't easily shocked, and Methos had done
his best these last few days to make sure Amanda was solidly on his side.
Speaking of which ... they had one more night left. He stood and moved
behind Amanda, his fingertips massaging her shoulders. She purred and
leaned her head forward, and Methos gently took the wine glass from her hand
then placed a kiss on the nape of her neck. "Ready for bed?" he asked.
"I was thinking ... the table."
"The table."
"For dessert."
===== HONG KONG =====
In the lobby of an office high-rise in Hong Kong, Cassandra double-checked
the name and address Amanda had given her two days before. "Chuan Li and I
are in the same business," Amanda had explained during an early morning run
the day after Duncan's wedding, "but he hasn't been interested in doing
business with me. I was hoping you could be more ... persuasive."
"I'll try," Cassandra had promised, and since the cruise with Elena didn't
start until Friday, Cassandra had flown to Hong Kong to do a favor for a
potential friend--and a possible ally. She entered the elevator, an
ornately decorated cubicle painted in gold and jade.
"Going far?" asked a Chinese business man in a gray suit and pink-striped
tie.
"All the way," Cassandra answered. However long it took, and wherever it
might lead.
====================
This story is continued at
http://users.erols.com/darkpanther/HL%20Hope/HT_2.htm#DUENDE
The story of Duncan's wedding is told in "Goddess Child" at
http://users.erols.com/darkpanther/HL%20Stories/Goddesschild.htm