"Mmm...Just let me finish this excellent pasta and I'll tell you the story of my life."

She passed the grated cheese to Rex, and tucked in. There was silence for a bit, and Duncan watched the two of them eat every scrap he gave them. Rex seemed to eat more than his own body weight. Duncan wondered where he put it all. Mara thickly buttered two slices of Italian bread, giving one to Rex. She sighed in satisfaction as she finished hers.

"Thanks," she said. " I meant it when I said we hadn't eaten in a couple days."

She settled Rex back on the couch; he instantly fell asleep. Then she insisted on helping Duncan clean up.

" Since I don't know where anything goes, I'll wash."

Then she began her story.

I may as well start at the beginning. I don't have very early memories. I was five years old when Alexander came into my life. A man was beating me. I have no idea whether or not he was a relative. What I do remember is a tall man came up to him and punched him silly, then wrapped me up in the warmest coat. He took me to a house, gave me a bath and fed me; then he tucked me up into a bed. A SOFT bed. Mostly, I was overwhelmed. But the one thing I knew was that I worshipped this man. To one five year old; he was a god!

The next day, I got the same treatment. Food and clothing, and no beatings. Just kindness. It wasn't something I understood, but I knew I could easily get used to it. Apparently, he had no idea what to do with a girl; so he decided to raise me as a boy...He called me Mark and dressed me in boy's clothes. And handed me the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. A child sized sword. It gleamed. And when he started showing me what I could do with it; well, I fell in love right then. I decided I would learn how to use it and nobody would ever hurt me again. I saw that weapon as my salvation. Alex didn't pick up on that right away either.

Anyway, I was a clinging child; I suppose I just didn't want to let my savior out of my sight; which is why, several weeks later; I sneaked out after him and witnessed a quickening.

Well, he told me his secret, and warned me to keep it secret; then started my training in earnest...so no one would find me a defenseless child they could use against him. It took Alexander nearly a year to finally figure out my attitude, and it must have bothered him.

We started traveling; he took me on visits to every immortal he knew, and would bully his friends into teaching the kid something. He didn't care what they taught, whether a new move with the blade, or hand to hand combat, or even philosophy, just so long as they taught me something. So, while most of his friends taught me sword fighting or a new way to disarm a man...Rebecca taught me to read and write, and Darius concentrated on my immortal soul.

I must tell you; I didn't like Darius at first; he was constantly trying to convince Alexander to put me up for adoption. He didn't understand that there was NO way I would let anyone take me away from my god. I mean it. I worshipped him.

I was about eleven when he was killed. Someone actually did use me against him. They took me while I slept; I woke to find myself loosely tied to a pillar in some ruins. They did make the mistake of thinking I was a defenseless child.

Alex came, as expected, and tossed a blade to me. While they fought, I freed myself. You must remember I was a child, and a child who only knew kindness from Alexander and his friends...so my upbringing did not make me normal. I reacted as a vengeful child of maybe a thousand years ago...I reacted...While the man was weak with Alexander's quickening; I cut off his hands and feet and left him there.

There was an immortal I knew who didn't much care the condition of his victims; so I brought him and watched while he killed my savior's killer. Then I shadowed this guy till someone killed him before closing the book on the matter. That only took about a year, not so very long. I knew that Alex was somewhere, inside someone and I could live with that.

I had no idea what to do then. I hadn't thought past the moment in so long...then I realized I was near the racetrack outside Marseille. I knew Kaldon, so I went to him. I asked him to apprentice me. He agreed to do that, but insisted I live with a horsewoman of his acquaintance. She, it was, who taught me how to be a girl. We made frequent trips to Paris, to visit Darius; I was seventeen before I actually told them what I had done. To avenge Alex, that is.

They never wavered in their support, and I finally let Darius give me a girl's name. The woman I lived with knew nothing about immortals; she did know I had been severely abused and thought I had chosen the name Mark because of that. She was relieved when I told her my name was now Mara; she thought whatever counseling Kaldon had acquired for me was taking hold, and she also had no objections to my learning to become a farrier. It saved her a small fortune in the long run, since I shod her horses for free.

Life goes on. I made friends with one of Kaldon's students, we became sparring partners. I was a good choice for him; he was newly immortal and had no idea the damage a sword could do; and because I was taught as a youngster, I was better than he was. So, he would use a wooden sword and I used a real one; Kaldon thought he should learn better what it felt like to die.

I ran him through a number of times till his training clicked, and for a while we were a good match for each other.

Ok, we knew about watchers, and when Kaldon acquired a new one...or maybe he was there to watch Steve...anyhow, Steve and I decided to have a bit of fun with him. I mean, this guy was SO dumb! He stood out like a sore thumb. He was obviously watching someone here. The idiot saw Steve and I sparring one day, and apparently never noticed that Steve's blade was fake. Steve pretended to run me through; I pretended to die and come back. Then we cornered the guy and fed him this story of how I was Steve's teacher and I had been Kaldon's teacher.

We fed him such a load of crap, as NO ONE would believe! And he soaked it all up and wrote it down in this notebook he always carried. Neither of us saw any harm in it. Watchers are supposed to keep secret immortal existence. It never occurred to us he would tell anyone.

Ahem...well, apparently he wasn't actually a watcher. He was working for this guy who was a relatively new immortal and was looking for info on people to kill. So he told this guy, Brieder that I was immortal and had the power to hide my immortality from everyone's other sense. Worse yet, he was believed, and even more bad news, to save himself from a death by an old immortal, Brieder passed this misinformation on...

That's why immortals hunt me. Because of a stupid joke years ago. You'd think someone would notice I'm aging, but no; somehow, that STUPID story persists.

"And has caused no end to the trouble you get yourself into!"

Duncan and Mara jumped in surprise. Methos was standing there, hands on his hips, looking for all the world like somebody's angry mother.

" Dinosaur, you came!" Mara jumped up off the couch and ran to hug the man, who was attempting, unsuccessfully, to remain stone.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

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