MEGATOKYO, JAPAN - LATE MAY 2033

     Leon and Daily drove into the Kawasaki dump early in the morning,
investigating the explosions that had been reported the previous night.
They passed by four fairly new boomers in varying states of disassembly.
     "Looks like it's your girlfriends again," Daily said.
     "Keep driving."
     Shortly, they came to another, smaller, body.  "Stop the car," Leon
told Daily, who complied.  He opened the passenger side door and climbed
out.  Daily followed and they were confronted with a headless corpse dressed
in a yellow hardsuit.
     Daily groaned.  "Not again."
     "Wait a minute," Leon said.  "Not so fast."  He walked over to the
head, placed a glove on, and turned it around to see the face, Stephen
Kowalski's face, staring back at him.  Leon chuckled.
     "Hey, Leon, come here!"
     Leon went to where Daily was pointing and smiled.  "Case closed."  He
turned around, put his sunglasses on, and walked back to the car.  Beside
the body was a signature burned into the ground by a laser weapon:
     "KNIGHT SABERS"

     Annie had traced the surveillance gear to its source, and was shocked
to find that the reception/recording equipment was hidden in Dr. Kawachi's
laboratory.  All the time he was developing Matilda, he had been selling
GENOM out to the AD Police.  No wonder Kowalski had been defeated.  Kawachi
denied it emphatically, of course, but that didn't save him from Annie's
wrath, nor her frustration at O'Brien being free.  Kawachi's death, far away
from the GENOM Tower and Holy Ground of course, was messy, performed with
both a sword and her own bare hands.  Unfortunately, he had erased all the
data on Matilda, even the earliest prototypes.  It would be a _long_ time
before there was another GENOM hardsuit.

     Nene sighed and looked at her hands in her lap.  "I can't do it, Joe.
I can't be a Watcher."
     Dawson was silent, waiting for Nene to continue.
     "Priss is like family to me, and if an Immortal and a Watcher aren't
supposed to be friends..."
     "That rule is rarely enforced these days."
     "But still...  This whole incident with Kowalski, I mean, I took an
active role in an Immortal battle.  If that doesn't go against 'observe,
record, never interfere,' I don't know what would.  And besides, there's too
many secrets already.  I don't think I could handle another, especially with
my friends."
     "I understand."
     "Do you, _really_?"
     "Yup.  Being a Watcher is tough.  Being a Watcher and having other
secrets is that much harder.  Look, maybe we can work something out.  We
need someone as good with computers as you.  You know about us.  Maybe we
can arrange to have you brought in as a kind of consultant from time to
time.  Not a full Watcher, but someone we call in to help us out with our
computers."
     Nene looked up and smiled.  "That would be great!"

     "Was that wise?" Methos asked Dawson later that evening.
     "She'd eventually hack into the Watcher database again, and I'm sorry,
I don't believe in the old strategy of 'get them to join or else.'  There
was no other option."
     "I don't suppose there was."
     "But what about you?"
     "What do you mean?"
     "_Why_?"
     "Why what?"
     "Stop being so damned evasive, you know what I'm talking about.  Why
did you do it?  It couldn't have been just for Priss."
     Methos sighed.  "Survival, Joe, and not just for me, for the human
race.  Quincy considers himself the winner of the Game, so I wanted to set
either O'Brien or MacLeod against him, and I wanted to give the AD Police
enough to be able to grab him on the way down.  Instead I set Priss against
him."
     "Sounds like it was successful."
     "Maybe."
     "What's this maybe crap?  O'Brien's still alive, and Asagiri will
oppose Quincy."
     "Yeah, but it was too high a cost."
     "You and Priss are through?"
     "I imagine so.  Even if I told her what I'd done, what I'm still doing,
I _did_ lie to her.  She entrusted me with all her secrets, and I withheld
one of mine.  I don't blame her, I hate me right now too."

MEGATOKYO, JAPAN - 8 JUNE, 2033

     Priss had borrowed Sylia's car and was driving Patrick to Megatokyo
Airport.  Traffic had jammed solid about two miles away.  "I took the
vibro-blade out of my hardsuit, by the way."
     "You did?  Why?"
     "It's not necessary."
     Patrick looked at the cars around them.  "What is this _madness_?  It's
not even noon, and it's Wednesday!"
     "I _told_ you it was a dumb idea to fly out today.  Vision's arriving."
     "Vision?"
     "Yup.  She's starting her big comeback tour, complete with her usual
'who am I really' marketing.  Every time I look at her I see a big question
mark.  What the hell does she stand for?"
     "Funny, I recall thinking that when I first met you."
     "Ha, ha."
     Patrick glanced at his watch.  "Be that as it may, I better _not_ miss
my flight."
     "Don't worry.  It'll be delayed because of this Vision crap."
     "Thanks.  You're _quite_ an encouragement."
     Priss laughed.
     "It's good to see you laugh," Patrick said.
     They drove, or rather sat, in relative silence, listing to the CD Priss
had put in.  Finally, Priss said, "That's what _he_ said."
     "Who?"
     "Adam.  Methos.  Whatever."
     "I understand.  I'm sorry."
     "No problem.  I'm not upset, all I know is that if I ever see that son
of a bitch again, I'm gonna kill him."
     "You'll have to get in line behind me."
     "Like _hell_!  _I_ was the one who slept with him, who told him my
innermost secrets!  I think I'm more the injured party than you."
     Patrick chuckled.  "You're right.  If I see him before you, I'll kill
him, bury him, and call you.  Then you can take his head."
     "Thanks."

     Eventually, they made it to the airport.  Patrick got out of the car,
walked over to the departure schedule monitor, and looked up his flight.  It
informed him that flight 721 to San Francisco had, indeed, been delayed.  He
only hoped he'd make his connection to Boston.
     Doubtful.
     Priss had gotten a skycap and already sent Patrick's luggage off.
"So," she said.
     "So."
     "This is goodbye."
     "No, not goodbye.  Goodbye is too final, and I'll be back as soon as
possible.  Besides you're gonna come to Boston someday, aren't you?"
     "Well... yeah."
     "OK then.  How about just 'see ya for now'?"
     "Yeah."
     Both Immortals were silent, staring at each other.  None of Patrick's
other Students had been quite as emotionally draining, and as ultimately
rewarding, as Priss.  She was full of surprises, and she gave Patrick one more. 
     She reached out and embraced him.  Then she kissed him on the cheek,
saying, "Take care, Teach."
     Patrick returned the embrace.  "You too, Priss."
     They separated.  "Thank you _so_ much, for everything."
     "Thank _you_ for scaring me out of my rigidity."
     "You'd better get going."
     "Yeah."
     Patrick and Priss stared at each other for a few more lingering
seconds, then Patrick turned and headed into the terminal.  Priss turned
herself, got back into Sylia's car, and pulled away smiling.  Immortality
hadn't beaten her.

     Patrick hadn't told Priss about the sense of futility he'd felt at
finding out about Quincy's Immortality and the GENOM Tower being built on
Holy Ground.  However, he had to keep hope alive.  With hope, there were
dreams.  And so long as he continued to dream, his dreams would never vanish.  
     He wandered around the airport for a while, waiting for the boarding
call for his flight.  He walked past a chaotic scene, perhaps a press
conference.  Flashbulbs were bursting, reporters were screaming, "Miss
Vision!  Miss Vision!"  But Patrick didn't notice.  Dispite everything, he
actually felt good.  He had no doubt whatsoever that someday Quincy would
fall, and Priss would be there to meet him on his way down.
     The world was in good hands.

     Priss went back to Sylia's where Nene had on the Vision press
conference.  She smiled when she saw Patrick walk by in the background.  She
also complained again about Vision's marketing strategy, how she always
seemed to disappear like Batman.  Nene remarked that it was _nothing_ like
Priss, and Linna told them that she thought she'd met Vision before, because
she looked _awfully_ familiar.
     Slowly, things seemed to finally be getting back to normal.
     After she left Sylia's, she stopped at the post office to pick up her
mail.  Nothing but bills.  She returned to the trailer to find a note taped
to her door.
     "What the hell?"
     She took it down and read it.
     "Priss,
     "I know you probably hate me now, and frankly I don't blame you.  I
_should_ have told you the entire truth, and I hate myself for lying to you.
But admit it to yourself, if I _had_ told you I was working for GENOM, what
would you have done?  
     "Maybe you can never forgive me, and I'm not asking for forgiveness.
But I think you should know that I, in my own way, am fighting GENOM just as
you are.  You and O'Brien, the Knight Sabers, and Leon are warriors.  I
never have been, and never will be, so I need to fight my battle from
within.  I've already taken steps to insure Quincy does not remain in power
forever.  My plans depend on absolute secrecy.  Even potential allies could
ruin things for me.
     "That said, I think it's best if we leave things the way they are
between the two of us.  Even if you _could_ forgive me, you'd always be
wondering what secrets I was keeping from you.  But I want you to know this,
I do truly love you, and for as long as I live, whether I lose my head
tomorrow or live another five thousand years, I will always regret not being
truthful with you, and miss what we had, however short a time it may have
been.  
     "Adam."
     Priss sighed, and crumpled up the paper.  She unlocked her door and
dropped the note on the ground, then walked inside and closed the door.  A
breeze picked up and blew the paper across the pavement, until it stopped,
stuck in a sticky, messy, chewed up piece of bubblegum.

The END

 (c) 1997 Mabnesswords

More author babbeling:
This was my first attempt at both writing BGC fanfic and writing an X-over,
though as the people on the Highlander Fanfic list know, I've written
several O'Brien stories.  I hope I've captured the essence of the BGC
characters and the universe, dispite the HL influence.  As I said in the
author's notes, it was really _really_ easy to fit HL into BGC, a lot easier
than I originally thought.  Once I got the begining and the end, the thing
took over my life.  

So what possesed me to do this?  Finding out that Priss was supposed to die
in episode 6, but ended up being spared by the God of Contract
Re-negotiation, _then_ watching episode 7 and seeing her rip a cast off a
fully-healed broken arm less than a day later, and the fact that Priss takes
insane amounts of damage and regularly walks away none the worse for wear.
So, my mind went into overdrive, put the three together, and came to the
conclusion that Priss _must_ be an Immortal (at least in my private parallel
universe).  And Quincy?  Hearing that in the ADPolice graphic novel
something "interesting" about Quincy's expected lifespan was mentioned (and
never revealed).

I hope you enjoyed the story.