NOT ALWAYS

By Rodlox
rodlox@hotmail.com

Queen of Swords/Highlander Crossover Set during Revelations/Comes a Horseman, and after The Pretender.

~~~~~

"I wasn't always like this."

"I seem to recall otherwise. Greece, for example."

"Which one? Athens or Sparta?"

"My point exactly."

"What I mean, Brother, is that I did try to seek peace, to apply myself in society."

"How did it turn out?"

~~~~~

FLASHBACK

Colonel Luis Montoya calmly stood before the firing squad. Not beside it or behind it: he was the target this time. He could see, standing together on his oration platform, Capitan Marcus Grisham and the Queen of Swords; they'd performed a coupe, overthrowing Montoya, and installing themselves as the folks in charge. In Montoya's mind, there was no doubt that she'd turned from trying to sleep with Doctor Helm to sleeping with Capitan Grisham.

"You're sure you don't want a blindfold?" Helm asked. Montoya shook his head. Helm shrugged and backed away.

"FIRE!" Grisham commanded, and they obeyed.

Montoya could wait until he'd been buried to do what needed doing...

~~~~~

TWO DAYS LATER

Marcus Grisham was riding his horse on a trail in the countryside when someone stepped out from behind a roadside boulder. To his eyes, this rogue was a dead look-alike to Colonel Montoya.

"Well, we meet again, Grisham; and so soon after your promotion too. I'm sorry I was not able to attend."

Montoya partly cocked his pistol, just enough so that - when he tossed it into the brush and it hit the ground - it sparked a fire that quickly turned into a blaze completely surrounding the two of them. "And now you will be rewarded for your trickery." Grisham chuckled. "Something about this amuses you, Captain?" making no attempt to hide his lack of Spanish accent.

"I'll say. For one, you're inside the fire with me."

"True, I suppose," Montoya admitted. "Not that it makes much difference."

"You'd die in here, just to kill me? I'm supposed to be flattered?"

"On the contrary, Grisham," Montoya stated, "I do not have so much to lose now. I suppose I have you to thank for that."

"You're mad!" Grisham stated, as his horse reared up, starting to go around in a circle to find a way out - there was none.

Montoya chuckled. "You know, the Oracle at Delphi told me the same thing. Granted, I was pulling her heart out at the time."

"You'll never get away with this, you hear me?"

"Yes, yes, I hear you; although shouldn't that be more of the Sword Queen's line?"

After that, Montoya sat back against the rock, and waited for the flames to do their work. Already, his mind was considering how to suitably punish the Queen...

~~~~~

PRESENT DAY

"But, sadly, she and her alter-ego had made their escape from the pueblo by the time I came to."

"I'm sure you had only the best of intentions," his Brother said in that tone which was impossible to tell if he was sarcastic or merely enigmatic.

"Tell me, did you ever meet anyone named Maria Theresa Alvarado or Robert Helm?"

"No, I can't say that I have."

"Pity. He looked almost exactly like you, though he lacked your strategic mind."

"Why Kronos, I do believe you just complimented me."

"We all slip sometimes."

END