Memories out of Ashes: Part 1:
ROME: 74 AD

"Elista, come. We shall enjoy our honeymoon a fortnight before returning to our land." Manduz said as he looked at his newly wed bride. A sad look appeared on her face as he gently kissed her on the forehead. "My love what is it?"

"I'm scared my Lord." she said as she sat down on a bench.

"Scared? What for?"

Elista looked at her husband and blushed. "You have done this many times in many hundreds of years where as I have never been with a man."

Manduz sat next to his wife and placed his hands in hers. "But none of them have touched my soul the way you have." Elista melted as the words of her romantic husband and kissed him.

"My Lord! My Lord!" Came a voice through the garden walls. The passionate kiss was broken by the approach of one of the soldiers.

"What is it?" Manduz said rather agitated.

"My lord," the soldier said as he bowed at the Army leader. "The Greeks are at the gate and they are attacking!"

Manduz looked at his soldier and then his bride and sighed. "Take Elista to Darius. She'll be safe with him."

"No Manduz. I am your wife now and I will fight by your side."

"Elista, this is no time for games. Darius will take you to the temple where you'll be safe. When all is safe, I'll send for you."

"But..." she protested. She was silenced by a kiss good-bye before Manduz left with the soldiers.

"Where is he Darius? He should have sent for me by now." Elista said as she sat next to Darius, who had stood by her husband's side less than a week before.

"I do not know. I am sure he is fine." He said as there was a knock on the door. Darius stood up and answered it. Moments later he returned with a sad look in his eyes.

"Has he sent for me?" Elista said. Then she noticed the look in his eyes. "Darius? Was that him? Has he sent for me?"

"Sit down my child. Manduz was..." he said as he took a deep breath. The soldier handed him a package to give to her and he placed it in her lap.

"Daruis? No!!!!! He can't die! He is suppose to live for ever. I don't understand."

"Come Elista. There is much you still have to learn."

****
Joe's Place 1997

"Hey Joe. Give me a beer." The oldest Immortal said as he sat down at the bar.

"Adam." Joe said smiling. "Just the person I was looking for." he said as he handed him a drink.

"Of all days, not today, Joe. I'm not in the mood." he said as he chugged the beer and pushed the glass back to the Watcher.

"Yes, Adam. Today of all days. Follow me."

"Joe, I don't..."

Joe grabbed Adam by the arm and led him back to the business office. "It's about time you faced reality. You're over 5000 years old and Alexa has been dead for a year. I miss her as much as you do, but she'd have wanted you to move on with your life. Same as you have all this time. It's time to face it, Methos."

Adam plopped down into the chair and looked at the floor silently. Moments later he slowly lifted his head and looked at Joe. "It's not just Alexa."

Joe opened the drawer to his desk and pulled out a small box. He handed it to Adam and smiled sadly. "I finally got around to cleaning out her locker. I found these and I think she'd want you to have them."

****
Rome 74 AD

Elista looked at the package with tears in her eyes. It had been a week since she had learned of Manduz's fate as well as her own and she had yet to open the package knowing what was in it. "Are you sure you want to open it? Your wounds are still raw."

"I must Darius. Tonight we would have celebrated his birth." She opened the package and sighed as she eyed the hilt of the sword she and her father had made Manduz when he became the head of the army. The design was the same that was on their wedding cloth. "It's as beautiful as they day my father knighted him with this sword." She said as the sobs of her cries could be heard throughout out the kingdom.

****

"She use to wear those earrings all the time until one of the backings broke." Joe said as he sighed. He knew Alexa's death was still painful for him. It was hard for everyone that knew her. "I guess she put them in her locker and forgot about them."

Adam just stared at the design. It had been a design he knew so well but had forgotten long ago. "Where did she get these? Do you have any idea?"

"I brought them back to her after my trip to Scotland with Mac. Why?"

"This design... It can't be. It's impossible. It should've been buried centuries ago."

"But it's not."

Adam turned the screen of Joe's computer around and typed in his password. Within minutes, the Watcher's database was running and the symbol was on the screen. He typed in a few words and sat back. Joe limped his way around the desk just in time to see the design from Alexa's earrings pop onto the screen.

Joe read the file and sat on the edge of his desk. "So she and Darius took off thinking he was dead?"

"Darius thought Manduz was dead until I ran into him about 1500 years ago. He never told me what happened to Elista."

"How did you know them?"

"Darius and I were soldiers in her father's army. I practically raised her from the time she was 13 until the marriage and Darius was like her brother."

"Do you think Darius could have copied the design?"

Adam shook his head. "Not even Darius had the passion that she had to go into such detail."

"Could she have passed it down to her children?"

"She was never bedded. In those days if a woman became a widow before she lost her maidenhood, then no other man could marry her."

"Are you sure it's the same exact design?" Adam nodded. "I'll look into it some more. I'll ask Darius's last Watcher for his journals back during that time."

"Joe, do you think?"

"You're the one over 5,000 years old, you tell me?"

"Thanks Joe." He said as he stood up and walked towards the door. "Thanks for everything."