'Harry, if you are watching this…then most likely I am either dead, or have been injured to such an extent that I am of no help to you; with what is undoubtedly a conspiracy that encompasses an entire continent.'
He stood in the main Holographic Room on board the Achilles; his face dark and drawn with anger as he watched the flat floating image of Hermione; she was as beautiful as ever, sitting on a couch somewhere (most likely her flat or home) in front of a digital video camera. Her face was also a picture of worry though and she looked rather strained as she talked. She again talked of the kidnappings; how 'magical' means were used to abduct children without them even knowing it was happening, as their 'parents' coming to pick them up were the kidnappers disguised.
'At first I thought it could be a 'dark wizard' conspiracy; there are still some Death Eaters at large and a few minor Pureblood Supremacy groups…and the Great Leap could've caused them to do this in some misguided attempt to either figure out how 'Muggles' suddenly became wizard…or to figure out how to undo it. But then I noticed that the kidnappers are quite verse in circumventing standard security technology protecting their targets…they hack and disable CCTV monitors at the schools if they have them…they are able to drive cars…and so on.'
That made sense thought Harry, a traditional wizard or Descendant wouldn't know the first thing to do when getting behind the wheel of a car.
'Therefore my search turned to the greater world; since everything now pointed to the fact that it was former 'Muggles'….arggh, I hate using this old terminology…using their new powers in criminal enterprise. And since the Police is still playing catch-up with Auror's being assigned to them and training them…it's leaving a major open playing field for criminals. So now you ask 'Isn't this just exactly that? Criminals flexing their new metaphysical muscles. No. The organization and number of the kidnappings within a limited time frame indicates that a group with significant resources and numbers is behind this. I can't be exact but I believe forty seven children have vanished in this fashion.'
Harry's eyes widened at that number. What on Earth? Why wasn't this making the news? Was nothing being done?
'I've consulted with Albus on this. And while we can't afford to rule it out yet; the 'people' you mentioned when we last met might be involved.'
Sorry Hermione, no Goa'uld involved in this one, he thought.
'He also mentioned that I mustn't completely rule out that the traditional wizarding world did not have a part in these kidnappings. Which makes sense since these criminals had to be using Polyjuice on more than one occasion and the rate of the kidnappings could indicate they're using Portkeys or even Side-Along Apparition to move about in addition to normal cars. Also an interesting thing to note is that the criminals would use a car that matched the family's one exactly…even reproducing the correct license plates.'
'It boggles the mind that Interpol is not all over this, and I've even been to their offices here in the UK and submitted the information I have on all this. They said they would get back to me. They never did. Not a few days later I noticed I was being followed, I manage to give them the slip every time but the moment I show my face in public I'm latched onto again. It only further points to wizard involvement.'
'I can only conclude that Interpol has been infiltrated in some fashion and my information never reached the upper-echelons. Therefore I am now turning it over to you, in the hope that you can make use of your connections with the American government to somehow intervene or do something to retrieve these children.'
'Attached to this digital disk you will find an encrypted file with all the information I have, included in it is the only lead I have which might send you on a path to find the kidnappers. To open this file you need a password…since it's also possible this disk might be land into unfriendly hands. You will need to solve this riddle get it.
'Tis the end and the beginning.
'Tis moving on.
Only the worthy achieve
No words can describe.
'Goodbye, Harry. I sincerely hope we are both watching this, laughing at my overly paranoid precautions.
With all my love,
The holographic screen faded into nothingness and he bowed his head and stared at the small bloodstained digital disc sitting on the Interface pedestal in front of him. He removed it and clenched it in his fist. He resolved to himself that if he had to he would turn Europe upside down and inside out if it meant finding the bastards that did this. And to that end, he needed to pay a visit to an acquaintance.
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Washington D.C.
In a rather ordinary supermarket in the city of American government, two men could be seen idly browsing the dairy section. If you looked at them, you would conclude that it was but a chance meeting of two very different men, looking to buy groceries. They were also a study of contrasts; one was dressed as if he had just come from a business boardroom with a long overcoat with well-styled dark blonde hair and had an ordinary build, the other dressed in jeans, t-shirt and sneakers was a picture of casualness, but looked like he either frequented a gym a lot or was a serious athlete. If you also looked closely you could see their lips were barely moving…they were talking…yet no sound betrayed that a conversation was taking place.
If you were to stand right next to them though, you would be disabused of that notion.
"You're certain of this?" said Special Agent O'Day.
"As certain as the sniper's bullet that tried to take me out in London," replied Harry, picking up a carton of milk and examining it as if he was checking to see its contents table. "I only have two leads that I was hoping you could give me your opinion on."
"And they are?"
Harry turned the milk carton and a small piece of paper was trapped between it and his thumb, there was a drawing on it. The instant O'Day saw it he stiffened and blinked in alarm. "You know this symbol?"
"Unfortunately I do," sighed O'Day. He put down the bottle of yogurt and walked casually to Harry's other side to examine the cheeses. "Where did you obtain that?"
"At one of the schools the kidnappers made a mistake," explained Harry, putting down the milk carton and crumbling the piece of paper in his hand, Vanishing it into the ether of the Universe, before pretending to examine the rest of the stand. "The school had just installed a surveillance system the day before it happened. They didn't know that they were caught on film."
"But from what you told me, surveillance would be irrelevant with the metaphysical means they are using to impersonate others," reasoned O'Day.
"It would, however, on this occasion I believe they ran out of Polymorphic, because they only had Visual Glamors applied to their faces…the camera caught that symbol tattooed on the flesh between the thumb and forefinger of one of the kidnappers."
"Must've been hard to enhance that from a grainy surveillance camera," commented O'Day.
"It was easy, now can we get to the part where you tell me what you know?" said Harry dryly.
"I will, but first tell me the other lead you had?"
"That all the children were six to seven years old, the implications of which is not good," said Harry darkly. "At that age a child's most basic cognitive and spatial abilities are still a blank slate, they can be molded into anything with the right stimulus."
O'Day sighed and looked to be burning some serious neurons as he seeming wrestled with himself. "If my Director ever found out I was divulging this to you he would tear me a new one, even though you technically have clearance, but the thought of unleashing you on this 'organization' that tried to take you out is enough to give me goosebumps."
"So?" asked Harry pointedly.
"They call themselves The Triad," explained O'Day. "Now this isn't the Chinese Triads I'm talking about…they're only concerned with their local communities and operate more like street gangs. The Triad; is an alliance of disaffected former Soviet spymasters and scientists that went into business for themselves in the early nineties using any assets they could leverage during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now they're into blackmail, corporate espionage, extortion, covert weapons development, you name it."
"Interesting, in the Chinese sense of the word," said Harry thoughtfully. "I suppose there's no head office for these guys, otherwise you would've probably parked a cruise missile through their window already?"
O'Day laughed. "Quite right, no, we don't know where they're located, but we do know they operate in cells scattered all through Eastern Europe mostly. We have 'probable' locations on one or two of them, but nothing substantiated."
"Do they have a computer network?"
"Yes, but it's on an isolated backbone, and the only server access points are in the 'cells' themselves."
Harry considered this for a moment, "very well, can you get me those locations, it seems I have a long night of scanning from orbit ahead of me."
O'Day blinked as if startled and Harry imagined that a lightbulb had just blinked on above his head. "Oh, I am so going to put forward a proposal for a dedicated Intelligence ship…do you have any idea how many problems we could solve with a ship that has the scanning capabilities of a Prometheus class?"
"I can imagine," said Harry as he moved along the freezer. "Although if something like that happens you will have to share such a ship with other Intelligence services. It's only fair."
"Awww, too bad, anyway, you'll have the locations by this afternoon, meet me at our secondary rendezvous."
With that O'Day walked away with a packet of cheese slices in his hand and headed in the direction of the tellers.
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Czech Republic, Prague
Walking over the majestic Charles Bridge that provided passage over the Vltava River, Harry appreciated the magnificent sight before him; it was easily the most impressive castle besides Hogwarts that he had ever seen…and in the light of the setting sun added to the artificial flood lights that lit the grand structure in a blue glow, it made the place seem 'magical' in a way just like Hogwarts itself.
St. Vitus Cathedral, according to his tour book, towered out of Prague Castle and was the tallest structure within it. Surrounding it was the tall flanks of the Castle itself dotted with numerous windows along seven floors. And since past kings had held residence and office there, it had to be the most prominent thing in the skyline, situated on a hill looking down on what was now known as the Little Quarter of the city.
He looked down into his tour book, contemplatively scratching his short gray beard; part of a disguise to make him look like any other tourist (an overweight old man, retired, and using his pension to see the world) walking through the streets of Prague.
O'Day's intel suggested that a Triad cell was located somewhere in the New Town section of Prague, just across the river. Harry could see why the FBI NSB thought so; the Main Train station was within spitting distance of it, it contained the Prague National theatre, Old Town Square and numerous other places that allowed you to blend into the crowd and arrange covert meetings, and finally the fact that Prague was a travel hub of sorts for those wanting to travel all throughout Europe.
Now added to this, were the scans Harry had done from orbit, which was further refined when he had gone on a walkabout throughout most of the past day using a handheld scanner concealed in a normal digital camera. He had also gone on the assumption that the Triad cell had traditional wizards in their employ, as such he had also used his Alteran senses to look for any form of Warding or Spells that had been set up.
In the end, he'd managed to narrow it down to one office building; from orbit he had detected the overly large amounts of mainframe computers inside and data bandwidth (not really suspicious in and of itself, but was perfect cover for sneaking your communications through the stream of data going in and out, fishing The Triad's communiqués out of it would've taken too long though); also tracking the lifesigns inside the building had yielded the fact that for two hours a group of sixteen of those lifesigns sat down in a room in a formation that suggested it was a classroom.
When Harry had passed the building on his walkabout, he also detected that nearly all the upper ten floors of the building were bustling with activity. Then there was the Ward he sensed placed on the whole building, a Selective Entrance Ward; the likes of which he had seen Death Eaters last use when they wanted only others like themselves pass through…a ward that was connected to the Dark Mark tattooed on their wrists. Clearly the tattoo on the kidnappers hand was more than just a mark of the Triad, it also served them to allow access into the Cell itself. It also had the added benefit that it wasn't powerful enough to render technology useless.
"Excuze me?" a voice interrupted his musings. It belonged to a tall, pale man with a rather disarming face, whose black hair, whilst not as messy as Harry's own, certainly gave it good run for its money.
"Yes?" said Harry in a rough, old voice.
"I vaz vondering if you could ztake a picture of my wive and me?" said the stranger, his accent definitely marked him as a local. The wife in question was an attractive woman, standing at about a head shorter than her husband, with fading blonde to black hair that looked like it was dyed often, her most striking feature was her sapphire blue eyes.
"Certainly, I'd be happy to, not much sunlight left though," said Harry, adopting an easy friendly tone and accepting the camera handed to him.
"Zat is no problem, my wivez glow will light us all," said the husband, his wife beamed at the compliment.
"I'm not sure the camera is capable of picking it up," said Harry sadly.
"But its no ordinary camera," said the husband meaningfully. His eyes narrowed at Harry in confusion all of a sudden. "You are not as O'Day described you."
"I am very good at disguises," replied Harry; the couple now identified as his contacts in Prague, posed and he quickly took a photo and returned the camera. "Why are we talking out here?"
"I am carrying a RF and sound jammer," said the wife, almost no hint of an accent. Harry nodded and put away the special tour book that had been used to identify him to the pair of Intelligence agents.
"Shall ve?" gestured the husband, towards the New Town side of the Bridge and they set off on a seemingly leisurely walk. "I am Mr Viktor Zarkov and this is Mrs Svetlana Zarkov, FSB."
"If we are going to play the alias game, then I am Mr Neville McDonald, Agent of Her Majesty's Government," said Harry wryly,
"How did you know they are not our true names?" asked Viktor curiously, his accent had also now diminished.
"I can tell when someone is lying to me," replied Harry with a shrug.
"Useful skill," commented Svetlana carefully.
They turned off the Bridge and continued to follow the street leading parallel to the river.
"I have the location of the cell," stated Harry next.
"And you would give it to us?" asked Viktor, his eyes narrowing in thought. "Or perhaps it is that you need help, and that is why you asked our mutual friend for a meet with us?" Harry snorted, the guy was perceptive, he'd give him that.
"The amount of manpower within the cell precludes a covert entry, plus they have metaphysical protection," explained Harry.
"Which you can deal with…naturally," stated Svetlana, arching an eyebrow. Harry only nodded, he had to be very careful around these two spies, they were trying to bait reactions out of him. It was to be expected in fact, since even though they weren't mortal enemies, they considered him to be their 'competition' from another Intelligence Agency.
"What do you wish from us then in exchange for the cell's exact location?" asked Viktor.
Harry told them.
"Ambitious," said Svetlana with a small smile.
"Coordinating such a thing is difficult at best," said Viktor, "but if we can move quickly enough here before this cell can send the word out…it should be possible."
"So you agree?" asked Harry.
"We will require at least a day," nodded Viktor.
Harry shifted uncomfortably in the all black conforming nomex suit he was wearing, and had resist the urge to scratch through the uncomfortable ski mask. The only familiar adornment on his person was the tactical vest, but the Hechler MP-10 submachine gun clipped to it was a type of weapon he had never used before. He stood next to Viktor and Svetlana, who were similarly outfitted, except their faces were unmasked, for the purposes of briefing the ten-man Spetznaz team.
It was a team that Viktor had managed to finagle from the FSB.
'I guess the Russians are serious about bringing down the Triad,' said Egeria.
All of them were congregated around a small table with maps and all available blueprints of the building out of which Prague Shipping operated; the front company the Triad cell was hiding under. They were gathered in what was the basement of a moldy old warehouse on the outskirts of Prague that Harry was sure dated all the way back to the early fifties.
Viktor was conducting the briefing in Russian, but Svetlana was translating for Harry in an undertone as her husband spoke.
'Whilst our primary objective will be the gathering of hard intel on the locations of all other Triad cells, this will also be a rescue mission, and that is why our British friend is here,' said Viktor gesturing to Harry. 'There are forty-seven children being indoctrinated to become Triad operatives in the future. Therefore you must make sure of your targets, no shooting through those thin office walls in the hopes of hitting the enemy before he sees you. He is also here because of the metaphysics the cell is using to protect itself. He will be disabling it before we can proceed to raid the building. He will also be taking point…'
The Captain of the Spetsnaz team visibly protested and babbled a long string of what had to Russian expletives. Viktor tolerated it for a few moments, before uttering a harsh reprimand and what seemed to be a distinct threat. The Captain bit off his protests instantly.
'He will be on point, end of discussion,' said Viktor coldly. 'There are skilled meta's inside and under Triad employ, so if any of you can stop some guy with Telekinesis from ripping your weapon out of your hands, then speak up and you will be on point."
None of the team spoke.
'Good, Captain you have the objectives, this is your show from here," said Viktor and handed the briefing over. The Captain gestured curtly for Harry and Svetlana to come closer.
'He says to listen closely and pay attention," translated Svetlana. 'His team has been working and fighting together for two years, to him you're a liability to that unit cohesion. So despite you being on point, you will do as he commands.'
"Understood," nodded Harry.
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It was late night and he would have stood out like a sore thumb in all his combat gear if he hadn't been disillusioned. He was crouching against the east wall of the Prague Shipping building that faced an alley bordering the neighboring building. Multiple garage roller doors for the loading and unloading of goods towered ominously over him and the rest of the disillusioned Spetsnaz assault team in a line behind him. Despite this, Harry could still see them easily.
Harry tapped the Captain on the shoulder to indicate he was ready and then took a deep breath and reached out with his hands towards the edge of the Wards. His hands pushed against it like there was invisible glass and abruptly the Ward flared into the green edge of the spectrum as he connected his will and power to it. He noticed that a few of the assault team were rather stupefied…since despite them being technically 'wizards' this was the first time they had actually witnessed a raw demonstration of the power.
He turned his focus now onto the intent behind the Wards and his mind rendered them into Alteran characters. A single glance at them told him that whoever had done this was quite good. The Ward even covered the loophole of creating a new entrance by use of precision explosives, entrance from the roof by air and so forth.
Getting rid of the Ward by overpowering it was entirely feasible, but then the Warder and his Triad wizard buddies would come running. Confounding the Ward to make them think that Harry and the Spetsnaz team were part of the Triad and allowed entrance would be all the better, but take much longer.
'There is no hurry Harry, we're not on the clock,' said Egeria in amusement.
'Adopting Jack's manner of speech so does not suit you,' he countered.
He began slowly, adjusting the Ward, bit by bit, carefully checking his work so he didn't create a cascade conflict…if Sam could've seen this she would be amazed how much it resembled programming, which from a certain point of view was exactly what a Ward was…a delineated section of space altered and programmed to behave in a certain way by the Caster. Harry was changing it by 'hacking' into and altering the base code, much a like a computer virus would.
It took nearly twenty minutes before he felt confident enough to try and push his hand through the Ward.
It went through, but to go through now would've been like trying to walk through water under high pressure.
He returned to the Ward and another fifteen minutes of alterations allowed his hand to move freely and smoothly through the perimeter.
Harry tapped the Captain three times to indicate success and they advanced forward. Harry had altered the disillusionment so that the team could see each other but no one else could…the only downside was that it wouldn't last as long as the standard spell matrix.
He brought his silenced MP10 against his shoulder and advanced to the other side of the garage doors. It was now the Spetsnaz team's chance to shine as they efficiently disabled the alarm sensors attached to the door, and sprayed a thick foaming substance onto the steel of the door in a large rectangle shape that congealed instantly into putty. A small fuse was inserted into it and lit. The chemical reaction that occurred next with a hissing sound was so hot that it instantly melted through the steel. A suction cup that had been attached beforehand prevented the newly cut steel door from falling inward and giving them away.
Once the steel was out of the way, Harry led the way into a loading bay filled with boxes and overhead gantries for moving them. A nearby supervisor's office with wide windows for looking out onto the bay was filled with the snoring of what looked to be the night shift security guard. He rushed to the open door and with a gesture the guard was ensured of another five hours of guaranteed sleep, no matter what stimulus was applied to him.
He appropriated the keycard badge from the now deeply sleeping man and rushed out. He led the team up a metal staircase and turned left to storm down a catwalk, where the first magnetically sealed door was. A swipe of the keycard later and the team entered into a hallway on the second floor.
This was where, despite being disillusioned; the sound of their feet could give them away to any passing guard. The combat boots they were wearing were soft-soled grooved rubber, and should they move slowly enough it wouldn't be a problem. Harry hadn't applied Silencing fields to their feet, since there was no guarantee that the wizards or anyone else for that matter, wouldn't be able to sense it; he was pushing their luck as it was with the disillusionment.
Hugging the wall they moved towards the central staircase, pausing only once for a bored looking security guard to come past. He noted that neither of the two guards they had seen had been carrying any weapon besides an electric prod. That would no doubt change once they reached the upper ten floors.
At this point the team split into two at an intersection between two corridors; five went left towards the Server room, whilst Harry, the Russian Captain and the four remaining spec-ops soldiers stopped at the stairwell door next to the elevator. Another swipe of the card opened it and they allowed themselves to move faster once inside.
Their luck held, as there were no guards patrolling the stairwell.
'That's sloppy for an organization like the Triad, given what O'Day told us of them,' said Egeria from within.
'That means they're either overconfident in their secrecy or they have security that we can't see or know about.'
He strained his metaphysical senses for the slightest minor energy flux or anything to indicate some form of trap…nothing.
It was when they reached the eleventh floor that Harry held up a fist to halt the team. The reason for the lax internal security was apparent now. The door leading onto the eleventh floor could've been used as an airlock on a starship or a Blast door. There was a retinal and handprint scanner to one side that governed access and a surveillance camera looking down on anyone who used them to get in. In addition the staircase that should've lead further up to the twelfth floor was walled off.
Harry glanced meaningfully at the Spetsnaz Captain and risked willing a Silencing Sphere around him and the team.
'There is no way we're getting through that without waking up the whole building,' whispered Harry.
'We use of surprise and blitz way through," said the Captain in broken English that indicated that while he knew it, he rarely had call to use it, "remember, people up here only desk trained analysts, field agents and security we must worry, the metas are your job. How longer will our invisibility last?'
'Ten to twenty minutes,' said Harry after a glance at the team.
'Then do you want go or should we?" pointed the Captain at the Blast door.
'I'll do it.' He willed away the Silence Sphere and walked forward the final few steps until he was on the landing. He gestured for the soldiers to hug the wall as much as they could. Turning to face the door, his gathered his strength, and with a twist of will, helped by a small sweeping gesture the Blast door gave a moan of tortured metal before it was abruptly launched along with pieces of the concrete it was bolted into with terrible speed and smashed into the staircase leading further up.
Alarms instantly began to blare, echoing up and down the stairwell.
Harry led the charge onto the floor, leading with his MP-10 raised and sweeping right to left. A guard dressed in a rather formal looking suit and carrying a Steyr Aug assault rifle, was startled in surprise but got three silenced 10mm rounds through his face before he could even think to bring the weapon round.
He advanced to the other side of the elevator hallway, allowing the Captain and another two of his men to breach. Two more guards that came storming to the breach point met their end messily with bullets to the head.
The last three soldiers entered and they began a systematic advance, following a circuitous route of the floor. Any guard they encountered rushing down to the building's defense was instantly cut down by the Spetsnaz, Harry was not really relishing having to kill but it couldn't be helped in this situation; Stunned guards could be revived by the wizards here and they would then have to fight on two fronts.
With the disillusionment on them still active it was at the moment a sorely one-sided running battle. The analysts in their offices were all pretty much cowering under their desks. He could see some of them trying to phone out for help, but Viktor and Svetlana had arranged to have the building's outgoing phone calls intercepted.
There was a burst of Russian over the encrypted radio and Harry guessed that Team 2 must have just finished their raiding of the Triad mainframe and was heading up to support them.
It was at this point that things went somewhat sour.
Harry felt a spell washing over them from behind…and just like that the team was visible. He cursed and whirled around firing a near continuous stream of bullets towards down the hallway. Four of the bullets were stopped in midair and fell to the ground. Harry threw up a Shield with his off hand while letting the empty MP10 dangle off his chest.
His shimmering white Shield that fell from the ceiling was enough to stop the Disembowelment spell heading for the rearmost solider. Harry had briefed them on what to do. They rushed forward to get behind him, whilst three more distinctly dark spells strained against the shield.
Harry dropped the shield and deflected two spells by willing deflection shields around his hands and batting them away like beachballs. He went on the offensive by willing a sudden vacuum to appear in front of where he could feel his opponent…the Universe instantly reclaimed the void and the concussive shockwave radiated outward, picking up the wizard, sending him flying backwards to crash through a wall, whilst every single window on the floor shattered simultaneously. A quickly willed shield protected Harry and the Spetsnaz from the effects rather snugly.
"He is out?" asked the Captain curtly.
"Yes," said Harry, and led the way. The soon found an inner staircase that was not on the building schematics, but was clearly what allowed the cell to move up and down the building besides using the secure elevator.
On the next floor the team battled against five guards who were working together and coordinating their movements. As the advantage of invisibility was gone, this evened the playing field in theory, but with Harry's presence resistance was rather futile. He cast a Deceleration Shield; it was a shield that merely consisted of steeply inversing the flow of gravitons within a space of one centimeter. This caused the bullets fired by the enemy to simply stop in midair.
It was at this point that Team 2 caught up with them and joined in the firefight, which swiftly turned in their favor.
The third floor they assaulted offered another wizard with another four guards and one Triad agent. This was where the Spetsnaz showed their skill even more as they downed two guards with head shots before anyone could react.
Harry flung a bolt of Fire to get the wizard's attention (even though he was wearing normal clothes he had a dark black wand held loosely in hand). The wizard ducked the fire as bullets traced lines of death around them.
Harry idly intercepted a few bullets that would've hit him in the chest, (and exposed his Alteran personal shield) and with a flick of the fingers shot them telekinetically towards the wizard who showed he was no slouch either by stopping them with a wave of his wand. He did the dumbest thing next when threw a Killing Curse at Harry.
Harry directed a nearby desk to come sailing into the path of the Curse and it exploded into kindling. He next made a grabbing gesture at wizard and out of nowhere crushing telekinetic forces converged on the wizard from all sides; his legs snapped like twigs and ribs broke. The wizard dropped limply to the ground screaming in pain, a Stunner provided him merciful unconsciousness.
The agent was the last one to go down, with a bullet that clipped him in the arm, he fell out from behind his cover and two bullets pierced him in the chest.
The fourteenth floor was devoid of guards or agents or even wizards, what it did contain, was enough to make Harry's blood boil. A large hall-like room held rather sterile like chrome tables…forty-seven of them, and upon each was strapped down one of the kidnapped children. He vaguely heard a few of the Spetsnaz assault team give angry invectives at what they were seeing.
Harry saw that the closest, a young six-year-old boy still dressed in his school uniform, was blankly staring up into some form of emitter that was shining various wavelengths of light directly into his eyes, and over his ears were headphones. IV drips hung next to each feeding them goodness-knows-what directly into their bodies. He carefully approached the boy and placed a hand on his forehead and connected his essence to the boy's.
"By the Creator!" gasped Harry, jerking his hand away.
"What is it?" said the Captain.
"His will is not his own," growled Harry darkly. "His mind is also being…shaped, is a way of putting it, into what the Triad wants." He pulled off the earphones and listened briefly to a voice in English describing various metaphysical concepts of Thought Construction…or Transfiguration as it was commonly known, clearly the wizards had been busy.
"The IV' s?"
Harry pulled out his Alteran Hand Scanner (suitably disguised to look Terran made) and took a few readings. "It's seems to be part of a regimen to refine and perhaps boost their metaphysical potential they will gain in later life."
"Let's get them out of here," said the Captain firmly and gestured to some of his men to watch their backs.
"Ok, but don't remove the IV's merely detach them from their stands and place the bags on the children's chests, it's possible interrupting the treatment they are getting will kill them," explained Harry when he saw the objection rise on the Captain's face.
'Very well," he nodded. The remaining soldiers all interspersed among the recumbent children and began to affix small glowing tags to them. Gunfire that erupted from the covering team, outside in the hallway, spurred them on to work faster. Any soldier that used up his assigned tags rushed towards the hall entrance to add his firepower to the defense.
Finally, all the children were marked.
Harry reached into a pouch of his tactical vest and touched a finger to the Asgard jewel device. Abruptly flashes of white light accompanied by the musical whine of the Transporter snatched away the children, after a few seconds, it was over and no children remained.
"Order your soldiers to say the keyword," said Harry, running towards the entrance. The Captain babbled an order and the Spetsnaz soldiers began to vanish with displaced pops of air. Harry nodded to the Captain and the man reached for a thick bag strapped to his pack and undid it, he pulled a pin on it and said 'Dazvidanya' and vanished leaving the bag on the floor.
"Goodbye," said Harry softly, and he was whisked away in a flash of white light, a second later the satchel charge exploded, leaving the Prague Shipping building nothing more than a collapsed ruin.
Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts, Somewhere Unplottable in Scotland.
Harry stood in his disguise of Mr McDonald and enjoyed the scenery out of the window of a vital, renewed and rebuilt Hogwarts. Fawkes the Headmaster's phoenix, sat on Harry's shoulder preening himself and occasionally giving an affectionate nibble to his ear.
"Such a fascinating creature, it is remarkable than an avian species could also evolve to a metaphysical level,' commented Egeria happily. 'The feeling of peace it inspires in those of good heart is amazing as well.'
Harry inwardly agreed and idly scratched the phoenix on its head to return the gesture of affection.
The door to the headmaster's office opened and Albus Dumbledore entered with a huff, looking slightly out of breath. The Headmaster was looking as vital as ever, despite looking old with his long white beard and wrinkled face.
"I hope the children are all right?" said Harry, not turning around but keeping his gaze fixed on the lush grounds of Hogwarts and the magnificent view of the lake.
"They are well…my friend, Madam Pomfrey is tending to them, they are in the best of hands," said Dumbledore, a knowing amusement laced his voice. "And she told me to tell whoever dumped her young patients on her lap that she would prefer a little warning first.'
"I'll make a note of that," said Harry, turning finally to face the old wizard. He's still going with the ridiculous star and moon-patterned robes…he chuckled to himself. "It's good to see you again, Albus."
"And you, as it were," said Dumbledore with a twinkle to his eyes, which faded slightly. "Hermione?"
"This thing is not over yet," said Harry meaningfully. "And I had to battle two dark wizards to free these children. It is entirely possible that there are more out there working with the same organization."
"She is dead then," nodded Albus sadly. "I will make the necessary arrangements."
"Thank you," said Harry gratefully. "Can you extend Hogwart's protection to these children?"
"I've already told the elves to convert the once abandoned third floor to living quarters for them," nodded Albus.
"Good, I have posted letters to the parents informing of their children's rescue, they will no doubt want to see them as soon as possible."
"I will in turn send Hogwarts letters to them, that can only be opened by the addressee, instructing them on the best method to get here."
Harry gave a slight nudge of his shoulder and Fawkes squawked in protest and grudgingly with a flap of wings returned to his perch.
"How long will it take?" asked Albus with a frown.
"I'm assisting the Intelligence agencies involved, if all goes well, perhaps a month maybe less, there are a lot unknowns involved in this. We will see."
"Then I shall not keep you any longer," said Albus, "but it was good to see you again."
Harry smiled and vanished.
SGC, Earth
Jack O'Neill blew out a breath of weariness as he approached the Level 19 elevator, swiped his card, and pressed the 'down' button. He really had to speak to Hammond about this latest duty he and SG1 had been assigned; what basically amounted to babysitting the Deadalus. Sure, they were a green ship, with a green crew, that hadn't yet seen combat against the Goa'uld. Apparently the powers-that-be in the STO wanted the ship's eventual trial by fire to go smoothly by having SG1 (we who pull miracles out of our butts) along in case something unforeseen happened.
The elevator door opened and he was surprised to see Ambassador Potter inside. The man was coated in that cool bodysuit of his and merely raised an eyebrow in greeting.
"You're back," stated Jack obviously and walked into the elevator.
"Had to deal with a situation on our fair planet," commented Harry vaguely. Jack saw a look on the man's face he hadn't expected, and it was a rather familiar one; it was the one that he sometimes saw in the mirror in his own dark moments; when he remembered all those horrible missions…the ones when friends didn't come home.
"Can you talk about it?"
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but seemingly stopped himself. "Maybe another time."
Jack grunted knowingly. Any further conversation was interrupted when the lights in the elevator went out and with a sudden jerk it came to an abrupt halt in its journey down to level twenty-eight. Jack frowned in puzzlement and reached forward to the control panel for the emergency phone and held it to his ear.
"Hello? This is C…Hello?" There was no answer, the phone was dead.
"Jack, Harry Hi," said a voice that couldn't be there. He blinked and turned around. There was Daniel Jackson; looking rather vital, wearing a cream colored sweater, pants and no glasses. He could see that Harry was looking rather astonished at Daniel's sudden appearance in the cramped elevator. "Abydos is in trouble," continued Daniel looking rather unconcerned at the effect of his appearance, "Anubis is on his way. He's after the Eye of Ra. I have a replica that Catherine gave me, it looks like this." Daniel held up a golden medallion that held the symbol of the fallen Supreme System Lord carved in relief upon its surface. "Now, I'm pretty sure the real one is located on secret chamber in Ra's pyramid on Abydos but I'm not sure where exactly. According to legend there were six Eyes including those held by Apophis, Osiris and Tiamat among others. Each is powerful on its own but to use them in combination increases that power ten fold. Recently, Anubis has managed to track down five of the six Eyes and only needs Ra's to complete the set. He's looked everywhere Ra used to hang out except Abydos; now he's on his way there."
Jack felt a sudden bemusement overcome him as his brain latched onto the first explanation he could think of, and put the telephone back in its cradle. "I'm sure that was an aspirin I took this morning."
"It's really Daniel, Jack," said Harry, who had seemingly recovered his poise and was now looking rather upset for some reason.
"He's right," nodded Daniel, "it is me and you both have to help, you have to find the Eye of Ra before Anubis does. Keep it, hide it, destroy it, whatever, it doesn't matter, we don't have much time."
Jack felt rather irked at that moment and decided to that his cosmically inclined friend deserved some of his trademark ire.
"Hey Daniel, how you doing? Long time. How are things on the higher planes?"
Daniel grimaced at himself and glanced at the stares he was getting from Jack and Harry; and seemingly totally changed his tack to the entire conversation.
"Hey Jack, Harry, long time no see. H..h..h..how you both doing?"
"Fine, just fine," said Jack.
"Peachy," said Harry shortly.
"Right, right, right, so what's new?"
"Uhm…actually a funny thing happened to me, today. I'm riding an elevator and an old friend of mine, someone who never calls, never writes…just shows up and tells me all about this very important and apparently urgent mission that needs our attention," said Jack wryly.
"So you gonna help or…" said Daniel, wincing.
"No, wait, wait! Let me tell it, it's good. You see this buddy of mine, this pal, this chum has…ascended to a whole new level of existence. Do you see the irony? He's asking for my help and he's this great and powerful being."
"A great and powerful being who is not allowed to interfere on our plane of existence," said Harry meaningfully.
"Yes," nodded Daniel, "there are rules and just talking to you both is a violation."
"And you're breaking them because of Abydos' peril," stated Harry with a sigh.
"Yes," said Daniel, lowering his head.
"What does Oma have to say about this?"
"She doesn't know I'm here," said Daniel, shifting on his metaphysical feet and having a supremely guilty look on his face.
"How can she not know?" asked Jack with a frown. "She and you are these massively powerful beings."
"She doesn't know," insisted Daniel. "Oma has taught me that ascension doesn't make you all knowing or all powerful. It is just the beginning of the journey. The point is, if I were to help you, if I were to take any action to help you, Oma would know at once and step in and stop me herself to avoid drawing the wrath of the other Ascended. If they wanted to, they could stop everything she's been trying to do for a long, long time."
The lights in the elevator came on and started to move again.
"I can't jeopordise that," said Daniel darkly.
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SGC, Briefing Room 1
Harry was seated around the conference table with, General Hammond, Teal'C, Sam, and Jonas, whilst Jack was walking around delivering the intel they had gotten from Daniel.
"Now, apparently we can't afford the time for Deadalus or Prometheus to get to Abydos, Anubis would beat us there," said Jack.
"My ship is faster and could make it, but it's only one ship," said Harry, "given the fact that Anubis could throw a considerable fleet against us, we can't go toe to toe with him. Meaning we would merely need to have a small team go in and out for the Eye. We would also have backup from the Abydonians."
"Ambassador, how did you and the Colonel come by this intel?" said Hammond, his bafflement clear.
Harry opened his mouth to speak and considered how best to say this. "Daniel told us," he said simply.
"You saw Doctor Jackson?" said Jonas in astonishment, Sam gaped at them.
"Actually it's not the first time," admitted Jack. Harry looked in askance at the Colonel, why hadn't he mentioned something like that before?
'He probably doubted whether anyone would believe him, look at Teal'C he seems quite unsettled,' mused Egeria.
"Is he all right?" asked Sam, recovering herself.
"What else did he say?" asked Hammond in wonder.
"Whoa, wait…you guys don't think the Ambassador and I are nuts…or anything…like that?" said Jack. Harry rolled his eyes at the disbelief Jack was projecting.
"Thank you for that ringing endorsement of my sanity Jack," said Harry grumpily. "But it was Daniel for certain…I sensed that much…though probing him too deeply would've fried me…he is a being of pure energy after all."
"Anyway," said Jonas, bringing the conversation back on track, "did he tell you where specifically to find the Eye?"
"Uh, he doesn't know," said Jack.
"He doesn't know?" said Sam in bafflement.
"I know!" said Jack in astonishment. "Personally I think this whole ascension thing is a bit overrated."
"It's a matter of perspective," stated Harry. "Ascending like Daniel did is…not really recommended. It's best done after living a full lifetime, and any friend or family you'd have on this plane have passed on or already Ascended before you."
"So you wouldn't be tempted to come back," said General Hammond, looking thoughtful. "But anyway, Dr Jackson's word is good enough in my book. SG1 you're good to go as soon as you're ready. Ambassador…"
"I'll get ready too," said Harry with a nod. "I have a suspicion on what the Eyes actually are."
"Good," nodded Hammond. "Make sure you are all armed for bear."
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Stargate Room, Ra's Pyramid, Abydos
Harry walked out of the event horizon of the Abydos Stargate, arriving just behind SG1. A group of young Abydonians was already there and awaiting their arrival, all carrying the PR7s they had been gifted with by the SGC after they were liberated from Amonet. The weapons were all covered with tied cloths to help protect them from the sandy desert climate; which they didn't really need, as Harry had designed them to operate in any environment; but he remembered that the Abydonians didn't feel comfortable taking apart the weapons to clean them.
The young Abydonian who featured prominently in the lives of SG1 approached with a smile and hugged Jack.
"O'Nieer," smiled Skaara; his young desert brown face split in a delighted smile at seeing his friends. "It's good to see you."
"You too," smiled Sam.
"I'm Jonas," said the Kelownan, hooking his weapon to his chest armor and shaking the Abydonian's hand.
"Good to meet you," smiled Skaara. "Harree…"
"It's good to see you again," nodded Harry. "No one has had problems?" he gestured to the PR7s.
"No, no, you trained us well, thank you," said Skaara, bowing his head slightly.
"We are prepared to do whatever you ask," said another eager Abydonian, who Harry recalled was named Tobay.
"Appreciate that," nodded Jack, "Teal'C, set up a perimeter, I want to know the second we have company." Teal'C nodded and gathered Tobay and left with a lot of the other Abydonians, leaving only Skaara behind. "Any idea where this Eye thing is?"
"I will show you," nodded Skaara, and led the way towards a corridor off the arrival room. They followed the young Abydonian down it until they found wide stairs that led down. These stopped at a small dusty entrance that was edged with clotted sand. "This leads down into the catacombs. If it is anywhere it must be down here."
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When you think of catacombs you think of labyrinth mazes filled with decaying corpses, with deadly traps to stop looters, rats that scurry about everywhere, a general odor of decay that permeated the air. The Goa'uld idea of catacombs was rather different. They were a maze of passageways, but wide and open, instead of dead bodies they were filled with places where the Pharoah would stash his riches in hidden and safe places, they were also festooned with inscriptions, hieroglyphs and reliefs attesting to the great power of the Goa'uld in question. Skaara showed an uncanny knowledge of which direction to go, clearly he had learned a lot from when Daniel was in 'exile' here after very first Stargate mission.
The emerged into a wide, open room that seemed to Harry's eye to be large reliquary of sorts, filled with broken pottery, debris and the walls were again covered in murals and reliefs; they walked in lighting the torches on the walls as they went to get a good look at them.
"This is as far as the catacombs go, Daniel and I have spent much time here," commented Skaara.
"No Eyes?" asked Jack hopefully.
"The Eye of Ra is mentioned many times on these walls," said Skaara, gesturing with his torch.
"Just so we're clear. It's not a real eye. It's a kind of jewel or something," said Jack with a smile at his young friend.
"Well, we have never been able to find it," shrugged Skaara.
"The Eye is not a jewel," said Harry, aiming the torch on his PR8 to read the hieroglyphs on the walls.
"Then what is it?" asked Sam, walking along and also studying another part of the walls.
"I've had a suspicion, since Daniel mentioned it and how Anubis needs all six, about what it actually is," said Harry distractedly, reading the walls. "And now reading the descriptions on the walls…"
"Oh do share," commented Jack snarkily.
"Inside each Eye is a…well," stammered Harry, trying to find a way to put this so Jack and the rest would understand. "Think of each Eye as a tiny artificial Universe in a bottle."
"You're kidding," said Sam, amazed.
"No, I'm not," said Harry darkly. "They're used as a power source, what you call Zero Point Energy, is extracted from this artificial Universe."
"The potential energy of that is…" said Sam, aghast.
"I know," said Harry, "now with each successive Eye you place within any system, the energy potential is increased exponentially. Sort of like how working together they are more than the sum of their parts."
"And they can be used in a weapon system?" asked Jack with a frown.
"It's conceivable," nodded Harry.
"I think it's more likely that Anubis will use the Collective Eyes to power a command class mothership," opinioned Jonas, also reading along the walls. "With such an energy reserve the ship would have formidable power, speed and shields and easily be able to outgun even a fleet of Ha'taks."
"And on that cheerful note," said Jack merrily, "I will let you two brains try to find this out. I will be over here with Skaara, catching up." He scurried to the stairs leading out of the room with Skaara and sat down.
Harry rolled his eyes and continued to move along the wall, reading as fast as he could. But everything he saw merely waxed poetic about the great and powerful Ra, his accomplishments, the size of his domain, blah, blah, nothing on the walls indicated or even hinted where a secret chamber could be. He grunted in annoyance and pulled out his hand scanner and reached where Jonas was working.
"Already conceding defeat, Ambassador?" asked Jack, walking over.
"The writing on the walls won't explicitly say 'There's a secret chamber here.' Jack," groused Harry, staring at the readings.
"Would kind of defeat the purpose," commented Jonas.
"Just to remind you two, that we don't have all day," said Jack tapping his watch meaningfully.
They had barely gotten back to work when suddenly dull thumps echoed through the room from the ceiling.
"Perfect, just great," snarled Harry, tapping the scanner.
'O'Neill, we are under attack! Ground forces have landed. We will not be able to hold them off for long,' screeched Teal'C voice over the radio.
"Roger that," confirmed Jack into his radio. "You heard the man."
"There's localized shielding in the walls, my scanner is only getting refracted," groused Harry, slamming the device back into its slot on his armor.
"If Dr Jackson were here,…" said Jonas helplessly with a shrug.
"Oh, he's here," disagreed Jack with a frown, scanning the room around him, "he's definitely here. Trust me, he's here."
Nothing happened.
The sounds of the battle raging overhead continued to thump into the room.
"Son of a…Hey! Where are you? We're only doing this because of you," shouted Jack to the ceiling.
That seemed to do the trick because Daniel was suddenly there among them, wearing Abydonian desert robes.
"Jack!" said the Ascended being. "It's here, I know it is."
"Daniel!" said Sam in amazement, walking up to him.
"Sam, Jonas," he nodded warmly at them, but it was clear that he was harried and pressed for time.
"Dr Jackson," greeted the Kelownan with a slightly amazed look.
"You hear that?" said Jack accusingly, pointing at the ceiling and the raging battle between the Abydonians and Teal'C against Anubis' forces.
"I can't do anything about that, you know," said Daniel sadly.
"I don't care," snapped Jack. "Do something or we walk. Right now."
"I'm walking a fine line, Jack," said Daniel gravely.
"Cross it," insisted Jack.
Daniel turned away and sighed, before returning to face them all.
"Okay," he acceded and walked towards another part of the room, to a wall facing to the east, everyone following in his wake. "I always thought there might be a secret chamber here. This section talks about how Ra draws his power from the sun."
Harry glanced at the relief sculpture on it and was intrigued. It showed a giant red sun, with rays shooting out towards a large depiction of Ra below. "That would sort of make sense, since the Eyes are technically a power source."
"O'Neill we cannot hold our position," reported a frantic sounding Teal'C on the radio.
"Fall back into the pyramid," ordered Jack, he turned to them. "You guys do your stuff, I'm gonna help Teal'C."
"I will come with you," said Skaara determinedly, and both left for the upper pyramid.
"Harry, why don't you try walking through the wall with the phaseshift," suggested Sam.
"Good idea, but I can bring both of you along as well, as long as you hold my hands."
He held out hands to both of them, and they took them without hesitation. The wall in front of them suddenly began to distort and wobble and without pause Harry stepped through the distorted matter.
The three of them emerged into complete darkness, which was only pierced by the shafts of light from their weapons. They spread out and found the nearest torches on the wall and lit them. They were inside a much smaller rectangular room, with a large stone table in the middle, and shelves on the walls, but it was what was on them that made all the difference.
"Jackpot," said Jonas with a smile. Sam grinned in bemusement at him.
There were all sorts of golden artifacts strewn everywhere in the room, here and there were also small tablets of writing and naquadah black objects and figurines.
"Let's get started," said Daniel, who had again suddenly appeared out of nowhere with no warning and started to peruse the tablets of writing on the table.
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They had hardly even searched for ten minutes amongst the numerous artifacts in the room when the radio crackled to life.
'Carter?' Jack's tone of voice clearly told the dire story that was unfolding upstairs.
"We've found the room, but still looking for the Eye, Sir," she responded.
'Work faster.'
It then occurred to Harry that perhaps the shielding in the secret chamber itself was not as great. It was logical that you would go through the trouble of making the shielding the thickest where the most common areas are. He pulled out his scanner again and after a view taps on the device's touchscreen.
"Ah, here we go," said Harry.
"What is it?" asked Sam, walking over from the shelf she had been looking through.
"I'm picking up a faint energy signature behind that shelf," he pointed to a corner of the room. There was a shelf that held a few artifacts, behind which the wall held another cartouche of hieroglyphs. Jonas picked up an ornate golden rod and tapped the wall in question…there was a hollow space behind it.
"Ok, now how do we get rid of the wall?" asked Jonas with a frown.
"I wouldn't recommend firing your PR8, if the energy of the weapon hit the Eye…well, let's just say that I wouldn't want to be on this planet when that happened," said Harry faintly.
"I've been training with this," suggested Sam, patting the holster on her hip that held her Alteran Stun Rod.
"I think Harry should do it, Sam," said Daniel mildly, looking up from a small obsidian black tablet he was examining on the table. "It requires finesse, and I doubt that your two months can compare to his decade and more of training."
"Ok," she said easily, conceding the point.
Harry smiled at her and turned to face the wall, with a gesture to aid his will and focus, he pulled with his mind and a small section of the wall shattered into dust and debris. Jonas walked forward and reached into the now exposed cubicle in the wall, cleared out some more debris until he revealed something round and gold. He carefully pulled it out.
The Eye of Ra was slightly bigger than a compact disk in diameter, and about two inches thick. The Eye itself was inset in an ornate solid gold base, with the sect tattoo of Ra emblazoned on its dark red crystal surface.
"Amazing," said Sam, looking over Jonas' shoulder. "And there's a Universe in there?"
"An artificially constructed region of subspace-time," elaborated Harry further.
"Cool," she said.
"Not as cool as this," said Daniel, still looking at the small tablet but now in amazement. "This gives a brief history of the Alterans, how they evolved, it describes the plague…how they learned to ascend. It also speaks of a lost city."
"Lost city?" said Harry, rushing to the stone table to take a look at the tablet. "This is written in one of the oldest dialects of Alterran."
"Yes," nodded Daniel. "It doesn't say much more about it. But it seems that it's a definite starting point. Keep this tablet safe, it's more valuable than anything in here and…I have to go."
"Where?" asked Sam.
"I'll be back," said Daniel, whose form abruptly began to glow and shifted into an incorporeal white being of energy and vanished through the ceiling. Harry carefully wrapped the tablet and handed it to Jonas for safekeeping; since he was the one with the shockproof containers in his backpack.
They phaseshifted through the wall and entered the main chamber, however, they didn't even make it to the stairs, when Jack and Teal'C carrying a critically wounded Skaara came running down the other way.
"Too late," said Jack shortly.
"We could not hold the Gate room," said Teal'C stoically. "Anubis dialed the Stargate preventing our escape."
"We got Jaffa on our ass, where's that Eye?"
"Here, Sir," said Sam, handing the circular device over. Jack took it and pulled out a slab of C4 and affixed it to the Eye. In the meantime, Harry and Jonas had helped the semi-conscious Skaara who had sustained a staff weapon blast to his lower abdomen, and helped him to lie down next to a nearby pillar and out of the potential line of fire
By the time Harry looked up, the Jaffa of Anubis were already marching and securing the far side of the landing, where the stairs began. Harry and Jonas rushed to one side of the entrance to the chamber, whilst Sam and Jack the other and aimed their PR8s. Teal'C began to dress Skaara's wound.
The Jaffa saw the defensive SG1 had mounted and halted on the landing…clearly they were under orders not to risk damaging the Eye in a firefight.
Finally, a short yet bulky, blonde haired Jaffa with the distinctive glint of gold on his forehead arrived, Anubis' First Prime.
"Surrender or die!" ordered the First Prime
"What?" said Jack mockingly, poking his head out slightly.
"Surrender or die!" repeated the First.
"I was just gonna say the exact same thing," said Jack with a grin.
"O'Neill, of SG1," sneered the Jaffa Leader, a light of recognition in his eyes. Clearly Jack had run into this guy before somewhere.
"Hey, how you doing? You'll have to forgive me, I'm terrible with names. What was…"
Jack snapped his head back when a staff blast from the First exploded into the wall near his head.
"Jeez!" winced Jack.
"I am Herak," smirked the First Prime.
"Congratulations," said Jack mockingly, "failing upwards I see."
"You have no choice," snapped Herak.
"Actually I do. I've got the Eye and about a pound of very powerful explosives stuck to it. Give us clear access to the Gate or I'll blow it up," said Jack simply.
Harry rolled his eyes at that threat, but kept his peace with it.
"Yourself along with it?" sneered Herak.
"What's your point?" countered Jack, sounding dead serious.
Herak lost his sneer at that and a considering frown emerged on his pale face. "I will speak with my master."
"Yes, you do that. Don't forget to tell him you screwed up again," taunted Jack.
Herak whirled around and left, though his Jaffa escort remained, their Staffs ready and charged.
"Is it really necessary to further antagonize him?" asked Jonas plaitively.
"Yes," said Jack.
"Would you really do it?" asked Sam darkly.
"Sure, why not?"
"Ambassador," called Teal'C.
Harry turned and walked over to the Jaffa, who had finished dressing Skaara's wound.
"How is he?"
"Skaara is in need of medical attention," said Teal'C gravely.
"I have failed you all," moaned Skaara through his pain.
"You have not," disagreed Harry and knelt next to the prone Abydonian. "You have shown great courage, you have defied gods, Skaara, and you will not die. Not on this day. Not when it can be prevented." Harry placed a hand on the sweaty feverish forehead of the Abydonian and another on his chest. He took a deep breath and pulling from the energy of all things, directed it to the injuries on the young man. The harmful plasma in the wound vanished, cells began to rebuild themselves exponentially with the energy and will directing them to do so.
Harry snapped out of the Healing Trance and fell backward on his behind from the disoreniation and sudden lull in energy.
"The pain is gone," said Skaara in amazement, his voice full and strong again.
"Are you all right, Ambassador?" said Teal'C, the hint of awe present in his voice, placing a supportive hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Fine…just need to get my equilibrium back," said Harry, standing up and shaking his head to clear it.
"Thanks for that," said Jack solemnly as Harry returned to his position.
"He's a good kid and doesn't deserve to die like that," said Harry evenly and returned his attention to the Jaffa standing watch up the stairs.
It was a mere ten minutes later that the heavy booted footsteps returned and Herak stood on the landing again.
"O'Neill, can you hear me?"
"Yeah," griped Jack.
"Anubis commands that you turn over the Eye of Ra immediately or he will destroy all of Abydos," said Herak with a grin.
"Tell him to go ahead," retorted Jack, "he's not getting the Eye." He waved the Eye with explosive attached and remote detonator almost mockingly at Herak.
Harry frowned skeptically at Jack.
"He's bluffing," said the Colonel in response to the look.
"If we blow up the Eye he's going to destroy Abydos anyway," insisted Harry.
"He's just as likely to attack after we give it to him," retorted Jack.
"Got a point there," conceded Harry.
Teal'C joined the line of defense, after seemingly convincing Skaara to stay put and rest, since the Abydonian had lost his PR7 in the battle to keep the Gate room secure. Jack on the other hand, kept on waving mockingly at the Jaffa.
"Sir, you're not considering shooting our way out?" said Sam dubiously, since Jack was clearly trying to provoke the Jaffa.
"No. No, Anubis must really want that thing in one piece if his boys have held off this long," said Jack.
"He does," said Daniel, appearing again next to Skaara. "Thanks for healing him Harry."
"You're welcome."
"Where were you?" asked Sam in askance.
"Busy, busy," said Daniel gravely. "The situation in orbit has changed. Anubis' command ship is surrounded by a System Lord fleet led by Yu."
"So they've finally come to their senses," said Harry in dark satisfaction.
"Yes, they're opposing Anubis," nodded Daniel, "but…"
"But what?" asked Jack intently.
Daniel sighed and said, "Screw it, rules be damned, guys…Anubis is one of us."
"What?" said Jack in askance.
"At least partly," qualified Daniel hastily, "in some bastardized way…"
"Daniel, what are you talking about?" said Sam intently.
"The Goa'uld Anubis used to be figured out how to ascend."
"That's…that's…" spluttered Harry. "How is that possible?"
"I'm not sure exactly, yet," said Daniel, shaking his head.
"He was believed to have been dead for some time," reasoned Teal'C.
"The other Ascended didn't want him," continued Daniel.
"Understandable," snorted Jonas.
"They sent him back, at least they tried…but not all the way."
"What is he now?" asked Sam curiously.
"He's still a being of energy, but he's encased in a specially designed shield that allows him to interact with the physical world around him. He's stuck somewhere between the physical plane and ascension."
"Why have the other Ascended allowed him to remain like that?" demanded Harry, the anger in his voice made everyone wince.
"As I said, I don't know, maybe they couldn't exile him completely," suggested Daniel.
"That's crap, it's well within their capabilities to De-Ascend anybody, you're missing something Daniel," insisted Harry.
"Perhaps you're right," said Daniel thoughtfully, "either way as Anubis is now, he's still very powerful."
"It explains his mastery of Alteran technology," said Sam in realization.
"Ok, what's the plan then?" said Jack.
"I've warned the fleet of System Lord motherships surrounding Anubis, about the Eye and what it can do," explained Daniel.
"Nice," smirked Jack in approval.
"Turn it over," said the Ascended being abruptly.
"What?"
"I made a deal with Anubis, you turn the Eye over, you go free and the people of Abydos remain unharmed."
"You made a deal with Anubis? He can't be trusted!" said Harry.
"I'll make sure he keeps it. The Goa'uld are going to fight it out over the Eye and hopefully destroy each other in the process but even if they don't, while they're licking their wounds, you're gonna find the lost city of the Alterans."
"Lost city?" asked Jack.
"Didn't tell him about it?" said Daniel, turning to the others.
"Daniel found a tablet talking about a lost city," explained Sam.
"Where there are powerful Alteran weapons capable of giving you a big advantage over Anubis," explained Daniel.
"Do you know where it is?" asked Jack.
"No, but I'll help you find it. Jack, nothing will happen to the Abydonians, the most important thing right now is for you to get out of here with that tablet. If Anubis gets his hands on it and finds the lost city before you do, it's all over. He already has a huge advantage over you because of what the other Ascended have done or rather failed to do."
"You gonna kick his ass?"
"If I have to," said Daniel firmly.
"Can you?"
"We'll see, nothing will happen to the people of Abydos."
With that said Daniel vanished with a white swirl of energy.
"You heard the man, let's move out."
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Amazingly, the exchange of the Eye went off without a hitch. Herak merely sneered at SG1 and ordered his Jaffa to follow him…leaving them free to go.
"Well, spank me rosy! Let's book," grinned Jack and Skaara led them down an alternate route, just to avoid running into the Jaffa again. By the time they had arrived in the Gate room though, the Jaffa had already used the Ring Transporter. The first thing they noticed though was all the empty sets of desert clothes, robes and PR7s that were lying all about the room .
Harry knelt next to a set and saw the distinctive scorch mark of a staff weapon burn on the clothing and blood…yet no body.
"They all Ascended," he said in amazement.
"You think Daniel helped them?" queried Sam.
"It's possible, but I doubt it, since he himself was helped to Ascension I doubt he would be given the latitude for such things," reasoned Harry.
"Jonas, dail us up," ordered Jack, "before Anubis changes his mind."
It was as Jonas was pressing the coordinates at the DHD that Harry's scanner bleeped in warning.
"There must be one hell of a firefight going on up there for this little thing to register it," said Harry, tapping the scanner to record the readings for later analysis.
The Stargate sprang to life and Jack ushered everyone ahead of him. A rollercoaster ride through subspace later, Harry, Teal'C, Sam, Skaara and Jonas emerged back into the bustle of the SGC. They paused at the foot of the ramp though when it became apparent that something had delayed Jack stepping through.
Harry's eyes widened when saw that the event horizon destabilized for a moment and then renormalized itself.
That's not good.
Finally, Jack stumbled through with an aura of dust hanging about him. "Raise Shield!"
The red glow of the shield whined into existence over the mouth of the Stargate and abruptly flashed white as it strained against a massive influx of energy and debris coming through the wormhole. It was enough even to overwhelm the seismic dampeners that kept the Stargate from shaking the whole base.
"Iris too!" yelled Sam to the Control room.
The trinium alloy iris slid closed and finally the path terminated and the ground stopped shaking under their feet.
"What just happened?" asked Jonas with concern.
"Abydos was hit," said Jack. "I felt it just before I came through."
"Sergeant, call up a full gate diagnostic," said Sam and hurried out the gate room, unlatching her weapon as she went.
Harry let them get on with it, but decided to remain in the gate room with the devastated Skaara; the young Abydonian's face was wet with tears, but yet he stood stoically looking into nowhere. He placed a hand on the young man's shoulder and met hit eyes.
"Remember that death is just the beginning of the journey, Skaara, your friends are all still with you in spirit…they are like Daniel now. Do you understand?"
Skaara nodded. "But if Anubis destroyed Abydos then I am the only survivor of my people," he said miserably.
"We don't know that for sure. We will return you to your people Skaara, even if we have to take you by ship."
The Stargate began to dial and cycle through the coordinates for Abydos again…fourth chevron, fifth, sixth…the seventh wouldn't lock.
"Ambassador Potter, please report to the Briefing Room," called the Sergeant over the PA.
"Come," said Harry, and guided Skaara out of the embarkation room.
General Hammond held the obsidian tablet with its wrapping open and gazed at it thoughtfully as Sam gave a general outline of events regarding the Eye of Ra.
"The only thing we can assume is that Anubis didn't keep his deal with Daniel," she concluded.
"That's a shock, eh?" said Jack wryly.
"And that Daniel Jackson was unable to prevent Anubis from detroying Abydos," stated Teal'C, everyone at the conference table gave sympathetic looks to Skaara, who was sitting in a chair and looking down into his own chest.
"Which leaves Anubis in possession of a powerful weapon that has given him clear superiority over the System Lords," said Hammond evenly.
"We don't know any of that for sure, Sir," said Jack.
"Then we better find out, for sure," stated Harry. "We need to send a ship to Abydos, I'll volunteer mine."
"Very well, SG1 will accompany you," nodded the General. "In the meantime, I want to hear anything you know about this lost city that Daniel put you on the trail of."
"All I know is conjectural theories from Asgard historians and what Aiyana remembers of it," explained Harry. "The lost city that tablet refers to is most likely the capital of the Alterran civilization when it was in its heyday more than five million years ago. It's long been my desire to uncover clues as to its location ever since the Asgard taught me about it's possible existence."
"Can you translate the tablet?" said Hammond, gently pushing it towards Harry.
"I can speak that dialect of Alteran yes, but reading it is a totally different story, we would need to show that to Aiyana."
"Very well, make this a priority, Ambassador…finding the lost city may be the only chance we have to even the odds against Anubis," said Hammond. "Will Daniel be able to assist as well?"
"I doubt that, Sir," said Sam.
"Why not?"
"Well, Sir, he would have done everything in his power to protect the people of Abydos. If he was somehow prevented from doing that then…"
"He most likely was stopped by the other Ascended," said Harry sadly.
"What will happen to him?" said Hammond.
"They will either exile him to a planet, like they did with Orlin or force him to return to human form."
Everyone in the room descended into a worried silence.
In orbit of the planet Abydos a dark violet hyperspace window swirled into existence and the behemoth saucershaped starship Achilles burst out of it. Her emmitter glowed in readiness to deliver destruction and death if anyone dared attack. But it was readily apparent that it wasn't necessary.
Whilst Abydos itself was still there and looking amazingly untouched, the orbital space was littered with the debris of what must've been a considerable fleet of Goa'uld Ha'tak class motherships.
"This was a slaughter," said Jack, standing on the Bridge of the Achilles, looking all around him at the omni projected view around the Control Chair in which Harry was seated.
"I'm detecting the remains of eleven Ha'taks," said Harry, his eyes closed and mind merged with the cyberspace of his ship. "The plasma decay and energy signatures indicate a massive battle but…Infinitum! I'm detecting the remnants of a Caesim Beam."
"A what?" said Jack in bafflement.
"It's an extremely potent form of energy weapon, the Alterans used them at one point in defense satellites," explained Harry. "But if mounted on a ship and powered with the Collective Eyes…you could conceivably devastate the surface of planet with a few shots and easily destroy whole fleets of ships."
"What about the planet?" asked Sam.
"It's puzzling," murmured Harry, "we clearly saw the evidence of a devastating explosion coming through the wormhole behind us…yet, I'm detecting that the pyramid is intact…take a look."
A holographic screen appeared and showed a top down view of a clearly intact pyramid.
"And…"
The view changed to show a scene about a kilometer from the pyramid…a camp with distinctive Abydonian hut structures and figures running about.
"They are alive?" said Skaara in amazement.
"I'm seeing them with visual sensors, but there are no detectable lifesigns."
"We better get down there," said Jack.
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A hundred meters from the apparent Abydonian village, the musical chime of a transporter sang through the air and with six flashes of light, SG1, Harry and Skaara materialized on the desert sand. They walked towards the bustling village where the din of happy conversation reached their ears and children played excitedly with a soccer ball between the huts.
"Tobay!" said Skaara in amazement.
And indeed, there was the excitable Abydonian walking towards them with a contented smile on his dark face and an odd calmness that hung on him like a cloak.
"Skaara, my friend, it is good to see you."
"You…are you…" said Skaara with worry.
"Anubis destroyed the pyramid, everyone was killed in the blast," nodded Tobay.
"You are all Ascended now?" said Jack.
Tobay nodded.
"What of Daniel Jackson?" asked Teal'C.
"I have not seen Daniel," said Tobay sadly.
"Do you know if he's okay?" persisted Sam.
"I'm sorry, I don't know…one named Oma did this," gestured Tobay to himself and the village behind him.
"And what of me?" said Skaara, his shoulders drooping.
"Do not fear, my friend," said Tobay, hugging his friend and then turning to look meaningfully at Harry, "you will find your way."
"You think we'd abandon you?" said Jack in astonishment. "You can crash at my place."
The football that the children were playing with rolled over and Jack picked it up, when he stood up, the entire village and the pyramid had vanished. Tobay smiled and took the ball from him.
"I wish you all well. You will not see me again. At least not for a while."
And just like that Tobay disappeared as well.
"Let's go home," said Jack, pulling Skaara into a one-arm hug.
Flashes of light and musical chimes marked the last time anyone would set foot upon the surface Abydos. In the future it would be declared off limits to all ships in honor and remembrance of the Abydonians who died there in heroic defiance against Anubis.
Waking up in a strange place with no idea how you arrived there was not never a pleasant or good thing in her experience. Doubly so if you were laying on a hard bed and only wearing a panty. She gasped and sat up, reflexes honed in combat and hard experience had her fully awake and vaulting off the bed to land in a half crouch.
Studying her surroundings she felt those instincts begin to relax slightly. She was in what could only be a sterile medical ward, with numerous beds arrayed in even spaces all about the large ward. It was when she heard a distinctive hum that resonated through the air and the language that some of the displays around the ward were showing that she began to realize where she was.
At that moment a section of the far wall parted to reveal a door. She gasped and crossed her arms over her chest.
Standing in the doorway was a tall woman with dark red braided hair, wearing a form of silver suit all over her shapely body that really did nothing to hide anything. Her strong face was set in an amused smile and her dark eyes glinted with that look of age that Dumbledore had in his, which belied the sheer vitality of the woman.
'I have some clothes for you," said the woman. In her arms were a folded bundle of what looked to be a pure white summer dress. "I apologize for undressing you, but your other clothes were ruined with blood."
"Who are you?"
"I go by the name Aiyana," said the woman, walking closer and placing the clothes on a nearby bed. "And it's good to finally meet you Hermione."
"Did Harry send you?" asked Hermione anxiously, grabbing the dress and pulling it on.
"Yes," nodded Aiyana. "Harry's asked me to apologize for not being here when you woke up, but your near-death has rather upset him and he's most currently making the lives of those responsible rather unbearable."
"Is this the Achilles?" she gestured around herself.
"No, it's still in orbit around Earth, you are now on my ship, the Alteran Cruiser Artemis," explained Aiyana. "We're enroute to Harry's home away from home, so to speak, Seaworld."
"We're outside the Solar System then?" said Hermione, feeling a bit light headed.
"Quite, the Sol system is already twenty five thousand light years behind us," said Aiyana with a smile.
"Oh." There really wasn't much she could fathom to say about that.
"Rest assured you will be returned to Earth in due time when it's safe again for you, in the meantime, Harry has asked that you be well treated to a vacation and be allowed to relax…there is no better place than Seaworld for that."
"Can…can you show me the ship? Ever since I was briefly on the Achilles I've dreamt about actually seeing everything involved in running something like this."
Aiyana smiled and laughed lightly. "Harry said you were a curious one…follow me."