Horus wanted a fight.
And all of you guys made a great argument for the sheer amount of experience fighting asymmetrical warfare the US has will play a major factor in why they're able to do stuff like this and gain respect and cred down the line.
Stargate Through the Looking Glass and into Heaven.
- Thread starter The Immortal Watch Dog
- Start date
Horus wanted a fight.
And all of you guys made a great argument for the sheer amount of experience fighting asymmetrical warfare the US has will play a major factor in why they're able to do stuff like this and gain respect and cred down the line.
That's the one. I believe the quote from the US Mil in Afghanistan at the time was something like, "We love it! Send a boatload!"
Carter might just be mad enough, Jack too.
You'll have to see next update. Assuming they have any.
Perhaps more so today than say in the late 90s and early 2000s. Afghanistan didn't gear up until what? Season 5 or 6 of SG-1? At the time Special Forces numbered liked 35 thousand and, while good for direct action missions they didn't have the capabilities to conduct large scale asymmetric warfare as well as they do today, if at all. Today? Special Forces numbers close to 70 thousand with over two decades of refined skill in such combat. Placing the US Military second to none in that category.
And they're gonna be fighting a mirrors image of what the US used to be. A hyperpower that was once the gritty underdog that had to fight creatively but forgot how to do that due to generations of peace and prosperity.
The irony isn't gonna be lost on a lot of the Special Forces guys and that realization is presently slapping the taste out of Horus' mouth.
Ironic that the recent modern wars have given the US military the tools to fight effectively.
Iron only becomes steel when it's galvanized.
I think that's another reason why I did it in "current year." Not a lot of writers portray the modern military very positively from what I've seen.
Aos Si reprise.
Aannd this episode draws to a conclusion, Jack gains some perspective, a Prince eats some humble pie and SG-1 officially becomes a team as they fight and die and live again as one.
Oh and the Nox are the Nox.
This is for @Harlock @UberIguana and @paulobrito And anyone else who felt like they needed an adult whenever the Nox/Fair Folk popped up.
The Falcon and the Eagle Conclusion:
Cumhachd nan geug
Through desert winds and burning sands, through lightning and thunder. In grief and despair, triumph and exultation. Defying the wills of mad Gods and starting rebellions, unraveling the secrets of the past and overcoming loss. Daniel Jackson and Colonel O’Neill had done all of that together and more, a friendship that had survived the grave and the gulf of space. Carter, she was a lunatic, but she was his lunatic and a mentor to his girls despite the proximity in age. Teal’c? The big guy defied a God and abandoned a prosperous life and heaps of honor and prestige to serve as a grunt again by his side.
It had been a rocky start, to both the original SG-0 and to SG-1, but they had come together in battle in both cases and became friends. Jack being the oldest (Sans Teal’c anyway.) had come to see the younger two members of his team like family. And now, this golden haired, arrogant son of a bitch had just killed one of them.
And this time, it was permanent.
No resurrection chambers, no Ra and his curiosity, even if there had been one present, he doubted Horus would have used it. He wasn’t his father, that much was clear to O’Neill. He lacked his father’s long-range cunning, but he was more adaptive, he was quicker to recognize that men from Earth might actually pose a threat and he was changing his assessment and fighting style in real time, something that even Apophis who was a damn fine general (If completely depraved and evil.) struggled to do. There was a rage in Horus’ eyes as well, the look of grief and fury that Jack understood well because he’d seen it a hundred times in his own eyes since he laid Charlie to rest. -Whatever Ra became, he must have been a hell of a father before he went crazy- Jack realized, you didn’t carry that much with you if he wasn’t. If Charlie were still alive and Ra had killed him, would his boy have been as resolute? He wondered, Charlie, Daniel.
He failed his girls too, since they ended up involved with the stargate.
Those weren’t thoughts he had time to dwell on because Carter reached into her pack and produced a cannister that Jack recognized and his eyes narrowed “No Carter..wai!” Something heavy smashed into his torso and head. Neck and back lurching behind as he was toppled and the world went black.
He awoke to an earth-shattering roar that would have both deafened and scorched him had he not been shielded by whatever had fallen on him and Jack struggled to right himself, his mind a wash of nausea, pain and confusion. Releasing the grip on his weapon he felt around the dark and wet mass that was currently crumpled over him and he suppressed a feeling of dread at the thought of Horus hurling the body of his dead friend at him. It took him several seconds to move his hands and when he tried to clench down on the mass with his left hand a wave of agony filled his senses and he had to will himself not to vomit as his vision came too and he saw Daniel’s dog tags.
Horus had thrown his dead friend at him.
Colonel Jack O’Neill was already enraged, but this left him incensed. Jack’s eyes were wild, he looked around the area, burning grass and ferns, small bushes that were ash and blood and the stench of burnt flesh filled his nostrils as he found a mound of flesh on the floor that was one half young women, one half melted fabric and skin.
Doc Carter
Another kid with a promising future down…He could see two of her ribs through the burnt fabric and he wanted to rage at her the moment he saw them moving, saw breath. She’d had a thermobaric grenade; one she must have enhanced with a tiny bit of Naquadah because the explosion was less like a vacuum bomb and more like a napalm strike. That explained his mangled hand and the fact that the base of his boots had melted into his feet and his pant legs were charred and partially branded into his skin. Ahead of them both, Teal’c was locked in a desperate duel with a bloodied, burned and irate Horus. Staff weapon clashed with sword as Teal’c tried to use the bladed part of his weapon (Evidently the weapon was damaged in the explosion as it sparked and hissed but wouldn’t discharge.) to impale the prince of the bird men. Teal’c was arguing with him, Jack could make out every other word, words like “Honorable.” And “implore” and something that sounded like a how could you rang out as Horus asked much of the same questions back.
O’Neill tried to rise, fishing for his gun as the form of Carter rose partially, letting out a choked sob as part of her pretty hair fell and she was doing everything she could not to scream. Carter wasn’t gonna make it, even if she could move now. Jack knew it from the extent of the lunatic’s burns that she was done. To his shock she burst from the ground and lunged at Horus tackling him which distracted the wounded System Lord enough for Teal’c (Who O’Neil now noticed was missing most of the skin on his right arm and was bleeding out of both his ears.) to drive the bladed end of his staff weapon which drove through Horus’ lower abdomen and hips and through Carter’s heart.
It was a brutal death, but it was quicker than the death by toxic shock that awaited Carter had she managed to survive long enough to get through the gate. There was a howl of rage, a chorus of ten thousand warriors old, and young, male and female filled the air and a sort of psychic compulsion to abandon all hope filled his heart and not for the first time O’Neill cursed the weird hypnotic voice the system lords had as he watched Horus stagger back and pull the staff from his innards just as Teal’c rushed at Horus, hoping to take advantage of the agony and chaos to bring him down. A look of grim resolve in Teal’c’s eyes, that suggested he was still determined to carry out the mission even if he was the lonely one left.
Horus tripped over Carter and there was a sickening crunch as he did so, and O’Neill realized Carter’s corpse was stuck to him interfering with his ability to properly yank out the staff. Teal’c tackled him and the two tumbled to the ground and Teal’c drove his burned, mangled fist into the side of Horus’s head. The prince for his part had finally succeeded in pulling the staff out, blood gushed everywhere, and he slid from underneath Teal’c staggering away, nearing his sword which after fumbling for it for a second, he found in time to whir around and bring his blade down against Teal’c who had raised his staff in time to block it.
Only exhausted, mangled and driven by pure rage Horus still had enough oomph to shatter the staff and cut the Jaffa from shoulder to liver blade shatteeing bone as Horus staggered back, unarmed, breathing more like a wounded animal in half roars than a man, or a snake wearing a man. Down to one knee, leaning on his sword, eyes blood red from ocular strokes, blood ebbing from his ears, ragged haggard breaths and yet Horus like Jack still held firm, still refused to fall.
Ra was right Jack thought with a shudder. There was too much of his kind reflected in the spirits of these damned snakes. -Too alike, if we really went at each other how nasty would it get? No, I understand it, Ra wanted us dead because he knew exactly what we’d become if he pushed us.-
So, what are you going to do about it?
A voice in his head whispered, serene and ancient and masculine, the ultimate cranky grandfather and yet there was a sense of youth there as well. He knew in an instant it wasn’t Leanan or Nefreyu, the old troll from the escape on Chulak, whom he’d seen in the woods near the gate what seemed like a lifetime ago. Horus couldn’t move fast enough to kill him before the colonel fired a shot.
If he aimed for the head?
He tried to stand, managing through supreme force of will; to rise even though he was certain the only thing holding the flesh on his feet together was the pressure of the rest of his body weight. Blood streaming down the mangled remains of his legs as he lined the Falcon prince up in his sights. He was supposed to take Horus a prize, but Horus had killed them all. His team, his friends, his extended family. He would likely just order Herakles to kill everyone any way and that was assuming both men didn’t die right there. He could barely see, but at this close range and with the ammo he had left.
Ra would be proud.
Jack wanted to sneer but instead he laughed, a bitter, harsh laugh and lowered his gun. “Yeah, sure weird old fairy dude, you’re right..fuck that.” He stumbled towards Horus, crumbling onto a log a few feet from the Snake who turned and eyed him almost akin to a cornered animal before he saw that Jack had lowered his weapon.
A bitter laugh flowed from the Prince. “That..bomb..the air one…Had Naquadah.”
“Probably..” O’Neill admitted with a shrug.
“Stupid.” Horus said shaking his head, not that he was much of an engineer or chemist himself but even he could see how crude their technology was, and he knew full well how dangerous it was for societies at the dawn of their developmental stage to play around with the deadly material. There was no way they could have rigged an atomic to work with Naquadah to enhance its blast. He knew that now and it meant that whatever happened to his father was either an accident, or something his divine father brought upon himself. “Not, know how to do this…could blow up your planet.”
“Nah, don’t got enough Naquadah for that, I hope.”
Oh, right Tau’Ri and its entire system was bereft of Naquadah. The courts would still have to make an official determination (Horus did not trust himself to render Judgment impartially against the Tau’Ri.), what an ignominious end and it would be better if he just went along with Apophis’ lies. But he couldn’t, nothing was worth that, not a Throne, not all the wealth of the cosmos, nothing was worth the loss of his honor and the violation of everything his father stood for once. “Why…Not..kill..Tau’Ri.”
O’Neill laughed “What’s the point? To avenge my team?! What would plunging my world into a war it could never win and causing the deaths of billions of people achieve except making a mockery of their memory.” He shook his head ruefully, his mind wandering to his daughters. He had promised them that he’d always come home after a mission, but now it was very likely he’d never come home and the woman they considered their role model would come home in a box an unrecognizable heap of flesh.
Horus seemed to consider this, his blood clotting and tissue bruising and swelling then returning to a healthy hue and texture as the healing process began. Exhausted as he was, he still could patch this body up in an hour so long as he could keep clot the blood in his groin and lower intestines first. So far, he had been succeeding but if he tried to focus his mental energies on the ribbon device to heal his wounds externally that multitasking might be the end of him. Nope, it was the old-fashioned way for Horus, but that hour would live him plenty of time to figure out what to do with O’Neill. Who, continued to infuriate him showing at once honor and ruthlessness, impetuousness and wisdom. “You not murder my father..in..cool..blood?”
“Cold blood.” Jack said correcting him before he shook his head. “Your father found a nuclear weapon I was ordered to bring a long to try and bury the gate in rubble if we encountered some kind of threat. Ol’Ra took that bomb and modified it and rigged it to blow up inside the Gate Room back home.”
His eyes narrowed, fury filled him again and yet, it was an anger that the prince wasn’t sure was directed at O’Neill anymore. There was no falsehood in the eyes of the Tau’Ri, only a sense of sadness and defiance as hard as Asgardian armor. His grief was sincere as well, no one who cared for those he who served to such a degree would also risk annihilating his own species. If this Tau’Ri was anything he was loyal. “To rule, Tau’Ri is be..ruled…” Horus began, groaning in exertion as he rose, blood ebbed from his midsection but it was a mild trickle compared to moments earlier. “I am Prince, System Lord, rule over hundreds of bi..billions of Lotar. Jaffa as well, separate, equal, to me their lives belong to them belongs mine. You understand Tau’Ri?”
If the father was a megalomaniac, the son was more akin to what he imagined William the Conqueror might have been. Arrogant, vain, driven, and brutal but there was a sense of honor there and pride and a sense of duty so strong it made the nonsense that came out of his mouth just now sound inspirational and on some level, the marine understood. “Duty means to rule is to serve, not just sit on your ass, get rich and fat, right?” Jack asked, his speech was slurred, he was pretty sure the adrenaline was wearing off and blood loss and shock were setting in. This was not what he imagined his final conversation would be.
Horus for his part nods and looks out to the trees. “They will go home Tau’Ri and you, I take with me, to put you in resurrection chamber. You bleed to death or die from infection if not, sleep for a time and I will..de..decide what do with you.”
“Send me home?”
That got laugh out of Horus, bitter yet not entirely so. “Perhaps, perhaps hold you for trial. If assassinated my father, enemy of the Imperium you are, if merely prevent atomic disaster on Abydos or pre..er…pre…emptive strike on..Tau’Ri then home, then Imperium’s enemy no more…” Horus paused…his jaw clenching slightly, rage warring with honor in his soul.
“My enemy..no more.” He added at last.
Jack nodded “Thank you, Bird man…And them?”
“Teal’c hero, beloved by all Jaffa, respected by many Goa’uld, admired by Peers. His betrayal, deep, but not impossible to understand. Burned as we burn our heroes, his ashes to rest in Dakkara. The scribe...” Here Horus eyes glowed a bright shade of white, burning almost like ivory flames. “Apophis wrong him, and Amunet violate his wife, break many of our laws, humiliate us when do so. Technologist crazy but give good fight.” It would likely take several hours for him to trek back to the gate, and he would need to heal O’Neill as much as he could with his device and running on fumes, it would be risky and if the Tau’Ri First Prime died on the way he would be several hours from a resurrection chamber, but these? So damaged? And with Teal’c immune to the chamber’s effects.
“They will be burned with Teal’c, honored.”
Jack nodded, suppressing a sigh of relief, for some reason he was worried about their bodies being despoiled as was common in medieval and classical societies when the leader of one force was sufficiently enraged at another. Knowing this, knowing the chance to buy if not peace, at least leeway and the chance to gain some ground with the snakes, he raised his hands “Can’t stand for parade but..arrest me..Prince Horus I officially surrender.”
Horus took a step forward and then stopped in his tracks before falling to one knee, his sword presented before him. “Lya…” he muttered looking less like a warrior who had nearly defeated his men and more like a child caught misbehaving b y a particularly intimidating adult.
“Leanan.” Came the melodic voice O’Neill had come to know as the tone the creepy fairy lady used when she was trying to emphasize a point. “Prince Horus..Why have you shed blood in my domains? Or more specifically blood I did not approve of beforehand.”
Wait what?! Fuck’n Fairies man!
Horus moved to answer but she shook her head. “No matter, your impropriety served a higher purpose it would seem.” Leanan looked slightly different, her skin a lighter shade of blue the gold stains on her skin seemed silverish and her eyes were completely the color of blood. “It is lamentable though, that it took one of you the loss of nigh everything and the other a defeat to humble him before either listened.” She let out an exasperated sigh, as though she were talking to two small and stupid children.
Before Horus can speak up again, he flinched and nearly doubles over causing O’Neill to grunt in amusement before he suddenly crashes into the grass and dirt as a wave of heat and agony seizes him. Something twitches, his mangled hand began to shift and contort as bone and flesh begin to slowly come together, knit and repair and reset. The crunch and twist of bones as they find their proper place is preceded by the Colonel unloading a tirade on the Nox women, replete with every profanity he knows. “God damnit woman! What the fuck are you doing?!”
Leanan lets out an amused giggle in a tone that makes her laughter sound like ringing bells which in turns elicits a “fucking fairies.” From Jack before the wind is knocked out of him by his liver, kidneys and hips regenerating and realigning. Jack twists as steam rises from his mangled legs, the speed by which they were regenerating, which new tissue forms from nothing causes enough heat that the Colonel swears he’s being boiled alive. The clothing on his legs and the melted shoes vanish and O’Neill reaches up with his brand new middle finger, gesturing obscenely as Leanan cocks her head and laughs. “Oh come on Colonel, Of course I’m going to save your lives, but after shedding blood on my land did you think I’d let either of you have a pleasant experience out of it? Hmm?”
“Wait..you’re bring ‘em back too?” Jack asked.
The woman shrugged. “It’s not that hard…”Behind them, Daniel twists and spasms as insides vaporize, replaced by new ones inside his torso and skin and bone that begin to heal. The blond shoots up gasping and turning to glare at Leanan “I was in a nice place…And I WAKE UP TO THIS?!”
“Jackson, stop provoking the creepy cemetery spirit.”
“Hah! Barrow peoples, yes that’s what your forefathers called us! Admittedly, we did congregate around the burial mounds but that was more when we wished to be seen.” Leanan gestures and Horus is enveloped in a wave of energy, as are the eagles in the sky and O’Neill wagers, the Jaffa and Herakles as well. His eyes shift to Leanan whose working on Teal’c, and Carter and he has a distinct impression she sent them all to their respective homes.
How exactly did the friggen Snakes fight these people for tens of thousands of years? Jack wonders, running his fingers through thicker, healthier hair.
“They didn’t” Leanan answered, absent mindedly holding Carter down by her mid-section as the girl howls in agony as new skin grows. “But even if they did, Ra and Hathor and Yu and some of the others were and are powerful enough to resist us just enough..We aren’t a war like people Jack, at least we haven’t been in a billion or so years. We encountered the other ancient races through their dreams remember? Taught them language, we defend ourselves and do so extremely well. But we are not conquerors and so we remained mostly neutral. In truth the Ori brought what happened to them on their own hea-“ she paused as Carter began to calm down and O’Neill finally realized what she’d done.
“The hell?!”
“I made your body seventeen years younger.”
“The fuck'd you do that for?!”
Leanan laughed and it echoed through the forest. “Oh, you sorry little ingrate!” she muttered in a teasing voice “You’re lucky I don’t teleport you into a star or turn you into a tree for the nerve! You were getting old Jack my boy, old. And your species needs you, so I won’t let you burn out just yet.”
O’Neill grins, knowing better than to thank an Aois Si. “You should have done that to Hammond, not me.”
Something flickers over the woman’s eyes as she looks down at Carter, who bearing the worst of it all seems genuinely disturbed as though she had pulled from a pleasant dream into horrors. Leanan helps her up, steadying her. “Don’t worry over your Admiral Jack, the sun has not yet set on Hammond of Texas nor has the hourglass run its course for Ellis.”
They’re all in new Space Force uniforms, Teal’c has a new staff weapon that Leanan swears will never lose its charge and will never be lost for long. That it will serve him as an extension of himself more than a weapon.
Despite the overwhelming joy he feels when Jackson, Teal’c and Carter embrace and when Doc Carter almost leaps into his arms like an elated kid, a bit of disappointment and relief. “We messed up huh?”
“Totally, but you didn’t fail Jack. You met an enemy who had the potential to be the greatest threat your species will ever know, and you convinced him to set aside his hatred of what he thought you were and in doing so, you learned a little something yourself.” She walks forward and sets a hand on his chest before turning to Daniel and smilingly brightly. “And you, who understood from the start, refused to abandon your friends for your ideals. The Nox like what We have seen, though both races still have much to learn you are both welcome back here, to mine and harvest as you need and to use this place as neutral grounds to come to an understanding when the opportunity should arise.”
The skies darkened suddenly and Leanan’s eyes glowed a faint blue “But I warn you, should either side break my truce again, I will not be so forgiving.”
Jack wasn’t sure how it happened, but they were there at the Stargate, beside Shepherd and the others with the gate opened before them.
Before he departs Jack swears, he sees the little troll again, only this time he gets a good look in his ancient eyes.
He doesn’t think that’s really a troll.
And he doesn’t think that was a troll at all.
-Well Jack, you’re the idiot who let himself come out of retirement…Also Frasier is going to want to do all manner of tests on you..damnit woman! I thought you were doing me a favor!-
Now, now Jack…who says I’m not doing everyone a favor?
Oooh booyyy….
Oh and the Nox are the Nox.
This is for @Harlock @UberIguana and @paulobrito And anyone else who felt like they needed an adult whenever the Nox/Fair Folk popped up.
The Falcon and the Eagle Conclusion:
Cumhachd nan geug
Through desert winds and burning sands, through lightning and thunder. In grief and despair, triumph and exultation. Defying the wills of mad Gods and starting rebellions, unraveling the secrets of the past and overcoming loss. Daniel Jackson and Colonel O’Neill had done all of that together and more, a friendship that had survived the grave and the gulf of space. Carter, she was a lunatic, but she was his lunatic and a mentor to his girls despite the proximity in age. Teal’c? The big guy defied a God and abandoned a prosperous life and heaps of honor and prestige to serve as a grunt again by his side.
It had been a rocky start, to both the original SG-0 and to SG-1, but they had come together in battle in both cases and became friends. Jack being the oldest (Sans Teal’c anyway.) had come to see the younger two members of his team like family. And now, this golden haired, arrogant son of a bitch had just killed one of them.
And this time, it was permanent.
No resurrection chambers, no Ra and his curiosity, even if there had been one present, he doubted Horus would have used it. He wasn’t his father, that much was clear to O’Neill. He lacked his father’s long-range cunning, but he was more adaptive, he was quicker to recognize that men from Earth might actually pose a threat and he was changing his assessment and fighting style in real time, something that even Apophis who was a damn fine general (If completely depraved and evil.) struggled to do. There was a rage in Horus’ eyes as well, the look of grief and fury that Jack understood well because he’d seen it a hundred times in his own eyes since he laid Charlie to rest. -Whatever Ra became, he must have been a hell of a father before he went crazy- Jack realized, you didn’t carry that much with you if he wasn’t. If Charlie were still alive and Ra had killed him, would his boy have been as resolute? He wondered, Charlie, Daniel.
He failed his girls too, since they ended up involved with the stargate.
Those weren’t thoughts he had time to dwell on because Carter reached into her pack and produced a cannister that Jack recognized and his eyes narrowed “No Carter..wai!” Something heavy smashed into his torso and head. Neck and back lurching behind as he was toppled and the world went black.
He awoke to an earth-shattering roar that would have both deafened and scorched him had he not been shielded by whatever had fallen on him and Jack struggled to right himself, his mind a wash of nausea, pain and confusion. Releasing the grip on his weapon he felt around the dark and wet mass that was currently crumpled over him and he suppressed a feeling of dread at the thought of Horus hurling the body of his dead friend at him. It took him several seconds to move his hands and when he tried to clench down on the mass with his left hand a wave of agony filled his senses and he had to will himself not to vomit as his vision came too and he saw Daniel’s dog tags.
Horus had thrown his dead friend at him.
Colonel Jack O’Neill was already enraged, but this left him incensed. Jack’s eyes were wild, he looked around the area, burning grass and ferns, small bushes that were ash and blood and the stench of burnt flesh filled his nostrils as he found a mound of flesh on the floor that was one half young women, one half melted fabric and skin.
Doc Carter
Another kid with a promising future down…He could see two of her ribs through the burnt fabric and he wanted to rage at her the moment he saw them moving, saw breath. She’d had a thermobaric grenade; one she must have enhanced with a tiny bit of Naquadah because the explosion was less like a vacuum bomb and more like a napalm strike. That explained his mangled hand and the fact that the base of his boots had melted into his feet and his pant legs were charred and partially branded into his skin. Ahead of them both, Teal’c was locked in a desperate duel with a bloodied, burned and irate Horus. Staff weapon clashed with sword as Teal’c tried to use the bladed part of his weapon (Evidently the weapon was damaged in the explosion as it sparked and hissed but wouldn’t discharge.) to impale the prince of the bird men. Teal’c was arguing with him, Jack could make out every other word, words like “Honorable.” And “implore” and something that sounded like a how could you rang out as Horus asked much of the same questions back.
O’Neill tried to rise, fishing for his gun as the form of Carter rose partially, letting out a choked sob as part of her pretty hair fell and she was doing everything she could not to scream. Carter wasn’t gonna make it, even if she could move now. Jack knew it from the extent of the lunatic’s burns that she was done. To his shock she burst from the ground and lunged at Horus tackling him which distracted the wounded System Lord enough for Teal’c (Who O’Neil now noticed was missing most of the skin on his right arm and was bleeding out of both his ears.) to drive the bladed end of his staff weapon which drove through Horus’ lower abdomen and hips and through Carter’s heart.
It was a brutal death, but it was quicker than the death by toxic shock that awaited Carter had she managed to survive long enough to get through the gate. There was a howl of rage, a chorus of ten thousand warriors old, and young, male and female filled the air and a sort of psychic compulsion to abandon all hope filled his heart and not for the first time O’Neill cursed the weird hypnotic voice the system lords had as he watched Horus stagger back and pull the staff from his innards just as Teal’c rushed at Horus, hoping to take advantage of the agony and chaos to bring him down. A look of grim resolve in Teal’c’s eyes, that suggested he was still determined to carry out the mission even if he was the lonely one left.
Horus tripped over Carter and there was a sickening crunch as he did so, and O’Neill realized Carter’s corpse was stuck to him interfering with his ability to properly yank out the staff. Teal’c tackled him and the two tumbled to the ground and Teal’c drove his burned, mangled fist into the side of Horus’s head. The prince for his part had finally succeeded in pulling the staff out, blood gushed everywhere, and he slid from underneath Teal’c staggering away, nearing his sword which after fumbling for it for a second, he found in time to whir around and bring his blade down against Teal’c who had raised his staff in time to block it.
Only exhausted, mangled and driven by pure rage Horus still had enough oomph to shatter the staff and cut the Jaffa from shoulder to liver blade shatteeing bone as Horus staggered back, unarmed, breathing more like a wounded animal in half roars than a man, or a snake wearing a man. Down to one knee, leaning on his sword, eyes blood red from ocular strokes, blood ebbing from his ears, ragged haggard breaths and yet Horus like Jack still held firm, still refused to fall.
Ra was right Jack thought with a shudder. There was too much of his kind reflected in the spirits of these damned snakes. -Too alike, if we really went at each other how nasty would it get? No, I understand it, Ra wanted us dead because he knew exactly what we’d become if he pushed us.-
So, what are you going to do about it?
A voice in his head whispered, serene and ancient and masculine, the ultimate cranky grandfather and yet there was a sense of youth there as well. He knew in an instant it wasn’t Leanan or Nefreyu, the old troll from the escape on Chulak, whom he’d seen in the woods near the gate what seemed like a lifetime ago. Horus couldn’t move fast enough to kill him before the colonel fired a shot.
If he aimed for the head?
He tried to stand, managing through supreme force of will; to rise even though he was certain the only thing holding the flesh on his feet together was the pressure of the rest of his body weight. Blood streaming down the mangled remains of his legs as he lined the Falcon prince up in his sights. He was supposed to take Horus a prize, but Horus had killed them all. His team, his friends, his extended family. He would likely just order Herakles to kill everyone any way and that was assuming both men didn’t die right there. He could barely see, but at this close range and with the ammo he had left.
Ra would be proud.
Jack wanted to sneer but instead he laughed, a bitter, harsh laugh and lowered his gun. “Yeah, sure weird old fairy dude, you’re right..fuck that.” He stumbled towards Horus, crumbling onto a log a few feet from the Snake who turned and eyed him almost akin to a cornered animal before he saw that Jack had lowered his weapon.
A bitter laugh flowed from the Prince. “That..bomb..the air one…Had Naquadah.”
“Probably..” O’Neill admitted with a shrug.
“Stupid.” Horus said shaking his head, not that he was much of an engineer or chemist himself but even he could see how crude their technology was, and he knew full well how dangerous it was for societies at the dawn of their developmental stage to play around with the deadly material. There was no way they could have rigged an atomic to work with Naquadah to enhance its blast. He knew that now and it meant that whatever happened to his father was either an accident, or something his divine father brought upon himself. “Not, know how to do this…could blow up your planet.”
“Nah, don’t got enough Naquadah for that, I hope.”
Oh, right Tau’Ri and its entire system was bereft of Naquadah. The courts would still have to make an official determination (Horus did not trust himself to render Judgment impartially against the Tau’Ri.), what an ignominious end and it would be better if he just went along with Apophis’ lies. But he couldn’t, nothing was worth that, not a Throne, not all the wealth of the cosmos, nothing was worth the loss of his honor and the violation of everything his father stood for once. “Why…Not..kill..Tau’Ri.”
O’Neill laughed “What’s the point? To avenge my team?! What would plunging my world into a war it could never win and causing the deaths of billions of people achieve except making a mockery of their memory.” He shook his head ruefully, his mind wandering to his daughters. He had promised them that he’d always come home after a mission, but now it was very likely he’d never come home and the woman they considered their role model would come home in a box an unrecognizable heap of flesh.
Horus seemed to consider this, his blood clotting and tissue bruising and swelling then returning to a healthy hue and texture as the healing process began. Exhausted as he was, he still could patch this body up in an hour so long as he could keep clot the blood in his groin and lower intestines first. So far, he had been succeeding but if he tried to focus his mental energies on the ribbon device to heal his wounds externally that multitasking might be the end of him. Nope, it was the old-fashioned way for Horus, but that hour would live him plenty of time to figure out what to do with O’Neill. Who, continued to infuriate him showing at once honor and ruthlessness, impetuousness and wisdom. “You not murder my father..in..cool..blood?”
“Cold blood.” Jack said correcting him before he shook his head. “Your father found a nuclear weapon I was ordered to bring a long to try and bury the gate in rubble if we encountered some kind of threat. Ol’Ra took that bomb and modified it and rigged it to blow up inside the Gate Room back home.”
His eyes narrowed, fury filled him again and yet, it was an anger that the prince wasn’t sure was directed at O’Neill anymore. There was no falsehood in the eyes of the Tau’Ri, only a sense of sadness and defiance as hard as Asgardian armor. His grief was sincere as well, no one who cared for those he who served to such a degree would also risk annihilating his own species. If this Tau’Ri was anything he was loyal. “To rule, Tau’Ri is be..ruled…” Horus began, groaning in exertion as he rose, blood ebbed from his midsection but it was a mild trickle compared to moments earlier. “I am Prince, System Lord, rule over hundreds of bi..billions of Lotar. Jaffa as well, separate, equal, to me their lives belong to them belongs mine. You understand Tau’Ri?”
If the father was a megalomaniac, the son was more akin to what he imagined William the Conqueror might have been. Arrogant, vain, driven, and brutal but there was a sense of honor there and pride and a sense of duty so strong it made the nonsense that came out of his mouth just now sound inspirational and on some level, the marine understood. “Duty means to rule is to serve, not just sit on your ass, get rich and fat, right?” Jack asked, his speech was slurred, he was pretty sure the adrenaline was wearing off and blood loss and shock were setting in. This was not what he imagined his final conversation would be.
Horus for his part nods and looks out to the trees. “They will go home Tau’Ri and you, I take with me, to put you in resurrection chamber. You bleed to death or die from infection if not, sleep for a time and I will..de..decide what do with you.”
“Send me home?”
That got laugh out of Horus, bitter yet not entirely so. “Perhaps, perhaps hold you for trial. If assassinated my father, enemy of the Imperium you are, if merely prevent atomic disaster on Abydos or pre..er…pre…emptive strike on..Tau’Ri then home, then Imperium’s enemy no more…” Horus paused…his jaw clenching slightly, rage warring with honor in his soul.
“My enemy..no more.” He added at last.
Jack nodded “Thank you, Bird man…And them?”
“Teal’c hero, beloved by all Jaffa, respected by many Goa’uld, admired by Peers. His betrayal, deep, but not impossible to understand. Burned as we burn our heroes, his ashes to rest in Dakkara. The scribe...” Here Horus eyes glowed a bright shade of white, burning almost like ivory flames. “Apophis wrong him, and Amunet violate his wife, break many of our laws, humiliate us when do so. Technologist crazy but give good fight.” It would likely take several hours for him to trek back to the gate, and he would need to heal O’Neill as much as he could with his device and running on fumes, it would be risky and if the Tau’Ri First Prime died on the way he would be several hours from a resurrection chamber, but these? So damaged? And with Teal’c immune to the chamber’s effects.
“They will be burned with Teal’c, honored.”
Jack nodded, suppressing a sigh of relief, for some reason he was worried about their bodies being despoiled as was common in medieval and classical societies when the leader of one force was sufficiently enraged at another. Knowing this, knowing the chance to buy if not peace, at least leeway and the chance to gain some ground with the snakes, he raised his hands “Can’t stand for parade but..arrest me..Prince Horus I officially surrender.”
Horus took a step forward and then stopped in his tracks before falling to one knee, his sword presented before him. “Lya…” he muttered looking less like a warrior who had nearly defeated his men and more like a child caught misbehaving b y a particularly intimidating adult.
“Leanan.” Came the melodic voice O’Neill had come to know as the tone the creepy fairy lady used when she was trying to emphasize a point. “Prince Horus..Why have you shed blood in my domains? Or more specifically blood I did not approve of beforehand.”
Wait what?! Fuck’n Fairies man!
Horus moved to answer but she shook her head. “No matter, your impropriety served a higher purpose it would seem.” Leanan looked slightly different, her skin a lighter shade of blue the gold stains on her skin seemed silverish and her eyes were completely the color of blood. “It is lamentable though, that it took one of you the loss of nigh everything and the other a defeat to humble him before either listened.” She let out an exasperated sigh, as though she were talking to two small and stupid children.
Before Horus can speak up again, he flinched and nearly doubles over causing O’Neill to grunt in amusement before he suddenly crashes into the grass and dirt as a wave of heat and agony seizes him. Something twitches, his mangled hand began to shift and contort as bone and flesh begin to slowly come together, knit and repair and reset. The crunch and twist of bones as they find their proper place is preceded by the Colonel unloading a tirade on the Nox women, replete with every profanity he knows. “God damnit woman! What the fuck are you doing?!”
Leanan lets out an amused giggle in a tone that makes her laughter sound like ringing bells which in turns elicits a “fucking fairies.” From Jack before the wind is knocked out of him by his liver, kidneys and hips regenerating and realigning. Jack twists as steam rises from his mangled legs, the speed by which they were regenerating, which new tissue forms from nothing causes enough heat that the Colonel swears he’s being boiled alive. The clothing on his legs and the melted shoes vanish and O’Neill reaches up with his brand new middle finger, gesturing obscenely as Leanan cocks her head and laughs. “Oh come on Colonel, Of course I’m going to save your lives, but after shedding blood on my land did you think I’d let either of you have a pleasant experience out of it? Hmm?”
“Wait..you’re bring ‘em back too?” Jack asked.
The woman shrugged. “It’s not that hard…”Behind them, Daniel twists and spasms as insides vaporize, replaced by new ones inside his torso and skin and bone that begin to heal. The blond shoots up gasping and turning to glare at Leanan “I was in a nice place…And I WAKE UP TO THIS?!”
“Jackson, stop provoking the creepy cemetery spirit.”
“Hah! Barrow peoples, yes that’s what your forefathers called us! Admittedly, we did congregate around the burial mounds but that was more when we wished to be seen.” Leanan gestures and Horus is enveloped in a wave of energy, as are the eagles in the sky and O’Neill wagers, the Jaffa and Herakles as well. His eyes shift to Leanan whose working on Teal’c, and Carter and he has a distinct impression she sent them all to their respective homes.
How exactly did the friggen Snakes fight these people for tens of thousands of years? Jack wonders, running his fingers through thicker, healthier hair.
“They didn’t” Leanan answered, absent mindedly holding Carter down by her mid-section as the girl howls in agony as new skin grows. “But even if they did, Ra and Hathor and Yu and some of the others were and are powerful enough to resist us just enough..We aren’t a war like people Jack, at least we haven’t been in a billion or so years. We encountered the other ancient races through their dreams remember? Taught them language, we defend ourselves and do so extremely well. But we are not conquerors and so we remained mostly neutral. In truth the Ori brought what happened to them on their own hea-“ she paused as Carter began to calm down and O’Neill finally realized what she’d done.
“The hell?!”
“I made your body seventeen years younger.”
“The fuck'd you do that for?!”
Leanan laughed and it echoed through the forest. “Oh, you sorry little ingrate!” she muttered in a teasing voice “You’re lucky I don’t teleport you into a star or turn you into a tree for the nerve! You were getting old Jack my boy, old. And your species needs you, so I won’t let you burn out just yet.”
O’Neill grins, knowing better than to thank an Aois Si. “You should have done that to Hammond, not me.”
Something flickers over the woman’s eyes as she looks down at Carter, who bearing the worst of it all seems genuinely disturbed as though she had pulled from a pleasant dream into horrors. Leanan helps her up, steadying her. “Don’t worry over your Admiral Jack, the sun has not yet set on Hammond of Texas nor has the hourglass run its course for Ellis.”
They’re all in new Space Force uniforms, Teal’c has a new staff weapon that Leanan swears will never lose its charge and will never be lost for long. That it will serve him as an extension of himself more than a weapon.
Despite the overwhelming joy he feels when Jackson, Teal’c and Carter embrace and when Doc Carter almost leaps into his arms like an elated kid, a bit of disappointment and relief. “We messed up huh?”
“Totally, but you didn’t fail Jack. You met an enemy who had the potential to be the greatest threat your species will ever know, and you convinced him to set aside his hatred of what he thought you were and in doing so, you learned a little something yourself.” She walks forward and sets a hand on his chest before turning to Daniel and smilingly brightly. “And you, who understood from the start, refused to abandon your friends for your ideals. The Nox like what We have seen, though both races still have much to learn you are both welcome back here, to mine and harvest as you need and to use this place as neutral grounds to come to an understanding when the opportunity should arise.”
The skies darkened suddenly and Leanan’s eyes glowed a faint blue “But I warn you, should either side break my truce again, I will not be so forgiving.”
Jack wasn’t sure how it happened, but they were there at the Stargate, beside Shepherd and the others with the gate opened before them.
Before he departs Jack swears, he sees the little troll again, only this time he gets a good look in his ancient eyes.
He doesn’t think that’s really a troll.
And he doesn’t think that was a troll at all.
-Well Jack, you’re the idiot who let himself come out of retirement…Also Frasier is going to want to do all manner of tests on you..damnit woman! I thought you were doing me a favor!-
Now, now Jack…who says I’m not doing everyone a favor?
Oooh booyyy….
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Thus concludes ep 3...I hope I didn't fuck that up.
Also big thanks to @Spartan303 Whose input on this chapter shaped it!
Also big thanks to @Spartan303 Whose input on this chapter shaped it!
Metroidhanar
New member
Love how while there are differences, it is still Stargate. Like the same as the difference between modern fairy tales(the TV Show) and the original fairy tales(this fanfiction).
Thank you! It is something that buged me how any attempts at rebooting Stargate in fanfiction form that any attempts either end up rehashing everything exactly the same but with genderswapped characters or it ends up the way it was parodied in the hundredth episode.
I wanted to honor the show, while telling a more epic in scale story. Without sacrificing what made Stargate, Stargate
And boy it ain't easy! Worth it though..
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
On another note methinks Horus is about to go through a existential crisis. His father had clearly gone mad and yet he didn't notice
He was too busy being his dad's champion and trying to fill Anubis' shoes to really notice and yeah he's got to wonder if half the mess coming down the pipe isn't partially his fault for not noticing.
Yeah, You're right, its gonna rattle him good.
I absolutely love thid update. Hell a fight and them coming to an accord. Sometimes it's gotta be that painful to make people listen.
Sometimes being wise, ancient and enlightened means letting the youngsters eat it off a flight of stairs so they can learn and earn their lesson.
SG1 is officially born though and Jack gets the Todd the Wraith treatment and you gotta wonder if Leanan/Lya didn't just enter him into a Faustian bargain there against his will.
I'd have made Jack 20 years younger instead of 17. Just a good round number.
paulobrito
Well-known member
Is a very well-done chapter. Showing how powerful the NOX are, and why you really, really don't want to mess with them.
If it's me? My recommendation is to never, ever even think on visit that system again. Not even in dreams.
Resurrecting mangled dead bodies and rejuvenating at the same time? Without any visible technology/machinery? No thank you, I don't want to play with this kind of real demigods.
If it's me? My recommendation is to never, ever even think on visit that system again. Not even in dreams.
Resurrecting mangled dead bodies and rejuvenating at the same time? Without any visible technology/machinery? No thank you, I don't want to play with this kind of real demigods.
I'd have made Jack 20 years younger instead of 17. Just a good round number.
I thought about it, but then I realized even numbers and space fairies didn't seem to go together 🤣
Don't forget moving an entire island across the universe with a thought and straight up ignoring the laws of physics to do it.
Fundamentally They're good guys, but yeah good isn't always benevolent sometimes it's "ya'll settle down now." But with a reality warping Shot gun.
They just won't feature very prominently because they don't care to. Leanan only did this because because she wants her neighborhood to be peaceful.
Jack is still going to be strenuously recommending they avoid that place and when he gets overruled be heavily involved in writing up the code of conduct.
"How not to piss off the creepy fairy aliens. Space Marine manual.'
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paulobrito
Well-known member
"How not to piss off the creepy fairy aliens with godlike powers. Space Marine manual.'
Fixed that for you.
Fixed that for you.