This fic is un-apologetically a triple-fandom AU fusion between Sailor Moon, Stargate SG-1, and Final Fantasy 7. For the sake of the setting, characters have been age to mid-to-late-twenties.

More detailed character information at the end.

The Dying of the Light

The world was a rush of noise.

Gauntleted feet trampled in pursuit down metal-lined corridor; gunfire deafened his ears as he laid down cover fire with Kun; staff blasts whizzed past inches from his head, the super-heated plasma scorching holes in the walls behind him. Their own boots pounded dully on the ground as they ran on again, skidding around a corner into the last stretch of hallway that led to the Gate's enclosed chamber.

"Halstein, dial the Gate!" Kun roared at the pair running ahead of them. Jay needed no urging; as Niall reached the entrance to the Gate's hall and turned again with Kun to delay the Jaffa warrior's pursuit, the sound of chevrons locking was discernible even through the other cacophony, and soon the wormhole established with its distinctive 'kawoosh'.

"This is Dr. Mason! We are under heavy fire, repeat, heavy fire!" Zeke's voice, punctuated by a few staff blasts angling through the doorway to impact on the high ceiling and wall behind the Stargate. That left Jay dialing the GDO to have the iris protecting Earthside's wormhole from enemy incursion opened, which it should have by now...

"We're clear, Major!" Jay called back. "Let's go!"

"Go!" Kun barked at Niall, but made no move himself.

"Sir!"

It was amazing how both respect and Are-you-crazy? could be conveyed in a single word.

"I'll cover you, and follow." When Niall hesitated again, loath to leave Kun facing down this many enemy soldiers on his own, Kun growled, "That's an order, Captain."

"...Sir."

Niall fired one more time, then ducked and sprinted for the event horizon. Ahead of him, he saw Jay vanish into the wormhole, following Zeke into the one-way trip towards the safety of Stargate Command. There was no point in stopping and trying to cover Kun in return for this run, not when Kun would be directly between him and the entrance until too many Jaffa had entered the hall for cover fire to be of any use.

Almost at the gate, Niall realized that Kun's gun had stopped firing, and twisted around to get a glimpse of Kun's progress towards him. The older man had already made it a fair distance, but the Jaffa weren't far behind him, hurrying into the room... and firing.

Staff blasts darted through the air.

One streak of energy missed Kun by inches, flying past them both and into the event horizon.

Eight yards...

Seven...

A well-aimed shot caught Kun in the back, jerking him to a standstill, just as Niall's momentum carried him backwards into the gate. Unable to do more than watch in horror, the last view he had of Kun was the expression of sheer SURPRISE on his commander and friend's face as he fell.

...There hadn't even been time for pain.

Then the wormhole caught hold of him, and he was flying, faster than the speed of light... racing further and further away from the place he needed most to be.

The worst part about going through the Gate first, Zeke reflected, was waiting for the others to follow once you'd confirmed that you'd made it through in one piece. He hadn't moved beyond the foot of the ramp leading away from the Stargate, standing just below the threshold he'd calculated of the likely trajectories of any stray staff blasts that might come through the wormhole. Jay followed behind him a moment later and hurried down as well, obviously wanting to avoid getting hit. In theory, a person could survive a staff blast if it wasn't an immediately fatal blow and the injured person could get expert medical attention right away, but neither of them wanted to play those odds.

"Come on, come on," Zeke muttered under his breath. Jay didn't say anything, but the tension in his posture belied the same worried anticipation.

A staff blast came through just beneath the Stargate's upper edge and impacted against the blast doors currently protecting the Stargate control room from enemy fire. Niall stumbled backwards out of the wormhole a moment later, intact and yelling Kun's name, apparently without any regard for the breach of rank while they were on duty — and Oh crap he said 'Lincoln', Niall never uses Kun's full first name — and then the Stargate shut down, wormhole blinking out of existence.

"No!" Zeke darted back up the ramp towards Niall, with Jay following only a step behind.

The Gate would only have shut down because Kun hadn't made it into the wormhole before Niall made it Earthside. And if Kun hadn't reached the Gate...

Behind them, Zeke's ears caught the sound of the blast doors rising to allow the control room to view where they stood in the Embarkation room below. General O'Neill was going to be down any moment, wanting to know what the hell had happened, and all Zeke had to go on were his worst fears.

Niall still hadn't moved by the time they reached him, not even to turn around, but remained staring through the Stargate's ring, as if watching long enough would bring the wormhole back for Kun to step through. Jay took one look at the death-grip Niall had on his gun and reached with careful deliberation to switch on the P90's safety, though he didn't try to take the gun away altogether. Niall had six inches on Jay and a significantly stockier build — making him do anything he didn't want to do was an exercise in futility.

Zeke placed a hand behind Niall's elbow, trying to catch the older man's attention. "Niall! Niall, what happened?"

"I think we'd all like to know," General O'Neill's voice rang through the room. "Captain Craig, what the hell happened out there? Where's Major Kamiensky?"

Niall seemed to visibly pull himself together at the demand from the SGC's Commander, at least enough to answer, as Zeke and Jay half-manhandled him through a change of direction and down the ramp. His voice, when he spoke, reflected the remnants of shell shock still present in his eyes.

"...Gone. Hit, before he could reach the gate. I don't know... maybe they have a sarcophagus, there was enough other equipment that we saw in the labs..."

Seeing General O'Neill's growing perplexity, always a bad thing, Zeke hurried to explain, "The uninhabited world that the MALP probe showed was just a very sophisticated holographic projection, General. When we got past it, Kun decided to press on and see where we were, find out who the inhabitants of the complex were and why they would have that kind of projection, especially since there was no sign of anything having noticed the MALP or us. There was no sign of Goa'uld occupation..."

Apparently some fringe Goa'uld, those still left over from the fall of the System Lords, cut costs in research outposts by leaving out the traditional Egyptian-style architecture and decorations.

"All right!" The General cut him off with a sharp wave of his hand. "Get down to the infirmary for your post-mission check. We'll debrief as soon as you're done."

Jay nodded simultaneously with Niall. "Yes, sir."

Zeke just nodded.

There was nothing else to say.

Jay stayed glued to Niall's side the entire way to the infirmary, with Zeke mirroring his position on the other side, not caring that the three of them were occasionally jostling each other as they walked. Silence weighed heavily over them.

The last few minutes seemed like a bad dream. He was a soldier; he'd joined the SGC knowing full well what could happen on the front lines, what they risked every time they stepped through the Stargate. But even though Niall said he had seen Kun get shot... SG-22 without the Major was unthinkable. To make things worse, there was nothing he could do. He was the team diplomat and linguist, but there was no deal here for him to negotiate, nor any words in his repertoire of half-a-dozen languages that could be spoken to mend the situation.

The infirmary had been warned to expect them, as evidenced by the doctor on duty and a trio of nurses waiting by the entrance for them to arrive. Judging by the way Mamoru's expression changed as the doctor took in their missing fourth, however, he'd only been informed that SG-22 had returned early, and under fire.

Of the nurses, Usagi looked first at them, then at Mamoru, and a little gasp of understanding preceded her eyes filling with tears. In contrast, after another moment the dark-haired man shut away any emotional reaction behind a purely professional demeanor and ushered them in to begin the examinations. Two of the nurses followed, but Usagi gave Mamoru a mixture of pleading gesture and expression. He nodded, and she darted away to the office.

A moment later, Jay heard her voice float through the open doorway: "Mina? It's Usagi. I know you only just got downtime after you returned this morning, but you need to come back to the base. They're back early, and something happened... Yes, if you're out shopping with them, bring them too..."

"Major Kamiensky's body?" Mamoru's voice pulled Jay's attention back to the doctor. His tone was so neutral that it could have brokered cease-fire treaties.

Jay winced internally. It had taken months for the more reserved Japanese man to use their first names, even after the four of them had pulled him inextricably into the circle of their friendship. The reversion was not a good sign.

Glancing at Niall's quietly miserable demeanor, Jay answered, "Still on the planet. He was hit on the way to the Gate."

"Mmm." Mamoru lapsed into silence, speaking only when necessary to ask them questions related to the examination or to give one of the nurses an instruction.

Post-mission checks could take upwards of 45 minutes. Almost at the end of the routine, the infirmary doors burst open again to admit Minako, long blonde hair flying out behind her diminutive frame as she skidded to a halt in her heeled sandals. While Makoto and Rei caught up to her, she let her blue gaze rake across the room with an intensity she usually reserved for negotiation with hostiles.

As her eyes met theirs in turn, the horror of realization slowly dawned on her face, and she swayed slightly in place. Makoto and Rei both threaded an arm around their friend's waist, one to a side, in unconscious echo of Jay and Zeke's earlier support of Niall. Usagi approached as well, taking Minako's hand.

"I'm so sorry, Mina. I couldn't tell you over the phone... Come sit down."

Minako shook her head, regaining her composure. "He knew the risks." She turned back to Niall, face empty of emotion. "How did it happen?"

Niall looked at her, then glanced away, then back again. Before he could formulate an answer, however, the infirmary doors opened yet again to reveal a man in dark green BDUs and with a shock of spiky black hair that toed the line of regulation length with casual flippancy.

"Doc, tell me the rumors I heard in the commissary aren't true..." he trailed off.

"Sir!" Makoto and Rei both stood to attention without letting go of Minako, while she simultaneously turned her head enough to acknowledge the man.

"Zack..."

Major Zack Fair nodded at all three girls, a greeting to Minako and an at-ease signal to the two airwomen on his team. "I've been writing our mission report since we got back... When I went to get lunch just now the grapevine told me that Kun didn't make it back."

"He didn't." Niall closed his eyes briefly, then gave Zack a tired look. "We have to debrief the General on what happened — you might as well come with."

Usagi gave Minako another hug. "Go. I'll find Ami... she's probably cloistered in her lab, and deserves to hear this from us, not the grapevine."

Minako nodded. Like Mamoru and Usagi, the introverted scientist wasn't a part of an off-world team, but Ami and Usagi had known each other since middle school. After they'd both transferred to the SGC, the gregarious nurse had ensured her quieter friend stayed connected to their group.

Usagi looker over at Zack. "I'll find Cloud, too," she added, naming the fifth member of SG-9. "He usually stays on base for a while after missions." She glanced at Mamoru to receive another silently permissive nod, and slipped out of the infirmary.

Mamoru, standing beside Niall, briefly squeezed the younger man's shoulder. "All your test results are clean. I'll inform General O'Neill to expect you."

"Thanks." Niall stood, slipping his hands in his pockets, and walked towards the group still clustered by the door. Makoto threaded an arm around his without saying anything, and the others fell in step behind them in loose pairs, Minako with Rei and Zeke with Jay, and Zack bringing up the rear alone.

Jay couldn't help but think, as they made their way a few floors above the infirmary to the briefing room connected to the General's office, that their group looked less like a pair of SG-teams and more like a funeral procession. All they needed were the bagpipes.

When he entered the briefing room, General O'Neill didn't so much as blink at the additional presence of Zack's team-sans-one sitting around the large table. O'Neill settled into the chair at the head of the table, leaning back slightly, and looked at Niall.

"Your report, Major?"

Niall looked in O'Neill's direction, letting his eyes semi-focus on a point slightly above and to the left of the General's head. His voice as he spoke was painstakingly even, barely above a monotone.

"Five hours ago, we traveled to P3K-217 to explore the planet as a potential site for a scientific research base. MALP telemetry implied a deserted world, though capable of supporting human life. When we arrived planetside, after some time Dr. Mason realized that the canyon surrounding the Stargate on three sides was a hologram. Some searching found the hologram generator, which Dr. Mason managed to shut down, revealing a large, undecorated hall. Our presence still seemed to have gone unnoticed, so Major Kamiensky made the decision to keep exploring, try to find out who was behind it and why. At first we found no people, only evidence that it was a research lab with equipment more sophisticated than Earth's — some Goa'uld technology, but most of it was a unique design, nothing we'd ever seen before. Those were just empty labs and storage rooms, though. When we reached the occupied labs..."

In Niall's momentary pause, Zeke visibly shuddered.

"Something to add, Dr. Mason?"

"Uh? Oh. Um." Zeke looked down at the table. "I... I heard about Nirrti's experiments for a superior Goa'uld-symbiote host that SG-1 discovered a few years ago. This was worse."

Niall gladly allowed Zeke to pick up the narrative, letting the blond quickly skim over the rooms with the same white and sterile decor of the whole complex, but occupied by cages and tanks with creatures in them that could have been human... once. Then they'd found the main lab, a much larger room with Jaffa warriors standing unobtrusively in the corners, though unmistakable due to the staff weapons in their hands, and man in a white robe exploring some avenue of research that Zeke didn't even want to speculate on. Before Kun could react to the unexpected presence of the Jaffa, the man glanced up lazily and, without bothering to move, ordered their capture in the deep, reverberating tones of a Goa'uld.

"Didn't ask who we were, what we were doing, anything," Jay added when Zeke trailed off.

"...He called us specimens," Zeke finished, with a faint growl.

"There were too many of them," Niall continued reluctantly. "We fired to lessen the pursuit, and then ran. There were enough turns that we only occasionally had to worry about being fired upon, until the last stretch of hallway..."

Niall rushed through retelling the final minutes of the escape, wanting nothing more than to have it DONE with and never have to tell it again. When he finally finished, he met O'Neil's eyes, waiting for the General's reaction.

"General O'Neill?"

Niall glanced across the table in surprise at Zack, who had been the one to speak.

"Major?" The General's voice wasn't quite disgruntled, but the tone was enough that the dark-haired man immediately kept talking.

"Captain Craig did mention a lot of technology in those labs, with even more that they didn't see. If that bastard is a scientist, there's no telling what he'd do with Kamiensky's body. With permission, sir, I'd like to take my team — and Craig, Halstein, and Ezekiel — back to the planet to see if an extraction is possible."

O'Neill gave Zack a long look, then turned to Niall. "I presume all you're waiting for is permission, Captain?"

"Yes, Sir," Niall replied, without hesitation.

The General looked further down the table to Minako, Rei, and Makoto. "I won't order you on this mission."

Minako gave him a withering glare. "The SGC doesn't leave people behind, General." Beyond her, Rei and Makoto nodded in unison.

The man gave her a faint smirk, then glanced back at Zack.

"Get re-outfitted for a surgical extraction. Whether or not Strife agrees to join this mission is up to him, but you leave in an hour."

Zack's face split in a relieved smile. "Yes, Sir!"

"Dismissed, all of you."

An hour and a half later, Zeke stood with Jay and watched Niall prowl the empty room that had previously been the Goa'uld's main lab, wishing that something still remained for the older man to break. In the nearly three hours that had passed since they'd been forced to leave Kun behind, the entire complex had been emptied. There was literally nothing left but stark white walls, not even a single test subject or scrap of technology.

A hand gently squeezed Zeke's shoulder; he glanced over to see Zack, with Cloud standing behind the Major like a blond shadow.

"This isn't over yet, Doc."

"...I hope you're right. We just... we don't KNOW."

"If he's out there, we'll find him."

"There's thousands of gate addresses out there that the bastard could have gone to," Jay replied dully, still keeping an eye on Niall. "And if he was this thorough, he would have taken Kun with him, dead or alive."

Rei came to stand next to Jay and rested a hand on his shoulder, Minako in tow. In the middle of the room, Makoto approached Niall and placed a hand on his arm, speaking to him too quietly for Zeke to make out the words. It must have broken through the Welshman's temper, though, because Niall at least stopped pacing in order to listen to her. He'd always listened to her.

Rei's voice pulled Zeke's attention from the pair in front of him as the Captain murmured, "The last confirmed intelligence we had on Major Kamiensky, he was dead. This... was our chance to change that. The possibility that he could have been revived by a sarcophagus is so slim, and even if he were, he would be compromised... General O'Neill will hardly be able to delay declaring him killed in action."

Beside Rei, Minako leaned against the nearby wall and tilted her head back to look up at the ceiling, emotions hidden behind the stolid mask she'd been wearing since exiting the infirmary. Zeke privately suspected she was waiting until they could make it back to Earth and she could get alone for a while before she would allow herself to truly let everything sink in. He, after all, was doing the same... and Kun had always said the two of them were too alike for his own good.

"We came here knowing it was a long shot," Minako mused aloud. "We all joined Stargate Command knowing that we could die, that we would be facing danger every time we went on a mission. It's no use trying to keep Kun alive through wishful thinking. Other good men have died before this; he won't be the last. But he—" her breath hitched slightly, but she continued, "He wouldn't want us waiting for something that won't happen." She turned her head enough to bring them all into her field of vision. "There's nothing left to do here. Let's go home."

Zack sighed. "You're right. Let's move out."

Zeke strayed to the back of the group on the way back, and lingered at the wormhole horizon for a few stolen moments, looking at the ground were Kun would have fallen, still spotless despite all that had happened.

He didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be, not like this, not to THEIR commander and friend. And yet... Minako was right. What else could they do?

"... Goodbye, Kun." Jay was the linguist; Zeke knew that he was going to mangle the pronunciation for this, but... "Requiescat in pace."

He turned, and followed his friends home.

Epilogue

...Something was very wrong with the world.

He swam up to consciousness, trying to put his finger on what, exactly, was wrong... and then the world froze as he realized he didn't have access TO his fingers. Nothing in his body was responding to him, and while he could receive sensory information, it was as if from behind a glass wall. But someone was speaking to him...

"Arise, my son."

His eyes opened without his command, as another's will imposed itself over his own.

And there was the scientist. The damn Goa'uld in his white robe that looked more like a lab coat than anything else, leaning over the box—coffin—shit, sarcophagus—that he was lying in, smiling a smile that belonged on the face of a deranged sociopath.

"The damage is repaired; you have slept long enough." The alien had dropped the reverberating tones used to speak to 'lower life forms'; the natural voice of its host was thin and reedy.

He'd been dead. The sarcophagus technology used by the Goa'uld race to prolong the lives of their hosts had been used to revive the dead before, but he'd never expected the time would ever come when one might be used on HIM.

"Who are you?" His body was speaking, lips and tongue and teeth shaping the words, without him. "Who am I?"

He hadn't thought if possible, but the Goa'uld's smile actually widened at both questions.

"I am Ho'jo, researcher and consort of the high queen Jenova. You are our creation, our son... the pinnacle of our kind's evolution. Strength, speed and intelligence beyond peer have been developed within your DNA where genetic memory typically lies. But as instinct remains, and the specifics of memory can be taught after awakening... you will learn, my son. And you will serve your mother, who gave you life."

Foreign bewilderment in his soul, mingled with passive acceptance, as the Goa'uld sat up in the sarcophagus. "I hear and will obey. ...What of these images in my mind that have no connection to me that I can sense? The voice? They are... of me, but not mine?"

Ho'jo waved his hand dismissively. "Remnants of who your body once belonged to, before he died. I will want to hear of them later, but they are unimportant now. You are not he, but Sephiroth. Now come. There is much to do... I would see how you have adapted to your body."

Sephiroth shrugged, and stepped out of the sarcophagus to follow Ho'jo, allowing the memories accessed to drift back into dormancy, and ignoring him even as he fought — unsuccessfully — with the symbiote for control of his own body.

From the prison within his own mind, Kun's consciousness bit back a soundless scream.

~End.

AN: Yes, I know. Evil seems to have become a habit of mine. Also, nowadays I'm apparently incapable of writing a story of any real length that isn't a fusion, crossover or severe AU. Ah, well. There is a sequel to this rolling around in my head already, as well as a short or two; I'll get to them eventually. Reviews help motivate and inspire...

Cast of Characters:
SG-22 - First contact team
Major Lincoln "Kun" Kamiensky: The leader and tactician of SG-22 is an American citizen born of Russian immigrants. Age 29, he holds a bachelor's degree from Colorado Air Force Academy in Military Strategic Studies. He was promoted to the rank of Major early, after fulfilling a Black Ops mission as a Captain when his commanding officers were killed. Subsequently transferred to the SGC after a brief period of recovery, he received command of SG-22 despite lingering PTSD symptoms.

Captain Niall Craig: The 26-year-old 2IC of SG-22 — Air Force Pilot and Welsh badass. He earned an Aeronautics bachelor's through ROTC from Vaughn University. A New York native, he is the son of an Air Force Colonel and a Welsh artist, who immigrated to the US after her marriage. While possessing a short temper, he is generally easygoing. A test pilot for the SGC's F-302 class fighter plane/spaceship, he was promoted to Captain for participating in the Battle of Antarctica against the Goa'uld Anubis's fleet (Stargate: SG-1 Season 7 Finale).

1st Lieutenant Jason "Jay" Halstein: Age 25, SG-22's diplomat and linguist (he speaks Ancient Greek, Latin, French, German, Russian, Japanese, and can swear in 20 others). A California native, he is the only son of a CEO and a socialite, and is the smoothest talker West of the Mississippi. Though privately tutored in a classical education in preparation for inheriting his father's position, at age 18 he promptly got emancipated and attended the Air Force Academy. He holds a bachelor's in Psychology with a Political Science minor; upon graduating he was quickly evaluated by and transferred to the SGC. He narrowly avoided getting demoted to 2nd Lieutenant for insubordination (i.e. annoying the crap out of his commanding officer due to personality clash) before transferring SG-teams to SG-22.

Dr. Ezekiel "Zeke" Mason: SG-22's scientist and tech expert. He is a native Coloradoan, the son of a small-town businessman and a musician-turned-homemaker. He's also a slightly stereotypical geek, except for the black belt in Tae Kwan Do and experience with a bo staff. He was approached by the SGC after earning his doctorate at 23, due to the recommendation of a family friend who worked in the SGC. His degrees are a bachelor's, master's, and doctorate in Engineering. Age 24, he works with the SGC base scientists on research between missions.

SG-9: Formed two years ago under Major Fair's command.
Major Zack Fair. Head of SG-9, a hybrid diplomatic and tactical extraction team under Stargate Command. Age 29.Captain Rei Hino. 2IC of SG-9. An expert on ancient culture, with proficiency in ancient languages and history. Age 26.
Dr. Minako Aino. Political science doctorate, SG-9's diplomat. Age 28.1st Lieutenant Makoto Kino. SG-9's survivalist expert. Age 24.
Sergeant Cloud Strife. Member of SG-9. Mid-20s.

Dr. Mamoru Chiba. Trauma Surgeon. Age 29.
Usagi Tsukino. Nurse. Age 25.
Dr. Ami Mizuno. Scientist, member of Stargate Command's in-base research team. Age 24.
General Jack O'Neill. Head of Stargate Command, previously leader of SG-1.

Ho'jo and Jenova. Parasitic aliens.
Sephiroth. Genetically manipulated parasitic alien.
Nirrti. Dead parasitic alien.

11/08