The Astria Porta Project – Part Three : A Legend Reborn
Disclaimer I don't own the Harry Potter franchise, nor the Stargate franchise. Other, rich, people do. I also apologize if several people in this story aren't portrayed with sufficient respect; I try, but I only have my imagination to base off.
One of the explosions rocketing Anubis' Ha'tak created an opening in the hull of the spaceship. Having just delivered the killing blow to the partly-Ascended Goa'uld, Harry ran towards that hole. It wouldn't take long until the smaller internal explosions caused a massive explosion. He knew the ship descended a lot in these last minutes, hopefully it was enough for his jump not be lethal.
Running at an average speed of 30 kilometers per hour, it didn't take long for him to step into nothing and fall down. He was halfway down the length of the ship when the power cores exploded, sending forth a blast wave that threw him up instead of down. Debris hit him from all sides, smoke and fire nearly suffocating him.
Then he started falling again. He had his wand in his hand, if his mind was clearer he would've remembered nearly a dozen spells that could help him. Unfortunately he just came out of an explosion and was crashing to the ground rapidly. By the time the word 'magic' even appeared in his thoughts, it was too late. In an unconscious gesture to avoid a headfirst smack, he moved his arms in front of him and pulled up his legs. Human ball or not, you didn't escape unscathed from that kind of ordeal.
He felt his wand spike his chest, his protective gear was as much damaged as his body, had a faint impression of incredible coldness as he went through two meters thick ice and knew no more.
In normal circumstances, a human remaining under the icecap of Antarctica wouldn't survive long. There were plenty explorers who experienced that on the other side of the planet. Humans simply weren't made to survive in such an environment. Magical people, an evolution of the human race, were far more flexible and would survive a bit longer. A magic user with a wand at their disposal wouldn't have any trouble at all, given the chance that they woke up and were able to move their hand.
A magic user whose phoenix wand core was in the process of merging with that person's body, well, that was a lucky one. He first got to clinically die for a couple of weeks while his body went through physical and metaphysical changes, then wake up with his body having most of the damage as it did when he first died.
The altered person then had the privilege of calling himself part-Phoenix, part-human with immortality as the ultimate gift. It wasn't that death didn't come knocking at his door every now and then, rather it was that he died, was denied entrance to heaven's gate and promptly sent back to the land of the living. A cursed immortality in other words.
"The secret is gone," whispered Su Li, looking at the assembled leaders of Phoenix Blackpool. "Harry's dead."
A grim silence greeted that statement. Instead of sinking into despair like she wanted to, Su steeled herself and focused on casting the most important charm the organization required. With pain in her heart, she intoned: " Fidelius! "
After going through the entire base's personnel and sending an encrypted message to the portal of the Phoenix network, she joined the other leaders of their base in the closed emergency meeting.
"Guardian Li," the loss of the 'Vice' prefix introduced bitter thoughts into her mind, "do you know anything about Harry's will?"
"I know where it's located... I can't believe he's gone."
"It was a possibility he was prepared for," murmured Matthew.
"What do we do about the funeral?" Daniel asked. "I'd suggest a private funeral, but he was a public figure, an icon even."
Lloyd Baker offered his opinion. "The Queen and her consort will want to attend."
"Wizards and witches will come too," said Su.
"Public funeral it is," decided Daniel. "This is going to take a lot of organization. He's about as popular as Princess Diana was."
"We'll wait a couple of weeks so we can try and retrieve his body," Matthew spoke. "Until that time we need stay alert. Anubis might be gone, but there are enough bad guys out there."
Nods affirmed that thought. A great man might be gone, it wasn't the end of the world, far from it.
Dobby let the pan he was cleaning drop to the floor. The Great Harry Potter Sir was in trouble! A determined expression on his face, Dobby disappeared from Great Britain, digging several minutes until he noticed his limbs growing really cold, the wind stinging his eyes.
A particular strong wind grabbed him, dragging him miles further and dumping him in the Ross Sea. Frostbite has a very good possibility of killing human. A house-elf with only a flimsy little uniform died with absolute certainty seconds after the cold set in.
Kreacher looked up from dusting the dragon's head in his master's living room, his master was dying! Kreacher had to do something, save his master. He didn't want to spend another dozen years all alone.
Concentrating hard on his master's whereabouts, Kreacher popped straight onto an Antarctic ice mass. He searched everywhere, going even as far as digging into the Earth. Unfortunately he didn't think to look up or he would have seen the five meter long chunk of metal heading his way, killing him without mercy.
He woke to the sensation of extremely cold water, too cold to shiver or even move an inch. His mouth remained shut, breathing apparently was something he could do without as long as he didn't overexert himself.
From the looks of it, his clothes were ruined. Undoubtedly all of his electronic equipment was as well. He saw the wood of his wand sticking out of him. How much time had passed?
He remained like that, his eyes observing his surroundings, his body stiff and unmoving. Why he wasn't dead, he hadn't the faintest. He must have been at some point, otherwise he'd still remember where his Phoenix base was or find the link to Kreacher. Had he Ascended, done something he shouldn't have and kicked out? No, that didn't sound right. He wasn't someone who'd accept the offer of Ascension, far too many rules involved with that.
According to the reports on Daniel Jackson, if you Deascended your memory was wiped completely and he remembered all too vividly the battle with Anubis, his time hunting artifacts, the assassination of Voldemort. A mystery, that was what it was.
Lying beneath a mass of ice, he resented his survival. Su Li obviously had already assumed the Guardian position back home; his job as vice-director of the museum probably was filled in as well. Adder Castle should be in use by Phoenix Operations by now, it was how he wrote it all down in his will after all. Romilda and Su wouldn't have much trouble keeping Ouroboros Warlocks open either. Both of them had enough experience.
It was good that all of those things didn't require a lot of paperwork to be put in place. He didn't want his death to inconvenience people. Unfortunately he wasn't quite dead, was he? His entire life was over...
Nonetheless, Phoenix Operations was a huge organization, undoubtedly there were things he could do with his master degrees and experience. What field was he interested in though? He had master degrees in medieval history, linguistics, aerodynamics and computer science. One of the benefits of working for an international space organization. Aside those, he also had his Phoenix degrees, educations you could only get at the Blue Mountain facility. There were several of those: the Guardian certificate, the offensive and defensive weaponry license, the Portdrive-assembler degree, the Avalon specialist degree, ...
That was if he ever got back to the real world. For all he knew he was immobile for life and stuck beneath Antarctica for eternity.
After a long time of doing nothing, Harry started the long process of breaking free from the layer of ice covering his body. It began with one finger and ended with his shoulders. His legs could wait. Once that was done he started swimming, hoping for an open spot or a place where the ice wasn't so thick.
After several miles, he was in luck. One of the pieces of Anubis' Ha'tak had pierced the ice, the new layer was only several centimeters thick. Once he hoisted himself out of the water, he laid still for a long time. Eventually the strong wind made him pull out his wand. To his surprise the minute the wood left his chest, all of the wounds started healing rapidly. Five minutes later, it was as if nothing had been wrong in the first place. Except for his legs who didn't do anything he wanted them to do.
"Guess I'll have to do without," muttered he. The minute his mouth opened, his lungs started working again, furiously even. "Got to be more careful with that."
"What are you doing, Major?" General Jack O'Neill said to Major John Sheppard, the helicopter pilot transporting him to the Ancient Outpost on Antarctica.
"There's somebody over there," the Major replied.
O'Neill glanced at the direction his pilot nodded. Sure enough, there was someone laying several hundreds of meters removed from them. "Okay, let's go and have a look at who we're dealing with."
The helicopter was barely turned off when someone in the Outpost warned them that someone activated the drone weapon system of the facility.
They rushed out of their vehicle to the unknown man.
"That's Potter," exclaimed O'Neill once they turned him over.
"You know him?" asked Sheppard as he checked the man. "He's dead."
"He's been dead for the past three months," said O'Neill. "I wonder how he ended up in here? No matter, can you help me carry him to the heli?"
"I got it," the Major said. He was hovering above Harry Potter, when the supposedly dead man latched onto him, taking in deep breaths. Sheppard pushed the man off of him. "What the hell?"
Harry coughed repeatedly.
"You're alive?" wondered O'Neill, pinching his arm to check whether he was dreaming or not.
"Can't die," said Harry with a scratchy voice. "Well, I die, but I always come back. Happened thirty times so far."
"That's creepy," concluded O'Neill.
Sheppard looked confused. "What do you mean you can't die?"
"Don't know why, woke up beneath the ice, swam out of it. Didn't die of the cold, didn't have to breathe... Haven't eaten since the night before Anubis. I still live." At that exact moment his stomach growled loudly. He sighed. "Now I'll have to eat."
O'Neill got back to business, the inquisition could wait until later. "Let's get you to the Outpost, there's a medical staff in that place. Can you walk?"
"Got hit with debris, haven't been able to move my legs since then."
Sheppard's eyebrows rose. "You crawled your way to here?"
His nod was enough of an answer. The two Americans picked up the Brit and placed him in the cargo space of the helicopter.
"Dr Weir, this is General O'Neill. Is that weapon system deactivated?"
"It is."
"Good. Have your medical personnel ready, we're bringing in Harry Potter. He's alive."
"Good heavens! After all this time?"
"Stranger things have happened. O'Neill over and out."
"You know, General, this is a very weird place," stated Sheppard.
"You'll know soon enough how weird of a place it really is."
Harry looked at the Chinese doctor. "These replacements work in the same way as my legs?"
It had been a month since he was found by the Americans and transported to one of the Chinese branches where they worked on prostheses and the likes. The damage done to his spine was healed by going through the sarcophagi, but his legs were officially and completely destroyed. As a gesture of thanks and partly because they needed someone to experiment upon, he was the first human to have these prostheses. Made out of naquadah and housing two compartments, a quantum computer and a shielding device, Harry personally thought it to be a bit over the top. Who wanted storage rooms in his biceps anyway?
The doctor bowed briefly.
News of his survival was only limited to Phoenix Operations and Homeworld Security; his funeral apparently rivaled that of the deceased Princess Diana and there wasn't an easy way to explain his presence to the public. It'd taken a personal visit from Australia's Vice-Guardian, an aboriginal, for the organization itself to have a clearer picture on how he survived.
Fawkes' feather merged with his body and magical core, giving him the common abilities of phoenixes like immortality and a good singing voice, while also transforming his entire self into one giant magical focus. Like with staffs, it gave him an incredible advantage in performing rituals and grotesque magic, but it meant shit when it came down to the useful charms like creating a Portkey, levitating a feather or casting a bone-shattering curse.
The Fidelius and all related wards luckily fell into the section of rituals, combining that with the limited amount of people knowing of his existence, he was a perfect candidate to join the Atlantis expedition. They were due to depart in two weeks, hopefully by then he wouldn't have any problems walking around.
He was promoted for his part in Anubis' downfall, going from Guardian to Grandmaster. As a Grandmaster he was an odd sort of combination of a Vice-Chieftain and a Guardian. In essence it was a more fitting name for what he was; he transcended the job description of a Guardian.
That the title was given to him by the Chieftain and Guardian Council helped of course.
He carefully tested 'his legs'. They reacted like he wanted; he just didn't feel anything. They would never tire, nor would he be able to feel cold or warmth again from his middle downwards. He told the doctor as much, who smiled excitedly, bowed repeatedly and confirmed that that was the purpose.
"These are the remote access points to your computer." The man gave him two wrist devices: pliable touch screens of the finest quality, manufactured in Japan. "This is your auditive input device." Harry was given an earplug with a microphone attached. "The computer can be operated through that as well."
He moved his legs to the side and shifted his weight. Then he stood up. It was an incredible weird sensation he couldn't find the right words for. When he was used to the feeling, he walked. There was no flaw in his movement, absolutely nothing that said his legs weren't organic. That, perhaps more than anything else, was the weirdest about it all.
"Good luck in Atlantis," Wycliffe saw him out of the Blackpool branch. Coming back to the place with no real position in it was slightly uncomfortable, especially because he knew the majority of the people were present at his funeral. Su Li had taken Romilda Vane under her wings, she was doing well enough by the looks of it. Still he was kind of glad he wouldn't constantly be here anymore. Three months of Antarctica and one month of China did that to a man.
The expedition would leave through the Stargate in America rather than Britain; it was decided that Blackpool would focus on setting up trade with other worlds and establishing a tentative galactic institute where worlds and races could settle their differences peacefully, while the Cheyenne Mountain Complex would focus on the defense of Earth and going after the big guns and projects.
Following Zeus five other civilian spacecrafts were constructed to facilitate transport of people and material between branches, especially now that the Terran Space Force was developing a two mile wide space station in orbit around Mars. When it was finished it was going to be the TSF's headquarters. Colonization of an abandoned planet out of Goa'uld reach also was an activity indicating a change in perspective of the organization concerning offworld activity.
Shiva would pick the European participants up at Heathrow and fly them to the Air Force Academy in Colorado. There buses would transport everybody to Phoenix Cheyenne, more commonly known as Stargate Command. The Americans while adopting enough of the international protocols liked to keep their own set of rules, like the usage of USAF ranks for their employees. Separating SGC from the USAF itself had taken a while as well, but it was one of most important rules of Phoenix Operations: no national military was allowed direct involvement. While the USA didn't necessarily do anything wrong, it was a preventive strike at any foolish African or Arabic government wanting more control or use machines of a more alien nature for their own struggles.
"Potter, it's good to see you," O'Neill greeted. "Heard you got a new pair of legs?"
"And they're incredibly weird, I tell you," Harry answered. "Some Chinese bloke decided that prostheses were as good as any place to hide your loot."
At the General's inquiring look, Harry unzipped the 'pocket' on his pants, tapped something on his PWD, pliable wrist display. The compartment in his right biceps opened. O'Neill crouched and stared into it.
"They gave you a hole in your legs?" he wondered. "What did you put in it? I can't see it."
"A Disintegrator gun." He took it in his hands. "Ever used one of these?"
"I'm more a Zat gun kind of guy."
"Too bad." He put the gun back where it belonged, closed the compartment and zipped the pocket back in place.
"Ready to face the big unknown?"
"You know you shouldn't phrase it like that. Freya used that sentence a lot when we were about to... you know."
"You and Freya, as in Tok'ra Anise/Freya?" exclaimed O'Neill.
Harry shrugged. "Had a fling with her when she tried to help us build the Ori weapon."
"Really? I wouldn't have thought you and her, you know. Wow. You surprised me with that one."
"A guy's gotta have a social life even if it involves an alien."
"Too right. You know she had a thing for me at one point?"
"She told me. Then she told me she found me more attractive."
"You're lying." O'Neill stated. "I can see it in your eyes! She said no such thing, did she? Come on, nobody can be more attractive than me!"
Harry patted the man's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Jack, but... I don't know how to say it, but you're getting a bit older and well... Young blond things with silicone breasts might dig that; intelligent ladies like Freya don't."
"Young blond things with silicone breasts, eh?" O'Neill mused. "Maybe I'll have to look into that. Without the isolation material though, don't really like large bumpers."
"General!" Carter smacked her superior with a newspaper. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. It wasn't my intention."
Laughing loudly, Harry walked out of the control room. By the time he was in the gate room, his face took an a more serious expression.
"Everything okay?" Elizabeth Weir asked him.
"No problems," he responded. The expedition as it was consisted for the most part out of personnel from the western part of the world. Africa was still bringing its continent to a more advanced level of evolution, while the other nations focused on different projects at the moment. Once the space station and the next generation of motherships were finished, the Atlantis mission would receive more international collaboration... Should the mission be a success of course.
"I've already briefed the Europeans about what we're going to do once we step through the gate, how the command structure works and given them a chance to remain behind."
"I'm going to give a speech before we leave, I'll offer the same option to them as well."
"Colonel Sumner," Harry greeted the man. "We haven't met yet. I'm Harry Potter."
"Grandmaster Potter," Sumner inclined his head, "it's a pleasure to meet you. I understand you are on an equal footing with me concerning authority?"
He nodded. "It's a custom at all of the Phoenix bases to have two people in charge of security and the likes. This expedition is slightly different, since we only have scientists, military men and medical staff with us. For the moment I'm only along for the ride, so to speak. We'll clear out duties and the likes once we're settled in, if we succeed of course."
"I have no problems with that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to see to my men."
Harry moved onto the next person he saw, John Sheppard. "How do you do, Major?"
"Amused for the most part." Sheppard looked at Harry's legs. "Your legs are fine now?"
"Prostheses of the 21st century." He patted them. "Work as well as any other pair of legs and even have a computer in them."
"A computer? Why would you need that for?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "To hook my toes up with the Internet?"
The Major shook his head.
"All military personnel, report to the gate room," he spoke through his radio. The downside of working with so many Americans was that they used different terms for anything to do with the Astria Porta, like the embarkation room being the gate room, an Astria Porta a Stargate, and so on. It took a while to get used to the lingo, but he'd done harder linguistic labor before. Like the course teaching Ancient given in Jamaica with an option to learn it digitally through the Phoenix Network, their version of the Internet.
"Listen up, people. I know we aren't familiar yet, but that's okay because we're going to have all the time of the world to do that. Colonel Sumner is as you all know missing. The survivors of his team are looking into setting up a rescue attempt. In the meantime, I want you to focus on your tasks. We have a duty to the people here, both the Athosians and our people. Who here has the highest rank that isn't part of the offworld team?"
A man stepped forward. "Sergeant Bates, sir."
"I'm placing you as temporary head of security while I start securing this base with more drastic means. I want you to oversee the guards, find a way to secure this tower from the rest of the city and keep an eye on any stray Athosians."
"Understood, sir." Bates looked like he wanted to ask something, but didn't dare to. Harry mentally snorted, military protocol.
"Permission to speak, Sergeant. If anybody has any worries or is unsure how to perform their tasks, feel free to ask me. I have experience with this kind of work."
"What drastic means are you thinking about using, sir?"
"That's a good question. First of all you are aware of my abilities?" At their nods, he continued. "I'm going to make this city unplottable. In simpler terms: I'm going to shift Atlantis to another dimension which will allow the city to be visible only when you're right in front of it and know it's there. We've done a bit of research back on Earth and it's been proven that when you make an island unplottable, not even the Asgard sensors can detect its presence.
"You've heard the reports about these Wraiths. If they defeated the Ancients ten thousand years ago by laying siege on this city with their spaceships like we believe, we can avoid at least that by what I'm planning to do."
The marines must have liked what they heard, their expressions became just a little less tense.
"How long will it take until you've made the city... unplottable?" informed Bates.
"One hour, two hours maximum. It's a lot of ground to hide."
One of the other marines coughed. "Where will you do whatever it is you have to do, sir?"
"On top of this tower," answered Harry. "I have to be in the center of the property and it'll be easier when I see everything spread out in front of me."
"I'll have someone guarding you, sir," promised Bates.
"All right. Until the Colonel returns and a better command structure is established, that's all. Dismissed."
"Doctor Weir, do you mind if I start this meeting?" inquired Harry. Assembled in the room were Major Sheppard, Sergeant Bates, Doctor McKay, Doctor Becket, Doctor Weir and himself.
"By all means, you have the most experience with these kind of things," answered Weir.
"Thank you," he inclined his head. Glancing at all of the people present, he began. "It's been a couple of chaotic days for all of us, so I'm not going to beat around the bush too much. It's time we bring some order into this city."
"After careful consideration, Grandmaster Potter and I have decided to split the military contingent into two: Major John Sheppard will head all of the Stargate teams, while Sergeant William Bates will lead the security force of Atlantis. Sergeant Bates will be assisted in this endeavor by Grandmaster Potter. As far as authority goes, both leaders will be on an equal footing, despite the difference in ranks," continued Weir. "Second-in-commands are preferably of a different team than your own."
Harry took over: "Like on every base, Dr Becket as Head Medical Officer can place this city in quarantine if it's necessary. Dr Becket, it's up to you to appoint a second-in-command. Dr McKay, the same goes for you as Head Scientific Advisor. How you set up your departments is completely up to you though I suggest you keep it logical and easy to maintain."
"Does anybody have any questions so far?" asked Weir.
McKay raised his hand. "Say, er, do we get those fancy titles too? I always fancied myself a lord, you see."
Weir replied: "The Phoenix ranking system isn't required, but it is allowed."
"So I'm Lord McKay? Cool."
Weir ignored the comment. "Grandmaster Potter is now going to explain all that he's done already and is planning to do to protect this city."
"None of you will have noticed it yet, but I shifted Atlantis to another dimension three days ago."
"Shifted to another dimension?"Sheppard asked, confused.
"It means that the minute you step, fly I mean, outside the confines of the city, Atlantis will disappear from sight. Since we're in the middle of an ocean, nothing will hint at our presence. Only if you know the city is there and you're right in front of it, will the city reappear to you. At the moment it's our only protection against warfare from space."
Sergeant Bates offered his opinion: "I can confirm that. Some of my men flew outside in a Puddle Jumper, the city did disappear the minute they were outside the city."
"I've got several things I can do next, but it depends on what is decided here. There is a ward, the Poseidon ward, that should enable us to submerge the city again - it has some of the properties of the shield. I'm also looking into creating an energy field you might say that absorbs sunlight - like one giant solar cell - and redirects the collected energy into one of the ZPMs. It's nothing definite yet, but I believe I can do that."
"Recharge the ZPM?" McKay murmured, obviously thinking.
"If you install this Poseidon ward, do we have to submerge the city?" questioned Weir.
"Let me check that." He opened the compartment of his left leg.
"Bloody hell, Harry," Becket exclaimed. "Ye didna tell me you had a hole in yer leg."
"The Chinese," he explained. He searched the compartment, pulling out a P90, ten ammo cartridges, an Avalon Aqua computer, a tent, a crossbow, several blocks of C4, a spare uniform, a kimono, a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a collection of screwdrivers and finally his Encyclopedia Magica. By the time he got it, everybody in the room was staring at him with wide eyes.
"That's disturbing," concluded Sheppard eventually.
"Like Mao Ching told me: a guy's got to have some spares." He leafed through his magical encyclopedia, eventually finding what he needed. "Here it is. Poseidon ward. Takes ten days to complete, invented by some Greek fossil, used to hide the wizarding version of Atlantis near Greece... Aha!" He looked at his superior. "The city doesn't need to be underwater." He glanced at all the material laying in front of him. He sighed. "Now I have to put it all back."
McKay looked at all of the objects. "That goes in there." He gestured at the compartment. "All of it?"
"There's more in there, I think. I haven't checked exactly." He smiled wryly. "Present from the wizards and witches working for Phoenix. They did it before I could even object and I thought 'might as well use it'."
"How does that? I mean, that's physically impossible!"
"A pocket in subspace with the ability to stretch endlessly."
"Amazing. Maybe I can replicate the process..." McKay fell back into scientific mumbo jumbo nobody really understood.
The others apparently decided that 'pocket in subspace' sufficed as an explanation, as they were getting back to the original topic.
"You have my permission to perform this Poseidon ward," stated Weir. "And see whether you can do this solar energy thing as well."
"All right. Next subject: secrecy," announced Harry. "Our brief experience with the Athosian people so far has taught us that there is one fierce enemy out there, that the city of Atlantis and the Ancients have an even more mythical meaning as it has on Earth. The Wraith apparently don't like this city and would like to have it destroyed as soon as possible. We're at a crossroads here about what we're going to do about that."
Aside Weir, nobody seemed to really understand what he was talking about exactly. The commander of the expedition decided to expand on Harry's introduction. "What the Grandmaster is trying to say is that we are faced with a relatively unknown enemy in a galaxy we've only just entered. We need to agree upon a course of action that accounts for our current limitations. We can't fight an all-out war, we don't want to catch even more attention than we already will, our supplies are limited."
Thus the discussion began. In the end it was agreed upon that the people going off world would say they came from Phoenix rather than Atlantis, that their dealings with foreigners were going to be tentative at the least, kept an eye on at the most. The people from Athos were a wonderful source of information, but their culture wasn't that advanced - their perspective limited.
"McKay, let me handle this," commanded Harry. "You don't know whether that shield device will hold long enough before the entity kills you."
"You're sure you want to do this?" McKay asked in one of his heroic moments.
"I've died before. It's not the end."
"All right then. Have fun!"
He rolled his eyes. That man had an ego the size of Jupiter and the courage of a cat. He walked to the center of the room, the cart with the power generator on it in front of him. It was a curious sensation, knowing you were probably going to die... again.
They established a connection, he activated the generator. The entity feeding off energy discovered the new food source quickly; it didn't take long for it to fill the entire room, obscuring his view. Strangely so, the shocks he felt were rather weak, probably his enhanced healing.
Then the entity did something it wasn't supposed to. It turned its attention from the power generator to him. It felt like it was caressing him and... feeling him up? What the hell?
The observers in the conference room saw the energy mass got denser, focusing completely on their expedition member.
"I don't understand, what's it doing?" asked McKay.
"How should I know? You're the expert," answered Sheppard.
Harry couldn't help it, the jolts and tingles teasing him, the caressing and feeling up. It had been months if not years since he last was intimate with someone, it was only natural his body responded the way it did.
His semen mixed with the energy, going into an accelerated and twisted meiosis, eventually becoming a fetus growing into a baby.
"Is the energy getting lighter?" wondered Weir.
Teyla confirmed her suspicion. "It is and is that a child?"
"According to this, all of the energy is going into whatever is growing in there."
They witnessed their Grandmaster looking at the infant boy, reaching out his hands. The energy completely disappeared. As if that wasn't the most bizarre thing they had seen so far, the toddler started to glow white.
"My god," Weir uttered. "He's Ascending!"
Sure enough soon the boy wasn't corporeal anymore, but the pure energy of an Ascended being. It laid its hand on his father's cheek before rising into the air and disappearing from sight.
They made their way from the conference room to the gate room, where they heard their Grandmaster muttering: "Why don't you go to Atlantis, they said, it'd do you good. Yeah, why not. Jesus, what kind of freak galaxy is this place? Never thought I'd ever have children though... Bit of a pity if they'd all Ascend immediately after birth. Damn I feel violated."
That was followed by him falling forwards, not rising from the ground.
"I better check up on him," offered Becket. He checked for a pulse and found none. "He's dead. There's nothing I can do for him anymore."
"Just wait and see," commented Sheppard.
Harry breathed deeply, clutching at Becket's uniform. "Goddamn that was embarrassing."
Teyla cast a curious glance at the rather abnormal man. "Where did that child come from?"
He blushed. "That er... thing... mated with me? It's all very weird, but the kid was my son I suppose. I'm not sure. It could just as well have been some kind of shortcut to Ascension. Really what kind of things did these Ancients keep around here?"
Nobody really knew how to respond to the whole situation. Finally, Weir made an attempt. "I'm sure you would have been a good father."
He stood up, steadying himself to adapt to the quick change in balance. "Apparently I'm a fantastic father... I don't know any other men having their children Ascend. In the future though, McKay, you can be the hero."
McKay's horrified expression was hilarious. "I don't want any kids!"
"Yeah, I don't think any kids with you as their father would ever be capable of Ascension," noted Harry, "they'd be too traumatized by their childhood."
With that comment, the tension was broken and the incident just another example of how life was so much simpler before the reinvention of the Stargate.
"All security personnel, switch your radio to channel sierra-foxtrot-thirteen followed by your passwords." He hadn't seen the purpose of his built-in quantum computer at first, but after several weeks of being second-in-command to Elizabeth Weir, he wouldn't be able to live without it. He kept a constant file of every expedition member on it, updating it almost daily. The voice recognition software and access to the radio communications network was a blessing as well, it enabled him to set up certain channels and secure them completely from unauthorized listeners.
When everybody was keyed in, he addressed them. "I know you're all antsy about the recent confrontations with the Wraith offworld. The possibility of a spy is realistic, I'm well aware of that. But you guys have to be more discreet with your suspicion. If there really is a spy in our midst, this is not the way to go about it."
"Understood sir," affirmed Bates. "Can't you do anything about it?"
"We first have to rule out all of the other possibilities. If someone actually is reporting our next destinations, they have to find out about them somehow. Smithson, McPherson, you're on duty in the gate room right now, aren't you?"
"Affirmative, sir," came Smithson's reply.
"You've been through tactical ops training?"
"Yes, sir."
"Blend into the background, make yourself invisible to the casual eye and report anything abnormal happening. The rest of you, be extra cautious, but don't go barging in people's personal chambers and the likes. There are enough hooks and nooks in this place to find a position to observe your surroundings better. I'm on the case, so back to work people."
All but Bates signed off. "Sir?"
"Yes, Sergeant?"
"The evidence points to the Athosian on Sheppard's team. They're the ones always running into the Wraith."
"I know." He paused. "There's a group of spells wizards and witches use to tag people; we've got an entire satellite network back on Earth capable of tracking an individual. We just don't know what the Wraith are capable of. This could be something like that, it could be an actual spy. We don't know for sure and we can't make too much assumptions."
"Understood, sir."
"I'm going to have a chat with Teyla."
"Thank you, sir." A relieved Bates ended the call.
He snorted. "Trust the immortal guy to save the day. I'm going to regret leaving Blackpool one day."
"Say the gents on Earth hello for me, will you?" Harry saw the other leaders off the expedition off. They'd found a planet with some kind of energy mist that equaled the power of a ZPM. They'd taken the control crystal of the Atlantis DHD, Dial-Home-Device, with them and left nearly all of the second-in-commands behind to lead the expedition.
"You could have gone with them," Teyla said from behind him.
Harry glanced at the woman. "I wouldn't know what to do there."
She looked back, curious.
"I destroyed a very powerful enemy several months before we came to Atlantis." He motioned for her to follow him. "I jumped out of his exploding spaceship to survive; the only problem was that it was on the south pole of our planet, one of the coldest places you'll ever encounter. I fell through two meters of ice and died for the first time." They descended two levels and went outside on one of the pier's balconies. "I couldn't use my legs and I ended up crawling for three months to a landscape of snow and ice. I died over thirty times. Sheppard and O'Neill, one of his superiors, eventually found me. They gave me a new pair of legs, but... My entire life was over."
"So they offered you a position on your people's expedition?"
He nodded. "I had nothing to lose."
"Don't you miss your home world sometimes?"
"I wonder about the people I've worked with, think about how things used to be, but that doesn't get me anywhere. I think you understand the feeling."
"My people are grateful that at least some of us survived the recent culling."
"I'll see what I can do to protect the settlement on the mainland."
She inclined her head in thanks. He looked across the ocean.
"You know there probably will come a day when I'll be in command of this city. I have no intention of leaving this galaxy, I found a new purpose. The others, they'll come and they'll go, but I'll be wandering these halls long after they're gone." At her frown, he added. "That's not a cause to doubt their sincerity, absolutely not. They're a devoted group of people."
"But circumstances might arise that force their hand?"
He nodded. "Be it death or a decision made back on Earth."
"Do you not listen to the decisions made on Earth?"
"Yes, but that won't stop me from staying behind should they ask that of me. Weird conception or not, Ascended or not, I've got a son to look after now. I can't do that from another galaxy."
"Should it ever come to that, you are welcome to join my people."
"They have no problems with you spending nearly all of your time with us?"
She weighed her words. "They understand that you need a guide to this galaxy."
"Fancy a cup of tea?"
"You have tea on your world? I thought you only had that awful coffee?"
"My country is renown for its tea," he said with a smile. "We have a custom of drinking it at a specific hour each afternoon."
"Interesting."
"There's a huge storm coming straight for Atlantis," McKay rushed in Harry's office. He'd been busy updating his personnel database. "And it's heading for the settlement first."
"Can the city survive this storm?"
"Not if we remain on the surface."
"Dr Weir decided on a course of action yet?"
"She's ordered the evacuation of the Athosian settlement to the city."
"I can get the city submerged in a time-span of ten minutes. How long do we have until the storm reaches us?"
"Twelve hours."
"And the mainland?"
"Three, maybe four hours?"
"All right. As soon as the Athosians are in the city I'll start the submersion procedure."
"You're sure you can do this?"
"I managed to guide solar energy into the ZPMs, didn't I?"
McKay reluctantly nodded. Harry rose and walked out of his office, the scientist following him. As they neared the operations center, they saw an incoming wormhole arriving.
"It's Marcel Beauvoir's IDC."
"Lower the shield," ordered Weir.
A bleeding Beauvoir entered ran through, followed by an even more bleeding Cadet Everard. "Raise the shield!" shouted the latter. "It's the Genii, they overheard our conversation earlier, killed Sheffield and took Bauer with them."
He activated his comm link. "Sergeant Bates, how's the evacuation going?"
"Lieutenant Ford, Teyla and Doctor Becket stayed behind. They're waiting for an Athosian hunting party. ETA half an hour."
"Step on it, we've got a gamma-tango six situation on our hands. Sheffield's dead, Bauer's abducted."
He ignored the curse words from the other side of the channel. "What's our strategy?"
"Sniper watching the gate, the room shielded off, our men behind them fully armed, medical team on standby. We won't have any other choice than to accept his IDC. Bauer won't mind if he's the only one coming through; if he's accompanied by the Genii I don't want to give them any opportunity of seizing control."
"Roger that, sir."
He changed the channel to that of the stray Puddle Jumper. "Lieutenant Ford, this is Grandmaster Potter."
"I hear you, sir."
"The Genii abducted Bauer after they heard a huge storm is going to tear apart our base. I'm going to submerge the city as soon as the others arrive, which should be within half an hour. You're going to have to sit out the storm underwater."
"I understand, sir. Did anyone got hurt?"
"Sheffield is dead, Beauvoir and Everard wounded, they're being treated as we speak."
"We'll keep in touch, sir."
"Same goes for us. Good luck, Sergeant."
"Grandmaster."
Elizabeth joined them. "You've got the situation dealt with smoothly."
"I've been doing this since my nineteenth, Elizabeth, one should hope they learn something after so many years."
"Can we watch you while you lower the city into the water?"
"As long as you don't interrupt me."
McKay clapped his hands in anticipation.
"Sheppard! You know how to use a sniper?" he continued.
The Major came over to them. "I had the pleasure of using them a couple of times, yes."
"We're going to ambush anyone that comes through the Stargate with Bauer's IDC. Sheffield was one of yours, so I'm thinking you might want some retribution."
"I wouldn't mind that," the Major said. "You've got one with you in that thing in your leg?"
He checked the database on his PWD... Another thing those quantum computers were good for, they worked alongside magic just fine. "I have a water...bazooka?"
"Hm. No sniper rifle then? I'll be right back."
Some of the Athosians and several members of the expedition were observing their focused Grandmaster, his arms spread wide, energy swirling around his entire body. It was an impressive display of magic, the likes of which only several men of the security component had seen.
The wind was rough, rain already falling down and the dark clouds of the storm threatening on the horizon. Rodney McKay couldn't help it, he sneezed. The brief surprise made Harry move slightly, causing the whole city to jump twenty meters, everybody to fall down and then experience a second of floating as the ground beneath their disappeared. Then they crashed.
"Thanks, McKay," Harry called out, "now I have to start again."
The scientist shrunk into himself at all the angry looks he received. "Sorry."
Soon enough they noticed the water of the ocean rising gradually, a dome not unlike that of the shield holding back the water. Centimeter by centimeter, meter by meter, Atlantis returned to the position it had held for over ten thousand of years.
"The city is submerged," Harry told the others. "We're safe from the storm." He walked back to them. "Say, Zelenka, I was wondering. The Ancients had to make their ZPMs somewhere, as far as we know, the Ancients just left this galaxy through the Stargate. There has to be something about a place like that in their archives."
"I'll look into it. Even if we did find a ZPM production lab, I'm not sure whether we could actually make a ZPM. The science involved is way beyond our current understanding."
He shrugged. "We're a versatile race. Put a Canadian, an Australian, an Indian, a Chinese and a European in the research team and we'll have as much ZPMs as we want to in no time."
Zelenka shifted his glasses slightly. "That's a very optimistic point of view."
"It's reality, just look at the latest Portdrive, or the space station Phoenix is constructing."
"You really think the Ancients had those facilities?" inquired Elizabeth. "We've been looking all over the galaxy and barely found any."
"They Ancients were here for what? Millions of years. You're not telling me they only used the ZPMs they brought from the Milky Way."
"Would they really leave that kind of place out in the open?" argued she.
Harry walked inside. "Then it has to be somewhere in Atlantis."
Zelenka looked at McKay. "He might be on to something."
He was walking through the corridors of the city that night on his regular night patrol; one of the (dis)advantages of being immortal was that sleep no longer was required of his body.
Sheppard had brought back a supposedly high priestess named Chaya Sar in the hopes of setting up a treaty of sorts that includes accepting refugees in exchange for technological advancements. He knew McKay had his doubts. Harry didn't doubt, his senses told him what she really was: an Ascended being.
He let the mortals to their illusion, it would shatter soon enough. Morose's journal contained a firm outline of the rules and punishments the Ascended had; as he found it, he was the only one of the expedition to have read it. Even Elizabeth hadn't been a part of Phoenix Operations long enough to know about that.
With a gait in his steps, he softly sung Leonard Cohen's 'Take This Waltz'.
This waltz this waltz this waltz
With its very own breathe
Of brandy and death
Dragging its tail in the sea
It was one of his favorite songs; he'd sung it for years in the shower now and it was only after his stint in Antarctica that it actually came out sounding good.
Oh my love, oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It's yours now
It's all that there is
"Did you like the song?" he asked when he finished.
Chaya came out of the alcove. "You knew I was here?"
"And I know what you are."
She looked startled.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."
"How did you find out?"
"From one immortal to another, it kind of stands out."
"I see. You do not mind my presence?"
"It gives me the opportunity to ask about my son."
A smile graced her face. "Senya is doing well. He'd like to know more about you, even though Atlantis is hidden rather well."
"Senya?" He shook his head. "Should have known." The name was Old Jewish for 'Heared by God'. "Can I ask you something?"
Chaya cocked her head. "Depends on your question."
"Will all of my children Ascend?"
"Eventually. Senya was an exception to Ascend at such an earlier age, but your essence is very pure."
"And the mother already was energy," he added. "Thank you."
McKay came walking into the daily private meeting Elizabeth and he were having. "Potter, you're almost as brilliant as me!"
"Dr McKay, this is a private meeting, you can't just barge into my office," Elizabeth reprimanded.
Harry snorted slightly. 'Almost as brilliant as me,' he thought, 'that man is going to get into trouble if the Africans ever come this way.'
The scientist was adamant, saying: "It's important."
Their superior sighed. "Since you've already interrupted us, just go ahead and tell us what's got you all excited."
"You know how we've been getting all those reports about Wraith hive-ships heading for our planet?"
They nodded.
"It made me think about sending a message to Earth to warn them about the danger posed by the Wraith and their fixation on Earth, so I was looking at all of our power levels. We only used Potter's solar ward six-seven months and the energy in the ZPMs was negligible really, not enough to raise the shields or establish a connection to the Milky Way lasting all that long.
"Then it hit me. We don't need to actually send a person through the Stargate or even a laptop, all we have to send is a data-stream. I've calculated that we can create a wormhole for about half a second. Using a special compression method I designed, we can send up to 8 gigabyte worth of data in that time."
"Let's do it," ordered Elizabeth.
"The mission reports and the likes won't take that much space," mused Harry. "Can't we, I don't know, allow everybody to record a video message to their family and to Phoenix?"
"That's a wonderful idea, Harry," smiled Elizabeth.
Lieutenant Ford was chosen to operate the camera, preluding a lot of reminiscence and retelling of the past months, including the rise of Atlantis and its consequent submersion, the Wraith, the Genii, the Athosians, ...
"I've been going through all of the documents you want to transfer," Elizabeth walked into his office. "It's quite extensive. I didn't know you kept so detailed accounts of all of everybody. And your journal, the essays?"
"If you supervise the internal and external security of a place as monumental as Atlantis, it's essential to know who, what, why and where. And it serves as a solid base to evaluate people with all the arguments already present." He paused. "The journal, I wasn't sure whether to include it. The thing is though, you might have a lot of connections in the UN and with the political leaders of all the nations involved, I've been to every base, know every Chieftain, Vice-Chieftain and Guardian and was an active participant of both the Zeus Treaty and the Jupiter Manifest. Phoenix Operations will want to know my opinion of the expedition.
"The On prehistoric mankind essay... I have a mastery in history and there's no denying the fact that some things just don't add up if you try to merge the time lines of the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies."
"It just was a surprise to see them. With all that's going on, I didn't think you had the time."
He called forth one of the timers on his PWD and showed it to her. "The number on top is the amount of hours I've been awake since we stepped foot in Atlantis. The number below is the amount of hours we've actually been in Atlantis."
She looked at him, startled. "There's only a difference of an hour."
He gave her a tight smile. "You can trust me if I say that I've seen a lot of this city. Why do you think I forbid the scientist to explore some sections every now and then?"
She closed her eyes briefly, processing the information. She decided to ignore nearly all implications associated with this perspective of the situation for the moment. "What I wanted to ask you: you didn't record a video message?"
"What would I send and to whom?"
"Something to anyone, no matter what."
"No matter what?" He sat back in his chair.
"You have something in mind?"
"Perhaps," he hesitated, "I've been working on something. Magic far beyond anything that's been done before and my major strategy in case of a full-blown Wraith attack. It should serve as an example to Earth that we're not entirely defenseless."
"What do you need?"
"Zelenka with his scanning equipment in a Jumper, preferable with a camera filming. Ford filming me on the mainland, preferably an entire afternoon free."
"You've got it."
"Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Today I'm going to prove that sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. I am Grandmaster Harry Potter. What you are about to see is the Illusionist's Ambush ."
He started chanting, sometimes even singing, in the Ancient tongue. The text was written completely by him and could be considered as the first artistic masterpiece of the twenty-first century. The humans watching it through the live feed on Atlantis and the four men observing the even more closely found themselves watching the phenomena open mouthed.
After nearly an hour of chanting, almost all of the Athosian people stood behind Lt. Ford. Directly across of them on, sitting on the sand of the beach, was a young boy that if anybody looked closer, would have recognized as a much younger version of the Grandmaster. As it was their attention was on the maelstrom covering a great part of the oceans: energy and light were shifting in it, sometimes shining bright, sometimes dulling.
Another hour later, the observers started getting a better idea of what exactly was going on. What previously was a maelstrom, now was a very blurry replica of Atlantis. Lt. Ford sometimes shifted his camera to the people behind him, but kept his attention on his superior otherwise like a good soldier lad.
After nearly a year of working with the immortal man, most of the expedition had a great deal of respect and were happy to work for him. With the show of power going on, even Dr Kavanagh started to regret the bad things he'd said about the expedition's vice-leader in his video message.
Two and a half hours after the start, Harry ended chanting, took a deep breathe and continued his explanation. "What you see here is a life-sized copy of Atlantis. Everything about it is the same, it even has corridors and a Stargate. Unlike what you might think, this is no exact copy. It is an illusion that entraps the Wraith especially, feeding of their life energy not unlike the British Dementor feeds on humans' souls. As it receives more and more power, it becomes more interactive. It can fire what seems like drone weapons at Wraith Darts, catching them in its grasp.
"It can be used once After it has gathered sufficient energy and I give the command, it will self-destruct, destroying everything in a five hundred kilometer radius. In order for me not to have to do this twice, I have based myself off of Arabic magical art forms." He took a thirty centimeter long lamp from his inner pocket. "This was my first attempt at the Illusionist's Ambush , I thank you for watching."
He opened the lid of the lamp and stroked it backwards. As if a hurricane formed itself in the middle of the illusion, distorting everything, the 'fake' city-ship was sucked into the lamp. He put the lid back on, causing the lamp to glow blue momentarily. Carefully he tucked it away in his inner pocket. Lt. Ford made sure to zoom in on the lamp during the process.
He turned slightly to look at the boy sitting down. "Are you staying, son?"
Senya nodded with a wide-eyed look. "They don't teach what you do."
"I'm sure they don't," he said. "Come over here so I can get a look at you."
His son rose and walked slowly towards his father. Harry crouched to eye-height. "How old are you now?"
"Older and wiser than you," he answered. Then he grudgingly added. "Five years."
Harry pick him up and took him in his arms. "I'm glad I'm not going to have to change your diapers."
Senya gave him an affronted look.
He turned around, seeing Ford still recording and the Athosian people looking at him, reverence in their eyes. He cleared his throat. "Looks like we've got ourselves a public."
"Better than a republic," whispered his son.
"I suppose that's true," smiled Harry. "Come on, let's go home."
"Home?"
He shrugged. "You'll need a place to stay, might as well crash in where your... not-so-old father's staying.
"They Deascended me."
"Really?"
"I Ascended back and got my memories back."
"You'll be safe with me."
His son rubbed his face in Harry's neck. "I'll stay." He got a pat on the back for saying that.
"Lieutenant, the show's over," he called to the slightly younger man. The Puddle Jumper landed behind the Athosians, who curtsied as they passed and murmured amongst each other, probably retelling the times they talked to him personally. Harry Potter - once a legend, always a legend.
"That was," Zelenka began, "the most amazing thing I have ever seen." The man looked like he wanted to shake his hand or even hug him; thankfully he settled for expressing his gratitude vocally. "Thank you for honoring me by allowing me to witness this."
"My pleasure. You recorded the energy levels and so on? Make sure to include those figures in the video file. Let's get back to the city."
"Rodney," Carson Becket spoke, "make sure to send that last part Ford recorded as well."
"With the rest of the video?" McKay asked.
"Nay, separately. Addressee: Guardian Su Li of Phoenix Britain."
"Who's she?"
"Harry's replacement in Blackpool, I know her fairly well."
"Really?"
"I was head of the medical staff of the Blackpool branch before Atlantis; Harry and I go way back. What's it been? Six or seven years now?"
"I didn't know that," there was a curious tone to his voice.
"All you had to do was read my file to know that."
"How is your son settling in?"
"Quite all right. He's with Zelenka building a toy subspace communicator."
Elizabeth blinked. "A toy subspace communicator?"
"Don't ask me." He sat down. "You wanted to see me?"
"Our latest scans show that there are five hive-ships coming our way. They'll be here in two days."
"You want me to put the illusion up," he concluded. "I'll do it tomorrow."
"Do we have to evacuate the Athosian settlement?"
"I'm not sure. It's almost as well protected as Atlantis, but Wraith technology is unfamiliar to me. I don't know how it works, let alone what it can do."
"I'll offer it to them, whether they accept it or not is up to them."
He fiddled a bit on his PWD, continuing his game of Solitaire as he let his thoughts wonder. "Do you think they're going to send us a ship? If I remember correctly, we should have about eight Destroyers, several squadrons of Daggers and twenty battleships by now. Surely one of them could be missed?" Jaffa had Death Gliders, Wraith flew Darts, Tau'ri commandeered Daggers.
Elizabeth shrugged. "The Goa'uld are still a problem, a minor one, granted, but they still pose a danger. We can fight the Replicators easily enough. Unless something different has come up, the Wraith are the only direct threat against Earth."
Harry frowned. "Unless the Ori started their invasion before the weapon was ready."
"We'll see what their response might be. They've left us alone up until now, who knows what the political landscape looks like."
"For all we know they've forgotten all about us," commented he light-heartedly.
"Let's hope that's not the case."
He was once again wandering the corridors at night, this time with Senya at his side. It was weird how his son still was a five year old in many aspects; his Ascension gave him a certain amount of innate wisdom and insight into the workings of the universe on a constant base, but it didn't make him as mystical as the Harsesis-child the Americans encountered several years ago.
"Do you know anything about your mother?" he informed as they passed the gate room.
His son stepped a little closer to him. "Not much. She was one of the first to try Ascension. It failed. She became the opposite... She gave up her life to have me."
"Then we have something in common. My mother, your grandmother, sacrificed herself to save me when I was fifteen months old."
"Really?"
"In the magical community, there lived a man who was so afraid of dying, he split his soul into seven pieces." Senya uttered a horrified squeak. "He stored those pieces in several objects. He thought he was immortal and decided that if he was going to live forever, he would shape the world into what he wanted it to be."
"Like the Ori?"
"Something like that," he answered. "Unfortunately his vision of what the world should be, involved killing a lot of people and taking over people's minds. Several people banded together to stop him. Your grandparents were members of that organization. When I was born they went into hiding. They were betrayed by a friend of theirs and that man found us. He murdered your grandfather and eventually ended your grandmother's life." He paused as they entered the mess hall and sat down at a table. "He wanted to use my death to split the last part of his soul. When he tried to kill me, his spell rebounded, stripping him off his body and leaving a soul fragment inside of me."
"He returned, didn't he?"
"Thirteen years later. I found out about his split soul two years later. When his followers took over the magical government, I went on a treasure hunt, finding a lot of lost artifacts and several sites left behind by the Goa'uld and an Ancient named Morose. When I considered myself ready, I destroyed every piece of the man's soul, obliterating him from existence."
Senya struggled a bit trying to comprehend all of that. Eventually he simply said: "Good."
"How do you like it here?"
"Doctor McKay is mean," was the answer, "but I like the rest."
"Rodney McKay is a clever man, but he doesn't know how to interact with other people."
His son nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry though, he's learning."
"If you say so." Senya stood up from his chair and came to stand in front of Harry, who understood the wordless request. He picked the boy up and sat him in his lap, embracing him. "Do you think they will be all right?"
"Who?"
"The humans."
"Only time will tell." He stroked his son's hair. Wild, like his. " Only time will tell."