Disclaimer: I own no characters from Stargate SG-1 or Stargate: Atlantis, and have no affiliations with its creators. Sage Griswold and the aspects of her world were invented by me.

A/N: Sorry for the long silence; I was hoping to get about a chapter a day out until I'm done (at around chapter 15, if all goes according to present plan), but school got kind of intense there for a while… Not a very good chapter IMO, but it was by way of a getting-back-on-the-horse-type-thing, if you see what I mean.

CHAPTER TEN: CUCKOO CHILD

"What should we do?" asked Freddy.

Nana hmphed. "I know what I'm gonna do, the question is, do you want to come with me?"

"So where is this Colorado?" Aapti wanted to know.

Nana waved her hand vaguely. "Oh, it's somewhere in the middle. Quite a ways from both New York and San Francisco, but do we really want to take any chances where the war of the mother-in-laws is concerned?"

Freddy fanned his nose. "I forget how bad your geography stinks."

"Hey! She didn't know where it is either!"

"She's from India, she doesn't have to know."

"Getting back on subject," Aapti interjected acidly, "if we went wouldn't we be stuck there? We won't be able to access the ley lines again without more Philosopher Stone, right?"

"Right. And I'd recommend using even more than we had last time – it nearly wiped me out. I don't fancy trying our luck again with the supply Kash Kash* is hoarding."

R'iod broke in for the first time, drawing an unpleasant glower from Rook, who'd also been keeping his own council. "But won't you be returning the same way you are going?"

The three stared at him identical expressions of solemn pity. "R'iod, we can't trust them to be honorable or competent with any great consistency."

Freddy counted off on his fingers. "They're from earth, they are a military operation, and they have pet scientists."

"And besides, apparently they only have enough power to make an artificial ley line from one end, and with the artificial ones you can only go one way. If I do rely on them to get back, I'll have to accept a ride on one of their spaceships. Guh, it makes me nervous just saying it – don't they make play pens for planets?"

"You're really set on going, are you?" Aapti asked Nana.

"What choice do I have? Even if this other me weren't such a helpless little creature – and a Griswold, of all things – I'd feel obligated to make sure the balance of power wasn't too badly upset. Nobody wants another Sylphaen war,"

Rook snorted. "Too bad the Council of Winnipeg seems to have such a hard time reminding everybody what nobody wants."

Freddy exchanged glances with Aapti. "Well, if it's all the same to you, Aapti and I will sit this one out."

"We're sorry," Aapti frowned. "But we just can't risk being stranded on the same planet with either one of our mothers."

"I understand, but would you do me a favor?"

"Anyth–" Freddy began.

"What would that be?" Aapti cut in, and Nana grinned.

"The two of you together should be able to keep R'iod's feeder spell going, at least for a month – although hopefully I won't need you to that long."

After another exchange of looks, they nodded.

Rook sighed and stretched. "When do we go?"

A woman sat at a desk in a room high, high above the ground floor. She was middle aged, trim, and had perfectly coiffed gray hair. Her tailored business suit was impeccable. Hearing a noise in the corner of the room, her eyes flicked sideways. There was a startled cry.

"Mistress!"

The woman huffed in annoyance. "There goes a fine and priceless carpet, you oaf. I'll never fix the slash – and probably never get the blood stain out, either. What are you, a stuck pig?"

"Sorry, Mistress."

"Report."

"The magic working we sensed was indeed performed in Colorado, as you first guessed. What was surprising is that it came from underneath Cheyenne Mountain, where the humans are experimenting with their imitation ley gates."

"Hmm, and the Council has yet to give one of their agents leave to reveal the Sylphaen. Go on."

A pause. "Mistress… we think we've found a cuckoo child."

"Oh, really?" the woman asked, amused. "Anyone I know?"

An even longer pause. "Mistress, we think it's an alternate reality Sage."

This time it was the woman who paused. After a moment, she repeated in quite a different tone, "Oh, really? I'm intrigued. What else have you discovered? Come, now, don't disappoint me."

The small green blood stain in the empty corner seemed to be having difficulty breathing properly. "Mistress, we think this one is a Griswold. Our sources suggest that she might be vulnerable in regards to werewolves."

After a quick intake of breath the woman laughed. High up near the ceiling, spiders shuddered, and held their egg sacks more closely. "Werewolves, eh?"

"Yes, Mistress. We believe she has cause to fear them."

"Well, I think we can work with that, don't you?"

"As you say, Mistress."

Carson Beckett took the reflexive deep gasp as he stepped onto the SGC's ramp. To his right, he heard Nana's sarcastic voice. "Well that was refreshing, oh; pardon me while I get the ice crystals out of my eyes."

"Too bad it was your eyes and not your vocal chords," he heard Sheppard mutter on his other side.

If she heard, she chose not to respond, and her companion, slouching menacingly by her side was too busy examining the gate room.

General Hammond stepped forward and exchanged military protocol with Sheppard. Then he turned to Nana. "If you don't mind, Miss – Nana – we'll go directly into debriefing."

"And your… visitor?"

Hammond frowned for a moment, and then nodded. "She's waiting for us."

As Nana followed him down the ramp, she asked with slicing amusement, "You forgot, didn't you? That I'm the real me."

"I do not for a moment think of Miss Griswold as any less real than you, Miss Nana." Hammond said quietly. Turning back for a moment, he said, "Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Beckett, you're welcome to join us."

Nana crossed her arms, face red. She marched after Hammond with a stiff back.

As they neared the conference room, they could hear two voices belting out a wildly off key rendition of the Muppet Show Theme. "Yat-dat DAdada, yat-dat DAdada, this is what we call the Muppet Shooooooow!"

Nana turned to her friend with a quizzical sneer on her face, but as she crossed the threshold of the room, her face changed as quickly as if she'd been slapped. Spinning back she stalked across the room to tower over a figure curled up in one of the conference chairs. She had been one of the voices.

"What the hell have you been doing, you stupid girl?"

The figure turned pale under her rather spectacular bruises, but shot back smartly enough, "You didn't say the magic word, arrogant witch."

"Whoa, whoa, ladies," Colonel O'Neill threw in, holding both hands up in the air defensively.

Nana turned on him. "They can smell magic, you know – they have people whose sole purpose is to track down major magical workings!" she snapped accusingly. "I told you Griswolds weren't treated well here. Whatever it was she did in the last few days, you can be certain that they're tracking it down. And if they find her…" Nana was so angry she practically hissed.

"When you say 'treated well' what do you mean? Are these Griswolds looked down on or something?" asked Major Carter.

Nana looked her up and down. "I mean that – they're not so much looked down on as ganged up on. Depending on what skills she has, various Sylphaen would be able to drain away her potentia and siphon it into theirs."

The girl gasped and covered her mouth. "Just like – "

"Solaiada." Nana finished grimly.

Hammond frowned, leaning forward and interlacing his fingers. "So you're saying that these… magic users will come here? To Stargate Command?"

"Count on it. And probably sooner rather than later."

"There are Sylphaen here that can track down magic by smell?" asked Sage. "I've never heard of such a thing."

Nana frowned down at her. It seemed like everyone was frowning at this point. "A kind of goblin."

But now Rook had caught Sage's attention, and she was staring at him, as if he were something that she couldn't quite remember. "Who is that?" she asked.

Before Nana could answer, Hammond slapped the table with the flat of his hand. "Excuse me, people," he bristled. "But we have got a problem here, and if it's not too much to ask, I'd like to concentrate on solving it!"

Nana gave him a cool stare. "Ask her. Since apparently the Sylphaen and the fake ley gate business are all lovey-dovey in her world."

"It's like a turned over ant hill," Sage said desperately. "We didn't see all this – this trouble when we were looking for suitable realities for me to escape into… But if things are as screwed up in the Sylphaen world as they seem, I don't see how an arrangement like the one in my home verse would work here." She crossed her arms over her knees and leaned forward to breathe better.

Janet Frasier had been standing in the background but now she stepped forward sternly. She put her hand on Sage's back. "Sage, that's about enough, you're still recovering."

On Janet's insistence the meeting was adjourned, and Sage was firmly shepherded away.

Nana watched the woman doctor with narrowed eyes as the General continued to interrogate her. It got hard after she'd turned several corners, it's like a rabbit warren down here, but Nana's concentration was up to it. "Is it possible to confuse the trail somehow? Lead them away from here?"

"I doubt it – although I can try if you want me to."

"Well, at the very least, we apparently need to arrange for some sort of protection for Miss Griswold."

"Oh, I agree."

"At least she hasn't moved off-base yet," muttered General Hammond.

All the military types began talking among themselves, and Nana started off to find Sage. She easily slipped by the guards who were supposed to be trailing her, rook just as easily gliding along in her shadow. At some point he smelled food and sheared off to investigate. She found her way to the room the doctor woman had brought Sage to. Opening the door, she went in.

She stopped once she saw what was hanging on the wall over the head of the bed. "You kept it?" she asked disgustedly.

Sage Griswold, as she called herself, had been lying down with her eyes closed. She didn't move. "What do you want?"

Nana went to stand over her, irritated, and irritated that she was irritated. "I want to know what magic you worked."

"I performed an exorcism – of sorts."

Exasperated, Nana stretched out her hand and clamped it over Sage's forehead. Who does she take me for? She fell head-first into a bottomless pit. Claws that both stung with cold and seared with heat raked her. Jerking back, she gasped, waiting for her vision to clear. When she finally looked down, Sage had her eyes open.

"Woman, there are places in my head that even I'm afraid to go."

This wasn't right – Nana knew this wasn't right. "What are you?"

Sage leaned up on her elbow. Didn't she get the memo? "I'm you." Turning to the open door, she scowled at the Atlantis colonel. "What is this, Grand Central Station?"

Turning, Nana ground her teeth. "Can't you see this is a private conversation?"

Ignoring her, Sheppard smiled with false gallantry at Sage. "I hate to interrupt your bed rest, but you – both of you, well, you've got some visitors."

Sage and Nana exchanged horrified glances.

I should just move in, Sage thought as she and Nana entered the conference room yet again. It was a deal more crowded than it had been a half hour ago, what with all the guards with their upraised weapons. Hammond, Sg-1 (I see they've managed to pry Daniel away from Shar'e, I thought spitefully to myself she thought spitefully to herself), and the two people from Atlantis were arranged with thoughtful care out of the line of fire. Sitting calmly – and directly in the line of fire – were three strangers. They were Sylphaen.

*A/N: The name Kash Kash is borrowed from an S. J. Tucker song of the same name from the album Solace and Sorrow. I haven't been able to discover if she made the name up or got it from somewhere else, but it seemed like a good name for Baba Yaga's counterpoint.