A/N: Chap 10 review responses are in my forums like normal.

Chapter Eleven: Exodus

It was a simple matter of apparating Hermione, Luna, Catherine and Melburn to Grand Central Station. With West still unconscious from Harry's foray into his brain, and massive protections around the rest of the apartment, that much was easy.

But Claire Jackson and her baby were another issue entirely. "So this teleporting thing you do is bad for babies?" she asked.

"It momentarily…scrambles your neurons, you might say," Harry explained as he considered their options. "In an adult, that's not an issue. Everything resets. But with an infant, it could lead to damage to newly forming pathways. So it's strongly discouraged."

"So what are we going to do?"

"I was thinking about flying," Harry admitted.

"You can fly?"

"Yep." He pulled open the curtains, but frowned when he saw a large attack helicopter hovering just a few dozen meters away from the window. Behind him, Claire screamed as the helicopter opened fire with its cannon. Daniel started crying from being so abruptly and frightfully woken.

The air in front of the window blazed white as the kinetic wards vaporized the bullets. Claire, realizing they weren't dead yet, slowly stood. "That's amazing," she whispered. "How are you…?"

"Runic wards are strong," he said. "But they won't last forever, especially against a cannon. We need to move."

"Astonishing."

"Problematic," Harry said. "Because once we leave the shelter of the wards, I won't be able to fly and stop the bullets at the same time. Frankly I'm amazed they brought that thing into the middle of the city."

"So what are you going to do?"

Harry pursed his lips as he considered his options. He could easily destroy the war machine, but doing so would have collateral damage Hermione and Luna would both be upset with. While that wasn't the sole consideration, it did play a part in his decision making.

"Let's go around," he said. He stepped away from Claire, lit a lightsaber, and cut a round hole in Dr. Langford's ceiling. He motioned her to come, and when she did, he put an arm around her waist. "Hang on to Daniel," he said. He then levitated them up through the hole into the next apartment up.

"Wow, just like Superman," Claire said with a girlish giggle. "Am I your Lois Lane?"

Harry blinked and stared down at the mischievously grinning woman with her toddler squirming in her arms. He couldn't help but notice she was a very attractive woman in a luscious way that his light Luna and svelte Hermione just weren't. "Are you hitting on me?"

Her grin widened as she shrugged.

"What about your husband?"

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind swapping."

Harry then remembered this was 1968, and Claire Jackson was nothing if not an utter, raging hippy. "I appreciate the interest, but my wives can kill with a thought. That's not the type of relationship you want to risk intruding into."

"Too bad," Claire said with a little pout. "I bet Luna might be open, though."

Harry sighed in part because he wasn't sure Clair was wrong, and cut another hole up. It was not surprising that the whole building had been evacuated. By going straight up through the apartments themselves, he avoided the hundreds of men he could sense prowling the halls and roof of the building. When he came to the last floor up, six floors above where the helicopter still hovered, Harry walked the young mother and her child to the window. He cut around the window frame and caught it in the Force to keep it from falling, thus making a wide opening in the wall.

He then cast disillusionment charms on himself, mother and child before taking her in his arms again. He could feel her breath on his neck, and little Jackson's hand on his arm. "This is going to feel strange," he warned. They took off through the window, flying over the city of New York just like Superman.

~~Stars Alone~~

~~Stars Alone~~

Claire and Melburn lived in Jersey City, a few blocks from Lincoln Park, in a narrow, two-story stand-alone house on Lexington. The crowded green Volkswagen Squareback they picked up from the train stop where the Jackson's switched to public transportation rolled to a stop in front of the house, disgorging six adults and a baby from a car built to comfortably hold four. The moment they were out of the car, Melburn and Claire rushed up the stairs to their covered porch, talking rapidly about what to pack and who to contact. Catherine followed a few steps behind, her own suit-case in hand.

"I'm not sure about bringing them along," Harry said when it was just he and his wives. "Claire hit on me!"

Luna snickered. "She's very pretty. What did you say?"

Harry and Hermione both turned and stared aghast at the blonde. "Luna!" Hermione stuttered.

Luna, though, looked at Harry, her snicker changing to a bittersweet smile. "When I was fifteen, Harry, you took my virginity right in front of your wife. You didn't even hesitate. So, a beautiful young woman throws herself at you now, but you not only refuse, you act shocked. What's different?"

Harry stared, both surprised and uncomfortable. But her steady gaze demanded an answer. "I…if I did that, I would be betraying you and Hermione."

"You betrayed Hermione to her face with me," Luna pointed out.

"It didn't feel like betrayal then."

"It still hurt," Hermione admitted in a small voice. "At the time, I was so lost in you that I passed the pain off, but it hurt to watch you make love to another woman, after all I'd sacrificed for you."

Caught between them, he finally said, "I'm not the same man I was then. I would never do anything to hurt either of you. Not now."

Luna nodded, and then leaned up and forward to lock him in a long, lingering kiss. "Because, Harry Potter, you've developed empathy. A little, anyway. You had none, for the longest time. But you have it now, and that just makes me love you all the more."

"But what about the Jacksons?" Hermione asked.

"I'm sure she'd love you too," Luna said with a mischievous glint that oddly echoed Claire Jackson. "Although, I'm just as happy to only share you with Hermione."

"I meant bringing them with us," Hermione said.

"I know, love," Luna said. She turned and leaned her back into Harry as he leaned against the wagon, his arms around her stomach. "I'm just following the Force, since it's all I have at the moment. The Force tells me they should come."

"Well the Force tells me we won't have much time here," Harry said. "What should we bring?"

"Anything we can," Hermione said. "I think we should all have backpacks. Harry, do you know how to do expansion charms?"

"Not the foggiest. That was always your department."

Hermione blew a strand of hair from her forehead. "Well, I don't have a wand anymore, so it's time for you to learn. Come on, let's go."

~~Stars Alone~~

~~Stars Alone~~

It was fortunate that the Jacksons were consummate backpackers, because Harry blew up four of their packs with overpowered space expansion charms before, under Hermione's constant tutorship, he finally mastered the charm. The second charm, on their remaining pack, proved much easier.

Melburn stared into the first completed backpack with a stunned expression. "How much will it hold?"

Harry shrugged. "I expanded the interior by a thousand times or so, so it should hold as much as a typical house would, but with charms to cut the weight. Still, we should go to an outfitter before we leave. Where we're going, we can't count on getting fuel for a while. And it was fairly cold."

The young couple shared a strangely happy, excited smile with each other. "This is so cool," Claire finally said. "This is better than that Mayan expedition we did last year with my dad!"

Melburn tossed the expanded pack over his shoulders. "We use an outfitter in Newark that has everything we could possibly need. We're a little broke, though. What's the budget?"

"Since we're going to be stealing it, pretty much unlimited," Harry noted.

~~Stars Alone~~

~~Stars Alone~~

By the time the Squareback reached the road leading to Dover Air Force Base, each of them had a hiking pack filled to a thousand times capacity with hiking supplies, magically preserved food, and personal essentials. Claire Jackson was virtually bobbing in her seat with youthful excitement, holding Jackson in her arms without regard to the boy's safety. Her husband seemed a bit more cautious, but only mildly so.

"So how are we going to get in?" Melburn asked as they skirted Philadelphia on their way to Wilmington. "Do we even know where the…what'd you call it, Stargate...is?"

"It's in a warehouse on the base," Harry said. "Under heavy lock and key. I was planning on making the car invisible, and silencing it."

"And that generator we picked up?" Claire asked.

"That's for the gate," Catherine said from her spot between Hermione and Harry. "I know we've talked a lot about…well, a lot. But I've been thinking—suppose we find Ernest. What do we do next? Where will we go?"

"Cartago, I believe," Luna said from between the backpacks in the rear of the station wagon.

"Cartago!" Hermione sputtered. "Luna, they were awful to us! They made us slave away in fields for days, only to turn around and give us to the Goa'uld!"

"Exactly," Luna said, her smile taking on an uncharacteristically predatory look. "They owe us. But more importantly, they have a sizable agrarian population with a food surplus that we're going to need if we truly wish to fight the Goa'uld."

"We are going to need a base of operations," Harry mused from the cramped back. "More importantly, I don't want this to solely be a fight of the Jaffa against their Goa'uld masters. The baseline humans have to have a stake in the future as well, or else the Jaffa will just replace the Goa'uld. If humans see that they can fight Jaffa and win, it will go a long way to removing that aura of invincibility the Jaffa have. Cartago sounds like as good a place as any."

"And what if the people there don't want you?" Catherine asked carefully.

Harry considered the question, and the woman asking it. "Dr. Langford, I do not wish to mislead you. There will be fighting, and it will not be a black and white, good versus evil fight at all times. From what Hermione said, the Byrsa people were essentially slaves to Apophis, kept intentionally illiterate and primitive. I have no doubt that some of them will resist, but at the end of the day, I truly believe our intervention will be better for them and their descendants."

"That's what the British said of India," Melburn pointed out.

"The Indian people weren't being subjected to the cruelties and whims of actual alien gods," Hermione said. "While I hate what they did to us, the fact is Apophis went to Cartago expecting human sacrifices. That, at least, we can stop."

"I am first and foremost a fighter, Catherine," Harry continued. "I am a product of war and evil in a way you can't imagine. It is only because of Luna and Hermione that I'm not another Stalin or Hitler. I will be conquering worlds, make no mistake. But with the voices of my better conscience, perhaps we can provide a better rule than the monsters we replace."

"And what if we don't agree with your actions?" Melburn asked from the driver's seat.

"Then you return home, you and your family," Harry said. "That, I give you my unqualified word on. None of you will be prisoners, ever. At least, not ever by our hand. I can make no promises if the Goa'uld capture us."

"Which also reminds me of our excavation in Guatemala," Claire said with an excited grin from the front passenger seat, where she cradled a sleepy toddler.

~~Stars Alone~~

~~Stars Alone~~

Melburn drove toward the wide gates of Dover Air Force Base in an invisible VW. He stopped at the intersection that led to the entrance and stared, along with the rest, at the veritable army that guarded the entrance. Each of the lanes leading into and out of the base were blocked by lines of jeeps mounted with heavy machine guns. Further behind the jeeps, Harry could see at least two M113 armored personnel carriers with more machine guns.

"Is that…because of us?" Melburn asked.

"I really need to work on my memory charms," Harry muttered.

"Harry, you flew across New York City in front of everybody," Hermione pointed out. Timelines or not, she was not thrilled by his rather blatant display. "I'm pretty sure they knew were out and about. If only I had my wand, I could enchant the car to fly."

"Couldn't you do that?" Claire asked Harry.

He shrugged. "I could blow a car up, throw it a mile or levitate it, but making it fly on its own power is more along Hermione's lines. I'm more like a broadsword to her and Luna's scalpels."

"And unfortunately our scalpels broke," Hermione said darkly. "So, what do you think we should do, Harry?"

"Portkey the car?" Harry asked.

"We'd be reduced to putty by the acceleration," Luna said. "Portkeys only move things directly in contact with them. Even if we turned the car into a portkey itself, I doubt it would work without a great deal of expertise which none of us have."

"I could apparate us all into the base and fly in Claire and Daniel."

"To where, I wonder?" Luna said. "We still don't know for sure where the gate is."

"Well we have to do something!" Hermione said.

"Maybe we could just let them bring it to us," Claire suggested from the front seat.

All of them leaned forward and watched with interest as a large truck approached the back of the gate with a flatbed trailer hitched behind it. And on that trailer they all saw a sixteen foot high, sixteen foot wide, three foot thick wooden box strapped securely down.

"Hmm, that works too," Harry said.

The jeeps pulled out in front of, and then behind the tractor trailer. And moments later, a pair of large, loud helicopter gunships flew overhead. "I didn't know they had those in 1968," Hermione muttered.

"Cobra helicopters were released in '67," Harry noted absently. "And they were so good the US marines and NATO allies were still using them in '04. They're going to be a problem. Melburn, drive behind them. Remember, they can't see us—the first generation Cobras have no infra-red sighting."

"So what's the plan?" Hermione asked as they drove onto the highway.

"I'm going to stop the truck," Harry said. "Hermione, Luna, I'm going to need you to keep the men off me while I neutralize the Cobras. I'm hoping they won't fire into their own men. Melburn, just keep following until they all stop. Stay in the car until we signal you to come."

Harry opened the back hatch of the crowded vehicle and levitated out of it. He slammed the door shut and then soared forward, cloaked in disillusionment. He alit on the front half of the trailer just in front of the gate. Keeping his feet required some concentration as he moved forward until he could see the wheels of the rig underneath the connector.

He lit his saber and quickly punctured two tires before deactivating it again, all in the space of a second. The truck listed and began braking immediately—the fact it did not overturn or fishtail was a testament to the skill of the driver and the relatively slow speed of the convoy.

Around the slowing truck, jeeps and personnel carriers formed a tight perimeter. Alert guards scanned the surrounding countryside with heavy caliber machine guns while the crew in the cab jumped out to begin changing the tires.

Harry apparated to the nearest carrier, grabbed the man at the machine gun and flung him out before using the Force to flip the vehicle upside down, taking it out of the fight. Immediately machine guns opened up on another of the vehicles, but Harry was already gone. He appeared on another jeep, and with an easy swipe of his blade cut the machine gun in half.

He felt Luna and Hermione entering the fray and moved on as they also began disabling the machine guns. The two gunships came roaring toward them. The soldiers were busy with Luna and Hermione which gave Harry the time he needed to deal with the real threats.

With a deep breath to center himself, Harry grasped one of the machines in the Force and brought it crashing down. Powerful rotors slammed into the ground as it tipped over side-ways upon landing, sending earth and blades of metal flying, but leaving the pilots alive.

The second Cobra tried pulling away, but Harry grasped it like the first and pulled it down with similar results. Fortunately they were far enough away that the shattered rotor blades missed the other combatants entirely.

Hermione and Luna were fighting almost thirty armed soldiers, though those soldiers were now reduced to small arms. Still, in a strange way bullets were actually harder to deflect with lightsabers than blaster bolts. If the exchange continued, it was only a matter of time before one of the bullets being fired slipped through Hermione and Luna's defenses. After all, it was not Sith who actually killed the majority of the Jedi Order, it was soldiers not so very different than those they faced.

Both girls knew it and took to the offensive. They both lashed out with Force lightning—perhaps not on the scale Harry was capable of—but it was still a devastating strike because there was little to no defense against it.

Harry apparated to behind where individual clumps of men were fighting and stunned them, group by group, until the last group threw down their weapons and said, "We surrender!"

Somehow, Harry was not surprised to find West there. However, this time the young captain was accompanied by an older, grizzled colonel who looked like he was about to start spitting out his own teeth as he threw down a pistol in disgust.

Harry summoned all the weapons away. Once the prisoners were secured, Hermione waved. Nearby, Melburn, Claire and Daniel Jackson climbed out of apparent nothingness with Catherine Langford.

"Langford, you're going to hang for this!" the old Colonel growled.

"I don't know, Colonel," Harry said calmly. "I can't see the future, but I doubt it."

"Actually, I can see the future, and she won't," Luna said with a smile. "Walter, are you okay, dear? I know we've had to be hard on your brain. Would you like me to check it to make sure Harry's intrusion didn't cause any tumors?"

Captain West stammered, but fell silent at a hard glare from the colonel. The older man then turned to stare hard at Harry. "The United States government does not take kindly to attacks on its own soil. You won't get away with this. There is not one place on this planet you will be able to go where we won't find you."

"Colonel, what makes you think I'm going to stay on this planet?" Harry said bluntly. "Hermione, Luna?"

The two women used their sabers to easily sever the bindings on the box, allowing each of the sixteen foot square side panels to fall away and reveal the ring itself. Only then did Harry sigh in relief. "You know, if you'd have been really smart, you would have moved an empty box and kept the original someplace safe."

The colonel glowered, but Harry noticed how West had the grace to blush and look away, saying clearly without words that he had argued for that very tactic. Harry dismissed the exchange and helped carry the heavy gas-powered generator toward the gate. They ran simple battery cables from the generator to the outer edge of the ring. Melburn pulled the starter on the portable generator, which roared to life with a cloud of black diesel exhaust.

"Can we go get Ernest first?" Catherine asked.

"Not from this gate, I don't believe," Hermione said. "We think you found the address wholly by accident, and it was just a quirk it worked at all because of stellar drift. If we dial the address in through an intact gate, I believe it will give us a better chance of connecting."

Catherine accepted this with a nod. Harry, meanwhile, walked until he stood facing the gate and reached out with the Force to begin dialing. "Cortosis," he muttered as the odd metal slipped from his first grasp. He concentrated harder, and the gate began to spin and the symbols locked with a reassuring clang.

The seventh symbol locked, but the wormhole never formed. "Damn, the generator isn't enough," Catherine said.

"Pull up the jeeps," Hermione said.

Melburn ran to the nearest and drove it to the edge of the trailer. A dig through the jeep's supplies located another pair of connectors. The jeep's engine roared, and with that surge of power the gate's event horizon exploded outward.

"Hermione, Luna, take them through!" Harry called over the sound of the rush.

His family began aiding their new allies onto the trailer as Harry sauntered back to the wide-eyed colonel and captain. "Gentlemen," Harry said, "we are leaving Earth. I doubt we will be back. Before we leave, though, I would very, very strongly suggest you take that gate and bury it. Encase it in cement and dump it in the ocean. Because on the other side are gods and monsters."

"You're threats aren't…."

Harry reached out a hand, gripped the colonel by the throat, and levitated him in the Force. "Just days ago, I walked on a world that was just like Earth. It had people who loved each other, and wanted to just live their lives. And when the gods that built the pyramids and enslaved thousands of your ancestors had no more use for that world, they killed it. The entire planet, Colonel, was rendered utterly lifeless. And entire species—an entire ecosystem—was rendered extinct at the whim of an alien god. And I swear to you, Colonel, that if those gods discover you and this world, they will kill every man, woman and child on Earth and there won't be a damned thing you can do about it. They'd kill you from orbit, and you'd never see the enemy that destroys you. Bury the gate, and never let it see the light of day again."

With that last warning, Harry let the colonel drop, nodded to the speechless West, and left Earth for the last time.