Oshu forbid gods from attending summits unaccompanied. He forbid them from going anywhere unaccompanied. Most of all he forbid them from being stabbed.

"How many votes did Anubis get?" Miranda had frowned since she arrived on the mother ship. She frowned when they greeted Lord Yu and Hades. She frowned as she asked the question. Her frowns fell most heavily on the celestial occupants of their impromptu command center.

"Six." His lord answered.

"One's a double agent." Hades hastened to add.

"Yes. Because Ba'al is trustworthy and totally evens your odds against Anubis." Oshu internally flinched at her condescension. He wished to lecture her on respect for gods, even gods that screwed up and gods that really should be in a sarcophagus.

Miranda was angry and worried. He forgave her.

"It comes close." Now was the time to plan, not agonize over the past. Oshu steered the conversation towards strategy. "If we count the Tau'ri and the Tok'ra—"

Miranda shot him an icy glare. "We are not counting the Tok'ra."

"Our list of Goa'uld allies is very short." Yu's speech was stony. He was trying to reason with her, but he was tired.

Miranda rounded on Yu. "How many attempts have they made on your life?"

"More than I'd like." Oshu leaned forward in his seat, throwing himself as best he could between Miranda and his lord.

"And they've killed more of her brothers than I would like."

Hades sighed. "I never like Zeus or Posidon. And neither did you."

Miranda pulled her own indignation around her like a cloak. "I didn't wish their murder."

"I didn't wish father's." Hades' voice pitched higher as she went on the defensive. "Doesn't mean I hold a grudge."

"You hold something for—"

"In any case, we need allies." Yu cut Miranda off before she could finish.

Oshu thanked him silently. The last thing they needed was a family shouting match. Hades might punch someone again if Miranda's sentence finished the way Oshu guessed it would.

When he was sure of the Greek's attention, Lord Yu continued. "The Tok'ra are an option, but one that is about to be wiped off the face of the galaxy unless we act."

Oshu watched Hades shift uncomfortably in her seat. Whatever her past, Hades was a terrible actor. She knew something about their prospective allies, but she wasn't going to say. Fine. Let her keep it to herself. Odds were it was not important. Gods sometimes forgot that they were not the center of the universe. And Oshu sometimes enjoyed reminding them.

Yu turned to him. "How many ships can we spare?"

"Six within a short jump of Revanna." They were back to planning, back to the realm of a first prime. Call him conservative, but Oshu preferred his traditional duties to the myriad of assignments, relationships, and crises that no one talked about. Sometimes he wondered how society functioned when most of its workings were swept under the rug.

But wrestling with appearances was Miranda's specialty, and there was work to be done.

"Remove the Goa'uld personnel and put them on rescue." Oshu received his orders with a nod.

Miranda hesitated, but finally said, "There are three Union ships and two of my own patrolling our nearest border."

"Can you pull them?"

"No. The Senate has to clear troop movements." Miranda's voice was unnaturally even. Oshu knew that tone. She did that when she had bad news. Of course, her statement was bad news, but she normally reserved that tone for truly awful events.

Oshu debated whether to press her or not. First primes really were the center of the universe and their secrets were life and death, but he trusted Miranda. "Can you move yours?"

"Of course, they're my property." Condescension crept back into Miranda's voice, but she banished it. "I'll make the call."

Miranda rose and clicked her way to the door. Oshu never understood her obsession with Tau'ri culture. Well, he would have to learn. They lived in strange times indeed when Goa'uld came to the aid of humans and Tok'ra.

They waited. The silence stretched on and Oshu voiced the thought that had been nagging him since he first saw his haggard god step off the shuttle. "My lord, I prepared a sarcophagus."

In a rare show of tact, Hades became very interested in her own nails.

"After this is settled."

"Yes, my lord." Oshu acquiesced, but the second "this" could be considered "settled" he was determined to whisk the god away. Gods did not always know what was best for them.

Miranda took her seat again. "It's done."

"Great." Hades immediately left hers.

"The senate will renounce you." Miranda's words stopped Hades in her tracks. The old woman stared the table in front of her, lips tight and eyes hard. She looked up at Yu and Oshu. "And all of this. We can't afford it." She twisted in her chair just enough to look at her retreating god. Disappointment filled her voice. "And you should have known that."

"I—"

Oshu wasn't sure if Hades trailed off or Miranda cut her off. "You were meant to represent us. Not—." She closed her eyes and drew a sharp breath.

Oshu knew the feeling. He felt it every time Yu returned from an audience tired. He felt it for every extra hour Yu needed in the sarcophagus. He felt it in every moment of confusion Yu suffered. He felt it more and more. Any first prime worth their salt knew that gods were neither all powerful nor immortal, but that did not make watching them fall any easier. Then again Hades fell a long time ago. She was not a god.

She was a ghost.

When Miranda found her voice again she addressed Lord Yu. "I'll give whatever help I can. But as a private citizen. The Union will remain neutral"

The help of a leading weapons manufacturer was nothing to sneeze at. The help of an empire—or republic, or whatever they were calling it now—was better. She seemed firm, but Oshu tried his luck. "Anubis will come after you anyway."

"He'll come after you first." Miranda spoke with finality.

"And when we're gone?" Yu's quiet question made her falter.

Oshu kept himself from smiling. He did not know about republics, but in empires Jaffa did not dictate finality. Then again, Miranda's relationship with her God had been… interesting to say the least. Perhaps she was used to final words.

"Don't go." There was pity in her eyes. And resignation.

"Well," Hades ended the stare down. "I'm off." There wasn't so much a spring in her step as a jerk, but she was clearly eager to be somewhere else.

"Where are you going?" He may have imagined it, but a smile seemed to tinge Miranda's exasperation.

"To see Daniel."

The world and characters depicted in this story belong to Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin, Jonathan Glassner, Brad Wright, and the Sci-Fi Channel. No profit is made off their use herein.