Time travel!
It hadn't even occurred to him at the time. Couldn't have, really. Not even the so-called gods had possessed the power to turn back time. And Dan-yer, Daniel Jackson, strange and exotic though he was, was just a man.
And yet.
Methos had watched technology evolve over five thousand years; for millennia, the height of Western military technology were the bow and catapult, for instance. (The East, though, had been far ahead of them in that particular area of expertise - alchemists had discovered black powder by the ninth century.) That all changed, particularly over the last couple centuries.
Technology had come a very, very long way in a very short time, historically speaking.
Harnessing the power of electricity sparked a veritable explosion of technological advancement in the twentieth century, and things didn't show any sign of slowing down in the twenty first.
Of course, under normal circumstances, Methos still wouldn't have accepted time travel as a rational explanation. Of course, these weren't exactly normal circumstances.
Daniel Jackson had the backing of some shadowy part of the American government, quite obviously a branch of the military. Such people worked on projects that were so far ahead of the everyday and so far out of the ordinary that, despite any curiosity Methos might have, he avoided them like a duel. (Actually, more so.)
Could these people actually possess some form of time travel? The thought was growing frightening more plausible the longer he considered it. Though, if they did, hypothetically speaking, it apparently hadn't worked out so well for the Daniel he met in Ancient Egypt, who was clearly trapped there. (Or, for that matter, for his friends, who'd been executed by Ra.)
Methos gazed incredulously at himself in the mirror - was he really having an internal debate with himself about the possibility of time travel?
"Alright, putting aside the question of why he's wandering around with a sword, if Adam Pierson is some sort of descended Ancient, what is he doing here, anyway? Why return to mortal form, especially after all that time?" Landry said, asking the obvious question.
"Who knows? There could be any number of reasons," Daniel replied, utterly fascinated by the whole situation despite his tiredness. Orlin had retaken human form for Sam - twice. "We know that not everyone followed the ascended party line-"
"Like you," Carolyn interjected helpfully.
"Yes, thanks for reminding me." Everything had started so well, after his death and ascension. Right up until the point where he realized that the Ancients would sit back and watch the galaxy burn before doing the smallest part to help those on the material plane. Apparently, enlightenment wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
There were reasons for their little Prime Directive, of course, very good reasons. But there were rules, and then there were rules taken to an irrational and idiotic extreme. The Ancients tended towards the latter, every time. At some level, they were so frightened that anything they did would have a truly terrible outcome, that they did nothing at all.
When, quite literally, the fate of the galaxy was at stake, Daniel realized how utterly infuriating the Ancients' 'do nothing' policy was. Maybe they had been disconnected from the physical plane of existence for so long that most of them had forgotten such simple things as compassion.
"But, yeah," Daniel agreed noncommittally, a slight twitch of his shoulders all he revealed about his inner thoughts on the subject, "He could've been one of Oma's followers-"
"Or Anubis's," the general pessimistically countered, seeing the other side of the coin. Cheery thought, that. Daniel had no desire to meet anyone connected with the spooky half-ascended Goa'uld megalomaniac. At least, for the foreseeable future, Anubis himself was occupied... elsewhere.
"Or Merlin's! Given that he probably doesn't remember Oma or Anubis or Merlin or any of the others, it's probably irrelevant from a practical point of view. It's not like you can ask him about it." Dr. Lam pointed out dryly, crossing her arms. "I'm going back to the lab and to see how those tests are coming along."
Author's Notes:
During Daniel's brief time ascended (i.e., season 6 of SG-1), he grew increasingly frustrated with the Ancients' policy of non-interference. This came to a head when Anubis, a half-ascended Goa'uld, threatened Daniel's adoptive home on Abydos. Daniel attempted to stop Anubis, but was prevented by the Ancients; Anubis then obliterated Abydos ("Full Circle"). After this, Daniel was either exiled to, or willingly retook, human form ("Fallen").
More than a thousand years prior to the events of the Stargate series, the ascended Ancient Moros was concerned about the impending threat of his people's old enemy, the Ori, who were also a race of ascended beings. In order to secretly search for a weapon against the Ori (a weapon which could also be turned against the Ancients), Moros retook physical form but managed to retain near-ascended abilities that appeared as magic to the primitive humans, who knew him as Myrddin, or Merlin ("Arthur's Mantle").
