Jedi Master Sabbath--Thank you for the kind words. I wish I had the reviews to support that assertion, but on the other hand I'm glad for the readers like yourself that I have.

Voration--This is the start of Part Two. So far I have 5 parts running about 120-150 single-spaced pages a piece. I'm still writing Part 5, so I'll be able to maintain a pretty good post rate for a while yet. I hope you continue to enjoy!

Part Two: A War In the Heavens

After great trouble for humanity, a greater one is prepared
The Great Mover renews the ages:
Rain, blood, milk, famine, steel and plague,
Is the heavens fire seen, a long spark running.

Century II, Quatrain 46

The Prophecies of Nostradamus

Chapter Twenty: Morning Stories

Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, Sunday January 20, 2002, 6:42 a.m. MST

Max and Liz

Max Evans arose gently from deepest sleep to consciousness. He first became aware of utter, perfect stillness; a sense that everything was right in the world. Then the reason for that perfection came to him in the form of a gentle weight on his shoulder, and a soft, warm body pressed against his under the military-issue blanket.

Liz Parker still slept soundly at his side, a strand of dark hair swept enticingly over her eyes. Her bare shoulders rose slightly over his chest, while the rest of her body pressed against his. There were no unexplained ripples of green energy across her beautiful skin; no pain when she touched him.

They had balanced their energy together, and it was the most wondrous experience either had ever had, but it followed one of the most harrowing days either could imagine.

The one thing that stood out most for Max about Friday was that Kyle Valenti was dead.

He and Kyle had started as enemies; both vied for Liz's affections while Max desperately tried to keep Kyle's father, who was sheriff at the time, from finding out who and what he was. But as with Jim Valenti, over time Kyle became a close friend. Max had even healed him after he was shot the day after Max was rescued from the FBI's special unit.

Max lifted his hand and stared at it, as if he still had Kyle's blood on his skin. Then he looked back at Liz, and wondered if he should feel guilty for finally loving the woman both had wanted for so long. "No," he whispered softly to himself. "I can't feel that way."

On Saturday morning, just yesterday, the whole group of them woke up underneath a mountain in a massive complex of rooms and tunnels connecting to a mysterious, ancient device that allowed people to travel from planet to planet.

Max and Liz woke at the same time in their separate rooms that Saturday morning and by some mutual process of intuition met in the cafeteria at the same time. Their Air Force watchers were very polite and remained at the doors so the two of them could eat in relative peace.

But when Max tried to hold Liz's hand, green energy rippled over her skin and she cried out in pain. They both went immediately to the infirmary.

The base doctor, a pretty woman named Fraiser, looked her over afterward with a variety of machines and even took blood tests and an MRI. Her results were frightening. Right before lunch, she sat Liz and Max down and explained that the neural pathways of her brain had somehow been subtly altered. Although she remained unmistakably human, the structure and organization of her brain were starting to change to resemble those of Max.

"We've seen this before," Fraiser had said. "In my daughter."

"Your daughter?" Max asked. "She's like…me?"

"No, Max," Fraiser said. "You're not entirely human. Cassandra was." Max remembered a feeling of relief and even gratitude at how casually the doctor mentioned his alien nature. To her, and to the rest of the SGC, it really wasn't an issue.

"No," Fraiser continued, "Cassandra was the sole survivor of a population that was being experimented on by a nasty alien called a Goa'uld in order to try and create a more advanced human. Although the experiment was by and large a failure, for a brief time Cassandra displayed many of the characteristics you show, Liz."

Liz looked up at Max, worry on her face. Max shrugged. "I was told that the powers Michael, Is and I have are powers humanity could have in a thousand years if you evolved. Maybe that's what's happening to Liz."

"Maybe," Fraiser said. "The problem is I don't know what to do about it."

It wasn't until after lunch that Siana, of all people, sat down with the two of them in Max's room to explain it.

"Among the Jedi it is called a Force Bond," the padawan explained. "It is most often established between a padawan and a master to ensure the padawan's safety. But sometimes a bond forms between men and women as well. Our greatest leader, Grand Master Luke Skywalker, had a Force Bond with his wife. They could hear each other's thoughts and feel each other across the whole galaxy. You have a similar bond. Perhaps not borne solely of the Force since it seems a little more bioelectrical than Force-borne, but the two of you are bonded in such a way that you could never be happy with any other."

As she spoke, Max felt the young padawan's eyes appraising each of them, as if feeling a sense of jealousy she was simply too good to admit to.

"But Max," Siana continued, "because of what you are—and because you healed Liz not just with your power, but also with your love—your energy is building up inside her faster than she can stand. It is out of balance in her body and if not dealt with could end up harming her, or forcing the two of you apart like opposite poles of magnets."

"What should we do?" Liz asked.

"You need to rebalance your energies," Siana said, glancing significantly from one to the other. "And you need to do it together." Then, just in case either Max or Liz missed her meaning, Siana blushed.

Boy, Max thought to himself the next morning in his room, did they rebalance their energies! They rebalanced all night long, and it was everything he could possibly have hoped for, and more.

Liz woke up then, as if sensing his thoughts, and looked at him with deep, dark eyes that sparkled with intelligence and love. She slowly smiled, and Max felt his heart thud faster for it. "Good morning," she whispered.

"Good morning."

"Do you still love me?"

He wrapped her in his arms. "I love you. I will always love you."

When at last they came up for air, Liz lazily ran a hand down his shoulder. "I feel different," she finally said.

"How?"

She looked across the windowless room deep inside the mountain at a cheap reproduction of a Rembrandt painting. She raised her hand and concentrated. The glass of the frame cracked. "That's how," she finally said. She looked back at Max with a serious expression. "I'm like you now," she said. "Somehow."

"Does that scare you?"

"Not if you're here with me."

Isabel

Isabel Evans rolled over on the thin, military-issue mattress and reached for her husband of 51 days. Her arm encountered empty air. She opened her eyes and suddenly remembered where she was, and that he was not there with her.

"Oh Jesse," she whispered as she hugged a spare pillow to her chest and wept.

After a time, though, the tears simply ran dry and she lay in an empty bed. With a sigh, she climbed to her feet and took a shower in the small bathroom the suite provided. She emerged and dressed in a pair of military-issue slacks and a black shirt, and went to breakfast.

Michael and Maria

Michael Guerin worked two jobs to support himself as an emancipated minor. Although that status was going to be moot upon his impending 18th birthday, nonetheless he had to support himself. One of those jobs was a graveyard shift.

As a result, if left to his own devices, Michael did not get up in the mornings. Period.

Maria Deluca, on the other hand, was an early bird and always woke up at 6:10 a.m. every morning with or without an alarm clock. When she woke that Sunday morning in Stargate Command, she was lying in bed next to Michael. She smiled, wrapped an arm around his chest, and stayed where she was.

Colonel Jack O'Neill and Major Samantha Carter

"Don't you think we'll have a hard time explaining to their parents why we allowed a bunch of minors to spend the night together?" Carter asked as the two sat alone in the cafeteria. O'Neill was eating artificially flavored strawberries and cream oatmeal. Once upon a time, his favorite breakfast had been Fruit Loops, but recent events had changed his morning routine permanently.

Carter ate a bagel with reduced-fat cream cheese, a banana and a glass of orange juice with extra pulp.

"Ehh, they've been through a lot," O'Neill said with a shrug. "And you heard what Fraiser and Siana said about that Parker girl and King Max. It was for their own good."

Carter snorted and took a bite of banana. "Keep telling yourself that, Sir."

O'Neill gave her a look of pure, golden innocence. "Carter, are you jealous?"

He was still maintaining that angelic expression while Carter choked on her bagel when Harriman walked in. Since General Hammond's death, the chief's expression was as sad and morose as that of an abused puppy. Carter fought an urge to pet him, once she caught her breath after choking, of course.

Harriman placed a sheet of paper on the table before O'Neill. "This just came for you sir."

O'Neill glanced over it quickly and then handed it over to Carter. "Thanks, Walter. Do you want to join us?"

"Thank you sir, but I've already eaten." He turned and left.

"General Maynard is coming here?" Carter said, reading.

"Yep, Monday. Looks like the Secretary of Defense as well. And the Director of the FBI. And the Director of the CIA. And the NID. It's going to be a regular party."

Carter suddenly looked up with wide-eyes. "Sir, am I reading this right? It's addressed to Brigadier General Jack O'Neill."

"Oh yeah, that," O'Neill said. "Sorry, forgot to tell you about that. I got a call this morning. Early this morning." He stared sadly into his oatmeal over the loss of sleep. "Anyway, looks like I was the only practical replacement for Hammond." He shook his head at how ridiculous that sounded—as if anyone could replace George Hammond.

Carter stuttered. "But, sir, what about SG-1?"

"What about it, Lieutenant Colonel?"

She stared, absorbed the information, and then shook her head. "You're doing this to get back at me for all those big words I use, aren't you?" Carter said.

"Maybe." O'Neill put his spoon down and stared at her across the table for such a long time Carter felt her cheeks blush. "Sam, you are, by far, the finest officer I have ever served with in the Air Force or anywhere else, and you are an outstanding person all around," he said at last. "You are the only person I would ever want to lead SG-1, if you'll take it."

"Well, of course I will, sir, but…"

"But what?"

"Never mind, sir."

"Good." He finished eating his oatmeal while Carter absently munched on her bagel.

Teal'c and Kyle Katarn, Siana Delun and Rain Robinson

"This is a magnificent weapon!" Teal'c exulted as he and Kyle sparred in the gym. Teal'c gripped the lightsaber cane of Darth Nihl in the same way he would have held a Jaffa staff weapon, except one end of it produced a meter long blade of red energy that could cut through almost any known material.

"You've been trained well to handle staff weapons," Kyle noted with a discerning eye. "But you're fighting with the staff itself rather than the blade. It's not uncommon, even among Force users. The blade of a lightsaber is completely weightless. For those used to vibroblades or more primitive edged weapons, it is a completely different experience."

"I understand," Teal'c said, and he did. "I am fighting as I have always fought, rather than adjusting my tactics to take into account this new option."

"Exactly."

Teal'c dropped back into a fighting stance. "Correct my mistakes, Master Jedi."

Siana Delun sat on a bench next to Rain Robinson at the far end of the room, watching. "Those are two very handsome men," Rain said. "Hmm. So what does it mean, exactly, for Kyle to be your master?"

Rain's thoughts made Siana blush. "He is my guardian," Siana said quickly. "It is written into the dying testament of every Delun that in the event of the death of the parents before the next generation comes of age, guardianship falls to Kyle Katarn. It was that way for my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on, for a hundred and thirty years. It's not what you were thinking."

Rain shrugged and smiled disarmingly. "Don't worry, honey, he's safe from me. I'm too busy saving the world to have a relationship with just about anybody." She watched the two men sparring with their brightly colored blades. "But if I had the time…." She turned to Siana. "What about you?"

"I've only been here three days."

"No, silly, I mean back in your home. Did you have anyone?"

"Padawans were strongly encouraged not to form romantic relationships. It complicated things."

"But now?"

Daniel Jackson chose that moment to step into the room. Siana watched him, and Rain watched her. "Yes, I see," Rain said.

"You are a wanton woman," Siana said, but without heat.

"I'm wantin' all right, that's for sure."

Just then Isabel entered and stopped at the door as Kyle and Teal'c began spinning and exchanging blows. She very carefully skirted the wall as she moved around them, until she was sitting next to Siana, opposite Rain.

"Good morning," she said.

"Mornin'," Rain said.

"Greetings," Siana said.

"That's pretty…how can they do that?"

Siana smiled. "Master Katarn is fighting without using the Force, so Teal'c would have a fair match. But Teal'c has trained since childhood as a warrior among his people too, so they are well matched in basic skill. But watch this."

Teal'c made a masterful swing with the lightsaber cane, his blade heading right toward Kyle. Except that, faster than the eye could follow, the Jedi master somersaulted over the swing and Teal'c as well, landing on his feet until he had a blade at Teal'c's neck. He immediately pulled the purple saber away.

Teal'c nodded, Kyle bowed slightly, and the two re-engaged.

"The Force is strong in my master," Siana said. "If he had been at Ossus, I sometimes wonder if the outcome would have been different."

"Where was he?"

"Cheating time," Siana said. "It's a long story. He fell to the Dark Side of the Force once, when he was young. And when he did, he cut off the arm and almost killed my ancestor. He stopped himself, ended up saving her life, and then in penance for his crime promised to protect her and her child for the rest of his life. But when the Vong invaded the galaxy, he was not able to save her. He killed thousands of Vong, but it wasn't enough, and Nani died. After that, he vowed to guard all her descendents for as long as he could. That's when he started using time dilation to prolong his life, emerging from near light-speed travel every few years to make sure we are all right. He saved my grandmother twice, and my mother once when she was a teenager."

Isabel decided she didn't even know enough about time dilation to ask what it meant. Instead, watching Kyle and Teal'c flash their laser swords against each other, she said, "Is the Force something that can be taught?"

Siana looked at her. "To those who are Force sensitive, and even then only to the most dedicated students," she said. "Only a knight or master may teach the ways of the Force."

Isabel nodded. "Just wondering."

Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully

"That Colonel O'Neill let those Roswell kids spend the night in each other's rooms," Dana Scully said, scandalized.

Fox Mulder grinned as he draped an arm across her bare chest and kissed her neck. "The nerve of some people."

"There's no comparison," Scully said defensively. "We are consenting adults. We have a child, for goodness' sake! They are teenagers."

"Of course."

Dana shifted to her side, facing him. "You were going to leave the Bureau before this, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"And now?"

Mulder shrugged. "We're finding answers, Dana. For the first time, we're finding real, concrete answers. And we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that we're not alone." He kissed her, but his eyes were staring off into some infinite point behind her. "We've spoken to beings from other galaxies. And this Stargate program deals with aliens on a daily basis. This is everything I have been searching for."

She raised a hand and pressed it against his cheek. "So what are you going to do?"

Gradually, his gaze returned to her. "I don't know," he admitted. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Roberta Lincoln and Ramses, her shape-shifting Cat

Sorry. There might be kids reading.