Mac paced with nervous energy. Jack Huard and Cassandra watched him. Cassandra was smirking in good natured amusement. Jack merely seemed irritated and put out.
"Why must we wait?" Jack demanded.
"Commander, you have been excused to return to your duties." Mac growled.
"That is not what I meant immortal." The vampire sneered.
"Max is our High commander or had you forgotten?"
"Where has she been for six months? How did she survive the crash? Did she survive it?"
"Are you suggesting she may be a clone?" Cassandra asked with a laugh. Jack shot her a venomous glare and rounded on Mac again.
"How could we know? And what of the two strangers with her?"
"I told you before Jack they are not strangers!"
"To you! You claim they are friends, they are no more human than us but how can I and my vampires know that?'
"Oh I don't know take my word for it?" Mac growled inches from the obstinate vampire's face. Jack bared his teeth and unsheathed his fangs. Mac's fist strayed to his blade.
"Ahem." Cassandra said. The two men looked at her.
"They have arrived." She said.
The three turned to the door and waited expectantly. A junior officer opened the door and held it for the three newcomers.
Max was the first in. Her journey had been hard she had lost weight but gained stringy muscle. Her uniform was baggy and hung low on her hips. Her hair freshly cropped short was rough and her features were as hard and stern as ever. Her jade eyes took in the officers neutrally for a moment and then she grinned at her people. Next was Methos. He clasped forearms with Mac and embraced Cassandra warmly. Finally Simon entered.
At the sight of him Mac stiffened.
Simon was taller than the immortals. He had the ability to change his appearance by degrees. As he had adjusted to life on the surface, as his core had renewed and strengthened he had gained height and vitality. His skin was still tanned and healthy his honey blonde hair gleamed in the flickering lighting of the room. His gunmetal eyes were ancient and mirthful, at 6'5" he towered over the others. His shirt was long gone, his pants were more like shredded cut off shorts, bare foot and bizarre he stared around the others. His hair rippled down his powerfully muscled back.
"You brought the Nephilim." Mac said.
Simon inclined his shaggy head. Jack opened his mouth to say something and Cassandra stomped on his foot. The vampires jaw snapped shut and he glared at her.
"We welcome you Nephilim, I am Cassandra may I ask your name?" Simon grinned broadly at her.
"I am Simon of Oro, son of Kushiel, last of the Nephilim." Simon said. His voice was rich and bright. Cassandra smiled genuinely and embraced the Nephilim she kissed his cheek and murmured ancient words of welcome and fellowship. Simon answered her in the same language and called her sister. Methos who knew the language as well was surprised by Simon's confidence and grace. In all honesty he had begun to believe the big demi-human was insane.
"I am Duncan Macleod." Mac said and offered his hand the Nephilim gripped the Scot's forearm in mimicry of the gesture between Mac and Methos, but his grip was strong and sure.
"Jack Huard leader of the vampires." Jack said coldly. Simon cocked his head at the cold greeting and then bowed slightly and turned away from the vampire.
"Max tells me the humans are trying to kill you all." He said bluntly. Mac nodded.
"What would you like me to do?" Simon asked his cold gray eyes did not blink.
"Uhh." Mac said intelligently he glanced at Max.
"We need time to sort things out and think Simon." Max said gently. The big man shrugged and leaned against a wall apparently content to wait.
"Have you eaten?" Cassandra asked, ever the caretaker. Max shook her head. As Cassandra left presumably to get someone cooking Jack muttered something about his men and left brusquely. Mac pulled out a few chairs and sat with his friends.
"Okay so how the hell did you get here?" Mac asked Methos.
"Ve haf vays." Methos said adopting a god-awful pseudo German accent.
"Yeah I bet." Mac grinned. The group fell to talking animatedly.
Simon watched dispassionately it was rather like watching an ant colony on a hot summer afternoon. By human standards the Nephilim was likely a psychopath. However he was not human. He did not hate or love the humanoids around him. He had a fondness for Max but it was closer to the feelings one has for a beloved pet than anything else. He knew that once long ago before the chains he had felt a more human affection but betrayal and too much alone time would take a toll on anyone.
So he watched them with vague interest. He yawned at one point and took a more comfortable seat. Since he was incapable of being tired in the normal physical sense the yawn was more to demonstrate his own boredom.
Cassandra arrived with a tray of food and the four chowed down, Simon politely declined and continued observing. Finally after a good five hours of solid babbling the immortals got down to business. Simon felt relief.
The Nephilim pulled his seat closer to the others and listened closely as they began to discuss future plans.
"We have few options left." Methos began.
"Where's Huard, shouldn't he be in on this?"
"Much as I hate to admit it yes he should be." Cassandra sighed. She peered out the door and asked a door guard to locate him.
They waited for Huard and finally after a deliberately long length of time the belligerent vampire arrived. He glared at the immortals, saving an especially hostile glare for Simon. Simon merely returned the look with an empty expressionless gaze and blinked once, slowly, deliberately.
Huard sat down and folded his arms.
"So are you like all of six years old Jack? Get your head out of your ass for like an hour." Max snapped irritated by Huard's behavior.
"Fuck you freak." Huard snarled.
"Wow that's just awesome 'cause vampires are fucking normal." Max countered getting to her feet. Huard mimicked her movements.
"Sit down Huard you and all your kind would be dead if it wasn't for me and the rest of the people here –"
"Not him." Huard said and glared at Simon. Simon smiled slightly.
"Goddamnit Huard do you even understand what a Nephilim is?"
"No, not really I know he's not a Beta and he's not an Alpha that is what I know. He's never held his dying children and friends in his arms, never been hunted." Jack snarled flecks of frothy spittle decorating his chin.
"Goddamnit Jack you are such an asshole, he has too! The Nephilim are the half human children of angels, did it even register with you when he said he was the last? They were wiped out! Annihilated! He is the last of his entire species!" Max roared.
Jack maintained his expression of stony stubborn wrath and cut a glance at Simon.
"What?" Jack demanded. Cassandra and Mac looked embarrassed for the vampire.
"Simon could you . . ." Max trailed off. She wasn't sure what she wanted or why she was bothering to prove anything to Jack. It would be far simpler to dispatch the vampire, demote him and promote a different vampire but . . . politics. She sighed and scrubbed her face. Jack was still staring around the room, as though daring anyone to speak.
Simon finally stood his full frame towering over Jack's slightly smaller form. Simon smiled, it was a beneficent, kindly expression, the sort a father holding his new child might wear. He approached Jack, stood within inches of him and put his hands on the vampire's shoulders. He looked deep into the smaller man's eyes, showering him in the acceptance and glory of that smile and changed.
The wings were iridescent red now, he grew taller, broader through the shoulders, his skin was a dusky dark brown, his eyes were white hot and completely devoid of pupils his smile twisted and morphed his teeth lengthened and grew to points. Jack's face went blank and then twisted with fear.
Simon was hideous. He was gorgeous but wholly terrifying and utterly savage. He pulled Jack close. The vampire limp with primal terror did not resist. The immortals were frozen in place.
Simon spread his wings and wrapped them tight around Jack, enfolding him and bringing him close. Flesh to flesh Simon glared down at the vampire. His wings hid the two from view.
"Listen close little one. I am what I am I can bring life to you and yours or I can utterly destroy you all." Simon's voice was icy silk in the vampire's ears.
"Now behave." Simon finished he pulled his wings away reduced himself and released the vampire. Jack staggered backwards, reached for a chair missed and fell on his ass. Simon stared down at him, barefoot and bizarre but normal again. The immortals slowly came back to life looking first at one another to verify all was sane and their eyes worked and then to Simon.
Simon regained his chair and sat quietly. Silence reigned.
"Uh yeah kay thanks uh Simon." Max babbled at last. The silence broken the discussion began at last.
"Okay so what are our options?"
"Well, attrition will do us in if nothing else." Mac sighed.
"Okay what else?" Max asked. Methos smiled and filled the group in on his activities.
"Good so they might know about us." Max said again.
"No they know that their government is too powerful, that they hide things from them, big whoop give it enough time and they'll rationalize it away." Cassandra sighed. Each of the immortals kept glancing toward Simon, as though he would go magic pumpkin on them and eat their faces.
Simon was silent patiently listening.
"Fine what then? We do not have the numbers to resist for much longer, we cannot assault them since we have no ships and the drop ships we captured self destructed. So we can't stage an offense our defenses are failing so we're fucked." Mac growled with a frown.
"So hasty." Simon said softly. All eyes turned to him. He looked up at them.
"I can help you. I can end this." It was matter-of-fact.
"But?" Jack asked having found his courage. He was still sitting on the floor.
"I've spent my existence hiding, and running. Avoiding my father and uncles, avoiding their god and his twisted vengeance . . . I don't feel them anymore. Did I tell you that Max? They're gone. Sometime when I was down in that mountain, wearing those chains . . . they left. Your god has left this place and taken his first sons with him." He said and laughed a soft infectious laugh.
"So for once . . . I'm free. " He paused in reflection.
"But if I do this for you, if I take these lives . . . there's a cost." His eyes seemed distant.
"Simon I know . . . . I . . ." Max trailed off what could she say? She knew what it cost him to take care of the Ori? She saw what it had done to him yes, but that was then a hundred years ago and a thousand lifetimes before. The man she freed, the man she brought to the surface, was not the same man who had begged to be chained, begged to be bound, to avoid taking human life, to avoid becoming an angel. What could she say?
"Max be quiet." Simon said softly but firmly. Her mouth snapped shut and she felt her cheeks darken with an embarrassed blush.
"I don't know what will happen if I do this, it could bring . . . them back and I don't want that. I don't want to hear the whisper of wings or see my father's face. So if I do this I have to change, I have to become something else. I think I might be able to become human or close to it but whatever else happens I won't be me, I won't have the power to do this again so it has to be done right the first time or we are all royally fucked." He sat quietly.
"I don't mean to be rude Simon but what, uh what is it you can do?" Cassandra asked tentatively. Simon's face darkened and his eyes grew cloudy and solid gray but he was silent.
Cassandra opened her mouth to speak again but Max cut her off.
"He. . . I'm not sure what he does or what he can do really but once. . . . you all know about the SGC and the work done there. The Ori in particular. They weren't wiped out by a virus and they didn't pack up and leave our galaxy. Simon . . . " She trailed off and scrubbed her face she stood up and walked to the other end of the room. She faced away from the group and ran a finger along a tattered map tacked to the wall.
"He wiped them out." She said finally. There was a horrified leaden pause.
"Afterwards instead of calling him a hero and showering him with garlands . . . we locked him away. Wrapped him in chains, alone under a mountain, closed and locked nuclear blast proof doors, poured concrete in after him and once the SGC program was finished and exposed he was forgotten by everyone but me." Her voice was cold. Only Mac and Methos knew that tone, it spoke of massive grief and self loathing.
"I requested you do that Max. Demanded it."
"For a hundred years Simon?"
"A hundred years means nothing to me Max! nothing it is less than a thousandth of my life span."
"But you changed." Max said apparently hell bent on assuming the burden of blame.
"Of course I changed I wiped out an entire race of people Max, I annihilated men women and children I killed them off because I preferred that human life, my idea of human life prevail and go on. I chose to do that Max, I could have taken a different path I could have waited or looked away and let you sort it out but I didn't I wiped the surface of a planet clean, scorched it and cracked the crust open to the core. I came and there was life I left and there was a smoking cinder." He snarled. He sat back and the smoke in his eyes faded, silver tears gathered in the corners. He lowered his head and the crystalline tears fell to the floor in silence.
"Fuck me Max why didn't you say he could do that?"
"Fuck you Jack what do you want him to do? Huh? Destroy Mars?" Max roared. She was regretting it all, the stupid pointless war the struggle to survive for no reason, the endless parades of death the utter savage stupidity of it all. Why had she fought so hard for so damn long only to have it end here. Annihilation.
The only question was what race would it be?