Angels of Death

by S093

Jackson opened the Gate, Tabanae created the IS, the Universe cursed the Goa'uld for not reducing earth to a smocking ruin when they had the chance, and they were given plenty of chances.

36. Chapter 29-So this is Christmas

Chapter Twenty-Nine, So this is Christmas
SGC Infirmary, December 2015
Daniel's eyes shot open. He wasn't sure how long he had been out, but hopefully he was now safely back at the SGC's infirmary. He closed his eyes again as he brought his hand to his head to try and nurse away the massive headache he had. Note to self, let Jack handle the interfacing with alien things, he seemed to be good at it.

He opened his eye again and looked around, but all he could see was white, well either something happened to his vision, or someone had turned on the lights really high. Then his eyes settled on the grey-darker white outline of the roman style sofas nearby. Along with the woman reclining on one of them. He brought his hand back to his head as his headache worsened.

"I see you've come to Dr. Jackson. Come have a seat." She gestured to one of the empty sofas.

"Hello to you too Oma Desala. Now mind explaining why you're here, because if I remember correctly you aren't allowed to contact those of us on the 'mortal' plane." He got off the 'ground' and made his way to the nearest sofa where he dropped himself down, then had to resist the urge to lay back as he discovered just how soft the sofas were. Well she doesn't do things by halves at any rate.

"Under normal circumstances yes."

He held up one finger, "wait let me guess, there's something that only us 'mortals' can do and you're here to send me off on a quest."

Oma gave out a light chuckle, "while no matter how tempting that may be at times, that is not why I am here now."

"I take it's about what I saw isn't it."

"Partially. There are also some other things that I hope to discuss with you." She looked over he shoulder for a second, "if we have the time." He raised an eyebrow at that, she was definitely holding something back.

"Hmm, so can you tell me what the hell I saw there, because I doubt that was just my imagination doing weird things."

"I can assure you that what you saw was not created by your imagination. The oncoming hoard against the winged knights. It is something I have seen many times, trying to divine something from it." With a wave of her hand she conjured a what looked like a tea set and a table out of nothing. "Though as of yet I have found nothing of any note." She picked up one of the cups and brought it to her lips, "would you care for some?"

"I'll pass."

"Pity, tis one of the things I miss about life on your plane, I never truly appreciated this until I could only call upon a ghost of what it was. It's the small things that you truly don't appreciate until they are gone."

"You were saying about what I saw."

"Right, sorry I forgot your memories were removed when you were sent back. Pity we had such interesting conversations."

"You were saying."

"Right, right. Back to the path. I have yet to uncover what that whole sequence is supposed to signify or be."

"Aren't you ascended supposed to know everything."

"I keep forgetting you don't remember what you learnt while ascended. We ascended don't know everything, even with our vast knowledge there are still somethings of which we are unaware. And then there are, other restrictions that have been put in place, most to prevent interference with the lower planes." She took another sip from her cup.

"I see, then what do you know then. You obviously looked at it a few times."

"That those ruins are are amongst the oldest ones there are, predating the great alliance." Daniel perked an eyebrow up, from what he knew of the alliance that was old. "Though as to why it's there, well that has bee lost to history I'm afraid, and even though I've seen the message I have yet to make anything of it."

"Well is there any clues, there's got to be something and you've definitely had the time to look over what was written in the ruins. What is written there anyways."

"Mostly just per-alliance history. Except for that one pillar that you focused on and that statue." He noted the way she looked up and to the side, a quick glance showed nothing of note in the direction of her gaze.

"Yeah we couldn't get close to it at all, what's up with that."

"A mystery among many that I have yet to solve. Though have you ever thought as to what the statue appears to be."

"Yeah, but there's only a few hundred of them, not the thousands that I saw."

"Yet."

"What do you mean, yet?" What was she getting at?

"Think about it. Your Infinite Stratos are the first and only things that even remotely resemble that statue. And I know about how some of your adventures were temperol rather than spatial."

"You think it's a warning from the future?"

"It's a distinct possibility. And one I am not quite ready to drop just yet. And it would hardly be the first time they have been displaced temporaly."

"The Hak'tyl's legend of how Ra was cast from earth. We did that?"

"And the first time we met," and this was starting to get creepy. "Though I should probably stop before I reveal to much, best not to tell you what you said would happen. And don't bother asking." Well that stopped that line of thought.

"Well then, any other time travel incidents I should be aware of?"

"That is as far as I know the only one that I have not seen both ends of, though that does not preclude things that take place entirely in the future."

"Not reassuring. But if that scene was placed there from the future, then the question remains of how much time we have left."

"That is something I don't know, but if I had to take a guess, I would say sometime within the next few decades at the latest. Your years."

"Well that is all assuming that this does involve time travel."

"True, but in all my years I have never seen anything matching either side save for your Infinite Stratos matching the Angels."

"Angels?"

"The closest word in your tongue to what they are called." She took another sip from her cup, "though I never did understand what was meant by White Angel of Vengeance, Black Angel of Death, and from your expression neither do you."

"Well the 'Angel' that I saw had white armour, could that mean something."

"It probably does, though I have no clue as to what. Another mystery among many."

"There seems to be a lot of mystery's. Though I suppose your going to tell me that's just the way things are."

"The universe does seem to take satisfaction from leaving us in the dark." She took another sip. Letting out a sigh he grabbed the unused cup and poured whatever was in the pot into it before bringing it to his own lips. "So how does it taste?"

"Like lemonade, I'm drinking lemonade flavoured tea in what is essentially a dream talking to a several thousand year old spiritual entity. If I didn't know better I would say the universe has gone insane."

"Incorrect, that would require the universe to have been sane in the first place, something that has never been observed to be true." After thinking on it for a moment he just took another sip, she had a really good point, and one he could find anything to contradict.

They spent the next several moments in silence, before he decided to ask something that had been bugging him for awhile. "Why are you helping me? Why go out of your way to see me here, even though the others don't allow it." She put down her cup. "Never mind, it's probably some complicated reason that a 'mortal' could never understand. Forget I said anything."

"It's not just you I'm helping Dr. Jackson. And the reason is far more familiar to you than you think."

"It doesn't seem that way."

"One day it will." What did she mean by that? "If only things had gone differently then maybe, just maybe..." She let out a deep sigh. "No, it's pointless to dwell on things that can't be changed. All that can be done now is to look forwards."

"And here we were just talking about time travel."

"I believe you call it the grandfather paradox, which incidentally highlights the biggest danger of anyone trying to use time travel. You risk making things worse rather than better if you try and use it."

"Can't really argue with that."

"Your trips through time did not sit well with various people. They were convinced not to interfere, though I would be careful as they have long memories."

"So now I have to worry about some annoyed ascended coming after me, just great."

"Me and the others can prevent any direct action, though you will have to careful of the proxies they send at you."

"Not any more reassuring."

"It wasn't supposed to be. There are powers out there that you will have to deal with without our aid. I truly wish I could tell you more, but that would be pushing the boundaries of this loophole you created. Even now things are in motion to put a stop to this. It seems that the players in the game of power will not even take a break."

"That doesn't even surprise me. No matter how much it actually should. I need to stop associating with deity's, they're beginning to warp my perception of what I should be surprised by." Not something he would ever have dreamed about while trying to come up with archeological evidence that the pyramids were used as landing pads. Funny how right he had been about that, he could put that along side how many of that particular pantheon were gone now thanks in part to his effort. "I really should start hanging around normal people, less plotting."

"But it's all part of the game, wouldn't be much fun if it wasn't."

"So this is all a game to you?"

"Not any game, the game. Where winning and losing are defined by your own goals. The game where players who should not exist do, and other players cannot be perceived. A game that started at the end of the last ascended war and has never stopped since, and will only end when the next one begins."

"Ascended war!?" That did not sound good in the slightest.

"Yes, and one that did not have a desirable outcome for certain groups. It also created the current star-map for this galaxy, one that has had little change since."

"And how long ago did this all happen?" He could have Carter or Hailey to look into it later, changes to the cosmos could be observed through the speed of light. And something as large as this 'Ascended war' would definitely leave it's mark.

"Not long enough and too long." Well looks like asking for observed changes in the cosmos it was.

"I see." On to something else then. "I take it we're one of the proxies you're talking about."

"In a manner of speaking, yes." She took another sip from her cup.

"So the whole fifth race thing, I take it that was another one of your plans for us then. Hand off the keys to the galaxy to the youngest race possible, of course there was something else going on there. It would be to simple for things to be as they appear."

Oma set her cup down with an audible clink. "I assume you mean the fifth race of the alliance." He gave a nod of his head, what else could he have meant. "And for what reason do you want to be the fifth race?"

"I don't really know actually."

"Then don't desire it. It's and empty position now anyways, the time when being the fifth race would have meant anything has long since past. The old alliance disappeared long ago." She stood up and with a wave of her hand the sofa's and table disappeared, replaced by an old familiar room.

"This is the meeting place on the planet where Ernest got sent in nineteen-forty-five. The meeting place of the four great races." Oma moved over to stand in front of the panel with Ancient writing on it, leaving him just outside of the room looking in.

"Yes, a place that once held sway over the entire galaxy. Now nothing more than a crumbling ruin, funny how the place mirrors the alliance that once met there. Though I suppose all who were once part of it have better things to do. A pity about Ernest though, he was so interesting to talk to, though he thought I was merely part of his imagination. Wasn't exactly wrong either."

"I thought the others prohibited direct contact."

"Hallucinations aren't direct contact." She took a deep breath, "now where were we."

"Going on about the alliance."

"Right, this alliance was made by the four greatest powers in this galaxy at the end of a rather violent and disorganized era in history. Of course many of the reasons as to why it was created were forgotten by the time it dissolved. An event which all saw coming, though truthfully all the great races had been drifting apart since it's inception."

"So the alliance was doomed to fail from the start?" He stepped into the room.

"It certainly ended up that way, thought there were idealists from all races who thought it would actually last."

"At that's why you don't want us becoming the fifth race."

"Mostly, though their is one other reason." She took a step backwards out of the room, as soon as she left the room shifted, the panels began to shift around around the center pedestal. One of the panels came to rest behind him while the others continued to move about, constantly changing location and number.

Though what did it mean, or straight to the point, what was Oma trying to tell him? "I don't understand..." Then it dawned on him. "You want us to create a new alliance don't you. A successor to the alliance of old."

"In a sense."

"And that's why you've been helping me, you don't want to lose your successor."

"Right, and in more ways than you think."

"But the question that still remains is.." He narrowed his eyes at her, "what do you gain from it." All she did was smirk. "Figures your not going to tell me that, would be to easy otherwise."

"You've grown wiser since last we spoke."

"The universe isn't exactly kind to the ignorant."

"There are few truer words than that. There is one last thing I wish to show you," she gave a wave of her hand and the scenery around them changed. Now they stood in a field, green and yellows mixed together all around him, and in front of them was the edge of a cliff. Out beyond that he could make out another cliff, this one facing towards them. "I will show you what is perhaps the greatest disaster ever created by ignorance."

Then she began walking towards the cliff, he followed after her keeping just behind and to the right of her. It wasn't far to the edge of the cliff, and as they got closer the ground became rougher, the ground also became full of more brown and black then before.

Then they were at the edge, looking down he could see a dull red-orange glow coming from below, and as he looked around he could floating masses of something hanging in the air. Just what was this, and just how deep did it go. "Right through to the other side of the planet." He snapped his head back up to look at Oma who had just spoken. "Follow me." And she stepped out over the edge.

And rather than fall as physics would normally demand her foot instead was met by one of the floating masses, that he still couldn't identify. He took a moment to remind himself that this was all in his head before following Oma. As he walked across the gap the masses would come up to where his feet were then fall away after he had lifted it off, it was actually quite interesting to look at for the first bit of the journey. But it quickly lost it appeal as he reached the halfway point, or at least what he judged to be the halfway point.

Then after what seemed like forever he stepped onto the other side of the gap. Oma was there waiting for him, and without so much as a word she headed off towards what looked like a wood cabin that was nearby. The cabin itself was missing a whole side and part of the roof, with parts of whatever it was made covered in burns. "Oma what is this place."

"The site of a great tragedy. Though I suppose he could explain it better than I ever could." She indicated towards the cabin entrance, where an a figure stood in the doorway.

"It's been a long time Dr. Jackson, it's seems as though you've grown quite a bit since we last met in the physical plane."

"How, wait. I really should stop being surprised by things, impossible doesn't seem to mean anything in this universe."

"And it seems a bit wiser."

"So you know what happened here?"

"Yes, a great tragedy, a world cut clean through." He felt his eyes widen a bit, that was a new one. "Caused by one insignificant artifact, one I spent a great deal of time trying to chase down after the fact, sadly I lost track of it. In a single flash of golden light it rent this world into two halves, wielded by someone who had no idea of the power that they were holding, though to be fair, no one knew. Still barely a day goes by where I don't think about what I could have done differently."

Oma cut in, "the trail was lost with the fall of the Roman empire. There were no leads as to where it ended up after that."

"Wait, you're saying this planet breaking weapon, is on earth!"

"As far as we can tell, yes. As between the fall of the empire now, there has been next to nothing leaving your world, and what has left has been carefully monitored."

"So no idea at all as to where it is," the other two just shock their heads. "Then can you at least tell me what it looks like." The air of him front of him flashed leaving behind what he presumed to be the artifact. He narrowed his eyes and looked from one to the other. "You have got to be kidding me."

SGC, Briefing room
"So what can you tell me about that room under the dig site. You found it after Dr. Jackson went unconscious." They had finally gotten around to doing a full search of everything after whatever it was Dr. Jackson had done on that planet. One of the less glorious parts of this job, Hammond had to stop himself from sighing again as he contemplated retirement. But he still had a job to do, and aside from O'Neill who just plain didn't want the job there was no one else he was willing to let take over. Maybe he should just promote O'Neill and get it over with, it would certainly allow him to retire, the only down side was the fate of the planet.

"Not much aside from what appear to several suits of armour, though what kind of creatures most of them were made for is beyond me. What's really interesting is that they appear to be made of some kind of ceramics, though we'll have to hear back from the lab to get a positive on that. Though I'm more curious to know what the wearers were, because only a handful of those suits could be worn by anything we've encountered."

"For now lets focus on what the suits are made of rather than whatever creatures would have used them."

"Yes sir."

"Now was there anything else of interest that was found?"

"Beyond what we had already found before hand, no."

"See about arranging transportation for those suits back to earth, and do a thorough check for any traps first."

"Understood."

"Dismissed and get to it." The handful of officers got up and saluted, which he quickly returned after having got up himself, before departing. Now he just needed to deal with that NID 'Inquisitor' and the day would be done.

Ah who was he kidding, something was going to go wrong, it was just a matter of what and when.

Stepping into his office he spotted Mr. Woolsey sitting in the 'guest' chair, and a stack of papers he needed to go through. So much for a break. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long."

"Not at all, this meeting was asked for on short notice after all. Now as for why this meeting was requested, the NID would like to inquire about certain expenses the SGC has built up. In short they want to know why the SGC is costing as much as it is to run, since we now have a fleet to handle part of the load."

"We both know the answer to that one, but I guess I have to say it once for the record don't I, despite how many times they've come to me with similar questions." Woolsey nodded, "fine then. At the moment it costs more to send a ship with a limited supply of materials than activating the gate multiple times to get the same material to the destination. It also happens to be quicker. Thus aside from pure military operations it is easier to simply use the gate to get there rather than using one of the handful of operational ships we have." Woolsey finished scratching it out on a piece of paper. "Is that good enough."

"Honestly, no. But it's what they'll have to live with. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go deliver this." He held up the paper to Hammond.

"Well off with you then, I still have my own paperwork to do." Woolsey nodded then left, probably the only NID man without a picture stapled to one of the dartboards down in the rec room. He looked over at the pile of papers he had forgotten about until he walked in. He grabbed a pen and the top paper from the stack, may as well get this over with.

Christmas eve, IS Academy
Cassandra followed behind Nizru and she led the way through the corridors to the front entrance of the Academy, apparently Nizru was going out for some special event and she was invited. She would have to find sometime to ask Nizru why she had been chosen in particular, she just couldn't figure out how to say it without coming off like an ass. Without anything to say they journeyed in silence.

As they got closer to the entrance, Nizru answered her question without being asked. "My family won half-off a dinner for six to some restaurant in town, so me and my sister got to invite one friend each. I didn't really have anyone else to pick, really."

"It's fine, besides I've been looking for an excuse to get out, starting to feel cooped up here." Not that she could exactly go against the reasoning, she was still getting used to sleeping without being able to feel her upper back.

"Yeah your injury, it's okay right, you won't have any problems will you?"

"As long as I'm careful I'll be fine, really it's more of a nuisance than anything else, besides I've kinda gotten used to it by now. So don't go worrying about me, I can take care of myself." Getting used to having no feeling in her arms at all had been a long and painful process, one that she wasn't quite done with. Probably would never be.

"Okay, just don't push yourself. You don't need to hurt yourself more on account of me."

As the two of them reached the front entrance they both put on the coats they had brought with them, the temperature outside was just below zero and the last thing she needed or wanted was a cold. However they weren't the only ones leaving, someone else was standing off to one side with a bag around one shoulder. Looks like someone was heading home for Christmas.

"Hey isn't that your roommate. You never said anything about them leaving, they're going to miss the party tomorrow."

"You can tell who that is?"

"You can't. She's your roommate, you spend nearly everyday with them and you can't recognize them when you randomly run into them!"

"Hey." They both turned to the third girl, "can you tone your arguing down a bit, it's getting kinda loud." It was Sasha after all.

"That's because your idiot roommate has trouble recognizing people."

"I already knew, hell everyone already knows that. So I don't get why you're arguing about it?" She had to resist the very real urge to pout, was it really that bad. "So where you guys off to." The monorail car pulled up just then and the three of them got on.

"Oh, my family won a dinner prize and we had, and we had some extra seats so I decided to invite Cassandra along." They took seats by the door as the train got moving on it's journey to the mainland.

"Taking her out for dinner..." Sasha giggled slightly while turning to the side, "nice one. So any place in particular?"

"We don't know yet, parents didn't say where they won the prize. Guess we'll find out later than." Sasha just let out a short laugh.

Time to turn the tables, "so Sasha where are you off to?"

"Back to Canada for a few days, but don't worry I'll be back for the new years party. I'm not going to miss out on everything." She frowned slightly. "Something wrong?"

"No it's just that your bag seems a little small, you are heading back home..."

"What you think I'm taking everything with me? I am coming back here so there's no need to take everything, just stuff I'm going to use while I'm on the other side of the pacific. You should note that won't have to worry about me preventing you from doing anything in the room for the next few days. If you catch my drift." Nizru's face reddened and the girl turned away from her, what the hell was she missing?

The rest of the ride continued in silence until they reached the other end of the line on the mainland. The three of them got off and after saying one last set of goodbyes Sasha went off in her own direction while Nizru got out her phone. "I'll just check right quick to see where they are, they haven't been here before so they might be lost somewhere."

"Go ahead, it's not like we're going anywhere until then." Nizru nodded once then began touching buttons on the phones' screen, after a few seconds she brought it up to her ear and turned away. Cassandra tuned out the ensuing one sided conversation, and instead focused her thoughts on trying to figure out what Sasha had meant. 'Catch my drift' was not a phrase used unless there was an alternate meaning, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

By the time Nizru had finished on the phone she was still as lost as she had been when she started, why couldn't things just be simple. Nizru put the phone back in her pocket, "they're over this way." And with that she took off towards one of the exits, Cassandra let out a sigh before following, you would think people would fully plan things first before diving into them.

It wasn't far to the exit, and as they got closer to the exit she managed to catch up with Nizru. "Hey Cassandra." Nizru had stopped and turned around. "Wait there for two seconds."

"Wh-"

"BIG SIS." Her question was cut off, by a shout then something slamming into Nizru's side, Nizru for her part managed to stay on her feet. From all appearances Nizru had just been attacked by a smaller version of herself, burying it's head in her side.

"Never mind. So your little sister?"

"Yep, little Riru."

"Hey! I'm not little anymore." Riru looked up from where she had buried her head.

"You'll always be little to me." Nizru brought her hands to Riru's sides and delivered a counterattack, Riru quickly let go and fell on the floor giggling crazily.

"Hey.. no.. fair," Riru managed to calm herself a bit, "that was a cheap trick."

"It's not cheap if it works." Nizru shot back, all Riru could do was glare at her sister, while Nizru stuck out her tongue a bit. Cassandra wondered if that was what it was like to have a sibling, something she had never had either here or back on Hanka.

She then noticed a trio approaching, she guessed that it was the rest of their dinner party given by who was coming to greet them. Nizru's mom and dad along with Riru's friend. The man spoke up once he was within earshot, "well I take it your Nizru's friend she's told us all about. Fraiser Cassandra if I remember correctly."

"Actually it's Cassandra Fraiser." She corrected him.

"Ah, my mistake."

"It's okay, I've gotten that a lot here."

"Well then," he held out his hand, "Takanachi Fuso," she took his hand, "and this," he indicated beside him to the woman standing there. "And this is my wife Takanachi Siou." She let go of his hand and offered her own to his wife, there was a moment of hesitation before she took it herself. "Now I believe Riru will be more than happy to introduce you to her friend." Her eyes looked over to the girl who was boring holes in her with their eyes.

"Ugh fine," she glanced behind her where Riru had detached herself from her sister, "Asami introduce yourself."

The girl glanced to Riru before looking back at her, she gulped once before stammering out her name, "Ten..chou ..sa..m..i." The girl completed her introduction with an overdone bow, well this was shaping to be an interesting evening.

"And there you go again," Riru chastised Asami before turning to her, "don't let her fool you, she can be a real mischief maker when she wants to be."

"But.. but, you helped with most of them." Riru just rolled her eyes.

"Ahem, girls." All eyes turned to the sole male of the group, "I believe we should be going lest we be late for supper." He didn't get anyone arguing against him as he and his wife lead the way outside.

And they had barely gone three steps when Riru started teasing her friend again. "Really Asami, is meeting new people really that hard?"

Then Nizru jumped in, "she's right you have to be more open if you want to make friends." Riru glanced sideways at her sister before rolling her eyes.

"But, it's just that there's something off about Ms. Fraiser." The three girls looked at her. "Hey it's just that I don't know another way of putting it."

Riru let out an overly loud sigh, "Asami, aliens, wizards and all that other Scifi stuff doesn't exist, really you should just grow up." She had to stop herself from pointing out that she technically qualified for both of those positions, secrecy sometimes came back to taunt her. Riru then ran ahead towards what she presumed to be their car leaving Asami behind.

Letting out a sigh she quickly noted that she and Asami had been left behind by the other four. Ah to hell with secrecy, she bent down and picked up a ball of snow in her bare hands before standing back up to face Asami. "Hey." Asami looked up from boring a hole in the ground and flinched slightly at the sight of a snow ball in her hand, she couldn't really blame the girl.

But she had something else in mind, she stretched her right arm out a bit before closing her eyes and focusing. Almost immediately a burning sensation raced up her arm, but she fought it down she was doing this no matter how painful or stupid. After the pain dulled slightly she opened her eyes to see the snowball floating a few centimeters above the palm of her hand and spinning slowly.

Asami's eyes were wide open with wonder, quickly she raised a single finger from her left hand to her mouth. Asami quickly nodded as she let the snowball go, gravity quickly brought the snowball to the ground.

"Hey hurry up you two, we don't have forever." A shout caused both of them to turn their heads in the direction of the shout to see Nizru waving them over.

Turning to Asami. "Well we should get going." The girl merely nodded, not letting the smile on her face disappear. She took one last glance at the smile on Asami's face, worth it.

Next day
She felt as though she was falling backwards, an unfortunate part of not being able to feel her upper back, even after close to a month and a half she still hadn't gotten used to it. Forcing her eyes open she sat up in her bed, though something seemed, lacking. Looking to her side at the empty bed beside hers she remembered, Sasha was gone for a few days. Strange how one could get used to something then not notice until it was gone.

She quickly went through her morning routine before departing her room for the cafeteria, reminiscing about the previous night. That had been a nice change, though there was something else happening that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Well no use worrying about it, she had today off and spending it endlessly pondering would do her no good and would probably ruin her day. Besides the Christmas party was later and she didn't want to be in a foul mood for that.

Of course the universe had other ideas. She had barely sat down when Cecilia came up to her table, and slammed her hands down on the table, her face bright red with fury. A color she guessed her face was probably becoming after her breakfast was interrupted. "Hey watch it, I don't want to have to go get another breakfast."

"How could you?"

"How could I what?"

"Are you really that blind?"

"Well why don't you tell me what I evidently did wrong then. Because right now I have no idea, and your interrupting breakfast."

"Fine, you went out with Nizru last night."

"So? Why do you care at all, it's not like you had invited me to anything last night anyways. So why are you so upset about it?"

"You really are blind and unfeeling." Cecilia let out one last huff before leaving, allowing her to finish her breakfast in peace, why the hell was Cecilia so mad this morning? After her breakfast was finished she headed out towards the dorms.

As part of being a multinational school the IS Academy had to carter to all major religious and not-religious holidays in some form or another. As such a Christmas tree had been set up in one of the rooms reserved for just such an occasion. Not that she truly embraced the religion from which it had spawned, she had lost enough to a god to bother trying to find another.

However the other members of her family did, and as such it was expected of her to have the courtesy to open whatever gifts they had sent. Not that she really minded, Carter always seemed to come up with something special.

She quickly located the room she was looking for and stepped inside. In the room itself was a mixture of people, mainly European and American with a few others thrown in. Which meant Cecilia was there as well standing next to what she guessed to be the gifts the other girl had received, jeez talk about a hoard. As soon as Cecilia saw her she turned away with a huff, just what had gotten into Cecilia today of all days. She took a look around the rather plain room save for the decorated tree, that had been an interesting way to spend a few hours, and the small piles of presents scattered around the room.

While looking around noticed Ms. Orimura standing off to one side of the door to her side rested a tall thin box that came up to just below her chest. Well it didn't seem to concern her. She hurried over to the pile that had a sheet of paper over it with her name on it. There were only three items and none were very big, but seeing as the with the shape of a food container had Carter's name on it she wasn't going to complain.

Quickly unwrapping it she saw the familiar shape of macaroons inside the semi clear container, a Carter home made special, she was going to have to sample them later. The next one looked to be a book from Sasha of all people, a prediction that turned out to be true. An aged 'Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius', she would have to set aside some time at some point to at least glance over it. And the last item was a clearly a gift card with a dozen or so names scrawled on it, not much but at least they were thinking of her.

She opened the lid of the container to put the gift card inside when noticed the few dozen cards taped to the under side of the lid, well that was one way of doing it. She stuck the gift card amongst the other cards before closing the container back up and placing the book on top of the container. She quickly gathered up all the shed wrapping paper and her gifts and made towards the door, she didn't really feel like staying here long. She wanted some time to get ready for the party, and maybe grab a macaroon or two or three, maybe take a look at the book Sasha had given her, and get started on all the thank yous she had to write up.

As she walked out she noted the various groups sitting together chatting up, most likely about what they had gotten. Something she would never understand about this holiday, why did people need the need to compare what they had gotten?

She made it halfway to the door before a someone wrapped an arm around her from behind and pulled her back slightly. "And where do you think you're going?"

"And what do you want Ludmilia? There's some stuff I want to get done before the party."

"I'm going to guess it has to do with these doesn't it," Ludmilia held up one of the macaroons Carter had sent her.

"How?" She quickly glanced down to where the box of Macaroons was partially open, "hey, give that back." She made a grab for Ludmilias hand only to close on empty air as Ludmilia took a step back.

"Tis the season for sharing, and you should be in the season." Ludmilia took a bite of the macaroon, Ludmilia chewed for a few bites then her eyes went wide. "Well I see why you don't want to share, but I in good conscience cannot allow that. This delicacy must be tasted by as many as possible." Ludmilia quickly finished the rest of the Macaroon before looking eyes with her, she clutched the box to her chest and tried to think of a way to get out of here. She could try for the door, but Ludmilia could easily catch up before she could open it and leave, fighting wasn't an option.

There was something she could try, but it might not work.

Screw it. "Then I hope your ready to feel the Fraiser Clan's secret technique, passed down through generations." Ludmilia settled back slightly readying herself for an attack, well plan B then. "Run away." She turned on her heels and bolted to the door, Ludmilia blinked in confusion for a few crucial seconds.

Cassandra had however underestimated how fast Ludmilia could recover and cover the intervening distance and then tackle her into the ground. And while she managed to keep hold of the macaroons while she went to the ground, Sasha's book went flying out of her arms and skidding across the floor. "Neat trick, would have worked to if I wasn't the track star for elementary. But I have you know. So time to share."

"Dammit Ludmilia, get off me."

"Not un-" Whatever Ludmilia was about to say when something slammed down in front of their faces. The two of them looked up to see Ms. Orimura standing above them looking very unhappy.

Ludmilia practically jumped off her, allowing her to pick herself off the floor. "Now what do you two think you are doing? You are inside and rough behaviour will not be tolerated. Do I make myself clear!" They both quickly replied with yes while nodding their heads. "Good, I don't expect it to happen again. Now Ms. Fraiser I believe this is yours."

Ms. Orimura held out the book she got from Sasha. "Oh thanks."

"If I were you I wouldn't safely store those quickly before others decide to make a move for them." She nodded again, that was something else she would have to do, so much for trying to enjoy them.

She went to leave when Jane walked in the door looking a little tired, she was surprised when Ms. Orimura spoke up beside her. "Ah Ms. Doe, I have something for you."

"Huh." Someone looked like they still needed to wake up.

"You received a, interesting package, and once I can confirm it's contents I can move onto other matters. Whoever sent this," she held out the box she had been holding, "doesn't want anyone to see what's inside. So as this is addressed to you, it will be opened by you to confirm it's contents, then I can get back to confiscating Ms. Tatenashi's alcoholic beverages before the party."

"Is that for me?" Jane brought her hands up and rubbed her eyes before letting out a yawn.

Ms. Orimura just let out a sigh. "Ms. Doe, can you please open this so it's contents can be confirmed and we can all continue on with our day."

Jane just stretched out one arm, "Here," Ms. Orimura passed off the box to Jane. Letting out another yawn Jane ripped apart one pf the wrapping paper before sliding the rest of it off the black-brown box underneath. Cassandra wondered what could be in there, it certainly wasn't something she had been expecting to see. Jane then managed to get one end of the box open, only for the sole content to spill out onto the floor.

Jane took one look at the object on the floor before blinking several times before looking over the discarded wrapping paper and frowning. Ms. Orimura just raised an eyebrow at it, Cassandra couldn't really think of what to think other than how odd it was. Jane dropped the box, which was then picked up by Ms. Orimura, and the wrapping paper, and reached down to pick up what was dropped out.

Worn leather in a semi flat bar forming most of the length, one end ending in a point the other ending in a worn metal bar with a slight bulge on either end. Past the bar was a more leather, this time forming a cylinder that ended in a metal sphere. When she had first come to earth she wouldn't have recognized what Jane was holding, however after being immersed in earth's popular culture she couldn't fail to recognize what Jane was holding.

A sword and sheath. Though she could not figure why someone would send it as a Christmas gift, especially seeing as Jane did not strike her as the type to be any kind of blade enthusiast.

Jane looked to Ms. Orimura who nodded in reply, then slowly she drew the sword from it's sheath, she noted something white fall out when Jane started to draw, but her attention was focused on the sword itself. The sword itself was actually fairly dull, greyish overall with a bronze colouring along the edges, then there were scratches all down the length. Though the thing she noticed most was the way she felt uneasy, but she had an IS that could tear entire armies apart, a mere metal sword shouldn't make her uneasy.

"Well I wasn't expecting that." Cassandras eyes darted to Ms. Orimura for a second before going back, then she remembered the thing falling out and looked down. And sure enough by Jane's feet was a small sheet of paper.

"Hey Jane you dropped something." Jane took a quick look down and saw the paper before looking back up at the sword in her hands. She then spent several moments trying to get the sword back in its sheath with no success, until Ms. Orimura came up and tapped Jane on the shoulder.

"Here's how you do it." Ms. Orimura took Janes hands and guided her through the process once, placing the end at the top of the sheath then letting it slide down until there was a clack as the bar hit the top of the sheath. "There, easy." Jane gave a quick nod before bending down and picking up the piece of paper while Ms. Orimura grabbed the box. "Mind if I take this."

Jane just shook her head, then looked at the piece of paper. "Keep it safe." Jane read it out loud, looked at it with confusion, then let out a startled yelp as the paper disintegrated in her hands into a miniature cloud of red flakes. Ms. Orimura jumped back as the box she was holding disintegrated as well. Well that was certainly something. "Talk about overkill on safety."

She walked up to where Jane was standing. "Any idea what that was about."

"Well my mom sent me a used sword with a note to keep it safe, a note that disintegrated after being read. Talk about too much security, this starting to look like one of those cheesy American spy movies."

"Well maybe you should just keep it safe then ask your mom about it then."

Jane looked at the sword and sheath in her hand a moment before they dissolved in motes of light. "There, safe. Now if you'll excuse me I have a long distance call to Australia to make. I'm going to get to the bottom of this." Jane then turned and walked out of the room, a cloud of frustration following her.

Later, Teachers Dorm
Chifuyu looked over at Tabanae's frustrated face as she gazed at the holographic screen. The subject of Tabanae's latest frustration was the blade Ms. Doe had received as a gift from her mother. The blade itself was fairly straightforwards, it was the packaging that stumped them. First off it prevented anything from looking inside, but at the same time not triggering any alarms, right up until the point where she noticed it. That was worrying.

What was contained on the other hand wasn't something to worry about, an old sword was nothing compared to the weapons carried by a fair number of the students. Though there was something off about it, normally she would just have dismissed it, but with the package disappearing like that...

There was something else going on here, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Anything unusual Tabanae?"

"No and that's whats bothering me, I've managed to trace the package completely back to where it began right to the Does home in Australia, nothing odd there. If it hadn't been for the scanners at the school picking up something blocking them we probably wouldn't even have noticed it. I really wished I could have gotten a hold of the box."

"Hey I tried to."

"Yeah I know, just seems someone is overly secretive about something. But what and why I can't figure out. Though what bugs me was why all the fuss for one measly piece of sharpened metal?"

She just shrugged, "I'm gonna call up old Shiro and see if he can recognized the sword at all, the colouring is unique."

"Shiro's an ex-bodyguard, not a weapon master."

"Still, he may be able to point me at who might know. And about that other thing."

"The whole thing with the alien and space ship and Ichika, and those two girls."

"Yes, have you managed to dig up anything on it, I know Tabanae was running around with that Ichika tracker of hers trying to find him. Turns out it was working as you designing it," Tabanae giggled, "but he just wasn't where anyone was expecting him to be."

Tabanae calmed herself down a bit before responding. "Nothing on the official or unofficial channels I can see. Though there is always the possibility that no one on earth was involved, save for the three abductees. At this point you know more than I do about this."

She let out a short laugh, "I find it funny that the one time that I'm coming to you for information on something is the one time you know less than I do. Go figure." She paused for a moment. "Anyways, I've, told Ichika to keep quiet about it, just wish I had control of the other two, though something tells me that Ms. Fraiser at least will keep quiet about it. Which just leaves Ms. Alcott as an unknown, well as long as the other two deny what happened one person will just look like a raving lunatic."

"That's quiet cold of you, turning them on their fellow like that."

"Don't have a choice at the moment, at least not until we have more information than we have now."

"Well Ms. Alcott did submit a report to the British government, though as far as I know nothing's been done about it." She waved her hand once and the screen changed. "She also sent a second copy to her guardian, one Gil Graham, says here she was a friend of her fathers that ended up with guardianship after her parents deaths."

"So he has a report of what happened, well that complicates things, has he done anything on it yet?"

"As far as I know, no. But he does have some influence within the British armed forces, he could push for a further investigation."

"And the Alaska treaty mandates that we would have to comply in an investigation, damn it. What are the chances of that happening?"

"At this point I wouldn't worry, no one seems to be doing anything based upon one report, especially since the other two haven't said a word about it. But if they do press for answers..."

"I don't think we'll be able to let it blow over, not with Ms. Fraiser's injuries and the damage to Blue-Tears. Ugh, this whole thing is driving us in circles, have you looked at the data I sent you on the one Ichika brought back."

"Yes, I don't have anything concrete yet, but at the very minimum it's definitely not something any nation on this planet is capable of creating. The energy weapons alone use materials that don't occur naturally, at least not anywhere that I know of, though. We've seen several instances of those same elements appear recently, so someone may have found a way to create them artificially. And because Ms. Fraiser had some of one of them in her blood, my money's on the US, makes sense that they would be the first to create a stable element and not tell anyone about it."

"They would do that wouldn't they, but," stifling a yawn, "I'm rather tired after spending far to much time chasing after Tatenashi and all the crazy plans she came up with. Then dealing with crazy conspiracies."

"She really is something isn't she."

"I would also appreciate it if you stop giving her stuff, it would make things so much easier." Tabanae began pouting. "Don't even bother, you've done it enough that I've become immune to it."

"Jeez your starting to sound old."

"I blame dealing with people who are completely irresponsible. Now are you coming to bed or not, cause if your not your finding somewhere else to sleep." Tabanae let out a short sigh before shutting of the screen then jumping in the bed. And for the umpteenth time she questioned whether or not this was a smart idea, then a yawn forced it's way out of her mouth and anything unrelated to sleep became secondary.

She followed Tabanae's example and climbed into the bed, the last thing she noted before passing out was a pair of arms going around her stomach from behind.