The Astral Plain held a tension in the air. It had been building for years now; the entry of the Children of Prometheus had entered the galactic stage. Their entry had reignited a long settled debate about the place of the Lanteans in the universe. For the longest time things had seemed to be calm, but then the Tau'ri made contact with the Wraith and despite what most believed would occur the fight had been a one sided affair in favour of their children. Mars didn't lie about the fact the only thing which held him back from giving subtle assistance had been their rules. Unlike the others he had not been a scientist, but a warrior, leading great fleets into battle with the Wraith to hold the line.

Though he didn't speak of it openly, he still blamed his leaders for the loss in the war. He had repeatedly called for offensive action against Wraith occupied worlds, to shorten production lines by having worlds be self-sufficient in the production of ships, weapons and ZPMs instead of having parts of each build a galaxy apart. They would reject his proposals, instead demanding focus me made on bolstering defences in what territory they still held while trying to find some new way to end the war with a single superweapon.

He would accept his orders as a good soldier would, another world would fall to overwhelming Wraith numbers, again he would give calls for an offensive operation and again it would be rejected.

He would call for human clones to be employed for ground combat as they had shown better abilities in fighting the Wraith then the Lanteans had, and he would be told it was unethical.

He would call for bioweapons to be used that targeted the alien DNA of the Wraith, and he was told it would never work.

He would call for a better weapon then the drone system due to its inability to be economically viable in fighting the Wraith, and he was assured there would always be more drones for his ships.

He had known that if things did not change they could not win only twenty years into the conflict, but change never came and as expected after a century of slowly loosing world after world to the Wraith the day came where Atlantis stood alone. He would have thought that the day his people abandoned the city would be the worst of his life, but with decades to prepare for the moment he didn't feel anything as he had watched his leaders walk back to Terra as though they had not been responsible for what had happened.

And then when they got there, the world was occupied by dirty snakes. He couldn't tolerate it, and the moment the human rebellion had kicked Ra off the planet he secretly modified their minds to think more dynamically, asymmetrically. While Prometheus and Athena where busy fighting their little civil war over whether it would be Terra or Koh'bal which would be their true successors, he had been hard at work with his experiments that otherwise would have been shut down without a second thought. His work had been finished long before the exodus, and with his age at the time he would have died happy knowing he had left a ticking time bomb for the universe, and the scourge that had been left behind. It had been luck that Prometheus had assisted him in ascending, and while he disagreed with quite a bit the Avalon born Lantean did, believed and stood for, both were in agreement where it mattered in regards to dealing with the Wraith. Neither could do much of anything for millennium, but when the other Lantean approached him for the first time in centuries he knew what it was about, even if he didn't know the details.

"A thousand years ago you told me that if I ever needed your held you'd give it." Prometheus stated.

"I have not forgotten, and I stand by my word." Mars replied. "I don't know what you're planning, but I know it will not end well."

"Perhaps, but can you truly blame me?" Prometheus asked.

"Not for a moment." Mars answered. "Athena has gone too far this time. We've been too tolerant of her assisting her children. Fixing the Abydos gate, that we could excuse. Awakening the enhanced within her children's people, that could be overlooked. But giving them a repository of knowledge for then to uncover of Koh'bal is unacceptable. That isn't subtle guidance, that's interference."

"That is why this must come to an end." Prometheus stated. "But not now. First the balance must be restored. Then we shall handle Athena and her pantheon."

Mars said nothing as the other walked away, looking below into Avalon as their children fought.

New Caprica base

Kobol

"Explain this to me again so I'm certain I heard you right." Adama stated. He looked over the room within the ancient laboratory that he knew had not been there before.

"The wall simply collapsed sir." The scientist stated. The small room didn't hold much, being completely empty save for some odd looking device on the wall.

"And how did we not find this until now?" Adama asked, walking towards the device to observe it.

"It likely was built over in a renovation, and our activity simply made the added wall collapse due to stress" was his answer. "That's just speculation though; we'd have to look into the matter to tell for sure."

"Get equipment to see if there are any other hidden chambers. I don't want another wall falling on someone. We got lucky with this one." Adama stated, getting a 'yes sir'.

Adama looked over the odd device on the wall. There seemed to be a hole in it, but looking into it all he saw was darkness. Pulling away, he turned and instead of being in the ancient laboratory and was instead overlooking the ruins of a city from atop a high cliff. The city was burning, but it was clear that the fires had almost burnt themselves out.

"Quite horrific isn't it?" A voice behind him stated. Turning to look, he saw a woman who held a distant look, watching over the city. "This is your inheritance."

"Where am I? Who the hell are you?" Adama asked, his mind more focused on figuring out how he got there than anything else.

"I am Athena, goddess of knowledge and mother of Kobol." The woman stated, turning her attention to him.

"And I'm Apollo." Adama stated with sarcasm. "Listen lady, the gods aren't real. They're stories we tell children and the Gemenon at night. I'd know a god if I saw one and you certainly are not."

"Charming" Athena stated. "I'll freely admit there certainly is no divinity to be found in the universe, but do not mistake that as meaning there are not things beyond your comprehension."

"Is that supposed to mean you're some type of alien?" Adama didn't try to hide the fact he wasn't taking things seriously. He had more important things to deal with then whatever the woman before him was playing.

"I suppose that would technically be an accurate description, though my people are more akin to humans then some who pass for human today are. There is quite a bit your people will learn in the coming years about your history." Athena stated.

"Look can I get a simple answer to what's going on? I have a tight schedule as it is and because of this I now have to add a medical checkup since I've probably got something loose in there." Adama pointed to his head, causing Athena to role her eyes.

"Can you at least pretend to be taking this seriously?"

"Fine, let's say I believe you, that you're the goddess Athena from history who died thousands of years ago during the Exodus, and this isn't some concussion based hallucination I got from a wall falling onto me. What is going on and why should I assume it's real?" Adama asked, changing his tone in a moment.

"You'll believe it's real because I am about to make quite a few things make sense to you, and give you information you can confirm that will not be something you could have dreamt up yourself." Athena replied. "You remember the sudden reconstruction of the gate fragments you found that allowed you to discover this world, and to find technologies that you're people are already adapting?"

"Yes, it's hard to forget an unexplainable event like that. I'm still trying to figure out what happened there." Adama replied.

"That was me. Your people never could have hoped to rebuild it in a hundred years given your technological state." As she spoke Athena took a few paces towards the edge of the cliff. "Then there's the sudden appearance of large numbers of people within your society who have less than usual abilities."

"The sudden appearance of the Titans everywhere in the Colonies? That was you?"

"Not me specifically, but one who follows me."

"You unleashed a terrible curse upon my people with that." Adama stated, walking up next to her.

"I was leveling the playing field. Earth has had such people for quite some time now. Just like the tech gap the developmental one must be closed as well if there is any hope of your people winning this war." Athena stated, defending her action.

"If that's the case why don't you just use your evident powers to erase Earth's fleets and defences? Why let so many of my people die when it isn't needed?" Adama's voice rose as he spoke.

"Because there are lines and limits to what I can do. I am not the only one of my people who is interfering with things, and those of us who are doing so are split on who to support."

"You're saying another of your 'gods' are supporting Earth?"

"Yes, I lead a group who support your people, and there is another group led by Prometheus supporting Earth."

"Well the history books did say the gods where always split on conflicts." Adama stated under his breath.

"That is what caused the Exodus in the first place." Athena stated.

"Excuse me?"

"The Exodus was caused by this" she motioned towards the city with her arms. "My people had a civil war over how we should rebuild our civilization from tatters. My people wanted Kobol to be the garden from which our forest would bloom, but Prometheus wanted Terra and its war hawks to be what we use to rebuild."

"So there used to cities on Kobol?"

"Yes, but that isn't what matters. What matters is the final gift I've bestowed upon your people." Athena stated, returning her attention to him.

"Final gift?"

"The device you have found is a repository of knowledge. It contains a significant amount of data on all corners of the knowledge of my people. With it your people will in time be able to make weapons at the same level as those of Terra in due time, and find solutions for problems such as a cure for your plague."

"So you're going to let up catch of to them?"

"In due time. This war will be over soon, but this isn't for this war, it's for the next one."

"Next one? Next one! We are fighting and we are dying now, I don't care about the next one, I want this one finished so my people will stop dying." Adama was angry now, Athena sounded less like a god and more like a politician.

"Are you unhappy with the help I've given?" Athena asked, barking right back. "Well I'm sorry, I did not force your people into starting a war with Terra, and I have been incredibly generous in giving you the tools you need for fighting this war and the next. If I could push things an inch further I would, but I can't and now you must find a way on your own from here. You have the gate to the rest of the galaxy, you have the knowledge to build great things, and it is up to how you use it if you want to survive and to thrive. Here is a piece of knowledge you may find interesting, Terra only left its home system two decades ago, and even then it was limited to the use of the gate. In twenty years they've developed ships of incredible speed and power and become the central power of the galaxy. What have your people done in the past century with space travel?"

Adama didn't answer for a long moment, and when he was about to respond he didn't see Athena anymore, instead it was a wall.

"Commodore, are you alright?" A voice behind him asked.

"What?" He asked, turning to see the scientist.

"You seemed to space out there for a moment, sir." The scientist explained.

"Yes I'm… I'm going to drop by the medical bay. I need to have my head checked out." Adama stated. He looked back at the machine. "Have someone look over this thing, I have a feeling it might be some form of data storage device."

"I think we'll aaaahhhhhhh…" the scientist's scream of pain got the attention of everyone in the laboratory as the machine latched itself to his head. The man flailed as he tried to escape the things grasp, Adama trying to pull him out. A pair of marines stationed in the lab assisted him, but try as the three might the man did not move. It was only when the machine retracted itself and released him that the man was free, collapsing and entering an epileptic seizure.

"Get a medic in here; tell the med bay we've got an emergency." Adama yelled.

O'Neill's office

The Peak

"So you and Athena aren't playing nice." Jack stated to the Ancient standing before him.

"That's an incredibly simplistic and reductionist way of looking at things, but yes." Prometheus stated. "Things are not exactly what you would call pleasant right now. Though can you please stop pointing those things at me?"

Jack gave a waving motion with his hand, and with it the dozen men pointing rifles at the Ancient lowered their weapons.

"It's a false alarm boys, this one's a friendly." With Jack's statement the men left the room. "Sorry about that, we've all been a little jumpy lately what with the past year having quite a bit more excitement than usual."

"I can see that." Prometheus couldn't help but be impressed with how far his children had come in such a short time. "In any event I'm about to cross the line and I probably won't be seeing you for some time. Battle on my plane tends to have stalemates that last until one side gives in, and we've been known to last for centuries. So I'm going to give you one last gift before I leave."

With a bright flash of light a piece of parchment appeared on his desk. The parchment was covered in text that Jack for the life of him could not comprehend.

"And what exactly is this supposed to be?"

"That is the question now isn't it." Prometheus stated. "That is actually only half of the gift, but I can't give too much away. You're a smart man O'Neill, smarter then you let on, you should be able to figure it out."

With that Prometheus dissolved into nothingness. Jack looked over the parchment one more time before pressing the comm. system on his desk.

"When's my next appointment?"

"You don't have any more today, sir."

"Good, I'm heading down to Atlantis."

Downtown New Juvatu

Sagittaron

Karl Agathon let out a sign of dismay as he assessed the situation. He'd been ordered to the city to try and infiltrate a cell of the Sagittaron Republican Army to gain intelligence on them and maybe get another one of their base's location exposed. The damned things where a nightmare to track down as they appeared out of nowhere with no signs of being in a new location, popped up overnight and could abandoned and destroyed on a moment's notice. The last point was the hardest to deal with. Finding a base was one thing, but they couldn't just pounce on it without a real plan or else the place would likely have explosives within detonated to destroy the base and anyone unfortunate enough to be inside. He didn't know why they did it, but he did know he didn't want to be anywhere near one ever again.

Damned Earthers, they were responsible, of that he was assured. This was not Sagittaron tactics, it wasn't their way of thinking, and it certainly was not their technology.

His thoughts on the connection everyone already knew the SRA had to Earth was interrupted as he watched a Landmaster pass on the road followed by three trucks likely transporting infantry and supplies. They were the first to arrive, and that meant it was about to begin. He pulled out his sidearm as he waited.

An hour earlier individuals had been spotted amongst the citizenry in the downtown area who were suspected of being members of Hellborn. The group didn't officially exist, nor what its existence acknowledged by the government, but the stories had gone up and down the ranks about the horrors that where the Hellborn. He didn't know the details since stories always distort things, but he knew that they were definitely Titans. With his limited experience with such beings in the form of VIPER Unit he didn't know what to expect, but he knew it wouldn't be long until he got his answer as the skies darkened and the clear dry day became a downpour. He took cover in a doorway that led to the second floor of a storefront. He didn't know or care what the place was; he was just trying to keep dry before the real storm started.

The streets where fairly devoid of life, sirens had declared there was a danger and people had been quick to learn in the months since the intensification of the conflict that they were not drills anymore. This made Karl very aware of the fact the few civilians he did see around walking the streets, watching the soldiers of Unit 443 as they arrived, where likely SRM, but he couldn't do anything about it as there was plenty of CCTV in the city core, meaning it was they who would have to strike first or risk a political disaster.

The twin unit's 3X85 entered the scene followed by two 3X70s. The three machines had only a dozen soldiers escorting them, and a lone young woman sitting on the right shoulder of the 3X85.

It was at that moment that he felt a chill go down his spine. Turning and looking down the street, he saw multiple large white projectiles the size of a small car flew towards the 3X85. The response was too swift to have any effect though, as a wall of fire was formed from the 3X85's arms, melting the projectiles into nothing but steam. Before the fire dispelled shots were going off everywhere as the two sides started fighting.

Cars and walls where used as cover, gunfire going off both there and blocks away as the downtown core became a battlefield. More large projectiles flew towards the 3X85, these ones intercepted by thin green beams emitted from the air around the girl sitting on it, breaking the projectiles into thousands of fragments. One of them landed at Karl's feet, and it was then he realized the fragments where ice as the piece melted to water before his eyes.

The scene was quickly becoming hard to tell where anything was, the heavy rain mixing with steam coming from the ice projectiles being melted. Which only too late did Karl realize was the plan all along.

He couldn't give out a warning, they wouldn't listen anyway, and he had a cover to keep. So he ran into the building, running up the staircase to get away from the action. Before he'd even reached the top he could hear cries of pain from the street. He hadn't seen it, but the lead infantry had been frozen solid.

As he reached the second floor he could hear the Landmaster blasting away with its machineguns, with the 3X70s joining in. Karl found that the place was a bar of some sort, the place having only two patrons who were close to the window, one apparently filming the battle only a few meters away.

"Get away from there you idiots." Karl yelled, startling them both.

"No way, there are Titans down there. How fracking often do you see that?" One of them yelled back, trying to speak over the sounds of war around them.

"Too often, which is better a bit of film or your life?" When Karl's response was them looking back out, he shrugged to himself. "Fine."

He walked towards an 'Exit' sign that he believed led to an alleyway, which he was correct. The battle had not spilled over to the alley yet, instead consuming the two streets around it. The fire escape almost hit a man as he made it fall, the man in civilian clothing and running up towards the lines he suspected the SRA had formed. Karl whistled to get his attention.

"Hey you, lines have shifted, they need us to flank them from behind the other way." Karl yelled as he made his way down the fire escape to the ground.

"You sure? I thought more help was needed on the main lines." The man asked back, walking towards Karl. Karl's response was to pull out his sidearm and shoot the man in the face.

"Sorry buddy, but you'd have done the same to me." Karl took a moment to close his eyes, and stole his wallet and watch. Times where hard with the economy in shambles, and the dead had no use for such things.

Turning around, he ran down the alleyway towards the back of Colonial lines. He found an odd surprise waiting for him as he returned to the regular street. On the street he had been on, Annie, the girl who had been on the 3X85's shoulder, was on the street. Why she was there now instead of ahead with the rest of the Unit eluded him for a moment, but it became clear as he saw another young woman tried to hit her, failing as Annie dodged and tried to blast her with plasma. Karl couldn't see things too well through the rain, but he knew simply from the fact the two were in hand to hand combat that the woman had to be one of their Titans.

He ran to get a better look at the street, and it was worst then he'd feared. The Landmaster and military trucks were on fire, infantry everywhere where frozen in solid ice, frozen in their final moment by a thick coat of ice that covered them and much of the street. One of the 3X70s was broken into pieces, the other moving away from the battle in full retreat.

What captured Karl's attention though was the 3X85. Legs broken and on its back, the plating covering the small cockpit had been destroyed, exposing Max. Above him, a girl with white hair stood. She was looking down at him, and her right arm is what drew the full attention of Karl and Max as it wasn't a human one, but sharp piece of ice. It was pointed at his chest, and in one swift motion and a cry of pain Max was gone.

"Max?" Annie's cry came from a moment of distraction. It was only a moment, but that was all that was needed as she got an inhumanly strong kick to her back that sent her into a parked car. The force of the impact broke her legs instantly, and the momentum brought her forward, hitting her face hard on the windshield.

The woman walked towards her, but stopped as Karl lifted his gun towards her. She turned around to look at him; her crimson eyes almost making him panic as he felt in looking into him. He didn't let it show, holding firm as he locked eyes with the monster. The girl opened her mouth slightly, revealing two long fangs for a moment that made Karl feel even more uneasy.

After a long moment the woman looked away, her attention grabbed by a flare going off one block over. Karl looked quickly to see it go up, others on every street going up, the SRA's universal sign of withdrawal. Turning back to look at the woman, Karl found that she was gone, and looking behind him so was the other. All that remained was the broken bodies and machines the Colonials had sent into that corner of the battlefield. Karl said nothing as he lowered his gun. The bastards had won this one, just like they'd won so many others, and this time the problem solvers had been the ones defeated.

He tucked away his sidearm and walked towards Annie. She was still conscious, but barely holding on. He lifted her onto the car's hood, taking off his jacket and placing it on her to keep her warm before picking her up.

He didn't know how far it was exactly to the nearest hospital, only that it was in the general direction of east of his location. It would take too long to walk there, so he made for the nearest place he suspected a Colonial camp could be found.

"Agent?" Annie asked quietly as he walked. "What are you doing here?"

"Try not to talk; you need to save your energy." Karl answered.

"So it wasn't a dream."

"I'm afraid not." No, it was a nightmare.

Cyrannus House of Representatives

Caprica City

If there was ever a monstrosity in politics it would be the Cyrannus House or Representatives. Born out of a decade's long war, the original meeting place had been a sports stadium simply due to how many seats where needed to accommodate all the elected officials required for it. Today standing a sixty thousand strong, one could easily see its origins mimicked in the building specifically built for legislation. The cavernous room held the two largest parties, Adar's governing Conservative Party and the opposition Socialist one, sharing the flat plain at the rooms centre, both parties having the frontbenchers of their respective parties on either half, separated by a line down the middle where ministers sat on one side and their opposition critics sat opposed. This flat plain had been a converted sports field during the Cylon War, and was kept for aesthetic reasons. Unofficially called the flatbenchers by the media and public, these where the two thousand representatives who were the real players of system wide politics. The majority of both parties, the backbenchers, as well as the hundreds of third parties, where relegated to the rest of the cavernous structure.

At the centre of it all stood the Island of the Speaker, a platform several meters in height which had the Speaker of the House looking over the flatbenchers, with most backbenchers being seated higher than he was.

Adar always felt intimidated when he had to come here, as all people seemed to. Its size alone made one feel truly insignificant, and even with most of the two and a half thousand Sagittaron representatives not being in attendance it was still overwhelming. That hadn't fazed him when he made his address, just as it hadn't when he had done so many times before.

What made this time different however was he was looking at things from a new perspective. He had never before looked straight up at the ceiling of the large room, towards the large lights which illuminated the stadium sized House to allow things to be seen properly.

He couldn't get a good look at them though, his vision blurring, and the lights soon blocked as people gathered around him quickly. He lifted his hand over his face, trying to properly process what had happened. As he had thought, it was covered in blood, and he felt one of his guards putting pressure on his abdomen.

Before the House of Representatives, with billions watching from across the system, President Adar had been shot. By a Captain of the Colonial Army.

Laboratory of Doctor Jackson

Atlantis

Jack didn't particularly enjoy visiting his old friend at his workplace. The place was filled with thousands of books and boxes of documents stacked as high as his hip, taking a very large part of the similarly large room Daniel worked with.

Daniel, unsurprising to Jack, had eaten the parchment like it was candy, throwing himself at his books and the Ancient database to figure out what it meant.

That had been hours ago, or Jack thought it had. He'd fallen asleep on a chair at one point, and he wasn't even sure it was still the same day anymore, not with how Daniel tends to lose track of time when he was into researching something. Jack had brought a bought a book for himself at one of the stores that had been set up in the ancient city. He knew it was going to take more than just the time it takes to walk and get a cup of coffee to figure it out, but he wanted to be there when he did for the sake of time. He'd bought A Game of Thrones since he'd heard a lot about it but never had the time to watch the series himself, and even with Sarah Gardner getting into a few casual conversations with him when she broke away from helping Daniel he'd managed to read past the halfway point before Daniel had his 'Eureka' moment.

"I got it." Daniel stated, his nose half way in a book that was falling apart with old age. "Cibola."

"Cibola?" Jack asked.

"Yes, Cibola, city of gold." Daniel clarified.

"You mean like El Dorado?"

"Yes and no. El Dorado's a different myth that comes from the same area of the world." Daniel explained. "Cibola is one of the Seven Cities of Gold. For a long time it's been believed that natives made it up to keep Spaniards exploring away from their territory, but we both know how many myths have turned out to have some truth to them."

"So it's a map to a city made of gold?" Jack got up from his seat and walked over to him.

"Yes and no. We both know it's probably not gold the city has anyway, but from the looks of it the address is given through hits at the location." Daniel informed him. He took a blank piece of paper from his desk and a pen, drawing some symbols. "The text makes reference to the location through giving indirect names. One is of the place where the mother Gaia gave birth to humanity."

"Earth."

"Exactly" Daniel drew the symbols as he spoke. "Another is to the place where Gaia first set when traveling to this fertile land."

"Dakara."

Daniel listed off the final four hints quickly, Jack not being as capable of following as it was more Daniel's line of work and many of the details escaped him. When he was done there were six points of origin and three lines connecting them.

"There's just one problem with this." Daniel sighed.

"Oh, and what's that?"

"If I'm reading this right there's no way the gate network can reach this point." He tapped on the spot the three lines intersected. "There are large areas of the galaxy that gates can't connect to due to their limitations. Usually we bypass that by using two or three gate trips to indirectly get to where we want to go, but this right here, if I'm right this is a spot we haven't found a gate that can reach."

"Then we'll go by ship."

"Yes but Jack there could be dozens of systems in the area this could be, and any habitable planet would have to be searched, assuming this thing, whatever it is, is even on a habitable one since we know that isn't assured." Daniel put the paper down and turned to Jack. "Sorry Jack, we'll have to wait for the Wraith to be dealt with given how many man-hours it could take to find it."

"Well, when we do, we'll know where to start looking."

Author's Notes

Well, that took longer to get out there then I'd hopes. Still trying to get this done by the 2nd anniversary of the story starting though. I had more distractions then I thought I would (Xenoblade Chronicles X alone has taken 60 hours from me and I'm not done the main quest in that game). But don't worry, the next chapter will come much faster, I swear it.