A/N: Another quick update. Not pleased with the circumstances. COVID-19 is not something I could ever call 'good.'
Pronunciations and Definitions:
Ha'tak: a Goa'uld mothership
35: Drama Queens & Priests
Walter sat back from typing up his report and reluctantly admitted to himself that yes, typing that sucked. So this is how Col. O'Neill feels. Writing about stuff like this is like writing science fiction.
Oh. Well. Huh. He shook his head and rubbed his face with his hands. His life was a science fiction, especially to anyone without clearance.
"Are you well, Chief Master Sergeant?"
Holy Hannah, he darn near jumped out of his chair. "Teal'c!" he said, slumping back into his chair in relief.
The Jaffa lifted an eyebrow and Walter almost thought he saw a flicker of embarrassment in his face. "I did not mean to startle you," Teal'c said, tilting his upper body forward in a respectful greeting between friends.
Walter waved it off. "No problem," he said. "Wacky day, is all."
"Indeed?" Teal'c approached the table where Walter sat and gestured to the chair opposite. "May I?"
"Oh yeah! Go ahead," Walter replied readily.
He interlinked his finger and flexed, satisfied by the popping sounds. His wrist still hurt from all the typing, but a quick shake and the pain eased. He really needed to do something about his wrists. The last thing he needed was carpal tunnel. That would be awful.
"I believe you said you had an eventful day," Teal'c said, gently pressing for information. Not to interrogate, but an offer to listen.
That was one of the many reasons why Walter liked Teal'c. The Jaffa was built like a professional football player with a nearly impassive expression and unflappable attitude. But he was a patient, careful, intelligent, a seasoned soldier, and a great listener. Besides, considering the things Teal'c had probably seen, Walter's story might be nothing but another day in the office. He might even be able to shed some light on what Walter saw.
"Yeah, um," Walter began, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the table, "you know I took a couple days off this past week."
Teal'c nodded. "I am aware."
"Well, I took my family up to Denver and," he hesitated, "ran into Set." He noticed the sudden sharp attention in Teal'c's expression and the slight tension in his shoulders. "Yeah. Wasn't planned, but it happened."
He heaved a sigh and continued. "There's this big tournament going on in Denver, a card game thing. I'm not exactly on top of that stuff, but my sons find it interesting. The games uses these holographic generators to play the game. It's," he couldn't help but shake his head and smile in amazed disbelief, "actually pretty impressive to watch. It's almost as good as those Asgard holograms. Not as good, granted, but pretty darn good."
Teal'c considered Walter's words thoughtfully. "Fascinating. Were you able to procure one of these devices?"
"No," Walter said. "I would've had to steal one and I wasn't going to do that. Besides, it was my day off and I was with my family. I didn't want to cause any trouble."
The Jaffa nodded in understanding and agreement.
"Anyway, stuff happened and I, uh…" He licked his lips and groaned. "Well, let's just say I followed a lead and ran into a bomb, two mind controlled people, a holographic battle, a force field with no visible generator, and what I can only explain as meteors blasting me from nowhere."
And there went the eyebrow- Oh! Both eyebrows. Wow. That was something to go down in the record books.
"Look, you can read my report if you want," he said, turning the computer screen around so it faced Teal'c. "Let me know if anything sounds," lord, how to say this politely, "familiar."
Without a word, Teal'c looked at the screen. Walter watched as the Jaffa's eyes scanned line after line without reaction. Man, this guy was immovable. Walter got comfortable in his chair and waited, feeling his nerves, which he had buried while typing up his report, start to come back. Not the nervous type of nerves, but the gnawing itch to study or write or work on a computer. The need to figure out, to understand, to program. It was just-
"Fascinating."
Oh. Done already?
Teal'c sat back, giving the computer a curious look before turning his calm gaze back to Walter. "I have never heard of different types of mind control," he said. "I have seen the effects of nish'ta on my team, but I did not know there was a stand," he thought for a moment, "standard for such things."
"Neither did I," Walter said, turning his computer screen back to face him. After quickly skimming it over, he printed out a hard copy to submit in person. "But apparently, there is. The weirdest thing was the-"
"The force field," Teal'c finished.
"Ah," Walter hesitated, "no. That… Actually, I was going to say the meteors appearing out of nowhere and attacking me."
"We have seen holograms capable of appearing solid and lifelike," Teal'c countered calmly.
"Holograms solid and lifelike enough to leave holes in the ground and cause shockwaves through the air?" Walter argued.
The Jaffa cocked his head to the side. "Perhaps the hologram you saw not a hologram, but a weapon of some kind," he offered, "such as a Goa'uld cannon blast."
"That's true," Walter agreed. "But then where was the ship? Nevermind!" he said quickly, remembering some Goa'uld ships had cloaking capabilities. "I forgot." He ran a hand through his graying hair. "I guess that could be it," he admitted after a moment of thought. "But why attack us? Why attack us when you have two hostages, both mind controlled, one holding a bomb, and no real weapons between us capable of fighting a Goa'uld ha'tak?"
Teal'c merely looked at him until Walter sighed in resignation.
"Right," he said wearily. "Because the Goa'uld are drama queens."
He put his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his palm and stared at the computer screen.
"I hate queens," he muttered under his breath.
Ishizu studied her Deck carefully. Each card she owned was currently laid out on the coffee table so she could look at all of them at once and build her Deck from scratch. Based on what she saw, she would need to have a Spell-heavy Deck for today's duel. She would emerge victorious, she had no doubt. She may not have one of the God Cards anymore, but she trusted her vision.
Her fingers brushed her Millennium Tauk absently as muffled footsteps moved behind her. "You couldn't find him," she said, not surprised but not pleased either.
Her adopted brother sighed wearily. "No, I did not,' he admitted. "I'm sorry. I should have listened to you."
She shook her head and plucked another card from the coffee table and set it in her work-in-progress Deck. "No. You acted as you would. That is not something to be ashamed of." She leaned back in the hotel chair and sighed, allowing herself to slump. "You aren't the only one to ignore my visions in search of what you believe in." Her lips twitched slightly at the thought of her age-old friend. "It tends to add some color to my visions."
Behind her, Rishid chuckled. It was weak and exhausted, but genuine and that meant more to Ishizu than she thought it would. Rishid had been very upset since Malik's possession and subsequent disappearance.
Actually, her eyes drifted from the coffee table to her folded hands in her lap, Rishid had been upset for years before the false god reared its ugly, serpentine head. Ishizu would be the first to admit her family and upbringing had been abusive and harmful in many ways. Her fingers clasped the Tauk as guilt waved over her. She had escaped most of the abuse after the Tauk chose her.
But Malik had not.
The Ishtar patriarch had been cruel and mentally incompetent. Everyone had known it, but no one had been brave enough to step up and push him out of his position of power. Not even Ishizu. And her baby brother had paid the price.
It broke her heart to know that she had played a part in her brother's downfall. Rishid, despite being a terrified child the Ishtar clan had taken in before he'd died of heat and starvation in the desert, had attached himself to Malik swiftly and remained loyal. Even to the point of taking some of the pain Malik would have suffered onto himself. The hieroglyphic scars on Rishid's face were evidence enough of that.
Yet Ishizu had been lucky. She had escaped because of her Tauk. An unforgivable sin. It should have been her who stepped up and ended her father's insanity before it harmed her brothers. But she hadn't and she would have to live with that. As the current Matriarch of the Ishtar Clan, she would do her best to make sure something like this would never happen again.
Over her dead body.
She lifted her gaze and withdrew one of her favorite Trap cards from the coffee table and placed it in her Deck. She loved Seto as the brother she lost millennia ago but, as any sibling knew, competition was healthy and expected. She wouldn't just hand over a God Card unless she knew she had a counter to it. Well, she pursed her lips, that and the fact she highly suspected Obelisk would never suffer anyone but Seto wielding it without making them pay a hefty price. The Gods were never to be trifled with lightly.
"Any word on the Chappa'ai?" Rishid asked, sinking into the seat across from her. "Have the, ah, guests come through?"
She hummed and nodded. "They have," she replied. "I believe their offer was rejected."
She tried not to smile. She wasn't able to watch current events without focusing hard, but a casual glimpse at Seto's future had made the outcome very clear. She did like this Katsuya Jounouchi. He was a good influence on Seto and tended to look at things from an outsider's perspective with some insider information rather than an insider's perspective with some outsider information. In a situation involving those guests and the military, that support was needed.
Just as quickly as her smile appeared, it faded. The Chappa'ai, or perhaps it would be wiser to call it the 'Stargate' now, was not in the hands of someone she and her clan could easily influence. The rich and powerful could be encouraged to hand certain items of power over when presented with irrefutable evidence that could ruin them. Or, if they were religious or spiritual, a significant enough 'haunting' could persuade them to part with them item
National militaries, however, were notorious for hoarding unknown items and experimenting on them, often resulting in effects they did not or could not anticipate. More than once, a valuable item of power had been destroyed through accidental mishandling from too much experimentation. Knowing the Stargate was in the hands of the US military was unsettling to say the least.
When Ishizu had her first vision of the Stargate active without oddly dressed people she couldn't place stepping through, she had assumed someone on the other side had succeeded in dialing Earth. That was still possible as long as the dialing device on the other side was functioning and the person or persons dialing knew Earth's address. But once the visitors came through the wormhole, they would be trapped here, unable to leave Earth unless Seto activated it with his own innate power, which she doubted he would do, or if they had a spaceship pick them up.
Finding out the military had not only figured out what the Stargate was, but had built their own version of a dialing device with their limited understanding of alien technology and it had worked!? That, Ishizu was struggling to grasp. She had underestimated the power and unfathomable reach of human ingenuity. The Stargate was no longer within reach, not even through her clan's many connections. She could only get to it through Seto.
Well, she reconsidered, that wasn't entirely true. Dr. Catherine Langford was still active in the archaeological and academic community. And through her, Dr. Daniel Jackson was reachable. But given Dr. Jackson's intimate connection to the Stargate Program, Ishizu doubted she would be able to sway him into allowing her and her clan access to the 'Gate. And even if he did allow it, the Ishtar Clan could still be denied by the military.
If the military knew of the worldwide connections the Tomb Keepers cultivated, it could compromise the millennia held secret of the Tomb Keepers, the Pharaoh, and the Millennium Items. Unacceptable. She would have to play this game with care.
"Competitive as always," a calm voice said from beside her.
Rishid leapt to his feet. "Wha-!? How did you-"
"Be still, brother," Ishizu said, her lips quirking in amusement. "He is a friend." She shot the new arrival a side-eyed glare. "A very sneaky friend."
The man wore cream-colored linen robes and a turban in the same style as was common her first life as a priestess. His skin was a darker shade of tan than hers from the years of hard sun and travel. Whenever she looked at him, she remembered the years her precious lives had spent in the sun, the clean, moving air, and the feel of the Nile washing over her. Her years living trapped in the underground labyrinth the Ishtar Patriarch, in his declining sanity, had forced the Tomb Keepers to hid in.
Shadi met her gaze and offered her a quiet smile. "Compliment accepted," he said. "I did not linger for… obvious reasons," Ishizu hummed in understanding, "but I believe the Goa'uld has awakened latent power within your brother."
Ishizu sat bolt upright, her midnight blue eyes widen in shock. Her gaze flashed to Rishid who appeared just as surprised by the news.
"Malik has…" Rishid swallowed thickly and met Ishizu's eyes, apology and sadness evident in their depths.
Refusing to face such emotion, Ishizu drew a deep breath and clasped her Tauk in one hand to steady her nervous desire to fiddle. "I see," she murmured. "I was unaware he… I never saw…" She pressed her lips together, closed, her eyes and bowed her head in resignation. "No. I saw but I did not see. I relied so much on my magic, I never bothered to use my eyes."
"Your father," Shadi began. "We all knew the force with which he struck the wall was excessive."
"And yet we believed it was the Goa'uld within who was responsible for such an act," she said, feeling tears brim her eyes. How could she miss this?
"Perhaps it was, in a way," Shadi said, tilting his head in agreement. "Without Malik's conscience to halt such acts, the Gao'uld would have been able to force open paths the mind was only beginning to notice. The strength a Goa'uld can extract from a human host is indeed something to take lightly. But when backed by an innate power, it could easily snap a grown man's back."
She had missed it. How had she missed it!?
"That aside," Shadi stood, summoning the solid gold Millennium Scales from the aether, "you should be aware that Seto's time as queen is coming quickly." His eerie, pale brown eyes settled on her. "He will need your aid soon. There are few he can trust."
Ah. This was something she could do. "I gave him my word then, and I repeat it now. I will be ready," she promised solemnly.
Shadi nodded. "I have looked into this SG-1." He rested a palm on the Scales. "I find them to be good. I tested each. Their hearts are not as pure as the Pharaoh's partner-"
"An impossible feat," Ishizu agreed with a warm smile.
She had yet to meet the young pharaoh's reincarnation personally, but she had watched him closely. As a keeper of a Millennium Item, young Yugi was protected from any prying eyes, including hers. But his companions were not. A loophole she shamelessly took advantage of for all those she cared for.
"True enough," Shadi agreed. "SG-1 is trustworthy, as are those they trust. Set's intuition is rarely wrong," he declared. "However, I would not trust others involved. They were found… wanting."
The Scales hung balanced and unmoving between Shadi's palms before vanishing. "I regret I cannot give you more," he said, dismissing the Scales and tucking his hands into his sleeves.
"No," Rishid said, staring at where the Scales once existed in awe. "I know who you are now, elder. Your advice is welcome," he said, bowing his head respectfully. "Forgive my rudeness before."
"On the contrary," Shadi said, amusement sparkling in his eyes. "A trace of the unexpected is a relief. It means I have not seen everything yet."
Ishizu stood, swept her long black hair over her shoulder, and approached her guest. She held out her hands and waited for him to take them. Several seconds of silence passed before Shadi sighed and hesitantly pulled his dark hands free of his cream-colored sleeves. The moment he took Ishizu's hand, his expression softened and all the weight of millennia of existence faded away.
"I missed you," he whispered softly in hieratic, brushing the top of her hands with his thumbs.
She smiled and leaned forward so her forehead pressed against his. "I remember you being there," she murmured. "Not often," his smiled faded, "but when I needed you. I know the Others are pressing," the tension began to return to his face, "but stay just a bit longer? Please?"
She closed her eyes and just stood there with Shadi. She heard the hotel room door open and close as Rishid tried to quietly latch the door shut.
"Shada," she breathed. She felt more than heard the sigh and droop of shoulders as Shadi finally allowed himself to relax. One hand released hers moments before fingertips touched her cheek, and brushed away a tear.
"I'm sorry."
It was so quiet she almost didn't hear it. But she felt his absence like a hole in her heart. Not for the first time in her many lives, she cursed the Others who actively kept her Shada in hiding, away from Set who needed his guidance, from the Pharaoh and his reincarnation who needed his protection, and from her.
She had lost too much in this one life alone. Her mother, her father, her brother. She would not lose more. She would get her brother back. She would protect Seto. She would guide her Pharaoh and his reincarnation. And she would have her lover safe from the Others' reach.
She wouldn't fail. She was too furious to fail.
