AN: Sorry for the lateness of the chapter but I got distracted reading other stories and I was just generally slow writing this chapter. Should pick back up for the next ones. All stargate rights to MGM, my OCs are mine.

Rebirth of Ares

History and Righting Wrongs

April 2002

Areya

James was sitting upon his gilded and jewelled throne dealing with some representatives of his various worlds. It was not easy, most had different things that needed doing while others were here requesting food rather than infrastructure. In all a very tedious and time consuming but eventually rewarding series of tasks. The doors to his throne room opened and in came a Jaffa who bowed upon approach. "My lord, two humans of the Tau'ri have come through the Chappa'ai requesting to meet with you. Shall I order their return or take them prisoner?"

"No, bring them to me, unharmed" James ordered after a few moments of consideration. The Jaffa bowed and left. James in turn ordered the representatives to leave as he would have privet business to conduct with the humans. The twenty or so men and women left the room leaving a handful of Jaffa guarding him and both Carol and Jamila. The doors reopened not five minutes after the last representative had left and the Jaffa returned with the two Tau'ri along with two additional Jaffa escorts. James took the moment to view who had arrived. A medium height man with short brown hair and glasses along with a slightly shorter woman with short messy blonde hair. Both wore the familiar green BDUs favoured by SGC forces. He recognised both from his visits on Earth. "Hello, I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson and this is Major Samantha Carter. We were hoping to meet with you to discuss a few things in relation to the Goa'uld and your Ancient knowledge" Daniel said.

"Greetings Dr Jackson and Major Carter. Welcome to Areya. I know of which you speak. And I am in a generous mood so I shall attempt to aid you in this quest. Not all are worthy of such aid and endeavours so consider yourselves fortunate" James answered grandiosely. "We shall go to my offices and speak more." With that he rose and the Jaffa and Jamila bowed as Carol politely nodded and he led the two SGC members and Carol to his rooms while requesting Jamila bring refreshments. "It is best to have these discussions privately as I suspect what you wish to know would be detrimental to the System Lords of which I am head of. So what specifically do you wish to know?" James asked once they were seated around a table in his office.

"Well we wanted to have a look at the Repository you have. We were hoping to maybe find some technology or defences to help us against Anubis. He's already tried to destroy us with an asteroid but we managed to stop it, just barely" Carter explained.

"I see, what was so special about the asteroid? Your nuclear devices should have destroyed one easily."

"It would have if it didn't have a Naquadah core." James eyes widened in surprise.

"Bloody hell, if that had been too close that could've -"

"Vaporised the atmosphere? Yeah it wouldn't have been pretty. We jumped it through hyperspace to the other side of the planet instead" Carter said. James and Carol gasped in surprise at the shocking move.

"Whoa, crazy idea, nice work Major. You know you could keep it in the system like having it orbit Earth or Mars and then mine it. A cheap local source of Naquadah" Carol suggested.

"Hmm yeah why didn't I think of that?"

"Well we were a bit busy being relieved that the hyperdrive idea worked Sam" Daniel said with a small smile at his friend.

"I'm guessing Daniel here would like to read more historical and cultural items than the science?"

"Yes if possible. I was hoping to read some of the Ancient, or Alteran I believe you called them, historical databases to at least get an idea of who they were."

"I'll see what I can fix up. The site where it is located is locked down permanently so only me and Carol can enter. I believe Carol has sent the odd piece of data through to the SGC before now?"

"Yeah, your hyperdrive and shield theories have proven useful for the ship we are building, in fact they've proven superior to the Goa'uld ones we were experimenting with. Not surprising given where we now know you got them from" Sam said thankfully to Carol who smiled.

"This is amazing what you have here James, the knowledge of the oldest race in the known worlds. It's just...unbelievable. I don't know where to start." Daniel said in amazement as he read through a few small segments of text from the Repository in the hidden bunker on the computer before him. Sam meanwhile had gone over to the Timeship to look over its systems and learn more of the advanced technologies it used along with Carol to help.

"How about I give you a brief overview of galactic history from what I am able to know from both the Repository and as a Goa'uld?" Daniel nodded. "You should know some this from Dr Ernest Littlefield but anyway. Okay so around 8,000 BC Ra was the Supreme System Lord. As you know all Goa'uld used to use the Unas as hosts but the Unas were gradually becoming more and more resistant to being hosts with each successive generation. They could still be hosts but the amount of time you could use them as a host was decreasing, from thousands of years to hundreds. So you have the Goa'uld worrying about hosts and then the Asgard attack after seeing the desecration of one of their worlds, Heliopolis I believe you call it. Ra fled from the attack, injured by the Asgard, towards Earth where he found us and then enslaved us posing as a god and making a religion about him. He carved up the world geographically for the other Goa'uld to take hosts and slaves from without a clashing of interests before they then made Jaffa soldiers from the enslaved humans. Ra then ruled Earth unchallenged for thousands of years. Then, sometime around what we call 3,000 BC, there was a rebellion which caused Ra and the Goa'uld to flee before eventually forgetting about Earth."

"Why didn't they return with ships shortly after? They could have right? I mean they have this empire so surely they could have come by space if the gate didn't work?

"Well from what Ares knew, Ra and the others were busy with a renewed Asgard conflict so they didn't have many ships to spare, plus hyperdrives back then were really slow so it likely would've taken months or even years to get to Earth. Another reason why was they now had hundreds of slave worlds where the humans and then Jaffa lived so they didn't need Earth as much. Sure it was a blow but not an irreparable one."

"Okay so what about Anubis? When was he exiled because I thought that was around a thousand years ago?"

"Correct, his last and permanent banishment was then for his unspeakable crimes but he'd also been banished once before when he rose up against Apep, Ra's father and previous head Goa'uld. Anubis lost the war but killed Apep and so was banished. He was later allowed back but he began going rogue again; attacking Telchak, who was the creator of the sarcophagus, was one such thing he did. With these rogue attacks and then his unspeakable crimes, Ra led a force of System Lords against him, defeated him again and then banished him permanently. Yu supposedly attempted to assassinate him to ensure he never returned. It was believed successful as no one had heard from him since, until now."

"What about the Ancients are they alive or…?" Daniel asked hopefully.

"I don't know is the honest answer. As you know a plague swept through the galaxy killing millions sometime around five to ten million years ago. With them unable to defeat the virus they took those that were still healthy and left in their city ship Atlantis for a far off place. They could still be there but after all this time I'd have thought we'd have seen them by now. Also when they fled they sent out a wave of energy twice. First wave was to wipe all life from the galaxy thus curing the plague, I know rather drastic but it was a deadly plague and all who were free of it had evacuated according to the Repository, and a second time to reseed all life. Humans are, from what I can tell, the second evolution of this form, influenced by the DNA and genomes of the Ancients. We are their children, some more than others."

"What do you mean?"

"I have what could be called Ancient genes in my DNA. I suspect, but can't confirm it, that others on Earth might do too."

"Wait you mean-"

"Somewhere in my family tree an Ancient was there. And if one Ancient was in my family..."

"Then others might have Ancient ancestors" Daniel finished.

"Given what happened with Colonel O'Neill and the download he got, he may have some Ancient genes too though we'd have to test it. How is the question and, well, I'm not sure really as I only found out by sitting in the Ancient ship behind us."

"So that ship won't work unless you have the Ancient gene?"

"From what I can tell, yes."

"Well from what we know of Ancient times you may be right that the Ancients came back to Earth as the Ancients may have been the Road Builders of Rome, a group of gods or people who influenced and gave knowledge to those in Rome. We also have the Buddhist religion being similar to some of the ideology needed for ascension just like we saw on Kheb. Those could support the idea that the Ancients later returned to Earth. Or some did anyway" Daniel said excitedly. "You know this changes human history, us created by an Ancient race who later interbred with us at some point."

"Indeed. It is quite a history that makes the mind boggle. I suggest heavy research by Earth's second gate in Antarctica. You might find more Ancient technologies there given the gate's previous presence."

"I'm sure Sam will be intrigued and I know I'll support that if it's true. They've had a team down there for a year or so I believe checking out the area anyway."

"Good luck with the search down south then." The pair soon returned to reading over the history of the Ancients while the occasional mutters from the two women behind them was heard.

It was after two days of research that Daniel gave an excited yelp and came running over to Sam who was going over some schematics found in the database of a ship that was around 700 meters long and triangular in shape, flat but with a wide arching back where the engines sat. It looked rather axe shaped with the arched rear of the ship and the thin pointed forward section. According to the design it was called a Destiny exploration cruiser after the first of its class that was apparently dispatched into deep space before all contact was lost. It was now presumed to have been destroyed. "Ah there you, I found something" and he gave this 'come with me' finger indicator and ran off leaving James and Sam to look at each other with looks of confusion. A few seconds later Daniel returned with a confused look, "you coming?" The two followed after him to another computer that James had set up for him to look over other sections of the database. Even after all this time, two days for Sam and Daniel, a few years for James, they were only scratching the surface of what it held, picking at the edges on a handful of topics. They approached Daniel's terminal which displayed a cylindrical object. Looking closely they saw it was in fact a control room of some sort with some stairs that led down to a massive room below, it was all contained within the cylindrical shape. "I was searching for references to Earth and any possible defences the Ancients may have left since they seemed to like Earth a lot. I found this. According to the database it's their standard Defence Outpost design. They placed one on strategic or very important worlds. Here's the important bit. There's possibly one on Earth."

"There's one on Earth? Where could it be? I mean sonar and radar would have picked up by now after all these years surely?" Sam said with confusion.

"Not necessarily Major. It could have sensor dampeners in it to make it hard to detect and on top of that it could be buried deep underground further increasing the difficulty. The last bit would be where. If it was in Antarctica like the gate then you wouldn't find it easily considering the snow, ice and rock down there and that you've only just started exploring the continent" James explained.

"Hmm he's not wrong it would be hard to find anything down there. We struggled to find the Stargate and we only found that because it shook so much for the seismographers to pick it up. Does it mention a location?" Sam said thoughtfully.

"It gives a location of where it was thousands of years ago. We'd need to extrapolate for drift I'm guessing" Daniel suggested.

"Yeah would make sense, the Repository wouldn't have the knowledge of where everything is now so it can't tell where the outpost is other than on a southern continent when it was updated thousands of years ago. Still we can focus on the area near the gate and also try to model where it could be based on this data. Hopefully we'll get a hit. So what defences does it have?" Sam asked.

"Well according to this shields and some sort of drone weapon that looks like a squid from this image. Apparently they can go through most shields and hulls" Daniels said reading from the screen while it displayed a squid like object. "We will need something called a Potentia though. Says here they're some kind of power source. The one on Earth would likely be close to be or is depleted given its age."

"You will struggle to find any of those Dr Jackson" James said interrupting the explanations. "I have searched a few times for them over the years when I first learn of the Potentia and have found none. The closest I've come to them are the Eyes which I believe were a first attempt at these Potentia and there are only six of them, of which I now possess four. The process for making one is explained very lightly, just enough to give an idea but not enough to replicate. They do mention a facility that was built to make them." Daniel nodded at that while Carter looked into the facility James mentioned in the Repository and eventually found a diagram of a building which came onto the screen. In fact it was revealed to be some sort of space station. It was roughly snow flake shaped with a number of solar panels and collectors along the wings while a manufacturing plant was in the dead centre of the construct. Above that was a control room similar in layout to the defence outpost but instead of a chair there was a series of consoles in a semi-circle with space for three people to work.

"I've found this, what do you think?" Sam said.

"Interesting shape, anything on where we could find one?" Daniel said looking at it with curiosity on his face.

"Nothing yet. Maybe James you could look into it and let us know if or when you find something. I'm guessing you could find it quicker than we can. We do need to head back tomorrow morning Daniel so perhaps best leave it to the expert?" Daniel sighed but nodded in agreement.

"Sure I can give it a go and let you know what I find. You go find that outpost otherwise getting Potentia is mostly pointless" James said thinking of Atlantis and the need for the energy modules for the city. The group then finished their searches for the day by downloading a few bits of data regarding ships, Potentia and the outpost before making plans to leave for Earth. A few hours later they returned to the SGC laden with information that could change the fate of the galaxy and aid Earth's defence.

James was reviewing the data on the Potentia facility the day after the two of SG1 left when Carol came storming in looking peeved. "Did you know?" she said angrily.

"What?" he answered dumbly.

"Did you know about the slaughter of innocent children? Of babies?"

"I'm afraid you'll need to elaborate on this, of whom do you refer?"

"Moloc. He's a neighbour so I was looking into his domain plus others who border you. He's ritually killing every baby girl born and only allowing boys to live" she said with disgust. James blanched at the news. He knew the Goa'uld could be barbaric and uncaring to their Jaffa or human slaves but he didn't think one would order the death of baby just because of gender.

"I did not. Moloc is a minor system lord hence why he wasn't at the meeting on Hasara. He's more like Athena or the old Ares, governing an area and breaking away to rule for himself. I believe he borders us, as you said, and Ba'al. He used to serve Ba'al as a governor before striking out for himself. And as a minor lord I'm afraid I don't really follow his actions. I have probe over his homeworld, as I do for nearly all System Lords now, merely to monitor any fleet actions not spy completely though it could if instructed to. Now what do you want me to do about it?"

"Order him to stop!" Carol demanded. "You're the Supreme System Lord order him to and surely he'd obey?"

"Doubtful. He's a Goa'uld, he'd likely think I won't bother to do anything after a warning or that he can beat me because he's a god."

"Then invade and take it as punishment for dangerous crimes."

"Look I sympathise Carol, it is morally repugnant what he is doing but socially or at least biologically he could do this for a few more decades and it would make no difference since Jaffa live so long. Why he's going about it the way he is I have no clue, but I will pass along an order to cancel this...edict" James said as a compromise. Carol harrumphed but fell silent though she still looked angry.

A few hours later a message was sent of commanding Moloc to end the unnecessary burning and killing of the baby girls. A reply came back shortly after which said in essence; 'get stuffed', but with a few more curse words and insults relating to god-hood and power. Needless to say James was unimpressed at the reply from a minor System Lord. Deciding to use Moloc as an example of refusing commands he assembled a fleet of ships numbering over a hundred including his command ship, the Achilles. The bulk of the ships were his upgraded style Ha'taks along with a handful of his At'ak frigates. It took a three days to assemble the fleet, appropriating ships from Athena and Aphrodite before encroaching on the borders of Moloc's territory.

Ishta was siting on a chair to the side of the meeting room beside two fellow priestesses watching Moloc and his First Prime command their forces against the ships of Ares. Two days. It had taken Ares two days to sweep through most of Moloc's forces and now the bulk of his remaining ships were above the world she was on. Oh how she hated the false god Moloc. His stupidity had cost many of her sisters' and brothers' lives as Moloc resisted the might of the Supreme System Lord and that was on top of his Ceremony of Fire which killed off baby female Jaffa. Yes he was truly an idiot as well as vile and cruel and certainly not a god yet still many followed him even now in this suicidal fight. She'd even heard how it had started. Ares had learned of Moloc's foul practises and ordered it stopped and in reply Moloc had told him to get lost. She still remembered how Moloc had cursed and screamed up a storm at the news that Ares' ships were taking world after world. True Moloc only had around ten or so star systems but there were still 40 odd ships to guard them and they all fell before Ares. She had watched one battle on the sensor logs of a ship that had been sent to monitor one fight. A fleet of ten Ha'taks had engaged a fleet of twenty plus Ares' command ship. None had survived and the battle, more like slaughter she thought morosely, took less than five minutes with the command ship blasting apart ships in five shots of its heavy staff cannons while two shots of its beam weapons took out others. She had stared in horror at the destructive power the command ship possessed and its imposing design. She had even seen a brief flicker of terror on Moloc's face, which had pleased her somewhat if not for the cost to get the reaction. And now they were down to Goranak and the world they were upon, Phoenicia. Above they had assembled another 15 ships and a number of Al'kesh but she feared it wouldn't be enough. She wanted freedom for her people and her sisters but if Ares took over that would never happen as it was said that he was merciful and kind to his people while brutal and harsh to those he warred with. No, if he took over there would be no freedom any time soon. She looked on as ship after ship entered the system before finally the flagship of Ares arrived in its full imposing glory on the sensor display that Moloc and his Prime watched. "Order our fleet to attack, we will overwhelm them and destroy them, I will make Ares regret attacking my domain" Moloc commanded. She could see the haze of madness upon him now, far more prevalent than ever. When the order for the Ceremony of Fire had come she'd argued against it but had then accepted it as Moloc was a 'god'. Instead she'd planned to hide away any female Jaffa born before it could be burned. After the first few had been hidden it became easier and when Moloc hadn't found out it proved he was no god since if he was he should have known. This in turn made her bolder and she began hiding more with the aid of a few sisters of the temple. Now it would all end with Ares sweeping down upon them striking them to the ground. She saw Moloc frown as a number of his ship exploded dealing little if any damage to the flagship while Ares' Ha'taks destroyed the other ships and the gliders began deploying to begin attack runs on the planet. Soon there was nothing left above as the last Ha'tak loyal to Moloc was torn apart by the flagship of Ares. "My lord we are receiving a transmission from Lord Ares" a Jaffa spoke up. Moloc was fuming now she could see, he barely held back from strangling the Jaffa in question. "Show it" he spat out.

"Molok, surrender and end this madness. You were a fool to resist my commands and this is the result. Surrender and you may yet live, or at least die quickly. Fight on and I will level the planet and then hunt you down so as to as slowly and painfully as possible kill you" Ares commanded regally. Ishta paled at the thought of the total levelling of the planet, even a few Jaffa in the room halted at the threat.

"You can not kill me Ares, I am a god, and gods cannot die" Moloc blustered and Ishta rolled her eyes at his stupidity.

"You really believe that don't you? It seems even some of the Goa'uld believe their own lies. Very well. Prepare to meet your maker. Remember I gave you the chance to surrender." With that the channel cut out and the sounds of explosions were heard outside along with the screams of death gliders soaring above and the deep rumble of Al'kesh approaching could be heard over all that noise. The room shook numerous times as plaster and pieces of stonework and masonry began to rain down upon those in the room. Ishta, seeing where this was going, gave a look at her fellow priestesses and the three of them quickly turned and left the room making for the exit in the hopes of surviving better outside, she heard shouts from Moloc to return but it was cut off by a large explosion and shaking and she turned around just in time to see the passageway behind her collapse filling with rubble, stone and brick, dust being thrown up and covering them in the dust while also making it difficult to breathe. She stumbled back, being caught by Mala who then half dragged her back towards the exit of the building they were in. Coming outside they saw the devastation. Buildings burned and craters littered the surrounding areas with smoke lingering in the air along with the smell of death, burning wood and flesh. A number of bodies, mostly Jaffa, lay on the ground, some at odd angles while others had fatal burn wounds. They turned to look at the palace where Moloc had based himself and saw numerous breaches and collapsed walls in it as the bombers and gliders focused upon it, rubble piling from collapsed columns and ceilings. When Ishta surveyed the area she took note that the only buildings truly damaged, apart from the palace, were those used by the Jaffa for war; their barracks and armouries, the civilian buildings had suffered little damage. "Mala go to the Cahppa'ai, warn our sisters of the Hak'tyl. I will try to send word once this is over."

"But Ishta -"

"No you must warn them, we have barely said anything to them during Ares' assault on Moloc, they must know what has happened." Mala nodded slowly before rushing off towards where the ring would be. Ishta and the other priestess began heading for their own small temple at a quick pace to prepare those within for either resisting or escaping. Not five minutes after departing did Mala return looking worried. "Sister what has happened?" Ishta asked with concern.

"I'm sorry High Priestess, Jaffa guard the gate though they are not Moloc's. Most appear as Jaffa but a few wore armour unlike any I've ever seen; black and covering their whole body, even wearing helmets. A few of Moloc's Jaffa tried to attack them but they were cut down quickly by weapons I do not recognise." It was then they heard the sound of marching with the steady thumps on the ground and some clanking of armour and as they moved to stand atop the steps into the temple they saw two columns of Jaffa approach them with a handful wearing black full body armour with helmets though the lead Jaffa did not and proudly bore the gold mark of Ares' First Prime. Knowing there was little else to do Ishta straightened her shoulders before she stepped forward and called out towards the Jaffa. "Halt! Who approaches the temple of Moloc?"

"I am Honeric, First Prime of Ares. This world has fallen, Moloc is dead by the command of Ares. Surrender peacefully and you will not be harmed. I have orders to bring the High Priestess to Ares himself" the lead Jaffa called, now identified as Honeric. Ishta glanced at her fellow priestesses and knew there was no chance of resisting, not that many would try given their own shaken belief in Moloc after his Ceremony of Fire decree. Turning back to Honeric she bowed her head in submission and the First Prime nodded back before giving quick command to the Jaffa to search the temple and bring out all within. With that dealt with two Jaffa approached on either side of her and she followed them and Honeric back towards the city proper while escorted by the two Jaffa. She looked around as she walked seeing the destruction caused by the gliders and Al'kesh. Mostly it was areas that had been barricaded where the bulk of the devastation was, heavy weapons used to breach defences and she saw countless Jaffa lying on the ground, nearly all of whom bore the mark of Moloc.

Eventually they arrived at a ring platform and she knew then that she was to go aboard the flagship that sat in orbit with countless other ships. The rings shot up with a whirring noise before a flash of white light blinded her and seconds later, when she could see again, she was in a small room with brown, gold and black coloured walls which was repeated on the corridor outside. Honeric and the two guards led her down a series of corridors and lifts between levels until she finally reached the Pel'tak of the ship. It was similar to the other rooms being mainly browns and blacks but there was hints of gold along with white marble for the throne as well as two small thin marble columns on either side while sat upon it in mostly black armour, a red and black cloak and shin guards was Ares himself. He was viewing some kind of holographic display that appeared from the side of his throne. Honeric bowed before his lord and Ares continued with what he was looking at before turning towards him. As he did Ishta looked around the room and saw four Jaffa manning consoles at the front of the room near a screen or window while on either side of Ares stood two Jaffa in the form fitting black armour holding their unknown weapons. A young blonde woman, human given the lack of a forehead mark, stood off to one side watching wearing a tasteful and not too revealing dress. "My loyal Prime, is the fool and tyrant Moloc dead?""

"Yes my lord. From what I can tell he was trapped in the palace which collapsed atop him. I see no way he could have survived. I have none the less instructed a squad of Jaffa to search what they can to confirm it."

"Very good, you have done well" he said before turning to look at her. "Is this the one I requested?"

"Yes my lord. This is the High Priestess of Moloc."

"What is your name Priestess?"

"Ishta my lord. May I ask why I have been summoned my lord?" Ishta asked cautiously.

"You are hear because I command it" the man chuckled lightly. "You are here because you know Moloc's domain, you had a position of control and are now the senior most Jaffa alive with both Moloc and his prime and senior commanders buried in the temple or dead in space. As of this moment the Circle of Fire, or whatever the idiot called that edict, is over. There will be no more burning of innocents within my domain. Is that clear?"

"Yes my lord" she answered thankfully and with relief. He nodded in return.

"Now I have decided that you will govern Moloc's former domain at my command and by my will and representative until such a time as I feel a governor can be placed here properly or none is needed."

"M-me my lord?" Ishta stuttered in surprise, to govern a territory was a huge honour for any but it was nearly always reserved for other Goa'uld and only given to Jaffa who have been most loyal in service for many decades.

"Yes, unusual I know but you were the High Priestess of this domain for Moloc and while he may be an idiot I doubt you are as well hmm? You know the people and the territory. You know what it needs and can implement my will with little trouble. Do well and you will be rewarded. Betray my trust and you will not live long enough to regret it" and he smirked evilly at that. Ishta bowed knowing it was the only thing she could do as he would no doubt execute her if she refused, he is a Goa'uld after all.

"I will do as you command my lord, should I consider myself your new High Priestess then? And what of worship of Moloc?"

"Moloc is no more and is not worthy of your devotions, spread the word for people to convert to me or those under my rule like Athena or Aphrodite. As for you, well, I already have a High Priestess who serves me back on Areya I do not need another or one to challenge her. Your order shall follow any instructions from her as you normally would from you. You Ishta, will simply be a senior Priestess under my gracious rule and my own High Priestess's command. Now I need to finish off dealing with Moloc's domain. Return to your people and ready them for this next step in their lives, you will not regret serving me my dear." With that dismissal she was taken back to the ring room as Ares returned to looking at his displays. Once at the ring room she was placed within the rings as the were spat out from below and the next she saw was a flash of white.

AN: So I hope you liked this insight into the ancients and Goa'uld. It is based as much as possible on cannon history though I may have changed a few bits. We have Ares expanding again but for the 'greater good'. Coming next will be when things heat up again.