"You got the gate address from a dream?" Harry's 'Admiral Snackbar this is definitely a trap' meter was approaching peak levels. "Isn't that a little too convenient?"
"You know for once I agree with Harry Vala." Jackson agreed, putting down the pencil he'd been gnawing on for the last half hour. "This reeks of a setup."
The thief spun around on the office chair, looking completely and utterly bored. "Not the gate address. Just the idea that symbols from Castiana, Sahal and Vagonbrei could be used to make a new Gate address."
They looked at her blankly. Well, more at the green pasty mask and pajama's she was wearing. She'd taken to life at Star Gate Command rather well, that little Wolsey Man from the NID notwithstanding.
"Well it's something isn't it? C'mon Daniel, it's been over a month now and we still don't have a solid lead."
She did have a point. They were stuck, and the Ori were running out of Goa'uld that would willingly want to take them on in open battle, at least on a ship scale. The Kull warriors were still the cream of the crop when it came to ground combat, bar none.
So on nothing but a hunch Sam ran one of her programs cross-referencing the symbols of their three planets. Lo and behold, one and only one came up.
Ok, this was wayyy to similar to what happened in Harry's fifth year with Sirius.
They went anyway.
The planet was your typical medieval shithole with poor sanitation and even poorer personal hygiene. A pungent villager pointed them towards the Village library. Harry fired a Scourgify at him as thanks.
There they met an old man who liked to grunt a lot. He produced a musty old parchment that stated the Sangreal was protected by a dragon of all things.
Well shit.
After coaxing/bribing the old man to show them the map they set off, though he insisted on tagging along. Harry complained that he wouldn't be reviving the old coot should he croak on the way there.
He received a glare in response.
They walked for a while until finally coming across dozens of unmoving people. Ok, clearly a time dilation field. No biggie. They argued for a few minutes about the merits of going around vs walking through when Harry lost his patience, pulled his wand and sprayed gallons upon gallons of multicolored paint until it began to stick to invisible time dilation walls. The rest of the maze became amazingly easy to navigate after that.
Some hours of further bipedal locomotion found the group wandering past a small clearing with…you guessed it, a treasure chest.
"Uhhh, a treasure chest!" Vala squealed excitedly. Harry and Daniel grabbed her by the back of the tac vest with identical frowns, effectively holding her back.
"Down girl, it's not worth the trouble." Harry muttered, while Jackson tried to reinforce the point with; "Let's just ignore it."
Vala pouted but complied. The old man meanwhile glanced back at the obvious trap, then back at the group of Tau'ri. It was mid-afternoon when the party reached the mouth of a cave. Harry's mirror buzzed and he quickly excused himself.
The others just shrugged. If it was important he'd tell them.
Of course just as their most powerful member was off doing god only knew what Daniel decided it would be a good time to call out the old man on not being who he seemed, based on a conversation about Origin they'd had earlier.
Osric sighed and morphed into a tall brunette. Mitchell, who hadn't shot anything in a few days, wasted no time hosing the ex-old man down. Or would have were it not for a personal shield she wore.
Yes, she. Turns out it was take your kids to work day, and Vala's had snuck along without an invitation.
After introductions were out of the way they moved onto business, which mainly consisted of; 'You're going to listen to me or I'll turn you inside out.'
"You've seen a demonstration of my power." She tried to reason. "We can either work together, or I can force your cooperation by killing of members of your team." She glanced at Carter. "Starti-"
Harry reappeared with a crack, interrupting her. "Sorry, had to take care of a small problem…over there."
Yeah, real subtle Potter.
The wizard looked from the Team to a strangely dressed woman that bore an odd semblance to Vala. Their weapons were raised, while she seemed unarmed. Yet somehow it looked like SG-1 were the ones in deep shit here.
Harry shuffled over towards Mitchell.
"Hey" Harry whispered, nudging Cam slightly. "Who's the Hot Bird?"
Cam never broke Eye contact with the Woman but mumbled back; "Would you believe me if I said it was the old man?"
The young woman had aristocratic features that all but screamed nobility, with amber eyes whose intensity rivaled his own green ones. Her attention was also completely on him.
"You're the anomaly I've heard so much of." She stated without any concern, as if she wasn't worried about being surrounded and outnumbered, not to mention unarmed.
Actually, she acted a lot like Harry.
"The one and only." the Wizard confirmed with his best Lockhart smile, secretly wondering if she'd watched the Matrix. Who calls someone an anomaly?
Her eyes narrowed. "You're also personally responsible for the destruction of dozens of Ori vessels and subsequent deaths of countless believers."
"Sorry sweet cheeks, but this is war. And it's not like you'd give us any quarters." He shrugged.
"It's quarter!" Cam corrected. "As in singular. She's not paying for parking." Man that irked him.
Harry ignored the Colonel, as did the Ori Bitch.
"Those men and women were devout followers of Origin, and beyond that under my direct command. You will regret having crossed me!" She seethed.
Harry smirked, finally grasping who this chick was. "Oh, so you're the Queen Bee then? Smashing, I can dispose of your right here then I suppose."
She matched his confidence and squared her shoulders. "You will bow before the Ori or be destroyed."
He laughed in amusement, subconsciously crossing his arms in defiance. "Not a chance minx. But I am willing to discuss the terms of your surrender and subsequent holding conditions. I'm thinking lots of ropes, chains and whips to keep things interesting." Harry leered at her suggestively.
She blushed. Harry took that as a win in his book.
"Insolence!" with a wave of her hand the rest of the teams knees buckled. Harry though stood firm, still looking confident. "What, did you think we were just going to roll over and let you and your garbage Religion take over?"
Adria's response was to summon Harry's Wand and SG-1's weapons just to be sure, despite their lack luster performance thus far.
The sticking charm he'd applied to his hand turned out to be both a blessing and a curse at that moment. The former because he was still armed, the latter because he was currently being yanked towards a Telekinetic Meta Human that would no doubt wipe the floor with him, wand or not.
The wand movements were a bit tricky when the thing was trying to pull his skin off his palm but he made it work.
At less than ten feet away the Space Wizard cast Snape's favorite dark cutting curse at the Ori Commander and immediately apparated fifty feet away and onto a large boulder. He was quick enough to see the curse slip harmlessly over her twisting body as she hit the deck.
The thick fir behind him was sliced in half, falling in the background with a mighty creak and snapping limbs.
Merlin, her reflexes were better than a Bloody Jedi's! Figuring direct curse fire was ineffective at more than five times the distance he'd just attempted the Wizard opened up with a set of elemental attacks, staring with a straightforward Incendio that had a bit of kick to it.
The orange and white flames roared from his wand like a Muggle Flame Thrower, lighting the dry tinder of the forest floor alight.
Adria simply waved her hand and vanished the flames, a smirk on her face. Harry was beginning to worry. She definitely had more abilities than your run of the mill Prior. SG-1 looked on, helpless to intervene.
At least they'd gotten off their knees.
"Oh yeah, well let's see you block this!"
Two stone slabs on either side of the target morphed into large hands from the surrounding bedrock and tried to squash her like a fly with a deafening clap.
She jumped up and clear of them, then banished both stone hands back towards Harry with frightening speed.
Harry transfigured them into water and slingshot the mass of liquid around with a drawn-out circular wand movement, freezing it halfway into razor sharp icicles.
With another wave she shattered them into a fine dust.
Silence reigned for a few moments as the two sized each other up, Harry panting lightly from on top of the Rock while the Ori Woman continued to stand there, smirk still on her face.
"Well, do you see now the power I possess? You can't possibly win."
Harry barked out a laugh. "Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing."
It was clear they were both trying to physiologically dominate the other. Classic Super Power user pissing contest.
He dabbled into the animal transfiguration arts a bit, conjuring a swarm of Bats. Behind her the branches of the nearby tree began slithering.
She actually looked surprised when the Twelve foot Boa dropped onto her shoulders from the canopy above and began choking her.
With but a thought the snake popped apart like a balloon animal and the Bats burst into flame. Her version of a Wide area banished hit his position, ripping the massive boulder he'd been standing on free and sending it careening into the dense brush with a loud crash. Harry barley managed to jump clear, rolling to the side with the help of a cushioning charm.
Shit was getting real. The Wizard yanked a half dozen mature trees from the ground and banished them at her with equal ferocity.
The Team ducked for cover, becoming increasingly concerned at the display of sheer power. Harry of course they knew could pull this sort of stuff. Knowing that Adria could match him blow for blow was what made it worrying.
"They're like little children squabbling over who has the bigger stick!" Vala hollered over the sound of crashing trees and explosions. "Only Harry actually has a stick. And my daughter doesn't even need one!"
Her and Daniel took shelter behind a roughhewn block of stone that made up the cave entrance, arm sized splinters of wood shooting past them as Adria decimated his Tree Missiles.
Harry transfigured the debris into a pair of Grizzlies and threw in a few Timber Wolves because, well the base material was timber.
The bears didn't last long, banished into what seemed like low orbit like Team Rocket after a sound trashing.
Two of the wolves followed them shortly after, though one got close enough to run into a green energy field. Damn, Telekenisis and Tech?
He could try some of the Dark Magic but really didn't want to deal with the full body detox that eventually followed.
Seeing the team was already by the cave entrance Harry made a snap decision. He banished a five pound bag of Peruvian Darkness powder at her and watched it burst on her green shield. In an instant the lights went out.
He took the opportunity to apparate to the team, drag them inside via Summoning Charm, and finally blast the ceiling of the Cave entrance, forcing a collapse.
Five flashlights winked to life, cutting through the darkness and clouds of dust.
Harry was panting with exertion. It had been a while since he'd participated in a duel of this magnitude. That woman was trouble, easily on the same power level as Dumbledore or Voldemort. And she didn't even wield a weapon other than her mind.
Huh, I can't use my Magic", Harry muttered a few minutes later, after trying to perform the simple first year light charm to help him see.
"Really? That's interesting." Sam quipped. "The cave must block your abilities."
"Interesting is not the word I would use to describe it." He sighed, not happy at being stuck in here without any sort of meaningful way to defend himself.
Fortunately his Moleskin pouch was unaffected, as in it didn't lose the expansion charm applied to it. Otherwise they'd be crushed by the mountain of junk he kept in there. Problem was he couldn't access anything inside it, namely his modified muggle weaponry.
Harry's best guess was some version of the same tech he'd tried for subduing house elves. The caves were a lot larger than the twenty five meter radius his device could manage, so the device causing it was bound to be a bit larger he reasoned.
He'd like to find it. Imagine the amount of money he could extort from the Ministry if he held their Magic hostage.
Harry cackled evilly and the others slowly distanced themselves from him.
oOo
Hours passed and progress was slow. They'd bailed a fake kid out of a jail cell and answered a few riddles. The last ones were more exciting than the first because the caves began to rumble, threatening to crush them all. All progress screeched to a halt though when they encountered a solid wall of flame. The heat radiating from the end of the corridor made it obvious that this wasn't a hologram.
And so quite some time passed, until Daniel pulled some real Indiana Jones level shit and walked into the inferno. It fizzled out a moment later, revealing a chamber with a deep pit.
"Hang on." Mitchell tossed a rock into the abyss. Harry looked over the edge, then at the former 302 pilot. "Throwing a rock down the bottomless pit? Classic."
Before they had a chance to advance further someone rounded the corner behind them. You can guess who.
The group paled when Adria strode up to them, looking triumphant. She held out her hand to crush the pesky Wizard but was surprised when nothing happened. A wicked grin spread on Harry's face as the realization dawned.
Rushing forward he went to stop her from retreating back the way she came. She responded by punching him in the face.
"Blimey, what are you idiots waiting for?" he cried, holding his shnooze. "Stab that Bitch!"
Adria shook off his hold fully and backed off again, though now in a fighting stance.
Harry unsheathed his KA-BAR and lunged at her. She expertly sidestepped and planted her knee into his gut, causing him to grunt at the pain. He recovered quickly though. Undeterred he wildly swung the Knife sideways, which she dodged.
"Harry, what the hell are you doing?" Mitchell asked, slightly amused. They still had their knives but not much else. Their guns were still at the cave entrance.
"Fhheee's gat no powas." He managed to half say mostly spray after Adria elbowed more than a few of his teeth from his face.
The team made no effort to help as the nimble young Woman proceeded to kick Harry's arse six ways to Sunday over the next minute and a half.
"You done yet?" she asked, sighing in annoyance despite the immense pleasure of hurting this man-child. It had been most bothersome levitating the rubble away from the sealed cave entrance. Normally she didn't enjoy physical violence like this, but today she made an exception.
The wizard grunted from his spot on the ground. She took that as a yes. Harry though had one last trick up his sleeve. With a thought he summoned the Sword of Griffindor from wherever the hell he'd left the damn thing last and swung it around blindly.
It looked awkward and sloppy from form his position and likely wouldn't even have done any damage were it not for the small nick Adria sustained to her arm.
She proceeded to stomp on him a dozen times as SG-1 continued to gawk at the scene.
Not long after The Ori Princess didn't look so hot all of a sudden. "What have you done to me?" she panted weakly. Seconds later she slumped to the ground.
Harry knocked back a half dozen multi-coloured vials he'd kept in a pocket on his person that effectively reversed the sound beating he'd incurred.
"Ha, not so tough now." He stumbled into a standing position and examined the Sword. It seemed to sweat a light green substance.
"Can't beat Basilisk Venom." He stated triumphantly before turning his attention back to little Miss martial arts. "Well then, it's time to send you over to the next great adventure." Fully intent on stabbing her through the chest he lunged forward, only to be blinded by a bright white light.
The sword embedded itself in the sandy cave floor with a hiss.
"Oh c'mon, is this what it's come down to now? " He yelled at the retreating white light. "Ascending whenever the other guy wins?" Harry briefly glared at Jackson. "I'm supposed to be the Master of Death, but you don't seem to give a shite now do you?"
Adria raced from the caves and towards the Star Gate no doubt. She might be powerful but if the Ancients caught wind that an Ascended Ori was in the Milky Way they'd off her for good.
Too bad he couldn't apparate to the gate and disable it. Damn it all!
Ignoring Harry's little tantrum they gathered around the pedestal holding the ruby red jewel.
What was it with red gem stones being the key source to all manner of destructive tech? First Ra's eye, now this?
Jackson made to grab the thing and came up short.
"What the…?" he muttered. On cue the cavern shook.
Harry tried to use his magic again but found it still wasn't responding. A very dragon like growl came from deep below them.
The team took off like a bunch of stabbed rats but the cave door ground down, locking them in. Wasting no time Harry grabbed a sizable brick of C4 and stuffed a detonator into it. The others, already knowing what was about to happen retreated back over the narrow bridge and took cover behind the pillar. Harry and Teal'c joined them seconds later.
The explosion rocked the cave, and the shockwave echoed within the confined space, amplifying it.
"You're supposed to say 'Fire in the hole' before flipping that switch. Actually, you're a civilian and technically not even allowed to do that." Mitchell stated, though not sure why.
Harry gave him a cross look, one he rarely ever used nowadays. But facing down a Holographic Dragon without Magical abilities in a cave that provided no reasonable cover would be enough to ruffle anyone's feathers.
"Yeah well, you're a muggle." Then he took off.
Mitchell looked at Teal'c. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Through the dust of the explosion the telltale shwoosh of a dragon's wings gliding past could be both felt and heard. They made it through the opening with seconds to spare as the beast lit up the new doorway with crimson fire.
"Motherf**ker!" Harry yelled, wanting nothing more than to get outside, come back with the Graff Spee and level this whole mountain with an Orbital nine shot broadside from the main rail guns. His combat robes were ruined, the material on the back flaking off from the intense heat.
They managed to locate an alternate exit in short order and emerged soot covered and out of breath.
"You think the Dragon is the final test?" Vala asked her not quite boy toy.
Daniel took his dirty glasses off and wiped them with his undershirt. "Seems like it."
"Well if that's the case we need to go back!" Carter cried, still in the process of winding down from her own adrenaline high. The Members of SG-1 were used to them, and generally kept a level head despite the chemical cocktail coursing through their veins.
But what the good Major just said was a supremely bad idea. Harry didn't even get to shoot it down though, because a very noticeable winged shadow just flew overhead.
"Ahh hell" Mitchell muttered, really wishing they had their weapons.
Harry ejected the Elder wand from his holster and gave it a test swish. The sparks were confirmation enough.
'Time to blow off some steam.'
The spell chain hit fast and hard. High powered piercers, befuddlement charms, body binds. They all impacted but nothing seemed to work. The enraged Dragon, who'd hovered right in front of him took every single hit and shrugged it off like it was nothing. Harry shifted slightly, repositioning himself directly in front of Vala and SG-1 for the expected retaliatory strike.
White hot fire spewed from the creatures gullet, burning grass and melting stone. Spinning his wand overhead Potter cast a flame freezing charm on the group. Ten mildly uncomfortable seconds followed, after which the beast ran out of steam.
It was understandably hot, but didn't have the kick usual Magical fire had. It felt a bit…watered down to be honest. Glancing over his shoulder the others didn't seem to share his mental description.
"Run for the tree line." Mitchell shouted before running over the scorched ground and towards the nearby Wood. The others wisely followed, looking a bit pale at how close they'd come to being fried to a crisp.
They collapsed thirty yards from the clearing, gasping for breath.
"Jackson, how do we stop this thing?" Cameron asked, leaning against a sizable Oak, trying to will more oxygen into his system.
"I don't know, name magic is common in most mythologies. To know somethings name is to steal its power."
"Jackson, that's a giant crock of shit." Harry muttered, also breathing heavily from all the running.
"I think it's called Daryl." Vala claimed excitedly. They stared at her, and she stared right back.
Soon after Colonel Mitchell began to fish out another brick of C4. Harry took note of this. "Just what the bloody hell do you think you're going to accomplish with that?"
Cam shrugged. It's the only idea I got.
Potter shook his head. "Those spells I flung at it should have had some effect against Dragons. They didn't. Your plastic explosives won't fare much better I reckon."
"I was never very good at sitting back and waiting." He argued. With a mental command a single drone shot from his now working pouch and zoomed towards the Circling Dragon. The blast was fierce, and would have shredded a regular Earth variety, no matter how thick the hide was.
It emerged from the cloud of smoke and roared in disapproval.
"Need any more evidence that your plan won't work? Cam frowned, looking ready to argue. Harry sighed. "Look, just stay put for now."
Sam peeked up through a small gap in the dense canopy, spotting the Winged Menace again. "Wait, you guys have spells specifically for Dragons? Real Dragons?"
Harry rummaged through his pack, looking for a power bar, but paused momentarily to nod in affirmation.
"Sam sat down against a Tree trunk, slightly shocked. "Wow. Where do you keep them?"
Harry found his prize, as well as a few others, which he handed around. "The reserves mostly. They're drawn to the ambient magic of those places, and rarely stray from them."
Daniel was lost in thought. When Cam nudged him he seemed to have hit the unmute button.
"The Parchment of Virtue said the Sangreal would belong to whomever speaks the guardians name." he explained.
"The Guardian is a Dragon" Vala supplied unhelpfully.
Jackson shook his head. "No, the Guardian is the person who set this whole thing up." He looked up. "It's Morgan La'Fey!"
Vala darted from her cover behind a sizable boulder and made a break for the clearing. That was until Harry bagged her with a body bind and Incarcerous. The latter wasn't really necessary because muggles couldn't break a body bind. Just a force of habit really.
"Easy does it Vala." Harry muttered as she came zooming back across the dirt, then was lifted up feet first. Harry released the Body bind but not the ropes allowing her to run her mouth once again.
"What the hell Harry, whad'ya do that for?"
The wizard leaned in close, a grin on his face. "Luv, do you really think yelling Morgan La Fey's name would have worked?"
The space thief looked unsure now, and Daniel stepped in.
"He's right. Chances are we would need to utter the words in Ancient." With that he left the safety of the tree line. Harry followed but vanished the ropes holding Vala, sending the pigtailed brunette falling back to Terra Firma with an undignified yelp.
Harry and Daniel strolled into the clearing, looking perfectly at ease to the outside eye. The wizard conjured a muggle electronic bullhorn and passed it over the Archeologist/Linguist/ every day miracle worker.
"Thank you." Jackson happily took the horn, then fiddled with the on switch. The Dragon circled above but soon landed with a heavy thud that the rest of the team felt from over a hundred yards away.
"Did you change the batteries?" He asked the Wizard.
Harry raised an eyebrow in amusement. "You mean did I conjure the battery with the lithium Ions stuck to the negative electrode? Yes. Yes I did."
The archeologist looked bashful for a second. "Right" Jackson went back to the task of turning the thing on.
"You know, I can do it." Harry offered, not letting the big lizard in front of them out of his sight. Quite frankly he was amazed the thing hadn't tried to BBQ them yet.
"No, I got this. Just hang on. A-ha!"
The high pitched shriek signalled that he'd figured it out. Danny boy cleared his throat.
"Ganos Lal!"
The Dragon folded in on itself and disappeared.
"Well done Jackson" Potter patted the man on the shoulder and accepted the horn back, which he tossed over his shoulder.
The strolled back towards the other cave entrance, and Harry re-holstered the Elder Wand.
Several minutes later they were back inside the cave, huddled around the same red jewel, and when they went to pick it up the same bloody thing happened.
Before anyone (Harry) could start bitching the familiar sensation of being dematerialized and rematerialized somewhere else washed over them. And let me tell you, wherever 'here' was, the place hadn't seen a feather duster in a very long time.
Torches ignited, bathing the chamber in orange light.
"What just happened?" Vala asked.
"I think we were transported to another chamber." Carter helpfully vocalized what they all knew.
The group spread out, flashlights leading the way. Only it seemed Carter didn't need one, as an entire section of wall lit up blue.
"A stasis pod?" Harry asked, the query not really directed at anyone. He read the inscription next to it, eyes widening in realization.
"Merlin" he whispered, properly blindsided for the first time in many years.
"Here lies Myrdden, Arc Mage of the Round" Jackson read aloud.
Cam squinted at the frosty bearded fella. "Not a Hologram. He's the real McCoy?" Vala and Teal'c didn't get the reference, nor did Harry. They looked at him quizzically.
"He was an inventor on Earth."
Vala quickly became bored with the old guy and walked towards the angry pimple like device hanging from the main pillar. The others knew not to go near it, but she had no prior experiences to draw from.
"Hey guys, what's this?"
A chorus of 'no's' and 'get away' emanated from the five others. Fortunately Miss Mal Doran had excellent reflexes, and deftly moved to the side when the Repository reacted to the nearby human life form.
They all sighed in relief. Until the Stasis chamber deactivated, nearly dumping Merlin on the floor. They manhandled him onto a stone slab where he promptly passed out.
"He didn't!" Carter muttered.
Daniel checked his pulse. "Nope, still with us. For now."
The turned their attention to Harry, who was frowning at the old man. "Hey Potter, can't you do anything to help him? Anti-aging serum, wrinkle cream?
"Hardy,har Mitchell. Trust me, if that existed I'd be…well even richer than I already am." He shook his head. "No, no such thing as youth serum, unless you involve a Philosopher's Stone. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but for now let's see if he bounces back on his own."
Mitchell, Teal'c and Carter left to scout out the cave system, leaving Jackson, Vala and Harry to their own devises. Danny boy went into lecture mode, while Harry fished out a Goa'uld healing device for Vala to use on Magical Britain's most famous figure.
Fifteen minutes later the others returned.
"Phew, it's a scorcher out there." That comment caused some confusion considering it had been a mild 72 degrees when they entered the cave.
"Yeah, we're not on the same planet anymore." Sam elaborated.
Merlin chose that moment to come to, and was assisted into a sitting position by Vala. He wasn't exactly coherent, and called Harry Arthur.
Daniel was henceforth known as Kalahan.
Wonderful, the old guy's a few fries short of a Happy Meal.
"Huh" Vala looked at the healing devise. "Maybe I should have focused on his marble."
Daniel was quick to set him straight, and much to everyone's relief Myrddin did still in fact have full control of his faculties. He and Jackson were currently having a nice chat about Ascension.
The good Doctor managed to get the urgency of the situation across to their frail Host, who wasted no time beginning construction of a device. The process took some time, and took a lot out of the aging Ancient.
The breather he took helped, but not as much as the healing device. Harry could have done much the same with his Ancient knowledge, but they weren't quite that desperate…yet. He ignored the light conversation, still lost in his own thoughts.
Of course that didn't last long.
"You." He pointed at Harry, who had been oddly quiet for some time now. "Your dress differs from the others. From where do you hail?"
"England." Harry supplied. "Magical England."
"You claim to be a wizard then?" Myrddin was actually pretty sharp. There was an intelligence behind those eyes, and it made Harry cautious. But being able to talk to THE Merlin was also an incredible opportunity.
"Aren't you, Arc Mage?" Harry responded with a question of his own.
"I have some abilities that could be considered magic." He frowned. "Do your people believe they can actually wield Magic?"
Harry sighed, finally having confirmation. Merlin was an Ancient, not a real wizard. But how 'did' magic come to be, if his ancestors were nothing but Ancients?
He responded to Myrddin's question by conjuring a Platypus. "Can you mimic this with your abilities?" he asked. The bearded man's gaze was fixed on the odd looking mammal exploring its new surroundings.
"Marvelous" he muttered. "Who was your Master? You're very talented."
Harry pursed his lips. "We're long past the whole apprentice student way of teaching. Magical Education is institutionalized now. I was taught in Scotland."
"Ahh, so those four went ahead and did it then? I didn't think they had it in them."
Harry knew he was going down the rabbit hole, but couldn't help asking anyway. "You knew the founders?" If Hermione were here she'd be foaming from the mouth.
"Bunch of young whipper snappers back then. Especially that Godric fellow. But yes, I considered them my friends."
Huh. Small world. Potter shook his head.
"So what gives old Man, how come you and I are different? Genetically we shouldn't have changed in a thousand years, and if you knew the Founders then Magic shouldn't be a foreign concept to you."
Myrddin stroked his beard, lost in thought. "The truth is that you're in all likelihood a hybrid, part ancient part baseline human, but with a special genetic component. We first noticed this subspecies when we returned from Atlantis."
"Shaman's, Witch doctors. Druids. Your kind had many titles."
He sat down, groaning in protest. Daniel was listening with rapt attention, as were the others.
"Scans showed that these individuals possessed an exotic energy within them."
"A magical core." Potter confirmed.
"Yes, an apt description I suppose. We spliced your ancestor's DNA with our own in the hopes of gaining your abilities, but unlike the telekinetic and psychopathic characteristics of more advanced beings your abilities were difficult to master."
"The project was abandoned, never bearing any real fruit." Myrddin looked up. "It would greatly interest me to learn of how you channel your energy to create something as complex as life.
Harry shook his head. "It's not alive. Just an imitation." He vanished the Duck billed beaver tailed animal, which had drawn the attention of Vala, who had up until that moment been playing with the creature.
"Awww," she pouted. Harry rolled his eyes and conjured another one for her before continuing.
"And I'm sure I can set you up with a very knowledgeable man that knows magical theory better than anyone I know when we finish up here. And his beard is just as impressive as yours!"
Merlin nodded with a smile. "I'd like that."
The second session with the ancient building machine took a lot out of the old man, to the point where Harry had to step in and heal his body himself. The look of surprise Myrddin gave him was not lost on the Wizard.
"I had a run in with one of your repositories a while back. Gave me some fancy new abilities."
He nodded in understanding and a bit of Irony. To think that the very best outcome of that experiment to merge the best of the Ancients with this newfound magical gene was standing right before him.
The device was coming along nicely, but with every 'Stage' Merlin grew weaker. Potter knew it, and so did the Ancient.
He was currently resting on the dusty sofa beside the fireplace. "I fear I do not have the strength to complete the task of constructing the Sangraal."
"Anything I can do to help?" Harry offered. "I'm pretty good at putting together IKEA furniture."
Merlin didn't know what he meant but laughed anyway, assuming it was said in jest. "I'm afraid not Lad. Rest is what I require."
The Wizard nodded and rose, casting a mild sleeping charm as he left.
It would be another three days of jumping between random planets before the device was finished and they could dial back to Earth.
oOo
SG-1, Vala and Generals O'Neill and Landry were gathered in the Gate room. Potter and Myrddin wandered in shortly after.
"I take it that's everyone? Good, let's get this show on the road." Landry said, sounding cheerful for once. Vala pulled the inconspicuous crystal from her breast pocket and slotted it in place, causing the Red Jeweled devise to pulse to life. The gate rumbled to life in the background.
"So that's it? Jack asked. "Flick the on switch and chuck it through the gate? Seems a bit anticlimactic if you ask me."
Harry shrugged. "Sorry to rain on your parade O'Neill."
Teal'c and Mitchell picked the humming Sangraal up and crab walked it up the metal grating. With a nod to the general assembly they sent it sailing through the event horizon.
"Good Riddance." O'Neill said. Beside him Harry nodded. Merlin looked at ease.
"So where'd you send it?" Vala asked. "That thing seemed pretty fragile. I can't imagine you'd have picked any old planet with a Star Gate."
Harry shook his head. "Space gate." He supplied before stretching. The last week or so was catching up with him. But there was no rest of the wicked it seemed. He turned to face Merlin.
"Great, now I need you to make another one."
A/N: So, the Ori are finished. But that doesn't mean the fight is over. The priors still have power, and there is a possibility Adria retook human from before they were wiped out. Plenty more to do for Harry, but I'm wanting to wrap this story up. 2, maybe 3 more chapters and that's it. Gotta focus on the Starwars story before people lynch me.
