Chapter Three – Return
The sun was halfway to the middle of the sky as Sonic, Tails, and Sciron made their way to the cave where the Stargate was held. Sonic had given Sciron an old pair of his sneakers; they fit perfectly, and looked as good as they day Sonic had first worn them; he apparently had bigger feet than Sciron. He had refused breakfast, because, as he had explained, he needed to get used to the different food, or else he could have a major reaction to it. That, and he was allergic to tomatoes.
They reached the cave in record time, and descended into the abyss. They walked into the cave where, as Sonic had said, it was much lighter in the daytime, and where, Sciron saw, to the right of the Gate, was a DHD. As he approached, he noticed that it was covered in a fine layre of dust; no one had used it in some time. He motioned to Sonic and Tails and, a minute later, the large red dome that served as the device's "enter" key was off. Sciron, using a rock to boost himself up, reached in and removed the Master Control Crystal, handing it off to Tails, who put it on the ground. Sciron then waved his hand over the limited space below where the crystal once sat; a round panel rose up to allow him to remove it. He then reached in, coming up out of the bowels of the DHD with the blackened remains of the DHD's ZPM.
"Good thing that the gate completely reintegrated me. This thing has no more power!"
At that, he walked over to the MALP, which he had made larger again before he had begun on the DHD. He opened one compartment, placed the empty ZPM in it, and began removing several pieces of equipment; four ZPM's, three of which he put into a strange contraption made of metal that was on wheels. He wheeled this over to the DHD, carrying the fourth ZPM. He placed it into the power slot, replaced the cover and the MCC, and finally replaced the dome. He then placed the three ZPM's, a contraption he had made so that he could go back to his native reality if need be, next to the DHD. He then turned to it.
"Well," he said to the others. "Let's hope this works." He pressed the Scorpio glyph, intending on dialing this reality's version of Chulak. The first chevron lit up and the inner ring began to turn. Elated, he quickly punched in the remaining symbols, finally touching the Earth symbol and placing his hand on the central dome. The Gate activated, and this time, neither Sonic nor Tails jumped at it. Sciron deactivated the gate and hopped off of the rock he had been standing on to reach the DHD and beamed at the others.
"Well," he began. "At least we know we can use the gate if need be. And," he continued, walking over to the MALP again and removing a small ball-shaped object from another compartment. "We have gate addresses as well." He threw it to the ground, where it seemingly opened, and out of the ball grew an Ancient computer terminal, with a full copy of the Ancient Database on it. Using another rock to boost himself up, he was able to reach the keys and pull up a planetary database of planets for this reality.
"Most of them seem to be the same planets in my reality, but mostly uninhabited, as of 10,000 years ago. I'll need to account for stellar drift on these addresses, as they haven't been updated for so long."
As he began to work on this, Tails wondered over to the MALP and to the compartment that Sciron had taken the ball from. He reached in and removed a small grayish box. He tapped it experimentally. It rang from within; it was hollow.
What's this?" he asked. Sciron looked over and smiled, hopping down from the terminal and beckoning Sonic over from near the DHD.
"This" he said, taking the box from Tails, activating a hidden catch on the box's right side that caused the top to pop open, and removing a cloth covered object. "is a small project I've been working on." He unraveled the cloth to reveal the Goa'uld hand device he had taken from the SGC, with the major difference that the red crystal in the palm of it had been replaced with an identically sized and shaped blue crystal. "I've been adding new features to it, hence the need for the new crystal, as THAT, I've found out, controls everything in the device." He slipped the hand device over his left hand, where it fit snugly. He then replaced the cloth in the box and returned the box to the MALP. "It's too small in here to give you two a practical demonstration of this thing's power, we might collapse the cave. Maybe later."
"Sure." said Sonic. Tails, meanwhile, had walked to the MALP's front and was looking over at the front compartment, which was closed. As he bent to open it, he said "Wonder what's in here…"
He never finished that sentence as, as soon as he opened the compartment, he turned to run as he saw something within the compartment that was the stuff of nightmares, and as it released a high pitched hiss.
Sciron froze. It couldn't be….. He turned as a thin object flew from the open compartment and into Tail's neck. Tails collapsed immediately as it struck him and as Sciron almost flew at him, catching him as he fell. Sonic arrived a moment later. Sciron immediately checked Tail's neck and confirmed his suspicions; a small, about inch-high cut was in the skin under the fur. There was no doubt; Tails had been infected with a Goa'uld.
Sciron immediately walked over to the open compartment, activating the hand device's shield as he did, to prevent any surprises. He peered in and saw, dead center of the compartment, in the middle of the research he had placed into the space, was a Goa'uld stasis jar. A wire had been attached to the lid of the jar and the bottom of the compartment lid; a booby trap made easy, intended for him, no doubt, but it had hit Tails instead. He quickly shut the compartment and did a sweep of the remaining compartments (turning up nothing else), and taking from them as he went a Zat, a syringe gun and vial of anestethic, three ZPM's, his laptop, and a special bag that was bigger on the inside that the outside. When he was done, he pressed one of the buttons on the wrist section of the hand device, which shut the remaining open compartments and then sealed them shut. He then walked back over to Sonic, who was on the ground next to Tails, checking to see if he was breathing. Sciron dropped to the ground and injected Tails with the contents of the clear vial filled with anestethic. Tails would be out for the duration of the blending with the Goa'uld, but this would ensure he would be out for longer.
"What happened?" asked Sonic.
"There was a booby trap on the MALP." explained Sciron. "It was meant to infect me with a Goa'uld symbiote, and it hit Tails instead. I just gave him something to keep him under wraps for a while, we need to get the symbiote out of him.
"Do you have any way of doing that?"
"Not alone. We need to get to Atlantis."
"In your reality?" asked Sonic.
Sciron nodded. "The Deadalus is there now, and I can use the onboard Asgard beaming systems to get it out of him, with the right mathematical calculations. And if anyone looks twice at our appearances, I'll knock them flat."
Sonic didn't know if he was joking or not, but either way, Sciron had already connected his akeshift ZPM holder to the DHD and had begun to dial Atlantis, adding on the extra glyph in order to dial out of the reality. With the extra power, the DHD accepted the extra glyph and the gate connected. He immediately activated a microphone transmitter in his laptop and prepared to talk to Atlantis.
Colnel Carter was looking out at the Gate from her office nearby the Control Room of Atlantis. She and Dr. McKay had managed to get Sciron's research without alerting his neighbors and while avoiding the exploding oven, and had returned as the infestation in their rooms had subsided. She should go look over the research, but she needed to look over some mission logs from her absence. As she got up, she saw the Gate beginning to activate. She ran and got to the Control Room just as the Gate activated.
"Unscheduled Offworld Activation, Colonel." said Zelenka, who was, for some reason, up at the control room manning the DHD. We're not receiving an IDC." He turned to a beeping laptop an spoke again. "Incoming Transmission, Colonel. Audio only."
"Play it." said Carter.
"Samantha," said a voice.
"Sciron?" she asked, recalling the name. She didn't know how, but she knew it was him.
"Yes. I'm afraid I have a problem. Before you say anything, it involves the Goa'uld."
"The hand device you took from the SGC?"
"No, that works great, you can see for yourself. No, an operative of the Trust was stashed aboard the MALP I took with me. A Goa'uld stasis jar with a symbiote inside was rigged to open when one of the MALP's compartments was opened, and Tails accidentally opened it when I was trying to fix the DHD here. I need access to the Deadalus'sbeaming system to remove toe Goa'uld, like you did with the Colonel. I've sedated him but I don't know how long he'll be out. Please lower the shield and get a medical team to the gate room."
"Tails?" asked Zelenka.
"Long and complicated." said Carter. "Lower the shield, and get a medical team in here ASAP." Zelenka complied immediately.
"Thank you." said Sciron. She heard, "Sonic, get him.", before the audio link went dead. A moment later, as the medical team arrived, Sonic (with Tails in his arms) and Sciron stepped thru the Gate. There was a slight silence as the two hedgehogs and fox (who's appearance had become less cartoonish) looked at them, before Sciron took Tails from Sonic and took control. He placed him on the gurney that had been brought from the medical wing and spoke.
"Restrain him, the ansethehic will wear off in a few minutes." They complied.
Carter came down from the Control room, stepping over Zelenka (who had fainted) and walked down to Sonic and Sciron.
"What happened?" asked Carter, but Sciron put up a hand to stop her; Tails was waking up.
He looked around, taking in the Gate and Control Rooms. Then he laughed, a cold and unfeeling sound.
"Tails?" asked Sonic.
Tails looked at the two hedgehogs. When he had, both of his eyes flashed with a yellow light around the pupils, and then returned to normal. When he spoke, his voice was several times too deep for Tails.
"I have finally come to the place I have sought for thousands of years. I finally stand in the City of the Ancients!"
"What?" asked Carter.
"No." said Sciron. "You can't be…"
"Yes." said Tails. "I AM ANUBIS."