A/N: posted: 4/28/14 using the death derailed breaks because one of the offline readers I use doesn't support horizontal rules.
Date: Monday, August 10th
It had only been a little over a week since Adrian returned from the future, and so much had happened. He'd already destroyed the cup, locket, and diadem. He had plans for the ring, diary, and the free floating wraith. His godfather was essentially home-free. Pettigrew was being questioned by the DMLE. He'd introduced himself to Neville. And, He had found himself with real family.
Adrian stopped by the furnished compartment in his trunk to change clothes and appearance to that of his older twenty-one year old appearance, he went back to the stash of artifacts and selected a few medical diagnostic tools then grabbed the control tablet for the nanites and commanded it to form a medical nanomorph from the slurry container. A generic alteran male in the generic medical uniform stepped out of the container. A few more commands and the nanomorph's outfit changed to healers robes. The nanomorph would be able to make better use of the diagnostic tools than he and would be able to form a neural link with the longbottoms to better diagnose mental conditions.
"Your designation will be Alexander, alias Alex." Adrian told the newly formed nanomorph
Adrian placed a notice-me-not charm on them both and they exited to the street. Holding his wand arm out he prepared himself to jump back as the knight bus popped onto the street a moment later. The nanomorph next to him stoically ignored the burst of displaced air from the bus's appearance the bag containing the medic tools firmly tucked under its arm.
The bus looked a bit newer than when he'd taken it in third year. The gold lettering on the side spelling out Knight Bus was fresh and the paint looked more a dark magenta then the purple he'd recalled from the night he fled number 4.
A teen in a rough blue conductors uniform stepped out of the open door of the bus, "Welcome to the Knight Bus emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard, Names Jim Boothe, I'll be your conductor this evening."
"Names, Adric, this is my brother Alexander, we're taking a trip to st mungo's for a visit." Adrian spoke up.
"One galleon, five sickles." Jim responded holding out a hand, which Adrian promptly placed the requested amount in.
The two climbed aboard followed by Jim Boothe and made their way to a seat about midway back. Adrian conjured some restraints for the padded seat and motioned for the nanomorph to sit down first next to the window. They had barely managed to get buckled in before the bus jolted forward pressing them back into their seats.
The ride on the bus was exactly as gut wrenching as he remembered it. After three stops and a near miss with an oncoming lorry they arrived at the front entrance to st. mungo's disguised as a rundown store front for an old department store proclaiming the store as Purge and Dowse Ltd. It was almost exactly as he remembered it from his first visit to Mr. Weasly while he was injured.
He chuckled to himself as he overheard a nearby shopper make a passing sarcastic remark over how the store had been under renovation since it first appeared. Adrian stepped forward followed by "Alexander" the nanomorph medic and spoke directly at the manikin. "Visitors for the long term patient ward."
After a moment the Manikin nodded assent and they stepped through into the busy waiting room. The line to the welcome desk where a very bored healer trainee sat playing with some wizarding toy was empty so Adrian calmly walked forward and introduced himself and asked for directions to the room the longbottoms were staying in.
The bored mediwitch barely looked up from her toy to grab the patient chart and give them the floor and room number. Adrian motioned for the nanomorph to follow him.
"Be prepared for resistance, there is a strong possibility of interference with the healer's involved in the case." Adrian said remembering the list of backers for the Janus Thickey ward as they entered the lift.
Rather than confront the watching healer on duty at the desk just inside the door to the ward Adrian mentally commanded the nanomorph to take them both out of phase and they walked right through the door and past the Healer who was reading from a magazine without comment.
Inside the room Alex disabled their phase cloak and Adrian gently closed and locked the door before casting charms to prevent noise from escaping the room but ensuring they would hear anyone approaching. Both longbottoms were asleep on their beds empty potion bottles on the table between them and a few restraints tying them down.
Alex began scanning them with the diagnostic tools, and even Adrian untrained could tell that the scans were detecting problems. Alex spoke up, "There are anomalous ZPE readings centered around the base of the skull, i'm detecting several organic components spread throughout their systems. Some are helping to repair what appears to be electrical damage to their nerves while other components appear to be blocking or inhibiting nerve signal transfer."
"Objectives: Speed up the recovery of their nerves, filter the inhibiting potions, cancel out whatever that ZPE reading is and ensure they can't be administered anything damaging again." Adrian said as he paced after a moment of thought he decided to make use of their current condition. "Secondary objective, interact with their dream state to re-educate them to Alteran standard. And do something to make it so they can talk with each other so they aren't alone."
"The secondary objective will require a level four nanite colony." Alex said calmly.
Adrian queried the database in his subconscious for the information and received an access denied response. "Explain."
"A level four nanite colony places a group of nanites within the brain of the patient to directly interact with the neurons once colonized they cannot be removed without harming the patient only deactivated. The colony of nanites will work to preserve the individuality and memories of the patient while repairing any damage they encounter. However concern was expressed by the medical council over their use as they could be used to modify a person's memories or control them."
"Can you lock out those capabilities permanently?" Adrian looked up at the nanomorph.
"Yes, however the nanite colony would be unable to be deactivated."
"Alright, once they have completed basic training and education program the nanites to act as additional neurons to enhance their brain capacity, and lock them into that mode programmed to only deactivate upon physical death."
"A level two nanite colony would be able to repair and filter out the remaining concerns and prevent further dosing. A Level two colony focuses on the rest of the body and the blood stream but can be filtered out if necessary." Alex said anticipating the question.
"Program them to deactivate if they leave the body, or if the Longbottoms die. Also lock their programming so they can't be reprogrammed by anyone but the Longbottoms or myself."
"The anomalous ZPE reading can be neutralized by applying a counter wave directly to the affected area."
"How long will that take." Adrian asked.
"Only a few moments I will need to create a detailed scan of the ZPE wave being generated in order to create the counter wave."
"Proceed with the planned treatments. have the scan ready to apply the counter wave immediately following the level four colony."
Alex leaned forward to place a hand at the base of first Frank and then Alice's neck his hand turning silvery as he a stream of nanites sunk into their skin. A moments after the nanites sunk into their skin, he pressed his hand against the base of the skull and his hand glowed soft white before flashing red, green, blue, red, yellow and back to white. The nanomorph repeated the procedure on his other patient before stepping back, his hand having returned to normal the only thing to show for his efforts being a slight loss of mass from the nanites used.
"Physical repairs proceeding without incident, The level four colony encountered a mental block which dissolved after countering the ZPE reading. Estimated time before education procedure completes is one month. The longbottoms will experience approximately seven to ten years time in their shared unconscious mind."
"After we get to the lobby I want you to phase out and scan the remaining patients of this ward for any similar tampering prepare a list of names and their condition before returning to me. Also record any conversations between healers and visitors about the condition of patients while here." Adrian said removing the charms he'd placed on the room except for the sound blocking charm preventing sound inside the room from escaping.
Alex phase cloaked them again and they both left the ward.
Once they reached the lobby Adrian apparated out while the nanomorph generated the appropriate effects for its own exit but only cloaked itself instead.
Death Derailed ~ Death Derailed ~ Death Derailed
Earth time: August 1st, 1987
Location: Somewhere in space, Lord Yu's domain.
Emperor Yu examined his domain. Something was different today. It felt as though he'd awoken from a dazed century long downward spiral into megalomania and senility. He remembered several lifetimes worth of egocentric narcissism that had only been exacerbated by the use of the sarcophagus. But those memories where all faded and distant like a recording from one of the security monitors placed around his domain. He searched for the point of divergence in his mind. He felt repulsed by the memories of choices made under very different circumstances.
A Goa'uld lifetime's worth of tyrannical rule with an iron fist. Even though better in behavior than many of the other Goa'uld the other lifetime depicted in his memories was still despicable. The old Lord Yu, a System Lord in the Goa'uld Empire, rivaled only by Ra, had made use of the sarcophagus. Sparingly, that is, when compared to how other System Lords had taken to sleeping in the things at even the slightest perceived physical injury but still heavy compared to his current policies.
The differences in the behavior of his alternate self with each remembered use of the sarcophagus to extend the life of his remembered hosts body reassured him each time that his decision to limit the use of the sarcophagus across his domain exclusively to life threatening injuries, or reviving only the most recently deceased and then only if the individual had not used the sarcophagus within the past three months.
The sheer amount of memories and the fact they had not faded beyond that normal for such a long lived being was the most pressing reason he was still considering them. He personally remembered switching hosts seven times since that fateful day when he was forced to confront what the Goa'uld had become. Weakened from sustaining a dying host injured from a crash landing and suffering withdrawal from the sarcophagus—a bleeding edge technology by Goa'uld standards—He'd jumped to a young child named Yu.
The many years of happiness, the crushing sadness of loss as his host outlived their wife. The joy of seeing his children growing up and eventually marrying, and repeating the process each time he moved to the next in the line of succession. The sheer weight of the years of living as a mostly benevolent emperor easily held back the evil of how things could have been.
Yu set aside his memories both the ones that matched up with his life and the set he considered new. It would not do to become caught up in yesterday real or imagined. Yu leaned over and kissed his wife before moving from his royal chambers to begin the day.
With each gift of Jaffa from the subservient minor goa'uld in his territory he found himself having to ferret out the spies with the talents of his host Huang shang Ti the most closely guarded secret of his empire was his family of Hok'Tar a trait that had bred true in the royal family. Each passing year required him to remain ever vigilant and to an extent paranoid about any possible infiltration of spies into his domain.
The closest anyone had gotten to his secret was Nirrti's predecessor Na'gash who kidnapped his daughter a century earlier. The battle had lasted for two days and the end result Na'gash's death at the hands of his daughter's accidental magic. At least some good came from that though. The rest of the System Lords learned you didn't mess with those Yu had claimed.
His current annoyance the continued attempts at infiltration by the Tok'ra a singularly ineffective organization. Sadly the one thing he couldn't risk was to sire more goa'uld from a queen. Doing so would give the queen access to all the memories of his life in the genetic material transferred. Not to mention whatever other potential genes transferred from his host. He had no queen that he could trust as having the same ideals as him.