Unbound
If there was one thing Vala would grant these new 'gods' it was that they sure knew how to make an entrance. First, those oddly beautiful giant flower-egg-flesh things had just sprung up around the village overnight, and then what looked like a moon-sized elliptical pearl had breached the horizon and slowly drifted across the late morning sky.
Vala had been very suspicious, and more than a little worried, but the three figures who'd landed a transparent bubble on the edge of the village couldn't possibly be goa'uld. They were far too casual, not to mention nude, to be goa'uld. Or even Tok'ra for that matter. They even denied being gods and chided the mayor when he tried to prostrate himself, but the local villagers were a cowardly and superstitious lot, and remained awed.
Two women and one man, impossibly beautiful with markedly diverse exotic coloration. The voluptuous brown-skinned woman with flowing forest-green hair wore only a wreath of red flowers around her neck as she greeted the wide-eyed villagers with a perky bounce and a friendly smile, calling herself Salix of the Fae. Of her companions, the smaller woman was Wynter, who had pastel blue skin covered in snowflake patterns and long snowy white hair woven with glass beads. Last but certainly not least was Lexan, the absolutely scrumptious honey-blonde man with ruby eyes and black ribbon tied suggestively around his very manly body.
It was obvious the locals didn't have a clue what to make of these three. Vala couldn't entirely blame them. It was like those old fables about nymphs had come to life. The men were either staring or nervously not staring. The unattached girls were staring at Lexan like they'd never seen a man before, while the wives were caught between fear of offending these three powerful beings, jealousy, and their own staring.
Salix, Wynter, and Lexan were eventually invited to dine with the village council.
"Ooh, that's a good idea, Mr. Mayor!" Salix chirped. "A feast for the whole village sounds wonderful."
The mayor ripped his gaze up from Salix's jiggling chest and stammered, "Ah... that is perhaps not..."
Salix ignored him completely and waved her hands towards a large open space to one side of the village square. A hush fell over the crowd as an eerie whine and a bright white glow filled the space and vanished just as quickly, leaving behind a massive banquet table with luxrious padded benches, piled high with a mouth-watering array of dishes.
"There we go,' Salix said happily, snagging some sort of fruit and popping it into her mouth. "Help yourselves, everyone!"
Vala almost decided to abandon her hastily-made plans and partake. The braver villagers who accepted the offered food first practically moaned at the taste, and the delicious scents soon overcame the rest's reluctance. Vala observed that the trio of Fae sat the mayor at one end of the table, then sat themselves at the other end with Salix in the middle.
With a silent grunt, Vala tore herself away from one temptation as she gave into another. Slipping away back to her room at the shoddy little inn, Vala pulled a bundle out from under the rickety animal-pelt bed and unwrapped it, revealing her stolen kull armor. She stripped out of her village-woman dress and started pulling the armor on.
There were a pair of Oranian smugglers called Jup and Tenant that had a standing offer for anything spaceworthy that the likes of Vala could get their hands on. Vala had dealt with them before, and figured they'd pay through the nose to get their hands on an unusual new spacecraft from an unfamiliar race.
Vala carefully climbed out the window and dropped to the ground behind the inn. The forest around the village didn't provide a lot of cover, but Vala hoped anyone who might have seen her would be at the feast instead. Vala grinned to herself. It sure was nice of those Fae to provide such a nice distraction all on their own.
Circling around, Vala made her way over to where the bubbleship sat. She crept up on the far side of it from the village. The thing was transparent enough that it didn't quite count as visual cover, but it was better than nothing.
Vala put her hand on the supple surface of the bubbleship and focused on her naquadah sense. She had to figure out how to operate this thing, and fast. The kull armor concealed her identity, but it wasn't inconspicuous.
"Come on, come on," Vala whispered under her breath when the bubbleship failed to respond to her probing.
Vala focused harder than she ever had before, sinking into her naquadah sense. She could almost feel her own naquadah singing along her nerves. She still wasn't getting anywhere, and she was concentrating so hard she almost missed the sudden swell of awed gasps from inside the village.
"What do you think you're doing, I wonder," came a voice from right behind her.
Vala jumped and spun around, raising her blaster gauntlet on reflex. A small pastel blue hand clamped down on Vala's wrist with horrendous strength. It was Wynter, giving her a vaguely annoyed look as she effortlessly resisted Vala's struggles to free her weapon.
Vala tried to land a cheapshot kick, but the slender frost nymph blocked it with contemptuous ease and retaliated by picking Vala up one-handed by her chest-plate and throwing her so hard it knocked the wind out of her before she even hit the ground.
"Ow," Vala coughed, finding herself flat on her back.
That weird taste was in her mouth, the one that meant she might have a concussion. Vala forced her eyes to focus and saw Wynter stalking towards her, looking ridiculously frail for something strong enough to wrestle an unas one-handed. A surge of adrenaline got Vala scrambling up onto her knees.
"Your gouldy bosses never seem to get it, do they," Wynter lamented. "Are they just too brain-dead to understand that this little concept called provocation is a two-sided dealie?"
"Wait! Wait!" Vala frantically waved her hands in surrender. "I'm not a kull!"
Wynter stopped in her tracks, looking preposterously confused. "Since when can you guys talk?"
Vala scrabbled at her helmet, finally pulling it off and gasping, "My name's Vala Mal Doran. The armor's stolen. I was hiding out on this world and I was just curious about your ship, I swear!"
Wynter rolled her eyes in obvious exasperation. "Well then why didn't you just ask? Or, like, sneak over to poke at it not dressed like an evil killing machine?"
"Um..." Vala trailed off, using catching her breath as an excuse. She didn't really have an answer to that. She couldn't very well admit that she was trying to steal it and didn't want to leave her armor behind, but she had to come up with something.
"You've got lying lier face," Wynter accused.
Vala immediately schooled her features, and then cursed herself for as much as confirming Wynter's suspicion. Wynter just gave her a flat, "uh huh," look and turned away.
Vala dragged herself up to her feet and stumbled after the nude icy-colored woman. "Hey, wait!"
In a fit of immature whimsy, Willow-69 had decided not to rename herself, and had begged Buffy-69 and Xander-69 to likewise keep the temporary appellation. At least for a while.
Free of the need to pass as their Sunnydale identities, the three of them had only adjusted their morph settings to exaggerate their good points rather than going for drastic changes.
Their generation ship cruised through hyperspace towards the next on their list of star systems to visit.
The tiny barred window at the top of Nyan's cell wasn't much, but after five years rotting in this hole as a political prisoner, that small patch of sky was a feast for the senses. He spent the majority of his time laying on his cot, watching the sky through that small gap and straining his ears to hear the guard's radio.
He hungered for any scrap of news he could overhear, not out of any real hope, but from sheer boredom. Nyan had long since come to terms with the fact that he'd been stupid, not keeping his mouth shut about what he'd learned from SG-1, and what he'd seen on the other side of the stargate.
Five years with only that view. Nyan knew the constellations that progressed across his tiny window by heart.
Something was different.
Blinking slowly, to assure himself that his eyes weren't playing tricks, Nyan scrambled up off his cot and pressed his face to the concrete. It was no trick. New stars. Moving stars. At first only a handful scattered across the night sky, but in a matter of moments the sky was so full of burning sparkles, a fine fiery dust, that even a man who was half-blind could have no doubts.
The trio of guards, around the corner from the cells, were muttering at each other, playing a card game or something, when one of them raised his voice, "Hey! Turn that up!"
The background murmur of the radio was suddenly understandable as the telecrier spoke. "...once again this is an alpha-level alert. All citizens are ordered to proceed to the nearest public fallout bunker. We have been asked to assure you that the unknown atmospheric phenomenon currently visible across the world, is not believed to be an Optrican attack."
The curtain of glimmering light was brighter than ever as it flowed across the sky. Nyan could have sworn it was moving faster than when it had first appeared... or maybe it was just closer.
"...alpha-level alert. All - " a sound like a stitching of heavy caliber bullets hitting cement and metal cut through the telecrier's words, and then the there was nothing but static.
"Shit!" one of the guards whispered hoarsely.
"Nefertum save us," another prayed.
The curtain of glimmers had resolved into individual objects, zipping by. Nyan couldn't believe it. It was a meteor shower. A meteor storm. Planet-wide, billions of meteors all hitting simultaneously. He could hear it, like the crashing of a wave, coming closer. A steady bombardment pounding the dirt and the roads around the prison complex. One hit close enough for him to see it through his window.
Nyan flinched back from the spray of pavement, stumbling back into the center of his cell - and smashed into the bars, his breath driven from him.
Stunned, Nyan stared at the bent bars and cracked cement of his window. He looked down in a daze. There was something red and fleshy embedded in a dinnerplate-sized burn on his chest. His vision swam, his body having temporarily forgotten how to breathe from the impact. Nyan just stood there dumbly and waited for the pain to hit.
The fleshy fist-sized object sprouted reddish tendrils, rooting itself in his ribcage. Nyan could feel it spreading through his chest cavity, but somehow the pain still hadn't shown up. He felt the jolt as his butt hit the floor of his cell, leaving him seated against the bars. Impossibly, that hurt while the thing burrowing into his chest still didn't.
Nyan felt his heartbeat simply cease as his heart dissolved, and his last thought before he passed out was a sort of numb protest that the meteor wasn't a meteor.
Commander Rigar kept his bayonet in easy reach as he stepped off the boat inside the rounded crystal docking alcove.
The artificial island had appeared in the narrowest ocean channel, exactly halfway between Bedrosia and Optrica. Neutral waters. It had just shown up the day after the meteor storm, when the blasphemies' mothership had seemingly flown out of the sun.
It was less an island than a round tower, as big across as a stadium, and tall enough to rise from the seabed to several hundred feet above the waters. It looked like a crystal clear glass skyscraper, but the scientists claimed the entire superstructure - the outer wall, the floors, that sort of thing - was a single solid diamond.
The fools couldn't seem to make up their mind about it. They all agreed it was a diamond, and simultaneously agreed that such a diamond's existence was impossible.
Rigar scowled hatefully at the Optrican patrol boat motoring by in the distance. He itched to hit the enemy craft with a shell or two, but gunpowder and other explosive compounds simply turned to inert dust when they got too close to the crystal tower. The men and women of the scout parties had been reduced to fighting with knives, at least until the current residents of the tower had personally taken their knives and uniforms away.
This insult could not stand. And the damn Optricans had beaten Rigar's people to sending in a rescue party to make their displeasure known.
The top floor of the crystal tower was lavishly furnished and just as transparent as the rest of the structure. Spyplanes had observed the three aliens loafing about up there, sometimes fornicating in plain sight. They had the gall to wave at the scope operators.
The docking alcove continued as a long carpeted tunnel, soon opening out into an indoor park with some of the strangest plantlife Rigar had ever seen, starting with the round squishy grass and moving through the giant glowing fruit hanging the wrong direction from thick vines. The walls were lined with those fleshtone giant flower pods that had sprung up all over the world after the meteor storm.
The park was a ring, a buffer between the entryways and the true interior of the tower. Riger led his platoon through another shorter crystalline tunnel, this one broken up by odd smooth vertical passages, which seemed to be the only way to move between floors unless one counted the hollow core of the tower.
The ground floor was a single wide open space, resembling some kind of odd combination of fancy restaurant, museum, theater, and residence. Their missing soldiers were there, scattered across the various seating in small clumps, in underwear or less. Most of them were fiddling with thin display screens of some sort. One or two noticed Rigar's force and leaped up to salute.
One of the aliens stood between Rigar and the hostages, nude and blatantly female. She bounced and waved, for all the world like a schoolgirl greeting a friend rather than like a besieged invader facing a platoon of elite soldiers.
"Hi! I'm Elle of the Fae, and welcome to the Wikiplex," the alien said, gesturing towards a long shelf that appeared to be filled with small sheets of glass with rounded edges. "Help yourselves to a screen!"
"I will not," Rigar snarled. "By the sovereignty of Bedrosia I demand the return of my countrymen, and by the same I must insist upon your submission to detention to await divine judgement for Optrican collaboration."
The alien scrunched ner nose up in a frown that Rigar refused to think of as cute. "Uh, we don't really do the war thing, but your countrymen are free to go anywhere they like. Why would you think we'd even care about that?"
Rigar stared coldly. He wanted to take Elle's innocent act and cram it down her throat.
The female alien looked like a mockery of a very attractive young woman. Grey on grey, the lighter shade of her skin broken up by darker circuit patterns that started around her shoulders and thighs and became nearly solid around her limbs. The possibly-tatoos zigged around her torso, but if anything they emphasized her nudity rather than providing a suggestion of modesty. Her hair was like chrome spun into strands and her eyes were an unnerving luminous red.
"Hey, Elle. So, more of the other guys, huh?" someone blathered casually. "They're not gonna try to murder our other guests, like the last bunch, are they?"
Rigar had to work hard to conceal his surprise. It was the male, with the same precisely angular patterned grey on grey skin, chrome hair, and red eyes. He floated across the room before he set down beside the female.
"I don't know, Exa," Elle said, giving him a kiss on the lips... and a single shameless squeeze of his upright manhood without an apparent thought to their audience. "Their commander guy doesn't seem like the reasonable type."
Rigar couldn't take it anymore. "You take our people prisoner in your fortress, take their weapons and their clothes, and you dare..."
Exa held up a hand and cut in. "No one's a prisoner. We don't care at all if anyone here stays or leaves."
"And we didn't even bother about the fighting until people started dying," Elle explained earnestly. "First, we just got rid of the blades, but then they just used their fists. And it was kinda obvious that it was the two sides all fighting against each other according to those uniforms, so we got rid of the uniforms hoping it would remind them all that they weren't so different... which it didn't 'cause then they just started shouting insults at each other but at least they stopped hurting each other 'cause I guess they didn't want to touch each other anymore for some reason, and then they eventually got all shouted out and bored and started using the screens, which is totally what this place is for anyway."
By Nefertum, what kind of abyssal alien power let her talk like that without breathing, Rigar wondered.
"Look," Exa said into the resulting silence. "This place is not a military asset. It's an archive node. Entertainment and information, made freely available, and the only condition for being allowed access is that you do not interfere with anyone else's access, at least for a while."
"Yeah, the screens can access the archive from anywhere on your planet, and they come with the means to self-replicate once per person," Elle explained. "So once people don't need to get one here, we'll probably stop caring about about who does what with the place."
"And," Exa continued. "If you try to be rude and throw your, frankly rather insignificant weight around, Eba will make sure you don't accomplish anything except embarrassing yourselves."
"Eba?" Rigar asked despite himself.
"That would be me," a voice said from above and right behind him.
Rigar and his platoon whirled in surprise. It was the third alien, the smaller female, and she was walking casually towards them... on the ceiling of the tunnel.
Rigar gritted his teeth. There were only three of them. Even if they could do these things, they were heavily out-numbered and unarmed. Rigar steeled his resolve to do what duty demanded.
When they'd first acknowledged the possibility on that first day after Halloween, Xandra never would have thought their feelings about it would have changed so much so quickly. It just goes to show that there was some truth to the cliche that one should never say never. This was especially true when one had a reasonable expectation of living longer than one's native sun, but in this case, it hadn't even been a full year.
Time wasn't the catalyst in this case. They'd split off from their original selves fully intending to go out of their way to reinvent themselves, and after much discussion, the three of them somehow managed to talk each other and themselves into going for the idea.
"Nope, this is still weird," Xandra said as she examined her fully changed body, the tall busty brunette amazon she was.
"Fun though," Willem said perkily, somehow still totally sounding like Wills despite the deeper voice. "I know I'm imagining it, 'cause hey perfect balance and I haven't actually fallen over but I keep feeling like I'm gonna overcompensate for not having breasts anymore even though the muscles are there and bigger they don't weigh as much or almost as much but they don't feel the same 'caues they're in different places."
"Guys..."
Xandra turned to the sexy blonde bishonen. "What's up, Bu - er - Blake?"
Blake looked up at them with a slight mania in his green eyes. "I don't... feel right. I wasn't sure at first but my slayer instincts are definitely freaking out, and..."
Willem's eyes got very wide. "Oh no! Xandra! Why didn't I think of that? We totally didn't think this through!"
Blake stopped Willem by pulling him into a hug, pressing their bodies together in new and interesting ways. Xandra firmly maintained her state of zen acceptance of the fact that, even if it was really Buffy and Willow, Xandra was getting a tingly watching two naked guys together like that. She focused on enjoying the novelty and figuratively put her fingers in her ears and chanted, "la la la not listening," at the part of her brain that hadn't fully purged itself of turn of the 21st century reflexes about sexuality and the gender divide.
Zach had been intimate with guys on a couple of occasions during his nearly two centuries post-revival, and he'd also been female in virtualties many times, so even if the three of them hadn't decided in advance that they were gonna be the gender-swapped scoobies unless they really couldn't stand it after a while, it wouldn't have been totally unfamiliar.
There was still a big difference between temporarily wearing a body of the opposite sex in a virtuality and taking it on as a new identity in reality, with a new name and everything. At least faelin made it easier by only distinguishing gender by pronoun in specific circumstances, since it was often more concerned with other abstractions. The distinction between the idea of a person and their immediate presence being the most common.
"It's fine, Wills," Blake assured the red-head. "Its just kind of... dizzying, but not like I'm actually dizzy, you know?"
"Maybe you should change back?" Willem suggested.
Blake shook his head. "We didn't sit around for days all transitiony just to go back the other way as soon as we got done! I'm okay. Promise."
"You're sure?" Xandra asked, taking the opportunity to rest a hand on each of the newly boy-type's butts.
Blake nodded as he and Willem looped an arm around Xandra and groped her in return. They hadn't changed height much, so Xandra's boobs were in a very convenient place for Blake and Willem to nuzzle. The two boys shared a grin and simultaneously latched onto a nipple, forcing a moan out of Xandra.
Maybe that small unwanted facet of Xandra's brain wouldn't go away for a while yet, but it was weak enough that being female and sandwiched between and double penetrated by male versions of her best friends was no less welcome than being with them in any other way. It made for a nice figurative sticking out of tongue and, "Nyah! So there!"
"Mama! Mama! Come look! There was a pretty light and now there's magic plants!"
The energetic five-year-old came running into the cabin. Laira smiled at her son as he clambered up onto the edge of her sickbed. Garan caught the boy before he could fall on his sick mother.
"Whoa, easy there, Jack," Garan said, sitting his little brother on his knee. "You need to be gentle with your mother right now, remember?"
Jack gave him a wide-eyed nod of innocence. "Sorry, Mama."
Laira smiled tenderly. Jack was such a fine boy, and she could see his father in him even this soon. He'd grow up to be a fine man some day, maybe the finest man on Edora, even if Laira wouldn't be there to see it.
"You'll be careful next time, won't you?" Laira said.
Jack gave another big nod.
"Now what's this about pretty lights and magic plants?" Laira asked indulgently.
Jack twisted to look up at his grown brother before focusing back on his mother. "There was a light. It was bright! And white! And then there was plants, and the plants were growing really fast!"
Laira considered that. It almost sounded like the kind of unusualness such as happened with the stone ring that led to her meeting Jack's father. She looked at her adult son questioningly. She was about to suggest he cautiously investigate, when her cough acted up and she wound up hacking into a cloth held by Garan while Jack looked on with scared eyes.
Garan set the blood-spattered rag aside and gently eased Laira back onto her pillows.
Before she could fully catch her breath, there was a knock on the door to their cabin. Garan went to see who it was, and Laira heard him make a very surprised noise. Then a figure stepped into view, a naked girl like a nymph right out of a fable. Laira wondered when she'd slipped into a fever dream.
"Hello," the nymph said brightly. "I'm Juniper, of the Fae. How'd you like to be not sick anymore or ever again?"
A lush oasis stood out among the barren rock and grey soil of the lunar surface. It was ringed by mossy arching tree trunks that wove through each other in a braid, curving into the ground at both ends. Glowing golden bulbs grew from the branches. The path between the trunks was spongy under Hayate's boots, a web of softly glowing gold vines over mottled green and brown. It was also lined on either side with these gorgeous glowing blue bell flowers.
Nanoha and Fate landed on either side of her. Fate paused for a moment, glancing back with a curious expression.
"What is it, Fate-chan?" Nanoha asked.
Fate shook her head. "It's nothing. I can feel how they're keeping the air in. It's interesting, but not important."
Hayate led the way down the path and into the clearing the the center of the lunar oasis. The three Fae were waiting there, on a circular raised platform that looked like glass, sitting on the edge of something that was like a plush white curved sofa without the back and extended to make a complete circle.
Willow Rin stood up and waved cheerfully. "Hello, nosy magic-type people! Welcome!"
Hayate broke out in a big ol'e grin. She liked these guys already. Beside her, Fate was impassive, but Nanoha was going pink in the face. That probably had more to do with what the Fae were wearing than Willow's delightful greeting.
Willow appeared to clad in nothing but rose petals. The red petals somehow clung to her skin, mostly around her legs and waist where they did nothing to hide the fun parts. Hayate was momentarily reminded of Ruby, but that only made her realize how Willow didn't really remind her of Ruby after all.
Xander had black leather belts of varying thickness fastened snugly around his limbs and body. Each appeared to be clasped with a deep violet jewel. He had one such belt between every major joint, including one around the middle of his upright manhood. This was a sight Hayate appreciated with an expression that was much too sweet to be called a leer.
Buffy's outfit was just great, though. She wore a color-swapped version of Fate's Barrier Jacket, only without the swimsuit-esque centerpiece. A white and green cloak hung around her shoulders, with matching thigh-highs adorned with blue gems and metallic fastenings, and the crossed midnight blue belts and mint green slit skirt framed her bald vulva rather than concealed it. Her blonde hair was even tied up in twin-tails with white ribbon.
"Hi, Willow," Hayate said back serenely, deciding formality had no place in this meeting. "My name's Hayate. This is Nanoha, and this is Fate. I love what you've done with the place."
"You do? You don't think it's too much?" Willow wondered.
"It's lovely!" Hayate assured her, absently levitating up to eye level.
"So," Xander said with a clap of his hands. "Come sit. Who wants ice cream?"
And indeed, what Hayate had taken for an ornamental fruit plant had scoops of ice cream growing from its branches. Now that was neat trick. Once this six of them were situated, Buffy asked the looming question.
"Okay then. We're all with the hereness. What did you want to talk to us about? And how did you know about our contacts in Sunnydale?"
"Well that one is easy," Hayate said. "A short while ago we rescued a woman who was stranded on an uninhabited planet. Samantha Carter?"
"Oh," Buffy glowered, then paused. "Wait, stranded on an uninhabited planet?"
"Yeah, she helped us out a bit before we gave her a ride home," Hayate said. "She gave us some of the backstory, but she was just as surprised as we were when Nanoha's family told us about your public reveal. Nanoha and I were both originally from Japan, you know."
"My family wishes to allow themselves to be changed," Nanoha put in. "I love my family a great deal, so I especially want to know what kind of people you are. I want to know if this gift you are offering comes with a price."
"Well... the short answer?" Willow said. "It doesn't. It really, really doesn't."
"And the long answer?" Nanoha asked.
Willow looked over at Xander and Buffy. They shrugged.
"From our point of view, having a Fae body is the bare minimum standard of living," Xander said, and raised a hand to tap a finger as he listed off. "Needing sleep when you don't want it. Growing weak with hunger or thirst if you don't consume food or water. Breaking so easily in the face of external damage, extreme temperature, hostile organisms, or the mere passage of years. Having a form that is inherited rather than chosen. Having biological dangers involved in acting on your sexual desires." Xander put his hand down. "Living under those conditions, condemning others to live under those conditions... it's inhumane."
"We didn't make the birthing pods," Willow continued. "We didn't decide how Fae bodies would work, either."
Hayate considered this.
"Who did?" Fate finally asked the expected question.
Willow took a deep breath and Hayate shamelessly enjoyed the way it made her boobies jiggle. "Short answer or long answer?"
"Oh, the long one, please," Hayate said with a smile.
"Once, in a reality so far away that it had no magic at all and only had an Earth full of humans by sheer coincidence, some very remarkable people managed to create a benevolent optimizer to help them turn Antarctica into a first-world nation," Willow exposited. "Except, these people knew what kind of thing they were creating. They knew that once they set it in motion, it would become something on the far side of a god. They knew that the fate of sentient sapience in their universe, if not their entire multiverse, hinged on their decision."
"We call it Giaa," Buffy said.
"The original Giaa Seed was programmed to identify conscious minds, decode their terminal values, and optimize the environment according to those values," Willow continued. "And that's what it did, starting with the bodies those minds were housed in. Fae are physically the literally most satisfactory body a human mind can inhabit, according to the Giaa's algorithms."
"That is why we trust the birthing pods to be safe," Xander said.
"Sugoi..." Nanoha breathed. Well, she sounded won over. So it was that much less likely that this would end with giant pink magic beamspam of doom and friendship.
Fate was more suspicious. "If this Giaa is behind everything, why aren't we talking to it?"
"There's kinda two reasons," Willow said. "The Giaa doesn't really talk to you like a person, because it doesn't have, you know, like, an identity or a personality and its only self-aware in the sense that it is aware of everything and it is a part of everything. So to speak."
"More importantly," Xander said, "the Giaa are... halted, sleeping, stopped, paused, suppressed... we don't know, but it hasn't done anything since we got here. If it had, the galaxy and beyond would already be a paradise where no one would have to suffer if they didn't want to."
Hayate smiled. "Well, then this is the perfect opportunity to ask, how did you get here if you're from a different metaverse?"
"Copying from read-only data is a thing gods can do, apparently," Willow said.
"...oh."
Homura paused the playback of the Ace trio's conversation with the Fae trio and sat back. Looking at her face, it was like the pieces of a puzzle were suddenly fitting. Madoka put a hand on her arm in quiet support.
Madoka was focused on something else. "This Giaa they talk about. Could it really do what they say? Could it do that and... get it right? For everyone?"
"According to them, it already had," Fate said thoughtfully.
"But that would be... truly wonderful," Madoka ventured. "Wouldn't it?"
"Yes, I think it would," Nanoha agreed, "but why wouldn't the Giaa be active?"
"It can't," Fate said with some authority. "Intelligent Devices have been around a long time. General intelligence is a solved problem. However, while a Device can think faster than we do, it can't think better."
THIS IS SUFFICIENT, MY MASTER, Raising Heart chimed. Nanoha patted the jewel with a fond smile.
"The Evante Cognition Ceiling," Chrono broke in with a nod. "Discovered by Sascha Evante during the Belkan Empire when attempts to make Unison Devices significantly smarter than humans simply failed for reasons that still aren't understood."
"Except we have the nearest thing to proof that superintelligence is possible," Fate said softly.
"Hayate," Homura suddenly said loudly, sitting up and grabbing Madoka's hand so they were skin to skin.
Madoka didn't bother to suppress the glimpse she got into Homura's mind from the contact. Homura had realized something big.
Hayate, however, wasn't paying attention. She was hugging a large spherical package and giggling perversely. The third Ace had come back from the lunar oasis clutching the thing and just giggled when anyone asked her what it was. Vita sat next to her, giving the package a look that was equal parts poorly-hidden curiosity and embarrassed trepidation.
"...never mind," Homura muttered.
"You figured something out?" Madoka prompted gently.
Homura frowned in thought. "Maybe. It doesn't fit. We know Willow, Xander, and Buffy lived in Sunnydale for a long time, but we've also independently confirmed that their ship showed up on... October Thirty-First, correct?"
"The first sightings took place then," Fate agreed. "It's also when Major Carter's people released the cover story."
"We're also reasonably certain that the Fae were conjured into our reality by a large-scale theurgic summoning?" Homura said.
"They even said so themselves," Nanoha agreed. "Why? Do you think they were lying?"
Madoka, who'd been watching the thread of Homura's thoughts, suddenly gasped, "When?"
"Eh?" Nanoha made a questioning noise.
"When were they summoned?" Madoka asked intently.
"October Thirty-Fir...st...by the Saints!" Chrono exclaimed.
Fate's eyes flew wide as she noticed the same discrepancy. "How did we miss a detail that critical?"
"No one else caught it either," Chrono said. "The SGC never bothered to investigate the summoning itself. But it doesn't make sense. We have the details on the summoning in question, do we not?"
"An invocation amplified by a hellmouth, targeting a collection of pre-prepared sets of clothing to temporarily effect an artificial stage four possession, Janus," Nanoha read off the notes her voice rising as she made the connection. "It does make sense, Chrono-kun! The Fae appeared on the same night this Janus was invoked to transform people into their Halloween costumes!"
"And Joyce knows," Homura murmured to herself. "They all did. That's what didn't fit."
"Then they weren't lying about any of it," Fate said distantly. "Willow, Xander, and Buffy... they were Sunnydale natives."
A silence hung over the table as they all processed that revelation. Knowing this put many concerns to rest, but it also opened up several new ones.
"Um, stage four possession," Madoka began. "Doesn't that one mean a complete personality overwrite?"
"Usually, yes," Chrono answered. "But only incidentally, and in this case the possessing entity was itself a conjuration and inherently unstable. According to testimony, the possession only lasted a few hours. Nowhere near long enough for the sympathetic neural growth to overwhelm existing patterns."
"But they were permanently altered, by what should have been a temporary effect," Homura noted.
"Oh, that's not strange at all, when you think about it," Nanoha reasoned. "If this Janus wanted to change them at all, he would have had to transform them completely. There isn't any middle ground between human and Fae, is there? And they obviously weren't overwritten if they still knew and cared about their friends and family!"
Madoka nodded in thoughtful agreement.
"In any case," Chrono said, "I believe we can conclude that action on our part isn't necessary in so far as the Fae are concerned. I suspect the Admiral will agree. I will make my report. Dismissed."
Hayate stood and grabbed Vita's hand. "I'll be in my suite. C'mon Vita-chan! Let's collect Signum and Shamal. I've got a surprise."
"What was that about?" Homura wondered as Hayate dragged her smallest knight off.
Nanoha and Fate both blushed, but Nanoha looked more resigned and Fate more intrigued.
"It's just... Hayate being more Hayate than usual," Fate offered charitably.
"Willow offered us a parting gift," Nanoha explained, blushing even harder. "You know how on this world it's kind of a common cultural joke that when a girl's offered a gift, she's supposed to ask for a pony?"
"Really? That's kind of strange," Madoka hazarded.
"Hayate... didn't ask for a pony," Fate said.
"I think Willow knew the joke, but she took the request seriously anyway and gave Hayate what she asked for," Nanoha said.
Madoka hesitated. "What did Hayate ask for?"
"...a pet tentacle monster."
A brief silence. Head-tilts ensued.
Beside the firepit under Chulak's night sky, Bra'tac stood before the gathering of rebel jaffa leaders.
"We've lost contact with yet another world," Aron, one of the younger and less experienced among them stated. "We must determine if there is any truth to the rumors of this mechanical scourge."
"Indeed," Bra'tac agreed. "We may spare a handful of scout ships to investigate these territories, but if the rumors are true, then we will have a larger problem."
"What problem do you speak of?"
"Those loyal to our cause have grown fearful," Tolok answered gravely. "Their hearts are wavering in the face of this mysterious new threat. The chains of the false gods are heavy, but also familiar."
"Tolok is right, several of my warriors have expressed doubts."
"What of these Fae that Teal'c spoke of?" Aron brought up. "If they truly offer lasting freedom from prim'ta, surely such a blessing would inspire many jaffa to strive for more."
"One would hope," Tolok said tiredly. They had been going in circles on this topic for some time. He shook his head. "Mere stories are not enough assuage the fear that is spreading through our people."
"But surely - "
Surprised gasps and the sounds of scrambling for weapons alerted the gathering. Someone pointed at the northern sky and shouted, "Look!"
A hyperspace window, large enough to be seen with the unaided eye. A shape streaked out and blurred to a stop among the stars, a white oval gleaming bright enough to lift the darkness of the moonless night.
Bra'tac grinned and clapped Tolok's shoulder. "We may soon need not rely on stories alone."
The body of the teen girl lay motionless on the bed as a frowning doctor poked and prodded at her. Tomoko hadn't come out of her room all weekend. Come the next school day, she still hadn't emerged. Tomoko had been laying there, face down in her pillow and completely unresponsive.
One panicked call later, and Tomoko's body was busy confusing their family doctor.
No breathing. No pulse. For a moment it seemed that Tomoko had died, but it clearly wasn't that, as the girl was still warm to the touch. They couldn't get a needle through her skin, and the doctor claimed that he really didn't know how to begin treating a fae-touched.
One last attempt, involving electrical sensors at least confirmed that Tomoko was alive. And that using electrical sensors meant for humans on her was hazardous for the sensors. Tomoko's condition, whatever it was, appeared to be stable, so the doctor gave up.
It had been weeks, and Tomoko's body still lay unresponsive in her own bed at home, and every day her mother checked to assure herself that her daughter was still warm to the touch. Internet research revealed that the state Tomoko displayed was common in those fae-touched who entered the dreamworld Fae apparently had. After that revelation, sympathy for Tomoko in the Kuroki house sharply declined, though they still couldn't figure out how to wake her up.
No one thought to ask another fae-touched to contact Tomoko through the Dreamlink. Ah well, it'd be obvious sooner or later.
The ha'tak formation had plowed into Replicarter's territory in a brazen display. Her repliblock ship carried her to meet it, escorted by four of her own claimed ha'taks. She was hailed almost as soon as she was in range.
Even if her goals and priorities were completely different, she still had Samantha Carter's personality. Curiosity got the better of her, and she answered. A face swam into focus.
"Ba'al," Replicarter stated coldly, already half-way to closing the channel and opening fire.
Ba'al surprised her. "My greetings to you, Not Major Carter. When I learned what you did to the high council, I decided it behooved me to come at once."
"With only three ships?" Replicarter asked. "You think you can accomplish more than your pointless death, swatted like an insect, with such inferior force?"
"On the contrary," Ba'al said, smirking that smug smirky smirk of his. "I wish to offer you my allegiance."
Replicarter stared, and then she actually laughed. That was the first time she'd ever actually laughed before.
"You cannot seriously expect me to believe you will cooperate in your own destruction," Replicarter scoffed.
Ba'al smirked some more. "That is rather the point. You were absolutely right when you told the high council that this galaxy is wasted on them. Unfortunately, the galaxy is getting rather crowded as of late, and as you may have noticed, I care somewhat less about ideology than I do about competence in my allies, and yes..." The smirk fell off his face for a moment replaced by a hint of sourness. "...masters."
Replicarter quirked an eyebrow.
Ba'all spread his hands. "It is my hope that you would be open to delegating, as it were."
"And what is it you want out of this arrangement?" Replicarter asked.
"Simple," Ba'al said. "i wish to be allowed continued rule over the heart of my territory as I see fit, even if it must be in the name of Repli...carter."
"That's Madam Replicarter to you." Huh. Snark. She hadn't done much of that before either.
"As you say," Ba'al agreed.
Replicarter considered him. "You will obey me. You may make suggestions, but you will not question me otherwise."
"That is acceptable." More smirking. "What is thy bidding?"
Slowly, Replicarter smiled.
The projection screen went dark as the credits rolled, beginning with a title card thanking the real Nanoha Takamachi, Fate T. Harlaown, and Hayate Yagami for consenting to interviews and the use of their likeness. A disclaimer followed, stating that Lyrical Nanoha As was based on true events, but that some details were changed to protect both personal and military secrets.
Nanoha kept shooting subtle worried glances at Hayate, but the other girl just wiped her eyes and smiled.
"All that... really happened?" Doctor Weir asked faintly.
"It did," Chrono confirmed. "In the broad strokes, at least."
"Okay, I have to ask," Jack spoke up. "Are there any adults on your planet?"
"Colonel," Weir warned.
"In the sense you mean, of legal status bestowed soley due to age, no," Chrono answered with a deadpan look. "We judge on merit, not on time elapsed since birth."
Daniel Jackson cut in before the greying Colonel could retort. "Actually, this is fascinating. The similarity to many of Japan's popular cultural memes is striking. I wonder if there has been enough cross-cultural contamination to explain the similarities to the 'Magical Girl' concept."
Colonel O'Neill groaned. "Fer cryin' out loud. Please tell me Sailor Moon isn't Japan's Wormhole X-treme."
Hayate clapped her hand over her mouth as she doubled over giggling. It had come up in conversation at some point, and Major Carter had mentioned the Wormhole X-treme incident.
"Actually sir, that would be highly unlikely," Major Carter said seriously. "The plot of that series is severely dependent on the existence of 'life energy' or 'ki' - common pop culture terms for the concept of elan vital, which was theorized to be a fundamental force that separates living matter from nonliving matter by imbuing matter with the property of life. Since we know that life actually depends on sophisticated chemical mechanisms and can exist in the total absence of magic, elan vital has long since been ruled out, but the false intuition that led to the theory in the past still shows up in fiction relatively often."
Shamal was nodding in agreement. Everyone else was staring at Major Carter, especially her own people.
"What?" Major Carter asked.
Colonel O'Neill put on an innocent face. "Nothing." He turned to the mages. "So... your people are called Childans, your home planet is called MidChilda, but your interplanetary government is the Time-Space Administration Bureau?"
"Yes," Chrono confirmed.
"Well that's a waste of a perfectly good acronym," the Colonel deadpanned.
Hayate snickered. "You know, Colonel, I said the exact same thing. Hehe. Stab."
Chrono suddenly looked very grumpy.
(I am suddenly pondering the plausibility of a Replicarter/Ba'al crack pairing.)