Reckoning (Part 1)
Sunlight spilled over the curve of Dakara's horizon, lighting the hazy rim of atmosphere a brilliant gold. Vi'tak stood before the primary console, maintaining the stoic calm befitting a jaffa of his station.
Despite his best efforts, his eyes still occasionally slid to the walls of the pel'tak, where dozens of grey metal creatures perched in neat columns. Lord Ba'al's new servants unnerved him, and Vi'tak found himself once again quashing the blasphemous little shiver that ran down his spine when he wondered just how much these Replicators were really under his god's control. There were rumors...
An alert appeared, overlaid on the view of Dakara's daybreak. Vi'tak's hands went to the controls and requested more information. Unidentified ships emerging from hyperspace. Dozens. Vi'tak's breath caught.
"Kre!" Vi'tak barked, hitting the alarm.
Pulling up a tactical display, Vit'tak saw a distant ha'tak blink out of existence. Til'vak strode up to the secondary console and stood ready. Lord Ba'al arrived shortly.
"My lord, we're under attack!" Vi'tak reported.
"It is the usurpers, my lord," Til'vak reported.
Lord Ba'al settled into this throne. "Order the equatorial ha'taks into flanking positions. This enemy shall be given no warnings and no quarter. Vi'tak, bring us about."
The view of the planet swung across the viewport, settling on a formation of six ha'taks, Lord Ba'al's honor guard. Vi'tak made the ship accelerate, falling in behind the screening formation.
A pinprick of light in the distance announced the loss of another ha'tak. A heavy silence hung over the pel'tak.
"My lord! Incoming fire!" Til'vak suddenly exclaimed.
"Evade!" Lord Ba'al commanded.
A beam of pale gold light, moving deceptively slow, lanced up from below them, slicing through one of the honor guard. Vi'tak gritted his teeth and went to full lateral thrust, dodging the wreckage and hopefully any followup blasts. The remaining honor guard moved to a new formation to defend their god.
"Return fire," Lord Ba'al ordered.
Plasma bolts rained down on the Ori mothership, and Vi'tak got his first good look at the unholy thing. An elongated hoop, pristine white, enclosing a smaller ring that seemed to hold an ethereal orb of brilliantly glowing blue-white light.
The metal bugs lined up on the walls suddenly started chittering and moving. Vi'tak flinched, wishing his god would see fit to do away with the things. His console readout started displaying alerts.
"I've lost control of the shields!" Vi'tak reported urgently.
The floor shook and the haze of the shields luminesced. Vi'tak caught himself before he could stumble and pulled into a sharp turn.
"Damage?" Lord Ba'al demanded.
"Shield strength is down by half, but we are undamaged." Til'vak reported.
Another pale gold beam slammed into one of the honor guard, breaking the shield but leaving the ha'tak wounded but still battle worthy. Vi'tak strained the engines, keeping them to an unpredictable course. Plasma fell against the Ori mothership like rain.
An Ori beam pierced a second ha'tak, peppering Ba'al's ship with debris. The floor shuddered from the impacts. Something grey and spiderlike, the size of an al'kesh, streaked down through the battle, insectile legs spreading and spearing into the Ori mothership's shields.
Vi'tak smirked viciously as the usurper's shields flared and rippled. After a moment, the shields buckled and the main cannons of four ha'taks ripped into the Ori mothership.
"The usurpers feel our wrath," Vi'tak enthused, but then he blinked. "Fighters! Nearly two squadrons have escaped the mothership's destruction."
"My lord, shall I order our deathgliders to launch?" Til'vak asked.
Like long flat teardrops glowing from the wide end, the Ori fighters advanced, only to be met by more Replicator... things. Smaller than a deathglider, four glowing blue wings, and six slender and nimble limbs, discharging what looked like lightning at the enemy fighters.
"My lord! Three more motherships approach!" Vi'tak announced.
Explosions lit up the viewport.
"My lord," Til'vak began. "We've lost more than thirty ha'taks. Soon we will no longer outnumber the usurpers."
"They are a formidable foe," Lord Ba'al agreed, almost sounding worried. "Use the Replicators as a screen. Order all ships to break off and regroup above the temple."
The ship rumbled and shook, and another pale gold beam slammed into the shields of one of the remaining honor guard. Vi'tak's hands clenched on the controls.
"Shields at minimum integrity," Vi'tak reported.
"Launch deathgliders to cover our retreat," Lord Ba'al ordered sourly. "Take us - "
The floor lurched and the lights wavered. Lord Ba'al caught himself on the arm of his throne as alarms began blaring, but Vi'tak went sprawling. He could feel the ha'tak shudder under him. Everything went dark except the stars outside and then a wall of blinding heat -
Replicarter paused to frown. Ba'al was dead. How disappointing. The Ori were moving in force to take the jaffa homeworld of Dakara, bypassing dozens of more valuable planets. They were showing their hand, and Replicarter had to know why.
"What was that?" Daniel asked slowly. "You just learned something."
Lips twisting in displeasure, Replicarter hardened her resolve and forced Daniel back into his figurative box - the sensory simulation she was using to interact with him. It was getting harder. Daniel's mind kept seeping through her efforts to contain him. His thoughts had ontological weight, and there wasn't anything she could do about that because she needed his mind active.
"The Ori are laying siege to the jaffa homeworld as we speak," Replicarter told him, showing only bland confidence even though the strain was beginning to impact her effectiveness elsewhere. "Whatever it is that they're looking for on Dakara, the Ori clearly deem it a high priority."
"Okay..."
"Fortunately, I suspect that this too, is a secret that was once known to you," Replicarter told him. "It seems a detour is in order. We need to know what is hidden on Dakara."
Fate woke first, as she often did, with Nanoha sprawled half on top of her. Nanoha's skin was hot and slightly sweaty against Fate's naked body under the covers. Fate smiled softly and pulled Nanoha closer, nuzzling into her neck and breathing a deep, happy sigh.
Nanoha didn't stir. She slept like a rock and her limbs went everywhere. It was rather adorable. Fate pressed a wandering trail of soft kisses along her partner's inviting skin as her hands traced Nanoha's lean curves.
With a shivery thrill, Fate curled her hand down through Nanoha's rump to dip a finger into her sweltering core, and marveled yet again that the last boundary in their relationship had finally been broken. She had spent so long resigning herself to that splinter of scorned craving in her love for Nanoha that it still stunned her sometimes to have it... not scorned. It was hard not to feel like suffering was simply her due, the way things were supposed to be. Fate would endure anything for Nanoha's sake, and after what she'd done for the mere memory of a far less intense and less complete love, was that any surprise?
Of course, Nanoha saw things differently, which was one of the many reasons Fate loved her so much. It was kind of funny and kind of sad when Nanoha of all people had to scold her for not being selfish enough. Nanoha had flat out told Fate that even if she didn't think Fate was gorgeous and sexy, and she absolutely did, she would still have rather let Fate kiss her and stuff than let Fate suffer, and Fate needed to stop being silly with hiding things that Nanoha needed to know to make Fate happy.
"Mmm," Nanoha moaned softly, finally roused by Fate's kisses and fingering.
"I love you," Fate murmured.
Nanoha squirmed and clumsily kissed Fate's face without opening her eyes. Fate helped her find her lips and Nanoha plundered Fate's mouth with her tongue as soon as her warm lips found their target. Fate melted and basked in Nanoha's desire.
The door to their quarters chimed and slid open.
Nanoha stopped with a small whine and Fate groaned inwardly, shooting a glare at Hayate over Nanoha's shoulder. It was Hayate, looking bright and perky and already sharply dressed in her brown Capital Defense uniform - she was the only one besides them who was keyed into their quarters, a habit from when they were younger.
Hayate giggled into her hand as she let the door shut behind her. "Oh, don't mind me. You don't have to stop on my account."
Nanoha mumbled something that might have been angry words when it grew up.
Fate let Nanoha out of her arms and reached for her underwear. Nanoha sat up, yawned, and worked on getting her eyes open as Fate slid out of their bunk and stepped into her snug black panties.
After adding a matching tanktop, Fate gave the shamelessly smiling Hayate an expectant look. "Yes?"
"It's the Fae," Hayate said. "They've got a crisis of some kind. Willow's coming over to brief us."
Nanoha blinked at that and shook off the remainder of her bleariness, hopping to her feet and starting to dress in her white and blue Air Corps uniform. "How long? Did she say anything else?"
Fate did up the fastenings on her black and silver Enforcer uniform.
"She's probably here now," Hayate said, leading the way out into the corridor where Vita was waiting. "I figured you wouldn't want to hear about it second-hand."
"Mou," Nanoha sighed. "Thanks, Hayate-chan."
"I hate to think you're missing out on your morning lovin', though," Hayate said brightly.
Nanoha blushed. "We weren't doing that anyway! We were still asleep."
Now Fate blushed. I wasn't.
"Cute!" Hayate giggled. "Just let me know if you want to make up for lost time. You can borrow my Tentacle-chan!"
Vita blushed, with a far-off look in her eye.
"Really, that's okay!" Nanoha insisted somewhat desperately. "I don't need to meet your hentai monster."
Hayate hmm'd. "I could always ask Willow to make you two one of your own."
Nanoha flailed a bit, while Fate found herself oddly intrigued. The thought of her and Nanoha together at the center of an orgy of friendly, amorous tentacles wasn't what she would call repulsive.
"Mou, you're mean, Hayate-chan," Nanoha finally pouted.
Hayate just gave her a sympathetic smile.
When they reached the bridge, the nude redheaded Fae was talking to a very professionally blank-faced Chrono.
"...already converted to your codecs," Willow was saying as she handed a data chit to Chrono. "Oh! Hi, you three!"
"Hi, Willow," Hayate greeted cheerfully. "Your gift has been wonderful, by the way. Thanks again!"
Chrono went over and handed the chit to Amy.
"Oh, good," Willow said, briefly brightening. "But I'm here for very not good reasons. Your captain tells me you're familiar with the Ori?"
Fate nodded along with Nanoha and Hayate, now worried. It wasn't surprising that the Ori weren't contained in Childan space, but it certainly wasn't good news. The bridge's vast windows filled with images of scorched landscapes, covering over the view outside of the moon's illuminated arc set against the stars. There were a couple of murmurs and soft gasps of surprise from the bridge crew.
"These are from three planets spinward of Sol," Willow told them with a glance behind her. "We've been offering our upgrade to as many worlds as we could, but the Ori agents who came to these worlds declared us to be abominations. They claimed to be 'cleansing' these worlds of our 'taint' but the losses were all baseline humans."
Several of the image frames showed confused and shell-shocked naked people wandering in glowing wasteland and then being gently collected by more Fae in flying transparent bubbles.
"All the fae-touched who were vaporized in the orbital bombardments made it through the emergency upload and are being reconstituted aboard the Tender Heart and the Rushing Colors," Willow explained. "Unfortunately, fae-touched made up only a small portion of the population of those planets. Millions of people were killed."
"Do you object to sending this data to our high command?" Chrono asked.
Willow shook her head. "No, please do."
"It's amazing that anyone survived that," Nanoha said, looking at Willow resolutely. "Your people have done so much good! So many people are only alive because of you."
Willow smiled, a little bashful, a little sad. "I've tried to do what I can."
"Should Madoka and Homura be hearing this?" Fate wondered.
"This doesn't seem urgent enough to wake them right now," Hayate opined. "We can brief them with the rest of the crew."
"My family's taking the upgrade," Nanoha told Willow. "The Japanese government has started a program to reimburse wages to people for the time spent in the pods. I'd do it myself if I knew I wouldn't be needed for a few weeks."
"Me too," Hayate chimed in.
Fate nodded. She wasn't as eager as Nanoha, but she didn't have any qualms about it.
"I know," Willow sighed. "Three weeks is nothing when you ought to have all the time in the universe, but it's an eternity when all this bad stuff is going on. There just isn't any way to make it faster, unless you can warp time."
Fate paused. She and Nanoha shared a look. "...Fate-chan, we should wake up Homura."
Sam jogged into the control room just as Hailey reported no IDC. Jack and Weir were already there.
"We're receiving video," the Lieutenant reported.
And there was Sam's face on the screen. Jack hissed.
"Daniel's fine," Replicarter told them preempting the obvious first question. "I merely needed to borrow him for a short while."
"Why should we believe you?" Weir asked cooly. "You've given us every reason to mistrust anything you might say."
"Believe it or not, I am still acting to defend this galaxy, and Daniel Jackson is a valuable resource," Replicarter claimed.
"What are you doing with him?" Sam asked.
"He will not be harmed," Replicarter said. "I'm sure he will explain everything to you at the earliest opportunity."
"You'll return Daniel to us?" Weir asked.
Replicarter nodded.
"Then why?!" Sam asked somewhat emotionally. "Why not cooperate with us? We could have agreed on what to do if it's so important."
"I would be disappointed that you can't see it, if I didn't remember it from your side," Replicarter mused. "That is part of the problem. You are blind to your own bigotry."
Jack's eyebrows went up in incredulity. "Bigotry?"
"Seen from the outside, it is obvious," Replicarter claimed. "Jon, a complete and faithful duplicate of Jack's mind, a second instance of one of the most valuable people on your planet, demeaned and exiled from the SGC because you couldn't see past his physical appearance."
Sam found herself at a loss for words, having not expected that argument at all.
Replicarter wasn't done. "Harlan's SG-1. True divergences, as much you as you yourselves, shunned and discarded for being made of different materials. It is a rather damning trend."
"So, what? You decided to preemptively betray us just because we didn't hand full security access to clones and roboreplicants?" Jack asked scathingly.
"In a word, yes," Replicarter replied reasonably. "You have systematically rejected your duplicates at every opportunity, and I am less you and less palatable than those you've rejected in the past. I could not afford to gamble the future of the galaxy on the off chance that you'd be egalitarian this time."
"Those incidents were before my time, but to my knowledge those people were treated fairly by the SGC," Weir pointed out.
Replicarter's lips twisted in a bitter smirk. "And you miss the point. Again. Your definition of fair leaves much to be desired." She shook her head. "It is irrelevant. I didn't dial in to criticize your policies. I have tactical intel."
"Oh do you now," Jack snapped. "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..."
"The Ori have moved in force on the jaffa homeworld of Dakara," Replicarter revealed before Jack could snark properly. "Ba'al has fallen, but the free jaffa are stalled on Chulak while their rebel leaders remain in the Fae pods. There is an Alteran artifact hidden on Dakara, a powerful weapon that we must keep out of Ori hands, and if that is not sufficient motivation then I suspect you would like to keep it out of my hands as well."
"What kind of weapon?" Sam asked.
"The weapon is hidden in the temple immediately in front of the Dakara stargate," Replicarter informed them. "As for what it does... I believe it is the device used by the Alterans to terraform this galaxy."
Replicarter stepped out of frame, and the stargate shut down. Sam barely noticed. Her mind was busy being full of the horrifying implications.
Homura stared thoughtfully at the birthing pod which sat on top of a smooth white mound in the Arthra's cargo bay. She held Skjoldur in front of her and the black crystal at the center of the bronze shield glimmered with the light of her magic. The parameters of her Slider Drive spell scrolled by on a holographic screen, responding to her thoughts as she poured over the code.
"Can you do it?" Chrono asked bluntly.
Homura bowed her head, long dark hair falling around her face. "No." She swept her hair outwards as she turned to face them. Silky strands slithered over her arm. "I don't have the power for that much volume, and there isn't an obvious work-around."
Madoka put a comforting hand on her arm and Homura leaned into the touch with a sigh. Hayate, Nanoha, and Fate were making disappointed faces, but not at Homura specifically.
"Even if I did have enough power, I can't maintain Slider Drive while I sleep," Homura added.
Willow hmm'd. "Ignore me if, you know, I don't know what I'm talking about, but could you put your spell on the pod with yourself outside the effect?"
"I..." Homura frowned. "I didn't design the spell for that. I based all the equations on having myself and Skjoldur in the accelerated time frame. I'd need weeks to design an entire new spell..."
There was an obvious solution, but Homura was reluctant to voice it. Precognition could give her the time, but it was a daunting task even without the emotional stress of being around people for whom the question, "are they real?" may not even have a coherent answer, or the possibility of some disaster appearing and Homura not daring to end the spell until she figures out how to prevent it. It was unspeakably selfish, but Homura dreaded the day someone pointed out that she was perfectly capable of living every day twice just in case because they'd be right, but living like that would destroy her.
Madoka, picking up on the gist of her thoughts, leaned into her side and murmured, "I'd go with you. We can go somewhere secluded and I can give you my memories to carry back to me, like before."
"I would still like to have several of your pods on board in the event of a medical emergency we aren't equipped to handle," Chrono was saying.
"Sure, I can do that," Willow agreed. "Just tell me where you want 'em."
Homura finally sighed and gave Madoka a gentle kiss. "Alright."
Madoka stepped back and activated her Barrier Jacket. Activating her own Barrier Jacket, Homura took Madoka's hand. A blacklight purple Circle unfolded under her, and Skjoldur announced, PRECOGNITION.
Willow-rhom was about to transport several more mounds of... she really needed to come up with a translation for the name of the stuff, maybe 'protoscape' for something close to the literal meaning.
The raven-haired magical girl with the time powers suddenly cried out and fell to her knees, her Barrier Jacket dissolving in a shower of purple light. The pinkette in excessive ruffles gasped and caught her girlfriend.
"Homura!" Madoka gasped in surprise. "Homura? What's wrong? Oh saints, you're bleeding!"
"Oh no! I'm getting Shamal," Hayate gasped. "She's on her way."
Willow could only guess at what happened, but they had a birthing pod right there. If Homura was recoverable, she'd be recovered. The bleeding girl started twitching in Madoka's arms, and Willow wanted to yell for them to put her in the pod already but they'd resolved that putting any of their mages out of commission for three weeks was a last resort only and they had magical healing.
A blonde woman in a long green dress and white tabard rushed smoothly into the cargo bay. While Madoka struggled to restrain Homura's seizure without hurting the girl, the woman slid a glowing hand up the back of Homura's neck. Homura immediately stilled.
Shamal waved her rings over the girl and a light green Belkan Triangle unfurled over Homura's head as the girl gently floated out of Madoka's arms until she was laying on her back in the air. "What happened?"
"We... she..." Madoka squeezed a tear out of her eye and shook her head sharply. "She just cast Precognition so we'd have time to go invent a new spell, but then... this! And she didn't bring any of my memories back so I don't know what happened! What's wrong with her?"
"Neural bruising and hemorrhaging," Shamal stated, heading towards the corridor guiding the floating Homura along with her. "She'll live, but I need to get her into surgery immediately."
Madoka led the crowd as she followed Shamal to the infirmary. Willow trailed along.
Madoka watched as Shamal sat in deep concentration, a glowing hand on either side of Homura's head. Madoka felt like the sun had gone out, and the hard ball of degenerate matter had settled in her chest. The feeling was even a little bit literal. Her telepathy was giving her nothing right now. Homura's mind just wasn't there.
"Attempting resuscitation," Shamal reported, making Madoka jump.
A new Triangle appeared in Shamal's pale green, and Madoka held her breath. A glimmer... and then a presence. Madoka burst into tears and sagged against the observation window. There was no content to it. Homura was too deeply unconscious still, but Madoka could feel the mind blooming back into existence.
"The patient is stable," Shamal said leaning back with a sigh.
Madoka was the first one out of the observation room as Shamal floated Homura out to a recovery bed and settled her in. Madoka scrubbed the tears from her eyes and brushed her fingertips along Homura's sleeping face.
Chrono, Hayate, and Fate were questioning Shamal.
"The damage was wide-spread, but shallow," Shamal was saying. "Miss Akemi should recover fully after an ordinary night's sleep."
"Do you have an idea what the cause was?" Hayate asked. "I just checked with Mariel she's still running diagnostics and data recovery on Skjoldur. She won't be able to hard reboot Homura's Device for another few hours."
Madoka looked up. She wanted to know what went wrong so she could make sure it never happened again.
"I'm afraid I don't have a baseline for how Miss Akemi's Precognition functions on the neural level," Shamal admitted. "The damage looked like a failed stage five possession. Like the spirit, if there was a spirit, was badly fragmented, or like thousands of very similar spirits all tried to possess her at once and merged destructively."
"...didn't Homura tell us that before she was given Skjoldur, this spell regularly gave her severe headaches?" Fate asked.
"That's true," Madoka spoke up.
The nude Fae interjected, "Did Homura know how her Precognition spell worked?"
Madoka ran her fingers through Homura's hair as she answered. "No. It was a Rare Talent. The only thing her spell did was let her use it without the headaches. She made it by trial and error, mostly."
Willow made a face. "Well... can any of you super magic type people think of a better explanation for solving a horrendously complicated neural engineering problem by accident, than for Homura's precog to normally work by... y'know... conjuring up a spirit-copy of her future mindstate and then possessing herself?"
Everyone mostly looked at each other and kind of shrugged.
"Once Mariel gets Skjoldur back online, we'll be able to rule out a few other possibilities if Willow's right," Hayate said.
"If this was due to something that happened on her end," Chrono said, "we need to know what, and how long we have. How soon can Miss Akemi be safely woken?"
Shamal considered. "She needs at least six hours. I'd feel better if she wasn't disturbed for a full ten, though."
"Um..." Madoka began. "I could look through her memories. I know she'd let me. Would that be... better than waking her up?"
"If you're actively digging? Only slightly," Shamal said.
Madoka slumped. Six hours. It wasn't three weeks, but with some unknowable catastrophe lurking, it felt like forever.
The massive steel ceiling shuddered as the klaxons sounded. A line of moonlight sliced down the center of the drydock, slowly widening across the utilitarian grey hull of Earth's new flagship as it saw sky for the first time in its existence.
"Umbilicals disconnected, main power online and stable," Lieutenant Evans reported from the tactical console.
Colonel Cameron Mitchell settled into The Chair and tried not to grin like a little boy who'd been given his own starship. He hit a button. "Command, this is Odyssey. All systems green, we're ready to touch the sky. Permission to launch?"
"Granted, Odyssey. Shake her down. Your rendezvous with the Daedalus is at oh-two-hundred zulu."
Mitchell grinned. "Major Marks! Take us out."
With a slight shudder, the Odyssey lifted off. Several thousand tons of trinium and naquadah, engineered into a honed and powerful battleship, floated gracefully over the Nevada desert. Then the ship accelerated into the sky, and Mitchell watched the stars go bright and hard as they left the atmosphere.
"Captain, we have an incoming teleport," Amy reported.
"Thank you, Amy," Chrono replied as he turned to face the arrival platform.
A figure emerged from a glow of sky blue. Major Carter wore her distinctive half-scientist half-military style Barrier Jacket and looked troubled.
"Major," Chrono greeted her. "Welcome back to the Arthra. What can I do for you?"
"Several things," Carter said. "We've received some intel on the Ori from... if not a trusted source, then a credible one. My commanding officers would like to speak with your commanding officers about a potential joint operation. You should be recieving IFF handshakes from two new battleships the Air Force launched today."
Chrono looked at Amy, who, after a moment, reported, "Yep! Found the carrier wave on the interface layer, and... sydar is tracking, Cap'n!"
"Thank you, Amy," Chrono said, and the to Major Carter, "Let's see about arranging a conference."
Stars. Stars and galaxies through and across time, the infinite and the infinitesimal. Worlds old and new, great and small. The touch of power, the clarity of fractal determinism and the layers of higher order. All the artificial trappings brushed aside, for just a moment, a glimpse of comprehension, before it all slipped away.
Daniel gasped and staggered as Replicarter's mental world reformed around them. A glowing red jewel in the shape of an egg hung in the darkness between them.
"Ah, and there it is," Replicarter murmured softly. "So it was on Earth all along."
"What... what is it?" Daniel asked tiredly.
She looked down at him from over the image, its light lending a bloody cast to her face. "You don't know? Even now, you don't remember?"
"Oh believe me," Daniel snarked, pushing himself to his feet. "I wouldn't still be here if I did."
"Even so, I think I'll be keeping you safely out of the way until I have obtained the artifact," Replicarter told him. "Goodnight, Daniel."
With a thrill of alarm, Daniel hurled the might of his magic against Replicarter's mind. He had to seize control now, he had to... he had... His mind moved sluggishly, his senses muted. Drugging. She was drugging him. She wasn't going to give him a chance to stop her.
Madoka woke to the feeling of her hair being petted, and to the familiar slow burning star of Homura's love, tinged with misery, fear, and guilt. Her heart surged in her chest as Madoka snapped awake. The hand froze, and then pulled away.
Homura's eyes were wet with tears, but she still breathed Madoka's name like a prayer. "Madoka. Oh Madoka I'm so sorry! I lost you! I lost you!"
Madoka lurched forward onto the hospital bed and hugged her girlfriend tightly, loving her and wrapping her love around Homura's mind like a soft cloud. "It's okay. Whatever happened, it's okay. I love you, and you can show me what I missed, right?"
Homura buried her face in Madoka's pink strands and shuddered. Madoka wriggled into a more comfortable position and let her bask.
Eventually, Madoka began to gently dig into Homura's memories. Homura squirmed, her breath catching as needy heat pooled in her belly. Madoka's telepathy itself wasn't stimulating in that way, but it was shiver-inducingly intimate in its own right, and Homura's body responded anyway because of sheer repetitive association. Madoka enjoyed Homura's reaction, but didn't let herself get distracted.
Shamal came in a some point while Madoka was catching up, but she didn't interrupt until Madoka was finished. Homura and herself, on an uninhabited planet out in the middle of nowhere for two days, and then... it just cut off.
"I don't know what happened," Homura concluded redundantly.
Hayate stood behind Shamal, and gave Madoka a questioning look. Madoka nodded in agreement. Hayate sighed.
"How are you feeling?" Shamal asked Homura.
"Like I went two days into Precognition without Skjoldur's help," Homura admitted, letting go of Madoka. "Is Skjoldur okay?"
"Ah!" Madoka nodded brightly and twisted the other way. The familiar black octahedron sailed across the room and landed in Madoka's hand, and she handed it to Homura. Skjoldur flashed a deep purple as soon as it touched Homura's hand.
"Nothing your Device recorded provided any clues either," Hayate told them solemnly. "It needed a hard reboot, but it wasn't physically damaged."
Skjoldur slid onto the back of Homura's left hand and sprouted a black fingerless glove. READY, SIR.
"How bad?" Homura asked with resigned calmness.
"Not as bad as it could have been," Shamal replied. "I'd recommend another full night's sleep before you do anything strenuous, just to be safe, but your recovery won't require any additional care." Shamal paused. "You're likely to become prone to seizures as you finish maturing, so I'd like to keep an eye on that, but to be honest, my professional recommendation is to avoid the whole problem by taking the Fae upgrade."
Madoka felt Homura's vague sense alarm and gave her a squeeze. "How soon?"
"I'd estimate at least a year before the seizures get dangerous, but I don't recommend waiting that long,' Shamal replied.
Homura relaxed. "Alright. Can I get up?"
"Let's find out, shall we?" Shamal said cheerfully.
Madoka helped Homura get from the bed to her feet. Homura winced and clutched her head, but she stayed steady. Shamal and Hayate left while Madoka helped her get dressed.
Madoka and Homura shared a long and lingering kiss. A moment of heartfelt affection and relief, sustained for several minutes before the two girls shuffled out of the infirmary, arm in arm.
Madoka and Homura came upon a peculiar scene when they stepped into the galley. Opposite the kitchen, on the other side of the concentric tables, a familiar blonde woman in a blue and white Barrier Jacket stood across from a nude red-head with an unnaturally perfect body. Thanks to the hour, there wasn't much of an audience, but Nanoha, Fate, and Vita were all present, along with three men Madoka didn't know offhand who were sitting at the far end of the tables and politely ignoring the argument.
"You could have at least left a line of communication open!" Major Carter exclaimed.
Willow scoffed. "Oh, yeah, like leaving a way for your guys to make threats at us would have made our native friends safer."
Major Carter winced. "For what it's worth, I don't agree with the tactics that were used, and neither does my team."
"Well they sure didn't let that stop them, did they?" Willow huffed.
"I... wasn't there, but you can see how your actions must have been interpreted, can't you?" Major Carter tried. "You knew you were setting out to upset the status quo."
"The status quo was horrible!" Willow exclaimed, gesturing wildly. She sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter now, though. Fine, I'll turn that subspace radio you gave us back on, happy?"
Major Carter just made a face. "Thank you, Willow. With the Ori invading our galaxy, we need to be coordinated."
While this was going on, Madoka went over with Homura and loaded up a tray to share. They went and sat by where Nanoha and Fate were standing.
"Speaking of which," Major Carter said. "Are you still in contact with the Asgard?"
Willow blinked. "No, we haven't heard anything from them since we gave Thor a ton of birthing pod seeds."
"Damn," Major Carter muttered. "I was hoping you'd be able to get a message to them. We haven't been able to contact them either."
"Why? What's going on?" Madoka wondered.
Hayate sat down across the table. "A seven-way battle, it looks like. We may be down to three sides, though!"
Madoka blinked. "Huh?"
Everyone who was still standing took seats, and Nanoha held up a hand to start ticking off fingers. "Us, Earth, the Fae, the Goa'uld, the Jaffa Rebellion, the Replicators, and the Ori. If we can trust the source of the intel, there's a powerful precursor weapon on a planet called Dakara, and the Ori are busy landing an army as we speak."
"The rebellion isn't going to be a factor," Major Carter put in. "Unfortunately, their leadership are still undergoing the Fae upgrade."
"Right, but we are coordinating an all-out attack," Hayate told them. "Whatever it is that's actually on Dakara, the Ori have committed a significant force to obtaining it. Anything the Ori want that urgently, we can't let them have."
Fate looked at Homura. "And we may not have much time."
"You think..." Homura trailed off.
"I talked to a seer we met once," Willow revealed. "He says his foresight wiggs out early tomorrow, around the same time your precog glitched. We don't know if this has anything to do with Dakara, but the timing is worrisome."
Madoka shivered. Her hand found Homura's under the table, and Madoka nearly flinched at the despair radiating off her lover, but under that was a core of determination like a neutron star.
"When are we leaving?" Homura asked.
"The Arthra is set to join the assault fleet in two hours," Hayate replied. "Are you two...?"
"We're staying on," Madoka said firmly, because this was the mission she'd accepted, the enemy Homura would do anything to protect her from. In a way, her life had been leading to this since the moment she inherited Galvan Soul from Mami Tomoe.
For months now, the Fae mothership had drifted across the sky like a second moon, until one night, it wrapped itself in faint green haze, and moved. Visible to the naked eye for anyone who cared to look up, the vast spacecraft shrank into deep space and streaked into a blooming blue cloud that remained splashed across the stars for hours afterward.
And through the rest of the night that miniature nebula was the only unusual thing to be seen in the sky, but that only lasted until soon after the sun rose over England.
The spring rain was coming down hard, sheeting against the glass of Luneth's window as Harriet spread a towel across the sill beneath it. She eased it open, using a combination of telekinesis and her Utility Cloud to mostly stop any water from passing the boundary of the frame.
A wet chill whipped across her bare arms and cut through the thin fabric of her green backless one-piece, but that just made her smile. Wind chill hadn't bothered her much even when she was human. Now that she didn't have to worry about hypothermia, it was just the sensation she most associated with her favorite thing.
Flying.
Luneth ducked under her arm and snuggled into her side. "I so enjoy seeing the way you smile when you think of the sky."
Harriet bent her head to kiss him, running her hand over his bare torso. When she glanced down, she broke off and giggled. As she had half expected, his shiny grey swim trunks were tented up, worn so the fabric folded back against the elastic between his member and his waist.
"Not leaving much to the imagination, are you?" Harriet asked with amused fondness.
Luneth glanced down. "I'm covered, and my own sense of modesty is satisfied. It is hardly my fault that swim trunks are poorly designed. It isn't as though normal humans do not sometimes become erect."
Harriet nuzzled him. "Well, I certainly don't mind."
"Oh good, it would be ever so bothersome if you did," Luneth said serenely. "This will be such fun! It's been much too long since I've played in the rain."
Harriet floated Luneth and herself up off the floor and pulled him snug against her chest. She took them through the window, and they were both soaked through in moments. Shutting the window behind her, Harriet tumbled lazily in a skyward direction and then shot upwards fast enough to carve a trail through the rain.
It was cold. They'd both already be shivering violently if they hadn't gone in for the Fae thing, but they had, so while they felt the icy cold it utterly failed to do anything to them. Luneth was a brilliant warmth against her body.
And then, suddenly, they burst out of the clouds, streaming water behind them as the sun hit their skin.
Harriet twirled and threw Luneth towards the sunrise. He shrieked with laughter as Harriet did a loop-de-loop and caught him again right at the tops of the clouds, grinning merrily.
"Dance!" Luneth exclaimed randomly. "We'll dance on the cloudtops, the whole sky as our rink!"
"Rink?" Harriet repeated with a surprised snort as she swept them around in wide twirly circles and sunlight glinted off their wet skin.
"Well yes, I suspect cloud dancing is better compared to ice dancing than that silly shuffling about in school gymnasiums that's obviously a thinly veiled conspiracy to increase teen pregnancy rates by ensuring the supervised activity is something very much inferior to shagging," Luneth said thoughtfully.
Harriet cracked up. "I... I think you're... missing a couple links in that chain, but that is a delightful notion."
"Oh good, delightment!" Luneth said happily.
Harriet was reasonably sure that wasn't even a word, but that was much less important than snogging her delightful boyfriend. She wrapped her arms around him and dunked them back into the clouds, running her hands all over his hot rain-slicked skin.
They tumbled in each other's embrace through the dark clouds. The freezing water made the warmth of her lover startlingly vivid against her body. She pressed herself into him even tighter and pushed her fingers into Luneth's trunks, filling her hands with the taut globes of his butt as she ground her loins against his bulge.
Luneth moaned into her mouth and the way he squirmed was so very tantalizing. Like he wanted every part of his body rubbing against her all at once. Like he wanted his very world to be a profusion of Harriet, enfolding him, surrounding him. Emotion and sensation began to bleed between them, and Harriet whimpered.
Well, there was at least one obvious part of him that could bury itself inside her and be surrounded and enfolded and squeezed. A telekinetic yank slid the bottom of her suit into the crease of her thigh while her arms slid around Luneth's hips inside his trunks. Harriet freed his firm rod from its rather poor concealment and didn't hesitate to impale herself on it.
"Mmnh!" Harriet moaned as she held him inside her, feeling his hot girth fill her.
Phantom sensations of wet heat and tightness echoed back to her clit and made her shudder in bliss. Empathic sharing had been such a good idea. It was so much more intimate, and so freeing. There was no give and take, only make. They could both just let go and follow the pleasure, since every sensation was mutual.
Their bodies moved together, tumbling through the pouring rain as Luneth plunged his eager shaft into her welcoming heat and Harriet rocked and squeezed and bounced against him. Together, they rose to a peak, and together they cried out, clinging to each other through shudders of ecstasy.
As her pussy stopped clenching and resumed slowly sliding along his length, Harriet slid her hands up to his face and smiled contently. Luneth kissed her fingers and slid his own hands up to the back of her neck to undo the knot there. The front of her suit fell loose, exposing her breasts directly to the icy rain and to the startling warmth of Luneth's delicate palms.
Harriet arched into his touch, impaling herself more forcefully on his shaft - and it was like there was a second sun in the sky.
KRAKTHOOM!
A wall of wind and sound slammed into them and smashed them apart. Sunlight lanced down as it blew out the rain. Harriet tumbled wildly, losing her bearings in the rushing roar of turbulence.
Harriet managed to orient herself and come to a stop. She felt out for Luneth... there! She spun and dove, cutting through the air like a bullet. Luneth was falling slowly, having recovered from his own tumble. He had enough telekinetic strength to account for almost half his weight, so he could slow himself noticeably. Harriet swooped in and caught him.
"Oh dear, the star fairies are going to be mad again," Luneth said, gazing upwards.
"You said they left! What the bloody hell was that?" Harriet wondered, following Luneth's gaze.
Oh. Oh. Bugger.
The spring storm had been sliced in half by a line of obliteration, but it was only the last of several, and there, directly down the valley of clouds, a tiny silvery speck darted towards the ground. The other lines were fainter, being higher in the atmosphere, criss-crossing one after another as they got lower and lower, until the last one had cut a storm in half and interrupted some very lovely shagging.
Harriet's eye followed the imaginary vertical line that intersected the horizontal contrails, down to the landscape laid out before her. Her heart stumbled as she recognized the revealed destination.
"That's the Deeper Well!" Harriet exclaimed. "Something the Fae are shooting at just landed in the Deeper Well! Sod!"
Harriet knew what was hidden there. She'd seen it, felt it, back when she'd only been with the coven half a year and she'd foiled Thomas Riddle's meglomaniacal plans for the first time.
"You should drop me," Luneth said suddenly.
Harriet blinked. "What?!"
"Drop me," Luneth repeated serenely. "I'll tell the coven, while you go ahead. I'll be fine."
Harriet winced. "You sure, Lune?"
"Quite sure, Harri," Luneth told her with a smile.
"I love you," Harriet said. "I promise I'll be careful."
A moment of lingering tenderness, and Harriet pulled away. She spun and shot off after that silver speck, leaving Luneth to his own devices. Her focus narrowed as she accelerated, almost but not quite reaching the sound barrier as she zeroed in on the Deeper Well.
The entrance was hidden by fog and gnarled overgrown trees, or at least it had been last time. Charred and splintered branches formed a clear path down to the entrance itself, the opening of an earthen pit, an impossibly deep hollow shaft. Harriet plunged into it at a thousand kilometers an hour, shooting down the center as countless rings of tombs - wardstones and sealed evils - blurred by.
Harriet threw a hand forward, stoked the correct emotions with the ease of long practice, and focused hard on that silver speck she'd seen. "Bring my quarry to sight! Aradia's light!"
A quartet of glowing golden orbs coalesced around her hand and streaked off ahead of her, leaving a braid of glowing trails in their wake. The spell vanished into the distance, but a moment later light bloomed far ahead.
It illuminated a gleam of silver.
Replicarter scowled as the creature ripped her arm in half. The presence of the vampiric guardian had surprised her. He must be a recent development, or Daniel would have known.
Three barbed tendrils sprouted from her stump and went for the guardian's eyes. He twitched out of the way and landed a knife-hand to Replicarter's sternum. She ignored it and animated her severed arm. It slithered into a bladed shape and sliced through the back of the guardian's leg.
He snarled, and she slid forward, moving in to strike at his chest. He blocked, but she let her other arm come apart even as her chest sprouted more bladed tendrils. Her arm reformed into a noose, and the guardian's eyes bulged as she sawed implacably at his neck.
His flesh crumbled, and Replicarter tossed the desiccated skeleton to her drones for dismemberment. Her severed parts rejoined her, and she rippled as she restored her human guise.
Replicarter strode further into the chamber, only to suddenly spin back as she sensed something incoming. A light bloomed among the largest mass of drones and exploded, scattering repliblocks everywhere and momentarily blinding her.
In the wake of the explosion, a girl floated into view and settled to the stone floor. She was clad in swimwear, with wild black hair and vivid green eyes. At a thought, several drones sprang from the walls and ceiling. Walking forward, the girl's eyes barely flicked to each attacker as the drones were slapped out of the air with enough telekinetic force to shatter them against the walls.
"Alright then, who are you supposed to be?" the girl asked.
"I've never had a name of my own," Replicarter said blandly, "but those who know me best have chosen to call me Replicarter."
"Smashing, and I'm Harriet. Harriet Potter," the girl said. "I know what's hidden here. You will not have it."
"So I've heard," Replicarter said flatly, gesturing to the fragments of bone that were all that was left of the first guardian.
The girl blinked in momentary confusion, glancing at the remains. It seemed Harriet hadn't known about the other guardian either. Before her curiosity could get the better of her, Replicarter sent several drones creeping carefully into the next chamber while the rest moved to conceal their departure.
"Look, I don't know why you want the Seed, but - "
Replicarter attacked without warning, forcing the girl to cut off mid-word and fling herself out of the way. Harriet was impressively fast, but Replicarter wasn't limited to human shape, and thin bladed whips slashed out, catching Harriet across the face and throwing her back.
The girl hung in the air and tucked into an acrobatic flip. Her foot lashed out, and even though it didn't come anywhere close to hitting Replicarter, she felt an impact smash into her and hurl her into the far wall.
Glowering in irritation, Replicarter ducked under a followup blast of magical force and shot out several needle-thin tendrils. The sharp points rammed into the girls neck... and completely failed to penetrate. The girl's face wasn't injured either, but that could have been magical defense. The concession to modesty had kept it from being her first guess, but clearly Harriet was Fae.
The girl made a grasping gesture and Replicarter felt the ground fall away from her feet. She shot out tendrils to anchor herself, but when Harriet wrenched her arm back, telekinetic force violently tore Replicarter from her moorings and hurled her out of the chamber. The expanse of the main shaft flashed passed. An instant later, Replicarter impacted among the tombs on the opposite side of the Well like a meteor.
Meanwhile, her drones climbed the stone pedestal, reached out with blocky limbs, and touched the Seed of Wonder.
Replicarter oozed out of her impact crater, pulled herself together, rippled into human guise, and smiled. The parameters and functions of the Ancient device flooded her mind. This sangraal was everything she'd hoped for and so much more. A weapon to kill gods was only the crudest of its uses.
Harriet flew out after her, swooping around the leg of Replicarter's small transport. Replicarter smiled victoriously, and used the Seed to erase the girl's imprint on the higher plane. The look on the girl's face was comical as her mind ceased to have direct effects on reality and she simply fell out of the air, plunging to an uncertain doom in the depths below.
"...no!"
Replicarter watched impassively until the girl had fallen out of visual range. Her drones emerged into the main shaft, carrying the glowing red crystal egg. A moments thought, and she was standing in their midst.
Picking up the Seed, she held it to her chest and opened her skin. Silvery tendrils wrapped around the Seed and pulled it into her torso. With a ripple, her human guise was once more restored, with the Seed of Wonder contained within her.
On a whim, Replicarter gave herself a complete imprint. It was superfluous while she had the Seed, but there didn't seem to be a reason not to do it. She calculated her next edit carefully, and she vanished from the Deeper Well, taking her transport and her drones with her.
(I considered writing Harriet Potter and the Seed of Wonder as a sidestory-prequel, but ultimately decided to curb my impulse to get sidetracked.)
(I decided to split the penultimate chapter, Reckoning, into two parts because it turned out to be just ridiculously long. Part 2 is nearly finished and will be posted soon.)