Chapter 4

Lightning Fervor

Helltanz's notes: Any major 'Gundam' mobile suits will probably show up during the war with Anubis.

– Chapter Begin-

They were called the Unknown regions by the starfaring races for a reason, well something to that effect usually. Well the Asgard called it something else but that was another matter entirely.

The exact motivations of the wizards looking for him eluded Sithis as they hadn't realized it was him. It was a... problem.

Born as Harry Potter the effects of the killing curse had had effects that no one could have predicted and had forced him across time and space, not that even he knew about this after all he had only been one year old at the time. The rift that had formed in space time had existed briefly, and the radiation was largely non reactive with regards to biological material. The rift however had forced him across time and space millions of years into the past into the age when the 'Ancients' had been at their highest point. An age he remembered fondly, after all it had been the era he had ascended to godhood. Discovering the lost secrets of past ages of glory, it'd all been a glorious age to live in. To be completely his new era was boring, a respite yes, and a welcome one at times, but boring more so.

Wizard was the general term for those were those who had gained the ability to use magic through their own internal power. The beings known as the Ancients to the universe at large, for the most part, were extremely potent when it came to magic as well as being extremely advanced in regards to technology. Sithis, as he was known in his present form and as he had been then, had been raised amongst these specifically the Ayeleid branch of the Ancients. Earth's wizards were all ultimately nearly traceable to a single matrilineal line, Liliths. Thousands and thousands of years had meant all wizards on Earth were ultimately all related to her. There were very few exceptions, and that was how everyone liked it.

The ancients were an astoundingly arrogant, though extremely powerful breed of beings, who were assured of their own supremacy. That there DNA had ultimately lead to the development of wizards, and some of the other human half breeds on earth was mere testament to their potential rich blood. Sithis knew this Lilith had been brilliant, if inordinately unlucky when it came to research programs. She'd tried so had to counter his allies.

It had been the beings who would become known as the Daedra and their rivals the Aedra who would be responsible for the first fall of the Ancients, both Ayeleid and Alteran, in the Milky Way galaxy. Lilith hadn't yet seeded what would become modern wizards yet, no she'd fled to Pegasus with Ganos, and Moros amongst others alteran.

Sithis had ascended to godhood along with his allies millions of years ago, becoming the dark god he was today. Even as just a magic user with Ayeleid technology and his own magical ability he would have been able to live indefinitely but that hadn't been enough, and he had had time. Idles hands, and all.

Time had been exactly what had passed, and soon, relatively speaking of course, his plans would come to fruition and his plans could move to the next stage of his agenda. An agenda he'd been working on for so very long. The Daedra and Aedra after the end of the war had agreed that they would limit their direct influence solely to the one spiral arm of this galaxy unless asked by a lower life form to intervene or to dealing with their worshippers; they had become gods after all. It'd been hashed out with Ancients as well, a peace treaty, a foolish one.

Raiden, the original goa'uld personality not the present hybrid personality, had stumbled upon this spiral arm and thus had begun Sithis's plan to expand his influence it was a clever way of exploiting the agreement. It was why Sithis supplied Raiden with technology and of course the fragment of his soul which he had fused with the original goa'uld entity had allowed full understanding of that technology which was supplied, though there was still the matter of industrial base and numbers to put the technology into use.

The minglings of the goa'uld meant ultimately little not when their fleets lacked the ability to challenge the ancient powers. He was however concerned over which, if indeed it had been a, Daedra had had a hand in Ra's abrupt demise. Right now though he had other pressing issues.

The dark god rounded on the Speaker, one of the Earth's Dark Brotherhood chapter's Black Hand. "I sensed Stendarr's involvement despite his efforts to hide it. Tiber as well," Upjumped human bastard, and he meant that literally Akatosh's human bastard, and his little brother's protege had been a nuisance for thousands and thousands of years. Tiber was amongst the youngest of the Daedra, the closest to humanity, followed by Stendarr of course. It wasn't like Sithis didn't like humanity quite the opposite actually. "I don't know what my little brother intends with this meddling, but find who let him in the world, and watch them." There was no point in killing whomever was responsible, they were his brother's playthings what he wanted was to know why. There was power in knowing things, "You'll go to that miserable isle, and find out why."

The Speaker nodded, "Of course dread father it will be my honor to serve,"

"The wizards there are of a peculiar nonsensical ideology," Sithis said, unnecessarily he shouldn't have needed to tell one of his Black Hands for a world such a fact, but did so anyway. "they are Lilith's childer, and some have other," He uttered the word with a cold twinge to it, "flowing in them, many contributed one could say. It would best to remember that, that my brother, that Stendarr, and Tiber would interfere so brazenly speaks of support amongst mortal men."

"All mortal men must die."

"Of course Maegi," He responded, "all men must die, go to earth investigate, deliver death only when necessary. I will know." And he would any killed by a member of the brotherhood was a soul presented to him, what he didn't tell Maegi was that no doubt the other members of the Black Hand would watch Maegi closely.

Such jealous children.

– scene break-

The Milky way was largely dominated by the goa'uld, it helped the stargate network covered much of the galaxy. Most system lords though controlled swathes of astrographically close territory. This particular solar system was adjoined to the greater whole of Raiden's domain, and more to the ponit housed what was the first of the immense Construction and Command ships. The monstrous ship was called the Rashomon, and it was easily the largest ship class in Raiden's fleet. Well at least of the vessels Raiden had ordered to be built, primarily the ships of this class remained stationary in systems like this. The Rashomon was orbiting a massive ancient construction facility.

The Rashomon class was nearly eighty six miles in length and some eighty six miles wide and stood at a height of sixty four miles it was still dwarfed by the great Alteran ship. It was called in the ancient tongue Bairn, that it orbited around and where all Rashomon class vessels were built, in total due to the massive requirements of building such a vessel Raiden had ordered only twenty of the vessels built over a period of seven thousand years, all but eight of which were also in orbit around the Bairn.

To compare only Ra, Heru-ur, Ptah, Anubis, Sokar, and Yu had ships anywhere near this size. Ptah's great fortress ship dwarfed the Rashomon in size but it had not been seen in centuries, though his mobile construction ships were still known, and watched carefully. Anubis had vanished and most of his great ships destroyed, the same with Sokar. Yu's great ships were situated over his key worlds. Heru-ur kept his constantly moving producing ha'tak vessels for any who would pay him for such, and Heru-ur's vessels could produce such ships. Ra was dead those ships of his lost in the vacuum, with little indication where his were.

The Rashomon like the Shinku Rai Tatsu differed from Goa'uld aesthetics. The ships were large silver circular ellipses, serving as the primary hull with high towers and visible docks for the repairs of war ships. Heru-ur's mobile command ships were very similar, it had been said Heru-ur had inherited them ultimately from Apep through Ra. It would not have been surprising to find Apep had controlled a facility like the Bairn sometime during his reign.

At the center of the circular sphere like central body, which primarily consisted of hangars or weapon bays jutted massive central towers one going down the other shooting up towards the sky relatively speaking. Jutting off from the central body were additional docks and weapons platforms as well as sensor and auxiliary shield nodes.

Of course there was a very good explanation to the difference between the Rashomon class and traditional Goa'uld vessels and that was Sithis. Sithis had shown him the Bairn, it was probably the same way Apep had found his caches of ancient weapons thousands of years ago that was to say from an Old god.

"My lord Skyborne Calamity and Dark Heavens Harbinger have both dropped out of Hyperspace escorting the Selene," Announced one of the Jaffa bowing at the waist to show respect for his god. "Lady Artemis should be arriving momentarily." Raiden glanced at the Jaffa in acknowledgement, the jaffa really needn't have come but it was tradition.

Raiden's sensitive, augmented, ears had already detected Artemis grumbling about 'those damnable meddlesome Asgard'. He dismissed the Jaffa with a wave of a hand. He'd accepted Artemis for a single reason to annoy Cronus, and well possibly snatch up Cronus's domain if the opportunity arose.

Artemis swept into the chamber looking as ever the picture of beauty and as always an imperious figure. "Lord Raiden, it pleases me to see you are doing well."

His eyes traveled over her, her host really was fetching, body. "Yes you as well," A brief pause with things in the galaxy as they were well plans needed to be put in place. "I would rather you remain here though." He replied of course her host was nothing compared to his own ability to shapeshift.

"And why would that be Lord Raiden." Asked Artemis in a sweet voice. Artemis while she had been submissive to Raiden for more than two thousand years was still a Goa'uld and thus still had the ego complex, and would naturally not roll over and stay put just because Raiden said so with out a good reason. Her being resistant was something Raiden had expected, it was to be expected it had happened before, it would now and it would happen in the future, however he needed her resources intact now that Ra was dead.

He frowned, "Must we constantly deal with this," Artemis gave a cheeky grin in response "you are too valuable to me to be risked leading jaffa in dealing with any minor system lord threat." He commented. Unfortunately Cronus's blood bred impetuousness, the same impetuousness that had caused Artemis to rise with Zeus against Cronus millenium ago.

"I am grateful for your concern but it is unnecessary-" she replied dismissively from where she was standing before the powerful System Lord.

Raiden fixed her with a glare. "You will remain here at least for a short period of time," The Shinto god stated his tone became dangerous, "until and not before the Fleet Mobile Weapons Project progresses to the next stage," The dark haired magic user stated, "work on the Umbrella of Artemis shield system adapt it for use on Ha'tak or something." He commanded. "I don't care you'll stay here, I command it."

Artemis glared in defiance even as he shifted into a fully grown form before her very eyes. The Umbrella of Artemis was a light wave shield, which provided almost perfect defense stopping most energy or physical weapons the only flaw to the system was certain weapons had to be modified to be able to fire out of the shield, namely the plasma weapons used by the Goa'uld, these modifications were very tedious.

Raiden softened, s"As I said or something," He repeated, sighing. "I wish to eventually phase out totally the use of the older Ha'tak and replace them with newer vessels until the only Ha'tak in service are the type threes, as I have had you do by phasing out you type one Ha'tak with the newer Pegasus class vessels." Raiden remarked moving one hand to brush her cheek in the usual Goa'uld, even if he no longer was one from a taxidermical perspective, gesture of affection and possessiveness.

"You state the need for the phasing out of the Ha'tak, why?" she asked

"More than Ten thousand years is an impressive time as active war ship," The system lord remarked, "but a new sword will be used against my enemies." He replied

"And your sister?" she inquired in response.

He frowned, another of his vassals, "Amaterasu is choosing to begin completely phasing out the construction of the Type one in favor of the type three and the Super Ha'tak vessels will serve as her frontline assault ship, throughout the next centuries, eventually she will also phase out the type two." Raiden answered. Personally he thought her conservatism foolish, but he'd not force the issue.

All of this of course made sense from a certain standpoint but, "If I might ask why you chose not to use the Pegasus?" she asked him with a frown of course she wanted to know what his opinions were on her own creation.
"I have no problems with your design I particularly approve of the final production models," Raiden commented. "however I chose to use Daitenchi class Assault ship given its greater capabilities in its fighter capacitates and its weapons complement are more to my tastes." He stated

Ultimately this was sufficient to convince her to remain here. "I understand," Artemis stated acknowledging his points in regards to the warships, "I will remain here." She sighed in reluctant defeat

Raiden sat back on his throne a lot had changed since the early days from when Earth had first been found by Ra. Merging with Sithis had done a great deal and of course had elevated his original Goa'uld physical form's ability to use magic to whole new heights.

Of course merging with the Death God, even merely a fragment of the dark god's soul, had had its effects and had seriously affected the Goa'uld altering his original personality until the present Raiden had formed.

The altering had imprinted Ayelied cultural attitudes on his personality, conquest on conquest was not a good mix.

-scene break-

Ame-no-Mihashira the August Pillar of Heaven was the fourth of the Rashomon class, for the last few centuries it had served as test for Raiden's biological experiments, the ones it focused upon that consumed much of Raiden's time were the creation highly advanced humans.

These were known as Hok'tar in Goa'uld. Raiden's loyal Jaffa had christened these creations the children of Lightning's will. They possesed advanced powers of both of the mind and of the body, there powers were much like those bestowed upon Raiden's champions, Jaffa or other warriors who Raiden empowered with his magics as a reward for high feats of valor or winning a difficult battle or some such task to earn his favor.

They were... tiny in number, the process even after so many year an exhausting project even with the resources of a major system lord availabe.

These humans were instrumental in the Fleet Mobile Weapons Project certain projects required more advanced beings to control them. "My lord." Greeted a scientist with bow.

Raiden glanced at the scientist. "I trust everything continues well." It was more of a statement rather than a question, heads might literally roll if things weren't going well with this project. The system lord was growing short on patience given the constant start and stop of the project..

"Yes my lord this batch is particularly strong." He announced pleased.

The man was being honest... to an extent "Good." That was all that he said and ultimately it was all that was needed to be said in regards to the issue. Raiden knew the scientist was concealing things, but at the moment he didn't care. He knew some of his jaffa didn't like this program.

Yes Jaffa tended to be stronger, and more resilient than humans but he needed Jaffa else, and prim'ta, developing goa'uld were a limitted resource better spent on infantry than as pilots. Unless you were Heru-ur in which case he drilled them to the point of exhaustion, no with them to the point of exhaustion. Though that was probably why Heru-ur was doing so well against Sokar. It was said Heru-ur also had a new fighter program underway, it was probable. Raiden didn't particularly care, and started peering over the reports, hormone charts, and bone scans, and brain scans, and other things. It infuriated him that the ancients could field such weapons by the tens of thousands without ancient pilots in single battles and he couldn't field but a few hundred in a single battle in his own territory. He knew it would take time, yes, but it didn't make it any less annoying.

Still these hok'tar would be the instruments of his will, the pilots whose weapons would turn the tide against his enemies. They would be superior to the death glider, crush established defenses, and obliterate any army of enemy jaffa they caught out in the open. Oh yes he still needed his infantry, he would need them for many. Infantry would never be obsolete, but even now things were changing on the battlefield

-scene break-

On Earth within the makeshift Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, that was to say Hogwarts there were a great deal of questions and clamoring, over many things, "What happened Albus?" asked the matronly red headed woman

"We were removed by force by a very large gentleman when someone made an off hand comment." To facilitate the lie Moody glared at Severus. Minerva mouth hung open at the deception. Even as Moody continued his fabrication. "Apparently when said person made said off hand comment said very large man proceeded to lay what those across the pond term 'the smack down' upon us all as punishment for the intended insult against his liege."

Molly didn't even realize it was a deception. "Surely Harry wouldn't have tolerated this." The Weasley matriarch exclaimed in a shrill voice.

"I will put it this way I'd much rather have been handed over to the Japanese ministry officials and the Japanese tend to take insults to a person's bloodline very seriously, than risked the other potential consequence of all this," Moody commented, and the best lies always had hints of the truth, no, there had been little Dark Brotherhood presence, which had been odd, but everyone was alive, "he definitely is in no danger from Sirius Black." Moody added, trying not to think about it. He'd think about all of it later.

The headmaster sighed, things had admittedly not gone as he had hoped, so they'd just have to try harder next time. "I disagree Alastor while Harry's Guard is obviously quite skilled the environment there is not one for a child." Albus passed out pictures of Harry, the muggles were so very abundant with their cameras these days in America it was very useful.

"This is Raiden." Exclaimed on of the older Weasley children.

For a moment the elderly wizard did a double take, how did... "What was that Bill?" inquired Dumbledore with a hidden frown, this was very surprising how did...

"He introduced himself as Raiden when I met him at a dig sight in Egypt, he opened this massive treasure room, I think the main thing he was interested in was some kind of glowing crystal, I looked it up later using one of the tablets at the sight it called the light of Ra." He stated

"That is most interesting Bill, thank you for this information. I would like you to gather any information you can on this artifact and any other Harry might have procured from the site." Stated the headmaster. Dumbledore was busy attempting to amend his plans and adapt them to what he currently knew about what was going on. He stood up, "Ah yes well everyone its been a long day and there is still a lot of work to be done, uh Minerva if you would Severus up to Madame Pomfrey, and into a bed please, I need a word with Alastor about some other things, yes." He'd barely waited for an affirmative before strolling out of the room effectively dragging the grizzled ex auror along in a very undignified manner.

-scene break-

Sirius didn't know what to think of the chapel. "Is it always like this?" Sirius asked referring to the thick fog, which since he had been here had not even let up.

"Yes." His guide told him, "It protects us, offers us protection from other parties," The man continued, "Our god is benevolent, kind and just for he is the apologist of mankind, and for this we are ever grateful, not all the gods are so kind. We serve the gods of light, the Aedra, benevolent beings."

Sirius shrugged, "yeah," The Old Pureblood, most of them not even just the dark ones had differing opinions, it was either Lilith saying all of them were bad, or ancient pureblood sorcerers supporting the Daedra, particularly Azura, though Sanguine had some popularity too amongst other factions of purebloods. "So about Sithis?"

"The Dark God cannot find us for the moment, so we must not leave here yet," His guide responded, they called him younger brother, but the monk had to be at least in his forties at least, "in truth we must be weary Sirius Black, the Dark Gods are grim and terrible, and their servants are callous men, who would gladly slay us."

Sirius nodded along, he still wasn't quite sure how he'd gotten into this mess, though on the plus side the creepy dreams had stopped. On the down side he wasn't dreaming at all, which was weird, though again on the plus side he was out of Azkaban.

There was the sound of footsteps on the cobblestones, and a man entered. It took Sirius a minute to realize just who it was. It was Mad Eye Moody, and he was not pleased at all. The old Auror looked ragged, but more to the point pissed, as evident when he seized 'Younger brother' by the collar of his clerical robes, "Listen to me you bastard, listen," He should the priest throughly. "Dumbledore isn't listening, and I don't know what we were thinking-"
"We thought nothing," Younger brother squeaked, "Stendarr commanded us to liberate the innocent in his name, for he is a benevolent and just god." The priest protested, "Our duty is to serve, the glorious benevolence of the Aedra shines now even in these dark times, and you should not have come."

"Dumbledore is out of hid depth, and Sithis manifested on earth!" The wizard shook him, "And Dumbledore didn't get it! We need to bring him up to speed," The unspoken before we all die horribly hung there. Dumbledore meant well yes, but he was set in his beliefs, and his ways, "He's got all eyes on Voldemort, and thats going to get people killed if the Brotherhood shows up." Alastor dropped him and rounded on Sirius.

Padfoot waved, "Uh hi Mad Eye fancy seeing you here in the secret church freaky aedra worshipping monk, how has your last two decades been old buddy?"
"Can it Black nows not the time."

– Chapter end -