-scene break-

Albus had admitted more than once that ... yes he'd been at time a bit hasty about things. It was an important admission he thought, but something had needed to be done, and while in hindsight there would obviously be questions raised... it just needed to be done and there weren't any better options available. That out of the way he still wasn't completely convinced of all of Alastor's tirade about some things, but that was, as he put it, just a matter of opinion. He'd never expected that things were going to drag out this long... or turn out to be this complicated... and yet the wizarding world would be better for it. So many secrets to share, and wisdom for a new generation.

Mad eye wasn't really keen on that response. The scarred man had had a series of choice words about Albus Dumbledore's 'excuses'. Hermione in the mean while just didn't like being caught in the middle between her two former teachers. Still the rest of the Order of the Pheonix avoided, whether intentionally or not, having much of an opinion. It left the ones who did... in a bit of a predicament... or as the cliche went between a rock and a hard place.

"I dare say Alastor must be cross again?"
Bill swallowed, "Yes sir."

"Oh dear, well thankfully this whole business should finally be coming to a head," If only... as it was Voldemort was back on the upswing... and though he wouldn't admit it he had his suspicions that the Dark Lord was grasping as much as they were at straws. Randomly grabbing magical artifacts tended to be a stupendously bad idea... after all. Tom really should have known better, "How is the research going though?" The unfortunate response was about the same. Research, even when one wasn't looking to make some ground breaking discovery of new material, was a tedious process of sifting through information. As it was Bill, and Dumbledore both lamented their lack of manpower with the appropriate background in the material they were reading. "Sinistra could be freed up," Dumbledore commented.

The egypytology specialist shook his head, "It won't do much good. We don't have any thing at this point to really get her to double check." Not that a second set of eyes for arithmancy and energy balancing and wards wouldn't be useful down the road. Unfortunately they weren't there yet. In time they would be, but while Bill was desperately looking forward to the point of getting there for any one project he was splitting his time between nearly a dozen. "I need someone with a history background, not someone who can help piece out where all this energy is coming from, or going to and how to keep it from blowing up in our faces." It was the bluntest way he could put it, but unfortunately there weren't a whole lot of experts world wide... much less in the Order of the Pheonix that he could turn to. He just had too big of a workload. "This heart thing maybe if we make a break on it I'd have something she could look through, but I don't have a clue as to what the dark lord would intend it or the Armor of Ares to use."

For England's wizards this was about two ideologies who'd bogged down to the occassional sniping at one another ... and even then more often than not it had boiled down to an Indiana Jones esque research and smash and grab over various historical artifacts. Shenanigans like that had kept the ministry almost completely out of the loop, and thus they were completely content to simply insist that there wasn't anything going on at all.

Hermione's entrance to the study was louder than she'd meant given the later hour... there were people sleeping after all. On the other hand there wasn't much that could be done given the heavy door, and trying to open it with arms laden with books. "Ah thanks Bill," She grunted foisting half the load over. "I don't think Professor Moody is going to be coming around for a while. It took some convincing to agree to let me borrow these as it was."

Albus inhaled sharply running a hand over the cover of one of the books, "I daresay I can imagine why, few people would want to part with such treasures." He took a few deep breaths, and then opened the heavy tome. The ancient alphabet had been painstakingly copied from an even old book well over a thousand years prior by the monks who'd written it. Thankfully preservation magics kept the script legible, and practice had refreshed his grasp on a language the headmaster had learned more than a century ago. "All they are all written in this script,"
"Yes headmaster," Hermione answered, "and there were more,"

He nodded, "Yes from what Alastor said it is an amazing library... a true wonder. With hope we will be able to find what we need, and bring an end to this conflict."

-scene break-

Whilst the Goa'uld bickered back and forth trading, by ancient standards at least, paltry amounts of weapons fire the Aedra milled about glaring across at their rivals. The only problem that distinguished this from the usual glowering being done was the timing. When an era died it typically had plenty of little signs, like tremors before a major earthquake. Some times there were false starts obviously where there were signs but the era kept on, but this was the beginning of a real upstart to things.

The truth was the difference between Aedra and Daedra was just political. Something both sides liked to occassionally forget, or pretend to at least... and from time to time actively supress. It was just one of those typical inconvienent facts... and yet... "How are you little brother?" Sithis greeted before gesturing to a seat. "Tea, a beer perhaps, something more?"

"No, thank you Sithis." The Aedra lord responded tensly taking a seat. Heedless of the response two finely made crystal glasse made there way to the heavy table, eliciting an irritated scowl. "I assumed these had been broken." He muttered tenderly picking one up.

There was a clink as Sithis sat a decanter onto the table, "Some were," He responded, "very few of grandfather's collection survived the war in heaven little brother." That any had survived the war, much less up to the present bespoke of a great deal of effort for something as inconsequential as kitchenware.

"Surely you didn't arrange this so we could reminsnce," He replied delicately examing the intricate crystal work, "those humans are going to go through with it, then?"

Sithis looked up, "You sure you don't want a drink? Then to answer you question it does seem that way... and with it," So many possibilities, "Brother consider for a moment what this allows? A legitimate invitation beyond our domains in this galaxy. This will make the end so much cleaner join me. You wouldn't be alone in this."

"The lord of order is awake, what could you need me for?" Stendarr sat the glass down, "What is it you want brother... to destroy the Alteran? Or are you seriously contemplating going beyond the status quo... upending it."
The death god's smile widened. In truth it was all of the above and more, "There were many of us in the beginning." Enough that destructive power of the wars in heaven had threatened the very life sustaining capability of many galaxies. "Our fleets could be dispersed over the galaxies surounding us preventing the worst ship related catastrophes. Turning our efforts outward allows us to harness productively this turbulent time."... and yet he was still talking about a conflict that risked thousand, even millions of star systems in the gambit.

The problem Stendarr recognized was that it was all too grandiose, tempting as it might have been, to be this straight forward. There was a problem... plenty of the others he could accept would be on board for going forward with what was sure to be multigalactic civil war, but that kind of death... even with help to cope it would strain Sithis's very grasp on the mortal coil. Then there was what this would do to any number of worlds... there were consequences to everything. His brother was not the type to relinquish his grasp on the wider universe lightly for any stretch of time... and this kind of war... there had to be something more.

-scene break-

Hermione tossed another balled up sheet of paper into the fireplace. It was probably just Moody being paranoid but he demanded everything be burned rather than thrown in the trash. Not that she really expected anyone to really be able to decipher any of this without reference material. What the headmaster was looking for was... involved such old magic that there were massive pieces missing from the picture.

It made no sense. There had been nothing in the historical record to suggest that there had been any kind of loss of knowledge. If anything magic had demonstrably improved for wizards since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Of course the popular explanation, and the one that Hermione absolutely wanted to reject was equally as mystfiying. It all boiled down to the gods, which historically was particularly contradictory. As Moody frequently put it there were the Old Gods, and the new and they all somehow played their part, and wielded magic far beyond mortal ken.
Yet everything she could piece together suggested the goa'uld were aliens, which didn't necessarily preclude them from having magic but they definitely had highly advanced technology. Moody called the Goa'uld, and the Asgard the New Gods, or at least a part of that group. Some of muggle mythology even lined up with wizarding 'history' like Odin having shared the knowledge of runes with mankind. Then of course there were things that made any sense whatsoever.

"You still trying to figure it out?" Bill asked looking up from his own book. This would have been a lot easier if Moody would come back and help. For that matter the sooner that Dumbledore came back from the Conference he was at the better. Truth be told this was the kind of thing that needed an entire team for, because most of this was athropology, and translating dead langauges. So they were down the two people who had the strongest grasp on ancient... and Bill was already stuck with all the ancient Egyptian. "I just want to say that we need someway to get back into the Sinai." He lamented, but that was a snowball's chance in hell. He slid the photograph of a wall section, "Thats a map of Europe isn't it?"

She nodded, because it certainly looked like... a digital one of some kind. "Yeah."

"I think those starbursts in England coincide with Glastonbury and Stonehenge." He responded now that he was certain he wasn't loosing it, and imagining things. If it was true they coincided with ruins that had been discovered after Anubis's invasion. Ruins that the muggles were swarming all over even now. Still the pictures were distorted, and really needed to be larger to be certain, "We need to get back in there and check it out."

Hermione examined the picture a little closer, "This is London, I think," It was too distored to be sure, but it was definitely in the area. "What if there is something there."

"No the ministry would have found it, and they found those other two,"Admittedly it was entirely possible... or what if whatever it was had been found. The map wasn't nearly detailed enough to even try and hope to find whatever it was.

The map didn't break things down into provinces or modern states it was just the landmasses, and scattered starbursts. "This could be Paris too." Hermione remarked, and if it wasn't Paris it was really close. The more she looked at it the more it bugged her, because it coincided largely with Roman enclaves, which was yet another coincidence, because the Sinai ruins predated Roman domination by thousands of year. "and Berlin," Somewhere in what was modern day Romania had a starburst as well, and then there were ones out in the ocean. "Any idea what they mean?"

"This place of our kind, or our heart," Bill responded, "Is what they're called I guess they're like the ruins in Sinai, but it doesn't tell us much. The ruins, the egyptian ones around them though are different they're newer," for a given definition historically "and they talk about Lilith's stronghold, and some interactions, and of her kin. Some of them have markings from the local temple, but its nothing helpful. The priests knew very little other than some vague references about Lilith's magic and the usual stairway to heaven."

Hermione looked up, "We didn't see a portal."

"Mad eye said they could look like a lot of things, and who knows what we missed," Bill responded shaking his head, "We need to get back in there."

-scene break-

O'neill spared a glance at the Iraqi officer. This was another brilliant move courtesy of the state department. Typical rear echelon bullshit... not that Jack minded foreign involvement, but bringing the Russians, and well... a couple of the other nations present in on this was risky business. Then again the Tokra were here too.

"Ah O'neill," The large, and beginning to bald Saudi general declared, "There you are. You no doubt have already seen the new the lightweight type VI body armor. It was a most impressive demonstration." He wagged his finger, "The Russians were very impressed. We should make sure none of the samples go missing. Sticky fingers, but how have you been?"

Jack plastered a smile on his face, "Things are changing,"
"You have spaceships with laser guns." He replied, "I would say we are a little past changing. These Ha'tak are very impressive, and you captured and retrofitted. It is like the golden age of piracy my prince is very impressed."

The american general declinded to point out that might just have been all the goa'uld's tacky gold plating that the US hadn't bothered to strip away like it had some of the first acquisitions. "Its a lot of man hours refitting the Ha'tak."

"It is a big ship."

O'neill looked around the expo. The gathering was mostly military. This was more about demonstrating current equipment, and stuff that was scheduled to see deployment in the next six months. This wasn't about showing off 'in theory' or market products. To narrow it down even further nearly all the equipment was man portable or squad level, though there were some drones but not even the MQ-9 was being shown off here. Aircraft was going to be focused on at later expo which would no doubt have more competing products.

The HK management hadn't been pleased about having to compete with the P90. All that was pentagon wars, with Navy spec ops and the NID having both picked up the MP7, where as the P90 was the SG bread and butter. Then there was the whole carbine/rifle debate that Jack definitely didn't want to touch. Still the limits on what could be shown meant that there was a lot less shiny gizmos being shown off.

The Ha'tak showing had been more of a soft power demonstration. Without access to the stargate there wasn't a feasible way for someone else to capture one like the US had, and well admittedly the goa'uld were stepping up ship security. The US's fleet of Ha'tak stilled needed plenty of work, and there were arguments about just how to move forward, both with the Ha'tak themselves and with home built designs.

"So there is talk about another invasion,"

"Thats what was said," Jack agreed. It had taken some effort, but Thor had been able to eventually corroborate the threat, and the general idea put forward. It hadn't made everyone quite so happy, given that an invasion was going to be a chaotic affair.

Then the bottom fell out, and the next thing Jack knew Colonel Wilson was tackling him to the floor as some asshat fired a machine gun into the ceiling. This wasn't even some NID sponsored idiocy, which made it even more of a headache. Wilson had drawn one of those big blocky H&K handguns, and was already dragging him backwards out of sight.

"Who could they be?" the Saudi inquired,

"No idea," Wilson responded, producing a second handgun from somewhere and handing to Jack who wasn't even going to ask why he had it in the first place. Theoretically this whole facility should have been secure... the demonstration gruns were all supposed to be unloaded, which was apparently not the case. Someone was going to get shafted for that... or not there were legitimate mind control threats out there. Maybe that was what this was... not like it stopped the threat. "General stay back, we'll wait for fast response. I'll get you out if I can."

O'neill had read the army briefing. Those arm bracers had been one thing, but the super soldier sereum that the army had tested on Wilson was allegedly all US based in origin. Well maybe some of it was a recreated attempt at the WWII Erskine formula, but who could really say. The air force might have had a sarcophagus device, but Jack didn't fancy getting shot anymore than he had to... and it would spare him another of Daniel's lectures about risks.

Then of course the power went out. "That was fast?" Too fast, honestly...

"Good afternoon Gentlemen," A voice proclaimed to the panicing dignitaries. "I apologize for the unnecesary loudness of our entrance," The man was in a full length black body suit... almost like a kull armor... except for the helmet. "I am Black Manta. The American government has presently imprisoned my protege. I'd very much like him back."

The three officers who were quietly ducking through a door way glanced at each other, "Is he serious?"

"It doesn't matter," Wilson responded, "Him attacking means he doesn't know where his guy is, which means he's trying to negotiate, and thats gonna get messy. My priority is to get you out of here, general we need to leave."

Black Manta spoke up again, "To that end I have taken the liberty of procuring a sample of the bioagent utilized in New York recently. One of my coworkers generously tweaked the gas into a more useful seurum, that I will be happy to demonstrate."

"General we need to leave now."

"Alright," It wasn't like he wanted to be turned into a giant lizard monster anway... or whatever other plan some supervillian had decided was an obviously great idea this time around.

-scene break-

"Welcome to Romania," Charlie declared, gesturing to the nearby mountainside, "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but I guess your not hear for a social call,"
Bill shrugged, "No, sorry." He replied, "We're looking for something."

"You said as much over the Floo, but these mountains are wide, and you're going to have to deal with the dragons too." Charlie scratched at his beard, "Look I don't mind showing you about, but dragons aren't precisely keen on people poking about this time of year." Or any time of year really... they were kind of used to the wizards who worked at the preserve, but that was about routine, and normalcy.

/Incomplete/

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