Disclaimer: 'Stargate' and 'Harry Potter' both belong to their respective creators, so I don't own them; I'm just borrowing them for the immediate moment in time and space
Feedback: I'd like it, believe me
AN: For those who know the original episode, let's just say that things are going to be very different here from what they were originally as far as the Knight is concerned...
Truth and Revelations
As soon as the Black Knight appeared, Mitchell didn't need to check with the rest of his group about what his next course of action should be; even if it was pointless, he had to at least try and hold this guy back before he resorted to more elaborate measures.
Deciding to resort to the most obvious method first and proceed from there, Mitchell stepped forward- based on what Hermione and the twins had told him moving away from a wall would be the simplest way of breaking the basic 'disillusionment' charm they were currently under- and fired at the knight, only experiencing a momentary disappointment when the knight's lack of reaction to the bullets as they 'rippled' through its body confirmed that it was just as immune to being shot as its predecessor had been.
"So much for that plan..." he muttered to himself, even as Fred and George stepped away from the wall to take up their own positions on either side of him as the Black Knight did a few fancy sword moves before it began to walk towards them.
Ignoring a comment made by one of the surrounding villagers about the fact that they didn't have a chance, Mitchell dodged past the Black Knight's next attack as the wizards kept up their assault, Teal'c attempting to fire a few rounds from his own weapon before he had to step back as he recognised the uselessness of that action (Mitchell wished that Teal'c had chosen to bring his staff weapon along for this round; it might be obvious, but at least it could double up as a close-range weapon as well).
The spells seemed to slow the Knight down somewhat, but so far there was no sign that it was going to be stopped by anything they were throwing at it; it was moving slower than it had been earlier, but it was still going strong despite having received several of the orange bursts of magical energy that Mitchell recognised as Stunners.
"How's it going out there?" Jackson's voice suddenly said over the radio, drawing Mitchell's attention briefly away from the fight as he ducked under the latest blow.
"Uh... not good," Mitchell replied, grabbing at his radio as he tried to crawl away from the still-advancing knight; spells really weren't doing much to that thing, no matter how much magic the new guys tried to hit it with or what kind of spells they tried (If he was right about the assumption that different colours meant different spells and it wasn't just some visual 'trick'). "SG-M's doing something to it, but I wouldn't like to pin my hopes on that; it's not making that much of an impact..."
He hated to make judgements about something he didn't know that much about, but everything he was seeing seemed to make it clear that the wizards were making about as much of an impression on the Knight as his bullets had done earlier.
"Damnit!" George yelled, grabbing a sword lying on top of a nearby box and taking a few experimental swings with the weapon as the Knight drew closer to him, only to be met with nothing but frustration when the sword passed through the Knight as though it wasn't there, generating a brief blue glow as it did so without otherwise showing any sign that he'd even done anything. For a moment George relaxed as he swung- if the Black Knight was intangible, it couldn't touch him at the same time-, but then the Knight hit him with another blow that sent him falling back into the mud, and he re-evaluated his original thoughts; this thing didn't seem to obey any laws of magic or science that he knew of...
He wouldn't feel so bad if the villagers had given the impression that they appreciated the effort, but so far everyone else was just standing around watching him, his brother, Remus, Tonks, and Harry's new team get their asses kicked for trying to help them; was it asking too much for people to show some gratitude for trying to stand up to a curse (He accepted Harry's argument that it wasn't an actual 'curse' as they understood it, but everyone here thought it was; surely that amounted to the same thing)?
Glancing around himself, George's eyes widened in shock as he saw the Knight standing over the now-downed Mitchell, the colonel covered in mud as he tried to dodge the Knight's attacks while also getting to his feet. Teal'c tried to charge the Knight from behind as the other SG-M members- nice name for the group, really; he'd need to see about sorting them out some outfits when he had the time-, but it turned around and hit him in the chest with a sword-blow that would have probably been fatal if Teal'c hadn't moved to the side at the last minute. Lupin launched a couple of Disarming spells, but even though the Knight's wrist twitched when the spell struck him he never relinquished his grip on the sword, turning his attention back to the nearer Mitchell with a focused expression despite the lack of any kind of facial expression.
Just when George was beginning to lose faith in whatever reason they had for even trying to stop this Knight, a figure- George thought it looked like Valencia, that girl who'd shown his group where Merlin's library was during their earlier search, but he wouldn't like to swear to it- suddenly ran out of the crowd and ran for the sword in the stone they'd seen upon their arrival, grabbing the sword and pulling it out after a short strain.
Amid the surprised stares of the villagers- not that George could blame them; apparently, whatever world they were on, pulling the sword from the stone still meant something positive-, Valencia turned around and ran back towards Mitchell, throwing him the sword as the Knight advanced on him again. Grabbing the offered weapon, Mitchell neatly blocked the Knight's following blow, following it up by getting back to his feet as he and the Knight began to trade blows with their swords, the two moving with almost equal ease despite Mitchell's lack of experience with such a weapon. Trying to contribute to the fight, Tonks launched another Stunner at the Knight, only for the spell to strike the sword in Mitchell's hand, which briefly glowed with a golden light as it moved towards the Knight, passing through the armoured figure's sword and striking the armour, leaving a small scratch on it-
A scratch? Mitchell thought to himself, leaping back from the Knight's next blow as he stared at the now-damaged armour, his thoughts racing at the implications of this unexpected turn of events. No way...
Then again, if Merlin the Ancient and Merlin the wizard were the same person, who was to say that he hadn't found some way to bring Ancient science and Earth magic together? 'Charging' a sword with magic- for lack of a better expression to describe what had just happened; the spell must have given the sword a kind of boost that allowed it to disrupt the knight's 'matrix' or something like that- might be a fairly minor trick compared to some things he could have done, but considering that Mitchell had no idea how he might do anything like that- coupled with the fact that it was the only thing he had that could come close to solving this whole mess-, he supposed he couldn't complain...
"Do that again!" he yelled, stepping back from the Knight and holding the sword out to his side. To their credit, SG-M quickly realised what he meant, as all four of them launched further spells at the sword, the blade quickly glowing a brilliant blue as Mitchell raised it above his head and brought it down on the Knight once more. Just as with last time, the sword in his hand passed through the Knight's own weapon before it struck the Knight, cutting through the armoured being's chest with a powerful blow that practically tore the Knight in half. A brilliant light emerged from the now-large scar on the Knight's chest, and then it vanished in a burst of light, leaving Mitchell, Teal'c and SG-M staring at the area where the Knight had been with a relieved smile.
"Whoa..." Mitchell said, studying the sword in his hands as its previous glow faded down to its original level. "Now that was cool."
"Tell me about it..." Tonks said, shaking her head as she looked at the object in Mitchell's hand. "I mean, I don't really get what just happened to that thing, but that was-"
"Uh, hello?" Hermione's voice said, the normally cool Minister of Magic sounding surprisingly flustered at something. "We need you all back in the control room; something... interesting just happened."
As they walked back into the room with the large control console underneath the library, it didn't take long for Mitchell, Teal'c, and the rest of SG-M to realise what had changed. Not only was the room now filled with piles of treasure that resembled what Mitchell and Teal'c had discovered in Glastonbury Tor in their original visit there- although this was almost certainly holographic-, but there was also the addition of an elderly man in white robes standing at the other end of the room, smiling slightly at them.
"Oh my God..." Lupin whispered, his eyes wide as he stared at the figure before them. "Is that...?"
"Merlin?" Daniel said, smiling over at his father's friend. "Yeah, it's him... or, at least, it's a version of him."
"A version of him?" Fred repeated, his awe replaced by confusion at Daniel's apparently strange choice of phrase. "How's this a version of him?"
"I am a holographic recreation of the one whom you know as Merlin, Fred Weasley," the figure said, looking at Fred with a slight smile. "I have been programmed with the knowledge and awareness of my creator, and to respond to your queries as he would do if he were here, although I possess only a certain amount of his knowledge on various topics-"
"Hold on; if you're a hologram of Merlin, how were you... activated?" Sam asked, clearly uncertain if the being before her would appreciate being reminded of his fundamentally artificial nature. "I mean, Daniel and Hermione were trying to enter some possible passwords, but none of the earlier ones worked, and we hadn't even finished entering the latest one when you appeared..."
"The reason for that is simple," Merlin said, smiling at her. "I was programmed to activate only when magic and science combined to end the curse of the Black Knight that I had created to protect my work. This ensured that the library, and the full secrets of the archive that I can access, would only fall into the hands of those who could use the knowledge and information that I possessed; if not, they would only possess parts of my legacy, and much of my knowledge would be lost forever."
"Ah," Mitchell said, looking briefly at the sword in his hand before he smiled over at the hologram. "Interesting plan."
"Uh... would these 'topics' you can tell us about include the origin of magic on Earth?" Hermione asked, looking at Merlin with a slightly hopeful smile. "I mean, I get that we've all got a lot of things to do right now-"
"A thirst for knowledge is something that should always be explored if you possess the time to develop it, Miss Granger," Merlin said, smiling over at Hermione. "Do you have your own theories about why your world possesses magic where no other world can make the same claim?"
"Well... we did wonder if the lack of naquadah on Earth meant that your people did something that resulted in naquadah being turned into magic..." Hermione began, looking slightly awkwardly at the ground as she spoke (Not that Daniel or anyone else could blame her; it wasn't exactly every day that a witch or wizard got the chance to ask Merlin himself for information about the very origin of magic).
"An excellent and accurate assessment of what took place, my dear," Merlin said, smiling in approval at Hermione. "Our attempts to enhance the properties of Earth's naquadah to increase its use as a power source instead resulted in us altering the very nature of the planet's naquadah supply, transforming all raw naquadah on the planet- the treated naquadah that we used to construct what you know as the Stargates was naturally immune to such effects- into a non-tangible source of energy that permeated Earth's biosphere and caused mutative effects in areas where naquadah had been particularly concentrated in its natural form."
"Mutative effects?" Tonks repeated in confusion.
"He means that magic changed creatures that lived in areas where there had been large amounts of naquadah before their experiments transformed it into its new state; that probably accounted for the origins of unicorns or dragons, along with... whatever else you might have," Sam clarified, accepting a confirming nod from the wizards around her before she looked thoughtfully back at Merlin. "So... magic developed on Earth... by accident?"
"Essentially, yes," Merlin confirmed, smiling at Sam. "Once my people had established that there was no way to undo what had been done, we spent many years after the failure of our experiment learning everything we could about this new phenomenon, taking in those with the potential to wield magic and training them so that they would not hurt themselves or others with their gifts and discovering ways to conceal this power from those who would not understand its nature or might fear those who could control it where they could not. Despite our best efforts, however, we were unable to determine how we could successfully harness that power to be used on other worlds; those of us who possessed the necessary genetic sequence to wield magic could use it on any world we wished, but we could not make other planets nurture magic on their own, and attempts to duplicate the experiment that altered naquadah in such a manner would have relied on exact duplication of near-random formulas that we never felt comfortable even attempting them."
"So... does that mean Earth's the only planet where magic can exist?" Lupin asked uncertainly. "I mean, from what you've said, you couldn't make it appear anywhere else, but we've been using magic away from Earth without any problems..."
"It would be more accurate to say that Earth is the only planet where magic can manifest on its own," Merlin clarified. "Should you or any of your fellows relocate to another world, you would retain your magic on your new planet, and your children would still possess the ability to wield magic themselves for several generations at least- magic at that point would be about what you could generate yourself rather than what you acquired from your environment-, but nobody else would be able to manifest such powers on their own; contact with naquadah in your proximity, even just the amount in the Stargate, would help you to sustain magic to a degree that it could be passed on to your children, but the magic would be limited to your families rather than manifesting in others."
"Ah, so no muggle-borns popping up on other worlds," George said, exchanging glances with his twin before the two shrugged. "Well, that clears that up."
"Yeah, and while I'm grateful for you answering that question for us, that still leaves us with another thing we need to know right now," Daniel said, looking apologetically at Merlin. "I don't suppose you can tell us anything about where you hid this... weapon against the Ori we've heard about?"
"Ah, you seek the Sangraal," Merlin said, nodding at Daniel in understanding.
"The what?" Fred asked.
"Hold on a minute..." Daniel said, looking thoughtfully at the hologram.
"Back up a minute; the Sangraal?" Mitchell repeated, looking sharply at Daniel, interrupting whatever train of thought the archaeologist had been pursuing. "As in, the thing that you told us was actually the Holy Grail? Everything I've ever seen says that was a cup!"
"Actually, the notion that the grail was a cup or chalice, particularly the one used by Christ at the last supper, was... well, it was a late addition to the myth," Daniel explained, smiling slightly in amusement at the suddenly incredulous expression on Hermione's face as she looked sharply over at him; his knowledge of alien technology and history was one thing, but clearly she was understandably surprised at the idea that Harry Potter could know something about something from Earth that she hadn't been aware of herself. "See, on rare accounts, it's described variously as a dish or platter, or, in the case of Von Eschenbach and other Middle East influenced chroniclers, as a stone that fell from the Heavens."
"The stone itself is merely the focusing crystal of the complete device," Merlin said, smiling slightly as he looked at them. "What you seek is not here, but you can find it if you wish; Arthur's Knights sought it in the distant lands of Castianna, Sahal and Vagonbray."
"When you say lands, you mean... planets, right?" Hermione asked, looking quizzically at the hologram.
"Of course," Merlin confirmed with a nod. "What else would I mean?"
"I just wanted to make sure I wasn't making any assumptions based on inexperience; I only found out about the Stargates recently..." Hermione said with a slightly awkward shrug.
"Hold on; names aren't going to be much good without addresses..." Daniel began, looking uncertainly at Merlin.
"I'm sorry; I cannot give you that information," Merlin said with a shrug.
"Huh?" George said, looking at Merlin in confusion.
"What I know is intended to guide you to the next stage of your quest for the Sangraal, but I cannot give you all of the information that you seek myself," Merlin explained, regret on his face as he looked at the red-headed wizard. "I was programmed to respond and interact with you as Merlin should, but I was not given the full details of where he finally left the Sangraal for safe keeping; if someone should come here with less than noble intentions and sufficient knowledge of our technology, my creator could not take the risk that they would be able to uncover such information in my databanks."
"Ah," Mitchell said, nodding in grim understanding as he looked over at his teammates. "So much for that hope, eh?"
"Well, it's not like it's impossible for us to work out the truth, anyway," Daniel said, indicating the door to the main library room with a slight smile. "There's bound to be something in his books if we keep looking; it's not like it would be impossible to find something relevant..."
"No, just bloody difficult," Fred muttered, shaking his head as he glanced upwards at the room where the various books that Merlin had assembled or written over his lifetime awaited them. "Damn, this is going to take some time..."
"Look at it this way," Lupin said, smiling encouragingly at his friends. "We just defeated the curse of the Black Knight; I'm sure that we can convince the villagers to let us stick around long enough to do more research on this particular topic."
Even as Daniel smiled at that thought, he wished that he could stop his subconscious from contemplating the train of thought that had just occurred to him.
The idea of trying to lure Voldemort into an ambush on this planet might be promising in theory- even Voldemort's arrogance wouldn't be enough for him to reject the chance to gain control of the library of Merlin himself-, but setting up a situation where he would deliberately endanger innocent people just to capture his enemy was crossing a line that he'd established for himself long ago, and he wouldn't compromise that line just because it would be easier.
Wherever Voldemort was out there, he and Daniel would face each other sooner or later; even with Goa'uld genetic knowledge, Voldemort was too strapped for resources to stay away from all of the worlds they'd visited so far, particularly after the collapse of the Goa'uld empire and Hestia's recent extraction (Even if he doubted that Bellatrix would know or be willing to share anything useful with them even with Hestia gone; given how insane Bellatrix was, she may have considered it an honour to share her mind with a 'god').
When the time came for them to face Voldemort again, he'd be there; until then, they had another avenue to explore in their search for a weapon against the Ori, and he was going to try and explore it as thoroughly as possible.
AN 2: Hope everyone enjoyed that; we're on to "Off the Grid" next time- with a few crucial differences-, as the wizards get the chance to see another Earth spaceship and face the last of the System Lords