Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Stargate SG-1, Reign, or anything else I reference.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Heavens Above and Hells Below
(Royal Castle, France)
Danny woke up from his bed and looked to the two women lying beside him. Kenna and Greer were probably going to remain like that for a few hours and as much as he would enjoy staying here as well, it seemed that he had work to do.
One bath later and he was ready for his day to get started.
He walked to the doors that would lead outside of the room and faced the Jaffa guarding his door. They had been stationed on the second Ha'tak that had come from Dinai.
"Madi order the soldiers to get my guests some breakfast." Danny said.
"Yes, my king." Madi said as she walked off to accomplish her task leaving Afram to guard the door alone.
"What is my task?" Afram asked.
"You are to keep where you are." Danny said then walked off to find someone to tell him the current location of Queen Catherine.
He walked to the contact orb at his desk that had been blinking while he was in the tub.
"What is the matter?" Danny asked Gan'tu.
He is a Jaffa that lived in the village of Kleak. He worked in the Ha'tak researching what the B.I.R.D.S. had found and putting it in simple lists for him to look through and decided what he found interesting.
"We have discovered a DNAlien hive." Gan'tu said.
The B.I.R.D.S. had taken pictures of DNAliens grabbing people that happened to pass by their village.
"Prepare an Al'kesh and fill it with Twenty Jaffa." Danny said.
"We will destroy the village." Gan'tu promised.
"I know because I am going as well." Danny said.
"You have no need to waste your time with this my king." Gan'tu said.
"These DNAliens have invaded a planet under my protection. The original would want me to deal with it." Danny said teleporting to Kleak.
0-0-0-0-0-0
(Kleak, France)
Danny took a step on to the Pel'tak and took a look around. The Jaffa were all at their stations ready to lift off and join the battle if such an order was given.
"Welcome my king." Mis'ra said.
She is short for a Jaffa woman but average heigh for a woman of this world. She is in command of the ship when he was not on board.
"How is the Al'kesh I ordered?" Danny asked.
"Ready to leave when you give the word." Mis'ra answered.
"Have they been properly equipped?" Danny asked knowing that he gave the order rather quickly and so he did not want to be surprised when he in to battle only to find out that the necessary equipment was not on board.
"Everything has been packed. We made sure of it." Mis'ra said knowing that if it was not true, she would be blamed and punished.
"Good. I am going in a single Al'kesh but I want a backup group of five ready to deploy if we need reinforcements." Danny said.
This was not some random human village they were going to be raiding. This was the possible beginning of an invasion by an alien force from beyond.
The irony was not lost on him.
"Do you know what this village was called before it was taken over?" Danny asked wondering how far he would have to go.
"It is in Latitude 50.7272 and Latitude 12.4884. The local people called it Zwickau and it is in the land of Germany." Le'lanna Mis'ra's sister replied.
That was way too close.
"Alright I want you to be in constant communication with the Al'kesh. If something happens to disrupt that I want, you to contact the original and inform him of what has happened." Danny said.
"Understood." Mis'ra said.
"Good then I will be on my way to the Al'kesh." Danny said to her.
"These being come from the same place as you?" Qetsiyah asked as she appeared besides him.
"Not exactly." Danny replied not wanting to have to explain the difference between space and universes with Qetsiyah right now.
"Will you explain?" Qetsiyah asked.
"Not right now. We can talk about it later." Danny said but groaned in pain as Qestiyah used her abilities.
"You are underestimating me. Do not make the same mistake Silas did by thinking you can ignore me." Qetsiyah said with anger in her eyes.
"Fine we can talk about it after I deal with this." Danny said and felt the pain in his head reduce.
Silas was a fool to get on the bad side of that witch and he would not do the same unless he was sure that he could kill Qetsiyah in the attempt.
0-0-0-0-0-0
(Zwickau, Germany)
Danny waited atop of his Al'Kesh while his Jaffa returned from scouting the village.
According to the information given to him by the Foreign One the common method DNAliens used when invading a planet was to start with secretly taking over a town. The Highbreed officer in charge would begin with taking over a single village as a base. The townspeople would be turned into DNAlien slaves that would mine and build the technology they required.
The town was already covered under a stealth field that prevented regular humans from seeing what was going on.
"My king." Raios said as he appeared alongside Kiol.
"What is going on in the town?" Danny asked as he floated down from the top of his ship and stood in front of the Jaffa.
"They appear to be receiving supplies and equipment from their home universe." Raios said.
Raios did not understand much about his enemy but that did not matter. He had declared that they were his enemy and so they would be destroyed. Under Nirrti's rules his role was to be no more than an instrument that his king used to wipe them out.
"Did you happen to see what was in any of the shipments?" Danny asked.
There were four possibilities that the Highbreed would be receiving. Blueprints to build technology, weapons to help their takeover, food to keep them nourished, and xenocytes to infect the population.
"Unfortunately, not my king. The DNAliens were ordered to move it to different parts of the village the moment that it arrived." Kiol answered with a scowl said that he failed in part of his mission.
"Do you know the final destination of where the supplies are going?" Danny asked.
He wanted to make sure that no one found these by accident and started asking questions. Or worse playing around with alien technology that they were not ready for.
"Did you manage to place the device that I gave you?" Danny asked.
While the two Jaffa were scouting, they were also to plant the barrier device that he had used when capturing Setesh. He had been dealt with the flaw that it had. Now anyone could enter but unless you had a way to teleport out it was near impossible to escape without destroying the device.
"Yes, we accomplished that part of the mission." Kiol said.
"Good. Gather the rest of the Jaffa and make sure that your sonic devices are working. We move in five minutes." Danny said as he wanted this done as fast as possible.
The Germans may not have known it, but they were under his protection and too many of them had fallen to such a horrid state.
"My King we are ready." Kiol said with the rest of the Jaffa behind him with staff weapons in hand.
Then it is time to start the attack.
"Then wait for me to activate the device then march forwards to attack." Danny said as he left the Al'kesh.
With each step he took he could feel the tension rising. His men behind him were marching but he could hear each step they made. Their feelings full of determination and excitement at fighting a new enemy. They all wanted to prove themselves to him. To fulfill their goddesses order and make sure nothing happened to him.
"Who are you?" An old woman with white hair in a large dress asked him as she noticed him.
She was there to keep watch for anyone that approached the village.
Danny used his technopathic abilities to activate the barrier device that Kiol and Raios had placed in the village.
"I am King Daniel, and I am here to kick you off of my planet." Danny said pulling of the I.D. mask that she was wearing ending the holographic projection.
The DNAlien was an ugly thing. It was humanoid in shape, but its body was yellow with black claws and feet. Their head was covered by the xenocyte and the center of their stomachs had the same purple tentacles.
"You will never take us down." The DNAlien growled before firing off a blast of mucus. "Once you are captured you would reveal how you learned of us human."
"That is just nasty." Danny said conjuring a shield to protect him from the blast.
Looking around he could see that other DNAliens were coming out of their homes.
They were clearly about to rush him, but they were never going to get the chance. The moment the barrier went up his Jaffa came running into the village. Before the started blasting their staff weapons, they activated their sonic devices that was connected to the legs of their armor.
The DNAliens were an unknown entity so he wanted the fight to truly be in their favor before any of the fighting actually began. Through the process that DNAliens were created they also gained an intense weakness to loud sonic frequencies. The devices would transmit the B.I.R.D.S.' shriek through the village messing with the heads of the DNAliens. It would keep them from forming any plan or deep thought. They would be forced to rely on pure savagery and natural instinct.
These soldiers were be taken down by the Jaffa while he dealt with the Highbreed in command.
"What is going on?" The Highbreed in charge roared as he saw his base being attacked.
The Highbreed was too tall to be able to use an I.D. mask. A majority of his skin was white except for his hands and feet. His chest looked like it had four eyes, but they were just a result of its wings being folded in. It also had four eyes.
"You have invaded my planet and I took exception to that." Danny said as he fired an energy blast to the Highbreed.
"I will crush you." The Higbreed said as he rushed at the fool who thought he could fight him.
"Lots of people have tried." Danny said as he ducked under the Highbreed's swing and fired a stronger energy blast that moved it back a few inches.
Looks like he was going to need a lot of power to deal with this thing and that was not good.
"What is your name?" Danny asked as he gave a flying kick to the Highbreed that was blocked by its giant arm.
"Why should I give my name to an insect that I am about to crush?" The Highbreed asked.
"If I was a soon to be dead thing then I would want someone to remember my name." Danny said as he blasted the Highbreed in the face with a blast of blue fire.
That caused the Highbreed to back up further than the energy blasts had.
"I will tell you nothing." The Highbreed said.
"Fine if you want to be like that then I will take the information I want." Danny said as he used telepathy to read the Highbreed's mind.
"Get out of my head insect." The Highbreed growled as he grabbed his head.
"I do not think so." Danny said as he surrounded them with a ring of fire. The heat was taking some of the Highbreed's attention and lowering the focus he used to fight his mental assault.
"Get out." Rai'namalaquan said as he fell to his knees.
"Not yet." Danny said as he went past the useless information for the bits that were important to this situation.
They could be looked at later.
"My king conjure a shield!" Raios yelled.
Danny listened to the instruction and conjured a shield. He glanced behind him to see a DNAlien holding some sort of weapon. It looked like someone had added a showerhead to an acute triangle The energy fired from it bounced off of his shield and blew up one of the villager's houses and set a large fire that was starting to spread around them.
"You will not get away with this!" Rai'n yelled as he took to the sky to get away from all the fire.
"You are not getting away that easily." Danny said as he started manipulating the fire to start chasing after Rai'n.
He was still in Rai'n's head. He knew that in case of discovery the protocol for such situations was for the Highbreed to activate a bomb that would wipe out all life in a five-mile radius and obviously he could not let that happen. As the flames chased after the Highbreed commander it took the shape of a bird. Eventually the increased heat brought Rai'n down to the ground as he collapsed in an undignified heap.
"Welcome to the list of people who have tried to destroy me." Danny said looking down at Rai'n with a smile.
Then Danny heard the sound of someone clapping. It was tall man with dark skin and a bald head. He was wearing a roman stola. He looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties.
'Looks like the devil wants to talk.' Danny thought to himself.
As he looked at the man, he received what felt like an intense amount of pain and suffering. Arcadius was not the one feeling it but instead feeding off of it. It was probably coming from the souls that he kept trapped in his personal dimension.
"Very impressive." Arcadius said with a smile on his face looking at the destruction around them.
"What do you want?" Danny asked as he stared at the devil.
It was really astonishing how the people of this planet had managed to replicate their ancestor's feat without even knowing that they existed. Qetsiyah and the witches had managed to become a planet bound version of the Ascended and now he was meeting the Earth version of the Ori.
"Nothing too difficult." Arcadius said. "Right now, just talking with someone alive is good enough."
"Why should I talk to you?" Danny asked, "Most people would say that I should ignore the devil because he will lead fools to temptation."
His own minion was hoping that he would decide to work with her and kill Arcadius. That was certainly a review on the type of company that he was.
"I know that you talk to Qetsiyah. What make me so different from her?" Arcadius asked.
"She does not feast on the suffering of the souls in her dimension." Danny answered him.
"When she was alive, she was a woman that liked to hold grudges and secrets and I do not believe death has cured her of that habit." Arcadius said. "You must have doubts about whether what all she has told is true or worry that she is holding back information."
'He is not wrong.' Danny thought to himself.
"She is having the time of her afterlife torturing Silas." Arcadius said.
"How do you know that?" Danny asked.
He was not surprised at that, but he wanted to know how Arcadius knew that.
"There a plenty of witches willing to tell my sirens things." Arcadius said. "There are always a few witches wanting to push the boundaries of what was possible. Those that felt stifled by their covens and wanted freedom. Many times, they lost their way and wound up with my mark fearing the day that they would die and join the others I have claimed. Give them the offer of freedom so that they could die knowing they will be sent to the Other Side instead of to me and they were willing to do me many favors."
"What do you wish to talk about?" Danny asked taking a step and transmuting the ground into a table.
He then created a chair for them to sit. Arcadius did not need it, but he might enjoy the gesture.
"What sort of creature are these?" Arcadius asked.
"That is complicated, but they come from very far away." Danny answered.
"Is it where you come from?" Arcadius asked.
"They come from a place farther than I have ever been." Danny answered.
"Are more going to be coming?" Arcadius asked.
"I hope not." Danny answered. "Anyway, I was wondering about the souls that you have in your dimension."
"What about them?" Arcadius asked.
"I was wondering if King Henry Tudor VIII was there?" Danny asked.
He knew that King Henry was not on the Other Side and given how he treated his wives and the people of his kingdom it would be no surprise if he was with Arcadius.
"No." Arcadius answered.
"Really?" Danny asked surprised.
If anybody deserved to be punished with hell and eternal torment, he would have thought that King Henry would have qualified. He had been horrible to his wives. He divorced the first, killed the second, let the third die to have his son, divorced the fourth and killed the fifth. Had he lived he may have finished the pattern and let the six die to have another child.
"My sirens did not make it in time to place a mark upon his soul." Arcadius said.
"Why just two sirens?" Danny asked.
There had to be some reason why out of all these centuries that Arcadius had only altered Sybil and Selene.
"It would be a waste of power. There are only ever so many evil people in the world at a time." Arcadius said. "My desire has only ever been to punish the wicked souls that walk the earth. Have you heard of the doppelganger?"
"You mean people that look identical to each other?" Danny asked playing dumb, but he knew what he really meant.
"I mean the women that appears in the Petrova family every few generations." Arcadius said. "She and the others were something created by Qetsiyah as a result of her elixir."
"Why should I care about it?" Danny asked.
"You are a man that cares for rare and unique things with a lot of history behind it." Arcadius said.
"You are not wrong." Danny said as he thought back on the countless records of stories stored back on Dinai in his treasure vault.
"Think about it. A priceless existence that will appear through the ages with new stories to tell." Arcadius said.
'That is interesting.' Danny thought to himself before catching on.
He was losing focus and getting distracted. Not a good thing when dealing with someone like Arcadius "Do you know something about a city called Kul Elna?"
Kul Elna was a village that the original had gotten from the memories of Imhotep.
"I know stories of the city." Arcadius admitted.
"What kind of stories?" Danny asked.
"Stories of monsters, ancient duels, lost treasures. That sort of thing." Arcadius said being vague on purpose. "Kul Elna was a city in Egypt. The city the priests of Sargon fled to after he was killed by Mathayus. Even when I was alive there were people telling stories of Kul Elna. That it had been a city where magic moved through every street. Then one day it just vanished into mystery."
'Sounds like a place I really need to explore.' Danny thought to himself.
He hoped that his Jaffa would hurry up with exploring the place. "Sounds interesting."
"I have a question for you." Arcadius said. "Have you ever heard of Expression?"
"I doubt you are talking about showing emotions on faces." Danny said.
"No. I am not." Arcadius said.
"What is it?" Danny asked.
"It is an ancient type of power." Arcadius said.
"I have not heard of it in my searches." Danny said.
"I am not surprised. It is not a power the witches like to talk about. They do not even like to call it magic because of how powerful it is." Arcadius said before vanishing.
The devil had just given him a mystery. Even if it led to something dangerous, even if it is something that he should leave alone he wanted to find out what it meant.