Imperial
Chaper 2
Jack knocked loudly on the door frame, smirking when it made both Sam and Daniel jump. "Okay, kids!" he let the smirk widen, "It's time to go!"
"Jack!" Daniel scrambled to his feet, tripping over himself as he approached the cell door. His eyes were wide behind his smudged glasses as he wrapped his hands around the iron bars, "You're okay?"
"Sir?" Sam hovered behind the archeologist's shoulder and even Teal'c had risen to his feet and moved slightly closer even though he was as impassive as ever.
Jack gave the red and gold armor-clad soldier who had been his escort slash babysitter since the Flaming-Fire-Head and Bald-Arrow-Head guys let him go a Look. "Hey, are you going to let them out or not?"
The guy bowed his head in a way that reminded Jack uncomfortably of when Teal'c did the same and turned to the just red armored flunky that had shown up when Jack and his babysitter had turned up at the prison. "By the order of his Imperial Majesty, these prisoners are to be released," after spitting out that pompous sounding announcement, Red and Gold held out a scroll with a snappy motion to Just Red. After that, Just Red bustled off, now completely beneath Red and Gold's notice who had turned back to Jack and the still locked up SG-1, "Your party is invited to retire to the Imperial guest apartments at his Imperial Majesty's pleasure."
Just Red reappeared after a few moments, scroll no longer in hand and with an odd hand motion and a strange flare of light and heat at the lock, the door to the cell swung open. Daniel tumbled out with Sam on his heels. As usual, Teal'c was a lot more sedate, but even he was pretty quick to leave the cell.
Jack eyed each of them, before giving Daniel a friendly punch to the arm. "Sounds good," he replied to Red and Gold. As for his team, he waved off their concerns and said, "I'll tell you what's going on once we get there."
Ignoring their questions, Jack trooped them through the corridors to the outside, ignoring Red and Gold until they stepped out into the sun. "Where to now?" Jack asked, pointedly, keeping an eye on his team as they blinked in the bright sunlight.
"This way," Red and Gold said with that Teal'c-esque head bob before taking off at a good clip.
Jack waved his group to follow and predictably, while Sam drifted back to keep an eye on him, Daniel scurried up to chat with Red and Gold on the inside of thirty seconds.
"Hello, my name is Daniel Jackson, may I ask what yours is?"
"I am Aizu..." Red and Gold gave Daniel an odd look, before seeming to give in to a question that Jack had sensed burning on the tip of his tongue since Red and Gold had been charged with babysitting them. "Are you from Earth Kingdom?" Red and Gold had a genuinely puzzled look on his vaguely asian face as he eyed SG-1.
"Earth Kingdom?" Danny echoed, "We are from Earth, but it's not a kingdom. It's- -"
"We're not from Earth Kingdom," Jack spoke loudly over Daniel, "Why'd you think so?"
Red and Gold's odd yellow eyes narrowed and flicked from Danny to Jack, "Only Earth Kingdom noble families are regularly introduced with a family name."
Daniel blinked and Jack pursed his lips in a silent whistle. Damn. Not good.
"Oh!" Daniel hurried to explain, "No. We are not nobles. We're from-"
"Danny," Jack said.
Daniel gave him an irritated Look, "What?"
"I told you I'd explain what's going on once we get settled in," Jack said sourly. Red and Gold's head lifted higher, as if he had not been asking questions, not reacting to Jack's not quite reprimand of his team mate. Jack had the feeling, used to these sorts of things by now, that Red and Gold wasn't supposed to be asking questions in the first place. Naughty, naughty, that Red and Gold.
All of a sudden, Red and Gold stopped and spoke stiltedly, "We have arrived, sirs. His Imperial Majesty entreats you to rest and recover from your trials that he might speak with you in due time."
"Thanks," Jack drawled, sketching an irreverent salute that made Red and Gold's eye twitch before sauntering inside the overly red and black and gold so called "apartment" that Red and Gold had stopped outside. When his team didn't immediately follow, he popped his head out the door and gave them the stink eye, "Well? Come on kids!"
Sam rolled her eyes and gave a small sigh, "Coming, sir."
Daniel gave Aizu an apologetic look, "Thank you for showing us the way."
"It was my honor," Aizu said stiffly, eye twitching again when Jack called Daniel's name again.
Daniel smiled and headed into the apartment, smile vanishing as he gave Jack a look that was as annoyed as the smile he had given Aizu pleasant. "Jack," he said grouchily, "What the hell? We should at least be polite to the person who let us out of that prison."
"Yes, yes, you can play nice with the natives later," Jack rolled his eyes, "but you can trust me when I say that guy's not important around here. He's a flunky with fancy gold on his clothing because the kid in charge of this place makes him run errands. And babysit."
"Kid?" Sam asked.
Teal'c's presence suddenly loomed over them, "There is a child ruling this nation?"
Jack grimaced, "Yeah. I'd say he was nineteen to early twenties at the oldest. And he's a war hero."
Sam bit here lip as the corners of her eyes creased in worry. "How long ago was the war?"
"It's been a couple years," Jack shrugged, forcibly nonchalant though he knew that the pinched look in his eyes revealed how he really felt about that. Children. War heroes. In the best of times he thought that the two ideas should never be put in the same sentence unless as child of a war hero, but at the moment, all that it made him think of was Charlie and the gun. Especially the little Shaolin kid who was the last of his entire people.
Sam bit off a curse.
"They called it the Hundred Year War," Jack said grimly, "and a bunch of kids are decorated war heroes because they ended it."
"Did it last a hundred years?" Daniel asked with a frown, "Sometimes it doesn't last as long as the name implies... Though sometimes they're longer..."
"Whooo boy," Jack huffed, "From the top... Yes, it did last an entire hundred years. Apparently, the Fire Nation, our lovely hosts, committed a genocidal attack on a group of people they're calling the Air Nomads and killed them all, except for one, who I'll get back to later. So, after killing all the nomads, the Fire Nation moved on to kill or conquer everyone else, including the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes.
"Aizu asked if we were from the Earth Kingdom!" Daniel said, "So all the groups of people are named after the classical elements? Remarkable!"
"Danny..." Jack said, trying to catch his brainy team mate from getting lost in thought. He should have known that it was a useless endeavor. It didn't help that Daniel was entirely missing the point. Which was that the Fire Nation had tried to, cliche as it might sound, take over the world.
"I would have thought that they would ascribe to the five elements of eastern philosophy..." Daniel muttered thoughtfully to himself as Jack rolled his eyes.
"Snap out of it Jackson!" Jack snapped, "It doesn't matter if they call themselves Fireflies. They're working on rebuilding after their Hitler- esque hundred year long clusterfuck of a war. And now they have to deal with the Goa'uld." He paused, raising a finger in the air, "Am I the only one who thinks that this is not a good thing?"
Daniel flinched and Teal'c's frown became more pronounced, "They do not yet appear to be technologically advanced enough to protect themselves from an attack by the Goa'uld."
"Oh!" Jack snapped his fingers, as if he had just remembered something, "That reminds me. I'm not sure what it is they're doing but some of 'em have got some pretty interesting magic powers."
This had Sam raising an eyebrow, "Magic, sir?"
Jack gave her a silly, razor edged smile and raised his hands to flutter them, "Magic. Powers."
The odd look Sam slanted his way was more than eloquent enough to convey her skepticism.
Jack shrugged, "You saw the flunky who let you out of the cell do his Firestarter impersonation, and it looks like we've got enough of these guys wandering around that can do the same that the kids were stumped I'd never heard of their nifty abilities."
Jack knocked loudly on the door frame, smirking when it made both Sam and Daniel jump. "Okay, kids!" he let the smirk widen, "It's time to go!"
"Jack!" Daniel scrambled to his feet, tripping over himself as he approached the cell door. His eyes were wide behind his smudged glasses as he wrapped his hands around the iron bars, "You're okay?"
"Sir?" Sam hovered behind the archeologist's shoulder and even Teal'c had risen to his feet and moved slightly closer even though he was as impassive as ever.
Jack gave the red and gold armor-clad soldier who had been his escort slash babysitter since the Flaming-Fire-Head and Bald-Arrow-Head guys let him go a Look. "Hey, are you going to let them out or not?"
The guy bowed his head in a way that reminded Jack uncomfortably of when Teal'c did the same and turned to the just red armored flunky that had shown up when Jack and his babysitter had turned up at the prison. "By the order of his Imperial Majesty, these prisoners are to be released," after spitting out that pompous sounding announcement, Red and Gold held out a scroll with a snappy motion to Just Red. After that, Just Red bustled off, now completely beneath Red and Gold's notice who had turned back to Jack and the still locked up SG-1, "Your party is invited to retire to the Imperial guest apartments at his Imperial Majesty's pleasure."
Just Red reappeared after a few moments, scroll no longer in hand and with an odd hand motion and a strange flare of light and heat at the lock, the door to the cell swung open. Daniel tumbled out with Sam on his heels. As usual, Teal'c was a lot more sedate, but even he was pretty quick to leave the cell.
Jack eyed each of them, before giving Daniel a friendly punch to the arm. "Sounds good," he replied to Red and Gold. As for his team, he waved off their concerns and said, "I'll tell you what's going on once we get there."
Ignoring their questions, Jack trooped them through the corridors to the outside, ignoring Red and Gold until they stepped out into the sun. "Where to now?" Jack asked, pointedly, keeping an eye on his team as they blinked in the bright sunlight.
"This way," Red and Gold said with that Teal'c-esque head bob before taking off at a good clip.
Jack waved his group to follow and predictably, while Sam drifted back to keep an eye on him, Daniel scurried up to chat with Red and Gold on the inside of thirty seconds.
"Hello, my name is Daniel Jackson, may I ask what yours is?"
"I am Aizu..." Red and Gold gave Daniel an odd look, before seeming to give in to a question that Jack had sensed burning on the tip of his tongue since Red and Gold had been charged with babysitting them. "Are you from Earth Kingdom?" Red and Gold had a genuinely puzzled look on his vaguely asian face as he eyed SG-1.
"Earth Kingdom?" Danny echoed, "We are from Earth, but it's not a kingdom. It's- -"
"We're not from Earth Kingdom," Jack spoke loudly over Daniel, "Why'd you think so?"
Red and Gold's odd yellow eyes narrowed and flicked from Danny to Jack, "Only Earth Kingdom noble families are regularly introduced with a family name."
Daniel blinked and Jack pursed his lips in a silent whistle. Damn. Not good.
"Oh!" Daniel hurried to explain, "No. We are not nobles. We're from-"
"Danny," Jack said.
Daniel gave him an irritated Look, "What?"
"I told you I'd explain what's going on once we get settled in," Jack said sourly. Red and Gold's head lifted higher, as if he had not been asking questions, not reacting to Jack's not quite reprimand of his team mate. Jack had the feeling, used to these sorts of things by now, that Red and Gold wasn't supposed to be asking questions in the first place. Naughty, naughty, that Red and Gold.
All of a sudden, Red and Gold stopped and spoke stiltedly, "We have arrived, sirs. His Imperial Majesty entreats you to rest and recover from your trials that he might speak with you in due time."
"Thanks," Jack drawled, sketching an irreverent salute that made Red and Gold's eye twitch before sauntering inside the overly red and black and gold so called "apartment" that Red and Gold had stopped outside. When his team didn't immediately follow, he popped his head out the door and gave them the stink eye, "Well? Come on kids!"
Sam rolled her eyes and gave a small sigh, "Coming, sir."
Daniel gave Aizu an apologetic look, "Thank you for showing us the way."
"It was my honor," Aizu said stiffly, eye twitching again when Jack called Daniel's name again.
Daniel smiled and headed into the apartment, smile vanishing as he gave Jack a look that was as annoyed as the smile he had given Aizu pleasant. "Jack," he said grouchily, "What the hell? We should at least be polite to the person who let us out of that prison."
"Yes, yes, you can play nice with the natives later," Jack rolled his eyes, "but you can trust me when I say that guy's not important around here. He's a flunky with fancy gold on his clothing because the kid in charge of this place makes him run errands. And babysit."
"Kid?" Sam asked.
Teal'c's presence suddenly loomed over them, "There is a child ruling this nation?"
Jack grimaced, "Yeah. I'd say he was nineteen to early twenties at the oldest. And he's a war hero."
Sam bit here lip as the corners of her eyes creased in worry. "How long ago was the war?"
"It's been a couple years," Jack shrugged, forcibly nonchalant though he knew that the pinched look in his eyes revealed how he really felt about that. Children. War heroes. In the best of times he thought that the two ideas should never be put in the same sentence unless as child of a war hero, but at the moment, all that it made him think of was Charlie and the gun. Especially the little Shaolin kid who was the last of his entire people.
Sam bit off a curse.
"They called it the Hundred Year War," Jack said grimly, "and a bunch of kids are decorated war heroes because they ended it."
"Did it last a hundred years?" Daniel asked with a frown, "Sometimes it doesn't last as long as the name implies... Though sometimes they're longer..."
"Whooo boy," Jack huffed, "From the top... Yes, it did last an entire hundred years. Apparently, the Fire Nation, our lovely hosts, committed a genocidal attack on a group of people they're calling the Air Nomads and killed them all, except for one, who I'll get back to later. So, after killing all the nomads, the Fire Nation moved on to kill or conquer everyone else, including the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes.
"Aizu asked if we were from the Earth Kingdom!" Daniel said, "So all the groups of people are named after the classical elements? Remarkable!"
"Danny..." Jack said, trying to catch his brainy team mate from getting lost in thought. He should have known that it was a useless endeavor. It didn't help that Daniel was entirely missing the point. Which was that the Fire Nation had tried to, cliche as it might sound, take over the world.
"I would have thought that they would ascribe to the five elements of eastern philosophy..." Daniel muttered thoughtfully to himself as Jack rolled his eyes.
"Snap out of it Jackson!" Jack snapped, "It doesn't matter if they call themselves Fireflies. They're working on rebuilding after their Hitler- esque hundred year long clusterfuck of a war. And now they have to deal with the Goa'uld." He paused, raising a finger in the air, "Am I the only one who thinks that this is not a good thing?"
Daniel flinched and Teal'c's frown became more pronounced, "They do not yet appear to be technologically advanced enough to protect themselves from an attack by the Goa'uld."
"Oh!" Jack snapped his fingers, as if he had just remembered something, "That reminds me. I'm not sure what it is they're doing but some of 'em have got some pretty interesting magic powers."
This had Sam raising an eyebrow, "Magic, sir?"
Jack gave her a silly, razor edged smile and raised his hands to flutter them, "Magic. Powers."
The odd look Sam slanted his way was more than eloquent enough to convey her skepticism.
Jack shrugged, "You saw the flunky who let you out of the cell do his Firestarter impersonation, and it looks like we've got enough of these guys wandering around that can do the same that the kids were stumped I'd never heard of their nifty abilities."