The Sentinels: Chapter Seven
Summary: SG-1 has learned that not all the Ancients died out. Jack O'Neill is one of them. As enemies rise and fall the Sentinels are forced to come out of the shadows and take the stand as the Greatest Race impacting the course of history like never before. Slash
Disclaimer: I own none of this
Words:3, 221
Chapter Seven
“What does it say Daniel?” Sam asked when she’d judged that Daniel had been given long enough to decipher the main points of the Ancient text.
“It’s ah.......well it’s the equivalent to a computer’s desktop menu,” Daniel answered. “In this first window,” he indicated the top left one, “it’s a search engine type thing that accesses the entire Ancient Database. The Ancient Database! Why does Jack have the Ancient Database in his house?”
Daniel closed his eyes and struggled to control his emotions. There was so much that he didn’t understand, and under normal circumstances he knew how he should proceed, but with Jack in the dead centre he was too conflicted. To have access to the Ancient Database was such a treasure and he wanted so desperately to go through it. Jack was missing, Jack had been injured, Jack was fucking lying to him and he wanted to know why!
Daniel took a deep breath and opened his eyes to continue, “The second window is a little confusing. It looks like a profile page, but no one’s profile is up. The third is literally gibberish to me because it’s numbers. You’d have better luck with it Sam.”
“If only I could read it,” She murmured. Daniel only partially wondered what she was thinking. Her mind worked with logic, and logical didn’t always worked in the Stargate Program. Tal’c was just impassive, like he use to be when he first joined the program and Daniel couldn’t fathom what was going through his head.
“Do you think you can access anything Daniel?” Sam asked curiously. “Like a profile? Or a planet we know?”
Daniel shrugged, “Probably not, I’m surprised I was even able to turn it on. I don’t have the Ancient gene and this is quite obviously Ancient Technology.”
There was a bright light behind them and when he turned around to look, Daniel saw Jack, standing there casually like nothing was wrong, and wearing all white which was odd because Daniel knew Jack didn’t own a white outfit.
He didn’t know what to say, or do. A part of him wanted to yell and scream at Jack for the range of emotions that had assaulted him in the past sixteen hours, another was to embrace him, kiss him and make sure he was really there, and yet another just wanted to ignore him, give him the cold shoulder and make Jack beg to be heard.
Jack was contemplating something, Daniel could see it in his eyes and it looked like he was coming to a positive decision when his eyes looked past Daniel and at the screen.
“Fuck,” he said loudly, startling them out of their surprise, eyes rolling heavenward in annoyance. “Fuck.”
Daniel fought the urge to yell and decided to go with something a little more condescending. “Well fuck you too Jack, where the hell have you been?”
Jack was silent for a moment, looking at Daniel with a hurt expression but also like he deserved it. Then he sighed and they were all surrounded by the white light of Asgard Beaming technology.
Daniel looked around the new place and was surprised that it was not Asgard architecture but Ancient.
“I do hate it when you take control over my stuff,” an annoyed voice said. “And didn’t I just get rid of you?”
The speaker was a man that looked identical, if a slight bit younger, to Jack. He sat in a chair similar to the one in Antarctica and beside him was a man who looked to be in his early thirties with short spiky black hair and calculating blue eyes. Daniel felt shivers run down his spine just from looking at him and quickly averted his gaze.
Jack gave the speaker a very annoyed look, “You can never get rid of me.”
“Oh bummer, there go my plans for universal domination.”
Daniel blinked but the man was smiling so he didn’t think it was a serious comment.
“Where are we?” Sam asked.
“Good question m’lady. I have no idea.” He looked very serious saying this that for a second Daniel believed him.
That was until Jack said in a very warning tone, “Jeremiah.”
Jeremiah shrugged, “Okay, okay. You are aboard the Alteran Warship Narcissus.”
Daniel frowned, “Why Narcissus?”
“Why not?” Jeremiah countered smiling. “My ship is the most powerful in four galaxies, has been for over ten thousand years so I think it deserves the name.”
“Who are you?” Sam asked, totally confused.
Jack winced, “oops. This is Supreme Commander Jeremiah of the Alterans. He’s an ally of the Asgard. Behind him is his oldest son Jaden.”
Sam nodded, “Ok. Why are we here?”
Jeremiah was smirking at Jack and Daniel didn’t like it. “Aren’t you forgetting an important detail?”
Jack sighed, “He’s also my twin brother.”
That didn’t register in Daniel’s mind for about half a minute, but when it did he did a double take. Jack wasn’t looking at him and Jeremiah was still smirking.
“Sir, your record says you have no siblings.” Sam said.
“Then it is wrong,” Teal’c stated.
“It is,” Jack agreed. “And I lied. I’ve lied about a lot of things.”
Daniel’s eyes widened and his stomach clenched in dread. “What do you mean?”
Jack sighed, turning around to look out the front window and down on Earth. “Everything you know about me. It’s true but, only to a point. I’m not human, I’m definitely not fifty and Charlie is not my only child.”
Daniel shook his head. What Jack was saying made absolutely no sense.
“Start from the beginning Jonathan,” Jeremiah said.
Jack turned around, “Can you bring up Babylon, Avalon, Silvaralon and Ida on the screen?”
They were directed to look at an off centre consol and screen that showed four clusters of stars. When Daniel recognized one of them as the Milky Way he realized that they were actually galaxies.
“I know this is gonna sound wack, and some of it will make you question my sanity, but please just listen. I wasn’t born on Earth, or even in this galaxy. Jeremiah and I were born in Babylon, what the humans know as the Black Eye Galaxy.”
“If you’re not human then what are you?” Sam asked quickly.
“We’re Ancients.” Jeremiah answered. “Bloody powerful ones too.”
“You’re not being very helpful,” Jack growled.
“Neither are you,” Jeremiah smirked.
Daniel was beginning to think that they really were brothers with the way they acted.
“The Ancients originated in Babylon, evolved and developed there until a difference in opinions divided them into two groups: the Alterans and the Ori. Fifty million years ago the Ori drove the Alterans out of Babylon. One thousand years after that they arrived here in Avalon, the Milky Way galaxy to you. The Alterans re-established their lives here, created the Stargates, explored the planets and evolved into one of the Four Great Races.
“As you know, at some point ten million years ago a devastating plague spread throughout the galaxy and many of the Alterans left in their massive city ship Atlantis. They once again re-established their liven in Silvaralon, the Pegasus Galaxy, and stayed there until ten thousand years ago.”
“Why did they leave Pegasus?” Sam asked.
“I cant tell you that,” Jack answered.
“Why?” Daniel asked.
“The Interfering Laws apply to any and all Ancients Daniel, Ascending and Living.”
“So, you really are an Ancient,” Daniel said, not knowing if he should be excited, sad or angry.
Jack nodded, “We’re not only Ancients, we’re immortal and we don’t know why. Fifty million years of studying our genetic structure against that of the rest of the Alterans has shown us very little and explained nothing. We don’t know why we are like this, no other person born to mortal parents has become immortal and nothing even remotely close has come to pass. Some of us hoped that once the Alterans began Ascending we’d receive answers, but even the cosmic energy of the universe doesn’t have any.”
“But you’ve interfered before, haven’t you?” Sam asked. “You fixed the DHD on that planet I was stranded on and you activated the drone chair in Antarctica to defend Earth against Anbuis. How is that not interfering?”
“Because he cheated,” Daniel said knowingly. “You’d downloaded the Repository in your head both of those times, you could easily argue that it was that knowledge you used to save us, not your own. Were you really dying both of those times?”
“Yes.”
“You are immortal,” Teal’c said. “You cannot die.”
“That depends on your definition of immortal,” Jack replied. “Name immortal creatures, real or make believe. Or even creatures others believe to be immortal.”
Daniel wondered where Jack was going with this as Teal’c answered, “The Goa’uld.”
“Right, the Goa’uld made themselves out to be immortal since it’s a bitch to kill them and they have sarcophaguses to keep them healthy. However, as we all know, they can die. Others?”
“Vampires,” Sam said shrugging.
Jack shook his head, “Light, stake to the heart or dismembering their heads will easily dispense of them. They are ageless, Sam, not immortal.”
“Then what do you mean by immortal Jack?” Daniel asked annoyed. “Why cant you just give us a straight answer?”
“Do your rocks always give you a straight answer?” Jack countered. He sighed, “you all must understand that we don’t normally tell humans what we are, or what we can do. We prefer to blend in or avoid you because most are not evolved or mature enough to understand and accept us. We’re aliens and we’re immortal, humans don’t like knowing that but when the odd one comes along who actually could understand and we like them too - we make sure they understand completely.
“We age at a very, very slow pace but we can disguise ourselves by looking older or younger then we really are. We can die, I’ve done it millions of times but we don’t stay dead. Our bodies, even in a deadened state, will heal and then start to work again. As arrogant as this sounds, we are the ultimate race because of our limitless lifespan and our Ascended powers. We’re not Ascended and we can never Ascend but our immortal gene allows us to use the same energy as the Ascended can.”
“If you have all this power and all the technology of the Ancients, why are you telling us this?” Daniel asked. “Doesn’t us knowing shatter you preference to blend in with the human race? We found your Ancient computer but you could have just wiped our memories.” he looked at Jack with emotionless eyes, needing to understand his motives.
“Things are happening Dr. Jackson,” Jaden spoke for the first time and Daniel once again felt shivers run down his spine. “The more you humans learn about the Ancients the closer you come to discovering us.”
“I don’t give a damn what the entire US government and SGC thinks of me when they learn the truth, but I do care about you. Learning from some obscure text or an actual database holder about my origins when I should be the one telling you is not something I want you to go through. You don’t deserve that.”
“There’s still something you’re not telling us,” Daniel said. “Are you allowed to tell us?”
“And why tell us now, Sir?” Sam added. “Why not earlier?”
“Jeremiah and I have an older brother named Markus. He is the leader of the Ori, our eternal enemy, Ascended and as powerful as us. He possessed my son Sagi so he could try and begin his power-mongering-world-domination here and we had to stop him. This new factor is very dangerous to us and all life. If they possess us then they will have taken over their most powerful enemy and would never be stopped. We’re taking measure to avoid this happening again, and I’m going to be a little distracted until things start running smoothly again.” Jack sighed, “God, everyone’s going to ignore the ‘don’t call except for an emergency’ rule now.”
Daniel was confused, “O-kay.”
“How many Ancients are there?” Teal’c asked.
Jack looked at his twin with a raised eyebrow, “Five hundred, right?”
Jeremiah nodded. Daniel’s head swirled. Five hundred Ancients, still living and on Earth. They knew practically everything, had the most powerful technology and a history that could completely absorb him.
“Jeremiah has a hundred and fifty children, and about the same amount of grandchildren. I have a hundred children and a hundred grandchildren.” Jack said.
Daniel gave him a surprised look to which Jack returned with an ‘are you stupid?’ look. “Do you really think that after fifty million years I wouldn’t have any kids?”
Daniel blushed, “No, it just hadn’t crossed my mind.”
Jack smiled. “Understandable.”
“Have we met any other Ancients?” Sam wondered out loud.
Jack nodded, “Malic of the Tok’ra, my oldest daughter Gwenavire, my oldest son Caius and Jonas.”
“Jonas Quinn?” Teal’c asked, mildly surprised.
Jack nodded.
“But you hated him,” Daniel said confused. “He’s your son-”
“Grandson,” Jack cut in quickly. “And I don’t hate him.” Daniel’s eyebrow raised. “I was angry with him even before you Ascended. He left Earth a thousand or so years ago, travelled the stars, reported on anything new he’d learned that wasn’t in the database until he just suddenly stopped. After several months we were able to establish a subspace connection in which he subtly told us to fuck off.
“I’ve made many mistakes in my life and I’m sorry to say that adhering to Jonas’s wishes for so long was one of them. Before Charlie died I had it in mind to fake a deployment and travel to Langaara via the Antarctic Stargate and confront him on his prolonged absence. I understand the need to get away from all of us, but he’d been gone too long and was ignoring any attempts at contact. Then Charlie died and I was kicking myself for making yet another mistake so Jonas was completely forgotten.”
“So when we went to Kelowna you were showing your anger as dislike,” Sam concluded.
“And when Daniel took that lethal exposure to radiation I really did blame him because it would not have mattered for him if he died.”
Daniel found a chair to sit in and stared absently out the window and down on Earth. Knowing what he did now about Jonas, could he blame him for not doing anything sooner? He liked Jonas, he was always interested in learning something new and had a lot of the same values as Daniel. Should his opinions change just because of this new revelation?
Daniel rolled his eyes at himself. That would be stupid, it would mean changing his opinions of Jack and even though he was mad at Jack, he still loved him. Very little could change that. Jonas was still the same, Jack was till the same but with just a few more responsibilities and family members.
“If you’re immortal, and your children are immortal - they’re immortal right?” Jack nodded. “Then why did Charlie die?” Daniel asked.
Jack flinched. “He wasn’t immortal yet.” He had a look of utter sadness on his face that made Daniel regret bringing it up.
“Our immortality doesn’t come into effect until we are twenty years old,” Jeremiah explained. “We are born with the gene but we’ve learned that it takes twenty years to fully develop. Why? We don’t know. It’s another one of those cosmic mysteries. It is possible though, that it is because Jonathan and I first discovered our immortality when we were twenty.”
“It must be difficult,” Daniel mused, “Living forever.”
“The opportunities are endless,” Jaden agreed. Daniel shivered. “We could do anything we wanted and it wouldn’t affect us one bit.”
Jack’s face darkened at this and he death-glared Jaden. Jeremiah also didn’t seem to pleased with what his son had mentioned, he had the same dark look as Jack but he wasn’t glaring.
“Have you done something like that?” Sam asked. “Not cared about the consequences?”
“Some have tried,” Jaden answered with a secretive smile. “None succeed, they’re always punished.”
Sam didn’t look too happy with the way that was answered, “Do you have a problem with us?”
Jaden laughed, moving around the command chair with a fluid but dangerous walk to stand before Sam. They stared into each other’s eyes, daring the other to back down in even the slightest way and to Daniel it looked like it could go on for a while, until he changed. Daniel backed away in alarm as Jaden’s eyes went red, black skin around them, his hands became clawed, blackened, and great black demonic wings ripped out of his back with a sickening snapping of bones.
Sam backed away from him, eyes wide and Teal’c had taken an automatic defensive stance. Jack was on edge, and had placed a comforting hand on Daniel’s shoulder when he’d backed up against him. Jeremiah was relaxed and watched the proceedings with an interested eye.
“I thought you were an Ancient.” Sam said, a tremor to her voice.
Jaden stalked towards her, “I am, but I am so much more. I come from a very violent race Colonel Carter, an easily provoked race. You think the Replicators are destructive....they are nothing compared to me.”
“Stop threatening my scientist Jaden,” Jack growled.
Jaden turned his head towards them, snarled and backed off, returning to stand behind his father. His wings twitched, flaring our at irregular points and at times his claws flexed.
“I would not suggest challenging Jaden in any way,” Jack advised. “Unless of course you want your ass severely kicked. He follows the customs of his people which, simply, is the stronger you are the higher your position. It’s a merit society, but one based on strength.”
“That’s, um,” Daniel glanced at Jaden. “Flawed.”
Jaden didn’t react, which eased Daniel’s worry about angering him.
“For humans, Ancients, Asgard and several other races, yes.” Jack agreed. “But it worked for the Veutair, and that’s all that really matters.”
“Wasn’t enough,” Jaden growled. “Strength and power got them nowhere.”
Daniel blinked and was about to ask what he meant when Jack cut him off. “We should go back down to Earth now, call off whatever search you have for me and write up a plausible excuse for why I was away. Promise me you will keep this a secret until we decided to reveal ourselves.”
Sam nodded and Teal’c bowed. Jack gently forced Daniel to turn and face him. Daniel just stared up into his eyes, wondering how many more secrets he was being kept from. Would he ever learn all there was to know about Jack?
“Daniel?” Jack prompted.
Daniel smiled and nodded. “Alright.”
Jack smiled brightly then looked up at his brother, “Beam us back down please.”
Daniel looked over in time to see a maniacal smile on the younger twin’s face, “Finally, I can return to my plot to dominate the universe.”
Daniel turned back to Jack, “Is he always like that?”
Jack sighed dramatically, “Unfortunately. Although, if you think he’s bad you should meet my son Loki. He gives new meaning to mischievous and scary.”
“Even scars the shit out of me.” Daniel heard Jaden growl as they were beamed back to Earth.
Next
Disclaimer: I own none of this
Words:3, 221
Chapter Seven
“What does it say Daniel?” Sam asked when she’d judged that Daniel had been given long enough to decipher the main points of the Ancient text.
“It’s ah.......well it’s the equivalent to a computer’s desktop menu,” Daniel answered. “In this first window,” he indicated the top left one, “it’s a search engine type thing that accesses the entire Ancient Database. The Ancient Database! Why does Jack have the Ancient Database in his house?”
Daniel closed his eyes and struggled to control his emotions. There was so much that he didn’t understand, and under normal circumstances he knew how he should proceed, but with Jack in the dead centre he was too conflicted. To have access to the Ancient Database was such a treasure and he wanted so desperately to go through it. Jack was missing, Jack had been injured, Jack was fucking lying to him and he wanted to know why!
Daniel took a deep breath and opened his eyes to continue, “The second window is a little confusing. It looks like a profile page, but no one’s profile is up. The third is literally gibberish to me because it’s numbers. You’d have better luck with it Sam.”
“If only I could read it,” She murmured. Daniel only partially wondered what she was thinking. Her mind worked with logic, and logical didn’t always worked in the Stargate Program. Tal’c was just impassive, like he use to be when he first joined the program and Daniel couldn’t fathom what was going through his head.
“Do you think you can access anything Daniel?” Sam asked curiously. “Like a profile? Or a planet we know?”
Daniel shrugged, “Probably not, I’m surprised I was even able to turn it on. I don’t have the Ancient gene and this is quite obviously Ancient Technology.”
There was a bright light behind them and when he turned around to look, Daniel saw Jack, standing there casually like nothing was wrong, and wearing all white which was odd because Daniel knew Jack didn’t own a white outfit.
He didn’t know what to say, or do. A part of him wanted to yell and scream at Jack for the range of emotions that had assaulted him in the past sixteen hours, another was to embrace him, kiss him and make sure he was really there, and yet another just wanted to ignore him, give him the cold shoulder and make Jack beg to be heard.
Jack was contemplating something, Daniel could see it in his eyes and it looked like he was coming to a positive decision when his eyes looked past Daniel and at the screen.
“Fuck,” he said loudly, startling them out of their surprise, eyes rolling heavenward in annoyance. “Fuck.”
Daniel fought the urge to yell and decided to go with something a little more condescending. “Well fuck you too Jack, where the hell have you been?”
Jack was silent for a moment, looking at Daniel with a hurt expression but also like he deserved it. Then he sighed and they were all surrounded by the white light of Asgard Beaming technology.
Daniel looked around the new place and was surprised that it was not Asgard architecture but Ancient.
“I do hate it when you take control over my stuff,” an annoyed voice said. “And didn’t I just get rid of you?”
The speaker was a man that looked identical, if a slight bit younger, to Jack. He sat in a chair similar to the one in Antarctica and beside him was a man who looked to be in his early thirties with short spiky black hair and calculating blue eyes. Daniel felt shivers run down his spine just from looking at him and quickly averted his gaze.
Jack gave the speaker a very annoyed look, “You can never get rid of me.”
“Oh bummer, there go my plans for universal domination.”
Daniel blinked but the man was smiling so he didn’t think it was a serious comment.
“Where are we?” Sam asked.
“Good question m’lady. I have no idea.” He looked very serious saying this that for a second Daniel believed him.
That was until Jack said in a very warning tone, “Jeremiah.”
Jeremiah shrugged, “Okay, okay. You are aboard the Alteran Warship Narcissus.”
Daniel frowned, “Why Narcissus?”
“Why not?” Jeremiah countered smiling. “My ship is the most powerful in four galaxies, has been for over ten thousand years so I think it deserves the name.”
“Who are you?” Sam asked, totally confused.
Jack winced, “oops. This is Supreme Commander Jeremiah of the Alterans. He’s an ally of the Asgard. Behind him is his oldest son Jaden.”
Sam nodded, “Ok. Why are we here?”
Jeremiah was smirking at Jack and Daniel didn’t like it. “Aren’t you forgetting an important detail?”
Jack sighed, “He’s also my twin brother.”
That didn’t register in Daniel’s mind for about half a minute, but when it did he did a double take. Jack wasn’t looking at him and Jeremiah was still smirking.
“Sir, your record says you have no siblings.” Sam said.
“Then it is wrong,” Teal’c stated.
“It is,” Jack agreed. “And I lied. I’ve lied about a lot of things.”
Daniel’s eyes widened and his stomach clenched in dread. “What do you mean?”
Jack sighed, turning around to look out the front window and down on Earth. “Everything you know about me. It’s true but, only to a point. I’m not human, I’m definitely not fifty and Charlie is not my only child.”
Daniel shook his head. What Jack was saying made absolutely no sense.
“Start from the beginning Jonathan,” Jeremiah said.
Jack turned around, “Can you bring up Babylon, Avalon, Silvaralon and Ida on the screen?”
They were directed to look at an off centre consol and screen that showed four clusters of stars. When Daniel recognized one of them as the Milky Way he realized that they were actually galaxies.
“I know this is gonna sound wack, and some of it will make you question my sanity, but please just listen. I wasn’t born on Earth, or even in this galaxy. Jeremiah and I were born in Babylon, what the humans know as the Black Eye Galaxy.”
“If you’re not human then what are you?” Sam asked quickly.
“We’re Ancients.” Jeremiah answered. “Bloody powerful ones too.”
“You’re not being very helpful,” Jack growled.
“Neither are you,” Jeremiah smirked.
Daniel was beginning to think that they really were brothers with the way they acted.
“The Ancients originated in Babylon, evolved and developed there until a difference in opinions divided them into two groups: the Alterans and the Ori. Fifty million years ago the Ori drove the Alterans out of Babylon. One thousand years after that they arrived here in Avalon, the Milky Way galaxy to you. The Alterans re-established their lives here, created the Stargates, explored the planets and evolved into one of the Four Great Races.
“As you know, at some point ten million years ago a devastating plague spread throughout the galaxy and many of the Alterans left in their massive city ship Atlantis. They once again re-established their liven in Silvaralon, the Pegasus Galaxy, and stayed there until ten thousand years ago.”
“Why did they leave Pegasus?” Sam asked.
“I cant tell you that,” Jack answered.
“Why?” Daniel asked.
“The Interfering Laws apply to any and all Ancients Daniel, Ascending and Living.”
“So, you really are an Ancient,” Daniel said, not knowing if he should be excited, sad or angry.
Jack nodded, “We’re not only Ancients, we’re immortal and we don’t know why. Fifty million years of studying our genetic structure against that of the rest of the Alterans has shown us very little and explained nothing. We don’t know why we are like this, no other person born to mortal parents has become immortal and nothing even remotely close has come to pass. Some of us hoped that once the Alterans began Ascending we’d receive answers, but even the cosmic energy of the universe doesn’t have any.”
“But you’ve interfered before, haven’t you?” Sam asked. “You fixed the DHD on that planet I was stranded on and you activated the drone chair in Antarctica to defend Earth against Anbuis. How is that not interfering?”
“Because he cheated,” Daniel said knowingly. “You’d downloaded the Repository in your head both of those times, you could easily argue that it was that knowledge you used to save us, not your own. Were you really dying both of those times?”
“Yes.”
“You are immortal,” Teal’c said. “You cannot die.”
“That depends on your definition of immortal,” Jack replied. “Name immortal creatures, real or make believe. Or even creatures others believe to be immortal.”
Daniel wondered where Jack was going with this as Teal’c answered, “The Goa’uld.”
“Right, the Goa’uld made themselves out to be immortal since it’s a bitch to kill them and they have sarcophaguses to keep them healthy. However, as we all know, they can die. Others?”
“Vampires,” Sam said shrugging.
Jack shook his head, “Light, stake to the heart or dismembering their heads will easily dispense of them. They are ageless, Sam, not immortal.”
“Then what do you mean by immortal Jack?” Daniel asked annoyed. “Why cant you just give us a straight answer?”
“Do your rocks always give you a straight answer?” Jack countered. He sighed, “you all must understand that we don’t normally tell humans what we are, or what we can do. We prefer to blend in or avoid you because most are not evolved or mature enough to understand and accept us. We’re aliens and we’re immortal, humans don’t like knowing that but when the odd one comes along who actually could understand and we like them too - we make sure they understand completely.
“We age at a very, very slow pace but we can disguise ourselves by looking older or younger then we really are. We can die, I’ve done it millions of times but we don’t stay dead. Our bodies, even in a deadened state, will heal and then start to work again. As arrogant as this sounds, we are the ultimate race because of our limitless lifespan and our Ascended powers. We’re not Ascended and we can never Ascend but our immortal gene allows us to use the same energy as the Ascended can.”
“If you have all this power and all the technology of the Ancients, why are you telling us this?” Daniel asked. “Doesn’t us knowing shatter you preference to blend in with the human race? We found your Ancient computer but you could have just wiped our memories.” he looked at Jack with emotionless eyes, needing to understand his motives.
“Things are happening Dr. Jackson,” Jaden spoke for the first time and Daniel once again felt shivers run down his spine. “The more you humans learn about the Ancients the closer you come to discovering us.”
“I don’t give a damn what the entire US government and SGC thinks of me when they learn the truth, but I do care about you. Learning from some obscure text or an actual database holder about my origins when I should be the one telling you is not something I want you to go through. You don’t deserve that.”
“There’s still something you’re not telling us,” Daniel said. “Are you allowed to tell us?”
“And why tell us now, Sir?” Sam added. “Why not earlier?”
“Jeremiah and I have an older brother named Markus. He is the leader of the Ori, our eternal enemy, Ascended and as powerful as us. He possessed my son Sagi so he could try and begin his power-mongering-world-domination here and we had to stop him. This new factor is very dangerous to us and all life. If they possess us then they will have taken over their most powerful enemy and would never be stopped. We’re taking measure to avoid this happening again, and I’m going to be a little distracted until things start running smoothly again.” Jack sighed, “God, everyone’s going to ignore the ‘don’t call except for an emergency’ rule now.”
Daniel was confused, “O-kay.”
“How many Ancients are there?” Teal’c asked.
Jack looked at his twin with a raised eyebrow, “Five hundred, right?”
Jeremiah nodded. Daniel’s head swirled. Five hundred Ancients, still living and on Earth. They knew practically everything, had the most powerful technology and a history that could completely absorb him.
“Jeremiah has a hundred and fifty children, and about the same amount of grandchildren. I have a hundred children and a hundred grandchildren.” Jack said.
Daniel gave him a surprised look to which Jack returned with an ‘are you stupid?’ look. “Do you really think that after fifty million years I wouldn’t have any kids?”
Daniel blushed, “No, it just hadn’t crossed my mind.”
Jack smiled. “Understandable.”
“Have we met any other Ancients?” Sam wondered out loud.
Jack nodded, “Malic of the Tok’ra, my oldest daughter Gwenavire, my oldest son Caius and Jonas.”
“Jonas Quinn?” Teal’c asked, mildly surprised.
Jack nodded.
“But you hated him,” Daniel said confused. “He’s your son-”
“Grandson,” Jack cut in quickly. “And I don’t hate him.” Daniel’s eyebrow raised. “I was angry with him even before you Ascended. He left Earth a thousand or so years ago, travelled the stars, reported on anything new he’d learned that wasn’t in the database until he just suddenly stopped. After several months we were able to establish a subspace connection in which he subtly told us to fuck off.
“I’ve made many mistakes in my life and I’m sorry to say that adhering to Jonas’s wishes for so long was one of them. Before Charlie died I had it in mind to fake a deployment and travel to Langaara via the Antarctic Stargate and confront him on his prolonged absence. I understand the need to get away from all of us, but he’d been gone too long and was ignoring any attempts at contact. Then Charlie died and I was kicking myself for making yet another mistake so Jonas was completely forgotten.”
“So when we went to Kelowna you were showing your anger as dislike,” Sam concluded.
“And when Daniel took that lethal exposure to radiation I really did blame him because it would not have mattered for him if he died.”
Daniel found a chair to sit in and stared absently out the window and down on Earth. Knowing what he did now about Jonas, could he blame him for not doing anything sooner? He liked Jonas, he was always interested in learning something new and had a lot of the same values as Daniel. Should his opinions change just because of this new revelation?
Daniel rolled his eyes at himself. That would be stupid, it would mean changing his opinions of Jack and even though he was mad at Jack, he still loved him. Very little could change that. Jonas was still the same, Jack was till the same but with just a few more responsibilities and family members.
“If you’re immortal, and your children are immortal - they’re immortal right?” Jack nodded. “Then why did Charlie die?” Daniel asked.
Jack flinched. “He wasn’t immortal yet.” He had a look of utter sadness on his face that made Daniel regret bringing it up.
“Our immortality doesn’t come into effect until we are twenty years old,” Jeremiah explained. “We are born with the gene but we’ve learned that it takes twenty years to fully develop. Why? We don’t know. It’s another one of those cosmic mysteries. It is possible though, that it is because Jonathan and I first discovered our immortality when we were twenty.”
“It must be difficult,” Daniel mused, “Living forever.”
“The opportunities are endless,” Jaden agreed. Daniel shivered. “We could do anything we wanted and it wouldn’t affect us one bit.”
Jack’s face darkened at this and he death-glared Jaden. Jeremiah also didn’t seem to pleased with what his son had mentioned, he had the same dark look as Jack but he wasn’t glaring.
“Have you done something like that?” Sam asked. “Not cared about the consequences?”
“Some have tried,” Jaden answered with a secretive smile. “None succeed, they’re always punished.”
Sam didn’t look too happy with the way that was answered, “Do you have a problem with us?”
Jaden laughed, moving around the command chair with a fluid but dangerous walk to stand before Sam. They stared into each other’s eyes, daring the other to back down in even the slightest way and to Daniel it looked like it could go on for a while, until he changed. Daniel backed away in alarm as Jaden’s eyes went red, black skin around them, his hands became clawed, blackened, and great black demonic wings ripped out of his back with a sickening snapping of bones.
Sam backed away from him, eyes wide and Teal’c had taken an automatic defensive stance. Jack was on edge, and had placed a comforting hand on Daniel’s shoulder when he’d backed up against him. Jeremiah was relaxed and watched the proceedings with an interested eye.
“I thought you were an Ancient.” Sam said, a tremor to her voice.
Jaden stalked towards her, “I am, but I am so much more. I come from a very violent race Colonel Carter, an easily provoked race. You think the Replicators are destructive....they are nothing compared to me.”
“Stop threatening my scientist Jaden,” Jack growled.
Jaden turned his head towards them, snarled and backed off, returning to stand behind his father. His wings twitched, flaring our at irregular points and at times his claws flexed.
“I would not suggest challenging Jaden in any way,” Jack advised. “Unless of course you want your ass severely kicked. He follows the customs of his people which, simply, is the stronger you are the higher your position. It’s a merit society, but one based on strength.”
“That’s, um,” Daniel glanced at Jaden. “Flawed.”
Jaden didn’t react, which eased Daniel’s worry about angering him.
“For humans, Ancients, Asgard and several other races, yes.” Jack agreed. “But it worked for the Veutair, and that’s all that really matters.”
“Wasn’t enough,” Jaden growled. “Strength and power got them nowhere.”
Daniel blinked and was about to ask what he meant when Jack cut him off. “We should go back down to Earth now, call off whatever search you have for me and write up a plausible excuse for why I was away. Promise me you will keep this a secret until we decided to reveal ourselves.”
Sam nodded and Teal’c bowed. Jack gently forced Daniel to turn and face him. Daniel just stared up into his eyes, wondering how many more secrets he was being kept from. Would he ever learn all there was to know about Jack?
“Daniel?” Jack prompted.
Daniel smiled and nodded. “Alright.”
Jack smiled brightly then looked up at his brother, “Beam us back down please.”
Daniel looked over in time to see a maniacal smile on the younger twin’s face, “Finally, I can return to my plot to dominate the universe.”
Daniel turned back to Jack, “Is he always like that?”
Jack sighed dramatically, “Unfortunately. Although, if you think he’s bad you should meet my son Loki. He gives new meaning to mischievous and scary.”
“Even scars the shit out of me.” Daniel heard Jaden growl as they were beamed back to Earth.
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