Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A is A

Reality

O’Neill whistled as he skipped up the steps to Gen. Hammond’s office, nodding to several airmen and scientists as they walked out of their briefing. “Good morning general, how’s life? Good coffee today?”

Gen. Hammond gave a smile to O’Neill. “Colonel, good morning. Have a seat, we need to talk over a few things.”

O’Neill sighed as he took a seat. “That always ends well.”

“I’ll start with the good news,” Hammond said, sliding a memo over to O’Neill. “The Appropriations subcommittee has requested the presence of several of the MVTF teams. Here are the individuals they requested.”

O’Neill only needed five seconds to groan aloud at the names. “Natsu? Sir, this is a trap and you know it, how is that good news?”

"On to the bad news,” Gen. Hammond said. “We just received a report from the Tok’ra. Apophis is building a staging area on P-418. The only teams we have that are available are MV-3 and 5.”

O’Neill’s eyes went wider than most people would consider possible even in the Sailor Scout’s universe. “Sir, sir you can’t tell me we’re going to.”

“I’ve contacted the EU, we can have MV-4 here in a few days but until then they’re the only teams we have.” Hammond shook his head. “Col. Mustang has requested to be moved from the MVTF to his home, he’s requested a posting to a region of his nation known as Ishval, apparently to help in a reconstruction.”

O’Neill held up a hand. “Sir, maybe I’m misremembering but I thought alchemy was the reason we brought him in at all.”

“Amestris has assured us they’ll find a suitable replacement before too long,” Hammond said. “As for MV-1, Natsu is still a potential issue that we can’t ignore. They’ll be inactive until Master Makarov makes a determination. The rest of the teams are too busy with research or hunting down their own threats. It’s just those teams for now. The rest of the SG teams are occupied as well, this is intelligence we have to act on before they’re able to concentrate their forces here.”

O’Neill sighed, reading over the names requested by the subcommittee. “Well it won’t hurt to take my mind off a few things then sir.”

“That’s all I need to hear colonel,” Gen. Hammond said, smiling despite the obvious difficulty that would come from the operation as he slid a second manila folder toward O’Neill. “Here’s all the intelligence the Tok’ra could send to us. You have ninety-six until you gate.”

O’Neill gave a soft “Mmm-hmm” as he collected everything. “Just what I needed today sir, just as I was about to have a little BBQ this weekend.”

“Maybe a good opportunity for you to try and build some bridges then,” Gen. Hammond said.

O’Neill raised an eyebrow. “I thought they were still restricted to base sir, national security and all that?”

Gen. Hammond chuckled. “I think it’s safe to say they’ll be under an escort.”

O’Neill’s face lit up with sarcastic joy. “Oh, I get it. Weekend babysitting. Fun.”

Korra packed a bag for the trip, loading up some spare clothes and a few essentials as she spoke to her mother over the phone. “Don’t worry mom, I’ll probably be back in two weeks…Well Pres. Raiko said this is a dangerous group, but I’ll have Asami and Bolin and Mako…No mom, I don’t think bringing Eska and Desna along will help. Really, I don’t.” Korra laughed. “Okay mom, I’ll call the second I’m back. Love you too, bye.”

Hanging up the phone and hefting her bag, Korra walked into the mansion’s halls to the main foyer to see Bolin petting Pabu and smiling. “Now remember, you be good for Asami’s staff and I’ll give you a new treat when I get back, okay buddy?” Pabu answered by rubbing all around Bolin’s legs, clambering into his arms. “Aw, I’ll miss you too buddy.”

Mako nodded as Korra walked down the stairs. “We’re all set Korra, Asami should be out front with the car in a few seconds.”

Asami’s butler bowed slightly. “Any last instructions before your departure miss?”

Korra smiled as the trio hefted their bags over their shoulders. “Just take care of Pabu. If you need anything just ask Tenzin or Chief Beifong for help.”

The butler looked nervously to the side. “I’ll…ask if I need to. Safe journeys.”

Hefting their bags, the trio walked out to see Asami pulling up in her car, popping the trunk as she stopped. “Alright, everyone got everything they need? Bolin, you take care of business before you left?”

Bolin blushed bright red as he put his bag in the trunk. “Hey, I thought we agreed we wouldn’t talk about that time anymore.”

Mako laughed as he slammed the trunk when he made sure everyone’s gear was inside. “Please, you think we’d ever let you forget something that embarrassing?”

Bolin glared at his brother. “You mean like when Lin got a little tipsy and started hitting on you at the police gala?”

Mako shuddered as she settled into the back seat. “I’ll have those scars for a long time, bro.”

The drive from Asami’s mansion to the new districts of Republic City was fast, now that traffic had literally become non-existent. Future Industries was selling more Satomobiles than ever, and even if Cabbage Corp had taken up most of the heavier work on the buildings and streets only Future Industries had the skilled labor capable of rebuilding the city’s power and telegraph/telephone grids. Construction was everywhere, workers moving from beam to beam as migrant workers from the former Earth Kingdom worked the high steel and laid the cement. There had been talk of erecting a statue to Korra at the site of “The Battle of Yue Bridge”, but Korra wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable with the idea of seeing herself frozen in metal for the next few decades.

“City’s really coming along now,” Mako said, smiling as he watched a RCPD police zeppelin lazily hover overhead. “Any word on when the pro-league will start up again?”

“The league’s claiming they want a stadium on the waterfront again, but several water spirits have lobbied against it.” Asami shrugged at the thought as the group pulled up to a small, non-descript building close to where the spirit vines stopped. “Makes you wonder what they have to do to build in SG-1’s universe.”

Grabbing their bags, the four walked into the small cement block of a building. There was a small sign on the front: “REPUBLIC CITY POLICE LOGISTICS UNIT: TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED”. Lifting a small panel above the door’s handle, Asami tapped at a keypad supplied by the SGC as the door clicked open. Walking to the center of the room, the four waited patiently for a few seconds until a gateway opened in the center of the small space before them. Walking through, the quartet found themselves in the middle of the embarkation room of the SGC.

Harriman’s voice came over the intercom. “Successful transition, all security teams stand down.”

“Hey Harriman,” Bolin said, waving up at the control room. “Upstairs?” Harriman nodded, and the four trod upstairs to see Gen. Harriman and SG-1 waiting for them.

“MV-3, glad to have you here.” Gen. Hammond smiled as he motioned for the team to take a seat across from SG-1 at the conference table. “How’s the rebuilding of Republic City going?”

“So far so good sir,” Asami said politely. “The spirits are a little anxious about making sure their territories are respected though, but Korra’s done a good job of helping to work out where the lines are drawn.” She gave Korra’s hand a small squeeze for good measure.

“Glad to hear it then,” Gen. Hammond said, motioning for the four to leaf through the files before them. “We have another mission involving the Goa’uld. The Tok’ra have sent us intelligence that Apophis has begun construction of a staging point to move into several neutral planetary systems. These are undeveloped planets, if he places a staging base here it would mean that each of these planets will become slave worlds for his plans.”

Carter spoke up. “Did the Tok’ra mention anything unusual that we need to lookout for?”

“Nothing in the files or our transmission from them indicated any sign of abnormal action from Apophis. Having said that, we need you all back alive.”

“No need to worry about that sir,” Mako said confidently. “If Kuvira couldn’t kill us, I doubt anything can at this point. Will there be any other teams going in with us?”

The room suddenly felt uncomfortable for everyone inside. Gen. Hammond stared down at his files as he spoke again. “You’ll be going in with MV-5, they’ll be arriving later tonight -- ”

Asami’s hand cut through the air. “No, absolutely out of the question sir. After what happened with Parker in Sarajevo we can’t work with him.”

“Unfortunately the only team we’ll have available in a timely manner is MV-4, and only because they’ve volunteered to." Gen. Hammond pointed to the files in front of them. "They're dealing with another matter in their home universe, they can't arrive until the mission is already underway."

Bolin spoke up with a desperate attempt to defuse the situation. “What about the CHS Seven, or Sailor Senshi? I mean they aren’t doing much, right?”

“I will not deploy either team unless the situation is truly that desperate,” Gen. Hammond said firmly. “You’re all above the age where this nation allows individuals to serve in a military capacity. Those girls are all still in high school, the youngest is fifteen. The only reason I let them accompany you all on the first joint operation was because I knew Col. O’Neill wouldn’t let them get too close to the fighting.” Korra put her face to the table and started banging her fist on the finished wood. Mako rubbed at his eyes as Asami shook her head.

“Well maybe look at the positives?” Daniel quickly tried to figure out a way to keep himself from being strangled with the glares suddenly going his way. “Certainly the abilities of the rest of the Dead Six combined with their lack of being bigots towards you both might help.”

“We’re not arguing that,” Korra said, sounding exhausted already. “If it were just those five we’d be fine. It’s Parker that we have the problem with because of his problems with us.”

“Well for now we can’t turn him down,” Gen. Hammond said, holding up a sheet of paper. “This is a request by GDI’s lead provost, the commandant of their Marine Corps, and several officers including Gen. Locke. All emphasize that Capt. Parker be given a combat operation at the earliest possible opportunity before its, ‘too late’. I don’t have to explain what this implies about Capt. Parker.”

“A warrior without a war is dangerous indeed,” Teal’c said. “We will endeavor to smooth this process, Gen. Hammond.”

“Glad to hear it,” Hammond said, feeling a sense of relief that at least Teal’c thought some progress was possible. “For now I’m pleased to note that the Pentagon has decided that you’re all vetted; you can go off of the base so long as you have an escort present.”

Bolin’s eyes lit up. “We can finally go to McDonalds?”

“McDonalds nothing,” O’Neill said. “I’m having a cookout, you’re all coming along. Not to brag, but I cook a mean steak on the grill.” Teal’c and Daniel both raised eyebrows at that one. “If there’s nothing else sir?”

Gen. Hammond smiled. “Enjoy yourselves, all of you. Be back here in four days ready to go. Dismissed.”

Korra clapped her hands as she shot up. “Finally, we can see what’s outside this mountain! Where should we go first?”

“Shopping,” O’Neill said cheerily. “I’ve got a list, you all get to help me pick it up.”

Daniel pushed his glasses up. “After we get all of you some clothes that don’t stand out.

After a quick trip to the nearest clothing store, Asami and Korra were dressed in the equivalent to their clothes back home. Korra had grabbed some blue jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a pair of boots. Asami had taken a leather jacket, a red button-up blouse, a black skirt, and boots of her own. Back in the car Asami kept fiddling with the radio and CD player in Carter’s car, the tech in her going wild with the implications. “So the laser reads the disc and the reflected light returned from it turns the light into data which reads as music?”

“Close enough,” Carter laughed. “Before the most advanced method was using a magnetic tape to record and store data, but the problem was -- ”

“Magnetic degradation,” Asami said cheerily. “Of course, there’s no way the tape could retain the magnetic pattern for any length of time without special storage techniques.”

Korra sat in the back quickly trying to keep her mind from leaking out of her skull. “Yes, fascinating. So, what do we need to get?”

“Colonel said we’re getting the chips and drinks,” Carter said, turning off the main road into a large parking lot. “It shouldn’t take us too long, odds are the colonel already has the steaks and ground beef at home.” Asami and Korra had stopped listening as Carter pulled into the lot of a large building, “PathMark” emblazoned on the front. “Just stick with me, we should probably get a cart with the kind of appetites we’ll be dealing with here.”

Following Carter out of the parking lot and through the automatic doors, the two Republic City natives walked into a store unlike any they’d ever seen. A massive section of fresh fruits and vegetables lay before them, with a small display of flower bouquets to their left. To their right was a long line of checkout counters, and row upon row of colorful boxes of food for anyone to take. It wasn’t like food stores didn’t exist in Republic City; there were butcher’s shops, bakers, even small little sweet shops. But to combine them all into one single store? It was genius. There was a deli shop inside, slicing stacks of meat for mothers and their children. A bakery section sat ready with perfectly made cakes and cookies, and near that was a seafood section with fish and crabs sitting on beds of ice. A butcher’s shop in the back had huge slabs of meat waiting to be bought, and both Korra and Asami were surprised that there wasn’t a small restaurant in the store where the locals could eat.

Carter led the two into the aisles, and the sheer variety of foods available floored the girls. Potato chips, sea salt potato chips, BBQ and mesquite BBQ and flaming hot and that was just the chips?!

“A couple of these should be good,” Carter said, tossing a few bags into the cart. “You two are old enough to drink too, so if you want any beer we can take a look at what they’ve got now.”

Korra raised an eyebrow. “Can’t say I’ve ever had a beer before.”

Carter laughed a little. “We’ll just get some Buds or Miller. If you don’t like it, it’s not a big deal anyway since we can grab you some sodas.”

Korra smiled. “Soda sounds good, where is it?” Carter pointed to the next aisle over. Walking over, Korra’s eyes went wide and she hurried back. “There’s even more soda there than there are chips here!”

Pulling up to O’Neill’s house, the trio unloaded with chips, soda, beer, and a few small packs of cookies for dessert. A small column of smoke rose from the back of the house, the sweet scents of roasting meat and the distant sizzle of fat on charcoal. Leading the way to the back of the house, Carter smiled as she walked over. “Afternoon colonel.”

O’Neill looked up from the grill with a smile and an apron reading, “Kiss Pay the Cook!” “Carter! Hey, pull up a chair, we were just about to put on the rest of the food.” Teal’c and Bolin sat at a small wood table in the back, Bolin smiling as he talked to the massive Jaffa. Mako and Daniel stood nearer the grill, Daniel looking like he was explaining the beer in his hand. “How do you want your steaks kids, rare, medium, or napalmed?”

“Best to make them all medium colonel,” Carter said, setting down her bag. “We still don’t know whether or not everyone’s systems will react differently when they actually eat anything.”

“Got it,” O’Neill shouted joyfully. Grabbing three steaks and throwing them on the grill in rapid succession, O’Neill let out a happy sigh as they spat and sizzled on the grill. “Now that, my friends, is how you cook an excellent steak.”

“Wow, that is a lot of stuff,” Bolin said, as Korra set out the bounty on the table between him and Teal’c. “Where’d you get it all?”

“This place called a supermarket,” Korra said. “It’s incredible, it’s like an entire market block in one store.”

Mako looked incredulous at the statement. “A single store? Please, there’s no way that many shop keepers would be able to work together like that.”

“We’ll explain the finer points later,” Daniel said, grabbing one of the chip bags and taking a handful out. “Here, try some.”

Bolin smiled as he reached into the bag, pulling out a fistful of fried potatoes and shoving them into his mouth. He chewed happily for a second before his face twisted and he started spitting the chips out. “Eck! Yeuck! Augh, this stuff tastes so weird! It’s like someone just dumped a salt shaker in my mouth!”

Daniel grabbed for a can of soda. “Here, wash it down with this.”

Bolin grabbed the soda, fumbling for a second to use the pop-top before ripping it open and chugging it down. That was when his eyes bugged out and he spat out a stream of soda and mashed up chips. “Augh, c’mon! What was this, it’s just liquid sugar!”

Mako took the can from his brother and tried a sip for himself. The second the soda hit his tongue, his face went from passive to disgusted. “You’re not kidding, what’s this made out of?”

Carter thought for a second. “Huh. I guess that amount of chemicals in our world are so different from what you’re all used to that your bodies can barely handle it.”

Bolin was scraping at his tongue with his fingers. “Oh gee, you think? Please tell me that those steaks aren’t filled with sugar.”

“Nope,” O’Neill said, smiling as he savored the smell of burning meat and the scintillating sizzle of blood and fat on the grill. “Just good old-fashioned feed and meat.”

“That’s a relief,” Asami said, getting up. “I’ll get us all some water from inside.” Smiling as Bolin and Mako cautiously stared at Teal’c as he downed a soda, Asami opened the glass door to O’Neill’s house and stepped inside to see…not much. It wasn’t like the house was empty, pictures and plants, and a collection of medals and awards above his fireplace that marked his career from beginning to present. Walking into the kitchen, Asami checked the cabinets before finding some glasses and filling them from the sink.

There was another picture on the counter, a small boy in a sports uniform smiling at the camera with a wooden club. Asami smiled at the picture, walking back outside with the glasses in hand. “Hey, why didn’t Col. O’Neill ever mention he had a kid?” Daniel nearly spat out his beer. Carter stiffened in her chair. Teal’c lowered his bottle and raised his eyebrow. Asami nearly wilted as she sat down in her chair. “Touchy subject?”

Carter took the topic in-hand, speaking quietly as she explained. “The colonel’s son died in an accident. He’s made some progress compared to where he was before, but it’s not something to bring up.” Carter reached out and patted Asami’s shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just something that’s his to worry about.”

Asami’s smile came back a little, as O’Neill turned around with a wide grin. “Someone want to get inside and start getting the veggies ready? These’ll be done before we know it, let’s move people.”

SG-3 stood at the gate to the base in their civies, Maj. Reynolds smiling politely as MV-5 walked out from getting changed. Looking like they did, Reynolds thought they looked like they would be more at home at a punk concert than out on the town. At the very least, they were wearing their own clothes instead of raiding the nearest thrift shop like MV-3 had.

“Alright, we’ll take you all to Col O’Neill’s house and -- ”

“We’re hitting a bar,” Parker said, pushing past SG-3 to the waiting cars. “Don’t care where, we’re hitting it.”

Reynolds looked at Parker incredulously. “Captain it’s not even 1300 yet, even for us that’s a little much.”

“Well I’m gonna need a drink if I’m working with those kids again,” Parker growled, getting in and slamming the door.

Gunner patted Reynolds on the shoulder. “Best to just roll with it for now sir, otherwise he’ll just keep causing trouble everywhere he goes.”

Reynolds quickly weighed his options and made a risk assessment of the situation. The Dead Six were renegades, but they were still professionals that could handle themselves. If Parker wanted to hit a bar before heading out on a mission, maybe it could work out? The other Dead Six were there, if something did look like it was about to go down Reynolds could certainly count on them to help him. “Alright, we can go there for an hour. After that we’re moving on.”

“Sounds good,” Patch said happily. “Let’s see if America knows how to brew in other universes.”

The teams were quickly loaded up and rolling, Dead Six quietly taking in the Colorado scenery. Mountains rolled past as they made their way into Colorado Springs, the city shifting from small houses to strip malls to --

“Here.”

Reynolds nearly missed the turn that Parker mentioned, but as soon as he hit it he realized that the bar in question wasn’t one that Reynolds personally approved of. His luck that Parker would choose it. Sighing, Reynolds pulled into the parking lot to the Rockie’s Roadhouse. An unintentionally dilapidated facade perfectly suited for the fact that the place was probably home to a sixth of Colorado Springs’ more legally suspect residents.

Gunner finally spoke up from his place in the back, practically squeezing the Marine next to him out of the car. “Captain, you know we’re on privilege here. Please don’t get us thrown in the brig before we even get a chance to see the rest of this dimension?”

Parker didn’t answer as he didn’t so much walk into the bar as nearly break through the door. Reynolds turned to Gunner as they followed him. “Is he okay?”

“Kane’s escape has him a little pissed,” Gunner said, sounding almost apologetic. “Even with the congratulations by GDI’s command he’s convinced that he failed in Sarajevo.”

Reynolds shook his head. “Why is it always the Balkans?” Walking into the bar, Reynolds was hit by a mixture of stale cigarette smoke from over the decades, sudden darkness from the dim lights in the interior, and by a table leg to the shin. Grunting, he refocused and saw Parker sitting at the bar already being served a double of whiskey. Nodding to the barman, Parker threw back the shot and sent it back. Reynolds leaned over to Gunner. “Tell me you’ve handled this before.”

Gunner nodded. “We have, usually it goes one of two ways.”

Reynolds groaned. “Do either of those ways avoid the police being called?” Gunner shook his head, and Reynolds pulled out his cell phone. “Connect me with Gen. Hammond please.”

The steaks were near-totally devoured after an hour, and the teams were circled around the table swapping stories.

“So let me get this straight,” O’Neill said. “The best plan you guys could come up with is that you two fly on the wings of the plane and bombard them from the air?”

Bolin shuddered. “Not the finest point in my life, no.”

“Hey, we survived,” Asami said, patting Bolin on the back. “Plus if that hadn’t happened we wouldn’t have been so ready to help SG-1 with their mission when they came through.”

“Fair,” Mako said, sighing contentedly as he leaned back and patted his belly. “Colonel, those steaks were perfect. I don’t think I’ve ever had food that good back home. How’d you afford it?”

“Well I am living off a colonel’s salary,” O’Neill said happily, sipping his beer. “So, you’re all pretty much adjusted to things here then?”

“I think so,” Korra said, stretching her arms above her head. “Still trying to work out that ‘internet’ thing, so it’s basically a bunch of tubes and wires and it all connects computers together?”

Carter nodded with a bemused expression. “Roughly that, yes. I’ll explain later when we have the time.”

Teal’c turned toward the house. “O’Neill, your phone is ringing.”

O’Neill groaned. “Dammit Teal’c, can’t you just ignore some of this stuff?” Getting up from the table and trudging into the house, O’Neill disappeared for a good five minutes before he rushed back out with a pitcher of water. “Everyone clean up and get in the cars, they’re pretty sure Parker’s about to do something stupid at a bar.” Rushing past the teams, O’Neill dumped the water on the grill before speeding for his SUV. “Teal’c, Korra, with me.”

Jumping into the car as the others quickly cleaned up the backyard, the trio sped to the address they were given in the city. They saw two of SG-3’s Marines sitting outside the bar, staring at the front door with purpose as they waited for something to happen. “Johnson, how’s the family?”

“Fine sir,” Johnson said, nodding to Teal’c. After what had happened on Broca the two had quickly rebounded to a good place, though Johnson had seemed hesitant against Teal’c in sparing. “Col. Reynolds is inside with MV-5. Parker hasn’t tried anything yet but we’re not keen on taking a chance with this one.”

“Can’t blame you,” O’Neill said. “We’ll head inside. We have anyone else coming?” Johnson shook his head. “Okay, time to have a blank check ready. C’mon guys, let’s keep an eye on things.” O’Neill led the way inside the bar and was barraged by the same smells that had filled Reynold’s nose earlier. He saw the Marine sitting at a table with Hotwire, the rest of Dead Six sitting at the bar already holding drinks. “Reynolds.”

“O’Neill.” Reynolds nodded over to the team. “Parker decided that he’d get an early start on his drinking. He hasn’t done anything yet, but you can tell he won’t turn down a fight.”

O’Neill looked to Hotwire. “He always like this after a mission?”

“No, in fact usually he’s quite jovial.” Hotwire gave a shrug. “Honestly, this is probably the only way he can think of to blow off some steam before the next mission. Be thankful, at least he’ll go in with a clear head.”

O’Neill gave a bitter smile at the GDI operator. “Oh yes, my heart’s lifting already. Korra, you wait here with Reynolds, I’m gonna have a talk with Parker. You too Teal’c, we don’t need to get confrontational.” Leaving the two with Reynolds and Hotwire, O’Neill walked up to the bar and settled in on the stool next to Parker. “Glad to see you could make it out of the base for the day.”

“They called you because they thought I was going to start something didn’t they.” Parker threw back a shot glass, and O’Neill was smart enough to know it wasn’t the first one. “Please, how dumb do all of you think I am?”

“I don’t think it’s you being dumb that we’re worried about,” O’Neill admitted. “Look, no one’s blaming you for what happened.”

“Kane’s still out there,” Parker grumbled, signaling for another glass. “Worse, he’s out in a bunch of places we don’t even know exist yet. If he’s out there, we shouldn’t be here dealing with a bunch of parasites when we can be busy finding him.”

“Yeah, well, stopping the aforementioned parasites is kind of what got us all together remember?” Parker leaned over the bar to look toward the rest of Dead Six. “Guys, want to help me out here?” Gunner sipped at his Guinness as the rest of the team stared down at the bar. “Oh, yeah, really feeling the comradery here.”

The door to the bar swung open, and a trio of men walked inside. They were broad figures, rippling with muscles gained through rough work and hard living. Their heads were shorn, and their clothes marked them as labor from birth and ready to fight about it. The only other people willing to show up in a bar before twelve-thirty on a weekday.

“The fuck is this,” one of them laughed, putting his sunglasses over his forehead. “The fuck are you all doing in our seats?”

No one stopped Parker in time. “Same thing you’re doing with your brains, shoving them under our asses.”

The trio looked at each other in confusion, trying to puzzle out what was going on. “Hey man, sorry if we made you angry or something, but those are always our seats is all.”

Parker grinned, O’Neill trying to turn his face away to avoid acknowledging the problem as much as possible. “Really? See that’s funny, because I think these belong to the barman. Like the money you could spend getting some decent clothes.”

One of the men grabbed his buddy’s shoulder. “C’mon man, let's hit somewhere else. Let’s not get wrapped up in someone just starting shit.”

Parker’s face fell as the three started to walk out the door. “What, got to go see your wife fucking your mailman?” One of the three spared a disgusted look as they walked out the door, and Parker growled as he threw a pair of twenties down on the bar and stormed after the three. Teal’c quickly stood in his path, matching Parker in height and muscle. “What, you gonna use your crazy alien shit to knock me out?”

“I will use any means short of permanent injury to prevent your dishonoring Gen. Hammond and his command.” Suddenly Teal’c’s voice dropped and his eyes narrowed. “Do not make me discover how long it would take for you to fall unconscious in this reality.”

Parker let out a snort, then moved for the door and outside the bar just in time to see a jeep drive off with three bald heads inside.

The bartender watched as the teams walked out, still processing everything. “Jesus, that guy’s got a real stick up his ass doesn’t he?”

O’Neill nodded. “Yeah, had a big deal he couldn’t close in time and now he’s trying to blow off some steam.”

The teams left Parker under guard in the SGC, no one was willing to leave him any reign outside the mountain if they could help it. The last glimpse of him was of an angry man in an elevator, surrounded by security forces, the doors shutting on him as he glared at the floor. Desperate to shake off the sight, everyone decided to head back to O’Neill’s and continue the cookout as best they could. Music flowed through the house as ambiance, the mix of interplanetary explorers, world travelers, and black ops commandos swapped stories between each other.

"Hang on, what do you mean he took down five planes on his own?” Bruiser asked, halting Asami’s recollections on the Equalist Coup. “You said he got shot down earlier.”

“No, his plane got shot down,” Asami clarified. “Gen. Iroh managed to fly out of it and take down the rest of them.”

Dead Six looked at each other trying to puzzle out what Asami was talking about. Deadeye took a quick sip of his beer and tried to puzzle it out. “Let’s stop and explain for a moment. You said his plane was shot down right?” Asami nodded. “But you also said he got five kills, making him an ace.” Another nod. “How’d he bloody fly without an airplane to fly him in?”

Mako responded like he was talking about the latest sports scores. “Firebending. I mean he’s part of the Fire Nation’s royal family, they’re the second-strongest firebenders around.”

Deadeye shook his head clear. “Let’s leave this one be for now before someone blows a fuse then? Colonel, we heard something happened with that Natsu boy. Care to enlighten the masses?”

O’Neill shrugged. “Kid couldn’t hack it, simple as that.”

Bolin raised a hand. “Uh, hack what colonel? Isn’t this another computer thing?”

O’Neill shook his head. “It’s over with, that’s what matters.”

Bruiser scoffed. “Please sir, it’s not that and you know it. What I hear, the boy couldn’t handle the fact that he’d had to actually fight.”

O’Neill groaned. “Damn scuttlebutt.”

“It’s a matter of his mental state,” Gunner said, leaning back in his chair with a look of serenity. “Teal’c, what precisely happened before he was affected?”

“Natsu utilized his abilities on a group of bandits who were simply human beings.” His voice lowered. “They were not able to withstand his fire.”

“See, that’s what happened,” Gunner said thoughtfully as he took a swig. The bottle looked more like a child’s toy in his massive hands than a real beer. “Korra, in your universe, there’s no chance people with abilities like yours would suffer from a burn after someone like Natsu going after you, right?”

Korra shook her head. “I mean we can still get burned and drowned and shocked, but a bender can at least put up a fight.”

“And that’s what snapped Natsu,” Gunner said, pointing his finger at Korra. “He couldn’t change his mind.”

Mako shook his head. “Okay, I’m officially lost. What happened?”

“Well you see it in basic training and the field,” Gunner said. “Humans, we aren’t designed to kill each other. We’re social animals, made to live and work with each other. Now, Natsu’s always been a tough little slugger of a lad, someone who loves getting into scrapes and slapping about the people he fights, right? Well, how’s he gonna take it when he finally kills someone?”

Asami looked down, hands wringing her glass as she suddenly lost some color in her face. “Not very well.”

Gunner nodded. “Precisely. Something tells me he’s such a scrappy little sod that he never expected anyone to ever die from fighting him. Confronted with proper mortality, his mind froze as it processed a new fact that couldn't reconcile itself with his worldview.”

“Well it’s Makarov’s problem to deal with now,” O’Neill said, finishing his bottle as he glanced at his watch. “Perfect, game’s about to come on.”

“Game?” Bolin looked up happily. “What game colonel?”

“Denver against Kansas City pre-season,” O’Neill said, hopping up from his seat to turn on the TV. “You kids are about to get a lesson in how sports work for our world.”

Teal’c leaned over to Mako. “I highly recommend feigning illness before it is too late.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Asami woke up early beneath the base, shaking off the cobwebs with little success. It had been another hard night of sleep, and though she knew it wouldn’t affect her heavily the fact remained that she was having trouble sleeping. Hence why her shower took a little longer than normal, and why she got to the armory when everyone else was almost done.

“Hey, we were just about to go looking for you,” Mako said, sliding his pistol in the holster. “You alright? You look rattled.”

“I’m fine,” Asami said, putting on a smile as she went through the process of getting her own weapon and gear. “Just had a bad dream is all, I’m good for the mission.” Mako and Korra shared a look, but once Asami was ready they followed her to the gate room.

SG-1 and MV-5 were already present, standing at the bottom of the gate. O’Neill waved his arm. “C’mon kids, times’a wasting. Don’t want to make the undertaker waiting, do ya?”

The gate started to spin, Team Avatar watching as the designs spun around like a lock being opened with each locked chevron. Just as soon as it started the seventh chevron was locked, and the event horizon opened with a burst.

Asami shook her head, whispering, “No matter how many times I see that I’ll probably never get tired of it.”

Gen. Hammond came over the PA. “All teams, you have a go. Godspeed.”

Parker started trudging up the ramp, glaring ahead through the gate as he left the others in his wake. Sighing, Dead Six followed him up the ramp and emerged into a forest. The day was overcast, and before the clearing made for the stargate there was only thick, foreboding forest.

O’Neill surveyed the situation before the teams. “Okay Parker, take your team and set a perimeter. Bolin, Korra, you two start feeling for anything and tell us if we’re being watched. I don’t want to be around the gate for too long if they’re staging here.” The teams set to work, O’Neill turning to Teal’c. “Okay big guy, how’s this stuff usually work?”

“The main camp will be situated a distance from the stargate to prevent infiltration by opposing system lords and the Tok’ra. It will be heavily fortified, though they will rely on the local population to supply them with food and materials.”

O’Neill nodded as he watched Korra and Bolin take off their boots and “feel” the earth. “Any chance of air support or heavy weapons?”

“Death gliders will be kept in reserve, and ha’taks will not be called to the surface until the preparations for invasion are complete.”

O’Neill checked his weapon as Korra and Bolin put their boots back on. “All clear?” Both nodded. “Okay, Teal’c and Deadeye, take the point and get us to their perimeter. Everyone else stay back until we get a better idea on what’s going on.”

Teal’c and Deadeye slipped into the trees, leaving the teams to wait. As they did Carter sent the MALP back to the SGC as Dead Six set claymores in place in a perimeter around the gate. O’Neill observed the surroundings again, as Daniel knelt down by the base of the gate to read the markings on the stones it was built on.

Asami knelt down to where he was asking, “So, what does it say?”

Daniel grabbed a small notebook out of his pocket. “Well if this script is similar to what we’ve found on Abydos this world has always been a kind of rallying point for the Goa’uld. Seems that Ra used this world as the point he would use to marshal his forces. He used this as a base to try and wage war against the Asgard, but according to this that assault is what led to the Protected Planets Treaty.”

Asami grimaced. “Was it that bad of a loss?”

Daniel nodded. “Says here Ra forbade anyone that wasn’t a system lord from ever even mentioning that the war ever happened.”

“Okay kids, gather round.” O’Neill knelt on the ground and took up a stick at the nearest patch of dirt. “We’ll set up a rotating watch. No fires, nothing that’ll give away our position until I want us to. Once Teal’c and Deadeye get back we’ll figure out how we’re gonna hit this thing.” He drew the gate symbol for Earth on the ground. “This here’s the gate.” He drew a circle around the symbol. “This’ll be our perimeter. Keep to the trees, don’t go into the open unless you have to. Bolin, Korra, make us some spots to hold out and sleep in, we’ll camo them so the snakeheads can’t find us. Make some pit traps too, we might need to capture some of them for interrogation.”

Patch spoke up. “Any reason to worry about locals sir?”

“Nah, most planets the locals steer far clear of the snakeheads.” O’Neill motioned to a small trail leading away from where Teal’c and Deadeye went. “My guess they’re probably waiting for the Jaffa to leave before they come anywhere near this place. Alright, you two get to work, ask for help if you wind up needing it. Everyone else get a feel for the place, stake out some good cover and standby.”

It was two hours before Teal’c and Deadeye returned. “Christ that’s a lot of’em,” Deadeye said quietly.

By that point the perimeter had been well and truly made. Korra and Bolin had created a dozen small positions to take cover in, and a good two dozen more pit traps and false steps. “Welcome back,” O’Neill called out. “So, what’s the situation out there?”

“There are three war-hosts O’Neill,” Teal’c said, setting down in one of the fighting holes. “Over three thousand Jaffa wait for orders, it is so large that Apophis has sent the overlord Pakhet to oversee them.”

Daniel looked over. “You’re kidding me, Egyptian mythology told us Pakhet was a solitary figure.”

“She once was,” Teal’c said patiently as he took out some food. “Before I came to serve Earth, Apophis had been planning to seize her kingdom. It would appear he had succeeded.”

O’Neill nodded. “Know anything else about her?”

“She broaches no failure O’Neill, and sees lesser beings as vermin. She was responsible for the crushing of much dissent in ages past.”

“So she’s not exactly the friendly type,” O’Neill mused. “Okay, three-k plus. We’ll have to capture one of them to get some intel. Teal’c, good odds they’ll send patrols out?”

“Any gathering of such a war host will garner fear of sabotage and infiltration. We will have ample chance to secure a prisoner for interrogation.”

O’Neill nodded, taking up a stick again and drawing the symbol of Apophis on the ground. “Okay, say this is the main camp. What’s the setup look like?”

Teal’c marked several Xs around the main camp. “There are heavy staff weapons positioned at these points. The main camps are here, near the center. However, it is buffeted against a cliff here.” Teal’c drew a line just behind Apophis’ symbol. “There is also a position here for vehicles.”

O’Neill looked up in surprise. “Are we talking aircraft?”

“The closest approximation would be your tanks,” Teal’c said calmly. “A heavy staff weapon is placed atop a system of hovering engines from which a gunner is able to support the Jaffa advance.”

O’Neill nodded. “Any death gliders? Ships?”

“Death gliders and Ha’taks will be saved until the time is decided for the attack to commence. Apophis will keep a watch on them to prevent other system lords from engaging with his forces until the time is right.”

O’Neill cocked an eyebrow. “Then is there a reason said Goa’ulds aren’t launching an attack on his abandoned forces now?”

“It is likely that Apophis has managed to bribe or threaten the nearby system lords into holding back as he prepares to attack Earth. Should he succeed and the SGC crushed, he may become recognized as the next supreme system lord.”

“Good thing we’re here to make sure that can’t happen,” O’Neill said. “Alright, I’ve got a plan.”

Deadeye watched as the patrol moved through the night, tromping through the undergrowth like elephants. To his ears it was like they were going out of their way to crack every branch under their feet and scatter every pile of leaves in their path. He counted down, tracking each footstep of the pointman as he closed on the ambush site. Ten. Five. Three. Two. One.

Korra, Asami, and Deadeye grabbed the three Jaffa. Korra used her airbending to knock out one as Asami chi-blocked the other down to the ground. Deadeye grabbed the last in a choke and held a pistol to his head. “Shut up and listen before I blow your brains out, is that understood?” The Jaffa struggled for a minute, trying to rip himself from Deadeye’s grasp. It was no use, the Scotsman was built with wiry muscle along with his sharp eyes. Still grunting, the Jaffa settled against Deadeye’s grasp. “Better. Grab the other two, we need to get back to the camp.”

The trio quickly destroyed all trace of the ambush, and despite the noise all made it back to the camp unmolested. The three Jaffa were left in a pile at the gate, O’Neill patting Deadeye on the shoulder. “Good job guys, when we get back you’ll all get an extra slice of pie at the commissary on me.”

The captured Jaffa glared at O’Neill, but at the sight of Teal’c spat a harsh laugh. “I see, the shol’va Teal’c again makes his presence known. How much longer will you defy the will of the gods you served so faithfully?”

“The Goa’uld are no more gods than you or I,” Teal’c said quietly. “That is not why we are here however. You are necessary, in that you will tell us the layout of the camp below.”

Asami leaned over to Carter. “What are we gonna do with them after we get the information though?”

“We can open the gate and send them through to the SGC as prisoners,” Carter said. “We’ll contact our allies and have them placed in custody.”

“I will not betray my gods,” the Jaffa growled. “You should know that they will not allow you to stop this.”

“The Goa’uld are not gods,” Teal’c growled. “If you do not tell us what we need to know, we will continue with our mission regardless. Should you tell us what we need to know however, we will not inflict as many casualties as we would without your information.”

The Jaffa scoffed and turned away. “Do what you will shol’va, I know where my loyalties lie.”

Mako walked up and tapped Teal’c on the shoulder. Moving toward the Jaffa, Mako knelt down and created a flame from his wrist. “If they’re gods, why can’t they do this?”

The Jaffa’s eyes went wide, but the loyal soldier of the gods shook his head. “Your tricks cannot break me, you have no idea of the true power the gods possess.”

O’Neill paused at the reaction. “Teal’c, you want to come over here for a second bud?” Sparing one last glare at the captured Jaffa, Teal’c went to O’Neill’s side. “Maybe it was just me, but there was a distinct impression that our guest was a little disturbed by Mako’s light show just now.”

Teal’c nodded. “I concur O’Neill. A Jaffa warrior is told the basic function of the technologies of the Goa’uld. Mako’s lack of any apparatus or device may well have had a negative impression.”

O’Neill nodded. “Korra, you wanna come over here?” As soon as she was close enough for a whisper, he asked, “Korra, you got any kind of special tricks to snap this sucker out of his whole, ‘My gods can beat up your gods’ schtick?”

Korra looked confused. “Don’t know what a schtick is, but I think I can try something else. Since the avatar is master of the elements, he might react if I show off all of them.”

“I recommend that you remove your jacket,” Teal’c said. “He will be unable to deny that your abilities are the result of something other than technologies different from those used by the Goa’uld or Tau’ri.”

Korra nodded, quickly removing her gear and handing it to Teal’c. Stretching out and cracking her joints, she set her face in a solid scowl and stormed over to the prisoner. “Okay buddy, here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna give us some more information about what’s in that camp, and then we’re gonna send you away somewhere you can’t hurt anyone anymore.”

The Jaffa laughed, but couldn’t hide the nerves in his voice. “As if you could do such a thing. The gods will see you all pay dearly for your disrespect.”

Korra leaned in close and held a handful of flame up next to the Jaffa’s face. Close enough that he flinched away from the heat. “Yeah, about that whole thing about the Goa’uld being gods.” Backing away, Korra clapped her hands together and pulled them apart in a flaming arc. As the fire dissipated she pulled the water from the grass around her and used it to slice three gouges in the dirt around the Jaffa as the captured alien cried out. She stomped on the ground, sending three spikes at the Jaffa’s face and halting them scant millimeters from his skin, before destroying them with a trio of airbending blasts that sheared the points away. Taking a quick breath, Korra walked back to the Jaffa. “Want to try that answer again?”

The Jaffa shook his head, trying to keep up his front just a little longer. “No, no I will not betray my lord Apophis.”

“Apophis only became your lord through the death of Sokar,” Teal’c said, walking up. “The beings we both believed were gods are facing their extinction. Korra is more like a god than the Goa’uld could ever hope to be. I recommend you tell us what we need to know before we are forced to take more extreme measures.”

The Jaffa shuddered, watching as Korra kept flames, water, rocks, and the air itself circling around her. “I…I will not betray my gods…”

“The time of your gods has ended,” Teal’c said firmly. “I am a shol’va, and so is Master Bra’tac. Yet we have survived the attacks of the false gods you claim to remain loyal to. They have not struck us down or halted our efforts.” Teal’c reached behind the Jaffa and tore off the restraints, the teams going to the ready at the sight. Holding out his hand, Teal’c’s face softened. “I offer you the first real taste of freedom you have ever experienced.”

The Jaffa hesitated. He scanned the teams, knowing full well that any number of wrong moves or words would earn him death at the hands of the humans. “I…I cannot…”

O’Neill thought for another second. “Teal’c, you know where Bra’tac might be right now?”

“He is undoubtedly going from one Jaffa to the other,” Teal’c said. “If I were to speculate, he is gathering further warriors willing to stand against the Goa’uld.”

O’Neill nodded. “Okay, we’ll send these three back with you. Get’em to Bra’tac, see if he can’t help them see the light and get him here to help us out after you tell Gen. Hammond what’s going on. Everyone else, we’re staying here. I’m getting a plan on what we can do forming in the ol’ noggin.”

Teal’c nodded, dialing for the SGC as the others looked to O’Neill. Parker wore an expression of mild incredulity mixed with some light scorn. “Okay colonel, so we’re gonna terrorize the snakes until they give up?”

O’Neill nodded. “Well Parker, your face is scary enough after all.”

Parker grinned. “Good thing I’ve got plenty of people to shoot here.”

“We’ll move to the East of the gate,” O’Neill said, picking up his pack. “We’ll set up some more traps along the way, once they start sending out patrols then they’ll figure out that someone’s gunning for them. Deadeye, Gunner, take the point.”

As the stargate cut the wormhole the teams melted into the trees, soon leaving the gate as it had been for so many centuries once again.

O’Neill watched through his binoculars as the patrol stormed through the forests. The Jaffa had their heads on a swivel, crashing through the undergrowth like a herd of buffalo through Boise. “Wait, buffalo through Boise? That doesn’t even make sense how would they stampede through Boise?” The Jaffa blew their horns again, closing in on where the patrol had last been reported, and O’Neill nodded as the net closed away from where they were hiding out. “Okay, that was a response time of about four hours from the missing patrol and another three hours to close on the gate. I’d almost say they’re getting better at trying to kill us.”

“Great for us,” Gunner said, holding up the detonator. “Now sir?”

O’Neill shook his head. “Wait until they’ve circled around the stargate, we’ll detonate and scram after that.”

“Brilliant,” Gunner whispered. The patrols blew their horns again, closing on the gate out of the trees. The twenty-odd Jaffa stepped out of the old growth, scanning the area with staffs at the ready. O’Neill had to admit, for an evil empire the Goa’uld had a diverse roster of Jaffa. Say what you would about their policies on human rights, they had equal-opportunity employment pretty-well handled.

The Jaffa circled around the gate, looking at each other trying to figure out what was really happening. To their eyes, there was no sign of any struggle, no blood or marks in the ground. There were no staff blasts or bodies without wounds that would mark a zat hit. It was a pristine sight, and left them confused.

O’Neill clapped Gunner on the shoulder.

The MM-1 “Minimore” mine was specifically designed for use by special forces; compact, lighter, but packing only slightly less of a punch. Like it’s older, larger brother, the Minimore contains several dozens of steel spheres packed in resin next to a block of C4 and can easily be concealed beneath local cover and debris. In an immediate fifty-meter arc before it, there is no chance of survival. Even at one hundred meters, the target does not walk away unscathed.

Six were arrayed around the stargate and aimed at the Goa’uld.

First, the mines detonated. Ball bearings ripped through the Jaffa armor. Electrical dispersion does little against a chunk of metal speed at the speed of sound through the air. Several Jaffa warriors dropped, several more fell screaming, clutching at bloody limbs or heads. Blood spilled through their fingers, their staff weapons forgotten in their panic. Korra and Mako jumped from cover and covered the area in flames, the Jaffa firing wildly through the flames. Their armor dissipated the heat thanks to what it was designed to face, but their hands and heads were left free for the radiant heat to scorch. The final strike was when Dead Six and SG-1 raked the Jaffa with weapons fire.

The ground was silent again as Mako and Korra brought the fire down. It was all over in eleven seconds.

Bolin shuddered as he looked out on the burned and bullet-riddled corpses. “Seriously, you guys realize how scary you are right? I mean you just killed them all, right there, are any of them even alive?”

Carter kept her weapons trained on the bodies. "Keep a good distance, Goa'uld larvae near maturity can make a last-ditch effort to take a host to stay alive."

Asami stared down at the bodies as she walked through the clearing. Between the shrapnel wounds from the mines, the burns from the fire, and the bullet wounds, the entire sight left Asami locked onto the body of a young Jaffa. He couldn’t have been older than seventeen, and there he was on the ground riddled with holes. The rational part of Asami realized that he had been directly in front of one of the mines, and that he wouldn’t have felt anything as he died. That didn’t make it easier to stomach the sights and smells of the bodies around her in the same state.

“Okay, we’ll leave this for Packit to find,” O’Neill said, making sure all the mines had detonated. “Let’s move, I think I saw some thickets we can use to hide out in. Hotwire, Deadeye, stay behind and get a feel for what they do then get back, no stopping.”

As the teams disappeared into the trees, the two commandos watched as a half hour later a Jaffa patrol found the scene, and went running back to the war host.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

Pakhet glared down at the three primes before her. They knelt at her feet in her chambers, not daring to meet her eyes for fear of the punishment that would follow for such disrespect. Her own first prime stood proudly behind his master, glaring down at the trio with disdain. His mistress held a blade in-hand, twirling it in her fingers as she studied the three. “You sent out a force to recover the missing patrol, and instead you bring me bodies.”

The trio remained silent, staring down at the floor waiting for the hammer to fall. “What’s worse, you couldn’t find the bodies of the three missing Jaffa. Are your forces that incompetent, or are you?” Pakhet got up and tilted the head of the prime in the middle of the three to face her. “What wounds were they struck by?”

“Projectiles,” the prime said, voice filled with fear but face set firm despite it. “Their bodies were riddled with holes, but they were also burned. We think they were trapped in some kind of explosive blast.”

“Then this was not the work of the Tok’ra,” Pakhet whispered, stalking about the tent. As she circled she continued to glare at the three. Her prey was cornered, but the game needed to continue to prove that she was their master. “The local swine can barely build with rocks, they weren’t behind this. Tell me who you think was.”

The primes were silent until Pakhet’s first prime slammed his staff down. “Answer your mistress swine!”

One of the primes spoke up. “The Tau’ri mistress, the Tau’ri are the only ones faced by the Goa’uld capable of using such weapons.”

Pakhet smiled, nodding as she regally returned to her throne and settled into it with a hungry smile. “Yes, that is the truth isn’t it. The Tau’ri have learned of Apophis’ plans and see fit to stop them.” Looking over the blade, Pakhet spun and threw it into the neck of her first prime. “Only the Tok’ra could have told them.”

As the three primes rose, Pakhet stalked to the first prime and knelt next to his collapsed form, the Tok’ra spy glaring back at her with all the indignation and resistance he could muster. “And now, the Tok’ra have brought the legendary SG-1 straight to Lord Apophis’ hands.” Grabbing the knife, Pakhet drove it deeper and severed the Tok’ra’s spinal cord.

One of the primes dared to speak. “M’lady, we are not invading the Tau’ri homeworld?”

“We are,” Pakhet said, savoring each slow second the Tok'ra's life drained away. “Lord Apophis informed only me of the first act of this play. The Tok’ra could not handle such a grouping of war hosts on their own, only the Tau’ri would take such a risk to stop them with their small numbers. We will corner them on this world, and from there destroy the Tau’ri homeworld. Send our vehicles to guard the stargate along with a large detachment of Jaffa. Send the rest of the hosts out across the region, we’ll surround the worms and stomp them out.”

The trio saluted her, standing and leaving the tent quickly. No one wanted to stay to watch their goddess finish off her prey.

O’Neill drew on the ground, centering a circle around the stargate symbol away from the scrawled camp. “Okay, by now they’ve probably got a guard around the gate. Deadeye, take Bolin and keep and eye on the place for when Teal’c gets back.”

Bolin groaned. “Aw man, is this just gonna be a lot of waiting for something to happen?” Deadeye glared him into silence.

“Parker, you scope the area and point out where we can put some booby traps and ambush points. How many of those little rocket magazines do we have?”

“Got three sir,” Gunner said, holding up one of the rocket magazines. “Not sure what the armor on those tanks are like though, might be a tough nut to crack.”

“Well Teal’c didn’t mention any actual turrets, given how the Goa’uld usually design it’ll probably be open-topped.” O’Neill moved his stick to an X a distance away from the stargate. “Now they’ll be coming after us next, probably sending teams through the area. You all saw how they hunt, so we’ll take out the ones with the horns and run once we do. Take away their ability to communicate they won’t have any way to coordinate their movements.”

Hotwire spoke up. “Rules of engagement?”

“Until Teal’c gets back with word we’re gonna do our best to take out their forces. By now Teal’c’s already told Gen. Hammond what we’re gonna be doing here, they’ll know we can only last a week, two if we’re lucky without a resupply.” O’Neill got up and marked a tree with his knife. “Today’s day one. I want us close to a win by day five and wrapping up by day seven. If we hit day ten, we’re in trouble, and day twelve we make a break for the gate.”

Asami looked over at O’Neill was plain unease. “What if there’s a day thirteen?”

O’Neill shrugged. “I’m gonna prefer to think of that as the day we’re back home on liberty. Alright, let’s get to work people.”

The teams spread out through the forest, marking points for ambush and making traps for the Jaffa. Pit traps made with earthbending that would leave the Jaffa impaled and unable to escape without aid. Branches sharpened to a point and bent back held in place with tripwire at face height. Team Avatar shuddered as they realized the kind of damage these obstacles on their own could do. The explosives scattered around the forest didn’t help matters.

“Christ, look at’em,” Parker said, tying off another sharpened branch with Hotwire. “It’s like they’ve never laid a trap in their lives.”

Hotwire sighed. “I suppose we should be thankful that MV-7 or 8 aren’t here with us?”

“Hardly,” Parker said, quickly setting the knot and covering up the traces that there was even a trap there. “We need Mustang here, First Team or Overwatch. Hell I’ll even take those Section III morons. Not those kids though, they’ll just get in our way.”

“You didn’t think the same when we fought with Babushka’s resistance,” Hotwire pointed out as she moved to another tree and placed a laser-tripped mine. “Some of those kids were as young as fifteen and they were fighting Nod with old AKs and Stens.”

“Well that was different,” Parker said sharply as he finished up concealing the trap. He marked it with several stones; they’d need to dismantle them all later if they wanted to keep the locals from being hurt. “They weren’t running around with magic spells that could kill them if something goes wrong.”

“That’s not why you want MV-3 gone Havoc,” Hotwire said as she covered the bomb with leaves in just the right way to let the laser pass through. “Accept it, Korra and Asami are in a relationship and probably even kiss each other. Get over it.”

Parker’s scowl somehow managed to deepen. “What, and I suppose it’s all perfectly alright for you?”

“Israel takes all it can,” Hotwire said with a shrug. “You think we can be as picky as you with your ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ idea?”

“Well that’s different then,” Parker said firmly. “I’m telling you, they’re making a bad choice.”

Hotwire laughed. “A choice? You mean you chose to love women with all the grief they keep giving you? How many times have you said that you can’t stand women?”

Parker growled. “You got those mines set?”

Hotwire shook her head as she planted another, the conversation would have to continue when Parker wasn’t able to escape being forced to accept reality. “Almost done.”

Gunner smiled, watching as Korra opened a pit in the earth and filled the bottom with spikes. “Like watching a master at work, amazing.”

“This is nothing,” Korra said, pulling a thing layer of dirt atop the pit. “If I had the chance I could show you guys some spirit-bending too.”

Gunner laughed as he covered the pit with debris from the forest floor. “Only spirits I plan on bending come in bottles.”

Asami focused on watching through the trees for any sign of Pakhet’s forces, hands shielding her eyes despite the noticeable lack of glare from the sun. “Isn’t it kind of a bad idea to keep our camp away from the gate? I mean what if we need to escape or if Teal’c comes back?”

“Well if Teal’c isn’t the next one through the gate then we leave whoever does come through with a lot of dead Jaffa and a helluva show.” Marking the trap, Gunner moved on. “If he is, we provide a distraction that lets him secure the gate or get to us.”

Asami kept her eyes out on the distance. “Great, more dead bodies.”

Korra watched as Gunner planted a mine at the base of a stump. “So, should we worry about Kane getting into the multiverse? I mean from what I heard he’s not exactly the best guy to have running around.”

Gunner sighed as he covered the bomb. “For now? No. Kane’s gonna pop up again whether we want him to or not, best to focus on the threats we can handle instead of the ones we can’t do anything about.”

“Just creeps me out though,” Korra noted. “I mean who’s to say he can’t just appear when he wants to? What if he decides to drop one of those big bombs inside the mountain and let it explode?”

“Nah, Kane’s not that direct.” Covering the mine, Gunner marked the position and started moving back for the camp. “GDI’s shrinks studied him six ways to Sunday. He likes an audience, likes complex plans with lots of moving parts. He won’t do anything like just put a bomb in the SGC, it’s too simple.”

“How about sending a guy in a suit to watch us?”

Korra and Gunner ran over to Asami and managed to catch a glimpse of a man in a gray suit step behind a distant tree. Gunner pulled out his pistol. “Not much of a hiding place. Did he have any red on him? Brotherhood loves the color.”

“No, but he definitely wasn’t Jaffa,” Asami said quietly. “I mean who just walks into a forest wearing a suit like that? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Gunner’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve got my own ideas for now, but we’d best get back to the camp. C’mon, before it gets too dark.”

The trio hurried back to the camp, finding everyone had already returned. “Hey, you’re just in time.” O’Neill tore a packet from inside his MRE open and pulled out some crackers. “Good news, it’s jalapeno spread.”

“Sir, there’s something out in the forest.” Gunner sat down across from O’Neill in the rough circle they had around what had apparently been made the center of the camp. “There’s someone else out here with us.”

Everyone looked up, O’Neill freezing mid-squeeze on the MRE spread. “Is there a description you’d like to attach with that?”

“Tall, gray suit with a briefcase,” Asami said, eyes wide at the impossibility of what she’d seen. “I don’t understand though, who was that?”

“I think it’s an MIG,” Gunner said, Bruiser looking up in shock. “It’s the only explanation, he’s gotta be an MIG.”

O’Neill gave a tilt to his head as he resumed making his lunch. “Last I checked most MiGs can’t fit into a Men’s Warehouse ensemble.”

“That’s impossible,” Daniel said. “If the British government had their own operations there’s no way we wouldn’t have learned about it by now, not after what happened with the Russian gate.”

“Wait, that’s another nation,” Mako said, jumping into the conversation. “I thought they were allied with the United States.”

“They are, but the stargate project was determined to be too vital to American interests to tell anyone about.” Carter was already scribbling away in a small notepad. “Was there anything else about him you remember? Something he carried, or his face?”

“Well, I guess it was more of a black suit than gray,” Asami said as she did her best to drag up every detail before they disappeared. “He had a hat on too, but I didn’t see any hair so he was probably bald.”

O’Neill nodded, scribbling down the information and looking up to the teams. “Okay, so we’ve got guys in suits running around now. Was he smoking?”

“You mean one of those cigarette things?” Asami shook her head. “No, I didn’t see him holding one or breathing out any smoke.”

“Then we’ve got two sets watching us,” O’Neill said. “I saw a guy like that back on Cimmeria, before I fell into those nettles. Add in all the times someone’s noticed tobacco where it shouldn’t, be and we’ve got two distinct individuals keeping tabs on us.”

Before anyone could chime in more, a horn blew in the distance. “Well there they are,” Gunner said. Everyone took up their weapons, stuffing MRE trash in their pockets and clearing the camp as best they could. Rounds were chambered, magazines loaded, and everyone took positions. It was five minutes before the first explosion.

“From our left, Parker get moving and -- ” O’Neill stopped as a second explosion detonated to the right, and then a third to the left again. Suddenly the forest was filled with horns and calls and shouts.

“What are they trying to do,” Mako whispered as the screams and explosions seemed to reach a crescendo. “It sounds like they’re trying to walk into the traps.”

O’Neill jumped up. “Everyone get running, they’re trying to surround us!”

The teams broke, moving deeper into the forest at a sprint. The explosions stopped, and the call of the Jaffa horns broke through the trees louder for it. As the sun started to fall in the distant horizon the horns started to circle, calling to each other faster than the teams could escape them. Korra sprinted through the forest, quickly taking the lead through the trees in front of the teams. Shapes started to move in the distance in her peripherals, Jaffa warriors rushing through the wood to try and cut them off. Working up her chi, Korra sent blasts of flame to stop them and keep the path open. The Jaffa trying to stop them tried to lay down fire with their staff weapons, but as Korra ran she kept the pressure up with more fire and barricades of earth.

Several staff blasts ripped up the ground around her, and she heard the growing silence around her as she ran. The shouts and horns started to fade into the distance, and only once the sun had disappeared did she dare turn around to see what was happening.

The Jaffa had swarmed, a mass of bodies running about in the darkness looking like an army. Outlines disappeared and reappeared through each other as staff blasts lit up the growing black. Kneeling down, Korra watched as the Jaffa wrestled with several shapes, but by the time they were all captured she couldn’t make out who was captured.

Sitting down, Korra started to breathe slowly and thoughtfully. Panicking wouldn’t do anything to help, and until she could think straight charging in blindly to try and fight against that many Jaffa would only get her killed. The younger version of herself would’ve charged in without a thought, but that Korra hadn’t had her powers nearly taken away or her mortality laid bare. Now she knew that to free the others, she would have to choose her time.

“Bolin and Deadeye are still at the gate,” she thought. “I can get out of the forest, hook up with them, and we can get back to Gen. Hammond for help. Yeah, that might actually work. Trick is how I manage to get past these guys.”

The Jaffa remained, a dozen circled around watching the woods as the team was bound and led away. O’Neill probably made some smart comment, because Korra could hear him cry out as a Jaffa struck him with a staff. Hidden in the distance, the wait dragged on for hours as Korra tried to stay awake. The body’s natural rhythm is a force impossible to fight for too long though, and soon Korra’s eyes dropped her into blissful unconsciousness.

The teams were thrown down hard at the feet of Pakhet, O’Neill groaning as he shook off the cobwebs. “Just once could you people throw us down on some fresh sheets?”

Pakhet grinned down at her captives, still twirling her blood-stained blade. “The legendary SG-1. I thought you were only a team of four?”

O’Neill pushed himself up off the ground with a long groan. “We brought a few prospects up from the minors, they’re shaping up pretty well.”

Pakhet smiled, putting on her kara kesh hand device and smiling as she wiggled her fingers in the weapon. “Tell me, what price do you think Apophis has on your heads?”

Daniel shrugged. “Something tells me that we probably can’t imagine that much money.”

Pakhet nodded, strutting proudly around the captured operatives as her primes stood at the front of her tent. “Yes, but an especially high price remains on the shol’va.” Stopping behind Asami, Pakhet grabbed at the young woman’s black hair and forced her to look back at Pakhet’s cruel smile. “Tell me, where has he gone?”

Asami fought through the pain to give Pakhet a grin of her own. “You think you’re a god? News flash sister, I’m dating one.”

Pakhet’s smile vanished as she slammed her kara kesh into Asami’s forehead. Several Jaffa seized the teams before they could try to help. “Damn you, I’ll wrap my hands around your neck myself!” Gunner started to rise despite the Jaffa, only for four more to cover him.

“I am a god,” Pakhet whispered to Asami, smile slowly returning as she put her mouth to Asami’s ear. “A lord above all. I learned from an ancient culture on your planet that if I am a god? Vengeance is mine.”

Asami’s screams echoed through the camp.

Korra stalked through the trees, seeing the fresh craters that marked where the explosives had been planted. The pit traps had all been revealed and the stakes all swung, leaving bloody smears through the trees and the scent to mix with the plants and dirt. There were no bodies, the Jaffa had taken everyone away. Korra prayed that Asami had only been captured. Then she started hoping that she was going to be alive long enough to be rescued.

A branch snapped to her right, and she froze. Someone was out there in the woods, and she knew it couldn’t have been one of the others. Slowly pressing herself flat on the ground, Korra scanned the woods and waited. The snapping branches stopped, leaving her alone in the oppressive silence of the night. Looking around again, she slowly rose up.

A thick arm wrapped itself around her neck as a knife pressed into her neck. “Alright you snake-gut bastard, tell me where -- Korra?”

Korra stopped trying to pull the arm away as she recognized the gravely voice. “Parker?”

Parker dropped Korra and cursed. “Dammit, that’s what I needed now. Everyone but you taken by Pakhet’s goons.”

Korra rubbed at her neck. “How’d you escape? Everyone else got captured didn’t they?”

“You all ran the other way,” Parker said, showing her a half-melted pistol. “I ran towards those freaks until they took out my pistol. Started wrestling with one of them into one of your pit traps.” He gave Korra a nod. “Credit where it’s due, it did the job. Waited there under the body until they left, just climbed out a few seconds ago.

Korra’s eyes narrowed, and she lit up a small flame in her hands to see Parker was indeed covered in mud and blood and that his gun had in fact melted. He was telling the truth.

Parker grabbed at her hand and shoved it into the ground. “What are you, nuts? How about we just shoot off some fireworks and tell the snakes we’re right here, come and get us!”

“Sorry,” Korra whispered. Her issues with Parker would have to wait until later, now she had to save Asami. “So what now?”

“We make for the gate, send you through and get reinforcements.” Parker started to creep ahead through the trees. “Tell baldy that he’ll need to send MV-4 even faster than he thought, unless he wants to wind up with three dead teams.”

Korra shook her head. “What about Bolin and Deadeye?”

“They’re going back too,” Parker said, sounding annoyed now. “I don’t need any of you getting in any more trouble. Should’ve sent me alone in the first place.”

Korra stopped in her tracks. “What? What are you talking about, why would you think that going alone would be a good idea?”

“It’s my thing okay?” Parker cursed, pulling his foot back as he collided with something metallic. Reaching down carefully, he pulled up a staff weapon. Smiling, he flicked the switch and activated it. The power coursed along the front, the small light show a satisfying sight. “Well it’s no AK, but it’ll do.”

Korra shook her head as Parker kept walking. “I don’t get it. You seriously think you can take on a few thousand Jaffa? You saw what happened back there, they aren’t stupid.”

“They aren’t the worst I’ve ever faced,” Parker said firmly. “Go back through the portal and get some help.”

“Not without Asami,” Korra said firmly. “I’m not leaving until I know she’s safe -- ”

“Christ, see this is what I was afraid of.” Parker turned and glared as he pointed a finger at Korra’s face. “No one else here is in a relationship with a teammate, I knew that having you two on the same mission would mean something like this happens.”

“We’ve done this before,” Korra shot back, not backing down from Parker’s verbal assault. “She’s helped me fight terrorists, countries, she’s saved my life. There’s a reason I trust her, but I guess trust is something you don’t know much about.”

“Trust doesn’t enter into it honey, I work better alone.”

Korra stepped forward. “No one works better alone.”

Parker groaned. “What is this, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood? Let me spell it out kid, I tried working with teams before. You know what happens? People wind up dying. People you like, people you know are good at their jobs, people who are professionals at what they do. They still wind up dead no matter what. Better to go in alone and risk yourself, that way you’re the only one to blame.”

Korra shook her head. “No, that’s not the only reason. You’re just looking for excuses to keep Asami and I away from you. Otherwise you would’ve given the same speech to Mako and Bolin earlier.”

Parker shrugged. “So I’m wrong?”

Korra groaned. “Oh my spirits, are you always this frustrating to people you’re supposed to be working with?”

Parker grinned and went back to stalking through the trees. “Honestly, this isn’t even me trying. Get me really pissed off, then we’ll talk.”

Taking a long, deep breath, Korra suddenly gained an incredible appreciation for all the patience Tenzin had given to her and his children. Following behind Parker through the forest, she slowed as he did when they finally reached the tree line to the stargate clearing. Parker started to skirt the edge, Korra walking the opposite direction to try and find Deadeye and Bolin. There were still Jaffa on patrol around the gate, their attention on the stargate instead of the trees. Stalking the edge of the clearing, Korra avoided any noise she could, even if her pace made glacial look speedy.

Korra set her foot down on a soft piece of ground, only to feel it move around under her and a muffled groan escape. Looking down, she saw two outlines laying next to each other. “Bolin?”

A hand raised from under a cover of leaves and dirt. “Yeah, it’s me. Plus side, the camouflage really worked.”

Deadeye moved from his position into a kneel, eyes still trained on the gate. “What’s happened?”

“The Jaffa swarmed the camp and took the others prisoner,” Korra said. “Parker and I managed to escape, we need to get help from the SGC.”

Bolin’s eyes widened. “They got Mako? No, no we have to get them now.”

“Rushing in like that’s a sure way to kill yourself,” Deadeye whispered. “We go back for help, we come back and save them.”

“But what about Parker?” Korra motioned out into the woods. “He’s saying we should all just leave and let him handle this.”

Before Deadeye could answer, a staff blast slammed into one of the Jaffa guarding the stargate.

Deadeye sighed. “You’re about to see why Parker works the way he does.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

Parker smiled as he blasted three Jaffa in a row, running up to a fourth and slamming the butt of the staff into his face. Spinning around, he lit up a firing line of Jaffa before they could fire any blasts at him. As the Jaffa detachment tried to close on him, Parker sprinted to the nearest tree and waited. The Jaffa ran everywhere, trying to figure out where he went when he knelt around the tree and started blasting away again. Several Jaffa went down, caught in the chest by Parker’s assault. Before the leaders could turn their warriors to face the commando Parker was gone again, rushing back to where he started. The Jaffa quickly realized Parker’s game and formed a circle around the gate, kneeling down and waiting for his next attack.

The grenade to the center of their position didn’t help their situation much.

The Jaffa scattered, Parker tearing their position apart and sending them fleeing. Staff bolts flew after them through the trees, catching five as they ran. Parker sighed, closing up the front of the staff and waving. “C’mon out Deadeye, the snakes are slithering back.”

Deadeye moved from cover, but Korra and Bolin stared at the carnage. There had been at least thirty Jaffa at the gate, and on his own Parker had done to them when their entire team had done earlier. “You’re slipping Havoc, you let three get away.”

Parker held up a finger, then smiled as an explosion ripped through the forest. “You were saying?” Deadeye shrugged. “Okay, someone dial that thing up, you’ve all gotta get outta here.” As Deadeye went to the DHD, Parker knelt down next to one of the Jaffa and waited until he heard them groan. “Good, we’ve got a live one here.”

Watching, Korra saw Parker kneel down next to the wounded Jaffa and held a knife to the warrior’s neck. “Alright buddy, what’s Pakhet’s plan?”

The Jaffa scoffed at the commando despite his pained voice. “I am a loyal servant of the gods, I will never betray them.”

Parker nodded, before ripping the Jaffa’s armor up and plunging his hand into the Jaffa’s stomach. Bolin made a strangled cry as his hands flew to his mouth. Korra watched in shock as Parker pulled the Goa’uld larva out with a wide smile on his face. “Call me crazy, but I think you need this don’t you?”

The Jaffa reached out weakly as the larva squealed to be returned to its pouch. “No, no put it back!”

Parker playfully held the larva away. “Uh-uh, where I come from it’s called the magic word. Maybe start using it if you want to live through those shrapnel wounds you’ve got? Where’s the rest of the team?”

Korra felt it building up in her, the sense that this wasn’t right. In the little light she could see by she saw the expression on the Jaffa’s face. The alien was terrified, reaching desperately for his larva despite Parker playing one-man monkey in the middle. Someone about the plaintive groans and calls of the Jaffa made him a desperate being seeking what life that his larva could give him. Bolin had regained control of himself, but he was still locked on the sight of Parker grinning in the night’s dim light as he held the squealing larva away from the desperate Jaffa.

“Please,” the Jaffa whispered. “Please, put it back, please.”

Parker held the larva inches away from the Jaffa’s stomach. “What’s going on?”

The Jaffa shuddered. “The warhosts were a trap, to draw SG-1 in and capture them before Apophis assaults Earth.”

Parker’s grin disappeared. Without a word he crushed the larva and dropped it atop the Jaffa. “Have fun.” Knocking the Jaffa unconscious, Parker stormed over to the others, Bolin stepping back unconsciously from him. “Deadeye, give me your pistol.” Deadeye didn’t argue, and to Korra’s surprise he handed over the weapon. “Alright, you three get to the SGC and grab MV-4. I’ll head to the camp and mess them up.”

“No, you’re not going alone,” Korra said firmly. “There’s still thousands of Jaffa in the camp, you can’t just -- ”

“Deadeye get them both back and get those reinforcements.” Checking the pistol, Parker set off into the darkness. Giving the Jaffa a good kick before moving on, he quickly disappeared into the night.

“He’s not serious,” Bolin said, pointing to where Parker was vanishing into the trees. “There’s too many of them, he won’t survive.”

“You don’t know the captain.” Deadeye went to the DHD and started to dial. “If he’s going in to get the others we need to call for backup for when he does.”

Korra shook her head, stalking around the gate. “I don’t get it, why does he act like this? You’re part of his team, why does he think he can do this?”

“I’ll explain when we get back.” Deadeye sighed as he dialed the gate. “Christ, what was the sequence?”

Korra pulled Deadeye around. “No, you’re telling me what Parker’s problem is now.”

Deadeye pointed at her with an accusatory look. “We do not have the time to go into this. Once we’re done we’ll handle our problems but -- ”

The gate started spinning, chevrons locking in rapid succession. The wormhole ripped open, and seconds later Teal’c, Bra’tac, and several Jaffa came stomping out. Teal’c surveyed the scene from the light of the gate, the bodies scattered before him, and asked, “What has happened here?”

Bolin waved his arms and motioned rapidly. “Well we were watching the gate, almost everyone got captured, then Parker went off on his own after doing all this to save everyone.” A pause. “I don’t think I missed anything.”

Bra’tac shook his head. “Introductions will have to wait, Pakhet will torture them for her own pleasures before turning them over to Apophis.”

Korra’s eyes widened as her pupils shrank. Before anyone could react she started running toward the warhost. Teal’c started running as his fellow rebel Jaffa followed. “Wait here, MV-4 will arrive shortly. Bring them to the camp once they arrive, we will need their support.”

Bolin groaned, watching as the rebel Jaffa rushed forward to the warhost’s camp. “Gaaaaaah! Weren’t not really gonna go back to the SGC -- ” Deadeye dialed in the coordinates for the SGC and rushed through when the wormhole opened. “Okay, yeah, we can do that.”

Parker watched as the Goa’uld hover-tank floated beneath his position in the treetops, the vehicle’s engines whining through the night as its bright headlights pierced through the darkness. Teal’c had been right, the top was open and the gunner vulnerable. He waited, plotted the speed of the tank and counted down. The tank edged on, coming underneath the tree…

He landed hard on the gunner, burying combat boots into an unprotected skull. Angling himself on the fly, Parker drove an elbow into the gunner’s neck to make sure he was down. Only as the gunner fell, the tank slowed and fell to the ground. “What the hell?” Looking at the spot where the gunner had been standing, he saw two indents on the floor where the gunner had his feet. Carefully placing his feet on the indents, Parker sent the tank up into the air and straight into a tree. “Dammit, who designs a vehicle like this?” Trying again with a slightly gentler touch, he managed to coax the hover tank to roughly moving where he wanted it. “Great, I have to worry about this thing flying all over the place, but I can only rotate the gun in front of me. I swear they want these Jaffa guys killed.” With a jerky and shaking movement, Parker managed to guide the hover-tank through the trees while only hitting a few of the trunks along the way.

Patch was cursing in German, trying to rip out of the grasp of the Jaffa holding him down. “Snake-bitch, I’ll rip you out of her neck and use you as bait!”

“Such an ugly language,” Pakhet said, pulling her kara kesh away and smiling as Patch fell limp. The tent was filled with groans and grunts, everyone trying to fight through the pain and half-failing despite it. “The kara kesh is only part of the fun though. At times more base methods can be more pleasing.” Picking up her knife, Pakhet kept a knowing smile as she held the blade over the nearest open flame.

“Jokes on you,” O’Neill groaned. “You’re just keeping us from getting a nasty infection.”

“Then you won’t be the first,” Pakhet said, turning the blade over as she heated it up. “Carter and Jackson are to be last as well. A punishment for their bringing the rest of you along to be put before Apophis.” Turning, she walked down the line of captives, all of them glaring back at her despite the throbbing, piercing pains in their very minds. “Some of you look hardened by life, by battle. You will take longer to break, and unfortunately Apophis will expect you all as soon as I can send you.” Pakhet’s smile broadened as she stepped before Asami and Mako. Asami’s hair lay across her face in disheveled strands, Mako’s coifed hair turned into a matted mass of locks. “You both however have much more life in your eyes. Both of you will have many decades to serve Apophis. Perhaps even me as a reward for giving him SG-1.” She tilted the knife before their faces, flicking the red-hot blade before the pair. The heat alone forced them back, until the Jaffa forced their faces to remain and feel the heat radiating off.

“Which shall it be?” Pakhet held the blade before Asami. “The girl who claims to love a god?” The blade shifted to Mako. “The boy who has been fooled into following SG-1?” Showing her teeth, Pakhet let the blade slowly lean closer to Mako’s left eye. Mako felt the heat despite his firebending, and even with the Jaffa holding his head still he tried to put what distance he could between the blade and his left eye.

“I won’t tell you anything,” Mako whispered. “You’re not going to make me talk just because you burn me.”

Pakhet put her free hand beneath Mako’s chin and lifted his eyes to hers. “Who said I wanted you to talk?”

Just before the knife touched Mako’s eye, an explosion ripped through the camp.

Parker tried to stay upright, fire the staff cannon, and steer the hover-tank through the warhost camp without getting shot by a hundred-plus staff weapons. Normally that wouldn’t have been a problem, but most of the time Havoc was in a vehicle that had at least some armor plating to keep him covered. Hell, even a humvee’s plastic doors to make it that little bit harder to aim at him.

Staff blasts streaked by, close enough that Parker could feel the heat from them singe the hairs off his arms. He returned fire with the staff cannon, blowing apart small groups of Jaffa and turning their tents into bonfires in the nights. Shouts and orders called out in the darkness, the only way Parker could use to target the Jaffa in the madness.

The hover-tank dipped slightly, the left side taking a gouge out of the soil before Parker could correct. He juked right, evading a fusillade of energy blasts as he trained the cannon on what looked like an alien ammo depot. Training the staff cannon on it, he fired blast after blast before it finally exploded in a massive fireball. What he couldn’t have predicted was the flying hunk of shrapnel that took out his hover-tank. The vehicle pitched forward, Parker clinging to the staff cannon as his body’s natural reaction pressed his feet down in the right way to shift the tank’s momentum right and down. The hover-tank lay on it’s side, leaving Parker to pull himself out of the dirt. The adrenaline rushing through his system kept him alert, as he went diving behind the grounded hover-tank while energy blasts threw the earth around him into a pall of darkness diffusing the light from the fires. He fired his pistol at where the blasts were coming from, hearing a few cries and shouts before his pistol clicked and the slide was locked on an empty chamber.

“Well, least I managed to screw their plans up,” Parker thought. He saw the forms of the Jaffa approach, and when a final staff blast hit near him he collapsed on the ground, hand under his body clutching a combat knife. “Nothing else, I can make me some new snakeskin boots.”

The chance never came when the ground around the camp shuddered and shifted, columns and crevasses ripping through the camp.

Korra jumped out of the trees, punching out a flurry of flames before creating another miniature earthquake. More staff blasts came from her direction, Teal’c and Bra’tac leading the rebel Jaffa to cover Korra as she ran for Parker. “You idiot, what were you trying to do?”

“Buy time,” Parker said, running over to the nearest fallen Jaffa and grabbing a new staff weapon. “You’re here now, go get the others so we can get outta here!”

Korra waited for the rebel Jaffa to take positions around Parker before setting off, throwing a wall of rock between her and the warhost. The camp was contained chaos, fires and sprinting Jaffa throwing the entire world into confusion. “Think Korra, think. Deadeye scouted the camp, he came back and said that it’s all in a circle around Pakhet’s tent, and that was up against the cliff. Great, where’s the -- “ Korra looked forward and saw a massive flat shape looming in the flickering lights of the camp aflame. “There it is.”

 Watching as more Jaffa rushed to face Parker and Teal’c, Korra waited five seconds before breaking her cover and moving for the cliff. All paths in the camp seemed to funnel towards the largest tent set in the center of the camp, the seat of power for a would-be god. Korra broke through the front of the tent with a burst of air, and in seconds saw everything she needed to see.

Pakhet stood in the center of the tent, standing proudly before her throne flanked by four Jaffa warriors ready to fire on her. The teams were all on their knees, it took four Jaffa to hold Gunner down. That wasn’t Korra’s main concern though. It was the fact that Asami was forced to kneel before Pakhet, her hair held roughly in Pakhet’s hand as the other held a knife at Asami’s throat.

“Stay where you are,” Pakhet warned, pushing the blade against Asami’s jugular. “You’re surrounded by a warhost of thousands, even if you kill me you’ll never had a chance to escape to the stargate unharmed. Your only choice is to lay down and submit to my will if you want them to live.” Smiling, Pakhet flashed her eyes to seal the deal.

Korra’s stance softened, her arms dropping to her sides as she glared at Pakhet. She closed them, the Jaffa looking at each other in confusion. Then they ripped open with a blinding white light.

Pakhet fumbled with the blade. “What is this, she isn’t a Goa’uld!”

Asami smiled. “Told you.”

Korra earthbent, sending the Jaffa flying out of the tent, then airbent the tent up into the air. Looking at Pakhet with inhuman eyes, the Goa’uld stumbled back, trying to hold her knife up against the power of nature itself. “No, no, you are not a Goa’uld! You are not a Tok’ra! What are you!”

Korra stepped forward, the elements circling around her as she approached Pakhet. Reaching out, she sensed that the knife was refined to the same quality as SG-1’s weapons. Her gold chains and bracelets were a different story. Tightening them around Pakhet’s wrists and neck, Korra lifted the Goa’uld into the air as the four elements started to circle her. A ball of air held her aloft, as spheres of rock, water, and fire encircled her.

Pakhet’s eyes were wide, her breathing strained from the gold cutting off her throat. The worst part was the lack of emotion on Korra’s face. Anger, a wrathful snarl, that would have made it easier for Pakhet to bear. Here, there was nothing to read. There was a blank, horrifyingly passive expression. There was no technology she could see accomplishing the feat, no trace of control over nanites or prepositioned equipment. She was controlling the very earth, commanding fire itself, ordering water about like it was her loyal servant.

“No, no please,” she choked out, Korra floating past the coughing Asami as the Jaffa scattered like roaches from Korra’s wrath. “I’ll do anything you want, I can be a help to you! Apophis stole my kingdom and my forces, but if you spare me I’ll work with you against him! I can be a loyal servant, a good aide, please listen to me!”

Korra leaned forward, the same placid expression on her face as she pressed a hand against Pakhet’s forehead. There was no change to Korra's expression as she studied the spirit of the parasite. Pulling back, Korra forced Pakhet’s arms against her sides, and slowly encased the Goa’uld in a prison of stone. Pakhet tried to escape, to cry out, but a final stone closed over her mouth and left her unable to speak.

Slowly, Korra lowered herself back to the ground as the four elements dispersed from around her. She shut her eyes, and opened them back to her natural ice blue. Blinking a few times, Korra knelt down and pulled Asami so close and so tight that O’Neill didn’t think she’d ever let go. “Asami, talk to me babe, are you alright?”

Asami smiled despite the pain that ruled her world. “I’m gonna be fine babe. Just need a nice long vacation when we’re done I guess.”

Korra smiled back, kissing Asami before seeing to everyone else.

Parker tore through the Jaffa lines, alternating between knocking them down with his stolen staff weapon and blasting them back. He watched to his right as Bra’tac took on two younger Jaffa, and striking them both at the knees dropped them and struck them across the face with his staff to knock them both down and out. “Old guy’s got some moves.”

“Bra’tac has been a warrior for nearly one hundred years,” Teal’c said, kneeling next to Parker to fire several blasts. “He is the greatest master I have ever known.”

“One hundred years?” O’Neill watched as Bra’tac took on several more Jaffa, knocking each of them down in turn as he staff swung around his body like a living creature defending its master. “Well he’s still bald.” Teal’c looked over at Parker.

A massive staff blast hit to the left, throwing three rebel Jaffa through the air. Parker ducked for the nearest cover. “Great, they brought the other ones back into play.”

Teal’c fired several blasts at the nearest hover-tank, only for two of them to concentrate their fire on his position. “They will soon be within an effective range. There will be no escape.”

Parker scoffed as he peeked around the edge of his boulder. “Please, I’m sure there’s a dozen ways we can get out of this.” There were shouts from the Jaffa positions, and suddenly one of the enemy hover-tanks slammed into the ground behind them. “Okay, or that could happen.”

Looking out over the camp, Teal’c saw Korra destroying the hover-tanks and scattering the Jaffa. Mako and SG-1 supported her, Asami leaning on Daniel for support but still wielding a zat against the war host.

“Holy crap she did it,” Parker said, watching as Korra threw a platoon of Jaffa through the air before sending a blast of flame through three of the warriors. Mako followed up with sending a lightning bolt into a Jaffa hover-tank, shorting the systems and sending it crashing to the ground. Korra wrapped up by creating a massive empty trench separating the camp, trapping the still-loyal Jaffa between an angered deity and a top commando.

Bra’tac roared above the cacophony, spreading his arms before the Jaffa. “Brothers and sisters! Fellow Jaffa, take heed of me and listen! I, Bra’tac of Chulak, was once like you! I once loyally served the gods and followed their dictates! Yet where has such service led us to? Our worlds lay in the control of beings who are not gods, but parasites!” Suddenly Bra’tac saw Pakhet floating toward him, Korra smiling as she delived the fallen god to her servants. Smiling, the master Jaffa held his staff at the parasite. “See the state of the Goa’uld. Take heed of the state of Pakhet, terrible enforcer of Apophis. After she is conquered.”

Korra pulled some of the rock away from Pakhet’s mouth, and the Goa’uld didn’t waste time. “All of you, now is your chance! Kill them, whoever strikes them down will be given the favor of Apophis! Do it now before I see you given their fate as well!”

Bra’tac walked over to the cocooned Goa’uld. “The plaintive wails of a trapped parasite,” he said, motioning for Korra to drop the rock. Korra obliged, letting Pakhet slam into the ground with a great thud and a cry. “What do you threaten them with? How will you carry out your demands? With words and empty threats?” In a swift motion Bra’tac leveled his staff at Pakhet. “Die, monster!”

Everyone braced, but the moment didn’t come. Bra’tac smiled as he pulled back his staff and held it aloft. “Who will join me in the fight not for enslavement, but for freedom!”

Teal’c raised his staff with the rebel Jaffa. “Dal shakka mel! Dal shakka mel!”

The other Jaffa started to join in, raising their staff weapons in unison with Bra’tac as they joined in the call. “Dal shakka mel! Dal shakka mel!”

O’Neill leaned to Daniel. “What are they saying?”

Daniel smiled a little. “Roughly Jack, ‘I die free’.”

Bra’tac signaled for the chanting to cease. “Return to your worlds, spread this news that the time of the Goa’uld is at an end. Call all Jaffa, and show them that the path to Kheb is no longer closed.”

Mako shook his head as Korra refilled the earth. “We’re not really letting them all go, are we?”

O’Neill shrugged, watching as several Jaffa congregated around Bra’tac and Teal’c. “Not much we can do otherwise, we can’t hold them all. If even half of them spread the word we’d be getting word out about the rebellion at least. If even some of those Jaffa turn we’ll hit the other Goa’uld hard where it counts.”

“Well I’m ready to go home,” Parker said, flexing his shoulder. “I think it’s safe to say the mission was accomplished.”

Asami looked around at the burning camp and sparking hover-tanks. “Yeah, actually this is what I expected from you.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

The wounded team members were quickly hurried to the infirmary, leaving Korra and Parker to their own devices in the mess. Korra tapped idly at her glass as Parker leaned over his table, the silence hanging not so much like a pall as a smothering pillow.

“Thanks.”

Korra looked up and turned to Parker. “You say something?”

“I said thanks,” Parker said, not turning to face her. “You saved my life, what else do you want me to say?”

Korra blinked for a few seconds, checking the mess to make sure there was no one else he was talking to. “Uh…you’re welcome.”

The silence settled in again, and Korra decided that there was no better time than now. “So what is your problem with Asami and me?”

Parker let out a tired sigh. “You really want to ruin the moment?”

Korra got up and went over to face Parker. “It’s not ‘ruining’ anything, it’s me getting an answer. One minute you’re mocking us for being with each other and not being used to war, the next you’re saying thanks for saving your life. Now which is it Parker, do you hate us or do you at least tolerate us?”

“Look if you’re not grateful for that opening I gave you to get in an save them -- ”

“You didn’t mean to give us an opening,” Korra argued. “If you had you would’ve told me to come along, but you went in there alone. That’s not a plan, that’s suicide.”

Parker glared back up at Korra. “You didn’t know that GDI was a secret up until about two years ago, did you. Operations Group Echo, that was what we were known in the UN Peacekeeper funding books.” Korra didn’t break her contact, instead she sat down across from Parker and stared right back. “We had the mission to stop any conflict from becoming another world war, with the authorization to do anything necessary to do so. Theft, bombings, assassinations. Terrorists groups to national military leaders, nothing was out of our remit. Then we had a mission to stop Saddam, he was on the verge of launching a war against Kuwait and everyone knew he’d go after the Saudis next. We sent in the largest team of operators in the history of special operations. And do you know what happened to an entire year of careful planning and combined decades of training and experience? It all got shot to hell when some dumbass Iraqi kid going out for a smoke spotted our snipers.”

Korra leaned forward. “That doesn’t tell me why you went charging off on your own.”

“Don’t you get it?” Parker held a knife hand at Korra. “The team was nearly annihilated, the ones that weren’t barely made it out of Saddam’s prisons. The world learned about GDI, and it was only through some PR wizardry that they kept it from being dismantled. Then along comes Kane and the Brotherhood and here we are now.”

Korra shook her head. “So you think it’s better to send in one man on a suicide mission than to have a team working together and coming back.”

“Is there something you’re not getting?” The swagger had left from Parker’s tone, the machismo built up from his years as a Marine and then a commando. Suddenly there was only sorrow, and an expression that made Korra suddenly regret even trying to face him on the subject. “The entire plan was perfect, everything was ready to the second it was supposed to happen, and it all went to hell because one kid needed a smoke. If the team had been smaller, we’d have had one dead despot and GDI would’ve still been secret, able to take down Nod before it became a problem.”

Korra leaned back, still glaring at Parker. “You think that dying is going to make up for the fact that you lived through one fluke you never could have expected?”

Parker planted a fist on the table. “It isn’t about dying,” he growled. “It’s about making sure no one else has to die. I didn’t want Dead Six to come with me, and I sure as hell didn’t want to have to work with -- ”

“A bisexual.”

Parker blinked. “A what?”

Korra’s face softened as she let out a tired sigh. “Look, let’s cut to the heart of this. Why do you hate us?”

Parker groaned. “You know, I had a cousin who came out as gay to my aunt and uncle. You know what they did?” Korra waited for the inevitably painful answer. “They kicked his ass out of the house and made it clear they never wanted him back. Now what does that tell you about how normal it is?”

Korra didn’t bother trying to mince her words. “It tells me that your aunt and uncle are monsters.” Standing, Korra glared down at Parker. “You’re part of a multiversal task force that fights aliens and terrorists, ‘normal’ is pretty subjective right now. If you can’t take the fact that Asami and I love each other, but everyone else is fine with it? Maybe the problem’s with you.” Korra started to walk out of the mess, but stopped at the door. “By the way? I’m still good enough to save you and the others. So maybe consider that who I love isn’t the final factor in my being able to fight.”

“One last thing,” Korra said as she left. “If you’d died on that planet? Who could fight Kane?”

Parker watched the door swing as Korra undoubtedly went for the infirmary to check on Asami. With an exhausted groan/sigh/unintelligible swear he turned. “Well, what do you think?”

The airman stocking the desert rack nervously shrugged. “I just serve the food sir.”

“Teal’c and Bra’tac saw to the Jaffa going offworld sir, they’re confident that they’re only getting the best candidates to spread the word about the Jaffa being able to rebel against the Goa’ulds.” O’Neill looked exhausted from his ordeal at Pakhet’s hands, but he still made the effort to carry himself to the briefing room to get a debrief from Gen. Hammond. “We left Pakhet on the Tok’ra’s last known location, we figure they’ll get to her when they get to her. Korra gave her some shade to be nice.”

Gen. Hammond nodded. “So we can safely presume that we’ll have the time to prepare for the senate hearing in two weeks?”

O’Neill’s eyebrows rose slightly. “If we’re being generous sir, maybe.”

Gen. Hammond nodded. “Get some rest colonel, you’ve all certainly earned it. Tell Teal’c that when he returns I’d like to speak with him about this rebellion, if they get organized they’re going to need support.”

“Will do sir.” Grunting and groaning from the strain, O’Neill stood up and started walking out of the room. “Sir, with respect, are we really sticking with that list?”

“It come straight from the senate committee,” Gen. Hammond said with a quiet resignation to the situation. “There’s no getting out of it colonel.”

O’Neill shrugged as he started gingerly shifting his weight down the stairs. “Couldn’t hurt to ask, sir.”

The prime was led through Apophis’ palace, loyal Jaffa and faster servants quickly clearing a path. The less skillful were trampled or shoved aside as the prime and his two flanking Jaffa hurried to Apophis’ throne room. The massive golden doors were opened, and the prime quickly knelt before his eternal lord, Apophis.

“They tell me you have survived Pakhet’s plan,” Apophis said, looking out over his kingdom on what was once Sokar’s domain. “Give me reason to keep you alive even a second longer.”

“My lord, I have seen the shol’va Teal’c,” the Jaffa said. “The fool believes that he and his master can spark a rebellion among the Jaffa. I came to warn you of it, as a loyal servant of the gods should.”

Apophis’ eyes flashed, and with fury he stormed to the windows. “Send messengers to the High Council, a summit must be held to address the impudence of the Tau’ri and these shol’va Jaffa.” Turning from the windows, Apophis walked to the prime. “Tell me Jaffa, does the position of first prime match your capabilities with your loyalty?”

The Jaffa smiled as he saw Apophis’ ha’taks landing and taking off on the fields before the palace. “To be at the right hand of my gods is all a warrior like myself desires.”

Apophis smiled, his eyes flashing again. “A good answer.”