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Chapter Text

A is A

Maidens Loss

SG-1 and MV-8 ducked low as the Chinook flew in over the Egyptian desert, sand whipping everywhere as everyone covered their eyes. The chopper settled onto the sand, the ramp lowering to show Nigel “Gunner” Grant running out. Jogging up, Gunner gave a quick salute to O’Neill. “Morning sir! Good to have you lot back.”

“Good to be back,” O’Neill said, ignoring the sand suddenly filling his mouth. “You the only one?”

“Hotwire’s aboard, the rest are waiting for us in Brussels.” Motioning, Gunner led the way back to the chopper. “Any of you lasses speak English?”

Ami and Minako’s hand went up and Ami shouted over the blades. “We do sir!”

Gunner smiled. “Alright, pay attention to how you buckle in and tell the rest how to do it.” Five minutes of fumbling with the straps, and the Chinook rose and angled for the Egyptian coast.

Gunner adjusted his headset, making sure that he could be heard over the engines. “It’s good to have you all here sir, Gen. Locke will sure be glad to have you.”

“As soon as we know why it’s us specifically, I’ll agree.” O’Neill gave a look to the girls. “You know that this isn’t exactly a good combat setup.”

“Combat isn’t the primary focus of this mission sir,” Hotwire said. “Gen. Locke has the specifics, once we get to Brussels he can explain in detail.”

The Senshi were too busy looking around the interior of the transport, curious at the lack of anything truly interesting inside. Military equipment was supposed to be high-tech, with blinking lights and circuit boards right? “It’s so loud,” Usagi called out. “Is this really how we’re supposed to get to Europe?”

“The man who met us said we’ll be boarding a plane once we reach the coast.” Ami tried to smile for Usagi’s sake. “I’m sure that's how we'll travel the rest of the way.”

“Isn’t anyone else a little suspicious of why they brought us here?’ Makoto nodded to Hotwire and Gunner. “You said this is where that Kane guy came from, so why’d they bring us along if he’s gone?”

Ami shrugged. “I suppose we have to wait for the people in charge to tell us.”

“Well I’m not about to wait. Can you ask the woman about what we’re doing here?”

Ami looked over to the woman with the blue beret. “Excuse me?” The woman looked over, raising an eyebrow. “We were just wondering, why did GDI ask for us to come here?”

“The Americans call it a ‘Hail Mary’,” Hotwire answered. “Gen. Locke will brief you. For now, try to get some sleep.”

“She says we’re going to get our answers from Gen. Locke,” Ami said. “For now, we should rest.”

Usagi looked at Ami like the girl wasn’t so much crazy as actively trying to boil a Glade air freshener. “How are you supposed to rest on this thing?”

It was a two-hour flight to the outskirts of Cairo, where the teams were hurried off the Chinook and onto a waiting C-130. The Senshi again looked at the thing like it was a hunk of junk, but were astounded as SG-1 and the GDI commandos easily fell asleep in their seats.

Grabbing their packs, the teams hurried off as the plane finally parked off the flight line at the Melsbroek airbase. The Senshi were relieved at first, until they saw the pair of blocky trucks waiting for them. “This is nuts,” Rei said. “We really need to talk to Sunset about just opening portals directly to where we want to go.”

“Oi, c’mon you lot,” Gunner said, patting one of the trucks. “Can’t keep a general waiting can we?”

Loaded up in the back of the truck, the Senshi watched as they left the runway. Three small jets sat before the runway, crews loading missiles onto them in a well-drilled action. Fire engines sat parked off and away, crews waiting for a call they hoped wouldn’t come. The base itself was a collection of brick and concrete buildings in dull colors, men and women in uniform moving between the buildings in pairs and groups. Leaving the base, they watched as the figures of men in uniforms carrying guns disappeared as they rolled into a highway. In the rear truck the girls watched as a Humvee took position behind them, a soldier manning a machine gun up on the roof.

“I can’t believe we gave up our summer vacation for this,” Usagi moaned, leaning back against the canvas of the truck. “What’s so important they needed us this badly?”

“Gen. Hammond only said it was something that could save lives, apparently they’re afraid of terrorists finding out that we’re here.” Ami looked nervously at the Humvee. “I agree though, I wish they didn’t have to ask for us.”

In the lead truck, O’Neill leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed. “So where’s Parker?”

Hotwire groaned. “In the stockade. Someone made the decision to invite him to an official function.”

O’Neill shook his head. “Any chance this mission can help him blow off some steam?”

“Hopefully, he nearly sent Deadeye and Patch to hospital.” Gunner was glaring out the back of the truck. “Third time he’s nearly done this to us.”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “You are implying that his actions are becoming more troublesome than usual.”

“This is the third time he’s been in the stockade since our mission against the Goa’uld staging base,” Hotwire said. “He’s running through sparing partners because they keep getting injured, he’s been banned from every shooting range he goes to because he winds up chewing through rounds and targets faster than they can be replaced, and no one trusts him to act as an advisor for fear of him creating an international incident.”

Teal’c nodded. “Indeed.”

The drive through Brussels wasn’t bad, but the small streets forced a lot of hard turns and waiting for confused civilians to scram out of the way. The trucks finally stopped in front of a small, nondescript brick building with a knight’s helmet on the front of it. Three flags flew before it. The Belgian Flag, the flag of the Belgian Army, and a third flag of gold, with a golden bird of prey on the center; the flag of the Global Defense Initiative.

Two armed guards walked up to the trucks, one of them keeping a massive, fierce looking dog on a leash that started sniffing at everything. “He’s so cute,” Minako said, reaching out to pet him. The dog growled, and started barking at Minako with ferocious fangs snapping at her hand. She yelped and pulled back, nearly jumping into Rei’s arms. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just wanted to pet him!”

“The hell are you thinking?” Gunner got between the dog and Minako, looking at the blonde like she’d just done something worthy of a demeaning joke. “That’s a bloody killer that dog is, rip you in half just as soon as look at you.” Minako looked down at the dog as she hurried to the door and saw it instantly went back to being watchful as she fled.

Moving inside, the group saw Deadeye, Bruiser, and Patch waiting for them. Deadeye and Patch looked worn, Patch sporting a brilliant purple bruise under his right eye and a bandage over the bridge of his nose. “Morning all,” Bruiser said, still sporting a stubbly bright-red beard. “Gen. Locke’s waiting upstairs for you and Ms. Tsukino sir, we’ll get the rest of you settled in a hotel.”

“I will need to be there as well,” Ami said. “Usagi doesn’t speak English, I will need to translate for her.”

Bruiser nodded. “Right, well c’mon then. Best not to keep GDI’s commander waiting.” As the rest of Dead Six guided the teams, O’Neill and the two girls were led to a simple gray elevator and were sent to the second floor. Two more armed guards waited, O’Neill noticing their double-take at Ami’s hair color. Following Bruiser down a simple hallway decorated with the military history of the Belgian Army, battle standards from eras past with pictures of former leaders and heroes.

“Wow, is this what we were like?” Ami looked at the proud, medal-covered chests of the generals of the old Belgian military. “They all look so stern, I can’t imagine being like this all the time.”

Bruiser knocked on the door to a small office with a small placard on it reading “GEN. ANTHONY LOCKE, GDI”. A naturally erudite voice sounded, “Enter.”

Bruiser opened the door to reveal a small office. It was spartan, a simple wooden desk with a computer and files neatly organized on it. A miniature GDI flag sat on a stand on the desk, crossed with a red flag with three white stars on it. A middle-aged gentleman sat behind the desk, standing up with a smile as the three travelers entered. “Ah, Col. O’Neill, Ms. Tsukino. And Ms. Mizuno, correct?” Ami nodded. “Pleasure to have you all here. Thank you captain, I’ll have Lt. Maus escort them to the hotel when we’re finished here. I trust you can get the other to their hotel rooms?”

Bruiser nodded. “Aye sir, won’t take a minute.” Nodding to the three, he shut the door behind him.

“Please, sit down,” Locke said, motioning to the pair of chairs before him. “You can have my chair, Ms. Mizuno, I’ve been sitting down all day anyway. Some time on my feet would do me some good.” With a grin, he rolled the leather office chair out from behind his desk for Ami to sit in. Bowing graciously, Ami settling in next to Usagi and savoring the feel of the aged leather. “Well, I trust you had an uneventful trip?”

“Well any trip where we don’t get shot coming out of the gate usually qualifies as uneventful sir,” O’Neill said. “Congratulations on the third star by the way.”

“Thank you, but so far the rank isn’t living up to the responsibility.” Locke started pacing in front of his desk. “I’ll come right to the point, we’re having problems since Kane escaped.”

O’Neill feigned shock. “Say it ain’t so, sir.”

Locke grinned and went on. “The Brotherhood has vanished from our radar, we think that Kane essentially ordered them all to either take positions in Sarajevo or ordered a mass suicide. Unfortunately, he also had agents and contacts among every major terrorist group in the world.”

O’Neill nodded. “Northern Ireland, Gaza?”

“And Colombia, there’s even been incidents in Japan.”

Usagi said something. “She’s right,” Ami said. “There are no terrorist groups in Japan.”

Locke raised an eyebrow. “Maybe in your universe. Here, we have to worry about religious cults dispersing sarin gas on subway cars and through converted trucks, to say nothing of attacks backed by Korean agents.”

Ami was shaken, and when Usagi got the translation they shared the same face. "A sarin gas attack?" Ami shook her head. "Just like back home?"

“Wait a second,” O’Neill said, holding up a hand. “You’re saying Kane managed to get in with all of them?”

“And more,” Kane said. “The American militia movement in particular was looking to be Kane’s next major expansion. Thankfully, we stopped him. Unfortunately, Nod also had hundreds of arms supplied through the world. FARC now has access to armored vehicles, and the IRA is reportedly using Nod-supplied weapons against the British as the UVF is using smuggled Nod weapons against the IRA. Right now Central Africa is a madhouse.”

O’Neill sighed and rubbed at his nose. “What about why we’re here?”

“Specifically, why you’re here,” Locke said, looking at Usagi and Ami. “From the reports I’ve read, your technology is based off types of crystals, is that correct?” The girls nodded. “To be frank, we’re running out of alternatives.”

Ami nodded. “You think that what we have can help against this Tiberium crystal?”

“It’s an admitted longshot,” Locke said. “Dr. Moebius has set up his primary research facility in Italy, near the Tiber River.” Locke took a manila folder from the top of his desk and held it out. “This is a satellite image of the region, it shows the urgency of the situation.”

O’Neill took the folder and opened it. Flipping through several classification papers, he got to a picture of Italy from above. It looked like any other satellite image he’d seen in his time, a little more defined than he expected for the 1990s, but what got him was that from roughly the center of Italy straight towards Rome was a long, bright line of green. Usagi asked a question, but when Ami answered Usagi nearly jumped out of her chair.

“Exactly,” Locke said. “Tiberium crystals are spreading through the river at an uncontrollable rate. Rome has had to enact emergency measures to keep people from ingesting Tiberium through the water supply, we’re literally shipping in massive tankers of water every day for essential city operations.” Locke rolled his eyes. “Coke and Pepsi are making a killing.”

Ami spoke up. “Sir, is Tiberium that great a health crisis? What happens when someone is infected?”

Locke frowned. “There’s a picture of a victim of Tiberium poisoning in the rear of the file.”

Ami flipped to it, and dropped the file in shock. She whispered in Japanese for a few seconds as Locke picked it up. “That…That isn’t real, it can’t be.”

“I’ve seen it first hand, Ms. Mizuno,” Locke said, placing the file back onto the desk. “I can safely assure you that this, and many more cases like it, are quite real.” Usagi wrapped an arm around Ami, the girl shaking from what she saw. “Dr. Sydney Moebius is waiting to meet you all, she’ll explain in detail what she and her father have accomplished so far.” Holding out his hand, he shook with Ami and Usagi. “No matter what happens, we’re thankful for whatever help you can give.” The two bowed respectfully, but Ami didn’t lose her shock.

“Sir, I’ve got another pertinent question,” O’Neill said, closing the door behind the pair.

“It’s why I didn’t call Lt. Maus,” Locke said as he rolled his chair back behind his desk. “Capt. Parker’s incident.”

“Sir, I’m worried this is gonna be in the complete opposite direction from Natsu,” O’Neill said. “If Parker can’t learn to turn it off Gen. Hammond’s gonna cut him out.”

“I wouldn’t blame him,” Locke said, not bothering to sit down. “Regardless, I know Havoc. Put him on the battlefield and he’ll run through the enemy as if they don’t even exist. Unfortunately, he’s a lot of the negative qualities instilled in many a Marine combat officer along with the positive sides of his personality.”

“Yes, if man has no purpose in life, problems are more or less solved.” As Locke tried to work out the statement, O’Neill rose. “We’ll herd the kids to the plane sir.”

“Two days colonel, make sure they’re ready.” Shaking O’Neill’s hand, Locke grabbed his phone and dialed. “Lieutenant, see that SG-1 and MV-8 are rested, they’re going to have a long trip ahead of them.”

As O’Neill walked out and met Maus in the hallway, he saw Ami staring blankly in front of the elevator. Usagi’s arm was still wrapped around her friend, looking back at O’Neill for any kind of help. “Lieutenant, that picture she saw. What does this stuff do to people who aren’t being experimented on?”

Lt. Maus sighed. “You’ll know once you get there.”

Capt. Nick “Havoc” Parker, GDI commando, was lounging on the bunk in the stockade. It wasn’t his longest stay by far, there was the time he’d been in the brig three weeks for what happened in Ft. Lauderdale seven years ago. As it was, this time it wasn’t so bad. Sure, the stockades were never exactly a fun time, but it was quiet and let him do his workouts in peace.

A door opened, and Parker heard keys jangling seconds before his door opened. Looking over, he saw Locke standing in the doorway. “Time for me to go already?”

“Not yet Havoc,” Locke said forcefully. The door swung shut, leaving the two men alone in the cell. “I’ve already spoken to the Spanish minister and his wife, they’ve decided not to press any charges.”

Parker grinned. “Told you.”

“As it is, I’m still debating the matter.” Locke glared down at the commando. “The teams from the MVTF are here. SG-1 and MV-8.”

Parker sat up. “Those Japanese kids? The schoolgirls?” Locke nodded. “Oh c’mon Locke, you aren’t serious.”

“As a heart attack,” Locke answered, folding his hands behind his back. “In case it isn’t obvious, captain, we’re running out of options on saving Rome from being overrun with Tiberium.”

“Screw stopping Tib, we oughta be stopping Kane.” Parker glared up at Locke. “He’s loose doing God only knows what, we should be getting started on hunting him down.”

“And how would you suggest we do that, Parker?” Locke’s voice radiated authority, broaching no argument from his subordinate. “We have no idea where he is, what his forces no consist of. Our priority for our own planet is the eradication of tiberium, not to go chasing a man who at best has become a tertiary concern.”

“Tertiary?” Parker rose and stood face to face with Locke. “Sorry, I didn’t know destroyed villages and brainwashed prisoners wasn’t that important.”

“Don’t try to play this game with me,” Locke barked. “Not after all the times I’ve had to pull you out of the fire with support because you went off on your own initiative on some damn-fool mission. How many times have you nearly been killed if I hadn’t been able to request the support you needed?”

“I could’ve handled half of those missions on my own.”

“And the other half would’ve killed you and left us dealing with Kane’s plans on our own.” Locke stepped closer to Parker, glaring hard enough to melt a diamond. “I’m sick of reading reports from MPs and local authorities about your incidents. Drunk and disorderly, public nuisance, reckless endangerment, assaulting police officers. Things are changing Parker, like it or not we have to deal with problems beside Kane. Just because you know how to kill a man from over a thousand yards will not save you if GDI decides that you’re no longer mentally or emotionally stable enough to remain a commando.”

Havoc’s face screwed up with confusion. “You’re joking. They wouldn’t -- ”

“You’re not the only commando in our rosters. Nor are you the only solution to the problems facing us. There’s even debate that we should extend knowledge of the MVTF to all ranks down to O-6.” Locke watched as Parker slowly sat back on the bunk. “If you can’t shape up, we’ll be forced to remand you to the Marine Corps. While they might have a higher tolerance for your actions, I can only imagine the level of discipline you’ll be subject to should you continue this course of behavior.”

Parker looked away. “So that’s it? All the work I put in fighting Nod, stopping Kane, and you’re just gonna throw me out because I don’t play nice?”

“I’ll do what I have to in order to ensure that the world is safe from any and all threats, including tiberium.” Locke’s arm started to move from behind his back, but he forced himself to stop. Getting physical was what Parker would do. He was in charge of GDI, and he had to do better. “Gen. Shepherd’s no quarter order nearly put a massive black mark on GDI’s public reputation, we barely played the situation away from it thanks to the Brotherhood’s ‘defeat’. It won’t do us any good to have one of our top commandos acting like a petulant child because he isn’t getting what he wants.”

“It’s not what I want and you know it,” Parker said. “Why did you think, I’d just cover it up like everyone else? You think Gunner’s fine with working with a bunch of kids? Or that the UN brass are fine with us getting ready to give our best tech to a gorilla? But for some reason, I’m the one singled out because I’m not trying to cover it up.”

“You’re singled out because you can’t act professionally, even for a Marine.” Locke moved for the door. “Your flight for Italy leaves in two days Havoc. Either understand the stakes, or stop trying to act like you’re somehow exempt from the same standards as the rest of your team.”

As the cell door clanged again, Parker went back to laying down on the bunk. “I’m still right dammit,” he thought. “We need to find Kane.”

The thought echoed around his mind until he finally went to sleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

The jet landed on the Italian airbase as the sun started to crest the eastern horizon, a small convoy of Humvees waiting for the teams as they hurried off the C-130. “Oh no, can’t we ride in something comfortable?” Usagi groaned as she struggled to fit herself and her bag into the truck. “Why do they have all this money if they just spend it on things like this?”

“It’s like you can’t go five seconds without complaining about something,” Rei sniped, easily fitting herself into the passenger seat. “Besides, it’s the military remember? I don’t think being comfortable is something they have to worry about.”

“Last I checked, we’re warriors too, and we don’t have to worry about being crammed into tiny little seats like this.” Huffing, Usagi buckled up and looked over to Ami. The blue-haired girl hadn’t said much for the past few days, simply going through the motions ever since the discussion with Gen. Locke. “Ami, what do you think?”

Ami looked up and nodded. “Oh, yes, I suppose so.”

Usagi and Rei shared a look. Usagi had tried to explain what happened to the other girls but couldn’t tell them what Ami saw. No one had wanted to ask Ami either, not without fearing how she’d react. SG-1 had talked to her once or twice, but Minako said they just said a few pleasantries or kind words. She was still working back up to the same competence she had back in England. If Ami was so badly shaken, they knew she’d have to take up the slack.

Two trucks back, Minako was trying her hand at English again. “Oh, you’re from London!” she clapped. “What part?”

“Croydon,” Gunner said, hefting himself into the passenger seat. “You know the city?”

“I stayed in Kensington when I was in London,” Minako said happily. “I never got to go to Croydon though, what’s it like?”

Gunner paused and thought back to the fistfights, stabbings, and even shootings that would litter the news from Croydon. “It has enough to keep you busy.”

Makoto leaned left toward Minako. “You said his accent is like how someone from Hokkaido sounds to someone from Osaka, right?” Minako nodded. Before Makoto could ask any more questions the convoy was rolling on.

“So, ancient reincarnation,” Gunner said, shaking his head. “Sounds like a right load of bollocks to be frank. Who’d want to reincarnate?”

Minako didn’t know how to take the statement. “Well I don’t think it was so much a choice as our duty. We’re the guardians of the Kingdom, sworn to fight the Negaforce and the evil that inhabits it.”

Gunner chuckled. “Right, the ol’ recruiting pitch. Really though, your war that made it necessary for you to reincarnate, what started it?”

“Well the Negaforce attacked,” Minako said. “They launched an invasion of the moon. It forced Queen Serenity to seal us all away, to reincarnate on Earth.”

Gunner shook his head. “She must’ve forgot your memories then. Wars don’t just happen, something must’ve started the whole mess.”

Minako looked over to Makoto. “Do you have any memories of why the Negaforce attacked?”

Makoto shook her head. “No, I just remember explosions and fighting.” Makoto paused. “Why do Usagi and Mamoru have such clear memories? Luna and Artemis unlocked ours, but we can’t remember the actual attack can we?”

“We don’t,” Minako said, not noticing the look Gunner was giving them as he waited for the conversation to continue in English. “But why don’t we? Usagi remembers courting Mamoru back when they were Serenity and Endymion, even the night before the attack was launched. We can remember the planets, the attack, but nothing about why the war started?”

Gunner coughed. “Um, I’m still here -- ”

“Maybe the Negaforce did it,” Makoto said, slamming her fist into her palm. “Something about their being around when we were born again must’ve done something to our memories.”

“That’s the only explanation,” Minako said. “I’ve got so many holes in the memories, whatever the reason is the Negaforce has to be behind it.”

Gunner frowned and turned to the driver. “You ever feel like you’re left out of the more important parts of what’s going on?” The driver nodded as the convoy navigated through the roads of the Italian countryside.

The hills and valleys were the definition of picturesque. Small villages in the distance, places that had existed long before the Senshi could comprehend in their time on Earth. Mountains rose in the distance, and every few miles some sign of the Roman Empire stuck out of the ground half-covered in moss. Even Ami looked up to see them as they passed, as older cars passed by on the worn and wild roads.

Another bump jostled O’Neill. “C’mon, that’s the fifth one. Why aren’t we on the actual roads?”

“The facility’s isolated sir,” the driver said, with a thick accent from St. Petersburg. “GDI doesn’t want anyone in or out for fear of contamination, and we want to limit access as much as possible.”

“Isolated?” Carter looked back from the window. “I’d have thought that all measures were being taken to ensure that nothing catastrophic happens.”

“They are ma’am,” the driver said. “With what happened in Sarajevo, I guess no one wants to take any chances. Dr. Moebius agreed to the terms himself, and we haven’t had any incidents, so we figure best not to poke that particular bear.” O’Neill was going to say something, but the fact that it was a Russian saying that particular cliché stayed his hand. Of course that earned him looks from Carter and Daniel from the back.

“There it is,” the driver said, pointing to the left as they crested another hill. Following, O’Neill saw the facility rising up like a pair of alien craft among the rustic setting. One looked like an angular, sharp-edged, unfinished pyramid. The other had three massive domes atop it. At first O’Neill thought they were radar but not when he saw them reflecting in the sunlight. As they came to the top of the hill O’Neill saw they were separate from the rest of the facility, surrounded by tall concrete walls with guard towers and bunkers posted around the perimeter. The rest of the base was typical, Quonset huts and sheet metal motor pools. A more permanent looking comm building was nestled inside the center of the base, a massive parabolic spinning around lazily as a massive antenna rose to the sky. A trio of dirt helipads lay to the far rear of the base, waiting for incoming flights.

Daniel leaned into the front of the Humvee. “Say, Jack, what are those?”

O’Neill saw it. It was a solid block of metal, with the GDI logo on the front. Three metal plates ringed each side, a radio aerial rising above it. Two GDI soldiers manned a catwalk on the middle of it, gripping a pair of massive miniguns. A second stood to the other side of the gate leading to the research structures. “I’d have to guess those keep movie night from getting rowdy.”

Rolling down the hill, O’Neill saw a roadblock up ahead waiting for them. Two machine guns waited on both sides, and O’Neill knew that there were plenty more waiting and hidden from view. A guard tower sat back in the distance, and as the Humvees rolled up the gunners noticeably positioned their barrels to face the road.

As the first Humvee rolled up, the driver waited for the guard to approach before unzipping his window. “Special advisors here on orders of Gen. Locke, authorization Von Esling.” The guard nodded and signaled that the convoy were to be let through. As they rolled, he counted. Five out, five in.

Being inside the camp was surprising in that it seemed to be larger on the ground than from a distance. Soldiers in gold uniforms went every which way, worked out on gym equipment outside their tents, sat down to read or write letters. Some clustered around radios, others moved between the tents carrying papers and messages for superiors. Occasionally there would be a female soldier mixed in, or groups doing the same as their male counterparts. Some of them looked over at the Humvees with curiosity, but quickly went back to what they were doing anyway.

The men at the concrete building were like the ones at the entrance to the camp, on alert and paying close attention to the Humvees. Usagi shrank in her seat under the glare of the men and the angle of their weapons, which is why it shocked her that the driver didn’t react at all.

O’Neill was less concerned as his truck was the first up to the chain-link gates to the research center. The gates slowly pulled back, and behind them O’Neill saw a young woman in a leather jacket, camo trousers, and combat boots waiting beside a middle-aged man with a ballcap, sunglasses, and pristine combat fatigues. They were flanked by a pair of troopers, rifles in-hand with magazines inserted.

Parker jumped out of his Humvee as it stopped inside the gate, grinning as he walked over. “Sydney.”

“Havoc.” The woman grinned back, though the officer didn’t look so pleased to see Parker. “What, getting tired of punching politicians?”

“Hey, I didn’t actually punch him,” Parker said, playing off the jab.

“And Col. O’Neill,” Sydney said, turning toward the rest of the team. “Welcome back. Glad to see GDI’s finally taking this problem seriously.”

“Well we do what we can,” O’Neill said, turning toward the girls. With their GDI uniforms, they just looked like green troopers with fresh papers for their posting in their pockets.

“Col. O’Neill, pleasure,” the officer said with a Kentucky twang, shaking O’Neill’s hand. “Col. Walton, base commander. Pleasure to have you here sir, Gen. Locke told me everything I need to know.” Walton spared a look at MV-8 as they left their Humvees. “Admittedly it took a little time to accept what I was told.”

“Yeah, we get that a lot.” Looking up at the buildings, O’Neill let out a whistle. “S’big.”

“It’s our primary research facility for tiberium study,” Sydney said. “Come with us, we’ll get started on telling you what we have so far.”

“That sounds like something for you Carter, Daniel,” O’Neill said. “Teal’c and I’ll walk the perimeter, make sure things are above sea-level.”

“I’ll escort you,” Walton said, giving Sydney a look as he went for the gate.

“We’ll go too,” Parker said, moving to the gate. “Gunner, Bruiser, with me. Deadeye, check the guard towers.”

Sydney shook her head as the group moved on. “Well, as I was saying. Which of you girls can speak English?” Minako and Ami raised their hands. “Alright, try to keep the translation as close to what I say as possible, I don’t want to risk anything getting misunderstood.” Turning, Sydney led the way to a building everyone realized was a hospital. A GDI trooper sat behind the front desk, smiling up at the group as they came in. “Whenever you’re in here, you’ll need to wear these badges.” Sydney handed each person with her a badge reading “GUEST CLEARANCE A-9”. “If you aren’t wearing these in here or the labs, don’t expect the troopers here to be very nice when they find you.”

The interior of the hospital was almost like back home, a reception area with chairs and a desk waiting for patients. A few staff were inside walking through the corridors or speaking to each other behind their desks. As the girls attached their badges and took off their covers at Carter’s hint, Sydney spoke with Carter. “We’re not far from the Tiber, on the border of ground zero for the first sightings of tiberium on Earth.”

Daniel almost sounded scared. “That close?”

“We’re far enough away from the larger fields,” Sydney said, leading the group to the elevators. “The problem is that a lot of the smaller villages aren’t able to handle tiberium infection along the river. We’re getting helicopters every few hours from local clinics and hospitals, it’s the safest way we can think of transporting anyone infected.” The group quickly filled the elevator, and Sydney pressed the button for the eighth floor.

Up in a collection of offices and conference rooms Sydney led them to one of the smaller rooms. A long wooden table with office chairs stood waiting for them, a woman in a lab coat setting up a computer and screen. The team quickly took their seats as Sydney nodded for the presentation to begin. “Alright, what do you all know about tiberium?”

“Well the reports mentioned it’s a crystal of non-terrestrial origin,” Carter said. “It’s highly unstable at an atomic level, giving off high-levels of alpha, beta, and gamma particles.”

“All correct,” Sydney said, as the screen behind her went to a picture of tiberium. Beside it, the chemical composition of the crystal in percentages. “Phosphor, iron, calcium, copper, silica.” Sydney tapped at the screen on the last reading. “It’s the unknown one-point-five that has us scrambling. Worse, the gases.” The image shifted to showing a diagram of a “root” beneath a tiberium crystal, with a readout of hazardous gases to the side. “Twenty-nine percent unknown in that gas concentration.”

Daniel nodded. “So, I guess that unknown has to be tiberium itself then.”

“A new element on the periodic table unless something tells us otherwise.” The slide went to pictures of what looked like an impact site. “This is it, ground zero. These were taken by the carabinieri when they arrived on-scene. As first, nothing unusual, the farmer who saw the meteor land even asked if this would get his name in the news. Then next week rolled around.” The image turned into a field of green crystals.

Ami gasped. “No, that cannot be a week. It’s impossible for it all to have grown that fast.”

“Well tiberium’s redefined a lot of what is and isn’t possible,” Sydney said as the image went to an aerial view of the Tiber River. “This was taken that same week. You can see, it was barely even noticeable from overhead except as a green pinpoint. This is two weeks.” The green had expanded to a rough semi-circle around the river. “That’s about a quarter-mile from the impact site. A month after impact.” The bright green had spread down the river, and toward a red dot. “That point is the town of Nazzano. When the tib started to approach, the people didn’t think much of it. A week later the first casualties started coming in. There were tib crystals in the water.”

Ami’s hands flew to cover her mouth, the girl shaking her head in disbelief. “No, no that would mean that children were drinking it.”

Sydney nodded. “That’s correct. The youngest and the elderly were the first to come in.” The slide went to images of an old man, bare from the waist up. The Sailor Senshi gasped and shook their heads at the sight: His neck and back had bright green Tiberium crystals jutting out of the skin, and a picture inside the man’s mouth showed Tiberium crystals jutting out between his teeth and gums. The worst part was that the crystals weren’t jutting out clean. Several of them were covered in blood, others were scabbed over with a disturbing green sheen.

Seven more images followed it. Some were “lucky”, in that they only had maybe three or four crystals ripping out from under their skin. Others had small patches of crystals across their chests and neck. The worst were the babies. The elderly had been able to stand still long enough for the pictures. The children were held down by gloved hands in order to keep them still to show the damage done by tiberium. Ami had to turn away at the sight of an infant, it couldn’t be more than ten months, wailing out in pain as a doctor held it’s arms down to show the sight of green crystals ripping out of it’s chest.

“My God,” Carter whispered. “Can’t they be removed?”

“Even if we do, the crystals already release microscopic shards into the blood and tissue. At best we’ve had a fifteen percent success rate with simple surgical removal. Worse, it isn’t just limited to ground zero.” A map came up on the screen, showing the world with several regions marked with a biohazard symbol. “The Brotherhood made sure to funnel tib worldwide. Major waterways and aquifers were their primary targets, but some agents would just dig into the ground and release it.”

Daniel saw the realization dawn over the girls. The pictures they saw were happening all over the world. This was just one part of the problem.

Carter took a long, slow breath. “What’s your father have to say on this?”

Sydney’s face screwed up for a second. “He’s focused on researching the crystal itself. You can imagine the kind of toll it’s taking on his time and attention. Pretty much all of his day is focused on trying to puzzle out as much about it as possible. Not very easy, seeing as how dangerous it is if containment is breached.”

“Well we at least know that it isn’t from Earth,” Daniel said. “We have some notes on several new additions to the periodic table, when we get back we can see that they’re copied and sent.”

“It’d be a start to help us learn what it isn’t,” Sydney said, looking over a slide of a village being burned.

Carter looked up. “Well what do you think it is?”

Sydney shook her head. “You’d think I’m cra -- ” Looking at the table of interdimensional travelers, she chose a new answer. “You won’t think I’m crazy. Okay, my father’s current theory is that it’s a terraforming agent.”

Minako struggled with the word, still trying to shake off the images now tattooed into her head. “Uh, I’m not familiar with that word.”

“In astronomy it’s the idea that you can convert a planet to be more like Earth over time, making it habitable for whatever needs the person doing the terraforming requires.” Carter got up and looked over the screen as the slide went to an image up close of ground zero, showing strange towers and dead trees. “This is only a guess Sydney, but I think we’re actually dealing with xenoforming.”

Sydney groaned. “I was really hoping no one would use that word.”

Daniel looked up in surprise. “Well seeing as there was a literal flying saucer in the middle of Nod’s facility in Cairo it’s safe to say aliens are a problem here. Especially since there was a stargate in this dimension as well.”

Sydney groaned and collapsed into her seat, the assistant on the computer looking at everyone at the table like she was waiting for the crew from Candid Camera to come out and let her in on the joke. “So you’re telling me there’s probably aliens out there waiting for the planet to turn into some kind of tiberium world?”

Daniel nodded. “We’d say at this point it’s a likely possibility.”

Sydney looked to the girls. “Well, you’re all familiar with crystal-based technology right?” The girls looked at Sydney, still shaken by the images. “Do you think what you have can work on tiberium?”

Minako and Ami looked to each other. “We’re honestly not sure,” Ami answered. “We’ve never faced anything quite like tiberium before. To be honest, we’re not sure what we could do. We’ll still try though, but we’d need to know more about what we’re facing.”

“We can take you to the wards tomorrow, I have my rounds then.” Smiling, Sydney took a seat at the table and sighed. “So, anyone want to tell me if they’ve met the aliens that would do this?”

O’Neill nodded, looking over a layout of the base within the command center. “Gotta say, looks like you’re ready to fight off an army.”

“After what we learned about what your people fought off in Africa we had to be,” Walton said, his glasses and cover off revealing a head of graying blonde hair and brown eyes with crows feet at the edges. “Thankfully after Sarajevo there’s no Nod left to find.”

Teal’c’s eyebrow went up. “I had thought that such groups do not simply disappear once a major defeat has been suffered.”

“Well, that was before we made up the tally,” Walton said. “Worldwide, hundreds of Kane’s people committed suicide on his orders. The remaining Nod holdouts surrendered, said they’re ‘waiting for his return’, whatever that means.” Walton paused and looked up at O’Neill and Teal’c. “Do you think he’d come back?”

O’Neill looked down at the map. “So, what’ve we got in the immediate area to worry about?”

Walton shook his head. “Mostly the local population.”

O’Neill nodded. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be happy if this stuff was killing my family.”

“That’s not the issue.”

O’Neill looked up. “Say again?”

“Room-temperature superconductor,” Walton said. “Once the price of it came out, people wanted to get as much of it in their hands as possible. A lot of the land out here is farmland, and with everything that’s happened farm prices have taken a hit.”

Teal’c nodded. “Have the local farmers taken offensive action against your forces yet?”

Walton nodded. “Current orders are to try and stop anyone in the area from illegal tiberium harvesting and turn them over to the local cops.”

O’Neill whistled. “Looks like we’ve got a job to do Teal’c.”

Rei held her head in her hands, trying to will the images out of her head. “Why did they really bring us here? Do they really think we can do anything about that tiberium stuff?”

“They must be really desperate.” Minako set her jacket on the small folding chair next to her cot. They’d been given a tent, large enough for the five of them but still small enough to feel cramped in. The canvas sides just trapped the heat, and even with the window flaps rolled up the air inside was so hot and stuffy that Makoto had stripped down to her undershirt rather than needlessly suffer. “Ami, do you think we can do anything?”

Ami sighed, face buried into her sleeping bag. “I honestly don’t know. This isn’t the Negaforce, we have no idea what to expect if we use our abilities to try and stop tiberium from worsening.”

“Well we’re still gonna try to help them,” Makoto said, slamming her fist into her palm. “If we can help them, maybe we can help them stop this stuff from hurting anyone else. Right Usagi?”

Usagi sat on the end of her cot, trying to think about anything else but the things she’d seen that day. It didn’t take, she still saw the image of the infant, frozen mid-scream, limbs and head held in place by gloved hands to show the best possible image of the crystals ripping out of the boy’s chest and left arm.

“Carter said that we’re going to see the patients first before we begin trying to help them,” Minako said. “Ami, do you think your computer might be able to help us understand what tiberium is?”

Ami slowly pulled her face away from the sleeping bag. “I suppose, hopefully Dr. Moebius can get this to her father and help him understand how to cure it.” Ami shuddered. “We can’t help those people soon enough.”

“Then we’d better get some sleep,” Makoto said, laying atop her sleeping bag and throwing her hands behind her head. “Tomorrow’s a new day after all.”

Two tents away, Gunner tried to keep his eyes shut as Parker went on and on about what happened at the dinner. “I mean he’s talking about it like he was the one who planted the charges on Nod’s defenses in Sarajevo himself, what’s he expect me to do?”

Gunner nodded, envying Deadeye’s ability to simply just shut his eyes and sleep. “Right, cap’n.”

“And his wife, Jesus what a stuck-up bitch. She talks to me like I’m an idiot, and they’re shocked I made one little joke.”

“Cap’n, you said she looked like she just came out of rehab for methamphetamines.” Gunner dared to open his eye and look over toward Parker. “Some people might consider it insulting.”

Parker rolled his eyes. “Just saying, they could at least put some more money into GDI. With Nod gone we can actually focus on real problems.”

“Most people would consider tiberium quite the problem, Havoc,” Gunner said, starting to get annoyed. “Just get some rest, we’ll worry about it tomorrow.”

Parker snorted. “Yeah, sure, it’ll all work out now. Please, Kane’s out doing God only knows what and we’re stuck here babysitting a bunch of farmers because they’re too stupid to leave when a green space rock shows up.”

Gunner didn’t bother trying to argue, he just grunted and turned away from Parker. “I’ll see you in the morning cap’n.” Hearing Parker grumble, he thought, “As if I had a choice.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

The sound of a bugle blasting brutally through the camp’s speaker system before it was even light out reminded the girls where they were in the worst possible way. The Italian summer didn’t help as just sleeping had drenched them in sweat. Dragging themselves out of the tent, they saw GDI troopers already up. Some were just finishing up getting dressed, others were wrapping up morning PT. “Good, you’re already up.” Looking left, the girls saw Hotwire stepping out. “Showers are this way, grab your towels and soap.”

The Senshi did as told, following Hotwire to a hastily erected wooden bathhouse. Stepping inside, the girls were left defeated again as they saw the lockers and wooden stalls waiting for them. No hot bath, no long soak, just straight through a shower and right into the day. Stepping into an empty stall, Usagi yelped as a blast of cold water slammed into her skin. “Augh, where’s the hot water?”

“If she’s asking why it’s cold, that’s because this is the field,” Hotwire said, already washing up. “Tell them to be quick, we only have an hour after this to grab breakfast and start the day.”

“This is ridiculous,” Usagi complained, trying to wash herself without actually touching the freezing water. “How are we supposed to do all that in an hour? Why not ask us to run a mile too?”

“Can you believe her?” The voice was unfamiliar and distant, but all five girls looked around for it. “’The water’s cold, there’s not enough time’. You can tell she’s one of the civilians.”

“GDI is multinational,” Hotwire said with a grin. “The JSDF sends their best to assist with operations.” The girls quickly focused on their washing, as a pair of Japanese women walked in seconds later and started showering as the Senshi finished up. Hurrying out of the showers blushing bright red, they were soon dressed and in line for chow.

The mess hall was another Quonset hut, albeit one with long rows of wooden tables and benches. A row of cooks stood waiting behind the food, Usagi smiling as they lined up only to frown when she got her breakfast. Two pieces of thin bacon, some scrambled eggs that she realized were powdered, burnt French toast and a small cup of what Ami translated as “bug juice”. “Is this it? I won’t last a day with just this.”

Hotwire was already devouring her breakfast, barely pausing as she cut through the food. “Better hurry, you’ll have a long day ahead of you.”

Minako poked at a suspicious looking chunk of eggs. “What do you mean?”

“Dr. Moebius needs you all to understand more about tiberium, what it does to the human body. You’ll have a briefing with her, probably most of the morning.” Polishing off her plate, Hotwire grimaced as she threw back the cup of bug juice. “I swear, all Americans must eat is bags of sugar.”

Leaving the mess tent (And trying to not react to the stares they were getting for Ami’s hair), the group met with O’Neill and the rest of the team at the gate to the hospital. “Alright, Doc, you want to lay out the plan?”

Sydney nodded. “I want the girls to stay here, make sure they understand what they’re up against. Maj. Carter, would you and Dr. Jackson like to join as well?”

Carter nodded. “Sure, we’d love to.”

“We’ll go on a patrol of the area then,” O’Neill said, nodding to Teal’c. “Wanna get a lay of the land, see what this stuffs doing for ourselves. Already got it cleared with Walton.”

Sydney nodded. “Alright girls, this way and we’ll get a more in-depth briefing for you.”

Back up in the conference room, Sydney dove straight into the briefing once everyone was seated. “Tiberium landed two years ago, and like you saw it can spread rapidly through any region it lands in. Anywhere with a good soil mineral content is in danger of tiberium taking root. Literally.” The slides showed a team in protective suits digging up a tiberium crystal pod, and unearthing what looked like two meters of roots underneath.

“Wait, a plant?” Ami shook her head. “I thought it was a crystal?”

“Its most visible form is as a crystal,” Sydney said. “Unfortunately, it also has the quality of a weed. When it embeds itself into organic matter, a parasite.” Sydney gave a shrug. “It’s whatever it needs to be to spread and survive.”

Daniel nodded. “Meaning it might be a living thing.”

Sydney cringed. “We’re trying not to think of it like that.”

“Well that might as well be what it is,” Daniel said. “I mean you’re talking about it like a weed, a parasite, that means that part of you has already accepted comparisons to other like living things.”

Carter spoke up. “Have you made any progress about the structure of tiberium?”

“We at least have an atomic number for it,” Sydney said, sounding disheartened as the slide showed a forest infected by Tiberium. “Three hundred seventy-seven protons. With enough electrons and particles shooting off of it to give plutonium a challenge.”

Carter nodded. “Alright, don’t get too close to it without protective gear.”

“I’m sorry, but we’re all confused,” Minako said. “If this is all so dangerous, why aren’t you destroying it wherever you find it?”

“We can’t,” Sydney said, almost sounding insulted. “Tiberium isn’t just in the ground. Do you see these?” She pointed at a misshapen tree in the picture of the forest. “That isn’t just a tree, that’s a blossom tree. It shoots out tiberium spores straight into the air, and those spores travel for miles. We’ve had to burn acres of forest just to try and hold back the spread a little while longer.”

Makoto asked a question. “That’s right,” Ami said. “Why aren’t they evacuating Rome already? We don’t know if we can do this yet.”

“Rome is a city of over a million people, we can’t just pick everyone up and move them without risking a mass humanitarian crisis.” Sydney pointed to the new slide of the map showing the anticipated spread of tiberium. “We have a week to begin evacuations after you leave. Anyone who refuses to leave the city of acts against GDI will be removed by force if necessary to try and prevent further loss of life.”

“Where saving Rome earns you a powerful friend,” Daniel said. “You save Rome, you save the Vatican.”

Sydney shook her head. “The Pope hasn’t said anything more than what we’d expect about GDI. His liking us -- ”

“Earns you millions of Catholic friends around the globe,” Daniel said pointedly. “Just because you might not like acknowledging it doesn’t mean it isn’t a factor.”

Sydney groaned. “Look, my concern isn’t saving the Pope, it’s saving Rome and the people inside it. The Pope can easily fly out and live anywhere else, but a lot of the people inside the city can’t.” The slide changed to an image of the world map of tiberium. “Huh, convenient. If we save Rome, we save the planet.” Checking her watch, she sighed. “It’s almost time for my rounds. Follow me, we’ll need to get suited up.”

Another ride down the elevator took the girls to a corridor that looked even more sterile than the rest of the hospital. Two GDI troopers waited in a small office, Sydney signing a book and pressing her hand against a biometric reader. The two troopers nodded and Sydney led them to a massive door with two massive biohazard symbols on the front. “Full quarantine procedure is in effect. Do not touch any patient unless directed to, do not remove any part of your suit when inside. If you have to use the bathroom, you’d better do it now if you don’t want to walk around in what you make for the rest of the time you’re in here.”

The girls took a nervous gulp. Following Sydney inside, they were helped into their hazmat suits by Carter and Sydney. Usagi was already winding up to complain about how awkward it felt when she saw how serious Carter and Daniel looked. Sydney and Carter made a final check of the suits, nodding and leading the girls two a decontamination chamber. A technician behind a glass panel nodded, and opened a set of heavy sliding doors.

It was a sprawling ward, beds stretching for yards down in the antiseptic chamber. More hazmat-suited staff went from bed to bed, observing the patients before them. The first few beds were open to see, people with crystals jutting out of their faces or arms speaking to doctors in rapid-fire Italian. Rei saw one old woman smile as she tried to reach out to a nurse giving her an injection. The nurse shook her head, and the old woman’s smile vanished.

“We have everyone assigned based on how severe their case is,” Sydney said, over the dozens of heart monitors and conversations. “The people closest to the doors are the recently infected, anyone that hasn’t gone fully terminal yet.”

Carter spoke up. “How are you treating them?”

“The best we can do now is surgery and painkillers,” Sydney said. “The crystal is almost like a malignant tumor, even if you remove the most obvious part of it you still have good odds that it’ll return later due to the crystals already in the bloodstream and tissue.”

Usagi asked a question, Ami translating, “Then no one has been cured?” Sydney shook her head. “And this has been on Earth for how many years?”

“Three,” Sydney said. As they walked, the pain increased. The patients had larger individual crystals coming out of their skins, or had large patches of the crystals covering their bodies. One man had so many crystals on the right side of his face that his right eye was forced shut. One woman was missing her arm, but as the doctor attending her moved, Minako realized it hadn’t done anything. Tiberium crystals were starting to appear just above where the arm had been removed.

“Wait,” Daniel said. “Where are the kids being kept?”

Sydney’s expression darkened even further. “We have to treat them in a separate wing. Too many patients were suffering increased psychological trauma from hearing them cry.”

Minako couldn’t stop herself. “And the people treating them?”

Sydney led the group to a massive plastic curtain. “This is where our most advanced cases are being treated.”

Usagi felt her legs nearly give out as she stepped behind the curtain. There were fewer occupied beds, but those that were had the worst cases. One man had no legs, just chunks and jagged crystals jutting out from beneath his waist. One woman had crystals growing from out of her eyes, another man was unable to lay on his back from the half-meter tall crystal jutting out of the center of his back surrounded by more.

“My God,” Daniel whispered. “And these people are still alive?”

“We’re giving them as much morphine as a terminal cancer patient would require, and it’s barely enough.” Sydney led them to the back, past the doctors and nurses talking over charts in hushed tones. “If we’re going to start testing possible cures, frankly I’d rather take the risk on someone who has nothing left to lose.”

Makoto erupted. “Wait, so we’re only trying this on them because they’re closer to death? That’s not right!”

Ami quickly got between Makoto and Sydney. “No, that’s how this has to happen! What if something goes wrong, or just doesn’t work? We’d get someone’s hopes up for nothing and they’d have to wait to die if it can’t work.”

Makoto pointed to one of the patients, a man that had a mass of crystals clustered around his right ear. “So it’s fine that we risk killing them? They’re not monsters Ami, they’re people!”

“Hey!” Both girls turned to Sydney, glaring at both of them. “I’m gonna guess she doesn’t like what I’m saying is going to happen. If you’re not noticing, we’re in a crisis here little girl. The entire planet and human species is at stake, and if we don’t make hard choices we risk losing more than just a hospital full of patients.”

Makoto pointed at Sydney accusingly. “So you think it’s fine to just throw away their lives? Why can’t we save them all? There has to be another way.”

Sydney glared at Makoto. “Have you ever gotten a vaccine?” Makoto got the translation and nodded. “How do you think we figured out how vaccines work? What about surgery, do you know anyone who’s ever gone through it?” Makoto nodded again. “So you think we just magically figured out one day how to cut up a human body, even though there are still people who die during them every year?”

Makoto’s fists were shaking, but Sydney didn’t back down. “I get it, you aren’t from around here, but this is what a crisis looks like. GDI said you had a technology that could help us maybe have a chance. Now are you or aren’t you going to help us?”

The girls were left speechless when they got the translation. By now the doctors, nurses, and more cognizant patients were looking over curiously, trying to figure out what was happening in their normally quiet part of the ward.

“Uh, I’ll just talk to them for a second?” Daniel led the girls back toward the curtain, leaving Carter to talk with Sydney. Daniel paused as the girls collected themselves. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in.”

“They want us to just treat these people like they don’t matter,” Makoto grumbled, her eyes starting to water. “They think that because they’re nearly dead we can use them like lab rats?”

“They wouldn’t be asking you this if they hadn’t exhausted every other option,” Daniel said. “Do you think they haven’t been trying every other method they can think of? This has been here for a while now, it isn’t something new to them at this point. I mean you're acting like they just decided to risk lives on this on a whim.”

“But these are people!” Rei swept her arm across the ward. “If they’re so worried about us doing something wrong, why are they bringing us here? Why not call one of the other teams if they’re so desperate?”

“Because none of those other teams have crystals like yours,” Daniel said. “If they didn’t think this had even the most slim chance of working they wouldn’t have called on you.”

Usagi finally spoke up. “There really is no other option?”

Daniel paused and looked over the ward. “Dr. Moebius said there’s no treatment capable of helping these people right now. None of the methods we know about would be safe either, what we have causes mental breakdowns and only work on one person at a time.”

Sydney looked past Carter to the girls. “I thought you were bringing us specialists who could deal with this problem, not a bunch of kids that can’t recognize that I need to make these kinds of choices.”

“They’re still getting used to a lot of what we normally deal with,” Carter said. “I mean we’re all still adapting to a new reality.” She paused. “Well, new realities in this case.”

Sydney shook her head. “Look, I get that you’re trying to help I really do. But they don’t look like they’ve even gotten through their undergraduate work, I need experienced hands here. What good will their technology do if we can’t even trust them to properly record the effects of it?” Sydney noticed Carter’s face twist before it could be hidden. “What, what’s wrong?”

Carter shook her head. “Nothing.”

Sydney looked back at the girls. “Nothing?”

Carter sighed. “They’re not in college -- ”

Sydney shrugged. “So they had to drop out before they could finish their degree, I mean in this case it’s not something that would shock me.”

Carter shook her head again. “No, Dr. Moebius, you see they haven’t even entered college yet.”

Sydney froze. “Can you run that by me again?”

Carter groaned. “Technically they haven’t even entered high school yet.”

Sydney’s face was caught. “Middle schoolers. You’re telling me that you brought me a group of middle school girls to try and solve a global ecological and public health crisis.” Carter nodded. “Oh, that bastard Locke is gonna die when I get my hands on him.”

“I know, and normally I’d agree, but their reports mentioned being able to save a person from any kind of physical transformation and deformity by a foreign body.” Carter held up her hands before Sydney could launch off. “I know, we’re still trying to work it out. You just need to see what they can do once we’re done here.”

Sydney shook her head. “Well that won’t do any good for us if they can’t understand what we have to do here.”

“Uh, I think we have an answer.” The two women turned to Daniel. “Usagi says she’s willing to do it if it helps save these people. She just wants to make sure that there won’t be any unnecessary pain for the patient.”

Sydney nodded. “We’ll make sure they’re as comfortable as possible when we begin testing.”

Makoto said something harsh. Daniel asked a question, and Makoto nodded. “Okay, uh, Makoto says she won’t be here to watch something like this happen.”

Sydney’s face hardened instantly. “Fine, she can go out with one of the patrols near the fields tomorrow.”

“I’ll go with her,” Minako said. “I’m not very good with science at any rate. I’ll translate for Makoto while Ami helps here.”

“Fine,” Sydney said. “Then we need to see what you can do.”

O’Neill hopped out of the Humvee with a grunt. “Well that was educational.”

“Hope so sir,” Gunner said. “Nazzano is the next town in the path of the spread, orders are that if it gets past there we have to begin evacuations.”

Parker shifted his rifle. “You know, if we found Kane we might have a shot at getting some information out of him.”

Patch sighed, going to rub the bridge of his nose before stopping himself and scratching his head instead. “Well Havoc, if you have a place we can start looking we’ll be all for it. Just whisk us away and show us where he’s hiding.”

Parker rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like he wouldn’t know how to get rid of tib, we all know he’s probably laughing at us right now.” Teal’c and O’Neill shared a look but said nothing.

“Well how ‘bout we go inside and get ourselves some dinner,” Gunner said, trying to head off the argument. “Personally I’ll never be a fan of those MREs. Stuff tastes bloody awful.”

Shaking his head as the group left the motor pool, O’Neill let the noise of the camp filter in. The grass was disappearing, giving way to dirt with each boot moving through. Engineers checked generators and air conditioning vents for the tents where the brass needed to work and command and control was handled. GDI troopers chatted about life back home, their favorite teams, and of how they just needed to get off base and do something that didn’t involve waiting for tiberium to edge ever farther down the river.

“This is a strange camp O’Neill,” Teal’c said. “I had presumed that the majority of your military facilities would be like those utilized by the SGC.”

“Well this stuff’s all designed to be taken down and packed up if the mission gets scrubbed,” O’Neill said, sparing a quick look over at the comm building in the center of the compound. “Most of it anyway. Look, once the girls figure out what needs to be done they can all pack up and go home.”

“Well if you’re willing, tomorrow morning there’s a patrol going to the northernmost fields just after sunrise,” Gunner said. “It’ll take some talking with the colonel in charge, but I think it’ll be allowed.”

O’Neill nodded, and saw Carter walking over. “Hey, Carter. Well, the good news is that Italy is still rocky as hell.”

“Great sir, we’ve got a problem.” O’Neill blinked as Carter blew right past the admittedly-lame quip. “Makoto doesn’t want anything to do with the treatment, she wants to head out on a patrol. Minako offered to go with her as a translator but -- ”

O’Neill waved a hand. “Up-bupbup! They want to go on patrol? Carter those kids could barely handle saving their own shrine.”

“Well there was a bit of friction between Makoto and Dr. Moebius over how to carry out the tests.”

O’Neill perked up. “So he finally came out to say hi?”

Carter paused. “No, I mean Sydney Moebius sir.” O’Neill and Teal’c both raised an eyebrow. “Well was there any kind of problem on the patrol today?”

“Nah, place looks pretty quiet,” O’Neill said. “We’ll talk with Walton, where’s Daniel and the girls?”

“They’re demonstrating what they can do for Sydney.” Carter stopped and turned to see a pair of scientists hurrying out with shocked expressions. “Scratch that, they just finished showing what they can do.”

Chuckling, O’Neill went to the communications center, signing in with the duty officer and leaving his rounds at the desk. A trooper led him through to the central hub of the building, clusters of desks and monitors centered around a holographic map of the peninsula with the spread of tib highlighted in green. Officers and NCOs moved from panel to panel, calling out codes and orders and requests for clarification. Col. Walton sat above it all on a raised dais, monitoring his own panel. “Walton.”

“O’Neill.” Walton rubbed at his eyes and turned away. “Sorry, we’re trying to keep abreast of things. Italian Army heard something was going to happen, they just got off the phone asking for a progress report.”

“Well can’t exactly blame them for wanting a space crystal out of here.” O’Neill shrugged. “What patrols are out tomorrow?”

Walton chuckled. “I’ll trade ya.” Shaking his head, Walton brought up a roster on his console. “We’ve got a squad moving north, checking the progress of the Tib north of Ground Zero. I’ll put you and Mr. Teal’c on it.”

“Better make it two more sir.” Walton gave O’Neill a questioning glance. “Two of the specialists want to come along, get a better idea of what’s happening out here.”

“Specialists,” Walton said, nodding. “Colonel, they don’t appear to be very mature, do they? Matter of fact they look rather young. I understand that they were brought here to try and assist as a desperate measure but word also travels fast around here. Is there a reason that they can’t accept why we’re doing what we are?”

 O’Neill improvised. “Well in other regions the age of maturity can be pretty different. Cultural thing, you know?”

“On my…home soil, maturity is achieved once a young…male or female successfully hunts and kills on their own.” Teal’c and O’Neill shared a look. “These specialists have achieved much of the same success in their own nation.”

“Have they?” Walton shook his head. “Well that sector is relatively calm right now, the main GDI efforts are trying to get Nazzano full cleared.” Walton’s eyes narrowed at O’Neill. “You make sure they stay outta trouble.”

“We will ensure they understand the scale of the problem.” Bowing, Teal’c turned and went for the door. O’Neill nodded and quickly followed Teal’c. Shaking his head, Walton turned back to monitoring the situation, unaware of the two Japanese GDI operators sharing a look and wondering why five Japanese specialists were being treated like they weren’t.

Sydney and her team leaders sat watching the videos of the girls transformations and small displays of their powers. One of the men had decided to eschew any semblance of protocol and had a small bottle of whiskey with him. One of the women had torn up all the notes she’d taken before, and at this point was holding two halves of a snapped pencil in one hand.

“They’re powerful,” one of the doctors said. “Whatever this technology is, it changes everything.”

Another doctor shook her head. “It doesn’t change anything. They can change their clothes and they can do…” The doctor watched as the one with black hair created a flaming bow and arrow and fired it into the ground. “That. They haven’t shown that they can heal anyone suffering from tiberium poisoning.”

“We can at least run a preliminary trial,” a third doctor said. “One of the GDI troopers was brought in with a broken leg, we can see if their supposed healing works more effectively than traditional treatment.”

“Not even animal tests?”

“You're saying we have that much time?”

Sydney spoke up. “Is the injury life-threatening?” The doctor that made the suggestion shook his head. “Well if the worst case is that he gets to see a pretty light show we can blame on some experimental technologies, I’ll take it as a first step in any direction.”

One of the doctors shook her head. “One of them won’t be enough. What are we going to do, take a girl still in high school around the world healing every case of tiberium that we come across? And what about dealing with tiberium itself? How long will it take us to replicate these abilities?”

“We’ll leave that heavy lifting to the MVTF,” Sydney said, tapping her fingers on the table. “If this can work after all, we save Rome.” Rising, Sydney sighed as she saw the second blonde girl with the long, waist-length blonde hair whip from her hand a long, brilliant chain of hearts formed from light. “I’ll talk to my father about these developments. We’ll make our first test tomorrow.”

As Sydney left the room, the doctors all shared a look with each other. No one said anything, it wasn’t necessary. Still reviewing the footage, they watched as the girl with blue hair created a fog bank in the area around her. Shaking their heads, they stuck with the footage until they finally decided to call it a night, sharing the whiskey between each other until the film ran out.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

Parker rose before the sun, rolling out of his cot and stretching. Walking outside, he was hit by the cool, humid air of the countryside. Cracking his neck, he made his way to the small workout area situated among the tents. There was no one around at the time, a few troopers making their way to the head or doing their own workouts as they got ready for the day. Nodding to some, he made his way to a pullup bar and stretched out before jumping up. Ten pullups, ten pushups. Ten chin-ups, ten pushups. One minute dead hang, ten pushups. Off the bar, onto the triceps. Ten triceps, ten pushups. One set done, thirty seconds rest. It was routine, and it worked. Two sets, three sets, four sets. Off the bars, ab workout next. Fifty crunches, done. Russian twists, done. Fifty crunches, done. Twenty leg lifts, done. Fifty crunches, done. Thirty flutter kicks, done. Fifty crunches, done. One set done, back to the pullup bar.

An hour and shower later, Parker was inside the mess hut with the rest of Dead Six. “Another patrol is out today, heading up north. Who’s along with me?”

“Taking one of the guard towers,” Deadeye said, not looking up from his breakfast.

“Same,” Bruiser said quickly. “They need some help maintaining their position to the south.”

“Three of the generators are down,” Hotwire said, finishing off her pancakes. “Col. Walton asked me to check on them with his engineers and see what the problem is.”

Gunner torn a chunk off some toast. “Armory sir, they’ve been having problems with some of their SMAWs and require a deft touch to see about repairs.”

“Looks like you’re it Patch,” Parker said, scarfing down his breakfast like it was laced with MSG and he was ten years old. “Meet you at the motor pool in ten.”

Patch nodded, but as soon as Parker was out of the mess he glared at the others. “Again? I’m not breaking my nose because he decides he’s having a bad day.”

“Look, we’ll swap off soon enough,” Gunner said. “I had to look after him during that conference in Stuttgart.”

Patch threw up his hands. “If one of you isn’t watching him by tomorrow, I’m just going to leave him to his own doom.” Finishing breakfast, Patch rolled for the door and went to the motor pool.

Minako and Makoto were already waiting there, looking out of place for the lack of a weapon. Even a pistol on their hips would’ve helped make them look more in place in the camp with their wearing GDI uniforms. O’Neill and Teal’c waited by their Humvee, Teal’c standing placidly as O’Neill nearly lounged against the vehicle. The three vehicle crews stood waiting as well, making their last checks and filling out the “trip tickets” for the records. Parker was doing what Patch expected, checking his rifle and loading a magazine.

“Alright, that’s everyone,” O’Neill said. “Sergeant, we set?”

“We are indeed sir,” the sergeant said. Patch pegged the man for the west of England, he pronounced his Rs. “You’re sure that those two will be alright?”

“Yeah, they’re used to crazy stuff,” O’Neill said. “Okay kids, mount up and let’s go.”

The three Humvees rolled out, Makoto and Minako jostled with each bump in the road as they rolled away from the facility. The morning air was cool, but still heavy with moisture in the trucks. Minako felt her heart fall when she saw they weren’t air conditioned. The only creature comfort was the radio the corporal in the passenger seat up front had tuned to a music station blasting hip-hop.

Makoto wasn’t speaking yet, it didn’t surprise Minako. She’d gone to sleep still angry at the idea of what Sydney Moebius had wanted to do, and woken up the same. Minako knew it was uncomfortable to think about, she didn’t deny it. Despite that, she knew that this was a desperate situation for everyone. London had shown her that there would be times when you had to choose between your heart and the world.

“Eyes up,” the corporal said. “We’re on the edge of the field.”

Minako and Makoto both looked to see Tiberium in the wild, and weren’t disappointed. The green crystal field stretched from the banks of the Tiber to fifty meters on shore. The crystals closest to the river were half a meter high, taller than a child just leaving pre-school. Every few yards there were even the “blossom trees” Sydney had mentioned. The bulb-like protrusions on them did as she’d said, contracting to spray more tiberium crystals into the air in a sick parody of the spring pollen.

“It’s everywhere,” Makoto said. “There has to be a way to get rid of it right?”

The corporal answered after getting the translation. “Well it’s not like we can’t harvest the stuff. Hell, you get a field of tib around all you need are some harvesters and you’re off to the races.”

“If it can be harvested, why is there so much of it near the river,” Makoto asked. “Shouldn’t it be disappearing if it’s being harvested?”

“Are you kidding?” The corporal shook his head. “Stuff’s worse than kudzu, worse than any weed you’ve ever seen. Hell, there’s reports saying it can even grow underground, a few hundred yards. You got the money to excavate all that?”

Minako didn’t like the look on Makoto’s face at that answer. “Shouldn’t have to worry about money if people are going to be hurt,” she grumbled. Minako chose to exercise her prerogative and not translate that part.

The Humvees rolled on, through an abandoned town that Minako looked at with heartbreak. The town looked like it was still livable, buildings sitting empty waiting for their owners to return. Some of the windows were cracked, or shops were left empty with their doors wide open and shelves cleared out. Minako felt a chill run through her as she saw the buildings sit empty. Part of her waited for someone to run out into the street and make themselves known. Like it would stop the sense that everything here had gone so horribly wrong.

“It was the water,” the corporal said. “Ponzano is the closest to ground zero. Fact, we’re passing it now on the right.”

Minako and Makoto were super-glued to the window as they rolled past, pulling out of the town to see a massive field of tiberium at a bend in the river. There was nothing by a massive field of crystals, bright glowing green as far as the eye could see. The Humvees rolled to a stop, and the GDI troopers got out to survey the area. Minako followed, and the scope of the tiberium on the river stopped her heart like she’d been hit with a taser. The crystal covered the banks like what people used to think uranium or plutonium looked like, a mass bright green field of crystal spires. Dead tree trunks and sickening blossom trees rose pitifully from the banks, but even the blossom trees looked sickly and near-death. She even thought she saw blue patches, but the majority of the field was awash in the sickly green shine.

“Ten more meters since yesterday,” the sergeant in charge of the patrol said. “Looks like seven more on the opposite bank as well. The brain trust won’t like this news.” Parker snorted, but before Minako could ask how fast that was the wind shifted toward her. A terrible smell slammed into her face, and as she turned away she saw Makoto starting to wretch as well.

O’Neill let out a noise. “Jeez, what the heck is that? Someone dip a turkey in 409?” Minako couldn’t speak, but she agreed with the assessment. It smelled like cooked meat, left if water and chemicals to stew.

“Visceroids,” Patch said. Minako saw him scan the field with his own binoculars. “Three of them, they’re moving now.”

Looking out, Minako saw three forms moving through the crystals. They didn’t look like any animal she’d seen in her life, and something about them appeared off. It didn’t look like it was walking across the field, more like it was slithering. “Can I see?”

Patch paused. “They’re pretty ugly, miss.”

Minako shook her head. “Please, I need to at least know what’s out there.” Patch’s face hardened, but he handed the binoculars to her and watched. Minako adjusted the binoculars to get a better view of the fields, and felt bile in her throat again.

The creature wasn’t an animal, not even a form of life. It was a lump, a pulsing mass of tissue that flowed like liquid over the crystals instead of moving around them. Two more pulsed nearby, the things wandering purposelessly since Minako couldn’t see anything even closely resembling a face or sensory organs on them. Makoto asked something, and without thinking Minako held the binoculars out for her. Makoto took them, and seconds later was muttering under her breath about monsters.

O’Neill gagged. “What are those things?”

“It’s an effect of tiberium on organic matter,” Patch said. “The body breaks down, almost like a soup. Problem is that the absolute base metabolic process doesn’t cease. It continues on, even when the body becomes that.”

Minako tried to picture such a situation, then remembered the town they just passed through. “Those things, those are just the bodies of farm animals, right? This area is mostly farmland, those are cows and pigs?”

Patch said nothing as the patrol mounted up. “We need to keep moving northward.”

Minako didn’t remember getting back in and buckling up. She just kept watching as the visceroids kept moving through the field of ground zero.

Sydney shook her head as the transformation finished. “And you say they go through this every time?”

Daniel sighed. “They're trying to make it faster, they are.”

Finished, Usagi posed and started talking. “A brave warrior wounded in the course of his duties, I will -- ”

“What, what is she doing?” Sydney shook her head. “Just heal him, we don’t need a speech and all the equipment is setup anyway.”

Usagi let out a gulp, and nodded as Ami translated. “Moon! Healing! Activation!”

Sydney and the assembled GDI doctors still shook their heads. “Does, does she need to pose and spin around for this to actually work?”

Carter rolled her eyes. “We’re trying to get it through to them, they just do things their own way.”

Walton shook his head. “That’ll get someone killed.”

The light show died back down, and the GDI trooper that had been the test subject blinked. Walton stepped over as the doctors quickly checked every vital sign. “You feeling alright trooper?”

The Frenchman paused, flexing his hands and blinking a few times. “I…I think so sir? I’m not sure what happened.”

“You should be in perfect health,” Ami said, smiling again for the first time in too long. “Your leg should be perfectly healed now.”

The doctors cut off the man’s cast, and slowly the trooper sat up and lowered himself off the bed he was in. His face lit up as he realized that yes, he could walk. He rambled in French for a second before rushing up to Usagi. “Thank you, c'est fantastique! Sir, permission to return to duty?”

“Light duty, but granted,” Walton said, smiling as the trooper rushed to get his uniform back on. “Alright, I’ll be the first to admit it. That was a miracle.”

“Not a miracle,” Sydney said, smiling as she rushed about the room to gather all the data. “A broken leg isn’t tib poisoning, but it’s a great start as the first trial. Alright, how are you feeling?”

Usagi started hopping up and down as Ami translated. “She’s happy that it worked, she feels like this is just another step toward putting things back to where they should be here.”

“Good, then we can try down in the ward. Change out of those so we can get you down there.” Sydney noticed the look Ami was giving her. “What?”

“We’ve never used our powers without transforming,” Ami said. “I’m not sure if they would work without it.”

Sydney sighed. “Alright, well those clothes look like they can fit under a suit at least. Let’s suit you both up and get down there. We have a patient ready now.”

As the six walked to the elevators, Daniel felt relief at the sight of Usagi and Ami smiling and talking about healing the man. It had been a rough few days already, but the fact they were able to actually help someone for a change instead of just be whipped around must have been a massive boost to their confidence. Rei would be thankful for the news as well, a welcome break from reading up on the world around them for more information.

Down in the ward, Walton motioned for Daniel and Carter to follow him into a separate room than before. Hitting the lights, the trio found themselves in an observation above a surgical room. A small team of nurses and doctors was already inside, checking equipment in their hazmat suits and readying for the patient to arrive. “Not gonna lie to either of you,” Walton said, grabbing a chair. “I’m praying to whoever’ll listen that this works.” Pausing, the colonel sniffed the air. "Dammit, I wish I'd known that this was a perfect place to smoke, I'd have been her weeks ago."

Carter pulled a seat up to the glass, sharing a look with Daniel but saying nothing. “Is the situation in the US getting bad?”

“Hard to say,” Walton said, leaning back. “Most of the tib in the US is scattered all over the Midwest, lot of farmers are clamoring for an answer on what to do about it. Problem is that the Brotherhood made sure to release it around the cities too, so there’s a lot of focus due to the health fears of tib just breaking through the Northeast or LA and taking them out.”

Daniel nodded. “Kind of wish we could find some evidence of this back home actually. If there’s a species out there that made tiberium the Ancients, the Asgard, even the Goa’uld must’ve found a way to stop them.”

Walton looked to Daniel. “Friends of yours?”

Daniel shrugged. “One of them is.”

“Here they come.” The three stared out the windows to see a man being wheeled in. He was older, Daniel would’ve guessed probably sixties, early seventies. “Wait, I thought we were looking for someone that was close to dying?”

“He is,” Walton said, holding up a folder. “Antonio Tattaglia, seventy-two. There’s only a small patch on his left-shoulder, but check these X-rays.” Daniel took the folder and flipped through it until his eyes popped open. “Yep. Nearly his entire respiratory and esophageal tract is covered in tiberium. Poor bastard can barely breathe anymore.” Daniel nodded, the X-ray looking more like a cross-section of geodes inside a rock than lungs.

A speaker came on in the room. “This is Moebius, we’re suited and ready.” A door to the operating room opened, and Sydney led Usagi and Ami inside. “Patient?”

“Stable ma’am,” a nurse said. “Pulse and blood pressure are near-invisible.”

“Bringing this man here,” Carter asked. “Was this for the girls?”

“If it doesn’t work then they don’t need to see anything ugly,” Walton said. “Healing a broken leg is fine, but tib is a different beast. If he survives, they can pat themselves on the back and we have a chance. If this doesn’t work, at least they won’t leave crying again.”

Daniel nodded as Usagi took her place over the patient. The nurses and doctors all looked up at her in surprise, but said nothing as Ami translated the instructions of what to do. Nodding, Usagi went through her technique again, light shining so brightly that even above the fray the three observers had to turn their faces away. Blinking the lights out of their eyes, they looked back down to see no noticeable change.

“Patient’s heart rate is dropping, get the crash cart.” Walton swore as they watched the team below gently push Usagi back and pull up the defibrillator. They were rubbing conductive fluid on the paddles when one of the doctors waved them off. “Wait, blood pressure is…rising?” The team froze. Daniel even saw the old man smile as his skin started to deform. “Blood pressure is at 100, 112, wait now it’s falling again?”

Usagi and Ami watched as the man started to twitch, then before they could understand what was happening the skin on his chest and back stretched and deformed. Something was growing underneath it, pressing to escape. Daniel realized what was happening a split second before he could yell out, and as Usagi and Ami screamed a massive green crystal ripped out of the center of the man’s chest, with smaller but no less impressive crystals ripping the flesh on his back.

Sydney took immediate control. “Get everyone out, I want an autopsy done immediately. Full decon for everyone in this room, let’s move.”

Walton turned to Carter and Daniel. “What the hell just happened down there?”

Carter shook her head, trying to process what she just saw. “I-I don’t know, it’s like the tiberium was affected by the healing technique as well.”

“What?” Walton half-grinned, half-glared at Carter. “That can’t be possible, you’re telling me that the girl’s wand somehow recognized the tib as something to heal up? It’s not even alive!”

“Not alive as we recognize it,” Carter said, thinking very hard. “Oh my God, Daniel.”

“I know,” Daniel said. “The Unity, this could be another form of crystalline life.”

Walton’s mouth hung open for a second. “You’re…You’re really telling me this thing could be alive.”

“If it is this is a more aggressive form of crystal life than we’re used to,” Daniel said. “It may not have a means by which to even communicate, it might not even realize that what it’s doing is harming us.”

Walton shook his head and stormed out of the observation room. “Well, that’s great, but my people are suffering for this being here at all.”

Carter glared at Walton. “Sir, you’re not blaming the girls for what happened.”

“Of course not,” Walton said, storming through the halls. “They didn’t know that would happen, but Jesus that? At least the other methods don’t do that to a person.”

“Well that man, his chest was nearly filled with tiberium. Maybe the crystal recognized that as the lifeform to heal instead?” Carter could only shrug.

“Well whatever just happened, they just put themselves at risk if it made the crystal just go into a supercharged mode like that.” Leading the two into a small office, Walton slammed his fist on the table in the center. “Between Dr. Moebius and his research and the Security Council riding me to stop the spread before it reaches Rome those girls are the only hope for an entire planet.”

Carter and Daniel let that alone. There was nothing they could say to a man in such a situation.

Yards away in a contained room, Usagi and Ami mutely went through the decon procedure behind Sydney and the medical team. They were stripped, Usagi having to undo her transformation before being shoved into a shower and scrubbed. Every inch of skin was given a once over, hard bristles scratching up their skin and soap stinging their eyes. Neither girl noticed, their eyes were locked on the image of the old man on the gurney, smiling as the green crystals ripped out of his chest. They followed Sydney to get dressed, automatically putting on fresh scrubs before following her through the halls to a small office. Walton stood up to start on them, but clamped his mouth shut when he saw their faces. Sighing, he waved them off. “You can go back to your tent once you're cleared, we’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

Neither girl answered, mute as they followed Sydney out.

“Must be hard work.” Rei looked up to see a GDI trooper standing over her with a fresh stack of files. “You the only one capable of reading?”

“I suppose I just feel more comfortable reading over what I can,” Rei said, closing a folder on Nod terrorism in Japan. The file was uncomfortably thick to her. “Has something happened?”

“Your friends are coming back, the test apparently didn’t work.” The trooper shrugged. “So, you’re Japanese too. Where are you from?”

Rei perked up a little. “Oh, I’m from Tokyo.”

The trooper smiled, her face softening. “Me too. I’m from Shibuya.”

“Azabu-Juban,” Rei said, smiling as she took the fresh files. “Have you ever heard of the Hikawa Shrine? My family takes care of it.”

“Sounds nice,” the trooper said, but not letting go of the file. “There’s another Japanese on this base too. She’s from Azabu-Juban. Think she’d know the shrine?”

Rei nodded happily. “Probably. If not that, she’d definitely know where my friends g -- went to school, Juuban Junior High.”

“I’ll have to ask.” Finally releasing the files, the trooper smiled down at Rei. “So, you think you can help us against tiberium?”

Rei sighed. “I don’t know honestly. I do know that we wouldn’t be here if Col. O’Neill didn’t think we could help. If he thinks we might be able to make a difference, then we will.”

The trooper nodded. “Glad to see you think so. Most of the people I know are convinced the only way out is to leave the planet for Mars or some other crazy plan. Well, I’d better leave you to this.”

Rei waved. “Thank you, it was nice to meet you.”

The trooper bolted from the room, speeding for her compatriot in the comm building’s break room. “She said she’s from Azabu-Juban.”

The other trooper nodded. “Alright, so what did she say?”

“She mentioned the Hikawa Shrine, and Juuban Junior High? Does any of that make sense?”

The second trooper laughed. “Hikawa Shrine? And what ‘Junior High’? No, she’s lying about where she comes from.”

“Then why not tell the colonel she’s from somewhere else?” Both women thought at the question. “We can’t confront them, but we can at least make sure the colonel isn’t being lied to right?”

“I’m not sure,” the first trooper said. “We can talk more about it later. C’mon, we need to get back.”

O’Neill saw movement as the convoy rolled back to the base. “Hey, those people down there?”

The sergeant cursed as he looked to the river and grabbed the radio. “Command, this is patrol 1-8, have illegal harvesting, request quarantine team immediately at Filacciano, Via Doebbing.”

“Roger 1-8, hold suspects and standby.”

Switching channels the sergeant radioed the patrol. “All of you dismount and fan out, appears to be five subjects.”

O’Neill and Teal’c nodded, exiting the vehicle and watching the other two Humvees roll farther on. Looking toward the Tiber O’Neill saw them. Five civilians, heavily bundled up, shouting to each other and trying to gather up something off the ground. One of the gunners got on a bullhorn and started shouting in Italian.

“O’Neill!” Turning, he saw Minako and Makoto looking confused. “What’s happening?”

“Guess someone’s grabbing this stuff when they shouldn’t be,” he answered. “This is why you always make sure you have the right permits.”

The Humvees rolled forward, orders still being given as the civilians tried to run. O’Neill’s Humvee on the left fired a burst, stopping the group as a woman cried out. Minako and Makoto both froze, the Humvees and troopers halting fifty meters away from the tiberium. “Hey, what’re you two doing?” O’Neill waved forward. “C’mon, don’t leave a gap.”

Makoto shouted something. “She wants to know why we’re shooting at them, what did they do wrong?”

“They’re trying to smuggle raw tib,” Parker shouted, almost sounding bored. “If they escape an entire town could be infected.”

“What?” Minako looked over to Parker. “They have to know it’s dangerous!”

“Of course they do,” Parker shouted back. “It’s also more money than they've seen in their lives.”

O’Neill let the two think over what they just heard. He’d seen it in Germany, whenever they had a new guy on the operations. The ones who’d never seen the dirty side of government work that had to be done whenever Uncle Sam needed something done that no one could know about. They both had those same faces, trying to comprehend what they were seeing compared to what they thought was supposed to happen.

One of the taller civilians threw down a bag and started sprinting for the river. The trooper with the bullhorn started bellowing orders as the other civilians started calling out for them to stop. One of the machine guns started chattering again, Minako and Makoto grabbing at their ears. The troopers barked commands, but the man kept moving for the river

“Alright, enough of this.” Parker fired a single shot, catching the man in the leg and sending him sprawling into a thick patch of tiberium. He screamed out, but none of the troopers moved to get him. Instead orders were barked over the bullhorn, and two of the civilians rushed to grab him.

“O’Neill?” O’Neill turned to see Minako staring as Makoto shuddered with rage. “They aren’t going themselves because those people are already in the tiberium, aren’t they?”

O’Neill didn’t answer, he just watched as the two pulled the man up. The wrap around his face had been torn apart, blood trailing down his left cheek and his face covered in sparkling green crystal fragments. By the time the decon team had arrived, he noticed that the scab had an unmistakable green tinge.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Walton paced his office, shaking his head. “Two days since the first attempts, O’Neill. Two days, and I’m still getting reports from Dr. Moebius that every attempt to try and cure the infected is going poorly. Do you want to see the pictures?” Before O’Neill could answer, Walton tossed a folder to O’Neill. Bracing himself, O’Neill opened up the folder and saw exactly what he expected. One picture of a woman with tiberium growing out of her eyes, and the picture after where it had erupted out of her temples and mouth. A man with tiberium crystals where his legs should have been, and after where the crystals were essentially stilts. And those were the better cases. “Dr. Moebius isn’t willing to give up though, she believes that the problem is that the tiberium is interfering with the ‘technology’ being used. She wants to take a risk and try to cure a patient who isn’t terminal.”

O’Neill blinked. “What?”

“Seems she thinks that the crystals are getting false readings. Thinks that what we need is someone who isn’t near-totally tiberium to see if that helps.” Walton glared at O’Neill. “Good for her, she has five new patients in quarantine who just might be the next subjects thanks to that patrol.”

“Okay now you’re just venting,” O’Neill said. “Look, we all went into this knowing that the thing might not work. Everyone else has said it, this is just a desperate move.”

“Well we didn’t think it would make us more desperate,” Walton said, beyond exasperated and from the sound of things closing fast on overcome by the realization that nothing would solve this problem for now. “Tiberium has almost reached Nazzano, at best it’s two more days before we order the mandatory evacuation.”

“Well what about Daddy Moebius, what’s he had to say about all this?” O’Neill noticed Walton didn’t speak up. “Yeah, I don’t believe that he’s been that quiet on the issue.”

“Dr. Moebius has spent much of his time in his personal laboratory,” Walton said. “He’s stated repeatedly that his primary concern is to unlock what tiberium is, and more importantly how to understand it. Seeing as he’s the only researcher with the experience to back up his mentality on the matter, I’m willing to let him do as he wants for now.”

“Because that line of thinking never got anyone in trouble, ever.” O’Neill tossed the folder back to Walton. “We both know they’re trying, don’t go blaming them because they decided to come here on their own.”

Walton sighed. “I’m trying not to. But you have to understand that what’s happening here is happening all over the world. Rome will be the signal on whether or not we can stop tiberium’s spread or prepare for some very painful and costly losses in the years to come.”

“Well I’ll go check and see how everyone’s doing then.” Rising from his seat, O’Neill left Walton to stew and hurried outside into the camp again.

There was a sound of commotion back in the tents, and following the noise O’Neill saw a circle of troopers watching two men square off to spar. One of the men was using some taekwando, the other throwing down with krav maga. The pair blocked, grappled, and maneuvered until the krav maga fighter managed to secure a headlock that forced a tap out. The man laughed, slapping his opponent on the back and motioning for a new challenger.

“Colonel,” Gunner said, walking over. “Care to throw in? Rank’s no object for these fights.”

“I’m good, Teal’c’s enough of a workout.” O’Neill watched the massive blonde muscle-in-the-shape-of-a-man scan for a new challenger, troopers waving him off and laughing as he paraded. “Where’s Parker?”

“It’s Deadeye’s turn to watch him today sir,” Gunner said. “Patrol to the west to check for smuggling with the carabinieri just came back so we'll have to find something else to occupy him. Other than that, hopefully a quiet day.”

O’Neill shared the hope when he saw Ami and Makoto walking over and quickly dashed it himself. “Hey kids. You okay?”

“Yes,” Ami said, sounding as unconvincing as humanly possible. “Ms. Sydney gave us today to rest.”

O’Neill nodded. “Sounds good. Why not sit and watch the fights, take your mind off things?”

Makoto asked a question, and hearing the answer she ripped off her GDI jacket and stepped forward. The assembled crowd laughed and “Ooooh”ed, the blonde man standing a good foot over Makoto. “So you want to fight little girl,” he said, his voice a hard Scandinavian accent. “Very well, we can fight. Don’t blame me when you break your bones.” Makoto replied with something that didn’t need a translation.

“Oh, this should be good,” Gunner said. “Ten bob on the Nordic.”

O’Neill chuckled. “Not even a bet.”

Ami looked at the two in shock. “You aren’t going to stop her?”

O’Neill mimed concern. “No. Stop. Don’t.”

The blonde man scoffed. “You speak English?” Makoto just glared at the man. “You, blue-haired-girl!” Ami jumped a little. “Tell her that she’d better not take this personally.” Ami did as she was told.

Makoto bowed, the blonde man returning the sentiment before both got into their stances. The two circled each other briefly, gauging each other before Makoto went to strike. The blonde man easily deflected the blows, batting away each punch and grabbing Makoto’s leg as she went for a kick. Makoto answered by putting her other foot on the man’s chest and kicking, making a backflip out of his grasp. The circle of troopers laughed, clapping and cheering at the display. Ami smiled and clapped happily at the sight.

“You aren’t bad,” the man said, laughing as he reset. Makoto didn’t respond, she just went at it again. More kicks and punches and swings, until the blonde trooper put her into a wristlock takedown. Makoto cried out and fell hard into the dirt, the troopers laughing as some passed money around. The blonde trooper laughed, pulling Makoto up and dusting off her shoulders. “Alright, you’re done for now. Who’s next?”

Makoto growled something, and glared at the man. The laughing and betting slowed, and the blonde trooper turned to see Makoto in her stance again. “You’re a good fighter, but don’t press it.” Makoto answered, and didn’t let Ami translate. Shaking his head, the blonde trooper went into his stance. Makoto swung and punched, but her right arm was pulled forward. Pressing his right hand into her left shoulder, the trooper put his right leg behind hers and shoved. Off-balance, Makoto landed hard and groaned.

“Makoto, please, you need to stop!” Ami stood at the edge of the crowd with fear flashing on her face like a neon sign. “You don’t need to keep fighting!” Makoto didn’t answer. Battered and starting to feel the pain from the hits, she stood ready to fight again.

The blonde trooper shook his head. “No, sparing’s over.” The crowd groaned, but the man waved his hands. “Someone new, someone new! This is gonna get someone hurt if we keep going -- ” He suddenly spun around, and saw Makoto glaring up at him. The man shook his head. “No, do you understand? I’m not going to fight you.”

“We’ll take her outta here.” Stepping up, O’Neill and Gunner hooked their arms under Makoto’s and carried the girl away. Makoto struggled to escape their holds, but neither man budged as they left the troopers behind to wonder what just happened.

“Let me go!” Makoto struggled to escape, but the two had her and she wasn’t getting loose after the sparing match. She looked wild, covered in dust and hair matted to her face by sweat. “I’m sick of it, do you hear me! I want to actually do something!”

“Jesus she’s feisty,” Gunner said, grunting as he adjusted his grip. “What’s she saying?”

“She’s frustrated,” Ami said, looking near-tears. “We all are. None of the attempts have actually worked, and they told us what happened to those people out in the tiberium.” Ami shuffled to a stop, shaking and stammering. “Why, why isn’t anything working anymore? We’re the Sailor Soldiers, but we can’t save anyone? This...This isn’t fair.”

O’Neill and Gunner let go of Makoto and turned to see Ami standing between the tents, head down as tears streamed down her cheeks. “We have so many memories of the past, but nothing useful. We don’t know about guns or fighting people or aliens, and even when we try to do our best we can’t help.” Ami looked up at O’Neill for an answer. “I keep thinking about how to help, and nothing works!” Falling onto the ground, Ami wept into Makoto’s jacket and sobbed out muffled cries for answers.

O’Neill pointed at Makoto, then to Ami, then back at the girls’ tent. Makoto nodded, gently picking Ami up and guiding her to the tent. “Gunner, where’s Usagi?”

Gunner blinked back to reality. “Oh, uh, I think she went with Minako to the hospital again wait!” O’Neill didn’t hold up, he sped for the hospital like the answers to life itself were waiting inside for him to find.

Parker came out from between the tents on the way, looking up with a sneer. “What now, someone else get turned into tib art?”

“We’re talking to Moebius,” O’Neill said, grabbing Parker and pulling him along. Storming through the gate to the research compound, O’Neill bull-rushed up to Sydney’s office and threw the door open. Usagi sat with her face down to the floor, Minako jumping up in response to the intrusion. Sydney slammed her hands on the desk. “Colonel what the hell -- ”

“Where’s your dad?”

“He’s in the research lab, but -- ”

“No, no more buts, I see enough of those when they transform into those costumes.” Minako blushed slightly, and O'Neill threw up his hands. “Well it’s not like I'm wrong!”

“My father is in the middle of vital research, colonel.”

“Well then maybe he’ll make some time for his daughter.” O’Neill jerked a thumb at Parker. “Or I could just have him get his team to break us in.” Parker blinked, but couldn’t help grinning.

Sydney grunted and threw up her hands. “Fine, you want to deal with him? Come with me.”

The approach to research labs was tense, between Usagi and Minako nervously following behind the near-enraged O’Neill and a grinning Parker. Waving her credentials at the two guards at the door, Sydney led the group into the research facility. Parker noted the stares of the research staff, whispering to each other in hushed tones asking who these strangers were barging through the facility.

The group followed Sydney to an elevator to the lower levels. “He’s been working on this particular project for two weeks,” Sydney said. “You’d better hope he’s in a good mood.”

“Won’t matter, I’m not.” The elevator shuddered to a halt, and O’Neill barely let Sydney lead the way into the facility. Ignoring more stares from the staff moving through the halls, the group saw a door up ahead that read, “I. Moebius”. O’Neill rushed ahead, Sydney reaching for him but not able to stop him before he tried the handle.

Nothing.

O’Neill slammed on the door. “Doc, open up!” Slamming again, O’Neill glared at the name plate. “C’mon Doc, reality check time!”

“Stop it, what're you trying to do!” Pulling O’Neill back, Sydney knocked on the door. “Dad, sorry, but we need to talk with you.”

“Go away!” The voice from the other side of the door didn’t sound healthy or rested. There was plenty of rage though. “I’m conducting very important research here, I can’t be interrupted!”

“For two weeks straight?!” O’Neill slammed on the door again. “Doc, let us in or I’m breaking the door down.”

Sydney’s mouth fell open. “You can’t, you don’t have the authority!”

“Sue me lady, isn’t your dad supposed to be in charge?” O’Neill kept slamming on the door. “Open up dammit!”

“Go away, this is the last time I’ll tell you!”

O’Neill shook his head. “Parker, if you would?”

Parker grinned, and lining up with the door he kept Sydney from stopping him as pulled out a multitool and went to work on the hinges. O’Neill blinked, but nodded. “Okay, I was expecting more kicking but this works too -- ”

With the hinges sufficiently weakened, Parker rose and kicked the door down.

The interior of the lab was a sty, and that was being generous. The first thing to hit everyone was the stench of stale sweat and rotting food. Daring to look inside, O’Neill saw papers scattered everywhere. Some were relatively intact, others were scrawled over with red ink like a five-year old had found a red pen and ten pounds of Pixie Stix. A computer sat on a desk among the lab equipment, looking like it had been used as a napkin judging by the ketchup stains. A soiled lab coat lay crumbled on the floor, and a tie was draped over a Styrofoam box half-filled with a half-eaten moss-covered cheeseburger.

None of that was as troubling as the green crystal in a sample container balanced precariously on the edge of a counter.

Sydney burst inside and put it as far away from the edge as possible, taking a breath as she realized what she was standing in and looked around. Her father was scrawling on a wall behind the computer, hair barely held back in his ponytail. He didn’t even seem to realize that he didn’t have a door anymore. “Dad?” Sydney looked around the room, finally realizing what she was looking at. “Dad, what happened?” Moebius muttered something, scrawling out an equation on the wall.

O’Neill barked. “Hey, Dr. Moron! What the hell happened here!”

“Not now!” Moebius kept scrawling, a little faster as he shouted. “I’m almost done, I just need to keep going!”

O’Neill shook his head and turned to one of the researchers now gawking inside. “Hey, you! Get a doc down here, tell’em to bring some tranquilizers.”

Sydney stood rooted to the floor next to the Tiberium sample. Looking at it again, she saw on it a sample tag. Scrawled on it, “SIGNED OUT: 19980529”. “Three…Dad, you’ve been working with this single sample for three months?”

“And for three months it hasn’t degraded or ceased growing,” Moebius said, his voice picking up. Usagi stepped forward, slowly walking through the papers to get to Moebius’ side. His face was manic, focused on his work on the wall. “I measured it, it’s grown 0.071 millimeters without a steady source of soil minerals or any biological matter to consume.”

Usagi looked into the man’s eyes, and saw there was a raging fire inside them. Uncontrolled, unstoppable, it had begun to consume him. “I can solve it,” he said, not realizing Usagi didn’t understand him. “I’ve almost got the key to solving tiberium’s spread, how to stop it from infecting anyone.”

O’Neill looked to Sydney, who had knelt down to read over what she could find. With a face that hid nothing, she looked up and shook her head.

“I’ve almost got it,” Moebius whispered through a bristling gray beard. “I’ve almost finished what I need.”

Usagi shook her head. “You poor man,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you can’t figure it out either.” Before anyone could warn her off, she wrapped her arms around Dr. Moebius.

“I can solve it,” Moebius said again. Only his voice wavered. “I just need more time, a little more time.” His hand stopped scrawling on the wall, it was frozen in place and shaking. “I need to solve it,” he said, his voice starting to break. “I need to stop it.” The pen froze mid-scribble, Usagi squeezing him tighter. O’Neill didn’t know how, the smell coming off the man was so intense that everyone knew it was already on their own clothes.

Parker watched the scene, and for the first time in a longer time than he could remember, he was speechless. Three months one of the greatest scientific minds had been working on tiberium, and even despite three months he’d nearly done this to himself. He wouldn’t dare show it, but despite his calm his mouth twitched at the sight and smell.

“You can let go,” Usagi said gently. “Please, don’t torture yourself anymore.”

Mobieus’ pen fell from his shaking hands, and his face twisted from mania to crushing despair. “I have to…I have to figure it out…” Balling his hand into a fist, Moebius started slamming it on the wall in front of him. O’Neill was locked in place as he watched Usagi stay wrapped around the man as he started to collapse. “Have to solve it, I just have to solve it…”

O’Neill edged over to Sydney. “What the hell happened to him?”

Sydney folded her arms and looked away. “The staff were starting to get frustrated with my father and his focus on the crystal itself, we figured it was best to just let him work on his own and continue on with our own research.”

O’Neill blinked. “Sydney the man’s obsessed. I mean he nearly broke containment with that sample.”

Sydney nodded. “I’m part of the staff too, remember?”

Parker stood in the doorway, watching as Dr. Moebius collapsed into a heap on the floor, muttering and stammering as Usagi held him.

Daniel grunted as the Humvee bounded down the road. “Okay, now that was intentional.”

“Sorry sir, the roads are getting worse. Road crews have refused to work anywhere near tiberium-affected regions.” The driver of the Humvee shrugged. “Just be thankful we aren’t in the Balkans, Nod made that place a right mess.”

Rei yelped at another bump. “Please tell me we’re going home soon. I just want to take a nice long bath after all this.”

“Just two more days,” Daniel said, trying to shift in his seat with the road. It was midday, the sun making the heat nearly unbearable as they rolled through the countryside. “At least you’ll be able to make it back in time for the rest of your vacation.”

“Some vacation,” Rei mumbled. “Daniel, why do you still go on these missions?”

Daniel blinked. “Uh, what do you mean?”

Rei looked out the clear plastic that counted as a window. “You’re not a soldier like Col. O’Neill or Maj. Carter, and you’re not a warrior like Teal’c. You’re someone I’d always thought worked in libraries or universities, not going on crazy adventures through space and other universes.”

Daniel nodded. “Right, well, that’s not necessarily wrong. I just, well it was my wife.”

Rei looked over. “Your wife? What do you mean?”

Daniel sighed. “The first mission, through the stargate to a planet called Abydos, I met a woman named Sha’re.” Daniel grinned like a fool as he thought about her. “She was, well she was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen.”

Rei smiled. “And you fell in love?”

Daniel chuckled. “Actually her father thought I was an emissary of the gods, he tried to give her to me as a gift.” Daniel stopped chuckling when he say Rei’s glare. “I didn’t take him up on that offer. Well, anyway, one fight and nuclear explosion in the upper atmosphere later and I realized that…I didn’t want to go back to Earth.” Daniel went back to smiling at the memory. “I spent two of the happiest years of my life with Sha’re, making sure that the people of Abydos would be safe. I taught them what I knew of the world, of mankind. They taught me how to survive, the basics of hunting and gathering, skills that I never realized would be so valuable to know in SG-1.”

Rei shook her head. “Then why come back?”

Daniel’s smile vanished. “Apophis.” His mind went back to Sha’re, controlled by Amaunet. “Hey took her, used her as the host body for his ‘queen’. Had her bear a son for him.” Daniel leaned back in his seat. “She would’ve been forced to kill me if Teal’c hadn’t saved my life.”

Rei’s eyes went wide. “How…How did he save your life?”

Daniel took a long breath. “I’ve been a widower for two years now.” Rei’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “I don’t blame Teal’c, at that point it was a mercy. Sha’re wasn’t able to break free of Amaunet’s control. If it wasn’t for Teal’c she would’ve been forced to watch as her own hand killed me. I mean I was angry at Teal’c, very angry. Then I realized that there were still so many others out there, people that had no way to stop the Goa’uld from doing to them what happened to me.”

Rei was struck. Fighting for the good of others wasn’t something that was unfamiliar to the girls, but the truth was that none of them had been so personally affected by their past lives. The death of Nephrite was something they’d witnessed, and seeing Zoisite killed before their eyes had left some impact, but all of them still had their families and loved ones safe. The thought of losing her grandfather, even Yuuichirou being killed by their enemies? As they rode on Rei wondered if she would’ve been able to carry on like Daniel had been doing for so many years.

The Humvee slowed, Rei and Daniel looking out of the windshield to see a box truck broken down on the road ahead. “All of you stand ready, we’ll get out and check the truck”

“Check the truck?” Daniel unbuckled. “Check for tiberium?”

“Smuggling monsieur,” the passenger said, the gunner rotating toward the truck. “The farmers harvest it, the drivers haul it. Everyone makes their money.”

Daniel kept to his seat and watched as one of the troopers in the patrol walked over to the truck, speaking Italian well-enough that Daniel knew he was native. The driver smiled and waved. “Good afternoon sir! What can I do for you?”

“Just on a patrol sir,” the trooper answered. “Do you need any help?”

The driver laughed and waved off the offer. “No, no, just a belt thrown out of place. I’m just going to fix it right up.”

There was a noise from the truck. “What was that?”

“Nothing, just something that probably shifted during the ride.” The driver laughed, but Daniel’s hackles were up and weren’t going to go down so quickly. “I’m sorry to cause such a problem, you just go around and I’ll be fine.”

“All of you stand ready,” the patrol leader radioed. “I don’t like this one.”

“I can at least put it back in place sir, the very least I can do.” The trooper smiled as he walked to the back, the driver smiling as he followed. “Oh, can you please open this for me sir? I’m not used to this model.” The driver nodded, and Daniel got out. Even as much as the trooper tried to stay visible he wasn’t fully covered.

Rei followed, staying behind Daniel as the door rattled up behind the truck. There was more talking, but then a shout and Rei saw a man running from the truck with a gun in his hands toward the river. As she was rushing forward, the trooper was on the ground struggling with the man. He shouted something in English, and Daniel ran past. Grabbing her pen, Rei transformed and sprinted past Daniel before he realized what was happening.

“Stop!” Rei closed with the man, managing to handle running across the uneven road and ground despite being in stiletto heels. “In the name of the…Global Defense Initiative! Stop running and face your punishment!”

The man shouted back, but stopped at the edge of the tiberium field at the edge of the river. Turning, he shouted in Italian and brandished a shotgun at Rei. Glaring at him, she shouted out, “Stop! You’re trapped, come back here and surrender!” The civilian kept his shotgun up, and Rei saw that he was barely older than she was.

“What the hell is happening!” Rei froze and turned, seeing one of the troopers rush up behind her. The civilian looked over and as the trooper came up he leveled his shotgun and fired.

Rei froze, watching as the trooper cried out and fell back. Blood stained his uniform, suddenly spilling out of his neck. A second GDI trooper came up behind Rei, and as she watched the teen tried to swing his shotgun at the trooper. The trooper was faster, and raising his rifle fired a burst that cut through the chest of the teen. The teen barely registered his that he'd been shot before collapsing back into the tiberium.

Daniel ran up to see the trooper helping his comrade as the Humvee sped up to get the man into the Humvee. The other trooper kept his hand pressed up on the neck wound, the bleeding man gasping for air as another trooper jumped from the Humvee and ripped a medical kit out of a pack ont he wounded trooper's harness. They were shouting, trying to keep the trooper’s eyes focused.

“Rei, Rei this way.” Daniel took Rei’s shoulders and guided her back to the truck and first Humvee. Rei shuddered, but part of her recognized it wasn’t from seeing death again.

“He was so young,” she thought. “He shot and got shot…I could’ve stopped him couldn’t I?” She looked up at Daniel as she got back to the Humvee, not noticing the driver of the truck in handcuffs begging about something. “Could I have stopped him Daniel?”

Daniel opened the door to the Humvee. “Transform back, we’re done out here.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

O’Neill watched as the camp broke down, troopers rushing to and fro carrying stakes and loading the air conditioners onto the backs of seven-ton trucks. The valuable equipment had already been removed, but not the patients. Their hazmat status meant they had to wait for specialized transportation to another quarantine-capable GDI facility.

“Dr. Moebius is being evaluated now,” Walton said, walking up to O’Neill. “It isn’t looking good though, GDI wants to keep this quiet. If the world knew their foremost specialist on tib had a breakdown it’d be almost as big a black eye if people about what Gen. Shepherd tried to order in Sarajevo.”

O’Neill nodded. “New plan?”

“The Pope’s announcing the evacuation, they’re doing what they can to save the treasures they can and preserve what they can’t move.” Walton shook his head. “Saw the Sistine Chapel my last leave. It’ll be a shame when the tib moves in.”

“Yeah.” O’Neill watched another loaded truck roll out of the base laden down with generators. A large team was up atop the comm building, disassembling the aerials and dishes that kept the base connected to the world. “What about Sydney?”

“She’s taking a voluntary sabbatical; all further medical tests are canned for the time being until we can study what did happen.” Walton said quietly. “Truth be told I think what happened to her father got to her, something bad. Thankfully her notes are detailed enough, she’ll have plenty of smart folks to help her when she gets back.”

O’Neill sighed. “Sorry, really am.”

“Shoot, it ain’t you I’m worried about.” Walton looked over to the girls, sitting by a Humvee and not even bothering to watch the organized chaos.

O’Neill saw them, but then he saw something worse. Parker walking over. Before O’Neill could intercept Parker reached the Humvee and leaned against it. “Hoo boy. Brace for impact kids.”

Parker watched the breakdown. “Hey.” None of the girls answered. “Rough first mission.”

Minako nodded. “It was.”

Parker took his time for the next sentence. “Listen, you did…You did your best.” Minako and Ami blinked. “I mean, all things considered, you tried.”

Ami dared to look up at Parker. “You…You really mean that?”

Parker nodded, not looking at the girls. “Look, GDI didn’t give you a fair call dragging you all on this one. It was the bottom of the ninth and they put you all in as pinch hitters against a team with a ten-run lead and fresh bullpen.”

Minako puzzled through the analogy. “So…You’re not angry?”

“Not at you,” Parker said, watching as more gear was taken out of the research lab and hospital. “I mean none of you asked to be here right? You’re here because we asked you to be. You didn’t know what tib was really capable of, and you still tried.” Parker shrugged. “I’m…I mean…” Parker got up and walked off. “Thanks for trying.”

O’Neill leaned over. “Uh, what just happened?”

“Nick Parker just thanked someone else…” Walton shook his head for a second to try and clear his vision. “Nick Parker just thanked someone, excuse me I have to go make a call.” Walton sped for the nearest functional radio as the girls all reacted to Minako and Ami translating.

“Sir?” Turning, O’Neill saw Carter walking up. “We’re all set to go sir, I’ve got the notes Dr. Frasier will need to try and see about keeping tiberium from infecting anyone else.”

O’Neill nodded. “Right, got it.” Looking West, he huffed, “Round everyone up and get’em to the pads, we’ve got to get to Brussels don’t we?”

The Senshi nodded, grabbing their packs and following O’Neill to the helipads. Another half-hour of waiting, and soon a Chinook in GDI gold came in low on the horizon.

“I think this is the first time something didn’t really work out in the end, isn’t it?” Ami looked out on the base as they loaded up into the Chinook. “We couldn’t find a cure, and tiberium is forcing the evacuation of one of the oldest cities in the world.”

“We’re alive though,” Minako thought, securing her pack and strapping herself in. “As long as we’re alive and we’re together, we’re going to find a way through anything.”

Makoto shook her head, adjusting her own straps as best she could. “You really think so? The Negaforce is one thing, but what about all this? We aren’t ready for the multiverse.”

Usagi looked up with stern and solid determination. “We aren’t ready yet.” The four looked over in surprise. “We’ll start getting ready from now on. We’ll do whatever we have to, so we can help everyone.” She smiled, looking at each of her friends. “We’re the Sailor Senshi, no one else can do what we do. Fighting might be part of it, but we can still heal and help too.”

Rei pumped her fist. “Right! As long as we’re together, no one is gonna stop us!” Farther into the chopper, Daniel smiled.

The chopper’s crew chief called out, “Alright, everyone secured?” The group nodded. “Make sure you look out to the left on the way, we’ll be passing Rome.”

Looking out, the Senshi saw it as they went. The Eternal City, currently jammed with people and cars all being ordered to leave by the Italian military.

“When Rome falls, so falls the world.” Daniel let that hang as they flew.

“Well, some of those ruins have been standing for a few centuries,” O’Neill shouted. “Ain’t gonna make a difference if a few green crystals are moving in. Once we find a way to stop it we’ll be back and do some renovations.”

Minako nodded. “O’Neill just said we’ll be back one day.”

“We will be,” Usagi said. “We’ll come back and save this whole world!”

Daniel sighed. “Nothing else, have to respect their enthusiasm.”

No one on the chopper could see a lone figure in a suit and tie, staring up at the helicopter, almost as if the mad evacuation around him didn’t exist.

Back on the ground, Walton listened to Gen. Locke repeat what he just heard. “Havoc…Thanked the girls?”

“As I live and breathe sir,” Walton answered. “As I live and breathe -- ”

“Sir, we apologize but we need to talk with you.” Turning from the Humvee, Walton saw two Japanese troopers standing behind him at attention. “Sir, we need to tell you something about those girls, it’s vital for security.”

Walton nodded. “Very well, what did you find out?”

“They aren’t Japanese, they can’t be,” one of the women said. “The way that large bald man talked about them, it was like they weren’t even from this planet, let alone Japan.”

“One of them even claimed she was from my home in Tokyo,” the second said. “But she lied about everything, made up thing I know aren't real.”

Walton paused. “What are your names?”

“Takeo Kumagami and Noa Izumi sir,” the first one said. “We felt that you needed to know about this development as soon as possible.”

Walton paused, staring down the two women before turning back to the radio. “Sir, I think we’ll need a to update our procedures for when the task force is around. I have an idea.”