Chapter 1: A9A0: PROLOGUE.
Summary:
Prologue.
Chapter Text
Nepeta Leijon pushed her way through a doorway, and found herself not where she thought she was a minute earlier. She also found herself a bit older than she had thought she was a minute ago, as well. Her hair had clearly grown and her bangs covered her eyes.
That she wore a doctor's lab coat instead of her usual Kiramei Pink attire also was odd- but given the day she'd thought she'd been having so far, that was also something strange.
"THERE! SHE WENT THROUGH THERE!" Someone shouted from the doorway behind her, and before Nepeta could react, someone grabbed her from the inside of the passageway, pulled past the thresh hold, and slammed the door shut.
It was then that Nepeta saw the person in question throwing the deadbolt on the front door of whatever house she was now in, interceding a barrier between Then and Now in a way that was Absolute.
That person wore not a brown cloak, but instead a windbreaker of a black, plasticity make with green trim. Their face was entirely discernible now, rather than strangely ambiguous. Their hair was darker, and longer than it had been the last time Nepeta had seen them, too.
And so it was the eyes that truly sold the identity to her. It was those damned eyes of a bright orange color that told Nepeta who it was she was looking at. That, plus the awkward smile.
"It's you," Nepeta said. "That Traveler person."
"Yeah," The Traveler's smile shifted a bit more nervously. "Sorry I took so long."
o< -- STARGATE SG-1 -->o
THE TORMENT OF TANTALUS
Notes:
Well. This is not a story I was expecting to post at all, but here it is.
I've been debating going back and filling in missing missions from my earlier Stargate Alternia timeline. Mainly, the skipped SG-1 episodes. So, I decided to start with the earliest one in the timeline, with regards to in-universe chronological order. I've left poor Dr. Littlefield hanging for too long.
...But as I pondered the situation, I realized... I'm not the kind of person who'd leave Ernest alone on his own all that time. And neither is Jake. He'd travel back, he'd visit his friend and keep him company.
And then there's a problem of a roadblock in plot I've been dealing with in the G-Witch Movie, and Nika and Miorine are poised to solve it after this fic.
But ultimately...
I kinda have been leaving the Kiramagers hanging in an unpublished adaptation of one of the Kiramager Movies, with no real idea of how to proceed in resolving the situation. Until all of this came about. And so...
Please Welcome Nepeta Leijon to the backstage area, everyone. She's going to help me set things right, this fic.
Chapter 2: A9A1. Heliopolis.
Summary:
Jake and Catherine won't wait a minute longer. They've waited long enough.
Notes:
---
This Chapter is set post Act 1, and Pre Act 2 of Stargate Alternia.
---
CW:
Unstable buildings.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
NOVEMBER 20TH, 1994.
EARTH. CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX.
THE SOON TO BE STARGATE COMMAND'S BRIEFING ROOM.
General George Hammond looked towards the people standing before him.
Catherine Langford, front and primary, among them. The rest of them... Captain Samantha Carter, Colonel Jack O'neill, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and...
Jake Harley, who was dual wielding eye bags and mugs of coffee.
"Before I officially hand everything over to you," Catherine said, "I have unfinished business. I have a Gate Address, I have a team, I'm going after Earnest."
"There's nothing I'd do to hold you back otherwise," Hammond said. "If Dr. Littlefield is alive, we should send someone to go. My only concern is if the Address even works anymore."
"I believe it should," Carter said. "The planet in question is close to Abydos, so it uses many of the same points in space as its locators, which explains why the team in '45 could coincidentally dial in without compensating for the planetary shift. Beyond that, Sir, I've triple checked. This planet isn't on the Cartouche from Abydos."
"It's not on Khepri's roadmap of 'here be dragons'?" O'neill asked.
"Nope," Carter shook her head. "If the Goa'uld haven't charted it, but there's a Stargate on it, then there's probably information we can glean about the Gate Builders there."
"Very well then," Hammond said. "Prepare a Probe, secure the scene for viability, and then proceed if it's clear. Meeting dismissed."
"Yes, Sir," Carter nodded, and headed off to prepare that. Hammond also left to go to his office at that moment.
"There is another possibility to consider," Daniel said.
"And what's that?" Catherine asked.
"Khepri knew about it, and erased the planet from her repository for some reason," Daniel frowned. "Hopefully it's Captain Carter's theory, but... we should be prepared, just incase we run into the unexpected."
"Well, regardless of the unexpected," Catherine said, "I'm going inspite of it. Earnest deserves to come home."
"Not doubting that," Daniel said, and turned to look out the room's window at the Stargate below. "Just... I have a feeling we're walking into something we're not prepared for."
"Well," O'neill patted Daniel on the shoulder, "that's why we'll prepare with a week's worth of food, just in case we get stranded like last time." And then he sauntered off.
With Daniel occupied with the window, Catherine turned to Jake, and smiled at him. "How are you holding up?"
"Hoping whatever we find on the other side of that Gate helps me reopen that damned Gate my mother had in the attic," Jake said, sipping at his coffee. "West's men did a real number in on it."
"I'm sure she's fine," Catherine gripped Jake's shoulder tightly for a moment, then patted him on the back. "Joey's a strong girl."
"One can only hope," Jake sighed. "But for now, I'll focus on Earnest. He's the priority."
"One rescue at a time," Catherine nodded.
THE GATE ROOM.
The Stargate spun, the coordinate wheel moving smoothly under the chevrons, while the room trembled and squeaked as the first draft of the shaking suppression joists attempted to handle the load of the vibrating Stargate.
A FRED cart, loaded with supplies, sat at the base of the ramp, while the Away Team gathered around it. O'neill, Carter, Daniel, Jake, and Catherine- all watching and waiting as the chevrons locked.
"New suppressors are nice," O'neill said even as he felt like his knees were about to be shaken out from under him.
"We're going to need to increase the spring tension," Carter said.
"And maybe oil it a bit better?" Jake offered as the squeaky-squeakys from the suppression joists rattled off.
"That too," Carter said.
The Stargate's seventh symbol fell into alignment under the final chevron, CHUNK-KATHUNK.
WAAA WAAAA! KAWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
The brilliant wall of water-light-energy shot forwards with a ravenous, impatient joust, and as it fell backwards, the slight vacuum of displaced air could be felt, drawing inwards towards the Gate as if the very universe around them were impatient for them to get a move on towards destiny.
Or maybe that was just the resulting void of oxygen as the unstable vortex of the Stargate Eventhorizon consumed a chunk of air infront of it. Could be either.
"Alright, let's go!" O'neill said, taking the remote for the FRED and driving it up the ramp. Carter followed him.
Daniel and Jake fell in alongside Catherine as they took up the rear. She linked her arms with theirs, and stared at the eventhorizon hesitantly as the FRED, Carter, and O'neill vanished through the wall of water.
"Don't worry," Daniel said, smiling. "It's a piece of cake."
"If you say so," Catherine said.
"We'll have you every step of the way," Jake said.
"Right then," Catherine said, and stepped forwards, Jake and Daniel followed-
Reality tore asunder as molecules were sent hurtling down the wormhole, spiraling, spiraling, spiraling, and with a flash- sent careening down a tube of Green-blue light as stars shot past in all directions, left, right, up, down- noises and echoes of other worlds blowing by unnoticed as countless lightyears were crossed in the matter of a nanosecond.
And then with a reintegrating flash---
Catherine, Jake, and Daniel stepped through the gate on the other side- the trio wobbled as Catherine's knees threatened to give out on her.
"Oof, I could handle the shaking but not that?" She joked. "Some piece of cake."
Soon, the Stargate closed, and everyone was exploring on their own two feet.
The room before them was exactly what the MALP had seen- a large, dark grey room that was in a somewhat awkward state of half repaired, half colapsed. There were ominous creaks and groans from the structure around them that implied a precarious state of existence.
There, at the far end of the room, was the DHD, nestled into its own little alcove, just like on Abydos.
"It's hot in here," Carter remarked. "Humid, too."
"Someone forget to turn on the AC?" O'neill asked, looking around. "Hrm. Anyone see any way in or out of this place?"
"I've got a door on the left," Jake said, peering away into the darkness.
"Same on the right," Daniel agreed. "Looks like just those two."
"Alright, Daniel, check the DHD and make sure it's got the same glyphs as Abydos," O'neill ordered. "Then we'll spread out and look around for Ernest."
"Roger that," Daniel carried himself up the stairs to the DHD and went to examine its front. "...Ah. Problem."
"For cryin' out loud," O'neill muttered. "What is it, Daniel?"
"It's, uh... there's a hole in it." Daniel said, touching part of the DHD. "And it's not powering on either."
"There's a what?" Carter ran over to check, and sure enough, through a portion of the dial pad, and the central dome, it seemed as if a chunk of rock had pierced through the device. "Oh, great. That's not good."
"We stuck?" O'neill asked, coming up to examine the Gate's DHD from behind.
"Maybe," Carter said. "We did bring a spare generators just in case we needed to extend the life of our emergency batteries. I'll see if I can repair the DHD before we fall back to that."
"Alright," O'neill said. "You and Daniel work on that. Jake, Catherine, and I will spread out and see if we can find anything we might be able to use here to work a repair."
"Or Ernest," Catherine said.
"Or Ernest," O'neill added.
And so, the team split up.
"...I have no idea where to even begin with this," Daniel said. "I haven't poked around the Abydos DHD much."
"Well, we're on equal footing there, then," Carter agreed, and exhaled sharply. "Alright. Let's see what we're dealing with. Help me pull the lid off."
"Sure thing," Daniel said.
Jake peered out a window, and he whistled lowly. "We're quite high up."
O'neill and Catherine peered out the window as well. They were apparently on the side of a castle on top of what once had been a solid cliff, overlooking a beach and ocean.
A very, very, very far away beach and ocean.
"Yeah, that's a really far away beach," O'neill said. "Good for a walk, though. Looks like there's been foot traffic recently. I count two tracks, maybe? If it's not one person looping."
"Agreed," Jake said. "Think it's Ernest or locals?"
"Hopefully Ernest," Catherine said. "Let's keep looking."
The trio followed the most well maintained paths as best as they could, bracing themselves as the building shuddered every now and then.
"This place feels really unstable," Jake said. "What do we do if we can't get the Gate to open?"
"I'm going to try not to think about that for the moment," O'neill said.
"Me either," Catherine agreed.
Then, they passed a doorway, and saw a pair of backpacks sitting against a support column inside.
"Hello there," Jack said, eyeing the very out of place objects.
They were new, not very covered in dust, and looked to be made out of some modern-ish adjacent kind of fabric. They were plain green backpacks, in most regards, but they were decidedly out of place in the current, very ancient environment.
"I suppose it was too much to hope this place was off the grid entirely," Catherine remarked. "I hope Ernest is alright."
O'neill gently poked one of the bags where it sat, to get a glimpse at it. It really did just seem to be a set of brandless generic backpacks.
Frowning, O'neill took to his radio, "Carter, come in."
"Yes, Sir?" Carter asked after a moment's pause.
"We've got backpacks here," O'neill said. "Two of 'em. Look modern-ish, so really out of place."
"We'll let you know if anyone comes by," Carter replied.
"Thanks," O'neill said, and shut off the radio. Then, he peered down the hallway the backpacks had signaled them to investigating. "So... anyone want to go see who might be behind door number three?"
"Might as well," Jake said. "Only lead we've got."
And so with that, the trio headed down the hallway, a bit more cautiously now.
However, as they walked, they started to hear the sounds of a hushed conversation, voices starting to come more into focus as they walked further and further towards the source of things. A stairwell was found, and the voices seemed to be coming from downstairs. So, they went that way.
As they descended, the sound of voices got louder, and dialogue was becoming discernible.
"...still can't... it's just not..." a female voice was saying.
"...we'll just have to... the Nimue..." replied a second female voice.
A third voice spoke, but it was quiet and hoarse, and unintelligible.
The stairs leveled out into a hallway, and it only went one direction, from which at the end of it a soft orange glow could be seen radiating out of an open doorway.
Catherine looked to Jake, who shrugged, who looked to O'neill, who just rolled his eyes, and very pointedly...
Coughed into his fist.
The dialogue stopped.
There was the sound of light footsteps, bare feet on stone, and then a figure emerged in the doorway, blocking out the light. A humanoid figure, for sure, wearing robes. Small in stature, though, and walking slowly, carefully, and...
And as the man came into sight, it was clear that the elderly bald man wearing some rather comfy looking robes was probably somebody important to this place.
The man nodded at them, and hobbled forwards, taking his time.
Catherine's breath caught in her throat. She knew that face, even after all these years.
It was Ernest.
The man came to a halt near them, coughed politely to clear his throat, and spoke quietly, "Hello. I'm the caretaker of this place. Who might you be, travelers?"
"We came through the Stargate," Jake began to speak. "We're looking for-"
"The Stargate?" the man's eyes widened. "Oh no. That'd explain the rumbling and shaking, wouldn't it?" He then turned and hobbled back towards the room he came from. "Come quickly, then, if you're here to use the Repository. We won't have much time!"
Jake sighed. "Yeah. That's Ernest alright."
"He didn't even recognize us, Jake!" Catherine protested meekly.
"Why is it always a matter of time with things like these?" O'neill asked before shaking his head and following Ernest. "Can't we ever have a nice leisurely stroll through a park?"
Soon, O'neill, Jake, and Catherine entered the chamber that Ernest had returned to, and they saw a DHD like device in the center of the room projecting a marvelous diagram of molecular structures into the air above them.
Standing at the podium were two young women, one with long silver hair and eyes, the other with short blue hair and purple-red eyes. They wore what looked like mechanics uniforms, rough white sleeveless shirts, and green cargo pants. The girl with silver hair wore a red baseball cap over her head, with a strange, unfamiliar logo of some kind of mask alongside the words "Shin-Sei" embroidered on the front of it.
Meanwhile, a third figure stood in the back of the room, wearing a dark brown cloak over their body, hints of a pink and white uniform hidden underneath could be seen through the gaps of the cloak's front. Their olive hued eyes pierced forwards from the shadow of the hood, almost expectantly. They pointedly said nothing, even as the other two women looked up as the trio entered.
"Oh, great, we've got company," the silver haired woman groused, looking quite sour at the interruption.
"Well, Hello there!" The blue haired girl smiled and waved.
"Howdy," was all O'neill had to say in answer, because he sure as hell wasn't going to voice his actual inner thoughts of 'What the hell is going on here?'
Notes:
This is going to be a strange one folks. Buckle in for some weirdness tomorrow... But that's all for tonight. :)
Chapter 3: A9A2: What the hell is going on here?
Summary:
The part where we find out a part of what the hell is going on here. This is that part.
Notes:
CW:
Nightmare Movie Scenarios.
The Metanarrative of Storytelling and Storywriting.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A crimson mask belonging to a Jamneshi named Minjo, of a specific timeline, floated aimlessly through time and space...
A plan of Garuza's, a plan of Gilgamesh's, lay waiting to trigger.
Minjo's mask tumbled through the multiverse, cast adrift, and awaiting something to latch onto...
And then...
In the space between Universes in the Super Sentai Multiverse Cluster... The Xros Heart descendant Kyoryugers and a local team of Zenkaigers were fighting against a small army of various theme-world afflicted ground-soldier robots- one of whom, before it was destroyed and ejecting that gear into the wild of the Multiverse, was themed after a world of movie making.
The gear that had provided that prototyping went flying out into the unknown, sparking, flaring with damage.
Normally for the Zenkaigers, that gear would soon be stepped on by a giant robot, and the power of the world-themed gear would run amok and prototype not just the robot, but the surrounding landscape with that world's theme...
However, this time, the sparking, damaged gear clashed against Minjo's mask, and both were sent tumbling on a wildly different course than the one they'd been set on before. None could have predicted this change of events. Not Garuza, not Gilgamesh, and certainly not any well meaning Chroniclers.
The Jamenshi mask of Minjo was prototyped with the power of a World Gear- a World Gear containing a world-line that enjoyed Film- the very making of the Motion Pictures- more than anything else.
Minjo's mask was utterly, and completely, transformed.
The newly made FIlm Mask hurtled out of the Super Sentai cluster at speed, and passed into a nearby cluster of similar suited-hero themeing...
It tumbled past worlds, and through a glowing green void of an orbiting doom dimension before a certain final version of Earth finally got in its way... and that transformed mask finally crashed down in a town presently home to another team of suited heroes...
A team of ancient might, legendary knights who had long ago fought an ancient, undefeatable enemy called Sporix... and nearly lost everything to secure their victory...
But after an incident where a mysterious Villain called Void Knight had tried to steal the Sporix from the Ranger's base... the Sporix's eggs had been scattered across the city...
And as fate would have it, it was onto one of those Sporix Eggs that the transformed Film Mask Jamen landed.
As an explosion of energy roared forth from that site...
Needless to say, It was very clear that things were about to get very strange as the Sporix Egg hatched, and was immediately affected by the Jamenshi and World Gear powersets.
...Reality seemed to warp that energy followed along the masks' previous pathway--- tracing a path backwards along the flow of the universe, calling upon the narrative link of the World Gear, and the Jamenshi mask...
Yes, something very strange was happening indeed.
...The energy caught on a Nexus Tunnel, and was funneled along through the greater network of inter-reality connections through the greatest flow of energy in this sector towards one of the nexus realities in the Multiverse, a place that served as a melting pot of multiple realities and their concepts...
A nebulous spiral of reality appeared- marked obviously by a crack in its shell through which energy flowed into it...
On the other side of that fissure?
Three galaxies in close, relative, proximity to each other and the fissure itself.
The camera rushes ahead of the oncoming energy wave, focusing in on one galaxy in particular-- the Pegasus Galaxy-- and then towards one planet-- a sea covered world-- where a certain gleaming, shining, Ancient City of Atlantis rested.
And then the energy wave caught up, and the continuity line of two universes suddenly contracted towards each other in a mighty snarl of confusion and paradox.
Yodonna's eyes snapped open, and she gasped for breath, glancing around in surprise.
"Where... am I?" she asked, quietly, unsure of what just happened. Then, she looked at her hands. "...But more than that..." Her hands clenched together. "The last thing I remember... Escape was forced out of... my body?? But then... what...?" She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Wasn't I dead?"
"Well if you're dead does that mean this is the afterlife?" a cheerful voice asked.
Yodonna spun on her heels, cloak flaring around her as she turned to face a rather... uh...
"What are you?" Yodonna asked of the mushroom themed slime monster.
"Me?" The monster pointed at herself. "I'm Mucus! Who are you?" She pointed at Yodonna.
"Yodonna," she began, "I'm..." she stopped. "...I'm..." she paused. "I'm a free agent." She decided upon. "My former masters are both dead." She felt more sure of herself now. Her mind was... blissfully empty, honestly. No Escape, no Ridley... no... nobody else but herself. Whoever Yodonna really was, she supposed. "Thus... I am I, and I serve nobody."
"Weeeell..." Mucus put a finger to the place her mouth would be. "That brings me back to my last question. Is this the afterlife? Because if it's the afterlife, then the Afterlife looks a LOOOOT like a movie set!"
The cameras pulled backwards, revealing that yes, indeed, the two of them were standing on a movie lot.
Cameras were pointed at the both of them, manned by Bechats and Hengemen...
"CUT CUT CUT!" A Jamenshi with a Movie themed mask stood to attention from behind a director's monitor. "No Meta! You broke the fourth wall! You're way off script!"
"Who are you?" Yodonna drew her whip, and glared at the Jamenshi.
"Director Jamen!" He performed a twirl of his right arm. "And you two lovely ladies are my leading stars of this film!"
"Oooh! A movie? I've always wanted to star in a movie!" Mucus clapped her hands. "But, uhhh... again, I have to ask. Is this the after life? Because the last thing I remember was getting dropped into an endless green void with Slyther and then watching the Red Ranger leave us there after he rescued our hostage!"
"You've got Ranger problems too, huh?" Yodonna glanced at the Sporix beast. "Mine sparkled so annoyingly."
"Mine are Dinosaur themed!" Mucus held her hands up by her head and growled. "Rawwrh!"
"Yes yes yes!" Director Jamen clapped his hands. "You two are both victims of fate! The Ranger teams you've fought are such nuisances! My very birth was owed to so many foiled plans!" He pointed at Mucus. "You were a comedy character left to rot in a void while the Dino Fury Rangers ambiguously destroyed your boss Void Knight in an explosion!" He pointed to Yodonna. "You were poorly written by an incompetent hack to be played by three different characters and didn't get a chance to be your own girl! MEANWHILE one of your alternate personalities went on to become a Runaway Train! What a hackneyed ending for a wonderful Kiramager character!" He clapped his hands. "You both are to be my leading ladies in this glorious film! I've saved you both from the cutting room floor to go onto greater things!! Namely! MY REVENGE FILM!"
"Revenge?" Yodonna asked. "I'm good with Revenge against the Kiramagers."
"Did you say they Destroyed Void Knight?!" Mucus asked. "Well why didn't you just say so! I wanna get revenge too!" She clenched her fists in delight. "Sign me up! What do we do!?"
"Excellent!" Director Jamen then sat back down in his chair, crossed his legs, and raised a rolled up script. "Now, we'll be restarting from scratch! Scene two, take two, annnnnd.... ACTION!"
*Cue Dino Fury Season 1, Opening Ver. 3*
"Wait. What? That's not right."
Atsuya Jurul awoke with a groan, water lapping at his feet, head pounding like mad...
Something had gone wrong.
He couldn't remember what, but something had gone horribly wrong.
He wasn't wearing his glasses, and Atsuya swore he could see sparkles in the corners of his eyes.
"KYAAAAAAA!" And then a shriek from beside him had Atsuya bolting upright in the sand.
Next to him was one Tomo Strider... except... Uh...
"WHERE ARE MY EARS AND TAIL!?" They shouted- missing those obvious traits, in addition to their missing wings. "I can't- I can't get them to morph back! Where are my ears and tail!?"
Atsuya shuffled to his feet and made his way to sit over next to his teammate, pondering the situation they were in.
They were on a beach. There was wreckage of a boat not far from them...
A giant frog temple lay in the middle of the bay, and towering above them in the distance was what looked like a volcano- separated from them by a large expanse of trees.
Atsuya checked his left wrist, but no Kiramei Changer sat there. Tomo's left wrist was similarly bare...
That's when the rest of it clicked.
Neither of them were wearing their team uniforms, but instead, were wearing what could only be described as 'the stereotypical clothing direction for the start of a castaway film.'
Infact, Atsuya could pinpoint it exactly.
"Tomo..." Atsuya began. "I think we're in a movie."
Tomo stopped- looked up at Atsuya, then looked him over more seriously, and then groaned, face falling down into their hands. "Fuuuuuck, you're wearing that stupid outfit from that new movie Equius just filmed. The one we all needled him about for showing his abs."
"Yep," Atsuya poked at the ripped open shirt he wore- it did nothing to cover his chest. "And this island too..."
It was exactly the same scenery from Equius Okimaw's latest film that they'd all attended the premiere of last night... actually, the end credits had been the last thing Atsuya could even remember.
"The universe is mocking me," Tomo complained. "After all that time I was being stupidly jealous over Harley and you... someone's gone and thrown us together as the love interest leads in the stupid Castaway ripoff. This has to be a bad dream!"
Atsuya slapped himself.
Tomo glanced up, blinking in surprise.
"Ow..." Atsuya hissed. "Nope. Ow. That stings. That's real. Ow..."
Tomo pinched their own cheeks, and winced at the pain. "Yep! Very real. Not a dream!" They stood up and glanced around. "So if this is really happening..."
"Where are we and what's going on?" Atsuya agreed, frowning.
The Camera Pulled back, revealing the Title...
"LOVESTRUCK CASTAWAYS 6: HELL MURDER ISLAND!"
Harley Sheppard's right eye twitched. "You've gotta be kidding me."
She was standing over the corpse of some kind of recently assasinated Councilor in the middle of a swamp, and Nepeta, poor Nepeta, was dressed up in some weird green hued leathers that were definitely not her color, and showed far too much skin, really.
"I feel like this plot's been reused somewhere before," Nepeta Leijon poked at the string of the bow she'd had on her back. "Maybe multiple somewheres."
"Well, Harley?" Some actress Harley didn't recognize ignored Nepeta's break in character and motioned at the corpse. "D'you think it's the Dark Brotherhood, or some other fetchers?"
She had dark grey skin, red eyes, and... Harley instinctively knew her name was Mirri Elandis for the obvious reasons that, well...
"I WROTE THIS FANFIC, NEPETA!" Harley shouted, grabbing her teammate by the shoulders and shaking her, frantic- her wolf ears flayed out in pure dismay. "I WROTE THIS STORY WHEN I WAS THIRTEEN! YOU PROOF READ IT FOR ME!!!" and then her eyes widened in horror. "And I never finished it either..."
"Ooooh!" Nepeta gasped. "No! Don't tell me! This is-!?"
The camera pulled backwards, revealing the title card over the nearby city of Leyawiin:
"ELDER SCROLLS: BLACKWOOD: A Land of Battlefields and Towers!"
"WONDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" Harry Anderson Harley-Lalonde struck a pose with his fancy Mobile Suit, a blatant Gundam knockoff if ever there was one. "HEROOOOOOOO!"
Floating a bit behind him in another, just as ostentatiously fancy Mobile Suit was Equius Okimaw, who's eye twitched. "What even movie is this? It's hitting far too close to home somehow."
The camera pulled backwards through the high-orbit battlefield above the planet Earth that they were in, revealing the clearly bootlegged title:
"GUNDAM BUILD NEXUS ONLINE: ARIA VON REIJI ASUNA'S COUNTER ATTACK!"
"No, wait. What? How is-"
A gasp of mild outrage.
"Someone's messing around with my narrative prompt!!"
Tomo and Atsuya hiked through the forest, heading towards the volcano, and the facilities supposedly at its base in the form of a secure bunker.
"This seemed a lot faster in the movie," Tomo grouched.
"They used time skips," Atsuya replied. "Also, they wasted half the movie before heading deeper into the jungle. They had to cut time somewhere."
Tomo grumbled loudly at that. "So what's even going on here?"
"I keep catching glimpses of Kiramental," Atsuya answered. "There's Sparkles in the corners of my eyes if I don't focus on it."
"Ah, yeah, you are missing your glasses, aren't you?" Tomo glanced over their shoulder at him. "Super power's kicking in even without them, huh?"
"Yeah." Atsuya nodded. "I think this whole island is made up of someone's Kiramental Image."
"Well that's annoying," Tomo huffed. "Garuza, maybe?"
"Given Time Travel, I wouldn't rule him out even after we blasted him last year," Atsuya nodded in agreement.
This seemed like Garuza's kind of stunt.
"So... speed run the movie and break out?" Tomo asked.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Atsuya nodded.
They hurried for the 'bunker', not knowing they weren't the only ones with that idea.
Harley and Nepeta ducked under a wall as waves of flames came barging overhead, rolling with angry, searing intent.
"You just haaaaaaad to plan it'd end in a battle with a Daedric Prince, didn't you?" Nepeta side-eyed Harley, who pouted.
"I was working through some things, alright!?" She offered, then spun around, took aim with her own bow and arrow, and let loose a sniper shot at Mehrunes Dagon.
Honestly, though, skipping all the major story developments, and antagonizing the hidden villain among the council of Leyawiin probably wasn't the smartest idea, but it certainly broke the flow of the barely-remembered narrative so badly neither of them could really remember much of the intervening upheavals or how, exactly, they wound up where they did.
"What even city is this?!" Nepeta asked.
"I think it's The Imperial City, somehow," Harley frowned as she ducked back under the wall to avoid a fireball. "Honestly, I think we really broke the plot just now and it just defaulted to another location because it didn't know how else to handle it."
A Dragon roared overhead.
"I don't remember a Dragon in your story, so I'd agree on that!" Nepeta glanced upwards. "Wait- that's not a dragon!"
"MASHIIIIIIIIN!" In came, roaring, Mashin Zabyuun, flanked on either side by the two halves of Mashin Express- Esprez and Mabayuine.
"MASHIN GATTAI!" cried another set of surprising voices from one of the Mashin.
"Mahha!?" Harley gasped.
"Heliko!?" Nepeta cried out.
The camera pushed into Zabyuun's cockpit- where a grinning, human form Heliko sat at the controls.
"It's Spanking Time!" She shouted as Zabyun, Esprez, and the Queen combined together.
Inside of Mashin Express' cockpit was Mahha, gripping at the controls with a determined fire in his eyes. "At Mach Speed, we'll dispatch this tyrant!"
"COMPLETE!" Zabyuun and Esprez shouted- "ZABYUUN EXPRESS!"
The monstrous, gigantic, blazing skinned, four armed Daedric Prince known as Mehrunes Dagon turned towards Zabyun Express-- and took a direct blast to the face of concentrated water.
"SHAAAARKY SURPRISE FINISHER!" Zabyuun shouted.
Flames were blasted away- and whatever magic was affecting this 'stage' seemed to get washed away with it, wearing obvious cracks into the scenery.
Harley glanced around, and spotted a building facade colapse from splash back from the all-too-real water based attack. "Holy shit! We're on a movie set!"
"What?" Nepeta turned to look, and stared. "We're on a movie set!?"
"Raaaahgh!" The rubber suited stunt actor playing Mehrunes Dagon roared, and then ripped off his costume, becoming a very familiar looking Basura type Jamenju, who turned towards Zabyuun Express- and began charging with a stomping rush, proving that despit everything being a movie set he was still very real and very giant.
Zabyuun Express ducked under the arm swings, and Esprez shouted- "Take this!" They lashed out with a kick, landing in the gut.
The Basura staggered backwards, roaring its fishy roar, and then charged them again.
"NOT HAPPENING!" Heliko spun a wheel, and Zabuun Express leaped into the air, back flipping and glowing brightly as they prepared a devastating finisher blow.
The Explosion that followed made Atsuya and Tomo stop in their tracks.
"What was that?" Tomo asked.
"Sounded like an explosion," Atsuya frowned. "That wasn't in the movie."
"So what was it?" Tomo asked.
And then there was another explosion.
Equius shouted- "NO!" -in terror as Harry's Mobile Suit was exploded due to an onrush of Zaku type Mobile Suits. He punched a fist into a control console. "No! Damn it! Not Harry! He was so young and--!"
A sudden, familiar Morpher cry of _"OHHHH! EXCELLENT!"_ brought Equius out of his shock, and he looked up, watching as a gleaming Kiramei Stone rocketed out of the debris, smashing through the Zakus with gusto and a shout of "SHINIIIIIING IMPAAAAACT!"
Because Harry, somehow, had still tapped into his Kiramei Stone transformation despite whatever nonsense they'd been roped into.
"Harry! You're okay!" Equius gasped in relief.
"Of course I'm fine! I'm a wonder bright hero!" Harry's silver stone form tumbled around. "I can actually fly in Zero G! This is fun! I've always wished I could fly as a stone!" He laughed.
"ANIKIIIII!" And then they heard a familiar voice cry out.
"Jetta!" Equius turned, and watched as Jetta's familiar jet form came rushing in from left field.
"WOOOOOOOSH!" Jetta slashed through a Zaku with ease, sending mobile suit model parts flying. "Let's cut this phony script to shreds!!"
"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A PHONY!?" Film Jamen shouted- standing up sharply as he glared at the wall of TV screens before him. "YOU STUPID FILM CRASHER!" He pointed at a screen showing Jetta. "You and your other friends are RUINING MY MOVIES!"
"Easy, Film Jamen," Yodonna said, not looking up from her own editing work. "Lose your cool, and the whole plot thread falls apart. Keep it under control, and just send in more Zakus."
"Ah, right..." Film Jamen nodded. "I've got just the idea!" He grabbed a Microphone, and calmly spoke into it. "1/20th Scale Mega Zaku to Gundam Set, please."
And then a massive hand shot out from behind the Moon- grabbing at Jetta, who dove out of the way- "WAH! Where'd that guy come from!?"
Equius could only stare onwards as a giant Zaku mobile suit, that proportionately would be as big to his Mobile Suit as he normally would be to a full sized Jamenju, appeared out of nowhere.
"Ahaha... ahah..." Harry laughed nervously. "Just what the hell is that?"
Equius gripped at the controls of his Mobile Suit. "I have no idea."
"Now, about Dagon..." The Filmmaker shook his head. "That plot's a bust. The actors knew it too well and managed to derail it." He tapped at his microphone again. "Mucus-chan, be a dear and open the doors to Movie Set 5b."
Mucus held back her laughter as she quietly opened a stage door behind Harley, Nepeta, and the very massive Zabyuun Express. She peered inside the new stage, and couldn't help it- she laughed. "Oh they're really going to hate this one!"
And then she scampered through.
"Now then," Film Jamen turned towards Yodonna. "How goes the Dino Fury Rangers?"
"I've woven scripts so fine," Yodonna tilted her head towards him with a smirk, "they don't even realize they're not playing themselves yet."
Six television screens behind her showed the Dino Fury Rangers acting out various scenes in various movies.
Film Jamen laughed, a bit nervously. "So what, are you saying I'm a bad writer?"
"Oh, no, I'm sure you could do that if I didn't want those Kiramagers aware they're trapped," Yodonna smirked. "It'll make the end result so much..." She reached into a cooler, and pulled out an ice cream pop. "Sweeter." She stuck it into her mouth as a crow's caw echoed out from somewhere.
"...Right then," Film Jamen got back to his work.
The group gazed at the open stage door.
"Trap or no trap?" Nepeta asked, holding Queen Mabayuine's stone.
"This feels like a trap," Harley said simply.
"It's definitely a trap," Mahha nodded, holding Esprez's stone in his arms.
"Totally a trap," she echoed.
"It's certainly not a welcoming party," Heliko added, holding Zabyuun's stone in her hands.
"I smell blood," Zabyuun remarked sharkily.
"We're triggering it, right, though?" Nepeta offered.
It was a unanimous 'Yes.'
The group made their way through the door- their clothing changing immediately from what they'd been wearing before into...
"My my, how sparkly!" Mabayuine giggled as everyone became clad in wedding attire.
"...I guess we're brides maids?" Harley asked, eyeing her, Nepeta, and Heliko's identical dresses.
The door swung shut behind them, vanishing in a burst of movie magic, leaving everyone standing in an open field of flowers.
"I wonder who's the happy couple?" Mahha asked, eyeing his tuxedo for a long moment.
"KIRAMEIIII DYNAMIIIIIIIIC!" Jetta and Equius yelled as the Mobile Suit slashed downwards with Jetta at the massivly oversized Zaku. It barely scratched the oversized Zaku's armor.
Harry's Kiramei Stone form tumbled in the background, "I don't have Drijan so I can't help as Gigant Driller! Where's my Mashin!?"
The Wedding Group walked up towards the only building in sight... a perfect replica of the Crystalian Royal Palace Replica on Earth C.
"I've suddenly got a bad feeling about this," Heliko lamented as they paused in front of the main door to the place.
"Let's just get it over with," Harley frowned, and pushed at the door.
They stepped inside, and found a chaoticly organized wedding venue.
"HEY HEY HEY!" And then there, dressed in a 'drunken priest' outfit, was a caricature of King Oladdin. "You Honor Guards are late! Get ovah'ere and tend to my daughter!!!" He pointed over at a waiting room. Then, he turned towards a Bechat dressed as a wedding staff attendee, carrying a vase of orange flowers. "AND YOU! I thought I said NO ORANGE ROSES! WE WANT RED ROSES!" He grabbed the vase of flowers from the Bechat, and hurled it across the room.
Everyone flinched as the vase shattered, and something clattered to the floor.
Since it was on their way to the waiting room, the group headed that way, with Harley kneeling and examining the vase briefly.
"Drijan?!" She picked up the miniaturized Mecha in surprise.
"Well that didn't land where I wanted it to. Hmf."
"KYAAAH!" Film Jamen shouted. "Who stuffed Mashin Drijan inside that vase!?"
Yodonna snorted, and said something unintelligible around her mouth full of ice cream frozen goodness.
"And don't talk with your mouth full!" Film Jamen scolded her.
Yodonna rolled her eyes.
The group walked into the wedding hall, and found...
"Oh thank goodness you're here!" Mabushiina, also dressed in a Bridesmaid dress, stepped up towards them. "This whole day has been a total mess! Where even are we?!" Then, she snatched her mother's gemstone form from Nepeta- and shook her in dismay- "Why am I having to manage a disastrous wedding under a rude replica of my father!? Mother! What is the MEANING OF THIS?!"
"You~re~asking~meeee!?" Mabayuine whined as she got shook around.
"Mabushiina, you're not the bride?" Esprez asked, startled.
"No, thank goodness for that," Mabushiina sighed in relief, and looked everyone over. "The engaged couple is Milliana and Fandora and I've had to bounce between both of them trying to keep them from seeing eachother all day while dealing with ten other disasters!!"
"And... why haven't you just let the disasters unfold?" Mahha asked. "You've seen the Bechats, haven't you?"
"I'd asked, but..." Mabushiina sighed. "Milliana and Fandora both want to actually have the wedding! But they don't want to listen to me when I remind them we had their vow renewals already!! I think they're stuck in lala-land like my drunkard father! Or totally not real in the first place! Both are horrible options!!"
"That'd... put a hamper on things alright," Harley said simply.
"EUREKAIIIIIIIING!" Atsuya shouted, grabbing a stick and scribbling in the dirt.
"What... are you doing?" Tomo asked.
"DONE!" Atsuya stood up, and held a hand out- "It's a SKETCHBOOK!"
And with a flare of sparkles and light, a book manifested in his hand, along with a set of pencils.
"...Nevermind," Tomo smirked. "Leave it to our resident artist to use a World of Pure Imagination to his advantage."
Atsuya continued sketching, and then... "And then another EUREKA!" Atsuya held up the Sketchbook- and sparkles of light shone off of its pages, swirling and then manifesting around his and Tomo's wrists.
FWASH!
_"KIRAMEI CHANGER!!"_ Their Morphers returned to them.
"Not bad," Tomo smiled at their morpher in fond recognition.
Atsuya instinctively captchalogued the notebook into the Morpher's Sylladex, and he tapped the call button- "Hello? Fiya? Doctor Kae? Can anyone hear me!?"
A Pause... a long silent pause...
Then, a kindly, slightly old sounding, feminine voice came through- "Uh, hello? No, this is Solon. Who is this? How did you get this frequency?"
"This is Atsuya Jurul, Kiramei Red! I'm a Power Ranger based out of the City of Atlantis," Atsuya replied. "We're caught up in some kind of movie recreation in an imagination field!"
The camera rushed across a swirling mess of energy connecting two universes together- the very metaphysical definition of a continuity snarl if ever anyone saw one, with a swirling black-hole like effect with a gleaming shattered looking mess of glass in place of a singularity- and deposited down in a protected field in a forest- six dinosaur statues in a circle- and then down underground, the hidden base beneath the local landmark of Dinohenge.
There, standing at a computer terminal, was a dinosaur woman whose body was half cybernetic.
"A Ranger caught in a Movie Illusion inside of an imagination filed?" the dinsoaur woman- Solon- asked in surprise, gazing at a screen that read "AUDIO ONLY." "Well, that would certainly explain some of the readings I've been getting from town all afternoon! And why I can't get through to any of my Rangers. Atsuya, you said your name was?"
Atsuya nodded. "Yeah."
"Where were you based out of exactly?" Solon asked, her head tilting. "I've never heard of a City of Atlantis in the present day?"
"The Pegasus Galaxy," Atsuya answered.
"Pegasus?" Solon gasped, astonished. "My goodness! That is a long way away from here! And yet we're communicating in real time! In fact, when I trace your signal, it says it's coming FROM the town nearby!"
"Well, that's super strange," Tomo said, leaning over Atsuya's shoulder. "Oh, uh, Hi. Tomo Strider. Kiramei Yellow. I'm stuck here with Atsuya on an island from a movie one of our teammates filmed."
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Tomo Strider," Solon answered. "And I agree, this is very strange!"
"Where are you, miss Solon?" Tomo asked.
"The planet Earth, Milky Way galaxy!" Solon answered.
Atsuya and Tomo glanced at each other, grimacing.
"Uh, any particular one?" Atsuya asked. "We've been to at least six."
"...At least Six?!" Solon stared, slack jawed at the screen for a moment. "But... I only know of the one Earth?"
"There's two in our timeline, and we've traveled to a few different Universes, each with their own Earths," Atsuya answered.
"...Well, that'd explain things a bit better," Solon answered, shaking her head. "I'm not communicating across my Universe to our Pegasus Galaxy! I'm talking to a different Universe with its own Pegasus Galaxy and different Rangers!"
"So something's connected our two universes together," Tomo grouched, rolling their eyes. "Lovely. And here I thought we were done with the Multiverse Shenanigans."
Atsuya gave Tomo a pained smile. "Apparently not."
"So, something's connected two universes together," Solon began pacing. "And it's doing it through some kind of imagination based field that's themed around movies? I suppose from our side it could be a Sporix... but I find that hard to believe on its own. Any ideas from your end?"
Tomo grimaced. "There's a couple of things."
"Maybe more than a hand full," Atsuya grimaced as well.
"Oh hello there. That's definitely not supposed to be happening."
A considered hum of confusion.
"Is this continuity snarl trying to squish together Dino Fury and Kiramager in a mimic of the Ryusoulger crossover? But then why Minjo's mask?"
A groan, and the sound of a face hitting a desk.
"Damn it. How the heck do I fix THIS? This makes no narrative sense! Yodonna's supposed to be Deader than Dead!"
"Wait, what?! Who said they could call for help!?" Film Jamen shouted. "BECHATS! GET IN THEEEEEERE!!!"
"BECHAA!" And then a swarm of Bechats dressed as film crew stepped out of the forest.
"Ah, Solon?" Atsuya began. "We'll have to get back to you in a minute."
"Let me guess, a Horde of foot soldiers just appeared?" Solon asked, chuckling.
"Got it in one," Tomo nodded. They looked to Atsuya, Atsuya nodded.
They fell into line and tapped their morphers. _"KIRAMEI GO! KI! RA!! MEI!!!"_
"KIRAMEI CHANGE!" They both struck their morphers, and transformed with a flash of light racing up their bodies from their feet, before condensing around their heads as helmets with a blast of sparkles and a _"LET'S SPARKLE!"_
"Well, atleast I think I can help the other Kiramagers out... let's see if I can use that Drijan as a reference node to copy that sketch book..."
"Hey, look what I found!" Nepeta grinned as she held up a sketch book. "Look familiar?"
"Isn't that Atsuya's?" Heliko asked, gasping in surprise.
"It is!" Nepeta grinned, and opened it to the latest page. "Look what's drawn here!"
"Kiramei Changers!" Heliko squealed.
"BECHATS!" The Not Oladdin suddenly shouted. "BECHATS!? Where are my Bechats!? Your smoke break isn't for another half hour!! This wedding is a disaster!!"
"What'd'ya say we crash a wedding we were invited to?" Nepeta asked.
"Party crashing? I like your style..."
Notes:
So yeah. That's basically all of the Kiramager stuff I wrote for what this story was originally going to be. Adapting the Ryusoulger VS Kiramager movie into a Dino Fury VS SG:ALT!Kiramagers fic...
And then I hit the danged roadblock of not being able to figure out how to actually *resolve* this mess. For... uh...
Three years? ^^;;;;;
Anyyyways. Yeah. That's about all the previously written content minus a few edits.
Also, past me couldn't resist poking fun at themselves a bit, it seems.
Chapter 4: A9A2.5: Introductions.
Summary:
Ernest's Point of View.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"I'm Colonel Jack O'neill, this is Jake Harley, and Catherine Langford," the military man said.
Ernest eyed the two named like his friends, and thought, 'Hm, they don't quite look right. But then again, it has been so long since Jake's last visit... I'll see if they're here for me before I say anything.'
"I'm Miorine Mercury," the silver haired girl, who was covering her ears and tail now for some reason, introduced herself. "This is my colleague, Nika Nanura."
"Hello," the blue haired girl whose joints sounded like a machine waved.
"We're from a local settlement across the ocean," Miorine lied, but only Ernest knew it. "Here seeking information to 'rectify a great sin,'" she sighed at that last part, as if tired of saying such a key phrase already. Ernest got the hint the first time and wrote it down.
"And who might you be?" Catherine said, of the cloaked girl.
"I'm Maintainer Leigon," she introduced, though Ernest thought it might be with a J instead of a G with the accent to her voice. "My people are Maintainers. We do what we can to keep this facility standing."
The two other women flinched at "maintainer", noticeably. Ernest wondered what experience those two had had with such a person with that title before.
"Maintainers, you say?" O'neill looked around. "Doesn't look like you're doing such a good job, given the state of this place."
Leigon shrugged. "Only so much we can do when the place was blasted from orbit centuries ago. We do what we can to keep it standing after major storms. It's a tradition of our people, at this point."
"...Well, right then," O'neill said, and thumbed his radio. "Daniel, Carter, come in?"
"Yes, sir, we're here," Carter replied.
"We've found people. And you're both going to want to see the fancy new toy, I think," O'neill's eyes twinkled. Then, Ernest volunteered to go get them, to which O'neill smiled thankfully. "The 'Caretaker' is going to come get you and bring you to us."
"Yes sir," Carter said.
And Ernest went on his merry way to fetch the remaining people. It was so nice to have company.
Notes:
The SG-1 side of things gradually rolls forwards, meanwhile everything else rushes to play catchup.
Chapter 5: A9A3: Let's cut to the chase.
Summary:
Nepeta finds the Backstage.
Notes:
CW:
Metanarrative.
Musing over Fate and Destiny.
This gets a little weird, tbh. Very experimental chapter.
Abrupt Interface/text formatting change.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Predictably, Not Oladdin was not happy with events as Nepeta designed.
"GET THOSE GIRLS!" he shouted, and as everyone ran down hallways- clad in their normal outfits and not the wedding attire.
Nepeta, in her Kiramei Pink costume and clutching the sketchbook from Atsuya, got separated from her teammates when a wild, human sized Jamenju wearing a giant film camera for a mask tried to grab them.
Nepeta, on her own, dodged left when everyone else dodged right, and she found herself running down a set hallway for what appeared to be an apartment complex.
All of the doors appeared to be fake, except for one at the very end, which was sitting crooked and open, with golden light shining out through the gap between door and frame.
Seeing no other choice, Nepeta Leijon pushed her way through a doorway, and found herself not where she thought she was a minute earlier. She also found herself a bit older than she had thought she was a minute ago, as well. Her hair had clearly grown and her bangs covered her eyes.
The sketchbook itself had vanished as if it had never actually existed.
That she wore a doctor's lab coat instead of her usual Kiramei Pink attire also was odd- but given the day she'd thought she'd been having so far, that was also something strange.
"THERE! SHE WENT THROUGH THERE!" the Not Oladdin shouted from the doorway behind her, and before Nepeta could react, someone grabbed her from the inside of the passageway, pulled past the thresh hold, and slammed the door shut.
The Traveler threw the deadbolt, and smiled at Nepeta.
"It's you," Nepeta said. "That Traveler person."
"Yeah," The Traveler's smile shifted a bit more nervously. "Sorry I took so long."
There was shouting from outside the door- but it was muffled and distant.
"Should we keep moving?" Nepeta asked.
"No, that door will hold them outside for now," The Traveler said, then winced as the door jolted as something rammed against it. "Probably." They glared against it, and then grabbed a pry bar from nowhere and shoved it between the door and the floor, sealing the passageway further. "That should do the trick."
The knocking abruptly stopped, as did the noises from outside.
"What's going on?" Nepeta asked. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again after everything. Wait!! Don't tell me this is your fault again and you're cleaning up another mess!"
"Sorta? But not really entirely..." They scratched at the back of their head. "Let's talk inside. C'mon."
The room they were in was definitely real- realer in a way than what Nepeta had been experiencing a moment ago had felt like. It was a simple, earth style condo living-slash-kitchen-slash-dining room (quite a messy one, too), with a hallway leading down further into the residence.
The Traveler lead them over to a rather messy dining room table, and quickly shoved a bunch of junk mail into old takeout bags and then unceremoniously dumped it all on the floor.
"Sorry for the mess, this really was kinda spur of the moment on my part," the Traveler said.
"You would've cleaned up if you knew you were entertaining guests?" Nepeta joked.
"Yep," The Traveler chuckled. "Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? I've got, uh, Water, and Milk? Two Percent, if that helps."
"I'll take the water," Nepeta said as she took a seat in one of the open chairs that *didn't* have junk stuck on it either. "I'm a bit thirsty from all the running."
"Sure, me too," the Traveler went to the fridge and fetched two water bottles. "Though, not the running part. Just the thirsty part."
"Funny, that," Nepeta said as she gracefully accepted one when it was offered to her, and she twisted the seal cap to a delightful popping noise as the plastic seal tore. She drank from the bottle, and eyed the clocks on the stove and microwave, which counterintuitively read 6:26 and 6:30 at the same time.
"So. What's going on?" Nepeta asked.
The Traveler sat down across from her, took a long drink from the water bottle, and then said, "Your team is caught in something that I can only describe as a Continuity Snarl."
"O...kay?" Nepeta blinked. "What does that mean, exactly?"
The Traveler sighed. "Basically, some outside forces- uh, the Kyoryugers and the Zenkaigers were fighting a badguy, and something from their fight fell in just the right way to land in a timeline of one universe while it was in a state of paradoxical hiatus. Um, that is to say, the events unfolding in it hadn't yet been set in stone past a certain point, and when the item landed in it, that caused, uh..."
They scrunched their nose.
"Let's just say that it should have caused a divergence point in timelines, a branch, an alternate reality. Instead, what happened is that the core timeline continued to accelerate and unfold as if nothing happened, while at the same time, a link was established from that universe into yours, creating something of a paradox."
"That sounds bad," Nepeta said.
"It gets worse because the effect then propagated through your timeline as well, threatening to creating a whole branch of events that overwrite what I've already mapped out fairly thoroughly of your future," The Traveler said. "Which while not ideal, I could split that off into its own timeline to try to salvage it, *BUT* that wouldn't leave you guys who are still stuck in the continuity snarl on both ends free and clear even if I can resolve the hangup that way."
"So... why are you telling me all of this?" Nepeta asked, pulling her much longer hair up into a ponytail and binding it up with a pink scrunchy. "Or, rather, why do I feel like we've had this conversation already?"
"We haven't, this is the first time we're talking," the Traveler said, "BUT, that potential future that's extended forwards? Yeah, you'd remember this conversation from that perspective. You're getting some memory bleed through from then."
"Okay," Nepeta took a deep breath. "But again, why me?"
"Because I've charted that potential future, and you've made remarks about us talking about something I decidedly hadn't experienced yet," The Traveler said. "It's sort of a whole chicken and egg paradox, ontop of this whole thing."
"Right," Nepeta shook her head. "Okay, so. What's the problem? Why can't you just... make it happen? Fix things?"
"The problem is... I can't," The Traveler said. "Or rather, I won't make that decision on my own. I refuse to, after everything I put you guys through by authorizing bad plot choices. You all deserve better than me dictating events and forcing an outcome, even if it'd be the best course of action."
Nepeta sighed. "This again? You know June told us how you felt about that whole thing."
"I know," the Traveler said. "I still stand by it. It's a lesson I've had to learn a lot of times."
"So, what's the issue here?" Nepeta asked. "You want me to authorize a specific change instead of you?"
"Essentially," the Traveler said, "I want you to choose the outcome."
They stood, and wandered over to a bookshelf in the hallway, and when they returned, they carried two objects. Both were Gundam Model Kits, each one that Nepeta recognized instantly even though she'd never seen either before in her life.
One was a Gundam Lfrith. The other was an Exia Repair II.
The Traveler took a breath, and set the two objects down on the table. They didn't shake the table, but Nepeta could feel their narrative weight radiating off of them.
"Option A: This represents the timeline I've charted thoroughly," the Traveler said, motioning to the Lfrith. "In it, a hundred or so years from now, you and your team will have encountered a fight that left most of you dead, and reborn as Kiramei Stones. Beyond that, a slimey scumbag of a sentient pile of silver goop will set his sights on Earth and try to take it over. There's magic resistant... curses, for lack of a better word, which are nearly impossible to treat, and you personally will have some choice words for me due to the stress from dealing with that."
They took a breath.
"But, on the flip side, Harley and Tomo's grandkids help fix a lot of stuff, more stable time loops are woven to help keep your universe together, and... and I think overall, it's still heading in a positive direction in spite of all the strife your people will have had to deal with. If we choose this option, I have a course of action ready to go. It'll involve a few more newly minted stable time loops, but it should work out and keep time on track and undoing any damage that's been done."
"What's the other option?" Nepeta asked, eyeing the Exia kit.
"Option B is that I forcibly sever the connection between universes by pulling the Kiramagers out of the continuity snarl, and dump you outside of the universes. I hard reset the timeline up until before the continuity snarl, and I force divert the potential future into its own branch timeline. You all wind up in the middle of a battle that paradoxically has been raging for years, but in reality has been kinda frozen in time for just as long." The Traveler said, adjusting the little Exia kit's head.
"It's a battle that keeps cropping up and punching through into other realities I've been observing. It keeps affecting things, and it won't stop until I observe and chronicle a definitive end to it."
They looked to Nepeta.
"There's a high risk chance you guys might die with no means of reincarnating, if you go there. The events leading up to that battle are grim, to say the least, and I've been hesitant to properly chronicle them lest I lock myself out of a way of helping those people better. I don't know where events in your main timeline lead in this course of events, because I've forced the other timeline into it's own branch. It's an entire unknown situation. It might lead your universe to a worse place than it was in Option A."
"So, a known outcome versus an uncharted possibility," Nepeta put her chin in her right hand, and tapped her left hands fingers against the table.
"Basically." The Traveler said.
"How long have we been trapped in this continuity snarl?" Nepeta asked.
"A little over three years, from my perspective," the Traveler admitted. "I've been trying to figure out what to do in the meantime."
Nepeta took a deep breath, and exhaled.
She considered her options, and decided that she didn't have much in the way of information.
"What do you plan on doing if I choose Option A?" Nepeta asked. "How do we get out of the snarl?"
The Traveler sat for a long moment. The clock ticked over to 6:55, the sun's rays began to pierce through the blinds of the adjacent window on the far wall.
"I take advantage of the opportunity," the Traveler said, "and I throw one more stable time loop into events from that far flung future to far into your timeline's past. And then I loop more, and more, and more, going backwards each time I add a new loop, stitching them into various points along the past of your timeline. And then, I have one of those loops take your team into the past at the moment just before the continuity snarl would have formed, meaning that it can't latch onto you guys, and because it can't latch onto your end, the link between universes can't be formed, and the original timeline that started this mess won't be snarled either. With that happening, I can reach in, grab the artifacts that caused the Snarl in the first place, and destroy them."
Nepeta nodded, considering the information given. "You're basically trying force enough fixed points into the span of time between the known future and the known past to prevent the continuity snarl from forming in the first place, by ensuring that my team is *Known* to be somewhere else when it happens?" And then she nodded. "And Option B is essentially the same thing. You forcefully sever the connection of the snarl by grabbing us as a whole team and dumping us in a place of greater importance than one unimportant continuity snarl."
"Basically," the Traveler agreed.
The clock turned to 7:02 from 7:01.
"I'm feeling hungry," Nepeta said. "I need some food in me if I'm going to weigh a decision like this."
"I have some chocolate cake leftover if you want it?" The Traveler offered.
"That would be nice," Nepeta smiled. "Thank you."
Some time later, as the Traveler set dishes in the sink and rinsed them off...
Nepeta sat at the table, with a mug of milk in her hands, and said, "It's not really much of a Choice, is it?"
"Hm?" The Traveler glanced at her. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I'm a doctor in the future, aren't I?" Nepeta shrugged a shoulder, clad in that doctors jacket. "That means I take an oath to save lives, and do everything I can to save them. But you've presented me with two choices that equally leave me with people dead or dying. Only, in one of them, I know the survival of people I care about is a sure thing, even if it's a traumatic death and rebirth, but that's something my Team is Used To, remember?"
"The Overdrives, yeah," the Traveler nodded, and looked back at the dishes in the sink.
"And Mei," Nepeta added.
"Her too, yeah," The Traveler grumbled.
It didn't take much to clean the cake crumbs out, and then the dishes were put in the washer, it was loaded with soap, and then turned on.
Nepeta said nothing further on that topic, watching them work as she sipped at her milk. Then, she changed subjects and asked, "So, what happened with you?"
The Traveler, still standing at the kitchen sink, chuckled, and it was uncertain if it was bitter or amused, "What hasn't happened?"
"Last I felt, after the end of our battle with Garuza," Nepeta said, "I felt like we were invincible. Like nothing could ever go wrong again. That was you, wasn't it?"
"It was," the Traveler said. "I was hoping to leave a universe in a place where it would be healthy and whole, and it'd never be soiled by trauma or tragedy ever again."
"But that feeling's gone now," Nepeta said. "And if I'm honest, it's been gone for a long while. What changed?"
"I lost people," the Traveler said. "A lot of people. Three years is..." they shook their head. "A lot changes in three years, when your world is full of strife. Full of nastiness that wants people dead. There's been so much strife and grief and..." The sighed, so very tiredly. "And in the middle of it all, I have to deal with my Grandmother having cancer and passing away?"
They looked to Nepeta, and to her eyes, the Traveler looked tired. Tired, but still surviving.
They took a deep breath, and forced a smile. "My life is uncertain, Nepeta. I'm facing so much and... I'm in a better place now than I was a few months ago, emotionally speaking. But it's a lot, you know? So if I can offer some certainty in these trying times to people, I can and I will."
"Hence why this isn't much of a Choice at all," Nepeta said. "You could have done this without talking to me. I wouldn't have known, or cared- and I doubt the others would have either. So why even do it?"
"I would have known," the Traveler said. "And that's why it's your choice, in the end. Whatever you choose, I'll chronicle the events of it."
Nepeta sighed, and took one final drink from her mug of milk. She stood, walked over to the sink, and placed the mug inside, before rinsing it out and standing there, side by side with the Traveler.
The person who'd choose fate, and the person who'd make it reality- and which of the two was which?
In the end, did it really matter? They weren't the same person, Nepeta could feel that. If anything, the Traveler was closer to Rose, Harley, and Tomo than they were to Nepeta herself. But for all of that distinction, there wasn't a distinction between the person who was choosing fate, and who was making it reality.
Nepeta could Choose, and the Traveler would pen it, or, the Traveler would Choose, and Nepeta would live it.
It didn't matter, really. There wasn't much of a choice of things. Nepeta knew there was only one way it could go. Even so, she was tempted to choose the opposite, just to spite the Traveler's machinations. How dare they put this kind of weight upon her and her alone? Why not let her confer with her team? Why not let her make this decision with them?
Yet, she knew why.
"It's a coin toss, in the end," Nepeta said, "except the coin is two faced."
"I don't like coin tosses, or that two-faced coin metaphor," the Traveler said. "That's too Terezi, and I'm not like Terezi."
"No, you're not," Nepeta smiled, and put an arm around the Traveler, a one armed hug. "If you were, you'd have flipped the coin and we'd never be having this conversation."
"So, what'll it be?" The Traveler looked Nepeta in the eyes, orange glowing light replaced with a soft pinkish purple, much like Rose's eyes. "Lfrith, or Exia?"
Nepeta closed her eyes, and chuckled.
The Traveler smiled a small bemused smile.
"What do you think?" Nepeta asked, opening her eyes again, a shimmer of green light flitting against her olive eyes. "If we're going to do this- if you're offering me the chance to write the fate of me and my friends- we're going to do this together. Any objections?"
"None at all." The Traveler's smile widened. "Let's get started then, shall we?"
Notes:
N: Oh, hello, what's this?
T: I'm inviting you to the end notes since I'm publishing the chronicle of things since we finished editing it earlier.
N: Ah. Okay. Why?
N: It's been two days, did you miss me already that much?
T: Because why not? Also, it's just common courtesy to add you to the directors commentary, after all.
N: Touche.
T: Got anything to add?
N: Nothing that I didn't already say earlier.
N: Wait, no, I've got one thing.
N: Hi everyone! Hope you don't mind my first time trying this sort of thing.
N: *NEVER AGAIN!* How do any of you handle this kind of responsibility??
T: I don't think you'll get a proper answer to that question from anyone.
N: True, still, gotta ask, right?
T: Never hurts to, no.
N: So how do you do these things, usually?
T: Like so:T: So, the thing with this chapter is that Nepeta is Heart Bound, much like Dirk. In my previous Meta-interludes with Candy!Dirk, it's been partly due to that Heart-bound aspecting. Nepeta, in addition to the aforementioned reasons I listed in this chapter, had the highest chance out of all of the Kiramagers to resonate well with the Narrative Prompt on my side of the Wall.
T: Plus, Damara/Serara handled the power well the last time I loaned out the keyboard, what could go wrong here?
N: Ah okay I see...
N: I'm not sure whether I should be honored or terrified that you're putting me on the same tier as Damara- the Witch Who Won! That's pretty terrifying on the one hand, but on the other, Serara is a good friend of mine and we get along well so...
N:I THINK I'll take that as a compliment!
T: It's meant as one.
N: Hm. Beyond that... It's just kinda weird looking back and seeing my own past self laid out like this. Isn't it for you?
T: I cringe every time I look back at a past me doing something stupid like this stunt we're pulling off here.
T: For all that I've dabbled in this self-insertion-into-events in the past, I really don't like directly affecting events unless I absolutely have to intervene.N: I hear that. It feels like a lot of power to handle responsibly.
T: It really is.
Chapter 6: A9A3.5: Lie with a Smile.
Summary:
O'neill's bullshit meter is going off.
Notes:
CW:
Mention of O'neill's dead son.
Mentioned Divorce.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Despite his sometimes put-upon persona, and a bit of a reputation for jackassery, Colonel Jack O'neill was considering many things as scientifically as he possibly could.
Miorine was wearing a baseball cap with English embroidered on it. That Maintainer Chick in the Cloak was clearly hiding her identity. The Blue haired Nika had eyes that seemed like they reflected the light like camera lenses.
And then there was Ernest acting like he hadn't been isolated the entire time.
"So, what's the name of that settlement you two girls came from?" Jack asked.
"Babylon Five," Nika answered without hesitation.
Jack blinked. "Excuse me? Sorry, I must have miss heard that. Did you say Babylon Five?" As in the TV Show??
"It's the fifth settlement called Babylon," Miorine said. "What's there not to get?"
"We used to call this place Babylon One, before Ernest gave it the name Heliopolis," Maintainer Leijon said, clearly rolling with the punches.
Well, that was interesting information that Jack filed away under 'probably bullshit.'
The others seemed to buy it easily enough, but Jack was... Well. Jack had *cable,* back home. Or, well, he had before his wife had started the divorce filing upon his return from Abydos.
He didn't fault Sarah for wanting to part ways. After Charlie, then his sudden reactivation to Military Duty for an obvious suicide mission...
Well, the fact that he came back at all looking like he was on the path to recover was all Sarah needed to see to tell him, "You'll do better without reminders of me and Charlie everywhere."
And Jack had agreed. Abydos, for all its insanity, had done him wonders.
He wanted to retire again, but he couldn't officially do that for another two months given the way he'd been reactivated by General West.
Maybe once he got back, he'd put the time in to putting himself back together. Still available to Hammond if they needed him for Abydos or Stargate related things on a provisional basis, but...
Ah, he caught himself rambling in his head, and refocused on the situation at hand.
"So, uh, what's it like, this Babylon Five?" Jack asked, hoping they wouldn't describe a space station millions of miles in space alone in the night.
"It's quite beautiful," Nika said as Miorine focused on recording the hologram stuff. "You could almost call it a glowing flower amongst the sea."
What kind of metaphor was that?
"We have a wonderful school there, Asticassia," Nika continued on. "Miorine's wife, Suletta, is the Principal there. We all used to attend some years ago, before- well." She coughed. "Before we graduated, obviously."
"And this 'grave sin'?" Jack pressed on.
Nika's poker face was impeccable. She didn't even sweat despite the humidity. "None of your concern, Colonel O'neill. It's private business of our people."
"Alright," Jack relented.
"So," Jake Harley took over from there, "Do you know what this place used to be?"
Notes:
T: Nice save on the Babylon One comment.
N: Pft. Just rolling with the punches.
N: Besides, all of that just for a TV show reference? C'mon, you know Uncle Jack would've picked up on it.
T: Yes. All of that just for a TV show reference.
T: A TV Show that happened to also be airing at this time in universe.
T: That TV Show.
N: ...Don't tell me you-
T: Spoilers.
Chapter 7: A9A4. The Journal of Earnest Littlefield.
Summary:
The First Retcon to the timeline to disconnect the Continuity Snarl.
Chapter Text
EARTH DATE: AUGUST 15TH, 2015.
ATLANTIS. SGC RECORDS STORAGE OFFICE.
"You called for us, Dr. Jackson?" Atsuya Jurul asked as the Kiramagers entered the cluttered, book, paper folder, and crate filled office.
"Ah! Good timing!" Daniel said as he looked up from an old journal. "Jake, they're here!"
"Righty-o!" Jake Harley said, from another part of the room. "Just give me a moment!"
Harley Jade Sheppard blinked in surprise, and looked to Nepeta, "Did you know Jake was going to be here?"
Nepeta hummed, "Probably."
"Probably?" Harley asked, confused.
"I mean, who else would it be for this scenario?" Nepeta asked.
Harley frowned, not sure how to reply to that.
"Alright, here we are!" Jake said, hauling out a large crate of old looking materials. "Took me a hot minute to find it." He hefted it over to a table and sat it down with a THUD.
"So, what's the sitch?" Tomo asked, tilting their head slightly.
"So, uh," Daniel coughed. "How much do you kids know about the pre-SGC attempts at opening the Stargate?"
"Not much, really," Atsuya said.
"I'm a bit hazy on most of it," Equius said.
"There were pre-SGC attempts at opening the Stargate?" Harry asked.
Nepeta chuckled, "Let's pretend we're total noobs and know nothing, Dr. Jackson."
"Right, well," Daniel coughed, and motioned to Jake to continue. "Uh, you go first."
"So, in 1945, not too much longer after we discovered the Gate in Giza," Jake explained, "Dr. Langford, the man who lead the expedition in the first place, ran experiments on the Stargate, trying to open it. In the process, one of our dialing attempts worked, and that, uh, well... Earnest was sent through the gate to explore, but the power cut, and Dr. Langford ended the experiments, believing Earnest to be dead."
"He wasn't, of course," Daniel clarified. "He was stuck living on the other side of the Gate for the better part of the century before we re-opened the Gate in '94 and we got approval to mount an expedition to go after him. That's where things get interesting," He held up an old, leather bound journal from where it lay on the table. "Earnest wrote a lot in his journal about his time on Heliopolis, but it, uh, well. At first when we read it, it seemed like the ramblings of a mad man who was stuck alone in isolation."
Jake took the journal, and opened it to near the front, before reading "'I've been here for a week now. Jake came to visit and told me I'm to be this place's caretaker now. He can't take me home, although he wishes he could so dearly.'" He looked at the Kiramagers. "Obviously, I never set foot in the place from my perspective until after the Abydos mission."
"But you could have time traveled after the fact," Tomo said in realization.
"Exactly," Jake nodded. "And once we realized that was what Earnest meant, and we had an easy means of time travel at our disposal, I started doing just that in secret, going to visit Earnest to keep him company, and sane. It's the least I could do given that I couldn't rectify the situation any further. And beyond that, I was right in Earnest being the place's caretaker."
"You see," Daniel took it from there, "Heliopolis was a gathering place of the Four Race Alliance- The Asgard, the Ancients, the Nox, and the Furlings. They left a repository of combined knowledge there. Now, the Goa'uld tried to take the place, but the Four Race Alliance destroyed most of the facility, reducing it to ruins and wiping the rest of the city there off the face of the planet. The place was abandoned until Earnest stepped foot there."
"And yet, not long after Earnest arrived, travelers began appearing to study the device's contents," Jake said. "It took us a long time to decipher who went where and when, given we're fairly certain most of Earnest's visitors are people from *our* relative future who we don't know the identities of, but the important thing is-"
"We're next to go there," Nepeta cut to the chase.
Atsuya looked to her for that decisive deduction, and smiled.
"Exactly," Daniel nodded. "And you've all got a very important mission."
"You're set to arrive about half a week before I, Catherine, and SG-1 arrived on Helopolis," Jake explained. "Ostensibly, you're going there for two tasks: continuing to copy portions of the Repository to a data drive for our scientists to study, as well as performing a certain type of maintenance we've had Jade performing with her powers- stabilizing the structure and keeping it from total collapse."
"This time, you're only going to be holding the castle together to buy time during its final hour," Daniel said. "Once you've done the usual maintenance, you're going to have to stick around and keep that place mostly intact while it's actively falling apart around the castle's current guests."
"And who are the 'current guests'?" Atsuya asked.
"A cloaked figure we're pretty sure is Nepeta, and a pair of women, researchers from a place they call 'Babylon 5,'" Daniel said, rolling his eyes.
"Well, that's obviously some time travelers memeing it up," Tomo quipped. "What are their names?"
"It's in Ernest's journal," Jake said, holding the book up. "I've put in some sticky notes to mark the relevant entries."
Nepeta took the journal from him, and flipped to the relevant entries, and started to read aloud...
Two guests arrived today from the beach, descending from the heavens in the usual ferry boat. I heard its hum and knew I had guests from the place Jake keeps returning from.
They are polite young women- around Catherine's age, when I first came here, I think. One has blue hair, and the other has white. Not the strangest looks I've seen amongst my myriad guests.
They call themselves Nika Nanura and Miorine Mercury, hailing from "Babylon 5"- where-ever the hell that is. They claim they're here to peruse the Repository for information they need to defeat an enemy threatening their home. They seem quite concerned that they are on a time limit, even if I know they have all the time in the world.
It has only been two days since my latest guests' arrival, and they seem at their wits end already. Whoever this "Sin" person is, she seems to scare these women into young girls something fierce.
I am offering them tea, from the last time Jake visited. He is aging much slower than I am, between his visits. His knees and hips are bothering him lately, he says. "Too much humidity on the ocean," along with "my wife can be a demanding minx at times!"
He is due within the next week or two, I think, though I do not think he will be bringing his wife this time either. I would begin to think she is not real, save for the photos Jake shows me. "Too busy with her career," Jake says.
I look forwards to hearing news of Catherine's latest adventures.
Day five of my current guests' search for a 'cure' for 'Sin's influence.' "No luck yet," Nika reports.
The ferry came again with its usual hum. A work team of six to stabilize the structure, says the daughter of the wolf woman who usually does the work. Spitting image, that girl. They're all wearing color coded uniforms under their cloaks for some reason. Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink, Silver. Never seen that before.
It seems too soon, but the ground has been shaking more recently. The storms are getting worse, out on the sea. I hear thunder more often these days than not. It does not do good for the guests' nerves.
The young woman in pink tells me Jake will be coming to visit next week. Though, she warns me that if the Stargate is used, it might hasten the collapse of the castle.
"Wait-" Nepeta stopped reading the text on the desktop screen, took off her glasses, and looked at the Traveler who had written that last section out based on the text written on a cloned copy of the real journal of Ernest Littlefield- a book that sat next to them on the desk's work area.
Based on being the key difference. The Real Journal and the text copy differed in one respect. Ernest had not penned down specific details of the people he was talking to- mentioning things like specific names or physical descriptions.
But now? He had. And as the words on screen sat there, finalized, the words in the physical journal began to shift and edit themselves to match.
It was downright freaky, if you stared at it for too long. Which Nepeta was not doing. Instead, she was focusing on something else that was just as critically important.
"Why would I tell him that the castle will collapse if they use the Stargate?"
The Traveler sighed. "Milky Way Gates have a nasty tendency to shake, rattle, and make with the earthquakes if they don't have proper suppressors to keep it down. Atlantis has those, most Stargates have them, Earth's didn't at the start, and Heliopolis' doesn't have any either. So when the Gate dials in or dials out..." they mimed an explosion- or perhaps implosion- sound. "Whole place starts to rock off it's already precarious foundations."
Nepeta frowned for a moment. "...Fuck," she swore. "That's kinda bad, isn't it?"
"Pretty much," The Traveler said. "You want your other self to say something in response to that?"
"Hell yeah I want her to say something about that!" Nepeta took the keyboard and began typing thoughts into a completely different text prompt for her other self to think and process much as she was in that moment.
[>So, wait. Are you guys telling me that...]
"So, wait," Nepeta stopped suddenly. "Are you guys telling me that the reason this whole place collapsed in the first place is because you guys dialed in with the Stargate?"
Dr. Jackson and Jake Harley looked a tad bit embarrassed, but Jake said, "That's basically the truth of it, yes."
"Heliopolis probably could've stood on it's own for another year or two if we hadn't dialed the Stargate in," Daniel agreed with that. "Ironically, rescuing Ernest means we had to 'sacrifice' the whole repository in exchange. Which is why we've used the Time Jumper every time we go back instead of using the Stargate."
"So, let me get this straight," Nepeta said, "we're going in to shore it up, and keep it all stable so that when the place starts falling apart around you, it doesn't fall apart *so badly* that you guys don't make it back through the Stargate?"
"That's our assumption on the matter," Daniel said. "I think you guys in the Mashin should be able to get underneath the castle and hold the important areas upright- and out of sight- once the critical moment arrives."
"...Have you guys checked this with any of the Seers?" Harry asked.
"...Why would we need to do that for?" Jake asked. "This is an event from our past that's pretty firmly established already, you know."
"But it really isn't until we travel back in time to shore up the building, is what you're telling us," Tomo pointed out.
"I mean..." Daniel scratched the back of his head.
Nepeta just sighed at the whole scenario. "Honestly, is this any worse than what we did against Gilgamesh and Garuza?"
Harley looked at her, and then sighed. "Yeah, honestly, she's got a point. I don't think this is really too far out of the realm of possibility on our part."
"I mean, it's not like we weren't going to do it anyways, now that the option's infront of us," Tomo said, "but after all the unauthorized time travel we did, it'd be nice to have an official okay from a Seer, you know?"
Daniel sighed, "Honestly, the amount of people that know we're even using Time Travel to go back to Heliopolis is fairly small. Getting everything we can off of the Repository and translating it are two different but fairly important tasks. It's going to take lifetimes to decode just the stuff we've gotten so far, and that's *almost* everything except for this last batch."
"Why is this stuff so important anyways?" Equius asked. "Don't we have the full Ancient and Asgard libraries to work with?"
"But we've got nothing from the Nox and barely anything from the Furlings," Daniel pointed out. "And the Furlings have the excuse of basically being extinct! The Nox have been ignoring us basically since the time we first met them."
"I mean," Jake said, "the only people they actually came to help were the Tollan and, well... We know how that turned out."
"No, actually, the Tollan are people I'm not familiar with," Equius said.
"Go read some old mission reports, then," Daniel huffed, a slight bit annoyed. "I'm sure they're in here somewhere."
"Maybe some other time," Nepeta interjected. "I think we've got our hands full with Ernests' journal for now."
"I guess the major question is, when do we leave?" Atsuya asked.
"Ideally? In the next few hours," Jake said.
"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Equius started to ask. "My new movie is premiering later today and-"
"We can always catch a later screening," Nepeta interjected again.
Nepeta paused her typing. "This conversation never happened the first time, I'm just realizing. Not a single bit of it. We're literally retconning my own personal timeline as we work this shit out."
"The memory ripples tickle, don't they?" The Traveler asked.
"They itch, is more like it," Nepeta shook her head, and breathed in quickly and exhaled just as sharply. "Is this what Serara went through?"
"When she was Damara?" The Traveler thought back to that time. "...No, she was pretty focused and determined in what she was doing. Too much to care about the memory ripples, atleast. Of course, what she was doing was closing up a stable time loop we knew already existed. What we're doing now is a little more... invasive."
"I mean, we are attempting to surgically cut apart two universes that do not belong connected together the way they are," Nepeta said. "Also, I just realized the pun in why it's me. Why it was always me that was going to help you with this."
"Because...?" The Traveler smiled, leading with their tone, curious where she was going with this.
"I'm a Doctor, and Doctors perform complicated surgeries," Nepeta shook her head, and gripped the keyboard once more. "Let's finish making the first incision."
"We can always catch a later screening," Nepeta interjected again, and said, "I think if we go now, we can... um... I don't know exactly, but I just. Have a really really bad feeling something bad will happen if we don't leave soon."
"Same here," Daniel said.
"Agreed," Jake nodded. "Last time I had a feeling like this was-"
"I get the point," Equius sighed. "And now that you've mentioned it, I'm starting to get that odd feeling too."
"Yeah, the ol' time senses are starting to twinge," Tomo agreed. "Anyone else feeling that?"
The other Kiramagers agreed.
"Alright, we'll get prepped and head out as soon as possible," Atsuya said.
And with that decision, and the Kiramagers moving to leave the office...
Time started to pull away from the course of reality that it had about to be drawn against like a weed whacker caught on a metal fence post.
"That was close." Nepeta sighed.
"Good save with the bad feeling reference," the Traveler said, releasing the grip on the keyboard. "I was able to amplify that warning singal I've been trying to push at them with it."
"How the fuck do I write myself in-character?" Nepeta asked.
"Live in the moment, and ordinarily, don't try to force an outcome," the Traveler said. "Right now, that's the opposite of what we wan't though. It's forced and awkward, but... it's doing the trick and we're almost done severing the Snarl's start. We just gotta get your team off world and out of that time frame."
"And then I go back to Being Me instead of Controlling Me?" Nepeta asked.
"Ideally," The Traveler said.
Notes:
T: If this feels like a forced scene, that's because it is.
T: The timeline was actively fighting against us to maintain course headlong into the continuity snarl.
N: How the hell do people write themselves?
N: I still don't get it.
T: It involves a solid understanding of themselves.
T: If it helps, do some roleplay sometime, where you're playing yourself-but-adjacent inside of that universe or game or whatever.
N: No thank you, dayo!
Chapter 8: A9A4.5: Return Trip
Summary:
Ernest does his thing as caretaker of the facility.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Ernest smiled as he saw the girl and the boy standing by the DHD. Oh, he was sure they were probably adults, but at his age, everyone were girls and boys to Ernest.
He arrived at the Gate Room and frowned at the state of it. It looked a bit worse than when he'd been here this morning, likely owing to the Stargate's activation. In fact, the room trembled slightly as he entered. Hopefully those Maintainer Kids were holding the structure intact given the situation. He hadn't seen anyone but Leigon since this morning.
"Hello, I'm the Caretaker," Ernest said to the two. They looked at him, blurry to his eyes from distance and his own poor eyesight. "Please, follow me to the Repository. Your friends are waiting."
"Thank you," the boy said. "I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson."
"I'm Captain Samantha Carter," the girl said.
Ah, yes, Military. That fit with the Colonel downstairs. It seemed Earth's Stargate had likely fallen into military hands after Ernest was sent here, just as Jake had told him. That definitely would explain the long delay... If they were really from Earth.
"A pleasure to meet you," Ernest said, and thus, he lead them downstairs.
When the arrived at the chamber, Ernest could hear a discussion ongoing.
"Do you know what this place used to be?" the probable Jake was saying.
"Some kind of meeting place of ancient people of different languages," Nika was saying. "I believe they were called the Ashguard...?"
There was no way the girl was that dumb, Ernest knew. She'd said the name correctly in the past, she was just playing it up for an audience.
"It's 'Asgard,'" Miorine corrected.
"The Asgard? As in Norse...?" Catherine paused. "Oh, yes, that plate over there seems to have Nordic runes on it!"
"Right, them, the Furlings, the..." Nika paused, "and... the Knocks? Or was it Socks? Wasn't it?"
"Furlings and Knockoff Socks?" O'neill asked, clearly bemused, to which there were a few chuckles.
"Right, and finally there's the last of the four races," Nika was about to say the name when Ernest and his two followers entered the room.
"Holy Hannah!" Carter exclaimed at the sight of the molecules above. "That is some toy isn't it?!"
"Oh my," Doctor Jackson gasped as well. "This is... Oh I have to get video of this."
And thus, the name of the Lanteans was not uttered that day.
Notes:
N: Furlings and Knockoff Socks. PFT.
N: Uncle Jack, you sure do have a way with words.
T: It'd be funnier if he could work in the Ancients and Asgard somehow...
T: Ancient Furlings and Nox-off Ash-guard Socks.
N: Noooo!! XOO
N: Of course you have that same sense of humor! XDD
T: Jack O'neill was truly an inspiration when I was a child.
Chapter 9: A9A5: Ad Stella
Summary:
Miorine has to deal with some things, and goes to visit her wife at work to sort through them.
Chapter Text
SEPTEMBER 19TH, AD STELLA 126.
EARTH. THE REMBRAN-MERCURY FARM. TOMATO FARM GREENHOUSE.
Miorine Rembran-Mercury carefully selected a tomato off the vine that looked ripe. She snipped it off, and held it up, judging it from all angles in the sunlight.
Elsewhere, in the back of the greenhouse, the sounds of Samiyo playing a video game on the Haro-frame called Muni could be heard.
Miorine sniffed the tomato. It smelled... mostly correct. Her fox ears twitched atop her head, her silver tail swished anxiously.
"Only one way to know for sure." Miorine lifted the tomato to her mouth, and whispered, "Moment of truth." She took a bite of the tomato...
Chewing for a moment, things seemed fine, but then her fox ears flattened against her skull and-
"BLECH!"
-She immediately spat the mouthful out into the waste bucket, where she dropped the rest of the tomato entirely. "Fuck!" she wiped the red juices off of her mouth. "The skin ripened before the insides did. Damn it all."
She looked at the current crop of shiny red tomatoes. She'd thought it was too early for them to ripen. Seems she was right.
Recreating her mother's recipe was proving harder than she'd thought. Why did genetically encrypted data on a super death weapon have to taste so good for?
Miorine stood from where she knelt, placed her hands on the small of her back, and stretched for a moment. "NNngaah!" She shook her arms out, and turned to look around for her daughter and Haro...
Instead, she saw a worried Nika Nanura approaching her, accompanied by someone she didn't recognize in an Atlantis Uniform.
"Nika? What's up?" Miorine frowned.
"This is Major David Keller, from Atlantis," Nika said.
"Misses Mercury," The Major said, taking off his sunglasses. "You've been requested to speak with Civete Ayano-Adalov at your earliest convenience. It's a matter of grave importance."
"Regarding?" Miorine frowned.
"The Criminal Group known as Absolute Solver."
"Well, Fuck," Miorine swore. "Muni!" she shouted. "Bring Samiyo over to me. You're both staying over at Grandpa Nadim's for a bit."
PEGASUS GALAXY. CITY OF ATLANTIS.
But two hours later, Miorine stepped through the Atlantis Stargate alongside Nika and the Major, and they headed for the main staircase.
Miorine looked up at Civete's office, and saw the Alternian woman was talking with a somewhat ambiguously old-ish looking human man. Miorine felt like she knew him from some history class or something. So he was probably someone important to the Stargate Program.
They passed through the control room, and onto the bridge to Civete's office. There, the Major knocked on the door, and then waited there while CIvete called "Enter!"
Miorine and Nika walked into the office, and Civete motioned for them to take a seat. "Thanks for coming as quickly as possible, Miss Nanura, Misses Mercury."
"So, what's this got to do with Cyn, and why did you bring me and Nika up here instead of consulting with my wife?" Miorine cut right to the chase.
"Right to the chase then," the older man said, and extended his hand. "I'm Jake Harley. I believe I have a potential solution to the Cyn problem- or know at least where you can find one."
"What kind of solution?" Miorine asked, shaking his hand.
"Many years ago, long before the start of the Stargate Program," Jake explained, "a dear friend of mine stepped through the Stargate, and found himself stranded on a world that held a repository of knowledge from four very advanced alien races."
"The Heliopolis project!" Nika exclaimed, recognizing what he was talking about. "I've heard of it!"
"Well, that makes one of us," Miorine said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"It's a massive repository of knowledge that was encoded in molecular structures," Nika explained. "Through time travel, they pulled out most of the repository's database before the building collapsed. About twenty years ago, they opened up applications for scientists to take a crack at decoding the molecular language, and giving scientists a chance to examine the data base that has been collected so far."
"Yes, we have Most of it, but not all of it," Jake said. "It's the work of many life times all stored in one place, and it takes that many more life times to offload it all safely, page by page. There's no easy way to access the data on it other than using its interface, and the machine itself is staggeringly resilient towards damage or deconstruction."
As Miorine processed that information, a thought came to her. "You think something in the uncollected part of the database will help us stop Cyn and Absolute Solver?"
"Potentially," Civete said, "but the most important part of this is your involvement."
Nika got it before Miorine did, "You know we were there at Heliopolis, personally."
"I met you two women there, yes," Jake said. "You were looking for information you claimed would 'defeat a grave sin'- and even dear Ernest thought you were saying 'S-I-N' and not 'C-Y-N'."
"But you realized now we have to go back and find this information ourselves," Miorine said. "Why now?"
"Frankly? We're short on time," Civete said. "With the upcoming conclusion to the Elections, and the internal struggle we've been facing to keep Cyn's meddling out of it... We need to send you through before a disaster happens."
"Your mission," Jake said, warily, "is to go to Heliopolis, record the next unrecorded section of data from the database, and return with it. Ideally, if you happen to find what we need while you're there, that's even better."
Miorine took a deep breath. "I need to speak with my wife first."
"Of course," Civete nodded. "There's a Book to Asticassia in the Library."
"I know the route," Miorine said, and took off in a heartbeat.
Nika frowned once the door closed behind Miorine. "So... there's something else you're not telling us, isn't there?"
"Spoilers," Jake and Civete answered.
ASTICASSIA. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE.
Suletta Mercury was working on some idle paperwork when a knock came to the office door.
"Come in," she called out.
"Suletta," Miorine said as she entered. "Put up the sound proofing."
Suletta nodded without a second though, and engaged the protocols for keeping Cyn's prying ears out of the office. A tingle of Permet ran through her and Miorine as they felt the suppression field kick in.
"What's wrong?" Suletta asked as she stood from her desk, decaptchaloging her walking canes to her arms- apparently it was a bad day for her, Miorine frowned as she walked the rest of the way and hugged her tight, letting her emotions bleed over to her wife freely. "Oh! Okay. A lot then. Right... From the top then?" She hugged her back as well as she could given how Miorine's arms were kinda trapping her own arms to her sides.
"The Tomatoes only are visually ripe but are unripe on the inside," Miorine started.
"Oh, Oh dear. That's a whole new batch wasted." Suletta sighed.
"That's not the worst part. Atlantis sent someone directly to get me and Nika to speak with Civete," Miorine continued.
"Okay...?" Suletta frowned.
"They want us to time travel back in a stable time loop to try to find something that might stop Cyn," Miorine explained. "Apparently we've already done it. But why me? Nika I get, but why *me*? I can't even get my tomatoes to work right and they want me to find a solution for Cyn?? With just Me and Nika handling the search??"
"Hmm..." Suletta pondered it. "I think you can do it- no. I know you can do it!" She smiled brightly, and then kissed Miorine on the forehead, abusing her taller height to her advantage.
"Mrrmrmr..." Miorine grumbled at Suletta, her ears twitching in annoyance. "What gives you that unwavering confidence in me, you too-tall tanuki?"
"You were there for me while I was recovering, every step of the way," Suletta said, "and you've never stopped once when you have a goal set infront of you, even with roadblocks." She planted another kiss on Miorine's forehead, more forcefully and sloppily. "Mwah!"
"You affection starved addict!" Miorine meekly protested, but the warmth in her heart radiated across their bond, and even without that, Suletta knew her Wife all too well.
"Takes one to know one," Suletta giggled, and kissed her on the forehead once more.
"Bah!" Miorine pulled back, and wiped the wetness off her forehead. "Stop that! If you're going to kiss me then do it properly!"
Suletta captchalogued her right arm cane, and swiftly brought her hand up to tilt Miorine's chin upwards. Now locking eyes, Suletta said, with her voice droping to a husky, gravely tone that made Miorine's heart swing, "If that's what you want, then who am I to disagree?"
Then, she kissed her on the lips, and there was also a bit of tongue involved a moment later.
They held for a long moment, and Miorine brought her arms up around Suletta's waist, leaning into her Groom's form with her tail swishing anticipatorily, craving more and more and-
Suletta broke the kiss and said, breathy and teasingly, "There's more where that came from when you get back."
"You absolute tease," Miorine pouted.
In the unknown time-space of the Traveler's home office, Nepeta raised an eyebrow. "So, for starters, Jake lives that long?"
"His inherited alien genetics are absurd," The Traveler said flatly. "The Scratch Doctor lived for thousands of thousands of years without aging, so Jake inherited part of that. Not as much, but a good chunk of extended lifespan, factoring in the additions Jayni did in her modifications when she cloned him."
"...Fair point," Nepeta said. "Second of all. Civete? Is she Keiko and Mallek's daughter or granddaughter?"
"Spoilers," The Traveler teased.
"You don't remember, do you?" Nepeta teased in turn.
"Spoilers regardless!" The Traveler said. "I will neither confirm nor deny, especially since you may be her delivery doctor regardless of which is true."
Nepeta stuck her tongue out. "May be, huh? Sounds like will be. What happened to spoilers?"
"I'm not answering the question firmly either way, now shoosh on that topic!" The Traveler insisted.
"Fine. Third of all, who the heck are these Nika, Miorine, and Suletta people?" Nepeta asked.
"How much time do you have for an almost six hundred fifty thousand ish word-count chronicle of the future you've chosen for things to go down?" the Traveler asked in turn. "TL;DR, they're some of the heroes who save Earth a few generations from now. That's all you need to know."
Nepeta narrowed her eyes. "And this *doesn't* count as Spoilers?"
"Considering your team doesn't really get involved in those events, no, not really," the Traveler said. "But seriously, we can pause here if you want to know who those girls are and go read up on what happened to them. Kinda silly to go through all of this without you doing that first before making a decision, honestly." They frowned. "Why didn't I think about that earlier?"
"Because we're flying by the seat of our pants and trying to keep ahead of the continuity snarl?" Nepeta asked in turn. "Anyways, I'll skip the extra reading for now. I think we're ready for me to get inserted back into the right flow of time, right?"
"Yeah," the Traveler said. "Let's get ready to put things back on track." They stretched their arms, fingers interlaced, and then laid them down on the keyboard. "Brace yourself for a potentially jarring Gilligan Cut."
"What do you mean by that?" Nepeta asked.
"It means this is where we say goodbye, and I wish you as happy of a life as you possibly can have given the circumstances ahead of you," The Traveler said. "Good luck, Nepeta Leijon. May our paths never cross again during this specific event."
"One can only hope," Nepeta said. "So, what do I do?"
"Room next door to this one," The Traveler said. "Open, looks like a guest room for the moment. Go to it, close the door, and open it again. Then step through."
"Alright," Nepeta nodded. "Though, if you need me for anything directly-"
"I'll message you directly via the Narrative Prompt," The Traveler said.
"Alright," Nepeta said, and left the office. She walked down the hallway, and looked for the remaining doors. One was a bathroom. One was clearly the Traveler's own room, full of model kits, their boxes, and messy, disarrayed stacks of clothing on top of those, complete with a hammock instead of a bed. And the last... yeah, that looked like a guest room.
Nepeta closed the door, and took a deep breath. "Hey, Traveler?" She called back before she left.
"Yeah?" The Traveler asked, calling back in turn.
"How jarring are Gilligan cuts anyways?" Nepeta asked, and gripped the door handle.
"Oh, that's all going to depend on how quick on his wits Jack O'neill is," the Traveler said.
"Yeah, I guess so." Nepeta opened the door and stepped through as the Traveler's last direct words to her reached her ears.
"You know how this meaning of life stuff goes."
Notes:
N: Oh. Now I get it.
N: Thanks for the link this time.
T: You're welcome.
N: By the way, nice setup for the gilligan cut.
T: Thanks!
Chapter 10: A9A6: A Three Hour Tour.
Summary:
"You know how this meaning of life stuff goes."
Chapter Text
"No, Daniel," Jack O'neill said, "I don't know how this 'meaning of life' stuff goes. How is this 'meaning of life' in any way shape or form?" He motioned at the holograms above him. "This looks more to me like my highschool chemistry class, not ethics and philosophy 101!"
'Ah,' Nepeta Leijon thought as she gazed out at the scene. 'That jarring.'
Her memories were briefly reviewed. Moments after introductions were done with, O'neill had thumbed his radio and called for Carter and Daniel. Not long after that, the duo had arrived, and Daniel had immediately started gushing over the four wall plates that had four alien languages on it, but then focused on the holograms above them all.
Immediately, he had launched on a spiel, "If this is a Mecca of sorts- some kind of Alien United Nations- this all has to mean something profound! Why else would they encrypt it all in chemistry formulas instead of a single language? There's- there's- how many of these elements are there?"
Ernest had replied, "One hundred and forty-six."
"There are currently only one hundred and eleven elements on the periodic table," Catherine said.
"Only ninety when I last looked," Ernest chuckled.
"See!?" Daniel had pointed at it all. "That's exactly it! The Basic Building Blocks that make up the universe! How can you ensure universal communication between four races- Between ANYONE who comes after you? You reduce the method of communication to the one thing common to everyone and everything that exists in the universe! We have to stay and study this! It could take a lifetime to decode!"
"Or more," Ernest said. "I've been caretaker here for so very long, and so many people have come and gone, trying to work through their given problems. Most are copying the information page by page, but there is so much. I don't believe I've ever found the last page."
"So?" O'neill asked.
"Jack, this is a true universal language! This could hold the Meaning of Life Itself!" Daniel had said. "You know how this stuff goes!"
Which brought us back to the thing Jack O'neill was saying but a moment ago.
"No, Daniel," Jack O'neill said, "I don't know how this 'meaning of life' stuff goes. How is this 'meaning of life' in any way shape or form?" He motioned at the holograms above him. "This looks more to me like my highschool chemistry class, not ethics and philosophy 101!"
"I just finished explaining that!" Daniel huffed, mildly annoyed.
"No, you explained how a bunch of smart ass aliens encoded a bunch of science shit in chemistry, there's no way to say that any of this is explicitly 'meaning of life,'" O'neill rolled his eyes.
"I mean... you both have a point," Jake said. "Daniel is right that this is all... extremely profound, and very important. But, O'neill is also right in that there's potentially nothing in here that could be 'meaning of life'."
"The only 'meaning of life' here," Miorine said, "is that Nika and I need to continue copying the information here and hope we find what we need, or our lives won't have much meaning in defeating that 'Grave Cyn'."
Gods, this is all so melodramatic, isn't it?
"The Information is only important in the eyes of the beholder," Nepeta decided to chime in.
"And what are you here for?" Carter asked of the cloaked alternian.
"Maintenance," Nepeta repeated flatly. "My people are Maintainers. We do what we can to keep this facility standing."
As they had the first time Nepeta's crew had used that excuse, Miorine and Nika flinched for some absurd reason. Something she was probably missing context for. No, there was no probably about it. She'd turned down reading the offered information when she had a chance.
'You don't have to rub it in,' Nepeta thought, before adding aloud, "Unfortunately, if you used the Stargate, there's nothing else my crew can do except hold things open while you return through. This facility's structural integrity cannot withstand another dialing attempt."
As if on cue, the building creaked ominously around them.
"Unfortunately, the DHD is broken," Carter said. "Debris broke it. We can't dial out."
"My people have a power source you can use, if you wish," Nepeta offered. "But be warned, it will hail the destruction of this place if we use the Stargate." She looked to Miorine and Nika, "Ensure you have recorded everything you need before then."
"How can you understand any of this?" Daniel interjected into the conversation "The structures aren't allowing for any relative perspective. How do you translate the three-dimensional nature of the information?"
"Look down," Ernest said.
Daniel did, the floor contained radial, pie shaped markings on it.
Nepeta, amusingly enough, spotted a few historical glyphs representing specific Galaxies and points within those Galaxies. The home worlds of the Ancients, Nox, Asgard, and Furlings. Not that anyone here could do anything with that information, and Nepeta *wasn't going to bring it up* because that could derail the timeline!
Still, that was only thanks to her own unique experience of having future knowledge that she could pick it up. It'd still take the Atlantis Expedition a solid year after the Wraith attacked Earth before they identified that knowledge and began making progress on translating any of this.
Daniel, of course, immediately had the camcorder out and was recording things. "Of course! You measured the element's distance from a central point, degrees from a zero around a circle, and height above the floor! Look! There are even markings on the wall indicating even measurements!! This is-!"
"Daniel," Jack coughed. "As lovely as this all is. We're still missing the important piece of the puzzle we needed since we came here." He looked to Ernest, the "Caretaker," and said, "Doctor Littlefield, I presume?"
"AH! You ARE from Earth after all!" Ernest grinned. "I was beginning to wonder! It's about damn time. Jake told me you'd-" he stopped, as Jake Harley himself coughed.
"Ernest, I am Jake Harley," Jake said. "I've never been here before today."
Ernest looked at him, and withdrew a pair of glasses from within his robes. He examined Jake, and said... "Oh. You got rather old pretty quickly since your last visit, Jake."
"Ernest," Catherine stepped forwards. "It's me, Catherine."
Ernest looked at Catherine, stared at her for a long moment, and then said, "You've gotten old too, my dear."
"So have you," Catherine said, smiling faintly.
"I'm sorry for leaving you, but the device by the Stargate was damaged when I arrived. I couldn't come home," Ernest started to cry as he hobbled towards her and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry- I'm so sorry, Catherine!"
"So, uh..." Carter coughed. "You mentioned a power source?"
Nepeta smiled faintly. "Sure. Let's head back to the Gateroom."
"C'mon, Daniel, let's go," O'neill said.
"Uh, but what about these two?" he motioned to Miorine and Nika.
"We're local," Nika said with all the elegance of a lie nobody who knew the truth believed. "We have our own ride waiting for us."
"Worst case, they can catch a ride with the rest of my people." Nepeta said. "We'll drop them off at... Babylon Five, wasn't it?"
"Yes," Miorine said, frowning slightly.
The building trembled again- this time sending a shuttering jolt through the room as something noticeably groaned, creaked, and then collapsed outside.
Once the shaking stopped, O'neill asked, "What was that?"
"Probably the central spire," Ernest said, still clinging to Catherine. "It didn't fair well in the last storm."
A chime came from Nepeta's Kiramei changer, and she swore internally, and decided to risk showing it. She lifed her left wrist out of the cloak and tapped at the call button, dismissing the red glow around the ring for a moment. "This had better be good news, Atsuya!"
"Sorry, but it isn't!" Atsuya said over the call. "The central spire just collapsed and took a chunk of the side of the building out with it. Sky Mage had to dodge to avoid it hitting."
Outside of the castle, we can see that, indeed, the above has happened. Our camera pans down to beneath the castle, showing that Land Mage, Zabyun Express, Greatful Phoenix, and Gigant Driller were supporting various weak areas of the building's supports. Sky Mage floated around, hovering anxiously while darting between areas of the bottom of the castle sticking over the cliff side, where the other Mashin in their gemstone forms were hovering and pressing up close against the obviously cracking areas.
"We've got temporary supports in place," Atsuya said, from inside Land Mage, "but you have to hurry and get everyone out of there. Heliopolis is coming down!"
"Roger that," Nepeta said, and marched forwards towards the group hovering by the control console- Nika, Miorine, and Daniel. "Alright, you lot. You heard the Foreman. Let's go!"
"But- This has knowledge of the universe! We have to get more down before we leave!" Daniel protested.
"No knowledge is worth your life, Doctor Jackson!" Nepeta snapped at the man, whose name she had notably never been given properly in this timeframe. "Now grow up, and leave this place before the sins of the past become your grave!"
"Before it becomes your grave?" Miorine echoed, a dawning realization hitting her with the phrasing of the key phrase she'd been given, 'Grave Sin.' "Of course. Could it really be that simple? Nika! I think I have it!"
"What is?" Nika asked.
"I'll explain on the way home!" Miorine said. "Let's gather our things and get out of here!"
The large group ran up the stairs, and exited out into the hallway. Nika and Miorine pausing only to grab their backpacks, and started shoving their supplies inside.
"Go on ahead!" Nika told Nepeta when she glanced back at her. "We have our own ride."
Nepeta was inclined to trust them, and nodded. "Very well! Good luck, you two."
"Thanks," Miorine said, and once the Future SG-1 plus company were out of sight, she took off her hat, releasing her ears, and loosened her belt so that she could shimmy her pants down enough to let her tail out.
They quickly captchalogued everything into their sylladexes, forgoing the pretext and Nika said, "Once more into the breach of a colapsing facility?"
"I really hate these narrative echoes," Miorine said, and then took a breath. Her body began to glow as she thought about Suletta... And then she muttered, "Renamon, Shinka!"
Nepeta glanced back over her shoulder as she heard the shout and saw a flash of silver light from that hallway. She smiled, not quite sure what was going on, but indeed, trusted them to have their way out.
She carried on after SG-1, even as a "Kyuuubiimon!" echoed out of the hallway.
Had she stayed to look a moment longer, and not kept up with those of the present as they rounded the corner for a hallway leading to the Gateroom, Nepeta would have seen Nika riding on the back of a silver fox with nine tails, who took a running leap at the wall's open window, and carried on out into the space beyond.
Of course, a cloaked Time Jumper was waiting for them in just the right spot. Miorine's Kyuubimon form landed on the Jumper's ramp, and Nika quickly dismounted over her head, disappearing into the cloak, before Miorine reverted to her human form and jumped ahead into the field, vanishing from sight as well.
The current group of heroes arrived in the Gate room just in time to have another tremor strike the facility.
With horrified eyes, Carter wound up being the only one looking the right way to see the ceiling right above the DHD to collapse onto it, and with a burst of dirt and debris...
Take the DHD with it as the ceiling carried on far, far below.
When the quaking subsided, Carter scrambled over to the new hole in the floor, and gazed down at nothing but a very, VERY distant beach covered in sand and a scattering of dark grey rocks directly below.
The DHD was gone.
Carter looked back at the others as O'neill got to his feet. "Sir, we have a problem!"
O'neill looked at the space the DHD had been in, and lamented a quiet, "D'oh."
Notes:
N: Well, that really could have gone better.
T: Indeed.
N: You couldn't have warned me either?
T: We all have things we have to deal with when they come out of nowhere without forewarning.
T: Also, it just plain slipped my mind to warn you when you were here. Sorry about that.
T: Daniel and Jake have no such excuse.
N: Uhhuh. Sure thing.
Chapter 11: A9A7: The Torment of Tantalus.
Summary:
Well, this is the part where we have the title drop.
This is the part with the title drop.
This is that part.
Chapter Text
Everyone was silent for a long moment, even Nepeta was staring at the lack of a DHD, her mind whirling for a solution to this problem. She'd been prepared to power the Stargate's DHD with a device she'd been told was compatible with the DHD. But this was...
How did they rectify this?
"Ah, the Torment of Tantalus," Ernest lamented.
"What?" Catherine asked.
"Tantalus was a king in Greek Mythology, banished to Hades, forced to stand in water that receded away from him when he tried to drink," Ernest lamented. "Everlasting, unending temptation. Always reaching for something that was... ahm... out of reach."
"Okay, well, if nobody has any other ideas, I'm going back to the-" Daniel started to head back, but Jake Harley grabbed him by the collar of his uniform.
"Nope, that applies to you as well, Daniel," Jake said, eyeing the man. "We're going home. Don't you have a wife to get back to anyways?"
"...That's..." Daniel swallowed. "Okay, yeah, that's a good point."
"Good. Now don't run off." Jake released him, and Daneil... stayed put. "This place is unstable as hell. And mind your feet!"
"We have a device to power a DHD, and a Stargate with no DHD," Carter said aloud, starting to pace towards the FRED cart next to the Stargate. "Maybe we can jerry rig the power-source to the Gate and dial out manually?"
"It took three strong men with magnetic hooks to turn that thing manually!" Jake pointed out. "I don't know if we have the muscle power for that!"
"We do," Nepeta said, and she reached into her cloak, stealthily decaptchaloging the power source into her hand and withdrawing it. "Captain Carter," she tossed the device over without another word.
Carter caught the device with ease, and looked it over. "Huh. Smaller than I'd thought it'd be."
It was basically a small cube with two orbs attached opposite each other on the sides. Captain Carter had no idea that her own future self would design a similar device based on her memories of this one, which was in turn designed by someone else based off of the future Major Carter's designs. Later, when a retired Colonel Carter saw the device being produced, she couldn't help but laugh in realization of what had happened.
Carter held it tightly as she approached the FRED. "Colonel, Help me out here."
"I'll help too," Nepeta said.
"Might as well help with the Dialing," Daniel said, and headed over to the Gate.
Thus, Catherine, Ernest, and Jake stared and watched cables being hooked up to the Stargate, and then the miniature generator, which had its orbs extended now on metal poles that pulsed with rings of light. Then, the chevrons began to sluggishly pulse to life on the Stargate.
"That symbol!" Daniel pointed at the Gate, "Up and to the Top, clockwise."
He, Jack, Carter, and Nepeta grabbed the Gate's ring where they could, and began to push it into alignment.
CHUNK- KAWHUNK. The Gate struggled to lock the chevron, but as the Naquadah Generator pumped more power into it, the Gate more easily loosened up as Daniel indicated the next symbol. "That one, Counter Clockwise."
CHUNK- KAWTHUNK.
Closer, but as the second chevron lit up, it was going smoother, with less effort needed.
So it went, the seven chevrons being put in in sequence.
The third Chevron was punched into place. CHUNK- and either the Gate, or the building itself began to rumble. KATHUNK.
"Hurry!" Nepeta said. "Next glyph!"
"It's somewhere under the floor!" Daniel panicked.
"Turn it anyways then!" Nepeta said.
The ring was turned, and when the right glyph appeared, Daniel shouted, "There! That one!"
The chevron locked- fourth in sequence. CHUNK-KATHUNK. And thankfully, the fifth glyph was very close in sequence on this Gate in the right direction as well, so it rapidly was brought into alignment. CHUNK- And then the Stargate definitely began to vibrate beneath the team's hands as the Fifth Chevron Locked. KA-THUNK!
"Just two more!" Carter called out.
"This one!" Daniel patted a Glyph near his hands.
They spun the ring, moving with a ferocity that desperation brought forth.
The building shook, rumbled, and began to collapse in other places from the loud noises.
CHUNK- went chevron six- KA-THUNGKH! The odd sound was due to a chunk of ceiling bouncing off of the Stargate's top chevron as it fell from above.
"Oh for cryin' out loud!" O'neil swore.
With the Stargate shaking violently beneath their hands, and the floor beneath their feet trembling and shaking, it was rapidly clear that Heliopolis was entering its final moments.
A soft violet glow began to shine through the hole where the DHD was, but nobody paid it any mind as Mashin Carry's gemstone form flew up under the Gateroom to hold it as steady as possible.
Even so, the ceiling began to crack and fracture and fissure above them all.
Dust and debris began falling down everywhere. Fissures began to spread in the floor.
The point of origin hit the final chevron, and Chevron seven...
CHUNK--
"CLEAR WAY!" O'neill shouted, and everyone dove aside.
KAAAAAA----THUNKAH!
Locked.
WAAA WAAAA!
KAWOOOOOOOOOOSH!
"GO!" Nepeta shouted, because even her tiny generator was having trouble sustaining the wormhole. The eventhorizon was already flickering. "NOW!"
"IDC SENT!" Carter shouted after punching in the code to her GDO. "AND WE'RE CLEAR!"
"GO GO GO!" O'neill shouted. Daniel and Carter went through first, and as they did, Nepeta glanced over at the hole where the DHD had been, and saw the light. She had her exit.
"Don't worry!" Catherine said as she and Jake hurried to the Gate, Earnest held in Jake's arms. "It's just like a piece of cake!"
"Not from what I remember!" Ernest countered.
Jake entered the gate alongside Catherine, taking Ernest with them. Leaving only O'neill.
"Hey! Kid!"
Nepeta looked at him. "Yeah??"
"Thanks!" O'neill said. "And good luck out there!"
"You're welcome! Any time!" Nepeta grinned. "And Thanks!"
O'neill turned for the Gate and threw himself for the Eventhorizon at the same time Nepeta tapped her Kiramei Changer and ran for the hole in the floor. _KIRAMEI GO!_
"Kiramei Change!" Nepeta leaped for the hole in the floor as the ceiling collapsed behind her, cutting off the stargate from sight and landing on the cables, severing the connection to the generator.
As a flash of brilliant pink light overcame Nepeta, dust and debris clouded the camera from sight...
And our view hurries through the disconnected wormhole as it sputters and flares and threatens to disconnect, but in the end---
FWASH!!
Jack O'neill flew through the Stargate alongside a burst of dust and debris as the wormhole shuttered behind him. He crashed onto the ramp and tumbled along it until he came to a halt at the bottom of it, gazing up at the worried face of Captain Carter.
"Sir, are you alright?" Carter knelt down to check on him.
"I think I broke a rib," Jack grouched, not sure if he really had or not. "...This shit is why I retired, you know?"
Carter chuckled. "Had enough of the daring day to day adventures?"
"Something like that," O'neill glanced at the Gate, and wondered... Did the girl in the cloak make it?
Notes:
N: Cutting it close there.
T: Yep.
N: Gotta love a dramatic final dialing sequence though.
N: But yeah, why the HELL did the Ancients build the Stargates to quake like that??
T: Not. A. Clue.
Chapter 12: A9A8: Epilogue.
Summary:
In which we have the wrapup moments to signal the end of the episode.
Notes:
CW:
The last of the Building Collapse.
Time Loop shenanigans.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
As the castle of Heliopolis collapsed into the beach and sea below, the Kiramager's Zords and their other Mashin stood or floated in the air, watching the place crumble away into nothing.
Inside of Mashin Carry, Nepeta Leijon, Kiramei Pink, sat at the pilot's seat, and gazed at it all, coming to ruin.
"You know, guys?" Nepeta said after a moment of weighing her options. "That could've been us."
"Somewhere, some when, maybe," Heliko said from the hovering form of Sky mage. "But we're alive now! And that's what matters!"
"That's Not what I mean," Nepeta shook her head. "Guys, I spoke with the Traveler."
"That Mage pretending to be Destoria?" Tomo asked from inside Zabuyn's cockpit. "What did they have to do with any of this?"
"We..." Nepeta took a breath, waiting for a negative response.
Nah, kid, go ahead. I won't punish you for it.
"...We were caught up in a Continuity Snarl," Nepeta said. "Our Timeline was progressing, but held stagnant. And it all started like this..."
And as she explained the situation to them, they began to have a dawning moment of horror and realization, especially as the memories of the aborted continuity snarl began to bubble up in the backs of their minds.
Because I wasn't going to leave Nepeta being the only one who remembered that. I'm not that cruel.
Nepeta paused as she heard that, and smiled faintly, but continued on her explanation. Finally, when Nepeta finished, everyone else was silent... except for Atsuya, Kiramei Red.
"Well," Atsuya smiled as he took off his helmet. "I'm just glad that person is still looking out for us, even after all this time."
"Are you kidding?" Equius asked. "We're going to die and become Kiramei Stones! How is that looking after us!?"
"It means they want us to live, and that means they like us enough to do that," Atsuya said, gazing up at the sky. "Besides... I want to see this new timeline that those two girls came from. What enemy are they facing to make them so desperate to come here?"
"I'm glad we're alive and not stuck in movie purgatory, atleast," Tomo sighed. "That was... a very weird thing to experience."
"You're tellin' me," Harley grouched. "I have a headache just thinking about it."
"I have memories of flying on my own," Harry sighed, happy with the experience, atleast. "I'm glad that I have that to work with, atleast."
"Well," Jetta said, "all I have to say is, I'm sure glad you gals cut through the matter with a speedy woosh once you had the solution!"
"My only question is..." Mashin Fiya said, "When does the shuttle get here to take us back to the future? I really don't wanna sit around here any longer than necessary, if you ask me."
You'll have to wait five minutes. They're waiting for the dust to settle.
"Five minutes," Nepeta said, looking at the smoke and dust rising from the collapsed building. "They're waiting for things to settle here."
Atsuya just stared upwards at the sky, rather, at the camera, and at me. "Thanks for helping us out of another jam, Traveler."
"You're welcome," The Traveler said in response, holding the three troublesome objects that had made the Continuity Snarl in the first place suspended in the air in front of them- separated the moment after the Snarl's attempted formation had stalled out and failed due to the previous meddling that had been done.
They stayed suspended, even as the Traveler walked away, over towards a DHD, and began punching in glyphs to the device.
Moments later, the Stargate activated, and its Kawoosh obliterated the Mask and the Sporix egg, and carefully cleaved through the edge of the gear.
The Gear thus damaged to the point of no return, the universe it had constrained was released from its imprisonment, and the whole thing exploded into dust a moment later.
The Traveler nodded in satisfaction, and then shut the Gate with a snap of their fingers.
Nearby, far above in the universal chain of events, the Kiramagers and Zenkaigers finished their final battle with explosive results, never the wiser of the continuity snarl that had been happening beneath their feet for years, and yet seconds.
Hours later in 1994, at the to-be SGC, the Stargate dialed and dialed, but its seventh chevron refused to lock.
"Should I try again?" asked the technician on duty.
Daniel sighed. "That's enough, Walter. It's not going to lock. The Gate's burred."
"Yes, sir," Walter Harriman agreed, and canceled the dialing sequence.
Daniel turned to the stairs, and climbed upstairs to the conference room. There, he joined everyone that was already sitting at the table, and took a seat with them.
"Heliopolis is gone," Daniel said. "I just wish we could've learned more."
"Something tells me you will," Ernest said. "I know what I saw. I wasn't hallucinating. Jake really did come to visit me. Along with all the others."
"What? Do you think I time traveled?" Jake asked, and scoffed. "Preposterous!"
"Even excluding the impossibility of time travel" Carter said as she gazed at Ernest's journal. "...But if the room and device survived, then maybe one day, when we have ships capable of crossing the galaxy like the Goa'uld, then maybe we can fly there and recover the device."
"It just feels... like we let something slip through our grasp at the last moment," Daniel said. "Wrong, almost."
"Look at it this way," Catherine said. "If you ever run into the aliens who made up that language, you can always ask what it meant."
Daniel sighed, and said, "I'll just have to live with that."
Unfortunately for Dr. Daniel Jackson, when he *did* think to ask about it to the Ancients, he was an Ascended Being and couldn't share the answer with anyone afterwards.
The Nox, alas, would refuse to answer when he asked them.
The Asgard? Well, Thor would just chuckle mysteriously and say it was 'the fruit of a misspent youth.'
As for the Furlings, dead lips tell no tales.
From within the privacy of his office, General Hammond, however, had one thing to say:
"I'll file a medical leave of absence for you, Colonel," Hammond said.
"Thanks, Sir," O'neill said, wincing as he clutched an ice pack to his chest. "I'll still be around if you need me for anything but... maybe it should be reserved for emergency situations for a while?"
"I'll make sure it's just that," Hammond said. "Now, as for the matter you brought up to me... Not a word to anyone. If this *is* a Stable Time Loop of some kind, which I find preposterous-" He lied through his teeth. "-Then we cannot commit most of the details of what happened today to even classified private record beyond a basic summary of the building's collapse and Dr. Littlefield's rescue."
"I'm sure Daniel will be *Oh* so happy about the additional NDA," O'neill rolled his eyes. "But everyone else should know to keep their lips shut. Given the whole 'meaning of life' shit." he rolled his eyes. "The last thing we want is someone in West's camp to catch wind of this and pass word to the Goa'uld."
"Exactly," Hammond nodded. "As far as our reports will go, the only important information recovered was the four Rosetta Stone tablets on the walls."
"Hakuna Matata, as they say," O'neill said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some cable TV to catch up on incase they were trying to pass us a coded message."
"Let's hope the next time, if there is to be a next time, they just send us a note, or a message in a bottle," Hammond said. "Something a tad less ambiguous than a TV Show name."
"I'll try to make sure my next time travel note is extremely blood stained, and worded as cryptically as possible, sir," O'neill quipped. "Maybe just a 'Don't go to this planet!' With no explanation?"
"Don't you dare, Colonel," Hammond shook his head. "Dismissed."
"Yes, Sir," O'neill said, and turned to leave Hammond's office.
Years in the Future... but not many...
Nepeta walked into Dr. Daniel Jackson's office in Atlantis, sauntered up to him, and then placed her hands on the table.
"Ah, welcome back," Daniel said.
"You could've warned us about the DHD falling through the floor," Nepeta said.
"If I did that, then you wouldn't have played the time loop exactly as it happened," Daniel looked up to meet her eyes.
"I hope the 'meaning of life' stuff is worth it, in the end," Nepeta said.
"Me too," Daniel said. "Did you guys at least-?"
"Here's the data," Nepeta decaptchalogued a handheld camera, and held it away from Daniel as he reached for it.
"Miss Leijon," Daniel started.
"Doctor Jackson," Nepeta countered.
"This is payback for my youthful ignorance and wanting to stay in a death trap, isn't it?" Daniel asked.
"I'm just saying, you have a tendency of trying to put the better good before your own family." Nepeta narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to give this to Jake." She captchalogued the camera again. "You, go spend time with your family. You're not getting any younger."
Daniel sighed. "Yeah, that's true."
He stood without complaint, and left the office. Nepeta watched him go, and shook her head.
"That guy... couldn't you have made him a bit less reckless?" she asked to the room.
Nothing replied but the silence of the room.
"...Yeah, I thought so," Nepeta chuckled, and went to find Jake Harley's office.
Years in the future... but a slight bit many more...
Miorine laid down her Notebook and a book full of information on Civete's desk in her office. "I don't think we need any of this to beat Cyn, but here it is anyways."
"What?" Civete asked, surprised. "What do you mean by that?"
"It's a surprise for later," Miorine said, and turned to leave. "Do try to have an appropriate reaction when I set off the fireworks."
Civete watched the fox-woman leave, rejoin her companion Nika, and then ask the technician on duty to Dial Out.
As the Stargate spun up, Civete picked up the camera, and eyed it carefully. "What did you find out there, Miorine Rembran?"
"It's Mercury," Miorine's voice cut in from across the bridge.
Civete looked across it, towards the control room, where Miorine was looking at her from the corner of her eye.
"Miorine Mercury," she repeated.
"Right, sorry Misses Mercury," Civete chuckled. "Sorry, it was force of habit. I forgot for a moment."
Miorine smirked, and then turned to leave as the Stargate went off with its usual WAA WAA, KAWOOSH.
Civete looked back to the camera, and smiled with hope in her heart as the camera faded to black.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS:
HARLEY TRAVELER
NEPETA LEIJON
Notes:
N: You gave me an Executive Producer title?
T: Yep.
N: ...Thanks. That's weird, but thanks.
T: Anyways, this is the last chapter. Any closing thoughts?N: Well, continuity snarl aside, I feel like this was an extremely unique experience. Let's not make a habit of it.
T: Agreed.
N: Beyond that...
N: It's clear to me you were trying to do something with the future setup with Miorine's time period. Not sure what that's about yet, though.
T: Me either! I have an inkling, but I'm not sure what Miorine's plan here is until she actually pulls it off.
T: That's the fun of this!
N: I don't get how you find ambiguity fun. I think it'd drive me a bit nuts.
T: I like to be surprised by people.T: On that note, I really hate forcing retcons into a timeline. Ostensibly, Nepeta was right earlier. I could have resolved a problem that nobody knew was a problem by just... fixing it and not making a fuss about it.
N: Uhhuh.
T: But I also hate leaving things I've chronicled on the cutting room floor.
T: It feels like a disservice to those events to have them happen, and then, just, personally, pretend they didn't.
T: Even if that's exactly what I did here on some level- I made the movie events just. Not Happen.
T: I still left the Kiramagers with their memories of it.
N: Harry's still going on about being able to fly in space.
T: I look at it like "Continuum," in which the point of the altered events was to make them not happen.
T: But in a way that made the original timeline happen to begin with.
T: And in that way, Nepeta changing things with me was less of an Authorial Mandate, and more of letting the people within the timeline dictate their own future, to a degree.
N: Even though I *was* outside the timeline for a part of that. I still count as that?
T: Yep.
N: So. In the end, you decided to leave the choice up to me to help because that way I could dictate my own future.
N: Even if I insist that it still wasn't much of a choice.
T: Probably not.
N: And knowing what I know now about that other battle, what's to stop me and the others from going and intervening in that other option *as* part of our newly established timeline?T: ...
T: ...You know what, if you want to do that, I'm not going to stop you.
T: But that final battle there can wait. It's done so for now.
T: Don't rush yourselves, alright?
N: I find it heartwarming that you care so much, but also a little sad.
N: I say this from a place of caring. Don't you have anything else in your real life to care about that isn't people in other timelines?
T: ...
N: Too close to home? Too soon? Something else?
T: Yeah. Something like that.
N: Sorry.
T: It's fine. It's my life, and I'll live it as I can.
N: I think I get it now.
N: You know, if you ever get lonely, you can come visit any time, right?
N: I'll make tea, or something. We can just talk, as friends, rather than, well. Authors and Colleagues or whatever this weird meta-relationship is.
T: Thanks. I appreciate it. Might not take you up on it, but I appreciate it.N: On that note, I think it's time I say goodbye.
T: Yeah, we're running out of character space in these end notes.
N: Thank you all for having me here! It's been a pleasure to peek behind the curtain, as it were!
N: *Nepeta bows in thanks*
N: Later! Bye bye!!
T: Shorah!
N: [Nepeta has signed off]T: And thank you all for reading through this as well. I know this thing was extremely weird and sudden and out of nowhere, but really, thanks for reading through this.
T: I promise that I'll keep the meta weirdness out of any other SG-1 fill-in episodes I do to cover the blankspots I screwed up by skipping the first time around. I know that's not for everyone.
T: In the mean time, look forwards to more of the proper G-Witch and RWBY sections of the timeline in the coming weeks.
T: I'll see you all then, in the next update, whereever it is.
T: Thanks for reading!
T: [TheTraveler has signed off]
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