Coming Out of Exile: The Strength of A Father's Love
By Moon Mistress

Chapter Thirteen

Scotland
Altair Ain

Daniel couldn’t believe his ears when he was filled in on the last four months and, most especially, the events of last night.  He almost immediately came to the same conclusion Ares did; whatever Kanan wanted it wasn’t to destroy Altair Ain or his Shadows would have done a lot more damage.  He wanted the Book of Shadows that was obvious enough but why take Annie? What did she have to do with anything?  She had no special powers or gifts that could be useful to Kanan.  It didn’t matter, in the end, no it didn’t, any way you sliced it Daniel Jackson was heading to the Underworld.  He was filthy and tired and hungry and thirsty from his long stay in Zeus’ Dungeon.  Duncan tried to assure Daniel and Nicholas that Calla was fine with Ares and that the God of War would protect her.  Daniel felt quite certain he was right and that was probably one thing the old black bastard hadn’t counted on; Ares’ great love for his Daughter. Kanan probably never even conceived that Ares would ride to the rescue of the kingdom and throw a monkey wrench into his plan.  For once in his life Daniel found he was grateful for his Father In-Law.

“You should have seen them, Daniel…both of you should have seen her.” Duncan said as they rested on the lanai where Calla, Ares and Poseidon had begun to hatch their plan but instead of Nectar they had strong single malt.  “They were magnificent, splendid.” Duncan complimented.  “I’ve never seen anything like the two of them riding through the battle him tossing his fireballs and wielding his flaming sword and she behind him, shielding them as she shot bolts of lightning at the Shadows. Then those  huge balls of lightning shooting out from her fingers, ten at once in rapid fire…boom..boom..boom…” He added the sound effects for emphasis but the admiration was clear in his voice and his eyes as he drank from the glass letting the warm amber liquid pass down his gullet and into his belly with a small smile.  “You should have seen them,” Duncan said again in a lower voice.

“Yeah, I wish I’d been here.” Daniel said. What he meant was he wished he‘d been here for the last four months and not just for the battle last night.  The last of the light was fading from the sky. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough if her plan works.” 

“Do you think it will, Dad? Do you think those lights can disspell the Undead?”

Calla had the strangest quirkiest ideas and plans but the kicker there was that in the end they tended to work just exactly as she wanted them to no matter how hare-brained they seemed to the rest of the world.  “It just might.” Daniel snickered a little bit and finished the single malt in his glass. “I have to go.” He stood up but caught Duncan’s stare.

“You have to stay,” Duncan said although he didn’t want to.  “I know your first instinct is to go running after them but you are King of this realm.” Duncan reminded him.

“As King my first job is to protect the Queen at all costs.” Daniel reminded. He wasn’t just torn between staying here and going to the Underworld, part of him wanted to zip to Colorado and pull the friggin’ plug on David!  According to Colleen he was completely out of it and the doctor weren’t holding out any hope that he’d get better anytime soon.  So then it would be showing mercy if he just popped over there and yanked that plug from the wall.  Not to mention the great amount of satisfaction he’d get from doing so!

Duncan shook his head. “Your first job is to protect them,” he looked off to where the UPs were gathered in a large mass each with a small hand-held ultra-violet light. They were turning them on and off and shining them on each other to see if there was any effect. “Stop that!” He shouted down the hill. “You’ll wear out the batteries before we can find out if they’re even useful!” He turned back to Daniel. “See?”  Duncan poured a second glass.  “I know you don’t want to but for right now trust Ares, at least until we find out if this works.”

“Trust Umpa? After all the shit he’s pulled?” Nicholas shot. “My wife and my mother are down there!”

“Just an hour, two at the most.” Duncan said with pleading in his voice. “You must show them that you can lead them in Calla’s stead.  If something ever happens to her, Daniel—God forbid—then you will have to step up and take over. They will look to you for guidance and protection you must show them that you can provide it.”

“If it doesn’t work we’ll be here until the sun comes up.”

“So let’s hope it works.” Daniel muttered. Every minute lost was one he could never get back. Another minute he could be in the Underworld searching for Calla, Annie, Jack and Sam.  However, he was stuck here until the sun went down that seemed to be taking an agonizingly long time.  While he had to whittle away the hour or so left to him to rest he thought about Nick’s trip to Sengul.  “What’s the Elixir of Life?” Daniel asked seemingly from out of nowhere.

Duncan shook his head as though he had no idea what Daniel was talking about.  Nicholas stepped up and filled him on the trip offworld and what the Sengali asked for in return for giving the people of Earth the secret of turning water into naquada and possibly bringing new life to Altair Ain. “Interesting proposal.” Duncan mused.  “I don’t know what it is ask Morgan, she’s around here somewhere.” Getting up from his place at the table he went to find her.

Colleen came out of the house.  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” She asked her Father. Daniel got up and followed her into the house and then his office with her where he shut the door. “You know Mom’s going to be really happy when she finds out that David was here so long.”

“Excuse me?” Daniel asked sharply.

That didn’t come out quite right. “None of us knew it was David, Dad, especially not Mom. We’re all so goddamn busy lately, Nick’s never here and I’m always at the college or with Lilly it was easy for him to do this.”

“Are you trying to make me feel better? By the way, your brother already gave me this defense for your Mother.”

“No, it’s just that…well…” she didn’t know how to approach the subject even though she hoped it would soothe her Father’s mind and believed that he should know.  “The last time I talked to Mom she was…well…she was very worried about…you…him…whoever.” She stuttered.  “She was upset because she thought you were falling out of love with her.”

“What are you talking about, Cole?” Daniel asked with much confusion but it soon turned to accusation. “What did David do?”

“That’s just it…he didn’t do much of anything.” She offered.  “I don’t know what he wanted but it wasn’t…that.” She left the word hanging in the air for a moment hoping her Father would get the message there seemed to be some understanding in his eyes but not enough for her liking. “She got her hair cut and she got new perfume…”

“I love her perfume,” Daniel said to himself.

“She got some new nighties and even had a few special candle light dinners with you…him.” She stammered again. “In the garden.”

“And?”

“And nothing. The last time I talked to her she told me that the two of you, well that you weren’t…anymore.”

New hair cut. New perfume. New nightgowns.  She was trying to seduce him to entice him. If what David wanted was his time why didn’t he take full advantage of it?   Maybe being identical twins was close but not close enough since Calla bound herself to him and Daniel became an Olympian. David never once talked about sleeping with Calla, not one single time in all the time he visited and brought food giving out his promises to let Daniel go one day soon. In the end, Daniel didn’t disbelieve him. As captors went David had been one of the most benign Daniel had ever been prisoner of. Not only did David come several times a week with fresh water and food, he brought magazines and hand held video games to keep Daniel’s mind occupied while he sat around in the dank cell.

I ain’t hurtin’ her, Danny. All I want is my time, that’s all.

Sitting there in that cell day in and day out all Daniel could think of was his Wife in his brother’s arms, how much he wanted to rip David’s throat out for betraying, not him, but Calla this way. She’d been nothing but good to David she treated him like a brother and openly showed him a great amount of affection but that just wasn’t enough for Davy.  Her affections would only go so far, just far enough to make him want more then they stopped. Daniel could see how that might drive a man to a desperate act such as kidnapping. All the time he spent in captivity wondering what David was doing with Calla it turned out he wasn’t doing much of anything at all. Daniel felt that he should be happy about that fact and part of him was but the other part was immediately concerned. Calla thrived on sex and sexual energy just as her Mother, Aphrodite, had done and if David wasn’t giving it to her then there was a very strong possibility that she was weak when she needed to be anything but.

“I think she was starting to think that you didn’t love her anymore or at least that maybe you just didn’t want to make love with her anymore.”

Coley’s voice gently brought him out of his daze. “She said that?”

“No,” Coley admitted, “it was in her eyes and her voice. When she finds out she’s going to be upset at first but then she’s going to be very happy because she’ll realize that you do still love and want her. You do, don’t you, Daddy?”

Daniel didn’t have to think about it. “Of course I do.”  What the hell was David thinking? What did he DO….or NOT do….to make her think their marriage was on the rocks again? Withholding affection from her was one of the worst things David could have done though Daniel suspected his brother hadn’t meant to do any damage.  The strangest thing of all was Daniel’s new Olympian power to understand everything. He wanted to kill David for what he did but David already lay at Death’s Door.  Spending all of those years here so close to Calla had to be maddening for David and Daniel could understand that even sympathize with it.  How would he feel if the tables were turned? Not very good that’s for sure. All in all, in David’s warped mind he hadn’t intended to hurt anyone of that Daniel was sure. For the thousandth time Daniel wished he’d never shut Calla out for those two days four months ago certainly not over something so insignificant he couldn’t even recall what started the fight.  He’d been angry and he’d been stubborn he thought if he let her think about whatever it had been that she’d come around and see things his way.  Who would have ever thought that would have opened the door for David when he found her crying in the rose garden?

“If you know if she knew you were in Zeus’ Dungeon she would have moved Heaven and Earth to get you out. You know that, right? We all would have, Daddy, but none of us knew or even suspected.”

She looked like she was going to start crying so Daniel gave her a hug. “I know all of that, I do, Cole.  Tonight, when this plan works, Nick and I are going to the Underworld and we’re going to bring your Mother and Annie out.”

That brought her to the other thing she wanted to talk about. “I want to go with you.”

“What?” Daniel pushed her back a little ways, not harshly, not rudely, just so he could get a look at her face. “Are you crazy?”

Coley gave the same argument to Daniel that Calla gave Ares earlier; she’d been there, she knew her way around, she knew what to expect and most of all she could help.  “Just think about it a little while, ok?”

“Lilly, Paddy,” Daniel whispered, “what about them?”

“They’ll understand.  Look, Dad, Mom’s poured her heart and soul into this place for a decade. She’s done so much for us, for all of us,” she walked over to the window and drew back the curtain. “Just look at that, would ya? This isn’t some rag-tag little village anymore. Look at them,” she stressed, “just look at them.” 

Daniel wasn’t following her so he came to the window and looked out at the UPs who were busily working away making sure every last detail of their defense plan was in place. “What about them?”

Colleen turned around to look at her Father and scratched her head. “What about—“ She shook her head. “Where else in the world do you see that?”

“See what?”

“I think you’ve lived here too long,” she said in a mildly angry voice. “Look at them.  How many different types of them are there out there?”

Daniel didn’t know but he saw a great variety of the UPs including elves, dwarves, fairies, and dragons. “A lot.” Maybe now he did understand what his Daughter was getting at; so many different races and species out there. You couldn’t get the human races to sit down and talk most times because their prejudices got in the way even though they tried to pretend otherwise. Out there they worked diligently side by side without squabbling, in fact Daniel didn’t think there were such things as racial or ethnic slurs in Altair Ain.  In its own unique way it was a type of paradise where the inhabitants struggled and worked together not just for their own survival but for the Common Good which sustained them.

“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully, “a lot. All working together. All brought together by Mom. It takes someone knocking down a few skyscrapers to get that type of thing in New York or Detroit.”  She turned to look at him. “It’s spreading, it’s growing, you feel that don’t you? When’s the last time war broke out somewhere?”

“You think your Mother has something to do with that?” He hadn’t thought about it before but yes it had been a few years since anyone declared war.

Coley nodded her head. “Sure do. How many times has someone said she’s got a heart big enough for the whole world? We owe her and Annie too.  It’s time we paid up.”

“Not if it means putting you in danger. If your Mother was standing here right now…”

“She’d stomped her foot and throw a tantrum but she’s not here.” Coley reminded her Father.  “I don’t see you givin’ Nick any shit over Colleen and Danny. Who’s going to take care of them if Nick and Annie don’t come back? Don’t treat me like a little girl.”

“That’s not what I’m doing.” Daniel protested but then again maybe it was. Cole had been back such a short time he just couldn’t take any chances with her life. “I know you want to help but you can do that best if you stay here.  God forbid something happens to me and Nick then it’s all on you, Cole.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Your Mother will be counting on you to take over.”

“Take over what? The kingdom?”

“After me and Nick you are next in line, Cole.” Daniel reminded her and since he had to act like a King instead of going after Calla right fucking now he might as well remind her of that simple fact.

“I don’t want to be the Queen,” she whispered suddenly feeling the weight of her Father’s statement.

“Neither did your Mother, not really.”

There was a light wrap on the door. “Daniel? Are you in there?”

“You’re staying here.” He said to Colleen before he opened the door for Morgan Le Fey. “Hello Morgan.”

“Hello Daniel.” She said lightly as she almost floated into the room.  “Duncan says you want to talk to me.”

Colleen could take a hint even though this one was far less than subtle. “We’ll talk some more later.” She told her Father. “Hi Morgan.”

Morgan nodded at Colleen with a smile as the young woman exited Daniel’s office. 

“Please, sit down.” Daniel gestured toward the comfortable leather chairs on the opposite side of his desk. “Can I get you anything?”

“Always the gracious host.” She complimented before settling into one of the chairs lifting the hem of her long lavender gown as she went. “Children can be difficult some times.”

“Yes, yes, they can but that’s not what I want to talk to you about.”  Daniel wished he’d been on Sengul instead of getting this information third hand from Nicholas, who knew what details David left out believing them to be unimportant?  Daniel had to hold back a laugh as he thought of his brother trying to keep his cool while he was bored to death by diplomats at endless negotiations.

Morgan gently cleared her throat when Daniel finished speaking. “Well I hope you—they—didn’t tell them that we would go along with this.”

“No, David didn’t agree to anything. I guess what I want to know is, well, one what is this Elixir of Life?”

“You’re aware that Kanan stole the Book of Shadows?” Morgan asked in a cool voice and watched Daniel nod. “The Elixir is well hidden.” She assured.

“That’s not what I asked you.” Morgan sat silent and Daniel shook his head not liking the stare she was giving him. Whatever this was it was big. “Don’t make me order you as your King to answer me.”  That was one thing he really didn’t want to do. Daniel didn’t like wielding his new power as King of Altair Ain in the least but pulling rank did have its advantages. “What is it?”

Morgan Le Fey folded her hands in her lap and stared at him with her wide violet eyes. “It brings the Dead to Life.  It is an intricate part of the spell to wake Arthur from his long sleep.”

Why would the Senguli want to wake Arthur? Why would Kanan?  Why would--  “Bring the Dead back to Life?” He stuttered.  “Where is it Morgan? Are you sure it’s safe?”

“Quite certain.” Morgan said sternly. “Either Kanan doesn’t realize he needs this or he will return for it tonight.”

“Where is it?” Daniel asked again and watched Morgan shake her head.

“I shouldn’t tell you. You are going to the Underworld and if you should be captured you could be forced to reveal its location but believe me when I tell you that it is in a very safe place.”

“Here in Altair Ain.”

“Yes.”

Although Daniel breathed a sigh of relief it still wasn’t quite good enough for him.  Perhaps she was right and he shouldn’t know the exact location of the Elixir of Life. “What else does this spell need?”

Now Morgan’s lips turned downward and her brow furrowed. “Annie.”  She looked up at him. “The spell requires a strong caster like myself or Calla,” she said suggestively, “it requires the Book of Shadows, the Elixir and…”

“And?”

“The soul of a good heart, someone who has never taken a life, someone clean and unstained.”

“Annie.” Daniel muttered in agreement.  The Senguli wanted Excalibur too. “The sword?”

“Is for Arthur when he wakes.  It’s to be laid in his hands before the spell is cast, however, I don’t think Kanan will require it.”

No matter what Kanan did Calla would never sacrifice Annie (or anyone else) to bring that bastard back to Life.  Then again there were Jack and Sam to consider not to mention Ares. Kanan took Jack and Sam and he was cold-blooded son of a bitch, Daniel didn’t want to think about the things his friends and his family could be going through at this very moment while he sat here gathering information and watching the sun go down through the window.

End of Chapter Thirteen
Coming Out of Exile: The Strength of a Father's Love
by Moon Mistress
a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling
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Chapter Fourteen