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

Chapter Fifteen

Scotland
Altair Ain

Just as the sun went down and night pierced the sky the Shadows of the Undead appeared at the Gates of Altair Ain.  Certain of their victory now that Ares was captive in the Underworld the Shadows didn’t hesitate to flood through the Gates and the walls of the kingdom. They found the place utterly deserted except for a few fires burning here and there in well made stone pits. The Shadows easily invaded what appeared to be an empty village they never stopped to wonder why all was quiet.

The UPs crouched and hid, patiently waiting in the dark corners of their homes and businesses for word to come.  Each of them clutched a hand-held ultra-violet light in one hand and an unlit torch in the other just incase the light didn’t work.  Hearts beating rapidly they listened to the Shadows outside of their doors and their windows as they crept around Altair Ain looking for their next victims.

Daniel stood on the balcony of his bedroom overlooking the scene and when he could see no more Shadows coming he dropped his hand giving the signal to Duncan who waited in the shadows below to turn on the big spot lights.  All at once the peaceful kingdom was bathed in a strange blue/black light when it hit the Shadows they howled in agony and exploded into tufts of thick black mist leaving an oily residue behind.

“I’ll be damned.” Daniel muttered and breathed a sigh of relief as the UPs ambushed the Shadows from every corner of the village each holding a ultra-violet light for a weapon.

No fires were set.  No lives were lost.  The bloodless battle was over in a matter of minutes.  Satisfied that the kingdom was safe Daniel walked back into the bedroom to ready himself for his third trip to the Underworld. Behind him the UPs cheered their victory quite loudly and he couldn’t help but smile. Queen Calla came through for them again and she wasn’t even here.

“About me going with you.” Coley said as she walked into the bedroom her parents shared.

“No, I already said it, don’t make me repeat myself.” Daniel warned.

“Ya know, you’re sexist.” She complained as she planted a fist on her hip and cocked it to the side.  “If Nick can go I can go.”

Daniel turned around with his mouth hanging open and Excalibur gleaming in one hand. “I’m sex—I’m what?” He nearly shouted completely insulted at her statement. “Would you stop arguing with me about this?”  He turned to look at her. “Just stay here and look after everyone.”

“No, I want to go with you and there’s no reason I can’t!” Coley protested loudly.

Daniel shook his head as Nick came into the room. “Talk to her, I don’t have time for this.”  He brushed past his oldest Daughter and made his way out the door and down the hall to a closet which held his SG Uniform.  Rather it had held the uniform. David must have worn it when he went offworld with the others because now it was gone. “Shit,” Daniel mumbled and searched around for what he was looking for.  Finally he came back with a fishing vest Jack had given him once Christmas in the hopes the two of them would drop a line or two and drown a few worms some day.  It was ugly as hell but it had all the pockets he wanted and Daniel grabbed it and threw it on over his black t-shirt.  He also found some old camping equipment in the closet and grabbed two canteens before going down to the kitchen.  Daniel stuffed easily carried and easily eaten food into the pockets and then filled the canteens with Nectar.  It was hot down there and no one knew how long they’d have to stay so it was best to be prepared for anything.  Looking up he saw Nick coming into the kitchen. “Any luck?” Daniel asked as he slipped a Swiss Army knife into the front left pocket and then put the vest over his shoulders.

“Yeah, I told the Runt if she didn’t stay here I’d kick her ass.”

“Big bully!” Colleen grumbled as she pushed past him.

“Aw, shut up and stay home, will ya?” Nick shook his head.  To this Colleen very politely stuck out her tongue and gave him the old Bronx Cheer. “Cute.”

“Yeah? How’s this?” Colleen flipped the middle finger as she stormed out the back door.

“She’s impossible!” Nick grumbled loudly.  “What the hell is wrong with her?”

“She just wants to help.”  That gave Daniel and an idea.  “Wait here.” He dashed out the back door. “Hey, Cole, wait!” He called after her.  Colleen stopped in her tracks and turned around with her arms folded across her chest.  “You want to do something important? You want to help?”

“Duh.”

“Go to Colorado and keep an eye on David.”

“Do what?”

“You heard me.  If you hear me in your head or think you feel me around you pull the plug on him.”

“WHAT?”  Her arms dropped. “I know he’s an ass but you want me to kill my uncle?”

That wasn’t exactly what he had in mind but it was close enough. “You’re right, we might need some help down there.”

“Uncle David?”

Coley was right David was an ass but at this point a dead David would almost certainly be better than a living one.  “We might need him.” Daniel said again.  “So you yank that plug if I tell you too, got it?”

Colleen stood there thinking about it and sighed deeply.  She didn’t like the idea but there was a certain method to that particular madness. A dead David might be of more use than any living person down there. “Ok, Dad. I’ll do it.”

“Thanks, pumpkin.” He reached out and gave her a hug.  “I love you, you know that, right?” He brushed the hair away from her face. “It isn’t that I don’t think you can handle this or that you’re not strong enough or that you’re a woman for cryin’ out loud.”

She nodded her head. “But one of us has to stay here just incase. I got it Dad, but if I do it you have to promise never to tell Mom I’m the one that pulled the plug. She’ll blow a gasket or something.”

“I promise.” Daniel said with a smile knowing Coley was right. “I have to go see Duncan and Morgan for a minute, can you make it Colorado on your own or do you want me to take you?”

“I got it. I’ll just go tell Paddy what’s happening.”  She kissed her Father’s cheek.  “I’ll see you soon.”

“In a jiff.” Daniel agreed and teleported to Duncan and Morgan’s home where he knocked upon the heavy oak door.  “Hello, Morgan.”

“Daniel.” She said easily and stepped aside. “Come in.”  She shut the door behind him. “Have to come enlist Duncan’s aid?”

“Ah…no.” he said thoughtfully although the idea of Duncan MacLeod accompanying them to the Underworld was an appealing one. “I came to talk to you. I need you to tell me where the Elixir is.”

“Oh.” Morgan pursed her lips. “Why?”  But she thought she knew the answer and the only real question in her head was whether or not she was going to abide.

“I might need it as a bargaining chip.”

“I see.”  She walked through the front foyer and to the living room where she invited him to take a seat on the very plush sofa.  “I don’t know about this, Daniel.  It isn’t that I don’t want to help or that I don’t want Calla and Annie to return home safely but…”

Not wanting to order her to do it, Daniel leaned forward and spoke softly. “Please, Morgan. I’m running out of time here.”

So he was, his eyes said that much and so did the worried line between his brow but still she was hesitant. “What if I retrieve it and I put colored water into the decanter?”

“A decoy?” Daniel pondered the thought. It was a clever idea but if it came right down to it he knew he’d need to be holding the real deal. “No, Morgan.” He reached out for her hands as he stared into those lovely violet eyes. “I know you’re worried but I promise to do everything I can to return it, all of it.”

“I know.” She sighed.  “The more time has gone by the more I realize that waking Arthur probably isn’t going to be necessary but still I would greatly appreciate it if you did return all of the Elixir.  Please don’t give it to Kanan, I’ve never met the man for that I am profoundly grateful and I don’t ever want to meet him.”

“Believe me I didn’t want to meet him either,” Daniel said in a low but honest voice. “If I hadn’t I would have Calla and my children.”

Feeling the weight of the situation and almost being able to hear the second ticking by in her head Morgan gave in. “Harry has it.” She mumbled. “It’s in his tavern in one of the decorative decanters he keeps over the bar.”

It took everything Daniel had not to laugh as he kissed her hands and then stood up. Hide in plain sight he should have known. “Thank you.”

Morgan rose with him. “You are taking Excalibur with you, aren’t you?”

Daniel nodded. “Guns aren’t the best weapons in the Underworld.” In fact he wasn’t even sure guns would fire in the Underworld. Nothing could stop the cold heard steel of Excalibur not even the Dead.

“Neither is a sword,” Morgan slowly reached out and up until she touched the side of his head. “This is. Good luck, Daniel. We’ll be praying for you.”

Daniel teleported to Harry’s bar where he found the troll reluctant to hand over the fine blue crystal decanted that sat in the middle of the shelf over the bar mirror. Before doing just that he shooed everyone out of the tavern, closed the shutters and locked the door so that no one could see him.  “This is very powerful stuff,” Harry warned as he wrapped the finely cut crystal in a clean bar rag. “You be careful with it.”  Like the other UPs Harry was aware that the strange and distant people of Sengul offered to give them the secret to their infertility problem in exchange for the Elixir and several other things. Again, like many of those same townsfolk he wasn’t at all sure about the King taking it away to the Underworld where it could be lost of used to a wretched man back to life.

Tucking the neatly wrapped glass into the inner pocket of the fishing vest he padded it and tried to smile. “I’ll be very careful, Harry.”  Teleporting back to the manor house Daniel found Nick waiting for him in the kitchen.  “Ready?”

“All set.” Nick agreed.  He’d taken a cue from his Father earlier and left his sidearm at home instead opting for his bow and quiver which were slung over his left shoulder. “You got everything?” He carried two canteens, one filled with Nectar and the other water. The cargo pockets of his SGC pants were stuffed with power bars and in his vest he carried a knife like his Father’s, a small but sturdy length of rope, a Zippo lighter with extra flints and small bottle of lighter fluid.

“I think so.” Daniel snapped his fingers. “Hang on a second.” He dashed out of the kitchen, past the mighty staircase and the living around to round the corner and walk into his office. He didn’t notice Nick following him.  The Jackson Family portrait that hung of the fireplace in here hid the Jackson Family Safe and Daniel swung the painting on its hinges to open it.

“What’a ya got?”

Daniel looked up to see Nick standing there.  “I might need this.”  Carefully Daniel took the second medallion from the safe.  He didn’t know if he was the one Ares had made or the one he had made, Calla was never sure which was which either and right now Daniel hoped it wouldn’t matter as he looped around his neck. The fine silver chain gleamed against the black t-shirt.

“I thought you guys got rid of that.”

“Nope, she wouldn’t let me.” He shook his head and smirked at the irony of the situation. “Calla was always afraid that if we tried to get rid of these things they’d just come back unexpectedly one day.  She said they were safest with us.”  He snorted and picked up the jeweled symbol of his Father In-Law.  “If she’d only known maybe she would have thought differently.”  Daniel dropped the medallion. “Let’s go.”

“All right let’s do it.” Nick agreed and clasped his big hands together.

“Going without me?”

They turned to see Duncan standing in the door.  “You want to come along?” Daniel asked knowing they could use the help but uncertain of letting Duncan MacLeod come along for what could turn out to be an extended visit to the Underworld. In the end it was Duncan’s decision and the extra sword would be useful.

“I do.” Duncan agreed. “Morgan knows and she’s already filled me in the rules so let’s get going.” He encouraged.

Daniel sheathed Excalibur and took hold of Duncan MacLeod’s hand they left Daniel’s office only to reappear at the crag on Ares’ Island.  He peeked inside to the near bank filled with souls waiting to cross the River below but there was no ferryman. The boat was on the far bank. “Shit,” Daniel muttered.

“What is it?” Nick asked quickly.

“Looks like we’re going to have to take the long way around.” Daniel grumbled before squeezing into the opening and waiting for the others to do the same.  The newly departed littered the bank some sitting, some standing and some lying on the red sands.  The three of them skirted around them as best as they could though the newly departed didn’t seem to notice their presence.

“Where are we going?” Nick wanted to know as they walked further and further along the near bank of the River Styx not getting any closer to their goal. “We need a boat.”

“I know where we can find one. Just stay with me.”  The passage turned steep and narrowed until the River Styx was nothing but a trickle. Crossing here would be easy if it wasn’t for the fact that there was nothing to cross too but a sheer rock wall that stretched upward seemingly forever. “You think you can muster up some light?”

“No problem we’re not across yet.” A small fireball appeared in the palm of Nick’s large hand as the three of them made their way down the winding rocky path.

“This place gives me the creeps.” Duncan intoned as he looked around at the red rocks in the strange shadow of the light Nicholas was providing them. The rocks glittered and gleamed but not with quartz or another crystal. They seemed to glitter with an inner light all their own.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Daniel warned in an easy voice as he lead the way with no more an inch on either side of him for clearance the men made their way single file with Nick hunched over deeply so as not to hit his head against the rock ceiling.

From out of nowhere a terrible screeching sound filled the air it was so loud the men had to cover their ears with their hands to block it out. Just as the fireball dancing in Nick’s hand went out while he clasped his hand to the side of his head a great moving shadow came toward them, it swooped and rose like a ghost in the night. “Duck!” Daniel yelled.

The three men crouched low on their knees while a strange wind kicked up around them and then flew over them.  The screeching became louder and louder; a thousand banshees shrieking at the top of their lungs.  Then another sound was heard; the flapping of wings.  Daniel batted the air above his head as sharp talons got caught in his hair and clawed open his scalp. Duncan batted at the creatures flying around them and struck out with his sword just in time to catch one on the tip skewering it and watching it flop around in the dark breathing its last breaths. 

Then the shrieking and the wind died away.

“What the hell was that?” Nick shouted as he stood up too quickly and whacked his head on the hard rock above him. “Ow! Goddamnit!”

“They’re just…bats.” Daniel explained.

“Bats?” Duncan inquired and held out the blade.  “Give us some light, huh?”

Rubbing the top of his head with one hand Nick re-lit the fire in his other palm. “That’s not a bat!” He exclaimed looking down at the impaled creature on Duncan MacLeod’s sword. “What the fuck is that thing?”

“Ok,” Daniel admitted as he looked back at the two men accompanying him. “So they’re more like gargoyles.” He confessed as he too gazed down at the dead creature on the blade of the sword.  Its solid red eyes were now lifeless as its membranous wings hung open exposing the body of a small gargoyle but not one made of stone.   “Everyone all right?”

“Just peachy.” Duncan called back. “Remind me to thank you for taking me to such a lovely place.”

“Yeah just great.” Nick huffed wiping a small amount of blood from his head onto his shirt and off the palm of his hand. “They’re not like poisonous or anything are they?”

Daniel snickered grateful to be in such good company on this arduous journey.  “No, I don’t think so.”  It was a good question and one he didn’t have an honest answer to but since it seemed he was the only one who’d been scratched by their razor-like talons the question seemed unimportant. He wouldn’t be worrying about Nick or Duncan and if Daniel himself keeled over in a few moments then they’d have a definitive answer.  In any event it was far too late to turn back now. Gathering his strength and his composure Daniel pressed on with the two men close behind. Ahead of them the path only continued to narrow until they were forced to walk sideways with their backs pressed against the hard rock behind them and their noses pressed against it in front while their legs and feet tried not to trip over the boulders littering the ground. “We’re almost out.” Daniel encouraged. “Not much further.”

As promised the path did begin to widen. Not much at first but enough to walk straight forward with one foot in front of the other instead of side-winding.  Soon after that it opened up to a place where the three of them could walk side by side and then became wider still. The River Styx, still hot with its scattered fires, flowed on their left and on the other side of it was nothing that sheer rock wall.  “I didn’t bring my climbing gear.” Nick complained.

“None needed.” Daniel returned as he looked up at the red rock wall then returned his attention to his feet. There was vegetation here, he didn’t know what it was and he certainly wouldn’t attempt to eat it but it looked like something akin to wormwood with its fine blue/silver leaves and little yellow flowers.  Coming around a bend the River suddenly widened to a great width and they began to see the makings of a far shore. Overhead there was a red light emanating from an unknown source.

Nicholas extinguished the fireball in his hand feeling it was best to conserve what magick he could. “How’d you know about this place?” On this side of the River the sands were still red but on the other side they were a light blue.

Daniel kept walking but turned to look back at him. “David.” He muttered and then smirked. “He could always find the backdoor to anything.”

“Come again?” Duncan asked coming up to walk alongside Daniel.

Daniel gave an abbreviated version of how he’d escaped the Underworld with Calla in his arms because David showed him the backdoor out of the Black Palace.  “Quite an adventure.” Duncan complimented.

“It was.” Daniel agreed. “There.” He pointed happily at a small boat resting on the shore and looked around for the ferryman here at the point where the River Styx became the River Lethe. There was no one. “Let’s go.”  The three of them pushed the small rickety boat into the calm waters doing their best not to get their feet wet lest the power of the River Lethe overtake them and they forget everything.

“Is it always this quiet down here?” Duncan asked as Daniel steered the boat the fifty feet across the River.  “Unsettling.”

“No not always.” Daniel said in a soft voice as his eyes scanned the area. “I expect we’ll run into someone once we get inside.”  The boat docked in the light blue sand on the other side. Daniel instantly felt the drain on his body and his Olympian abilities.  Getting out of the boat was like trying to walk around in a pair of lightly leaded shoes. 

Duncan felt woosie, his head began to swim and his stomach to churn. He grabbed for the side of the boat to steady himself. “What is this?”

“Welcome to the Underworld.” Daniel muttered. “Don’t breathe deep and try to expend any excess energy.”  He patted Duncan on the back. “You’ll get used to it.”

“Not a pleasant idea.”

“Where to now?” Nick asked.

“That way.” Daniel pointed off to a sandy path.  “We’ll walk down that way a little bit, hook a left and we’ll be in a wooded area. After that we’ll be at the Black Palace.”

“And then?”

“And then we find out if Hades is dead or alive…or whatever he normally is.” Daniel stuttered over the last part not quite sure if Hades was Dead or Living to begin with.  “We find Annie, your Mother and the rest of them and we get the hell out.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Nicholas agreed though he’d much rather go after Annie and his Mother first. Since they didn’t know where the ladies were perhaps it was best to find out what was going on with Hades first. “Lead on.”

The trip was just as Daniel had said it would be but it was eerily quiet.  Not one single soul was anywhere to be seen or heard.  Although if asked each would say they felt the weight of the eyes of a thousand stares the Underworld was deadly silent and utterly still. After a small hike through a wooded area—or rather what passed for woodlands in the Underworld-- the Black Palace stood before them just on the other side of a high stone wall. Nicholas boosted Daniel and Duncan to the top of the wall then scaled it himself.

“What the hell?” Daniel muttered as he looked at the Black Palace from his place on the wall to see every single window and point of entry had been sealed.

“I take it it’s not supposed to look like that.” Duncan mused and lowered himself down on to the other side of the wall to stand in Hades’ Courtyard. Daniel and Nicholas followed him.

Daniel hadn’t expected getting over the wall would be so easy and felt certain that someone would see them but there wasn’t a soul in sight.  If anyone was in the Black Palace he doubted they were looking out of any windows.  Trying not to be too conspicuous they kept the far left hand side of the courtyard as they made their way to the Black Palace without any incident.

End of Chapter Fifteen
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 Sixteen