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Piercing the Veil	By : trudyw000 Category: Harry Potter Crossovers > Slash - Male/Male Views: 8942 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Stargate Atlantis, I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Author's Note : Thank you to those who have reviewed so far, it's much appreciated. Apologies that it has been so long since I last updated, I promise to try to do better in the future.

Chapter 8

Sirius woke slowly as the warm rays of the sun played over his face. As he lay there, cocooned in comfort, it took him a few moments to remember that he was no longer alone on this planet, outlawed to the mainland. No, now he was back in the city, back with Lantia and there were over a hundred other men and women in the city too.

Almost afraid to open his eyes just in case it was all a dream Sirius lay still, reaching out with his mind, searching for Lantia's familiar presence.

"Good Morning Sirius." The warm, friendly voice in his head instantly reassured Sirius and he finally opened his eyes to see the spires of the city sparkling in the morning sun.

"Morning Lantia" he replied as he luxuriated in a bone-cracking stretch, a deep groan reverberating up from his chest as he stretched out the kinks from a heavy night's sleep. The emotional turmoil of the day before had taken its toll and he had scarcely moved from the moment he had laid down his head.

"How's everything going in the city?" Sirius asked, certain that Lantia would have kept an eye on the newcomers throughout the night and she didn't disappoint.

"They've made themselves at home on the dormitory level," she advised. "There have been soldiers patrolling all night and the scientists have been busy crawling all over this part of the city."

"Just this part of the city," Sirius was surprised, he'd expected them to spread like flies, they seemed very eager to learn all they could. "Haven't they discovered the travelling rooms yet?"

"Travelling rooms?" Lantia stalled for time.

"I don't know what you call them, you used one to get me to..." Sirius found that there was still a lump in his throat at the thought of the woman he had known for such a short time, "Elizabeth."

"The transporters." Lantia supplied, "I locked them out."

"Locked who out?"

"The transporters! No-one but you can use them at the moment," the city explained. "I didn't want these people wandering all over. The Atlanteans left some very dangerous things behind when they evacuated the Pegasus Galaxy."

"Good thinking." Sirius shifted around, piling up the available pillows behind his back, making himself comfortable. "So, I guess we have some time for a chat before I face the world."

"Of course! What did you want to talk about?"

"Well firstly, your name. Why didn't you want me to tell them your name." Sirius asked the question that had been bugging him since the issue came up yesterday. "It's not more of that, 'names have power!' nonsense is it?"

"'Names have power?" Lantia sounded confused, "no nothing like that. It's just that before he left Janus changed the security codes to access the central computer... Me! He changed all the passwords throughout the system to my name, I assume that he wanted to be sure that if their descendents ever did make it back to the city that they'd be able to access it's systems."

"Whoa, you mean when Khala gave me your name..." Sirius felt an immense wave of gratitude to the motherly Ancient roll over him once more as he thought of what might have happened if Lantia hadn't awoken when he arrived. A shiver ran down his spine as he realised that he would probably have died, trapped without food or water in a sunken city for a week waiting for the Atlantis expedition to arrive. Then the true horror struck as he thought about Elizabeth, waking, only to die alone in that small room where he had originally found her.

Dragging his mind away from the morbid subject Sirius shook off the cloud that threatened to descend over his mind, "right, what do we need to do about that, your name is bound to slip out in public sometime?"

"We change the passwords." Lantia sounded so matter of fact that Sirius couldn't suppress a chuckle.

"Of course we do, and how do we do that?"

"Well, first you need to choose a new password, something only you would know." Lantia requested.

Sirius thought hard, with his god-son on his mind his first impulse was to say 'Harry Potter' but that would be too easy. He wanted to get to know these people, they would be living and working in close proximity for a long time and he didn't want to have to watch every word he said about his past life. No he needed something unique to him, something comfortingly familiar from the life that he had left behind, but not something he would feel the need to discuss with his new companions.

Then it came to him, a memory from childhood that had stayed with him throughout the years. He remembered a dismal, rainy afternoon in the dim and dingy house in Grimmauld place where he had grown up. He couldn't have been more than seven years old and Regulus, his younger brother no more than five or six. He remembered that they were ill, a cold or some other childish ailment and they lay, two little boys, snuggled together under a heavy quilt on the sofa in his mother's sitting room. He didn't remember how it started, probably Regulus had asked for a story, but he remembered that they had whiled away the whole afternoon inventing stories about two little boys, Serious and Regular. Serious and Regular had had fantastic adventures all that afternoon, vanquishing muggles, slaying dragons and always making it home in time for pumpkin juice and chocolate frogs for tea.

Serious and Regular, two characters made up by two sick, little boys, for once feeling too unwell to fight and argue like they normally did. It was the only time that Sirius could remember getting along well with his brother and whilst it was a memory that he treasured, it was also something that he had never shared with another living soul. Even James had never heard the story and in the end they had been closer than Sirius and Regulus had ever been.

"Can it be a phrase?" he asked and with Lantia's aid 'Serious and Regular' became the new passcode to control the great and ancient city of Atlantis.

That done Sirius asked if there was anything else that they needed to deal with. Through his growing awareness of Lantia's consciousness he felt that she seemed almost nervous about something but just as he thought she was about to tell him what was on her mind, with an almost physical jolt she changed track. "Anything else will have to wait, Colonel Sumner seems anxious to see you, if we make him wait much longer I'm afraid he'll try something silly."

Instinctively Sirius looked towards the door in surprise, "is he outside, I didn't hear anything."

"No he's downstairs on the command deck, this floor contains the executive suite's it can only be accessed through the transporters." Lantia explained.

"Ahh!" Sirius understood immediately, "I suppose he thinks I've kidnapped Jack and Daniel."

"Jack and Daniel seem quite content where they are, they've been in touch with the Colonel by radio and besides asking me how you are doing this morning seem very happy to stay in their rooms together." Lantia assured him, "still, if you are getting up then I will let them know that they need to stop whatever it is that they're doing and be ready to accompany you in.. half an hour?"

"That'll be fine," and Sirius headed for the bathroom, it was only as he stood under a steady stream of water heated to exactly the right temperature that Sirius realised that more of the buried knowledge given him by the ancients had surfaced, this time simply day to day knowledge of the room layout and the shower controls.

As he thought back over Lantia's last words Sirius remembered the unusual, even for Lantia, level of curiosity he had felt from the computer as she mentioned 'whatever it was' that Jack and Daniel were doing next door. "By the way, what is it that they're doing?" he asked, feeling some curiosity himself.

"I don't know, they requested that I turn off any visual sensors in the room some time ago and I like them so I agreed. However I can override and turn them on again if you want me to, as my Guardian your orders outweigh anyone else in the city."

Lantia seemed strangely eager to turn those sensors back on and suddenly Sirius had a blinding flash of inspiration as to what the two men might be doing in the next room. That would certainly explain their closeness and with a chuckle he denied Lantia permission to reactivate those sensors, trust his luck to land up with the only voyeuristic city computer in the galaxy.

In the adjoining room two men lay curled together in the large bed, gazing out at the city before them. No matter how many alien worlds they visited it never failed to arouse a sense of awe in them as they looked out over a new planet, to bask in the light of suns many light-years distant from their own. And this time, to see the heart-stopping splendour before them and to know that this would be their home from now on evoked a feeling of reverence, even in Jack, a man not known for such emotions.

Lantia's clear voice chimed in Jack's head to let him know that Sirius was up and about, pulling Jack from his reverie. He gave the man in his arms a quick squeeze and dropped a kiss on the juncture of shoulder and neck, the only bare skin within easy reach before throwing back the quilt, "come on, Sirius is on the move, time to get up!"

Daniel groaned in mild annoyance. Eager as he was to explore this fantastic city, even with the prospect of an entire new galaxy to see, just lying here, finally enfolded in Jack's arms, he didn't want to move, ever.

Jack however was made of sterner stuff, besides he knew that if he didn't drag himself away then he might never let Daniel out of his arms again now that the younger man had finally relented. Finally agreed that they had done their part in the battle against the Goa'uld and the Ori, finally agreed that they could leave the restrictive confines of the American military, finally agreed that they could be together!

Rolling out of the bed Jack headed for the shower they had located before turning in the night before. As he went he tossed out the only incentive he knew would get Danny moving in the morning, "they're bound to have the coffee on downstairs by now!"

Vaguely disgruntled Daniel remained in bed for a few moments more. He'd long ago come to terms with the fact that Jack had the Ancient gene and he didn't, still having it rubbed in his face when the city spoke in Jack's head. Well, it was just plain rude. Hearing the water come on in through the open door to the bathroom Daniel knew he had a good ten minutes before Jack would return. "Lantia," he called out softly.

After a few moments silence Lantia replied through the speakers hidden in the head of the bed, "yes Daniel?"

"I know that you can talk with Jack, and all the other gene carriers telepathically, can I ask that you use your speakers when there are other, non gene carriers like myself present?" Daniel phrased his request carefully, it wouldn't do to antagonise the super computer who had control of everything from your life support to the temperature of the water in your morning shower.

There was a brief hesitation, and then in a slightly perplexed tone Lantia agreed, "of course, Daniel. I'm sorry if I've caused any offence."

"Not at all. Thank you Lantia." Daniel wondered briefly what could have caused the uncertainty in Lantia's voice but with so much to look forward to in the day ahead the notion quickly slipped his mind as he too clambered from the bed and prepared to face the day.

Lantia set herself a reminder, this was something she needed to discuss with Sirius. She could mention it straight away, but unlike her advanced circuits, Sirius could only process one thing at a time. She decided to wait until he could give the matter his full attention. At the same time as she was deciding this Lantia was also watching all the military and scientists within the city, monitoring environmental, sanitary and myriad other systems and also conducting conversations with a number of members of her new scientific community. Most notably with someone called Kavanagh, an interesting man, she would be pleased to devote more processing power to conversing with him when things were a little quieter.

Finally Sirius was shrugging into his long jacket and after a quick call to Jack and Daniel the three men met up in the corridor outside their rooms. They exchanged the usual pleasantries and then Sirius led the way to the transporter and all three men filed inside. Dredging up more of the knowledge implanted by the ancients Sirius operated the controls that would send them back down to the command level. Suddenly, just before the doors slid open Lantia's voice rang out through the speakers, "Sirius, watch out!" and they found themselves face to face with the business end of a rocket launcher wielded by a very angry looking Colonel Marshall Sumner.

Many would have been shocked into immobility when confronted by a man armed with a lethal weapon such as the rocket launcher before them. These men however had been immersed in war for much of their adult lives. Swearing Jack immediately stepped forward, dragging Daniel behind him, shielding the younger man's body with his own. Daniel however was having none of that and grabbing the back of Jack's shirt pulled him bodily over to the wall where the transporter door offered some protection.

Sirius flung out his right arm, fingers splayed and yelled the first spell that came to his mind, it was his god-son's old favourite "expelliarmus!" and he put all the considerable power at his disposal behind the command. The weapon was blasted out of the enraged Colonel's hands, flying several metres through the air before landing squarely in the arms of an astonished Rodney McKay. The Colonel himself was blown backwards by the impact of the spell, his fall broken by the front ranks of the small squad of soldiers he had formed up several yards behind him.

Rodney froze as the artillery piece landed in his arms, he hadn't been paying too much attention to what was going on around him. Instead he was intent on persuading Major Shepherd, as the strongest gene holder currently accessible, to come down to the science labs and play guinea pig for a while. His arguments concentrating on the importance of figuring out some of the systems and artefacts that they had uncovered in even the small part of the city that they had been allowed to explore.

Major Shepherd for his part, with no assigned role within the expedition structure had been hiding out in the armoury when the Colonel had marched in and seized the heaviest artillery that they had brought with them to this galaxy. Alarmed at the man's actions John had dispatched an airman to alert Elizabeth before following to see just what Sumner was up to.

Elizabeth Weir marched into the ensuing chaos several moments later, several soldiers were covering Sirius with their P90's whilst their comrades struggled to extricate themselves from beneath the unconscious body of their commanding officer. Meanwhile McKay was loudly freaking out about the kind of people who threw rocket launchers around in public hallways.

Sirius himself had followed up his first spell with a 'protego' which he now held, apparently effortlessly as he walked out of the transporter with Jack and Daniel following close behind. The older man was trying to dissuade Daniel from attempting to touch the strange blue forcefield that appeared to flow from Sirius' hand, the scientist's curiosity had clearly got the better of his common sense.

"What is going on here?" demanded the enraged expedition leader of the ranking, conscious, military officer present. Major Shepherd however was currently busy, making sure that ;the weapon in McKay's arms was made safe before lifting it clear of its resting place and calling over an enlisted man with orders to ensure that the item was returned immediately to the armoury.

With that done he was able to turn his attention to the questions being directed to him. Assuming a parade rest stance he relayed as much as he knew of what had happened. When he completed his recital Elizabeth turned to slowly survey the situation, immediately ordering the remaining soldiers to lower their weapons which were still trained on Sirius, Jack and Daniel. Ignored by the soldiers Elizabeth shot a quick glance at the Major who quickly backed up her order, following it with a command to get Sumner to the infirmary which was obeyed with alacrity. The Major might not be one of 'their' officers but he was still military and as such his commands carried weight, unlike those of the civilian expedition leader.

Soon the soldiers had hoisted their unconscious commanding officer in their arms and carried him swiftly away leaving only Elizabeth, Shepherd, McKay, Sirius, Jack and Daniel. As the threat lifted Sirius allowed the 'protego' to drop, the blue effect of the spell dissipating as he dropped his hand. "What the hell was all that about?" the angry wizard demanded, a slight tremor in his limbs from the excess of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"It appears that Colonel Sumner grew concerned when he was unable to locate General O'Neill and Dr Jackson." Elizabeth explained, hoping that Sirius would accept the explanation whilst internally she seethed at the insanity of attempting to threaten a computer powerful enough to run an entire city.

Sirius wasn't satisfied with the explanation but before he had time to react he was brushed aside by six foot one and a half inches of angry mid-westerner. "That's not good enough Elizabeth, maintain control of your expedition members or you won't remain in charge long!" By now the furious man was towering over Elizabeth who stood her ground, fully aware of just how weak her position was but refusing to back down.

"Are you threatening me?" she asked.

"No Elizabeth, but we'll be back in touch with Earth eventually." Jack left the implied threat hanging in the air. "Sumner knew exactly where we were, we spoke to him by radio less than an hour ago and suddenly he's trying to blow up half the city with a rocket launcher!"

"It was hardly half the city." Elizabeth tried to reason with the angry man.

"When those doors opened that thing was pointing directly at Danny!" It was then that she realised that she was never going to win this argument, She wasn't quite sure what the relationship was between the two men, and she wasn't going to ask, but she knew the strength of the bond between all of the members of SG-1.

Lowering her eyes Elizabeth took half a pace backwards acknowledging her defeat. "I'll talk to him." she promised, adding a heartbeat later, "when he regains consciousness."

With the victory Jack finally calmed down, taking a step back himself he half turned to face Sirius and Daniel, "shall we?" he asked cordially, gesturing down the corridor.

As the three men were leaving Elizabeth called out, uncertainty obvious in her voice, "Sirius do you have a minute."

Although still somewhat angry at the recent confrontation Sirius couldn't help but remember the sacrifice that this woman had made in another timeline, giving up her life so that the expedition stood a chance of survival. With that in mind he faced her, "what is it?"

Daunted by the flinty look in those black eyes Elizabeth faltered before visibly gathering her courage, "I hoped you might be willing to fly me to the mainland?" she asked.

Daniel's sympathetic instincts were immediately triggered as he realised what she was asking for, he made to move towards her but was prevented by Jack's hand on his arm. This was between Sirius and Elizabeth although he and Danny would be there to offer their support of course. He wasn't quite sure how it had happened but he found himself identifying more with the dark haired wizard than with the expedition members.

Expecting some kind of censure for his actions that morning, Sirius was taken aback by the request, swallowing the lump in his throat at the thought of re-visiting the grave site he simply nodded his agreement.

Elizabeth nodded too, "thank you, shall I meet you in the gateroom in," she paused, checking her watch, "thirty minutes?"

"OK, make sure your soldier boys don't get in my way when I'm getting the ship." Sirius agreed harshly.

"Would you mind some company?"

Sirius spun around in surprise, he had forgotten Shepherd was still there, watching silently and taking everything in. He remembered offering to teach the other man how to fly one of the ships, this looked like a perfect opportunity to make good on the offer. "The more the merrier," he replied jovially "come on, I'll show you the controls, we can make this your first flying lesson."

At the choking sound from behind him he turned "you too Jack, we might as well make it a double lesson."

Suddenly Lantia spoke up in his head, "you should teach Daniel too."

Surprised Sirius didn't reply instead speaking directly to the young man stood as always at Jack's side. "Daniel, I didn't realise that you carried the blood of the Ancients!"

"What! No, I don't" Daniel burst out, "I wish I did, but I don't."

Sirius' eyes glazed over and he assumed that faraway expression which his companions were rapidly coming to understand meant that he was communing with the city.

"What's going on Lantia, I thought only the descendents of the Ancients could use their equipment?" Sirius asked silently.

"That's right, I was going to wait but I think this needs to be addressed sooner rather than later." Lantia explained her earlier concerns "Daniel has the Ancient gene..." picking up the questioning tone in Sirius' mind she clarified the unfamiliar term, "he carries the blood of the Ancients. I've scanned everyone in the expedition, he should be able to hear me, I didn't realise that he couldn't until this morning when he asked me to use the speakers when non-gene carriers like himself were present."

Sirius' gaze returned to the here and now as he examined the young archaeologist speculatively, "how is that possible? Surely he should know whether he has the gene or not."

"I don't know" replied Lantia, "but he knows my name!"

AN : Well there it is, Chapter 8 I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know with a review!
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Piercing the Veil