Title: Serpents’ Fall

Author: Kate R

Disclaimer: Own nothing and no one used herein. MGM owns SG-1, the Gods are anyone’s game.

Rating: not sure yet

Pairings: Ares/Joxer, Cupid/Strife, Hammond/Daniel?

Summary: The Serpents meet an old enemy and flee before it


Serpents’ Fall
by Kate R

Prologue: The Cave of War

“ ‘Go on vacation, Daniel. Everything is quiet, no need to worry and you need a break.’ Yeah, right, Jack. Next time just hang a sign that says 'Please, attack us now while we’re all on vacation.’ Great. Next time, Jack, I’ll go on vacation when I want to and where I want to.”

“What was that?” Doctor Jox asked from next to him as they ran between blasts.

“Nothing,” Daniel answered. “Just muttering imprecations against my friend and boss, Jack O’Neil. Sending me on vacation because everything
was quiet. Should have known this would happen. Yikes!”

“This way, there is a cave,” Jox said leading him to it. Around them, the ground was shattered by blasts from those chasing them. Dr. Jox lead Daniel to a cave and up through the tunnels. Daniel knew they were going up but he followed Dr. Jox. They were running until they came against a wall with writing on it. Joxer stared as he saw the cavern within was a temple of some kind. He read the writing and could hardly believe what he was reading:

"Here rests Ares, the Great and powerful God of War and Defender of Humanity. Call on him when you have great need"

Under it, in another hand was written the words:

“Do Not Wake him unless you really, really mean to.”

Daniel looked at the words and then listened to the sound of approaching Ga’ould and he felt panic rising.

“Well, I don’t think we can be much needier than we are right now,” Daniel muttered as he formed a prayer in his head.

“ARES!” He cried in his mind with all his heart and soul, “HELP US!”

There was a rumbling noise from the cavern and Daniel watched as the wall separating them shook and collapsed. All he could think of as he
watched the big man who stalked out of the new hole.

“I am Ares, God of War,” he said. “Who calls me?”

“Oh, shit,” Daniel, thought.



Chapter 1: The Sound of War

Daniel stared as Dr. Jox ran to Ares and hugged him tightly. They kissed and it was so hot, Daniel thought he might melt. But it only lasted an instant as Ares heard the sound of the approaching Ga’ould as well. He turned after reading something from Dr. Jox and opened his hand. A huge,
gleaming sword appeared in his hand and he swung it once to re-acclimate himself with it. Then, he waited. After shunting Daniel and Dr. Jox into the temple part of the cave.

There, Daniel witnessed something that he would forever remember. He and Dr. Jox had been watching to see what would happen when the Ga’ould came around the bend in the tunnel. There, the Ga’ould foot soldiers froze and an expression Daniel never thought to see on their faces appeared. It wasn’t fear. It was terror. Sheer, stark Terror.

In his memory, the mad scramble of the Forty Ga’ould soldiers to get away from the God of War would live as one of the most awe inspiring and
humorous things he’d ever seen. It was pandemonium. The soldiers were running and falling over themselves in an effort to get away. Ares petrified them, Daniel saw. And they were showing it.

The God of War chuckled and smiled Darkly and then, there was a rumbling noise and Ares began to float. He pointed his hand up and a blast of
energy shot off of it, drilling a channel straight up and out of the mountain and Daniel wondered why until he saw a second later, Ares began to float
upwards. He gathered the soldiers not fast enough to get away and he threw them up and out with a blast of power. They screamed as they were hurled straight up and then, Ares followed them. Jox was grinning and Daniel realized his teacher had a lot of explaining to do.

He and Jox ran back the way they had come and an awe-inspiring site met them as they got outside. A beam of white energy was preceding Ares himself rising out of the channel and man, did he ever look pissed. He got angrier when he cleared the channel as the energy suddenly turned dark blue. Daniel watched and Jox cheered as Ares built up a deadly charge of energy in his hands and then unleashed it in a powerful wave of energy at the gliders. Daniel felt himself cheering as the wave of energy decimated the gliders, disintegrating them it seemed, in to nothing more than ash.

Jox cheered again and Daniel turned to see what had caused his exuberant shout and he just stared as he saw more blasts of energy coming from
different points and all hitting the gliders. There were charges of pitch-black energy that were literally ripping apart the Ga’ould gliders. Gouts of Fire shot up from the ground decimating wave after wave of Ga’ould soldiers and Daniel watched as those who were running towards himself and Jox were attacked from two sides by two of the biggest dogs Daniel had ever seen. And one had three heads.

Arrows hit from the front and back as well. Daniel stared as a blond with wings and a brunette huntress fired arrow after arrow at the soldiers on the ground. Then, there was a rumbling sound and waterspouts broke the ground, adding to the mass pandemonium of the soldiers. Jox was laughing.

“He woke the rest of his family,” Jox told Daniel. “If you think their reaction to him alone was bad, wait until you see what happens when the rest of his family gets in on it.”

Daniel watched as Ares opened his hand again and fired anther blast of energy this time off onto the distance and he wondered why until he
realized the SGC was likely under attack as well. Maybe that was a signal?

OOOO

In the SGC, there was a panic all its own going on, they had been caught flat-footed. General George Hammond had been enjoying the quiet and
then it had gotten bad quickly. The Ga’ould had attacked without warning, leaving him with his people scattered around the planet and country. He looked up as jack O’Neil came in to his office. All of SG-1 it seemed had made it back. All but Daniel.

“SIR!” Carter yelled suddenly. “Come look at this.”

Hammond walked over to the radar screen and stared.

“What the?” he heard Jack ask. There were the red blips marked as the enemy, the green blips marked as themselves. And now there were blue
blips and the blue blips, though few were blasting the red blips off the screen.

“What the hell is happening out there?” Hammond demanded.

“You asses are being saved,” a dark voice spoke from behind. “Now, shut up and let us work. Here you are, Daniel, this is the SGC, correct?”

“Thanks, Ares,” Daniel said as he watched the blue blips finish destroying the red blips. Ares chuckled, as it was only the blue blips and the green blips left.

“None of the enemy got away,” he said to the SGC. “Daniel, who is in charge? I’d like to talk to them about not reading the Tartarus blasted
Warnings that were buried with the gate.”

“Uh-Oh,” Jack said. “Someone’s in trouble.”



Chapter 2: Temper Fit

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL TIME WERE YOU IDIOTS THINKING?!?!” Ares shouted loudly enough that all of the SGC heard him. Carter looked at Hammond who was standing listening to God vent.

“We buried that thing where it was for a reason!”

“It seemed to have been mislaid,” Carter said defending herself and the program.

“It was buried in the middle of Bum Egypt, under several tons of rock with a perfect obsidian disk over the iris, deeper than human fuck-ing-ly
possible, and you thought it was a good thing?!?!”

“Primitive man---” Carter began. Only to be cut off by Apollo, Daniel thought, who had just appeared after working with Hades to gather the
dead.

“Was a Hell of a lot smarter than you, you arrogant bitch! You think you know everything? You don’t know shit! None of you! It took Ares and Hades and the rest of us 30 years to get rid of the Ga’ould as you call them the last time! We buried that gate and we buried warnings. Where are they? We can see in Daniel’s mind he never saw them. Where is the box? It is not in the site anymore.”

“Box?” Colonel Maybourne and Senator Kinsey asked. “What box?”

Ares reacted grabbing him by the neck.

“The Box on your bookcase at home, you limp dicked rat!”

Ares shoved him away, closed his eyes and summoned the box to him.

“Your precious One God did not make this box as you thought. We did. This is our property. You and your greedy, destructive, non-peaceful
religion have no right to it. And I plan to make sure everything else you have that is not yours is taken and returned to where it belongs. Starting with that piece of shit in the Gate Room. It is Evil. Using it to gain weapons is a stupid thing to do. Especially as you wont have them anymore. Uncle Hades has already pulled the plutonium and other irradiated elements from them. Those elements came form his domain and you are not responsible enough to sue them. We left thinking you were old enough as a race to be without us. Oh, so mature huh? You’ve nearly destroyed this planet, you hoard more than you need, and your technology fails resulting in deaths upon deaths. You don’t need to have it so it will be taken away. If we have to treat you like children then so be it.”

“Lord Ares,” Hammond began. He at least realized how thin the ice they were standing on was. He looked and saw O’Neil did as well. Daniel
has seen this coming and Teal’c was standing watching. Apollo walked over to him suddenly, yanked the symbiote out and healed him. Then, he flash fried the symbiote.

“Your science leads to nothing but pain and death. Your urban development leads to the same as you destroy cures to the diseases that are running this planet down. No. More. It ends. All of it.

A wave of Apollo’s hand and a great chunk of technology vanished. Enough was enough. Gaia was ill because of this. That was the last straw.
The water’s on the planet were sick, as was the land. They were furious.

“What have you done?” Maybourne demanded. Kinsey just stared in shock.

“I’ve done what your precious One God doesn’t have the compassion to do,” Apollo said. “I’ve made your dangerous technologies vanish. The
world over, it is gone. No one has nukes anymore. Or long range anything. You want to kill each other? Fine. But you now have to look at the person on the other side of your weapon. Go with Fucking God.”

“You can’t,” Janet Frasier said. Apollo turned on her.

“I most certainly can, bitch. You call yourself a healer and yet you use medicines that eventually poison the patient and cause those cancers so they have to buy more of your poisons to counter a result of another. That ends now as well. If someone is sick to the point of death, you do not prolong his or her suffering. I’ve taken care of that matter in hospitals as well. No more. Never. Again.”



Chapter 3: History Lesson and Heroes

Daniel slowly approached the gods as they had all come to the SGC after making sure they had not missed any of the enemies. He was a bit nervous but he had to ask.

“Yes, Daniel?” Ares asked without turning around. He was standing on the side of the mountain and Daniel knew he was thinking of another
mountain and another time.

“Can I ask uh- Why the Ga’ould ran form you? I mean they don’t even run from the Asguard that way.”

“So, you’ve met my little grey friend Thor, eh? I’ll tell you why. And, if you want to get your allies a listen in, you can. I can wait a bit to tell you that.”

“Okay, I’ll go tell Jack we need to call them. Ares?”

“What the hell are they doing here?” the God muttered before he flashed off the side of the mountain and down to where three people were standing. He had his sword out before he thought and was only stopped by Joxer’s arrival and Xena of all people looking at him in her blue jeans an grey t-shirt and saying: “Hi Boss, got your message. You left in an awful hurry.”

“Hi guys,” Joxer said as he hugged them all. “Sorry about that but Ares wanted to rip a new hole in whoever opened the gate. He and the others were all pissed.”

“I can imagine,” Hercules said as he hugged his brother. Ares was in shock. Hercules---was hugging Him?

“People can grow up, Ares,” Joxer said as they started to lead their group inside. “About a year after you all left, Xena, Herc and Iolaus came looking for me. I was taking care of Hades that week. You were the only one with a warning because I know how you are in the morning. Guys, this is Xena, Hercules and Iolaus. Did you call your allies?”

“Yes, we did. The Nox, the Asguard, the Tollans and the Tok’Ra are all coming,” General Hammond said. Jack looked almost gleeful when he
realized they got to show up the Tok’Ra for once.

“You don’t like them?” Hades asked the Colonel. Jack sighed.

“I don’t trust them. They wont do anything to help yet they expect us to fight the Goa’uld for them. I guess it just---irritates me.”

“Well,” Ares said, “You can tell them no now. You have defenders who will help you fight.”

“Excellent,” Jack said.

“Incoming!” A soldier called as the gate began to spin. It shot out its energy and what a surprise, the Tok’Ra were the first to arrive. Their group consisted of Martouf and his symbiote Lantesh, General Jacob Carter and his Symbiote Selmac, Grand Counsel Garshaw and his symbiote Yosuuf, and Anise with her symbiote Freya.

Ares leaned casually against a wall and watched. Once they were through, there was another incoming. This time it was the Nox and the Tollan. Lya and Anteaus of the Nox and Omoc, High Chancellor Travell and Narim of the Tollan. Lya smiled at Ares as she noticed him. She could feel incredible power from him.

Finally, there was a flash of light and Thor was there. Thor walked over to Ares and the War God dropped to one knee and hugged him tightly.

“It’s good to see you again, my friend,” he said. Thor smiled.

“It is good to see you as well, Ares of Greece. You woke for some reason?”

“The Goa’uld attacked my consort Joxer and Daniel Jackson in Greece. My family and I were not amused.”

“I dare say you were not,” Thor said as they began the walk to the conference room. Behind them, the Tok’Ra were grumbling but Ares ignored
them. He was catching up with an old friend.

Once they arrived in the conference room, Hammond looked at Ares and his family. Ares got permission to speak and so he did. Looking at the
Tok’Ra pointedly.

“It seems the only one of your groups besides the Asguard willing to fight are the Ta’uri. I want to know why. You all have technology to defend yourselves but you expect the Too Young Race to save your asses. Well, No more. That is off the table. You can’t hold defending them over their heads because you do such a piss poor job of it as it is and they have us now. The ones who removed the Goa’uld from this planet all those years ago. Daniel asked me why the Goa’uld were more afraid of me alone than they were of all of you put together. I will tell you a story and you will sit and listen Martouf. I have neither time nor patience for your arrogance.”

Everyone sat, getting comfortable as Ares drug up old memories.

“To begin, I was grew up in Egypt. I was used as a slave until Isis, the Real Isis, saved me. She took care of me and raised me to know who I was and What I was. I learned everything I know about loving my children from her.

“So, when it came time for me to return to Greece, I made her a promise. Should she ever need me, all she would have to do is call and I would come. She called me when the Goa’uld killed her husband Osiris and then, as I arrived, they killed her. Her last words to me were to ask me to make her people my own and save them. So, I did. Greece conquered Egypt. That made her people my responsibility and that of my family. So, we kicked the false gods off this world. I know we missed Set but that was because he was host jumping too fast for us to get him. I lost track of Hathor. That was my fault but then, my consort Aphrodite went in to labor with my son and I was needed there. Rest assured that when I find her, she dies.

“That is not our way,” Lya said. Ares snorted.

“As you are so fond of saying, Our ways are not your ways. And compared to us, little girl. Your race is infantile. Now, my Family and I have
agreed to fight to Goa’uld. But in return, you all will not cross us or try to bully our people into doing your dirty work for you. Should you try it,
you will lose our firepower. And, children, Our Power is not reliant on technologies that can fail. Remember that before you get all high and mighty. Remember this. You do not own this planet and they owe you thing as you have given them nothing. Be glad we’re willing to save your asses as well as theirs. That is all.



Chapter 4: Goa’uld Reaction

Apophis was sitting in his great ship waiting for reports from his attack on earth. He had planned for when SG-1 was not available to defend his people. He was waiting for the first reports back. That ones that would tell of his glory and victory. He looked up as his scribes brought him the
reports. He opened them with a smile and the smile faded quickly as he read what was there.

“All Destroyed?” he asked. The scribe nodded. “How?” Apophis demanded. The scribe swallowed and spoke a name not spoken in the Goa’uld
courts in millennia: Ares.

“Ares, my lord,” he said. “They were attacking the Daniel Jackson in Greece and he stumbled in to the cave of Ares from what we can gather. He called on Ares and Ares answered. Worse, my lord, Ares woke the rest of his family. What we got back were the chewed parts from the Dog of War and the Dog of Hades. That was what we got back. A hand, fingers, toes. It does not matter. Just pieces my lord. And a warning in a flash of Dark Blue energy that delivered the pieces to us. Ares sent it. Had it been black, we would all be dead.”

“Ares,” Apophis mused. He felt a chill of fear when he heard that name. Of all his foes, Ares scared him. Ares scared him because he knew he could not win against the Dark and Deadly God of War. Ares would kill him. Not that he ahd any illusions about the life expectancy now. He remembered that they had all been warned when they were thrown off the planet. To come back was to invite Death. They had ignored the warning and now they were paying for it. Their technology level was the same as it had been then and in some cases more advanced and yet, still Ares and his family had wiped them out. And he knew this was only the beginning. Ares was angry. The blasts had been violent and destructive for a reason. Ares would see them all dead for this. And Apophis knew there was no place in the galaxy safe from the enraged War God. He sat and planned knowing he would not be able to touch earth again. No System Lord would. Earth had been declared off limits millennia ago and it
appeared people in the Goa’uld Society were about to be reminded of why. He was uncertain if any of them would live to learn from the reminder.

Sitting on his throne, Apophis was afraid.



Chapter 5: Discussion

Hammond was waiting for Air Force 1 to land and the President to Disembark. They used the helicopter from the airport so he got off and made his way inside with General Hammond an followed him down level after level to the SGC’s location. The President seemed a little worried about meeting the Gods of Olympus but Hammond assured him if he went in with an open mind he’d see they were good people.

“Well, here we go sir. Are you sure you don’t want one of us to go in with you?” His head Secret Service Agent asked. The President shook his head.

“If they want me dead, Tom,” he said. “I’ll be dead before you even notice. I’ll be fine. They agreed to meet me, I don’t think they did it just to kill me. From what I know Hades could have done that before I left Washington.”

“Yes sir,” the Agent said as he at in the anteroom and waited. The president took a deep breath and opened the door to the conference room. No fan fare because he knew it would not impress this group.

“You are the president?” A man wearing a black armor breastplate asked.

“I am,” the president answered as he stood. He would wait for them to say sit or stand. A man in black leather chuckled. At his side was a huge sword.

“You can sit,” he said. “I prefer to stand. It’s a habit in my line of work.”

“Yes, I imagine it would be. You are Ares, correct?” the President asked. Ares nodded as he paced around the room.

“We imagine you’d like to ask us why we pulled irradiated materials out of weapons?” Ares asked. The president nodded. He had a good idea of
why but he wanted to hear them say it.

“We did it for two reasons, the man in the armored breast plate said. The President pegged him as Hades. “The first was they are from my realm and no one asked if you could take them. The other being they kill more than you know. Radiation is under ground for a reason. It breaks down things in soil and makes the earth fertile. Removing it was destroying a balance it took me nearly 5000 years to establish. So, as well as all the enemies you could kill with those weapons, you caused millions of others to starve to death.”

“My God,” the president said. “We never knew.”

“I don’t think you would have,” Ares answered. “You never bothered to study what made the earth work. You, and by that I mean as a race,
simply took what could give you power. We have put a stop to that. Hades has the irradiated things warded and protected. No one can touch them again. Not unless he gives the O.K. Apollo was sickened by the use of what is poison in strong doses to treat diseases. It only makes them die of something else. The cures for all of those things were in the forests you so casually destroyed. Be thankful, Ace is willing to work with your modern doctors but these barbaric treatments are going to end. All they do is make people ill. If someone is sick to the point of death, be humane and let them die.”

“I see,” the President answered. He knew some treatments were worse than the disease. Especially in children.

“Hades will give children another chance, Mr. President. Sometimes a child is born sick to make a problem known, or a child is abused to death
because the child is afraid to ask God for help or God simply does not care to answer. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh but I want to ask you. Who helped you all here and now? Was it the God of your bible? No. We are long forgotten by people, the majority of them, and yet when the world needed us we came. I want you to think about that while you think of what your Bible and thoughts of superiority have led to. We did not allow killing in the name of any god. Not even ourselves. You did it, you died. That simple. Now, what else did you want from us?”

“Are you really going to protect the earth?” the President asked. “And if you are, do we have to begin worshiping you?”

“Yes and No in that order,” Hades answered. “We do not demand servitude for our aid. We have enough from knowing we’re doing our job. All
we ask is for a thank you occasionally. Anything else?”

“Can you fix the world? The famine and strife and death and disease?”

“We can but it wont be as easy as replacing elements where they belong. Over population has to be dealt with. Drug abuse has to be dealt
with. Telling people what they can and cannot do with their own land has to be dealt with. Also, people have got to be allowed to defend themselves. Your handgun laws and being able to sue anyone? It has to stop. It’s getting ridiculous. If you wont accept chance for healing then you don’t get healed and that is how it will be until this crap stops. Is that clear enough?”

“Yes,” the president said. These gods were harsh but they also cared. He watched, as Ares seemed to be listening to something else.

“Excuse me, Uncle,” he said. “Some idiots are training children to hate. I’m going to go deal with it.”

“Of course, Ares,” Hades said. “Good luck to you. We’ll see you at home when yu finish?”

“Indeed, Uncle. I’ll see you all later.”


END CHAPTER 5