Young Writers Society

A little less than an hour, James and Maahes were departing from the clothing store with a plethora of new clothing for themselves and Cameron. Maahes still wasn't excited about the thought of having to talk to Cameron after he took on the form of the Scarlet Lord again, but he would cross that road when he got there. For now, he was happy - he had gotten to help James out when it came to his clothing, and, in the process, had gotten a new outfit as well.

He didn't technically need the clothing, but he was a supportive friend and James had a knack for outfits. They had spent most of the time in the store trying to figure out what looked best on him, and the end result matched what James had chosen for himself - an outfit that looked like a cowboy's.

It felt good to have clean clothes, and for a reason he couldn't really pin down, he felt... oddly more relaxed than he had in quite a while. He started to feel a little lightheaded as they trekked they way back out of town but pushed through it, deciding to wait until they found Cam to rest for a minute.

When they made it there, he poked his head into the thick of the trees, looking for Cam.

They ended up finding Cameron resting his back up against one of the more hidden trees. Before he had noticed they had arrived, he had been looking down at a small device in his hands, fiddling with its miniature buttons as he stared at its screen.

Maahes had still been struggling to adapt to the changes in Earth's culture from the brief window of time where he wasn't there, so it took him a minute to figure out what the device was. He even guessed that it was some new piece of tech that the SGC had just rolled out, but then he realized that he had seen Cameron using it before in between meetings. It wasn't some fancy piece of equipment.

It was a gaming console.

Cameron closed the console - hadn't he called it a DS? - and slipped it back into his pack.

"That was fast," he said. And then, when their appearances finally registered, he asked, "Nye has cowboys?"

James nodded, and handed clothes to Cam. "That, we do."

Cameron grinned as he took the clothes from James. "I used to be obsessed with cowboys when I was a kid," he said, a fond look appearing on his face at the thought. "I'd always pretend to be one when playing with the other kids in my neighborhood."

He looked around. After searching for a few moments, he gestured at a nearby tree. "I'll go get changed into this over there."

Maahes gave a small nod.

James nodded as well and looked up at Maahes. He wasn't going to say anything, but he was wondering when Maahes was going address whatever he was keeping from Cam.

Maahes watched Cameron walk off into the trees, trying his best not to meet his eyes as he walked past him. He knew that Cameron still didn't fully trust him, and changing his guise to look like the Scarlet Lord instead of Leonardo Cartwright certainly hadn't helped.

As he tried to find somewhere else to look, his gaze momentarily went in James' direction. He was surprised to see that James was already looking at him, and it didn't take long for him to figure out why: he had probably noticed that Maahes had been acting oddly around his teammate.

They shared a look, and James decided he could risk speaking into it. Leaning in, he whispered.

"I'm no shining example, but honesty can go a long way towards building and restoring trust," he said softly.

Maahes ducked his head down at the comment.

"Cam-Cameron doesn't know how old I am," he quietly said. "He doesn't know who I really am or what I really am. I-I kept telling myself that I don't want to tell him the truth because we have other things we need to focus on right now, but I think...I think I'm just scared of the possibility that he won't want to be around me after he finds out what I'm really like."

He looked up. "I-I haven't even shown you what I really look. I've described it, but it's not...it's not the same as actually seeing." He took a deep, unsteady breath. "I just don't want to break the friendship I have with him. I haven't really had a lot of friends in a long time, James. There's you, and then there's Vala, and Annie, but that's it. I've loved every moment I've spent as a member of Cameron's team, and I don't want to ruin it by telling him the truth."

He heard something move nearby.

Turning, he saw that Cameron had managed to get dressed surprisingly fast. He was now standing beside the tree he had been getting changed behind, looking out at James and Maahes.

His nonexistent heart skipped a beat.

James put a hand on Maahes's back as his eyes locked on Cameron, who had clearly overheard some of their conversation, but there was no telling how much.

"I understand valuing your friendships and not wanting to risk losing them," he spoke, not bothering to whisper. "I do. But I don't think you can avoid this." He made eye contact with Cam, his expression neutral. "Especially not now."

He hesitantly followed his friend's gaze. Even though he had noticed that Cameron was there, he had avoided looking directly at his face - he was terrified of the reaction that would inevitably be all across it. And he was right, to an extent. Cameron looked concerned. He looked a little worried. He looked hurt, though not too much. But there was no hatred in his eyes, and there was no disgust for the seemingly humanoid man that was his teammate.

Then again, it wasn't like he had actually learned the truth about him yet.

"I'm guessing you're finally going to let me know the truth?" Cameron asked, quickly walking over to where Maahes and James were. Maahes managed to give a nod to confirm his assumption, but he didn't have the foggiest idea of how he was actually going to handle that particular conversation.

He took a deep breath.

His name would be a start, he guessed.

"My real name isn't Leonardo Cartwright," he admitted. He tried his best to keep his voice strong and look right into Cameron's eyes, but he couldn't. The best he could do was stare down at his feet and keep talking. "It's Maahes."

A pause.

"So you are a Goa'uld?" There was no harshness to the tone; he was guessing that Cameron had probably come to the conclusion that he was one of the Tok'ra, since he obviously wasn't one of the more sinister of the race.

Maahes shook his head. "No. I'm the one-I'm the one the myths are about, Cameron." He slowly looked up. "I'm not a god, but the myths were written about what I did with Ra."

Cameron furrowed his brow. All of the other emotions on his face had faded away to leave confusion, and Maahes was grateful that it was just that. "But that would mean you're..." He thought for a moment, likely trying to recall what Daniel had said all of the times when they had been talking about the Scarlet Lord. "...ten thousand years old."

He shook his head again. "I'm older than that," he whispered. "When I was younger, I was told that my-my kind were named in a certain way. You take our actual names, and then you add on the place where we were first, uh, created." He didn't want to say summoned; he couldn't confuse him more than he already was at this moment. "My full name would be Maahes of Altera."

Cameron was typically very good at hiding his surprise, but it was as clear as day when his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

James listened carefully as Maahes and Cameron, trying to piece together what he already knew about Maahes with what he was sharing with Cam. A lot of it he already knew to some degree. But he didn't know there were legends about him. He leaned in, watching as Cameron's face turned to awe, and whispered to Maahes.

"There are legends about you?"

His face turned red in embarrassment as James asked his question. It had never once come out in their previous conversations - there had been no need. He had mentioned his time with Ra and the horrible acts he had been forced to commit, but he had never once thought of mentioning that history had written him down as a god.

"There are," he confirmed. He dropped his gaze down to the ground. Not because he was terrified of what the reaction would be, but because it was the sort of thing that was embarrassing to admit. "There's not a lot, and I only had a minor following, but, well..." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Remember when we met and I said my name was Ramses? That was during my time with Ra, and since Ra was pretending to be the Egyptian god Ra, everyone assumed I was his son and a god as well. I'm technically a god of war, and, uh, I have a lot of different titles. The Scarlet Lord was one of them, so I've been using that while pretending to be like Ra's kind..."

Though this was directed towards James, he saw that Cameron was hanging onto his every word when he finally looked back up. His teammate was still staring at him with wonder, and now he seemed to have finally been able to put it into a concrete train of thought.

"What are you, then?" he asked.

Maahes thought for a moment.

"I think the most accurate name for my kind are demons," Maahes admitted. Cameron looked mildly alarmed and confused by this answer, so he hurriedly added, "Not that I'm like the demons you're thinking of! I just come here through a pentacle, and a specific summoning ritual. And whatever my summoner tells me I have to do, I have to do it."

Cameron furrowed his brow again. "Isn't there some sort of price, too?"

"Not technically," Maahes admitted, "but, by summoning a demon, you're enslaving another person. I think that counts as a price in itself."

James listened carefully. Though he didn't really have anything to say, and couldn't think of anything to ask or add, he put a hand on Maahes's back in a gesture of support.

He briefly glanced over at James and gave him a grateful smile at the gesture. Cameron seemed to be taking this conversation better than expected, but it was still nerve-wracking having to explain the truth about himself.

He looked back at Cameron. Who, apparently, was now staring at James. "Is James your current summoner?" he asked, raising a finger and pointing at him.

"Oh, uh, no." Maahes glanced back at James. Why had he never thought about that before? He could teach James to summon him, and then they wouldn't need to worry about him finding some high tech way to hop between realities. "My summoner is Annie. I wasn't lying about thinking she was dead right before I joined the SGC - I really did. I thought it was her last charge that kept me here, but then I completed it by killing Kek with Vala's help."

Cameron blinked.

"Wait," he said. "Vala knew?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah?"

"How long has she known?"

He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Since before I joined the SGC?"

Cameron crossed his arms. "Is that why she kept pulling you aside during missions?" Maahes gave a nod. "Huh. I was just convinced you two were dating and hadn't told anyone about it."

His face turned a very, very bright shade of red.

"V-Vala and I are just friends!" he protested. "We're really good ones, but we're just friends and there's nothing more to it."

Cameron raised an eyebrow, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he looked his teammate over. "Uh-huh."