Young Writers Society

The stargate closed behind them as they descended down the overgrown stone steps. Maahes had made a habit of tending to the town and the surrounding area for years, but it had been hard finding the time to since he had become a member of the SGC. It wasn't impossible - they understood the circumstances - but he still felt guilty every time he asked for even a short visit to another world.

And now, with Odris in tow, he felt painfully aware of how much time he would regularly spend in the remains of the old town. Odris didn't comment as they went to a small flower field near the stargate and gathered some flowers, and stayed silent as they began to walk through the ruined town. He had come here once before with him - back when they were trying to track down Ciannet - but that had been more than a year ago.

Now they weren't chasing a fleeting figure through abandoned buildings and expansive forests; they were visiting the grave. He could see it in the distance. Even that had been touched by nature, little vines beginning to creep up onto the smooth stone. He wondered what Odris had to be thinking this time around, and wondered what Ciannet thought whenever she came to visit. Maahes wasn't even sure if she did - she dealt with loss differently than him. She tried to find something to distract her, but he couldn't let the past go.

He leaned down and placed the white flowers in a bundle at the foot of the memorial, then straightened and looked at the names of people he would never again see the faces of. The only name that had changed over the years was Ciannet's. He had crossed it out the night after they were reunited, a thin cut through a perfectly carved name.

Odris remained silent beside him, respectfully observing the unfamiliar names.

Zech didn't smell flowers too often. He lived far too south for the weather to be reasonable most of the year and, last he checked, it was winter in the country of the tigers. The plants had all withered and died, the roads had all frozen over, and Lunis had spent even more time complaining about how bad the weather was.

Which is all to say, when Zech smelled those flowers, he knew something was wrong.

The tiger opened his eyes to see a forest spread out in front of him. The sun had risen high in the sky, but a network of shadows littered the ground. Grass blew gently in a light breeze, while the building Zech rested his head against whistled. He looked up, but wasn't able to recognize what the building was made out of. Which was the second problem.

A loud, low purr came from below Zech's eyesight. Looking down, Zech found Lunis snoring, the panther's head buried in the tiger's chest. For once, Lunis looked relaxed.

But they were in an unfamiliar place and Zech needed to get up, so the tiger nudged Lunis's head with an elbow. A few seconds later, Lunis stopped purring.

"Huh?" Lunis said, opening his eyes lazily. "What d'ya want? It's not even li-"

The panther pulled himself up. As Zech pushed himself off the ground, Lunis moved around wildly, glancing up and down to catch the sights around him.

"Where are we?" the panther said at last.

Zech shrugged.

"This isn't good," Lunis said, flashing his fangs. He patted his shorts, likely to make sure that all of his weapons were still there. The panther was nothing if not meticulous.

"Nope," Zech said. He walked forward, bending down to pick up a couple of white flowers that had clustered together near the treeline.

"And what are you even doing?" Lunis said. The panther threw up his arms as Zech walked up and set a flower by his ear.

Setting his paws on Lunis's shoulders, Zech said, "I just need you calm, okay?" He took a shaky breath. "I think I have a pretty good idea of what's happening, and I think it's what happened to us a couple months ago, but it's kinda hard to keep calm when you aren't."

Lunis paused, reaching up for the flower on his ear. Then he leaned forward and gave Zech a kiss.

"Alright," he said. "Let's find a good vantage point first."

As Zech let go, Lunis made his way to the gap between two buildings. Scrabbling over the rubble between them, Lunis gestured for Zech to follow. The tiger did so immediately, climbing up to the top of the pile and beginning to make his way down before almost colliding with Lunis.

Hiding next to a group of vines, Lunis peered out from the corner of the building. Zech looked over Lunis to see what appeared to be the remains of a town.

And, more importantly, two people standing silently in front of a stone.

Maahes stiffened in front of the memorial.

He could see Odris giving him a questioning look out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't offer an explanation. He was trying to pinpoint the source of the feeling that had overcome. They weren't alone. His instincts made that impossible to dispute. Whether it was because he had heard someone moving in the back of his mind, or just sensed that they were being watched, he wasn't sure. But it was enough to make his hand slowly go for the pocket he had his zat'nik'tel - thankfully, they let him use that instead of a gun - in, and enough for him to grab Odris by the wrist before walking as casually as he could to the nearest destroyed building.

"Someone else is in the village," he said the moment they stepped through the door. Now he fully withdrew the zat'nik'tel, the familiar weapon's weight a comfort in his hands.

"Is it Ci?" Odris asked.

Maahes shook his head. "Ci would have said something if it was her," he whispered. "I...I haven't seen them, but I just know that they're here. I can't think of why someone would ever come here, unless..."

Odris took a nervous deep breath. "Unless they were with the Goa'uld or the Ori."

He nodded. "I think Goa'uld is more likely," Maahes said. "The priors wouldn't have a problem with being discovered, but if some Goa'uld managed to survive for this long and sent a Jaffa or two here, I don't think those Jaffa would want to be discovered right away."

Odris ran his fingers through his bangs. "So what's the plan?"

Maahes bit his lip, glancing between the doorway and Odris. He should have anticipated something like this would happen eventually, but he had been too caught up in honoring the dead to even consider it. Odris didn't have a weapon. He did. Odris did know how to use a zat'nik'tel, but his aim wasn't half as good as his was. And, besides that, they were possibly dealing with the Jaffa. Depending on what these Jaffa were like, they wouldn't have any problems with using Odris as a hostage if the battle turned sour.

Especially if they realized Maahes was none other than the Scarlet Lord that had supposedly betrayed his fellow Goa'uld to join the Tau'ri.

Maahes held out the zat'nik'tel.

"I'll go see who it is," he said. He gave Odris a small smile. "If worse comes to worst, I can always use my powers to stop them."

Odris looked down at the weapon, then back up at him.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

He nodded. "I'm sure."

Odris took the zat'nik'tel and awkwardly held it in his hands. "Okay. But if you don't come back, I'm going to come help you."

His smile grew a little bit more. "I was guessing you'd say that."

Then Maahes took a deep breath and stepped back out into the street, scanning the surrounding area for where the person he had noticed could be hiding. It quickly became apparent that they weren't in any of the alleyways; they wouldn't have been able to get a good view of him.

So he looked up just a bit.

And there, hiding among the vines, he found what he was looking for.

He strode forward, nonexistent heart pounding as he approached the figure he could just barely make out. Now that he was looking at the figure - or two figures, apparently - he could make out more details about them. They were like Jaron, Kendrik, Thytes and possibly Taber (he had never gotten confirmation on that one), both bipedal animals. And they were both familiar, even though he couldn't put his finger on why. It reminded of how he had felt the time he had run into James in the cave.

And that terrified him, because he couldn't figure out where he knew them from. Was it from his time with Ra, or was it from earlier? The second was embarrassing, but the first was horrifying. He wished he hadn't left Odris back in that building. If they were from his time from Ra, then what was to say that they wouldn't hurt Odris if they found him?

He stopped when he was in front of the two.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" he asked. His voice wavered between cold and warm; he didn't know if he needed them to be scared of him or not.

Lunis had guessed they'd be in trouble when one of the strangers had pulled out a weapon. The strangers had then walked into the building next to Lunis, but the panther had guessed that was more for the sake of the unarmed stranger (who'd just received a weapon he looked like he didn't know how to use). The lack of footsteps up a staircase, and the conversation that had continued in its frustrating little whispers, had said as much.

So the panther was a little more than happy when the once-armed stranger came out alone and started talking to them, especially when Lunis reached into the vines and found they were covering up a large hole into the building's second floor.

Lunis darted inside, Zech following. The floor was littered in holes; vines and mold had snaked their way through the walls, down from the ceiling, and into the floor below; and the whole place smelled vaguely musty. However, beyond what looked like a staircase stretching down the center of the building, there didn't appear to be any other obvious way of getting up or down, and no way for the now-armed stranger to be able to see them.

The panther felt a tap on his back. "I think I recognize their smell," Zech said.

"So?" Lunis said, walking over to the staircase and peering down. "I do too, but I'm not going to talk to anyone with a weapon." The panther stepped back. "I can't get a good visual on him. Keep an eye on the hole, and I'll see if I can figure out where this stranger is."

Zech hesitated, but ultimately walked back to the gap and looked out, while Lunis crouched down and stared through the holes in the floor. Hopefully he'd be able to spot the armed stranger first, and not the other way around. Even if the armed stranger didn't know how to use his weapon, attention was the last thing Lunis wanted.

Odris was able to stay in the building for a grand total of five minutes before getting worried about his best friend. He held the still unfamiliar weapon in his hand, pretending to shoot at a spot across the wall from him. When he was sure he actually knew how to fire it, he took a deep breath and slipped back out into the street.

When he emerged and scanned the remnants of the town, he found Maahes standing near the vine-covered side of a building. He was staring at the little bit of a hole that Odris could just barely make out. Apparently, their watcher had gone in there when confronted.

He quietly cleared his throat.

Maahes turned. "...That was faster than I thought it would be."

"It was five minutes," Odris whispered.

"I thought you'd make it to ten," Maahes whispered back, then returned to staring at the hole. "They went through there."

"They?" Odris asked. He walked to Maahes's side, lingering behind the djinni. It didn't matter that he was the one holding the weapon now; Maahes was still the better and more experienced fighter out of the two of them.

Maahes nodded. "They reminded me of Jaron, Kendrik, and Thytes," he replied. Odris knew the names, and knew the implications. Maahes had told him about the strange adventures he had gone on with people from other realities; the three listed were from a time in a cave, and all shared one common trait. They were people that were a mix of an Earth animal and humans.

...Which sounded incredibly familiar.

"What did they look like?" he asked.

"Cats," was Maahes's quiet response.

Odris frowned. That sounded even more familiar, though he couldn't figure out why. Had he met someone like that before, too? Maahes met people like that during strange reality-crossing adventures. He had only been on two. One was in the cabin. That had been with all relatively human people. The second was on that other world.

...Where there had been two cats, as Maahes put it.

"Do you remember Zech and Lunis?" he slowly asked, his voice a little louder than before.

Maahes gave him a blank look.

Odris glanced between the djinni and the hole. "...I keep forgetting it's been longer for you than it's been for me," he quietly said. Maahes's expression softened at the comment. "We met them on another world. Axcel, I think. You doted on Zech, and got upset when Zech and I started arguing."

Understanding suddenly dawned on his best friend's face, quickly followed by a very, very bright blush. He glanced wildly between Odris and the hole, almost like he was hoping that Odris was just kidding. All it had taken was the comment to jog his memory. Djinn were better at remembering things, once you gave them a clue.

"I r-remember," Maahes managed to get out. "Do...Do you think he remembers? I hope he doesn't. I kept bugging him and doing weird things and oh Altera what if he remembers the scholar thing-"

"Maahes," Odris quietly interrupted, "take a deep breath. I'm sure he won't mention it if he does."

"Oh, he will," Maahes reassured him. "He definitely will. He teased me about it in the first place, and the only reason he stopped was because I got upset."

Of course. Five minutes of crawling around, staring through little holes in the floor, and the armed stranger didn't even notice. They clearly weren't experienced, which should've made running down and taking them hostage far too easy. But then that stranger walked off - Lunis went halfway down the stairs before hearing the footsteps. And it wasn't long before the panther heard the snippets of a conversation travel their way up the rubble pile and towards the hole.

Sprinting his way back up, Lunis breathed a quiet sigh of relief when he saw Zech pressed up against the wall beside the hole. The tiger held his paws over his mouth, eyes constantly trying to catch glimpses of whatever was behind the vines.

Lunis quietly walked his way over, grabbing Zech by the neck fur and pulling himself towards one corner of the room. "What is the matter with you?" he hissed, glad his claws hadn't been out - Zech would've been angry instead of stunned.

"Remember that time we got dumped into another world a couple months ago, and we had to go find some kind of magic thing?" Zech whispered, still trying to look out the hole.

Lunis slowly nodded. "Wait," he whispered, familiar faces entering his mind. "Don't tell me it's-"

"Yep," Zech whispered. "Maahes and Odris. It's been a while for Maahes, but he still remembers me being a little mean."

"He was a kid," Lunis whispered, waving his hand dismissively. "He was probably asking for it."

Zech shook his head. "Sure, he sounds a little embarrassed about himself, but I don't know what he's like now. Hopefully he doesn't take some of it out on me, even though I probably have it coming."

Lunis shrugged. "We'll find out soon enough; I don't think we're going to be able to slip away at this rate. They're too close."

Maahes could hear Zech and Lunis moving around within the building, but he didn't take that as a good or a bad sign - it just showed that they were restless. He glanced over at Odris. It had been far less time for him than it had been for Maahes; it had only been a year and a couple of months. He hadn't really changed since then. But Maahes, on the other hand, had gone through twenty thousand years of change. Twenty thousand years of maturing, and twenty thousand years of leaving the boy he had once been behind.

But how was he supposed to convince them of that?

Better yet, how was he supposed to convince them that they were who they said they were? He could theoretically change his guise, but Odris looked older than he had back then, and the changes in clothing further changed his appearance.

He took a deep breath.

At least he could try.

"Zech? Lunis?" he called out, taking a step towards the hole and trying his best to peer within it. "I know this might sound a little hard to believe, but I'm Maahes, and the man with me is Odris. I, um, don't know why you're here, but it's alright. We're the only ones here besides you."

Zech and Lunis looked between each other, a silent conversation going on in every gesture or movement or facial twitch. Finally, the panther sighed and bowed his head. Smiling, Zech walked around Lunis, heading for the hole.

"Hi!" Zech said, stepping out onto the pile of rubble. He hesitated on seeing Maahes - the smell was right, even after all that time, but Maahes looked so completely different that it took a few seconds for Zech to remember that Maahes also happened to be a really good shapeshifter. He extended a paw. "How've you been?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Zech could see Lunis step out, look around, and nod. The panther was never much for introductions.

Maahes shook the extended paw and gave Zech an awkward smile. "I've been good," he replied. He still felt incredibly embarrassed about Zech and Lunis having met him when he was a kid. It couldn't have been that long since they had last saw him - they both looked relatively the same as they did in his memories. He knew they were going to keep thinking of the way he had been twenty thousand years ago; he had changed so much in that time, but that wouldn't matter.

He withdrew his hand and let it awkwardly hang at his side.

Odris took the opportunity to hand him back the zat'nik'tel, which he quickly closed and pocketed. He doubted he would need it now, unless other people were present here. It was hard to tell. When James had visited this reality, he had been the only one present, but most of his dimension-crossing adventures had involved far more people than this.

Zech returned the awkward smile. At least Maahes hadn't talked about how he was a scholar, how amazing Odris was, or some random fact about his (very strange) body. It was reassuring, but Zech was waiting for the old Maahes to show up.

Eugh, might as well get it out in the open. "How long has it been?" Zech said. "You sound a bit...older."

Maahes shifted uncomfortably. Odris did, too, but not to the same extent. When he had run into James again - the second time, not the third - it had only been half the time it was now. Ten thousand years was still far too many, but it was notably less than the current amount. And when he had run into James another ten thousand years later, James had been used to strange time gaps between their meetings; what had only been a handful of months for him had been countless human lifetimes for Maahes.

He took a deep breath.

"It's been about twenty thousand years," he admitted, averting his gaze. "I know it's hard to believe. Odris didn't believe it at first, either. But it's really been that long since we last met..."

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, hoping that they wouldn't question what he said. He guessed Zech would be more accepting of it than Lunis; the panther seemed to be more doubtful about things, and he was sure this wouldn't be an exception.

Zech took a step back. Twenty thousand years? How was that even possible? He had no reason to believe that Maahes was lying - Maahes had been honest the entire time Zech had known him. Which had only been a couple weeks, but Zech could still spot the similarities between old and young Maahes. And young Maahes was much more likely to hide the truth than outright lie, so Zech could say something similar about old Maahes.

It was then that he realized he hadn't said anything. Oh dear - if Maahes had felt embarrassed earlier, he must've been mortified now. Imagine surprising and confusing people with your age twice.

But, before Zech could open his mouth, Lunis stepped forward. "How do you even remember us, then?" the panther said, crossing his arms. "I don't know anything that could live that long; even the dragons only hang around for a couple thousand years. And you're definitely not human, but you'd have to be a god or something to be around that long and still recognize a couple people from your childhood. And I don't believe in gods."

Maahes had been called a god before, but he hadn't expected to hear it coming from Lunis. He took an unsteady deep breath; it was so noticeable that Odris took a small step closer to him.

"I'm something called a spirit," he finally replied. "There's not many people like me. I've, uh, actually only met one full spirit and one partial one before, but I'm sure there's others somewhere out there. Spirits have long lifespans, but we have pretty good memories. Or at least I do. The other two I know are both too young to really test that yet."

"He just needs someone to jog his memory," Odris helpfully added. Maahes was grateful for the comment; it made things seem less tense.

"Hmm," Lunis said. He leaned forward to stare at Maahes. "Haven't heard of anything like that before, but nothing about being around you was ever ordinary."

"And it's more of an explanation than younger you gave," Zech said. He looked away. "Younger you wasn't exactly helpful."