Young Writers Society

Nadira, who had been mostly ignoring Raiden's antics up to this point, turned to look over at him and Boris. A smile was beginning to spread across her lips; it was the perfect distraction from the somber direction with Aegeas had gone in. "You trained with the Jedi Alliance?" Nadira asked, not even trying to hide her amusement. "Then you must be the master of the force, Boris, even though I don't see a lightsaber on you. Could you show us it?"

Bo looked over to Maahes, admittedly a little confused.

"What's the more that you can't see?"

He took a deep breath, which was more than a little unnerving considering he had never had a pair of lungs to breath with. "My kind can see the world is planes. I guess it's supposed to help with seeing the truth about each other, but I don't really know. I can see up to seven of the planes. Codix - and almost everyone else I know - can only see up to one."

Bo looks at Maahes with wide eyes, mouth agape. "Wooooah, that's cool!"

It was strange, seeing my face from the outside. Naturally it was still a prime example of masculine grace, but watching the phases of emotion in it, changing by the second in real time, was an uncanny experience indeed.

Equally uncanny was watching Raiden in the position of the elder, telling me my own story as though it were a bedtime fable.

There was a grin affixed to my current face, until the mention of the military caused it to waver. It disappeared entirely when he went on to say he left the military to pursue vengeance.

It must have been coincidence.
How could he possibly have known of my desertion, much less the motive behind it? I had taken great care to never breathe a word of my true history to anyone ever since I left Prussia. Hell, I even pretended that I came from Austria.

Was he capable of accessing my memories while he inhabited my body?
What else would he conjure up from the depths of my brain?
Images of every unsavoury act that I had committed in the past year flashed through my mind, threatening to call out to him, and show to him whose form it was that he really borrowed.
I stared, spooked, at the mock sadness on his face, as he mourned for his invented lost love. What knowledge was he hiding behind his pantomime expressions?

But then he gave up all pretences of realism, and surrendered to the passionate vigour of the adventurer, inventing wild tales of traitor princesses, and dragons, space travel, and whatever this Jedi Alliance was. I let go of the fear that now seemed so foolish, and was swept away by the swashbuckling fancies that Raiden spun. I even found myself wanting to cheer in places.

''As I laid my eyes on him, rage boiled in my heart. I would get back my dagger. He and I dueled in an epic battle until near death. I let him live, and he returned my dagger. We are now best friends," said Raiden, ending his tale.

I had to smile at that. It was such a wholesome, heroic way to end things. He overcame his rage and spared his foe, he regained what he lost, and he gave up his vengeance. Just like a real gentleman would have. Everyone came out of it just fine and dandy.

That was how I would write the ending for children. It was how I would write the ending for anyone, were I to write it.

"Me and dagger, that is. Now, is that satisfactory?"

At that part I just had to laugh. It really was beautiful. A love story between a man and his faithful dagger. I supposed that we had been through a lot together.

''...That is the most touching story I have ever heard.'' I said, wiping an imaginary tear from my eye.

Maahes gave an embarrassed smile and shyly rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Really?" he asked, clearly flustered by the compliment. "People don't usually say that about it. Vala has, and Cameron has, and Daniel has, and I'm pretty sure Teal'c has one or twice too, but they're my team. And Vala's my girlfriend, too, so of course she'd be supportive of me. But people usually get kind of terrified when they realize that I'm not human."

Bo smiled and laughed, grabbing Maahes's shoulder and patting him on the back. "Oooooh Maahes. I'm pretty sure the only totally average humans here are me and Boris. What's it matter if you're human? Codix ain't human, and he's cool. Aegeas isn't human, and he's a powerhouse. Nadira isn't human, and she's like, officially my favorite person, and I'm in her body, so that's all good and weird in itself, so... yeah man, that's rad that you're you and nobody else and you can see the world differently. Or in the words of Barney," he began to speak in a sing-song voice. "You are special, you're the only one, you're the only one like you. There isn't another in the whole wide world who can do the things you do."

Bo was very tempted to continue the song, but held his tongue, and just kept it to himself behind a grin. He was being serious, but he was really hoping someone would get the reference. Just to lighten the mood.

Oh, Bo-Nadira knew what the force was. Hmmm. While it is true that the Jedi could use the force, I was inadept at the skill. I did know one trick, though...

I licked the palm of my hand and leaned over to Raiden, thrusting my palm forward at his face.

I recoiled from Raiden's wet hand.

Maahes and Codix both stared at Bo as he finished singing, neither quite sure what he was referencing. He let himself smile at Bo's attempt to cheer him up. He couldn't quite understand. Codix might have been able to, since he had a taste of what it was like to be a spirit. But, ultimately, he was the only person who could understand what he was talking about. There was a crucial difference between the aliens Stargate Command regularly worked with and him. They were humanoid in nature. He was just a demon wearing the guise of a human.

Kartiel suddenly stormed into one of the rooms down the hallway. Maahes guessed that meant they had arrived at the library.


Nadira tried to stifle a laugh, but it managed to escape her. She only laughed for a few moments before she promptly fell silent. It was one thing to talk in Bo's voice; it was enough to laugh in it. She was a robot. If Codix did the right programming, she'd be able to copy Bo's voice. That wasn't too absurd. But to copy someone's laugh? It just felt wrong. It was too personal, and she didn't feel like she had the right to do something like that.

Raiden's charade had officially become annoying again.
"Oh, put a bloody shirt on." I said irritably.

Nadira had turned away from him and engrossed herself in another conversation. Not that he was surprised; Aegeas was getting sick of himself too.

He kept quiet under the bed, steadying his breathing. Boris and Raiden, who must've switched bodies, argued the whole time. He couldn't help but smile at Raiden faking Boris's accent and words, and decided to make a jab himself when Boris got exasperated.

"All the shirts are bloody," Aegeas said, peeking out from under the bed. "So you might be out of luck."

Nadira let out a snort at the comment, only to immediately cover her mouth and nose with her hand seconds later. It was a hilarious joke, especially coming from Aegeas, but she couldn't handle hearing the sound of Bo laughing again.

"Aye, though he did say to put a bloody shirt on, I might need to do that," I said, somehow doing a Scottish accent as I spoke. My eyes widened.
"Wait a minute," I said, staring down at the ground, "Isn't this...gay?"

"Oop," Bo said as he saw Kartiel rush into the room. "Guess we're here!" He announced as he sped ahead, charging in after him. "Time to find the things."