AN: This is a weird sort-of-but-not-really bending AU, which mostly follows canon, but includes the fact that people can have the ability to bend one of four elements: Air, Earth, Water, or Fire. The bending rules are sort-of the same as the Avatar universe, but again, not really?
It's more of a character study/experiment with a weird writing style, so if it seems off, that's why. *Shrugs*
Bending is rare. Being a bender – no matter what element – puts you in the spotlight. Governments, scientists, entertainers, rich people who need bodyguards - they all try to recruit benders, and not always for good reasons. Jack has learned to keep his Fire contained within him, and though it's helped him on missions before, he's made it to where he is now without it. The Air Force doesn't know about his bending – they hadn't known when they'd recruited him, not when they'd promoted him, and not now that he's retired. Only his wife and son and a couple of good friends he's lost along the way have ever found out about it. Jack had learned from his father, and from watching the few Fire bender soldiers he'd met.
It doesn't matter – bending hadn't saved his son.
.
He joins the SGC out of a sense of duty, because he's been asked. Not for a purpose.
He has mixed emotions when they give him his orders.
Relief, because he's been contemplating suicide himself and this is so much better than that, to go out in service of his country. Shame, because he knows he shouldn't be relieved. But mostly apathy because, as always, his mind turns to Charlie.
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The people of Abydos are kind but cowed by their alien overlord, his team is made of good men, some of whom he's worked with before, and he's stuck with a geek whose long hair is always blowing into his face and who sneezes at the drop of a pin. It could have been worse. (It could have been better, he thinks then. Later, he disagrees.)
He feels the old familiar surge of adrenaline when Ra's men attack, but it's only after Daniel's 'death' that he musters up the strength to throw a few fireballs around when no one's looking. He's out of practice, but with their guns and the help of the people of Abydos, they overthrow Ra and destroy his spaceship as it tries to flee the planet.
He leaves Daniel on the alien world and comes home thankful to a man he never thought he'd like, with a renewed sense of purpose he thought he'd lost forever. He points his telescope at the night sky and practices his breathing, watching the candles flicker before him.
.
A year later Jack returns – to active service, to the SGC, and to Abydos. He's got another team this time, some new faces, some old, and another geek beside him – though she's Air Force, and into the physical sciences rather than the social.
Daniel greets them on the other side, looking comfortable and happy and content in his Abydonian robes, wind still ruffling his too long hair. The peace doesn't last long.
The Stargate goes other places, hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of other planets throughout the galaxy, and the mission this time isn't to explore – it's to rescue.
There are other aliens like Ra out there, with slaves beneath their feet and loyal soldiers at their backs. It doesn't matter that this one is called Apophis, or that his planet is called Chulak – he's just another Ra: power hungry and narcissistic, actually believing that he's a god who deserves to rule over these people.
Except... not all the soldiers are so loyal. Daniel's wife has already been taken, and Skaara is gone, when Jack manages to lock eyes with one of Apophis' soldiers and asks for help. Help is given.
.
General Hammond can't bend, but he's solid and reminds Jack of Earth. This is a commanding officer that Jack can trust, and count on, as the man will eventually prove, over and over again.
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Bending exists out in the galaxy, Teal'c tells them: the false gods can command all four elements to their will. This is what convinces people of their power.
The humans under their control have been carefully corralled and managed, entire bloodlines severed to ensure that none of them have the power to challenge their god.
Bending exists out in the galaxy, but only for those who proclaim to rule it. Jack wants to shove a fireball in Apophis' smug face.
.
There's a rush to recruit in Colorado Springs, the Air Force snapping up as many elite officers and benders as it can. The rule gets laid down that there's at least one to a team, doesn't matter what element. It's partly as a show of power, partly for safety, partly to show any people out there that command of an element does not make you a god.
(Teal'c gazes around at the open displays of bending, wide eyed (or at least, wide eyed for him). Ordinary citizens aren't allowed such power where he comes from. The penalty is a swift and sudden death not only for you, but for anyone who might be related to you as well.)
Their lighting is electric, but there are torches down every hallway and in most rooms. Aside from the pipes running through the walls there are small canals running alongside half of them, lining one side of each hallway. Construction takes a while, and they have to be cautious given the classified nature of the project, but the ventilation system is far better than any underground system has the right to be.
The Earth benders are surrounded by their element, and are careful not to shake the mountain, but they get their playgrounds too.
It's the most bender friendly place on Earth and they pull in fourteen benders for their nine teams, and a further six who won't be going out in the field.
.
Jack puts his foot down and gets Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c on his team. They're the only exception (except they're really not).
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Their missions now are half exploratory, half intelligence gathering. They go through the Stargate, sometimes meeting new people, sometimes not. Jack practices his bending at home, and plays with the Fire when it's his turn to keep watch.
Some missions are easy. Some they barely come back from. Jack's fondness for his team grows with the SGC.
.
It is hard to tell if the Nox are benders or not. They don't seem surprised by the idea, but neither do they manipulate any of the four elements in front of SG-1.
(They are peaceful and flighty and can vanish in an instant. Jack thinks perhaps they're all descended from Air, but he'd have a hard time proving that.)
.
They visit deserts and mountains and forests and plains. They visit planets with no moons where the night is always dark and planets that orbit two stars where the sun never sets. They visit moons larger than some planets and moons around gas giants and moons that are just as barren as their own. They visit worlds with days longer than their year and worlds that spin the other way.
Daniel is excited by the cultures they find, Carter by the science they discover. Teal'c adjusts easily to life on Earth and yearns to free his people.
Jack's fascinated too, but his mind is always on his team and what it will take to get them home safely.
.
(Carter always carries more than one canteen. Teal'c often removes his boots and treads barefoot when he knows their camp is safe. Daniel is light on his feet, his breathing is always steady and even.)
(No one notices these small, insignificant details.)
.
There's a rainstorm on P6X-732. It's bad. There's little wind, but the downpour is so strong that it doesn't matter. Jack is so wet that he can't keep warm. He couldn't create a flame if he tried, regardless of the rain. Daniel is concentrating so hard on each step he takes that Teal'c has stopped him from falling twice now. Even Carter, who usually enjoys the rain, looks miserable.
They're lost and can't see five feet in front of their faces. And as much as Jack wants to stop and wait it out, it looks like it's only going to get worse. They need shelter.
Daniel stumbles for the third time. Even Teal'c's calm and steady hands can't stop him from hitting the ground. The wind picks up as the archaeologist falls and the rain that had been hammering the top of Jack's head now feels like pins and needles as it angles into his face.
He curses, though it goes unheard in the downpour, and they stop as Teal'c helps Daniel up.
Jack can barely see Carter in the rain, can't see the expression on her face that would tell him what she's thinking, but he can see her raise her arms slowly, as if carrying a great weight. As her hands rise the Water slows, until there's a protective bubble around them, holding back the onslaught.
Jack can see and hear again. He stares at his teammate, surprised by what's been revealed to him.
(Daniel just looks grateful, slumping against Teal'c in relief. The Jaffa himself is as perpetually unbothered as always, though he looks mildly curious.)
There's no time for surprise.
"How long can you hold that?" he asks.
Carter looks worried, and Jack doesn't know if it's because her secret's been revealed or because of the storm, and the weight of the Water she's holding back. "Maybe an hour," she says, and she still has to speak loudly through the pounding around them.
Jack nods once. "Let's keep moving then." Shelter is still the priority. Then they'll talk.
Even with the rain no longer pouring down on them they move slow. The ground is still drenched and they either slip or stick in it, small rivers made by the storm sliding under Carter's protective shield and keeping their feet wet. It takes them almost a half hour to find a cave protected from the storm.
As Carter lets go of the Water, Jack's just glad the planet even has caves relatively near the 'gate.
A moment passes in which the only sound is the storm outside. They walk deeper into the cave, taking time to catch their breaths and come to terms with how utterly and completely soaked they are. The rain may have been unbearable, but without it the discomfort of their soaked clothing is that much more obvious. There's already a large puddle on the cave floor, just from the four of them.
Carter shifts uncomfortably, drawing attention to her. "I could, you know," she offers hesitantly, gesturing at them.
Jack hesitates in return, unsure where to go from there.
"Please," Daniel says easily, seated on a boulder and ringing out his bandanna.
(The decision is taken from him).
Teal'c nods his agreement.
Still Carter turns to Jack. He nods.
It's not that he's unhappy that Carter is keeping a secret. Or that he's torn over whether or not to keep her secret. He's not bothered that she's a Water bender and he's not bothered that she didn't tell them. (That would be hypocritical of him, after all).
He's not even all that surprised, he realizes. It makes sense, in an odd sort of way.
What has him thinking is his own secret. Carter trusted them with hers – what does it say about him that he is still reluctant to do the same?
Carter moves fluidly, pulling the Water from their clothes and out of the cave. Jack takes a deep breath, focusing on his center, and finally manages to warm himself.
"So, a Water bender in the Air Force?" he says.
Carter grins, relief on her face. "You know me sir," she replies easily. "I was never one for stereotypes."
Jack thinks back to their first meeting, when Carter had been so quick to prove herself and make her own way through the Stargate. No. She wasn't.
In the end, his decision is so easy and simple he can't even call it a decision. Of course he trusts these people – how could he ever have had any doubt?
"Well in that case," he responds, snapping his now dry fingers. Fire springs to life in his hand.
Even the small flames tickling his palm bring warmth to the cave. Carter and Teal'c take unconscious steps forward. Daniel shifts closer and leans from his spot seated on his rock.
There's a beat and Daniel lets out a long breath of relief. A breeze circles through the cave, throwing around the warm Air that Jack's giving off.
"Too bad there's nothing to burn," Daniel says.
Jack just shrugs. He cups his hands together in front of him. Lets the Fire grow.
"I did not think bending was common among your people," Teal'c states, half question. The amazement in his voice when he speaks of bending – a power reserved only for his false gods – is still present, though softer than when they had first met.
"It's not," Carter and Daniel reply simultaneously. (Carter's interested in the physics behind bending, Daniel the history).
"Then we are fortunate to have found each other." Teal'c doesn't stomp his foot, or do any of the other strong, solid gestures Jack associates with Earth bending. He merely slides his right foot outward, away from his left. Roughly hewn benches rise from the ground as he does so, one for each of them in a neat circle.
Another beat, then they move and take their seats, dropping their damp packs in front of them. Jack holds his Fire in his lap.
Teal'c has provided just enough of an opening in the circle for them to watch the cave entrance, but the group turns to Daniel. As if expecting him to have a hidden secret of his own to share as well.
Daniel smiles. Softly, playfully. He takes his careful, even breaths. A breeze circles through the cave again, once more distributing the warm Air Jack is producing.
Daniel's never been one for shows of power, Jack realizes, but he's been bending all along.
.
(This is what opened Teal'c's eyes, Jack thinks. How could a soldier have the same power as a god?)
.
Janet Fraiser isn't a Water bender (she's not a bender at all). She can't heal with a touch.
That doesn't stop her from being the best doctor at the SGC anyway.
.
Not much changes after that. At least, not at first. Not to the rest of the SGC.
There are several reasons why, they say, they should keep their secrets: they'll be stereotyped, people will stop underestimating them, they'll be assigned new duties, they'll be put on leave for keeping a secret. They're used to it.
In truth there's only one. Four benders to a team will seem like overkill to the United States Air Force.
But things do change. Now they have a common enemy, and a common secret. They can bend in the field together, as long as they find a way to word their reports without lies.
The SGC grows, and so does their friendship. They're more than a team. They trust each other with more than their lives.
.
Walter's not always on shift in the gate room, but he's Jack's favorite technician. The man reminds him of Air – easy going, agreeable, and moving with the flow, but strong when he needs to be.
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("Why did you keep it a secret?" They'll ask each other later, huddled around a campfire that Jack has created on a world far, far from home.
Teal'c's explanation is obvious, and will need no words.
"I'm a physicist," Sam will tell them. "And I wanted to keep doing that instead of being used for my bending."
Daniel will shrug. "I never really hid it, I just. Didn't tell anyone." He will look uneasy, and his answer will hint at a childhood filled with mistrust that the team has yet to learn of.
Jack won't really know the answer. He'll suppose it's a little of Sam's reason, that he didn't want to be assigned missions based on only one of his skills, and a little bit of Daniel's, that he didn't trust anyone with the information, and maybe even a little bit of Teal'c's, because Fire benders aren't always viewed in the best light, especially Fire benders who join the armed forces.)
.
(The truth is, mostly it's because Jack likes to be underestimated.)
.
(The truth is also this: except for Teal'c, they did tell people. Later, Daniel will tell stories of learning to manipulate Air at his parents' sides. Jack will play tricks with the Fire, and think of Charlie and Sarah. Sam will recall hours spent training with her father – not a bender himself, but completely willing to work with her. It is the one thing they never argued about.)
.
Jack learns to manipulate the Fire of a staff blast. Sam practices her healing. Teal'c walks barefoot for most missions now, his hard-soled feet able to sense things far further off than his keen eyes can see.
Daniel floats along, calm and sure-footed as always. This time Jack sees the wind that supports him. Recognizes his hand in the breezes that pass by. Daniel has embraced his element more than any of them – always has. He is Air.
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P3X-974 changes things again. Teal'c is taken, and Jack along with him. They use Earth and Fire to defeat the Unas trapped with them and learn of the Asgard, and their protected planets. Thor's Hammer could be the salvation of Goa'uld hosts and though it traps the Jaffa inside, Teal'c is of the Earth. The mountain cannot stand in his way.
They leave Cimmeria with an alliance and hope for the hosts of the Goa'uld.
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Rya'c cannot bend, and though there is Fire in Bra'tac's soul he too is powerless to control the elements.
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Daniel dies in a storm of Fire on P3X-866, but that can't be right. Jack would have stopped it. (Unless it never really happened at all).
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As with the Nox, it's hard for Jack to tell if the Tollans are benders. They could be keeping it secret, unwilling to show primitive minds. They could know nothing about it at all.
The topic is never brought up.
(The United States government certainly isn't going to tell them anything.
.
It's hard to tell if Colonel Harry Maybourne is a bender at first too. He keeps his skills close to his chest, regardless of how arrogant he is. But special ops guys as high up as Maybourne is usually have an element they call their own. Jack keeps an eye out.
.
In Antarctica, Jack keeps them warm and Carter keeps them hydrated. Daniel and Teal'c bring them home.
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Harlan's deception on P3X-989 is easily discovered when the androids wake without connections to their elements. Jack wakes to see two of his team looking down on him.
The other Daniel looks lost. Missing something so deeply a part of him.
The other Sam looks worried. She grasps for something she can no longer feel.
The other Teal'c looks ruffled. His sense of the world around him torn from him.
The other Jack looks angry.
The other team will make it through this but they're not SG-1. How could they be, without their elements?
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Kinsey can't bend. Jack is beyond grateful for that. To give slime like that any more power would spell the end of the SGC.
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Sam gets taken by a Tok'ra (Goa'uld, but not) on P3X-382. It dies still a part of her, and leaves an impression behind.
Daniel falls apart on P3R-636, taken in by a Goa'uld sarcophagus. The loss of control (the overwhelming need) plays havoc on the usually centered man. It takes all of them to get him through it.
Jack gets stabbed through the shoulder by an alien device they bring back to Earth. He tries not to let it show that the heat doesn't affect him as much as it should.
Teal'c's son is taken by Apophis – and that's really when it all starts.
.
The Jaffa cannot control the elements. This is fact among the Goa'uld civilizations – bending is a power only the gods have.
But Teal'c, by some fluke, can bend.
(His mother could not, and he does not know if his father could. He never got the chance to ask.)
(He is self-taught.)
He demonstrates this, done with hiding, in front of the people of Chulak. In front of his false god.
Apophis fires back, matching stone for stone. He gets away, but not with his army intact.
A Jaffa who can bend? The whispers are strong and quick, spreading out fast from Chulak. They pass through all of Apophis' lands. They don't stop there.
The rumors reach the people of Heru'ur, of Ba'al. Of Sokar and Yu, Cronus and Nirrti, Amaterasu and Bastet. Not all of the rumors are true, and not all of the rumors are believed, but they exist. A Jaffa who defied his god. A Jaffa with the power of a god.
Teal'c becomes a legend, one that will live on long after he is gone. (They all become legends, eventually, but that has not happened yet).
(Rya'c returns to his father, whole and unharmed.)
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Rebellion grows.
.
Apophis is stubborn and unyielding. Difficult to move, impossible to sway. He stands his ground, and buries anyone who defies him beneath an avalanche of Earth.
.
A year has passed. (One Abydonian year). A year filled with so many people and planets. With truths revealed and secrets kept. A year of traveling together, of exploring and discovering and fighting and (sometimes) dying, side by side.
Daniel has a promise to keep. Teal'c goes with him.
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Jack isn't there to see it, but he gets the full story later on. (He's in Washington dealing with politics and awards and honors he knows he deserves but doesn't know if he actually wants. Not without the rest of his team there with him.).
Daniel and Teal'c return to Abydos to find Sha're, pregnant with the child of Apophis. They think of Cimmeria, and Thor's Hammer. They leave Abydos as quickly as they can. Daniel holds onto his wife.
Three of them are swept up by Thor's Hammer.
Four of them return to Earth: Teal'c, Daniel, Sha're, and her son, Shifu.
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Siler's not a Fire bender, but he's been electrocuted enough times and lived that Jack thinks there must be some kind of spark inside him. He's dependable and reliable and he keeps the mountain's flame burning.
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Sha're cannot return to Abydos (not while Apophis is still alive) but her people are safe. She was taken by a rival Goa'uld, they will say when Apophis comes. He will rage and anger, the ground shaking beneath his feet, but take his frustrations out on the System Lords. Abydos is safe.
Daniel takes a month off to help her adjust to life on Earth, but his apartment is no place for mother and son. The three of them move into a large, empty house.
(The rest of SG-1 is practically on leave as well. They visit often. The house is not so empty.)
But Sha're's brother is still out there, and Daniel has found a family with the team. He's tells Jack he's going to stay before he tells General Hammond.
.
Life moves on, but differently. Daniel has a wife now, and a son that isn't his but might as well be.
(Teal'c has a son too, and he visibly softens around Shifu).
Their missions aren't any shorter, or less important, but if they get an extra day on Earth here or there nobody says anything.
.
(It's too early to tell if Shifu can bend. If there are any effects of being a harcesis.
Daniel has already begun his research.)
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Carter dreams of a planet they've never been to. There, they find the Tok'ra. Word has spread of them across the galaxy. Of SG-1 and the Jaffa Earth bender Teal'c.
The Tok'ra are, if not exactly excited to meet them, curious. Jack doesn't trust them, and doesn't like them. They're all Goa'uld to him, if a bit less murderous.
But the Tok'ra are eager for an alliance. They only take willing hosts – and willing hosts are rare. (Let alone willing hosts who can bend.)
With this news comes a revelation – the Goa'uld cannot bend all four elements. They merely take hosts extremely talented in one element, and use their technology to fake the rest. Subterfuge and lies. It is how they rule.
(Apophis prefers Earth bending, Teal'c tells them later. He rarely used the other elements.)
(Sam asks about the hand device, if it's how Apophis appears to Air bend. Teal'c thinks about it, nods once, and gives a solemn "Indeed.")
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Jacob cannot bend. The Tok'ra are happy to have him anyway.
.
On P3R-272 Jack gets all the knowledge of the gate builders downloaded into his brain. He meets the Asgard, for real this time. He thanks them for Cimmeria and tells them about Thor's Hammer.
The Asgard cannot bend, but they know what it means to be able to do so. They recognize his power. (They have stories of upwards waterfalls, and rivers bending to their will, but that is in their past.)
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Daniel's run in with Machello scares Sha're. (It scares all of them, really. Such is the life of a 'gate team.)
They love each other, but their experiences apart have changed them. Sha're has nightmares often that even Daniel can't chase away. Daniel has his own fair share of them as well.
(Jack knows this partly because he sometimes lies awake at night, unable to sleep himself. Because it's the same thing all of them who go through the 'gate experience. The other part is because Daniel tells him. They're a team.)
Daniel stays with SG-1. Sha're stays on Earth. As far as Jack knows, they're happy with the agreement.
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Apophis crashes practically on their doorstep, dying. They have to return him to Sokar before they get much information.
(He sneers and rages at Teal'c, tries to get the mountain to do his bidding. But Teal'c is powerful too, and he's not the only Earth bender at the SGC. The mountain does not bend to the false god's will.)
.
(Inside Apophis' ranks rebellion grows and grows. How can he be a god? His previous First Prime now stands against him, a bender. His wife and child were taken from him by mere humans. Freed. How can he be all powerful?)
(Now he is a prisoner of Sokar. If such a powerful System Lord could fall, what about the rest?)
.
Major Paul Davis, liaison between the SGC and the Pentagon, is a Water bender. (Jack only knows this because he reads his file. The man is a desk worker now.)
Still, though he seemed skeptical at first, he too grows to accept the SGC and their ways. Once he's carved his way, he flows through Cheyenne Mountain easily, with the calm surety of Water, lending support where he can.
.
Hathor dies. Seth falls next. Their Fire and Earth cannot stand up to the full force of all four elements against them.
(In the process of his rescue, Teal'c's Earth bending is revealed to the SGC. He is treated with hostility and suspicion for a while by those who don't know any better. For those who do, nothing has changed. Trust is slow, but it comes.)
(The pressure to add a bender to SG-1 fades.)
.
The Goa'uld are scared and desperate, though they try not to show it. Their armies are turning against them. Their fellow rulers are falling one by one. Ra, Apophis. Hathor, Seth.
With the help of the Asgard, they work to negotiate a treaty with Earth.
It doesn't go off without a hitch, but the treaty gets signed.
(Cronus sneers at and goads Teal'c. Nirrti's sly eyes search for benders.
She leaves in chains. He leaves in bandages.)
.
Daniel is infected with a strange Goa'uld killing device. He sees things that aren't there. His stress skyrockets. Sha're panics.
The SGC think him crazy.
Jack and Sam and Teal'c know differently. Daniel's mind is still strong. (He doesn't try to bend once.)
(They talk to Sha're – she still worries, but when she hears about Daniel's bending she calms. She was, after all, the first person he ever told.)
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Jack teaches the Orbanians about childhood. About play. They meet a Carter who can't bend. Teal'c (almost) dies. (The Earth keeps him safe).
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Through the Stargate and back again. Through the Stargate and back again. This is their life now. They meet people on moons and visit barren planets. They encounter strange technologies and natural wonders. Science and sunsets. Black holes and ray guns. Tunnels grown underground and spaceships that fly overhead. Weather manipulators and viruses. Gods and demons.
This is their life now.
Teal'c has a family hidden away on their own planet. Daniel has a family hidden away on a planet that is not their own. They all have a family in each other.
.
(Shifu begins to have trouble sleeping. It seems the harcesis child has nightmares of his own.)
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The Tok'ra give them the news about Jacob and Selmak. Trapped on a fiery hell that no one but Jolinar has ever escaped from. Jack has to hold back a grin when they tell him that he's going down to the surface with Daniel, Sam, and Martouf.
If no one's ever escaped before, they must not have sent any Fire benders.
.
They land into a world of Fire and sweat. Jack can feel the heat before his escape pod even opens. He coughs once as he stands, tasting the foul Air. Then the wind blows gently past his face, bringing clean Air from somewhere.
Martouf raises his head and takes a deep breath. "We are lucky," he says. "The conditions here are not supposed to be so favorable."
Jack smirks at Daniel. Sam hides a grin.
They move through the dry heat of the tunnels. A breeze follows them – not cool, but clean. Jack can feel the Fire around him. The heat of the moon only energizes him.
Sam's memories of Jolinar trickle in, leading them on their way. They pass a river of lava. Signs of habitation.
In the central cavern, their fellow prisoners surround them.
Jack looks around at the hostile faces. Speaks up. "Howdy folks. We're uh, new in these parts. I know that's hard to tell, but it's true." He pauses. Glances over at his teammate. "Carter? Carter?"
She's experiencing another memory.
"Bynarr!" she calls out, searching the crowd.
Na'onak, First Prime to Bynarr, Lord of Netu appears before them. Commands them to kneel.
Jack doesn't even have to call the Fire into being, just summon it to his hand. He spins and the Fire spins with him, ringing around them in a circle. Pushing back the hostile citizens of the fiery moon.
Martouf stares at him in astonishment. The men back off.
"She said we're here to speak with Bynarr." Daniel projects his voice over the crowd calmly. As though they aren't in a place described as Hell. As if Jack, surrounded by Fire as he is, couldn't bring everyone down so, so easily.
Murmurs break out. Na'onak no longer looks so confident. Jack spots a man running off into a tunnel, no doubt to fetch the ruler of this forsaken place.
Bynarr's appearance suits the world he rules. An oozing scar has replaced his left eye. Jack's seen bad wounds before, but this one is worse. (Otherwise the Goa'uld would have healed it.)
"You think to manipulate my element!" the man rages. "On my world!" He brings a ball of Fire into existence in his hand. Throws it at the ground before their feet.
(His flame is a sickly yellow color. It dissipates weakly, with little heat.)
Jack grins. He gestures outward and all the flames around him flare up. "You mean my element?" he calls back.
The muttering increases. Bynarr growls, angry. This time the flame is directed at Jack's head. It doesn't take much to deflect it.
The firefight is short, and easy. Jack handles Bynarr on his own. When he's done, most of the prisoners have left the cavern. Only Bynarr and his First Prime remain, and Bynarr is on the ground.
"Here's the deal," Jack says. He holds his bright red-orange flame in his right hand. Tosses the ball of Fire upward and catches it again. "You tell us how Jolinar escaped, and we let you live."
Bynarr is arrogant, prideful, egotistical, and every other synonym Jack can think of – just like every other Goa'uld. Just like every other Goa'uld, he's also a coward when it comes right down to it.
They find Jacob and escape, inciting a rebellion on Netu in the process. When they leave, it is to the sight of Sokar's palace burning behind them.
(Jacob and Martouf are astonished by Jack's bending, but they keep his secret from the SGC.)
.
(Another one falls).
.
They find Skaara on Tollana and argue for his freedom. He comes back with them to greet his sister and meet his nephew. He is torn between them and his people. Between the strange world of Earth and the home he has longed for all these years.
(Skaara is not a kid anymore. How could he be?)
He chooses Abydos. (He wants Sha're to come with him.)
(She doesn't.)
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Skaara cannot bend. Despite his desert planet, Jack thinks the young man is best suited to Water. He has no reason behind this thought.
.
Jack gets trapped on a world for one hundred days. (Cut off from his internal Fire too, for he cannot scare these villagers). Teal'c unburies the 'gate with one swift movement.
He deceives his team (tries to) and helps bring down a rouge SG team. (They're hurt by his actions and his words, but they know him too well. They know his secret – why would he give that up?)
.
Sha're and Daniel continue to worry about Shifu. When Bra'tac comes with word of an interplanetary war that Apophis is involved in they decide to act. They go to Kheb, a place from Sha're's memories and Bra'tac's history.
There they find an ascended being with true mastery over all four elements. She knows how to save Shifu, but Sha're will not be separated from her child. Daniel loses her again. This time, he knows it is not forever.
(Daniel almost goes with them. Jack tries not to think about it too much.)
.
While Daniel is in the hospital with appendicitis, Jack and Sam and Teal'c meet the Replicators. Jack's Fire does little to break them apart. Sam cuts them in half with her Water, tries to freeze them in place, but they always get free and reform. Teal'c stands his ground, concentrates, and bends the very metal they are made of. They do not get back up.
They save Thor and Earth by burning up the Asgard's ship in the atmosphere and escape to P3X-234.
Their troubles with the replicators are only just beginning.
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The Eurondans cannot bend, which is a relief. The tension that forms between Daniel and the team, however, is not.
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Jack and Sam are forced to admit the existence of their growing feelings for each other. Jack and Teal'c get stuck in a time loop (Jack displays his bending to the SGC more than once). They discover the Russians have been using the second Stargate, and that even Sam has difficulty bending Water that is essentially alive.
Daniel befriends his captor on P3X-888 and gets set free.
They lose their memories for a time on a planet experiencing an ice age, but there's still something that draws them together.
When Teal'c gets tortured by Heru'ur the enemy Jaffa around him are surprisingly silent. Respectful. This is a Jaffa with the power of the gods.
Floating in space, with no ground beneath him, Teal'c musters his strength and breaks his chains by bending the very metal they are made of. The other Jaffa are in awe. They help him escape.
.
(Through the Stargate and back again.)
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Despite all their efforts eliminating System Lords, a new Goa'uld rises from Earth. Inhabiting the body of Daniel's old friend, Osiris lives again.
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(The only solace, the only relief that can be gained from Sarah Gardner's abduction, is that she is not a bender. She has no element to call her own, no Air or Fire, Water or Earth to give strength to the Goa'uld that now resides within her.
Maybe, maybe, Osiris will choose another host.)
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(If she doesn't kill Sarah first.)
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General Hammond is almost blackmailed into resigning; a message arrives from the future. Sha're and Shifu pay them a visit, then leave again.
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Cronus falls, and their android counterparts fall with him.
.
(Through the Stargate and back again.)
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Apophis dies in a fiery explosion, alone on his ship as it burns, surrounded by Replicators.
(He tries to take Teal'c with him, but it has been a long time since the Jaffa has been his.)
AN: Please let me know what you think! I know the writing style is weird, but that was sort of the point for this fic.