Title: Through the Mirror, Sideways

Fandom: Stargate SG:1 and probably Atlantis

Rating: PG-13 for violence and language

Genre: Gen

Pairings: Assumed Jack/Sam, Daniel/Sha'uri mentioned

Summary: Sort of AUish, I suppose. At least, there's a fraction of an AU involved. Remember the mirror from "There But for the Grace of God"? That's all I'm saying.

Author's Note: The preface was written by my very good friend Tathrin because I can't write battle scenes and they're kind of her thing. The rest is mine, but I had to give credit where credit is due.

Preface

The Stargate activated.

"Dammit," Walter said, and lifted his fingers from the now useless DHD.

"Good job, Walter," Lorne said, clapping him on the back. The Colonel turned around to wave the others forward through the Gate.

"That wasn't me, sir," Walter said.

Lorne stopped. "What are you talking…about…" Lorne looked at the Gate. He swore, very quietly. He turned to face the rest of their ragtag band of survivors. "All right, people," the Colonel bellowed in his best parade-ground angry O'Neill impersonation. "The Goa'uld are on their way, and they're just activated the Gate from their side! We need to take cover, people! Formation Delta, go!"

They scattered towards the buildings near the Gate. Rya'c and Reynolds took up flanking positions on either side of the Gate. "Janet, get the kids into that one, it looks the most defensible! You and you," Lorne indicated one of his officers from the remnants of Stargate Command, and one of the Jaffa leaders, "take your people and set up guard positions around it."

Fleeing from the Goa'uld in a series of guerilla strikes and narrow escapes was no place for kids, but there wasn't anywhere else to send them. They couldn't go back to Earth, or to Chulak, or any of the other planets the Jaffa rebellions members had once called home. Fraiser had become unofficial den-mother to the group that was made up of an ever-increasing number of orphans. The kids followed the doctor into the building Lorne had indicated and fanned out.

Everyone who was old enough to hold a weapon did so; the youngest grouped themselves near the middle of their underage defensive formation. Janet barked orders that no doctor should have had to give and the children scrambled to obey. Some of the older ones scouted the room, looking for weapons and secondary exits.

"Janet," one of them called, "look at this." She was fourteen, with thick black hair tied out of her glasses with a once-bright scarf. She had a battered staff weapon in her hands and a P90 slung on her back.

The doctor hurried over. "What'd you find, Katherine?"

"I'm not sure. She the indicators here? It looks like it might open a hidden door, do you think?" she asked hopefully.

Janet picked up the small device; it had buttons, but pressing them didn't seem to do anything. "Doesn't look like it's active, I'm afraid," she said, and tossed it back to the table. The maybe-a-remote did nothing, but a corner of the room flashed.

They turned to look at a floor-length mirror. Through it, a disquietingly familiar room was visible. Janet and Katherine stared at each other.

"That looks like the gate room at the SGC," Katheirne whispered.

"It's pretty close, but be careful." the doctor cautioned. "It could be anywhere. Just because it looks like…"

The building shook with a terrifyingly familiar sound. "Deathgliders!" a young Jaffa shouted, raising his zat'n'ktel like a very small warrior. The children clustered, weapons bristling. The next tremor was louder, and the building's walls spiderwebbed into cracks. Dust rained on their heads. "Al'kesh, too," another child murmured.

Then from outside came the sound of staff weapons, bullets, and zats. Then came the screams. Major Vega backed into the room, her P90 spitting. "It's a whole fleet!" she shouted. "Doc, is there any other way out of here?"

"We haven't found one," Janet said, grabbing for her medical bag.

"Then find somewhere to hide," the major snapped, "because we're overrun."

"Does Colonel Lorne—"

"Evan's dead," Vega interrupted. "And unless you can find a miracle, we all are."

Janet's face was lined with strain. "I ran out of miracles awhile ago, major," the doctor said softly. "I'm sorry."

Vega shrugged. "Well, that's how it—"

She never finished the sentence; it vanished in the blast wave that caved in the door. One of the al'kesh had scored an almost direct hit on the building. Everyone was shouting; Janet's voice was lost in the chaos.

Someone climbed over the broken rubble into the battered room.

"What should we do?" Janet asked. "There's no other way out! We have to get the kids out of—"

He raised a staff weapon. "Shel-norak!" the Jaffa ordered.

A boy no older than four raised a zat. "Dal Shakka Mel!" he yelled, and fired. The Jaffa crumpled, but he was followed by others. They didn't waste time calling for surrender, just opened fire. The children screamed, and scattered, and shot back.

Katherine shoved past Janet to bring her own staff weapon to bear, but the doctor caught the girl's arm. "Get down!" Janet screamed, and dragged Katherine to the floor. The children that heard her dropped to the ground as well. The enemy Jaffa didn't listen, and when the stun grenade Janet threw went off they had no defense.

"We have to get out of here," Janet shouted. "Mal'tac, try and blast out the wall. You three, give him a hand." The quartet of youths turned their staff weapons where Janet indicated. The doctor grabbed her bag and went forward to do her first job, but the building rocked again. This time, the ceiling rained in.

So did the Jaffa. Children and enemies alike dropped with screams. Janet looked behind her at the room that might have once been home. She looked back at the Jaffa, and the children fighting them. The Jaffa fell back, all but one who held up a blue sphere that clicked and started to glow. He tossed it, and ran for the crumbling exit.

Katherine leveled her staff weapon at his back, but never got a chance to fire. Janet shoved the girl as hard as she could, and she fell towards the mirror. It didn't break, but flashed, and she hit the ground hard on the other side. Katherine struggled to her feet in a dark closet, facing the mirror. Through it, she could see Janet grab the arm of an eight-year-old girl and pull her towards the mirror and towards Katherine.

Then the bomb went off though there was no noise through the mirror, there was blinding light, and then there was nothing at all.