Disclaimer: I own none of the basic concepts of either Stargate SG1, or anything else. However all original characters do belong to me as does the basic plot for this story.

"Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." - Eurypides

Chapter One – Subjugation and Rescue

The woods were strangely silent. Not a breeze ruffled the leaves, not an animal large or small blundered through the undergrowth. Instead dark clouds silently roiled across a grey sky streaked with red, a testament to the blood that had been shed that day. Sharp thin needles of rain stabbed the ground turning trampled areas into patches of glutinous dark brown mud.

In the middle of the woods, only a mile away from the nearest inhabited village, stood a huge stone edifice. It looked extremely old, but few of the oldest villagers could remember a time when nothing had stood there but dense woodland.

Until they had come......

Through the blue water in the middle of the metal ring with their strange weapons they marched. They cleared a large part of the middle of the forest and, using forced labour from the villages, built the huge stone building. It was clearly built after some strange fashion of their own apparently, since no building on the planet had ever been built previously that stood on a large square base and rose to a point at its highest place.

The builders did not enlighten them as to its purpose, instead they were roughly and cruelly treated and told that they were now subjects of a god and that they must await his arrival. When he came they were to choose between obeisance and death.

When the builders finally left through the gate with its shining blue pool of water, they took with them the finest specimens of both genders, ripping them violently and indiscriminately from families, husbands, wives and children. There was much grieving and fear and many discussions among elders from all the surrounding villages. But there seemed no way to follow and try as they might, the villagers could not work out how to operate the metal ring.

After a while all seemed quiet and gradually life settled down into its usual peaceful and bucolic routine. The seasons came and went, young folk met, wooed and married, children were born and the elderly died, much as they had done before the visitation.

And so life went on and they thought nothing more of either the metal ring that had burst into life that day nor the strange pointed building in the woods, although those few who still remembered the first arrival of the strange builders would shudder at the sight of the stone pinnacle of the building standing far above the tree line.

Yet even that faded into memory as the trees grew higher and completely obliterated any visual evidence that the building had been built in the first place. Gradually those who had been alive then died and soon no one was left who remembered that time.

After a while the visitation was consigned to stories told to frighten children into behaving but from some unspoken agreement the building itself and that part of the woods were shunned by even the bravest of poachers or hunters looking for game.

Gradually nature encroached, as it habitually does. Clumps of grass grew at the base of the building, the forest crept ever nearer but only long questing tendrils of ivy dared to try and breach the upward sloping stone walls. However, the paving placed in front of the building stayed strangely unchanged. No grass grew there, no weeds encroached and the trees restricted themselves almost as if some power held them back.

The gaping gloomy maw of the entrance stood open wide, but hardly welcoming for all that. For those brave enough to enter all that was found was an empty and echoing audience chamber with a stone throne placed on a long wide shelf high above the central area with stairs leading down to the floor. Behind the throne was a large circular area which seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever, but apart from a strange metallic ring set into the surface of the floor there did not seem to be access to any other part of the building.

There were no carvings on the stone inside to indicate which god may have order it built and the flickering torchlight of those brave souls merely showed a wide floor area now covered in dust. There were metal sconces placed in niches in the walls, presumably for torches, but apart from all that it was empty and eerily deserted.

The building was henceforth officially designated as a taboo place and such were the memories of the violence and cruelty handed down, that everyone, including curious children, obeyed the law that no one should enter it without good reason and permission from the Elders. It was a place of the Gods it was stated by Elder decree, but which gods, nobody could actually recall.

And soon the building and its creators gradually faded into deepest memory.

Until one fateful day.......

ooOoo

"My Lord, the creature still lives."

The tall cloaked figure turned and lifted one perfectly sculpted eyebrow at the speaker, a man with long and lustrous silky blond hair, who knelt beside the huddled, pathetic remains of what had, only hours earlier, been a living, breathing person. "Unharmed?"

The man who had spoken lifted one hand holding a pale wriggling snake-like creature which hissed and snapped at the air with its multi-part mouth. "It would appear so my Lord. Although I would describe the creature's mood as a trifle annoyed." There was a note of silvery laughter in the man's voice.

The cloaked man also laughed, a rich golden sound, revealing a set of perfect white teeth set in a face that could only be described as beautiful beyond belief. Blue eyes shone brightly with a light that few could endure to look at for any length of time.

"Indeed." He agreed softly. "Perhaps that was an understatement though." He continued thoughtfully after examining the obviously incensed creature. He then turned to a tall warrior who stood as still as stone and as silent beside him. "The container?"

The warrior reached into his cloak and brought out a medium sized clear crystal jar. Inside the jar a pure light shone as if the container itself was filled with captured starlight. He handed it to his lord without a word. The cloaked man removed the stopper by waving his hand over the neck of the jar and extended it to the blond man who still held the furiously hissing and wriggling creature in one strong hand. The creature was carefully placed inside the jar and immediately became quiescent as the leader again passed his hand over the top and sealed it inside. He handed it to the warrior who produced a large square of silky looking grey cloth. The jar was carefully wrapped in it.

The leader nodded to the warrior. "You have my permission to leave, but be careful. My kin await this creature with great interest."

The tall warrior inclined his head and disappeared as if by magic. It was almost as if his body had dissipated into separate particles. One minute he was there and the next he had gone. Not even tracks from his boots were left in the soft trampled earth.

The leader prepared to recall the rest of his companions who were on watch to ensure that none disturbed them, but even as he did so, he saw movement through the trees surrounding the clearing where the base of the pyramid stood and a soft bird call to his left alerted him to the fact that the others had also seen people approaching. Another warrior materialised beside him.

"My Lord, we should leave now." His tone was slightly anxious. "People from the village approach along with others who have newly come through the gate."

The leader nodded. "They have come to ensure that the creature is truly dead." He said pensively. He gazed over to where the body, still huddled over, lay. "And those who have come through the gate are from Earth. They will no doubt also wish confirmation of the kill."

The blond man made a face. "After all this time, they appear to have learned very little." His voice was both mildly disapproving and sad.

"Peace child." The leader placed a strong, yet finely shaped hand on his arm and there was great compassion in his expression. "They have much reason to hate. These creatures have created great dissension in this galaxy and have ruled with violence and cruelty. It must be brought to an end. The others have gone back now and you should also return."

The other man assented and started to coalesce into particles but just as quickly began to solidify back again when he saw that his companion had not yet begun to unclothe himself of his fleshly form. "You are not coming with us my Lord?"

The leader stared into the trees. His eyes shone with a light not dissimilar to the light inside the container which now held a prime Goa'uld symbiote.

"Not yet." He smiled gently but dismissively at the blond man. "I still have something to do. But you must leave."

The blond man inclined his head respectfully and de-materialised again, leaving the imposing figure alone at the top of the cracked stone steps leading up to the pyramid.

The leader of the small group now moved into the shadows swiftly as the unmistakable sound of transporter rings filled the stone room. Such were the properties of his clothing that he blended completely into the background as four figures stepped out from the rings behind the long low stone throne, bickering comfortably and with the long ease of familiarity with each other as they did so.

The four left the pyramid and stepped outside to where the villagers now formed a silent throng around the dead body of their former god and the Watcher silently and unseen followed them.

ooOoo

Jack O'Neill flipped a salute in answer to the Marine Corps Major in charge of SG7. The Marine grinned cheerfully at him and jerked a thumb towards the still figure lying sprawled in the mud. "And another one bites the dust Colonel?"

The Colonel grinned back. "It did and it sure never gets old." He quipped back and looked around at the silent villagers. "I guess they needed to see for themselves."

A tall, attractive blonde woman took a step over to the body."Are we going to bury it Sir? The body I mean."

"What the hell for?" Jack's grey eyebrows snapped together. "It's a damn Goold, Major. I don't care if they burn it on a bonfire or use it for target practice."

Major Samantha Carter pursed her lips in silent reproval. "Yes sir, but Goa'uld aside, the host was a human being and it was hardly his fault that he was taken as a host."

A bespectacled brown haired young man in his thirties with a boyishly handsome but earnest face standing beside her nodded in enthusiastic agreement.

The Colonel knew when he was beaten. This was an argument he had heard many times before, so in order to avoid the inevitable avalanche of scientific explanations and humanitarian comments that he knew fine well would suffocate him, he held out both hands placatingly. "Okay, okay, we can bury him if that makes you happy, but let's ask the planet's residents what they want to do with it first, all right? We don't want to spoil their first bit of fun since being dictated to by false gods now do we?"

Carter sighed and shook her head in mild despair. Sometimes the Colonel stepped over to the wrong side of crass, but his hatred of the Goa'uld was fierce. He had lost friends and people close to him in their battle to rid themselves of this enemy. They all had, Daniel had lost his wife, Teal'c had lost family and friends and she...well...she had her own reasons for hating and fearing them. She shrugged. "Okay sir, sounds fair enough to me."

The other man harrumphed impatiently, then sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose, more from habit than anything else. That was as close as Jack O'Neill was going to get to being reasonable when it came to the Goa'uld.

"O'Neill." The powerfully built black man with the gold raised emblem tattooed on his forehead was kneeling beside the corpse and frowning at it in concern.

"What is it Teal'c?"

"The symbiote is not here." He stated stiffly, but not even the formal tones could mask the contempt with which he mentioned the Goa'uld symbiote.

The Jaffa member of SG1 stood up and looked searchingly around the muddy, trampled ground. Every inch of his body was alert and the rest of his team and SG7 had learned that when this formidable warrior acted in this way, there really was something concrete to worry about.

"Whaddya mean, not here? It's got to be here. Where the hell could it have gone?' O'Neill stepped over to the body and stared down at it. He prodded it tentatively with the toe of his boot. "I mean you and Carter wouldn't sense it if it was dead would you? It's probably still in there wrapped around his spine." His voice held a vaguely disgusted tone at the thought of anything that didn't belong there being wrapped around anyone's spine

The brown haired man, Dr Daniel Jackson, archaeologist and linguist for the team, had knelt down beside the body in the meantime. "I don't think so Jack." He gingerly lifted the heavy fur cloak away from the face of the corpse. "Look."

Jack bent over and immediately drew back in revulsion, covering his mouth with his hand at the same time. "Oh for crying out loud....it's like something from a godamned horror movie. What the hell is happening here? Carter!"

Her ever present curiosity thoroughly aroused, Carter walked over to him and immediately pulled a face. The corpse, previously that of a fairly handsome male about forty years of age, had started to wither and shrivel inside the clothes. The body was literally mummifying in front of their eyes and the musty smell usually associated with the extremely ancient was evident.

"It's age sir, the symbiote kept the host young, alive and healthy and probably used a sarcophagus regularly to stay that way. We don't know how long he had the host, it could have been thousands of years. Without the symbiote's ability to heal it would just age really quickly once it was dead or the symbiote abandoned it."

"Well, I guess that solves the question of what to do with the body." The Marine Corps Major quipped.

The Jaffa turned a basilik gaze on him that would have silenced most people and in fact the Major did stop in mid sentence and go a little pink around the ears. "Indeed you are correct Major, however since the corpse is now disappearing because of its extreme age, we can also now plainly see that there is no symbiote, dead or otherwise, wrapped around the spinal column."

Daniel stood up with alacrity, feeling for his side arm and Carter did the same, hefting her P90 up into a ready position.

"He's right Jack, there is no symbiote." He gazed around at the villagers who were now muttering restlessly among themselves at the sight of the corpse disappearing into the ground in front of their very eyes. "We have got to get these people out of here. We don't know where the damn thing has gone. It could jump into any of them and get away."

"But surely it must have been injured right along with the host." Jack persisted. That damn tricky Goold just had to be dead. He did not want to believe otherwise. "Those injuries were pretty severe, death had to have been instantaneous. And what about when we carted him down from the ship? If the symbiote was alive why didn't he try to jump into one of us?"

"Perhaps it thought its chances were better if it left once we had dumped the body so it played possum until we left." Carter pondered. "It was left lying there unguarded for sometime. We just assumed that both host and symbiote were dead."

Her eyes were glued to the ground searching for any sign of a pale snake like creature wriggling through the thick undergrowth. SG7 had begun to chivvy the villagers back to the village after Daniel had explained to one of the villager elders that they could still be in great danger if they hung around. The villagers needed no further prompting.

"Ya think? I guess we better start a search." Jack prodded at the body again and the last of the flesh fell away to dust revealing a length of backbone exposed but no sign of a symbiote. "Are we sure that the snake didn't just turn to dust as well?"

Nobody dignified his question with any kind of answer for the moment as they began preparing to do an extensive ground search in a circular pattern around the area where the body lay.

After a good thirty minutes searching and poking bushes, but finding no sign of a symbiote, they walked back to the corpse which was now mostly skeleton wrapped in a bundle of clothing.

Jack frowned. "How far could it get without a host, in fact how does it move without a host?"

"They can propel themselves in a sort of flight Jack. Don't you remember? Those larval Goa'uld we found on that other planet that time seemed to be able to jump fair distances. But I doubt that it could have gone that far without a host, it had been inside the host for a very long time and the vestigial fins it used to have probably to help with movement had would have all but disappeared." Daniel pursed his lips in disgust and anger at the thought of how long that particular Goa'uld must have occupied his host.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that. Okay, well I guess we're gonna have to take the remains back to SGC with us and get the Doc to do some forensic stuff on it." He gestured with distaste at the body. "And in the meantime we'll question the villagers and make sure it didn't jump into some random gawker rubbernecking at the dead body. Carter?"

Sam Carter sighed and opened her pack. In it, among the medical kit she carried, were a couple of bags that were meant for use as lightweight body bags. She had often wondered why they had to carry body bags, but now they would come in handy. She spread one out on the ground, put on a pair of rubber gloves and smiled at Teal'c.

"On it sir." She handed the Jaffa another pair of gloves. " Help me get it into the bag Teal'c."

ooOoo

The cloaked man watched with interest from his hiding place as the woman and the Jaffa gingerly lifted the remains into the odd looking bag which she had unfolded onto the ground. They finally zipped it shut and handed it over to the leader of the other team who immediately headed back to the Stargate with their burden.

The watcher was mildly amused that they were obviously concerned that the symbiote had somehow escaped unhurt and was at large. It was rather unfortunate that the Jaffa had been so quick to notice that fact but it could not be helped. Had he and his companions delayed, the symbiote would have either found another host or died and they needed it unharmed and alive.

The blonde woman unpeeled the gloves from her hands. "We should go and talk to the villagers now sir, just to make sure."

"Yes Major, and we are going to do just that." The tall grizzle haired man agreed. He shouldered his weapon and pack and the four of them ,accompanied by a couple of the other team members, started to head through the trees towards where the village was located. As they tramped back through the woods they appeared to be constantly alert and on the lookout.

Yet, as alert and efficient as they undoubtedly were, they still failed to notice the tall figure that shadowed them through the trees as they moved towards the village.

ooOoo