Disclaimer: None of these wonderful characters are mine; I merely enjoy borrowing them from time to time.

Timing: This story is an alternate ending/continuation for the season 3 premiere "Into the Fire." The first chapter parallels the episode, but with a few major changes. Subsequent chapters will be completely AU.

A/N: This is an idea that has been floating around in my head since the first time I watched the episodes "Out of Mind"/"Into the Fire." The story is marked as Sam/Jack since they will be the two main characters, however, this is a team adventure/drama fic NOT a romantic story (the beginnings of certain feelings may be hinted at, but nothing beyond what was in the show during season 3). Enjoy! And as always I'd love to hear what you think =).

Conversion

Major General George Hammond grimaced as he exited the ancient goa'uld fighter and made his way towards the group of SGC personnel gathered in front of the stargate. Although he had managed to pull off a daring rescue, largely thanks to the help of Teal'c and Bra'tac, it seemed to have come too late for many of the airmen and marines under his command. As he scanned the crowd he realized that far too many good people were missing. While he had hopes that some of them had managed to escape into the woods he feared that most of them had met an unpleasant end at the hands of Hathor's jaffa.

"Where's Colonel O'Neill?" Hammond questioned as he stopped in front of Captain Samantha Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson. Colonel Makepeace had mentioned having two members of SG-1 with him in his request for aid several hours earlier, but Hammond had been hopeful that the third had been found in the mean time. Unfortunately it appeared that wasn't the case.

"He was taken as a host, General." Daniel supplied with a frown.

"It's worse than that, sir," Sam added quickly, "he's dead."

"What? How?" Daniel spluttered before Hammond had a chance to respond to either of them. While Jack was still a host Daniel knew that there was still the remote chance they could get him back some day. If he was dead, however, he really was gone for good.

"I killed him." Sam admitted in a whisper. Daniel reached out and laid a comforting hand upon her shoulder; he could see the guilt and anguish written on her face. "I had no choice. He… he would have killed me." Sam struggled to suppress the tears she could feel beginning to well up behind her eyes.

"I'm sure you did what you had to, Captain." Hammond attempted to console her, although he knew that only time would heal the scars left in his young officer by the events of the day. He knew what it was like to lose a team member thanks to his service during Vietnam, and that was horrible enough. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be forced to kill your commanding officer and close friend; to be honest, he didn't even want to try. "I'll want to hear a full report, but first let's get you folks home. Lieutenant, dial it up!" He ordered as he ushered the three remaining survivors of SG-1 towards the stargate.

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Seven hours earlier…

"Oh god… no…" Jack gasped as Hathor placed the squirming goa'uld atop his chest while he strained futilely against the bonds restraining him within the cryogenic chamber. Sam and Daniel watched in horror as the parasite slithered towards the back of his neck and then suddenly launched itself towards its target, quickly forcing itself into Jack's spinal column as he screamed. Sam squeezed her eyes shut as his voice died out and he began to twitch slightly, no doubt attempting to resist the invasion of his body. The scene before her caused her to momentarily relive some of her less than pleasant memories of her time with Jolinar. She knew firsthand the terror of being a prisoner within your own body. It had been bad enough with a tok'ra; she could only imagine how much worse the experience would be with a true goa'uld.

Jack twitched for several more minutes as the unseen struggle for control of his body continued to be waged. Each moment that passed the two human onlookers became more and more hopeful that somehow Jack would be able to resist being taken as a host. They knew deep down, however, that their friend was fighting a battle he would inevitably lose; it was only a matter of time. Suddenly Jack's movements came to a stop and his eyes popped open, flashing gold as they did.

"Release me." He commanded in the deep voice of a goa'uld. Receiving a slight nod from Hathor two of her jaffa rushed forward and quickly released the straps anchoring his arms to the inside of the chamber. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and quickly scanned his surroundings before climbing out of the pod and approaching Hathor.

"Kneel before me, my prince. You will be the first new goa'uld in my new empire." Hathor ordered as he positioned himself in front of her.

"Yes, my queen." He responded dropping respectfully to one knee and bowing his head slightly in submission.

"What is your name?" She questioned as she motioned for him to rise once again.

"Husani"

"A fitting name with a host such as yours," Hathor chuckled.

Glancing backwards she motioned for one of the Jaffa positioned along the back wall to come forward. He quickly approached and offered a goa'uld hand device to Husani with a slight bow. After fitting the device onto his right hand he experimentally flexed his fingers several times before looking back to Hathor with a pleased grin. Seeing the all too familiar face of Colonel O'Neill light up at the thought of inflicting pain caused bile to begin rising in the back of Sam's throat. It was an expression that was painfully familiar, but at the same time seemed incredibly alien.

"What of them?" Husani asked turning towards his host's former teammates with disdain evident upon his face.

"Kill them."

Husani gave Hathor a brief nod before turning towards Sam and Daniel. Although she wanted to turn away Sam forced herself to meet the brown eyes of her executioner. Despite what the goa'uld always claimed about their hosts, Sam knew that the Colonel was still in there somewhere. As Husani raised his hand aiming the hand device towards her forehead Sam hoped that her steady gaze would reassure what was left of her commanding officer that she didn't blame him. That there was no reason for him to feel guilt over the actions his captor was about to take. For a split second Sam thought she saw a flash of regret pass over Husani's face before he triggered the hand device and she was forced to her knees with a strangled gasp as a stream of yellow light bored into her head.

Sam felt consciousness begin to slip away as the pain in her head became increasingly intense and black spots began to swim before her eyes. Suddenly the pain stopped. As she collapsed into a heap on the concrete floor she faintly registered the sounds of shouting and gunfire in the distance. The cavalry was finally here, it seemed. Although this time it seemed they had arrived too late; at least for Colonel O'Neill.

"We will deal with them later. Take them away." Hathor ordered one of the assembled jaffa as she and Husani quickly exited the room. Daniel helped Sam shakily to her feet and helped to support her weight as they were prodded into the hallway of Hathor's complex through a different exit. As they were roughly shoved around one of the corners into a new hallway Sam and Daniel suddenly found themselves face to face with Colonel Makepeace and a group of SG team members.

"Surrender your prisoners and drop your weapons!" Colonel Makepeace called out the minute they were in view. Taking advantage of the jaffa's momentary surprise Sam elbowed him in the stomach while Daniel grabbed for his zat. Both of them then quickly dove out of the way as the assembled SG teams opened fire.

"Colonel Makepeace." Sam greeted.

"Where's Colonel O'Neill?"

"He's been taken as a host." Sam explained with a grimace.

"What?" Makepeace exclaimed as he looked back and forth between Sam and Daniel in disbelief.

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Sam's mind was swimming as she quietly made her way through the maze of tok'ra tunnels in what she believed to be the direction of Hathor's base. In the past hour and a half she had witnessed her CO be taken as a host, nearly been killed by said goa'uld, been rescued, and lastly been cut off from the stargate and forced to retreat into a network of caves apparently of tok'ra design. It was simply too much for the mind to process at once. As she noticed the floor of the cave begin to slope upwards Sam tightened her grip on her rifle and shook her head slightly as if the motion would help her to clear her mind. She knew she needed to focus on the mission at hand if she was to have any hope of success, much less survival.

Sam continued to follow the tunnel upwards until she reached a dead end. She wanted to lash out in frustration; she was so sure she had been going the right way. She began to scan the walls on either side of the barrier in front of her, hoping for any sign of a switch or control panel. Sam didn't see anything at first and had nearly convinced herself that she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere when she noticed that a small area of the floor was slightly raised. The raised area was lodged into the corner where the right hand wall met the back of the tunnel and was barely the size of a standard cell phone. If she hadn't been carefully looking for a trigger she never would have seen it. As it was she wasn't even sure that it was a switch. Chances were just as good that it was a natural imperfection in the tunnel; still, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to try.

Gingerly stepping forward Sam pressed the toe of her boot down onto the raised portion of the floor. She let out a breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding when the solid wall of crystal in front of her slid silently to one side revealing a store room that was obviously goa'uld in design. Making it in was the easy part, however. Now she had to find her way to the power generator while avoiding capture herself.

Sam quietly made her way to the store room's entrance and slowly poked her head outside. Finding the coast clear she quickly retrieved a power monitor from her belt and balanced it on the barrel of her rifle. Picking a direction she began to proceed down the corridor all the while monitoring the energy readings of her surroundings. Although she had to back track several times when a corridor took her away from the energy source Sam eventually found herself back in the mockup of the SGC's gateroom. The readings were off the charts; surely the generators had to be somewhere nearby.

Glancing around the room Sam looked for any clues as to how to access the generators. She knew that they must be massive to supply enough energy to power the barrier, but based on the energy readings she should be right on top of them. Suddenly Sam spotted a lever to the left of the stargate. As she pulled down on the lever the paneling behind the stargate began to open revealing a huge room containing the goa'uld generators. She began making her way towards the mock stargate and the room beyond when she heard a noise behind her. Sam whipped around and began to squeeze the trigger of her rifle when she found herself forcefully thrown off her feet and slammed into the side of the stargate. The force of the impact knocked the wind out of her and she slid to the ground stunned. The string of bullets she had managed to fire harmlessly impacted the ceiling.

"You humans really are so predictable. I knew that if any of you were stupid enough to return you would make your way here." Husani gloated as he approached where Sam lay attempting to catch her breath.

As the goa'uld neared her Sam took a mental inventory of her options. She had dropped her rifle when she hit the stargate and it was lying several feet away from her. Her pistol was still strapped to her leg, but it was in plain sight of Husani. Remembering the knife hanging behind her back Sam slowly shifted her weight hoping she could reach it without attracting his notice. Luckily she had landed with her arm slightly behind her making it easier to grab the weapon without moving too much.

"I will enjoy killing you. The anguish it will undoubtedly cause my host will be most pleasing; in fact he is beginning to scream in fury already." Husani continued as he once again raised his hand device towards Sam's forehead.

Preoccupied with his gloating, Husani failed to notice that Sam had managed to free her knife from its sheath. She knew she needed to act and what her only option was, but she was desperately trying to think of another way. She wasn't sure she could bring herself to kill the Colonel, whether he was currently host to a goa'uld or not. The human instinct for self preservation kicked in, however, as Husani began to raise Colonel O'Neill's arm towards her. She quickly drew her arm out from behind her and with a flick of her wrist sent the knife sailing towards his chest. It impacted with a sickening sound and Husani's eyes widened in surprise as he stared briefly at the hilt of the weapon sticking out of his chest before sagging to the ground.

She watched frozen in horror as the patch of red staining the front of his ornate robes grew larger and larger as his breathing became shallow. As he took his last breath Husani's eyes flashed gold a final time before his head fell to the side. Sam rushed forward with a strangled cry and knelt beside the body of her friend and CO. Tears had begun to stream down her face. Sam had been hopeful that they would somehow find a way to capture Husani and that the Tok'ra could help return the Colonel to them. That was impossible now thanks to her actions, and Sam wasn't sure how she was going to live with herself. Deep down she knew she had done the only thing she could, and that Colonel O'Neill would likely have thanked her for saving him from a life of slavery. However, those thoughts did nothing to lessen the pain caused by knowing that he was gone forever; and that ultimately it was because of her.

Sam reached out hesitantly and closed the Colonel's eyes before gently caressing his face once. She wanted to gather his head into her lap and surrender herself to her emotions, but knew she had to keep control long enough to accomplish her mission. The rest of the SGC personnel trapped in the tok'ra tunnels were counting on her.

She quickly made her way towards the generators and strategically placed C4 around the areas she could reach. Making her way back into the replica of the gateroom she pulled the lever once again, resealing the hidden compartment behind the stargate. Sam felt a sob rising in her throat as she turned to find herself once again facing the lifeless body of the Colonel. She grimaced as she realized she would have to do something with him. She couldn't afford for anyone to become suspicious before reinforcements arrived and she was able to blow the generators. She finally settled on dragging him underneath the ramp of the stargate so at least he would be out of plain sight should anyone pass by the room. It was almost physically painful for Sam to leave the Colonel in that state. She desperately wished that there was a way she could take him with her so he could at least receive a proper burial, but she knew there was no way she could manage it on her own. As tears once again began to stream silently down her face Sam gripped her rifle and began to quietly make her way out of Hathor's base.

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"I managed to make it out of one of the side entrances of Hathor's complex and took up position on a ridge overlooking the stargate. That allowed me to wait until you arrived, Sir, before blowing the generators." Sam finished her explanation of the terrible events that had taken place earlier in the day.

"He could still be alive." Daniel announced with determination from across the briefing room table.

"No he couldn't, Daniel. I watched him die… I… I killed him."

"But if Hathor has a sarcophagus…"

"I doubt she does, Daniel. We destroyed hers here in the SGC and I don't see how she could have managed to procure a new one if she is maintaining a low profile as she said. Not to mention the fact that he was so close to the generators I don't see how anything would have survived the blast to be put into a sarcophagus even if Hathor has one. I'm sorry… I would do anything to get him back, but I just don't see how he could possibly be alive." Sam explained in a defeated voice before resting her head in her hands in despair. Now that the adrenaline was gone the truth of what she had been forced to do was slowly sinking in; she wished that it wasn't. She hadn't felt this emotionally fragile since the death of her mother.

"Unfortunately I have to agree with Captain Carter. We will still take all of the necessary precautions, but I am officially declaring Colonel O'Neill 'killed in action'." Hammond responded. Everyone present could hear the pain in his voice. The loss of Colonel O'Neill was a tragedy that was made immeasurably worse by the additional loss of so many other fine officers. This would forever be a black day in the history of the SGC.

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Hathor gazed smugly at the golden sarcophagus lying along one wall of her small cargo ship. She had been lucky to stumble across the item while recruiting jaffa from Apophis's former territory.

When Husani had failed to respond to her calls, she had sent several of her jaffa in search of him. His body had finally been found wedged underneath the ramp of the fake stargate. Unfortunately the jaffa had not known of the location of the generators and by the time she was informed of where Husani had been found it was too late to stop the massive explosion and subsequent destruction of her compound. It was no matter though. She had already retreated to her Tel'tak to begin Husani's revival, and with the leader of SG-1 as host to her new prince she no longer had any use for her mock up of the SGC. He would provide her with all the information she would ever need. And with luck the rest of the meddlesome Tau'ri would believe him dead. With Husani's help she would finally be able to complete her plan to build an army large enough to rival the system lords; and all without the fear of dealing with rescue missions aimed at retrieving his valuable host. Yes, things had gone much better than she had originally planned, Hathor mused with a sly grin.

To be continued…

A/N: I know some of you probably hate me right now, but I hope you stick with the story anyway =). I will do my best to keep the updates coming fairly quickly, but I'm pretty busy at the moment so they probably won't come every day. I hope you enjoyed it (as much as you can enjoy what I did to poor Jack)!

Also, Husani = handsome.