Ok, this fic is basically from the thought, what if Jonas had managed to escape the Ori, and wasn't as clean cut as the SGC people had been led to believe? What if he was in fact very much a rebel? And now he's a bitter one.
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Stepping through the Stargate with practised ease, Cameron Mitchell surveyed the dense forest set out before him. Beside him Sam Carter stepped forward, her eyes searching the trees for any sigh of life. Teal'c was on his left, carefully checking for threats and Daniel was eagerly looking around for any signs of civilisations. Vala didn't seem overly interested.
"Another forest of trees." she drawled, "Oh what fun."
Daniel sighed and narrowed his eyes at her.
"You know, you don't have to come. In fact you don't really need to be a part of the team. I'm sure there are other things you could be doing." he said, only half meaning it. Vala eyed him and smirked,
"Oh but its so much fun annoying you Daniel."
"Ok people!" Mitchell quickly interrupted, "Let's move out." He did not want to listen to Vala and Daniel bicker and flirt all day.
With ease they made their way through the forest, Teal'c keeping a careful eye out for any danger.
A sudden rustling made them freeze, drawing up their weapons. It sounded like someone was in the bushes near them.
"Hello?" called Daniel, "Is someone there?"
"Oh they'll really just come out and say hello." Vala muttered, eyeing the bushes nervously.
A moment later a young man stepped out of the bushes and bowed slightly. Vala seemed to sigh to herself as Daniel grinned.
"Hello." the man greeted, a tad nervously. He had a light, lilting voice, "You come through the chappa'ai?"
"Yeah, we did." Mitchell nodded his head, "I'm Colonel Cameron Mitchell, this is Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c and Vala. We're from a planet called Earth."
"Earth?" The man's eyes lit up at once and he beamed, "Carter? Jackson? Teal'c?"
"Um…"
The freckled face was covered with a smile like the Cheshire cat's. "You must come with me! He will be so happy to see you." The young man was practically dancing on the spot he was so happy.
"He? Wait a minute, we don't even know your name."
"I am Boyd. But you must come." Near-skipping with glee Boyd moved away from them, beckoning them as he went, "Come! Come!"
"Well this is different." Mitchell commented as they followed the man. "Nice change from weapons being pointed at us and being told how hollow the Ori are."
Daniel, for once, did not correct him on the word, considering the wrong one much more apt.
Boyd led them through the forest, as spry and light on his feet as a pixie. He was very elfin really. Tall, with sallow skin, his features were verging on androgynous, spiky hair, and his ears were even a bit pointed.
After about half an hour of walking, during which they could get no more information from Boyd than they already had, they emerged from the forest and arrived at a village. The buildings were simple log cabins, like General O'Neill's on Earth that he was so fond of. Glass lined the windows, sealing them shut against the weather, but it wasn't quite clear, as if the refinement of glass was a new skill they'd acquired. People, all with rather pixie-like appearances and red hair like Boyd, were milling about as they carried out daily routines. They fell quiet as Boyd began shouting with delight, calling for someone called The Caedmon.
Mitchell smiled at the villagers who were eyeing them curiously. As he looked them over he noticed two blond girls, only about 17 or 18, staring at him and whispering to each other with excitement. He couldn't quite stop a pleased smile spreading across his face. Sam raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged without shame.
Boyd came back and said,
"The Caedmon will see you."
"I'm sorry but who is this Caedmon?" Daniel asked, "Is he your leader?"
"You shall see, come, come!"
Thoroughly lost they followed him, noticing how the people spoke excitedly to one another as they passed. Boyd led them to a large log cabin, gesturing for them to approach the porch and wait at the foot of it. Boyd himself went inside and there was the sound of soft talking within the darkness of the cabin. Mitchell noticed that there was no source of light inside, yet there was someone inside. That someone sounded upset. Boyd's voice became more insistent and they heard a few words like,
"…thought… pleased…" and the other voice said,
"… don't… hate… traitors…" The voices dropped as they continued to argue. A woman appeared from the shadows on their left and stared at them curiously. She was more sturdy than the willowy villagers. Her eyes told of a tragedy in her life and there was a scar to reinforce this fact visible through her top. It was a blood red in colour, with rips over the shoulders, exposing a nasty, jagged scar.
From within the cabin a baby began to wail pitifully. It sounded like a young baby at that. The woman sighed and strode inside the hut disappearing into the shadows. After a few moments the crying subsided.
Finally, just as Vala was about to ask whether they would be standing there all day, Boyd came back and a taller man followed him wearily. Sam's jaw dropped, Daniel's eyebrows rose and Mitchell's eyes bugged out. Teal'c's mouth twitched and Vala looked confused.
Green eyes surveyed them with coldness, and seemed to twitch in anger. Where there should have been a smile there was a pinched grimace. The tall, broad frame was draped in a blood red shirt that hugged every contour of muscle, giving him a dangerous appearance. Hair had been cropped to the shorter style of before, without any form of gel control on the thick brown strands.
After a moment of silence Sam gave a wide smile and exclaimed,
"Jonas!" stepping forward to hug him it seemed. Jonas just glared at them and backed away from Sam. Sam pulled up in surprise, looking confused and a little hurt. "Jonas? Don't you know us?"
"I know you." he hissed, voice laced with venom, "But I wish I didn't! I should have known one of your teams would show up eventually, but for it to be you lot… oh the Gods must be laughing at me now." Jonas turned away from them and kicked the doorframe so hard the whole cabin seemed to tremble. Boyd looked anxious as he watched.
"Caedmon, please, I thought you would be pleased to see them." he pleaded. Jonas rounded on him, eyes flashing,
"And why would I be happy to see them? I hate them." Sam's eyes widened in hurt and she reached out to Jonas again,
"Jonas, what's going on? Why are you saying-"
"Jonas!" Vala exclaimed suddenly, "I knew I recognised your name. You must be Jonas Quinn, who took over for Daniel when he died." Jonas flinched and glowered at her, "I'm Vala. I'm new to the team." She held out her hand. "I must say… you're far more attractive than your pictures gave you due." Daniel coughed. Jonas stared at her stonily and made no move to shake her hand so it fell useless at her side.
Teal'c stepped forward, a small smile on his face, but his eyes betrayed that he was greatly concerned.
"It is good to see you again JonasQuinn."
Jonas snorted and ignored Teal'c's proffered hand, turning away from them. He strode into the cabin and when they stood there feeling thoroughly lost, he called,
"Well are you coming in or not?" in a gruff, uncaring tone. Feeling thoroughly unwelcome they entered the dark cabin, which reeked of smoke of some kind, vomit, sweat, and alcohol.
Jonas threw himself into a carved chair, lovingly inlaid with soft cloth containing padding for comfort. He hooked one knee over an arm and leaned back. When they didn't move he gestured irritably at the chairs, offering them a seat.
As they sat down Jonas pulled out what was clearly a joint. He lit the end of a thin stick with a candle and used it to light the joint. Then he took a deep drag of it with practised ease. Lazily he leaned his head back and blew the smoke out in a languid way. The woman from before stepped out of an adjacent room. Jonas looked at her, seeming to be asking her a silent question and she gave a slight smile and nod. Jonas nodded his head and then waved her away. Her mouth twitched and then she strode out.
"So… just on the usual recon mission?" Jonas sneered, turning back to the team.
"Yeah… we didn't exactly expect to find you here." Daniel raised his eyebrows. It was clear he was hoping for an explanation.
"I'm not surprised. I didn't expect to find me here. I guess that's what happens when life decides to take a crap on you." The Kelnowan took another drag of the joint. The smoke was making them feel light-headed and those who had known the squeaky-clean-never-said-a-bad-word Jonas were both surprised and alarmed by this change.
"Um… what exactly do you mean?" Vala asked delicately.
"I mean that since the Ori showed up and decided to take over Langara all my hard work was for crap!" Jonas tossed the joint into a bucket and pulled another one out. "Everyone on my planet now declares that the Ori are hallowed, and the few people I managed to get away from Langara are all stuck on a world that, while does not lack for kindness, certainly isn't much on the scientific side of things. As you can imagine all of us are really chomping on the bit in that aspect."
"So some of you did get away. We were worried when we heard about it."
Jonas snorted,
"Sure you were. I believe you." Clearly he did not. Sam grimaced and waved her hand in front of her face,
"Jonas could you please not smoke that stuff, it's giving me a headache."
"Yeah and since when do you smoke? Or curse? Or drink?" Mitchell eyed him, "You were squeaky-clean in the SGC." Jonas lit the joint and let out a stream of smoke out his nose as if it was just to spite Sam's request. He rolled the joint around in his fingers and said,
"Don't believe everything you see. On Kelnowa I loved to drink and party with my friends, I'd curse all the time outside of work and if we'd been more than 'work-friends' you'd have seen that. Smoking is a new thing though, I thought I may as well give it a try. Not like it's going to kill me. It's the crap you Earthlings put in to make the cigarettes that does the damage, not the tobacco, and this isn't even that." Heaving himself out of his chair he stubbed out the joint and then threw it away.
As their eyes followed him they noticed that the floor was filthy and that there were three doors leaving the main room. The front door was wide open.
"Why did you not attempt to come to Earth when the Ori took over your world?" Teal'c stood up to follow Jonas. The Jaffa wanted to understand what had happened to his friend who would light up a room with his smile.
"Didn't see a point." Jonas said, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "Not like you'd care."
"We were worried about you Jonas." insisted Sam, getting to her feet.
"If you gave a damn about me, then you'd have written to me, or called or shown some indication of it! I did call and write letters! Never got any answers back though. You were never around when I called, so I figured, since you never tried to contact me back, what's the point?"
Sam made a movement towards Jonas but he shuffled away, turning his head to the side. As the light fell on his throat it revealed a jagged scar along his neck. It was similar to the one the woman had.
There was a wail from the room behind Jonas and he groaned, closing his eyes wearily, and then he turned away and walked into the room. A few minutes later the cries turn to whimpers and Jonas re-emerged with a baby in his arms. The baby was probably about four months old and was the most delicate and adorable thing you could hope to see. Its hair was a downy brown, thick on its head. It had large green eyes that looked just like Jonas'. Its features were more delicate than Jonas' though.
"Is this your baby Jonas?" asked Sam, trying to make conversation, trying to reach the real Jonas under this horrid shell.
"No. She's not." Jonas said, his eyes fixed on the baby, as he bounced her gently in his arms. "She's my niece."
"I didn't know you had siblings."
"You never asked." said Jonas darkly, "For the record I've got three."
"Wow." Sam's eyes were wide. "Your niece is cute, what's her name?"
"Caoimhe."
"Que-va? What a strange name." Vala said, before quickly adding, "Not that it isn't cute of course."
"It means precious in Gaelic." said Daniel in a half undertone. "That's a nice name to give her."
"The people here chose it for her. None of us were really in the mood for celebrations."
"Why not?"
"Because her mother died giving birth to her. J broke down into a mess and of course I had to do what I had to to get him back together. The others weren't much help at that time either. No one wanted to face the facts." Jonas fell silent, as if he realised he was saying too much and then he said gruffly, "Since you're here on a recon mission I won't ask you to leave. But leave me and the other Kelnowans alone. We don't want anything to do with you." With that said Jonas strode out, the baby cooing in his arms.
"You know…I'd have expected him to be a bit more smiley." said Vala, frowning after him. No one bothered to answer her.
Jonas strode through the forest, his muscled arms holding Caoimhe secure and protected from the branches that he was bashing past. After about ten minutes of brisk walking he entered a clearing.
In this clearing sat three children all dress in blood red tops. Well one was sixteen and so did not count as a child any more, but the other two, a boy and a girl were 10 and 7 respectively. The sixteen year old was a boy, with typically teenage limbs, i.e. they were long and lanky, and his brown hair was a mess of waves, some of which fell into his eyes. His eyes were green, the exact same as Jonas' and Caoimhe's. The other two also had these eyes.
The difference in the teen's eyes and the others' was that his were dull and dead, while the others had varying degrees of life in them.
"J!" Jonas snapped, making the teen jump. J sat up at once and looked at him with his dull eyes. "Come and take your daughter for a while. I'm tired of you not taking care of her."
J didn't move. Jonas' face darkened and he held Caoimhe out to the teen.
"Seriously J! I'm not messing around anymore. This is your child and so you should take care of her." J blinked at him blank-faced and then held his arms out and in doing so the sunlight exposed countless scars over his skin. Jonas ignored the fresher ones as he set the baby in his arms. "Nas, Jun come here." The other two children stood up and walked up to him. Jonas stared at them and his face softened, a small smile lighting his face. "There's some people in the village, it's SG1, minus O'Neill and plus two other people. I want you to stay away from them. Understand?"
Jun, a pretty little girl of 7, with her hair in pigtails, scrunched her nose but nodded. Nas, 10, with features that were slightly softer than his older brothers, scowled.
"But I want to meet them." he whined.
"I don't care Nas. You're to stay away from them! Got it?"
"Fine." he pouted, knowing better than to argue with his older brother when he was in such a foul mood.
"Good. Where're the others?"
"By the river having an orgy." reported Nas, the meaning of his words not reaching him. Jonas sighed heavily,
"Thanks Nas, and please stop using that word."
"But I like it!" Jonas sighed again and straightened up.
"Whatever, I'll see you later. J." J looked at him, "Take care of Caoimhe." J didn't answer.
Hope you liked this first chapter, let me know what you think!
Night's Darkness
