Title: Illusion
Rating: PG
F.Type: OneShot
Summary: Jack dreams a dream... or is that all it is?
Based on the prompt 'I know you are, but what am I?' from sg(underscore)challenges at livejournal(dot)net.
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-Illusion-
The lights flicked on, dimly illuminating the sparse room and tattered couch. Exhausted, he nearly stumbled as the worn work clothes were shucked off in tired urgency. Finally reaching the only piece of furniture within the cement walls, Jack collapsed and was asleep before he even pulled the blanket over him.
Spaceships soared over him, metallic screams emanating from the battered hulks as explosions shook the ground he was standing. People rushed by- they had some kind of uniform on, Jack noted with the detached air of a dreamer. Charging over the crest of the hill, one of them was shot down by an energy blast. Immediately they dropped and began to fire guns on the other attackers.
A woman was standing in a medical room, yelling at the observers behind glass as three others on the floor shook in some kind of shock. The watchers replied and she jammed a needle into her arm, teeth gritted even as her eyes glowed.
What looked like water played across a giant ring as four men advanced through it, walk casual but eyes betraying their alertness as they vanished. In a 'swoosh' the water too disappeared, leaving no trace that it had ever existed.
'The Stargate.' Said a voice to his right. Jack turned, noticing the scenes melt away into a hazy fog.
He met the very familiar gaze of himself.
'Is that right…' Jack replied simply, shrugging his hands into the pockets of his work clothes. The other had one hand on a vest, carrying a P-90 easily.
'This was our reality, you know. Before they went back in time and changed everything.' Other-Jack walked over to a scene that was still rolling, looking on the faces there with what could have been called fondness.
'Went back in time? Sure.' Hell, it was a dream. Anything was possible. 'But if they changed this reality, why do you still exist?'
Other-Jack ran his fingers through the vision, like the surface of a pool, and then pulled it out. It started up, having paused when interrupted.
'I don't know.' When he looked up, Jack was struck by the loneliness and sadness in the otherwise cold brown eyes. 'I also don't know if they did the right thing. But hell, I miss them.'
'Who?'
'Daniel. Carter. Teal'c. Hammond. Others, ones that came and went. They're all gone- or at least, they're not who they were before.'
'Carter? Samantha? The cripple in the wheelchair Samantha? And loony ol' George?' Now it was hitting just a little too close to home. Uneasy, Jack retreated back to consciousness, not wanting to endure that aching emptiness any longer.
'...just an illusion…'
But as the wisps of the dream faded around him, a voice that might have been his own whispered softly in his ear…
'I know you are, but what am I?'
When Jack woke up, he still didn't know the answer.
The enD