Chapter One. Let It Rain.

PX3-something something something was re-christened 'Monsoon World' by Colonel Mitchell, pretty soon after SG-1's arrival.

I can do rain, he thought to himself, standing just inside the entrance to the pyramid on the second evening after their arrival, but this isn't rain. This is the gods up in the sky throwing down giant buckets of water on to us mortals underneath. Don't they ever get summer here? Or perhaps this was summer – it may have been chucking it down from the heavens but nobody could describe the weather as being cold.

He looked up glumly at the darkening skies – once night came it would be difficult to squelch their way along the boggy path back to the small town close by. Sighing he turned and went back into the temple. Daniel was sitting on a chest scribbling away in one of his notebooks. Sam and Vala were leaning up against the walls making rubbings of the hieroglyphics. Teal'c was slowly turning in a circle, holding a small video camera, taking film of the inside of the large, dark room.

"Hey guys," said Cam, picking up a small stone device with a bright blue stone at it's centre and fiddling with it. "Night's not far off – we'd better start packing our kit up to go back to the village."

"Thank goodness!" said Vala loudly, throwing her pencil onto the sand and dropping the rubbing she was halfway through beside it.

"Seriously!" Daniel frowned up at her. "You could have just finished the one that you were doing. Sam is, look."

Carter grinned over her shoulder at them, looking smug, and scribbling away at her work. Vala rolled her eyes, picked up her pencil and paper and went back to the wall, poking the colonel with her finger as she went past. Five minutes later both girls had finished, Teal'c was packing the camera away and Daniel – Daniel was still sitting in the same place, scribbling in his notebook.

"C'mon, Jackson," Mitchell nudged the archaeologist gently with his foot. "You don't want to be stuck in here at night – the bogey man'll getcha!"

"Oh, who's he?" asked Vala interestedly.

"No-one, he's made up," scowled Daniel.

"Shame," the alien twirled a strand of her ponytail around in her fingers. "He sounds a lot more interesting than some of the people around here."

Dr Jackson glared up at her. She beamed that false I-don't-care-if-you-are-offended grin down at him.

"Go back to the village Vala," he grumbled.

"We're ALL trying to go back to the village," growled Mitchell. "C'mon Jackson – now that's an order!"

"Alright, alright!" Daniel, realising that the colonel meant it, started packing away his books and scribbles. Teal'c had already heaved his backpack on, he turned to pick up his staff weapon.

"I shall return to the town with your permission ColonelMitchell, and inform the inhabitants of your imminent arrival."

"I'll come with you Teal'c," said Samantha, picking her own pack up. "That guy in the reading room on the square – he had a couple of books on crystals he was going to look out for me. Might be interesting reading."

They bid good-bye to the other three and moved off, through the now much darker forest. Vala, who hadn't managed to get her jacket, hat and rucksack on in time to accompany Sam, sat down and sulked. Cam threw her the little stone device he'd been playing with.

"Oh!" she said, as she caught it deftly. "This is from home! I mean the SGC. It's from your office, isn't it, Daniel?"

"Uh-huh," he looked up briefly from where he was sorting bits of stonework into different pouches. "I'm not sure what it is – I keep carrying it around in the hope that I'll see another one, or a picture of it somewhere."

"I told you what it is," stated Vala firmly.

"No you didn't," replied the doctor.

"Yes, I did," answered Vala, still firmly. "I said to you – this is Gou'ald. I've seen one before. I can't remember what it does. I don't think I ever – I mean – Quetesh ever …"

She stumbled on the words for a moment. Daniel leant over and squeezed her hand. She gave him a wobbly smile.

"I mean," the alien carried on, "she never owned one. I think. But I've seen them. Not often. Maybe just the once actually. But definitely. Could have been Athena's. She liked to steal other peoples' treasure."

"Vala!" Daniel stopped her by lifting his hand. "That is NOT telling me what it is. It's just you telling me that you can't remember what it is."

"Well, it's nearly the same thing," said the woman, with the kind of logic that only an ex-space-pirate could use.

"Home," Mitchell repeated for about the third time. "Before it's so dark that…"

"Oh yes, the bogey man!" Vala jumped to her feet, clapping her hands. In doing so she knocked flying a whole pile of papers which were neatly stacked. They whizzed across the floor of the temple in quite a spectacular flurry until the first half dozen or so hit the soggy mud at the entrance and sank into it, ruined.

"Vala!" yelled Daniel. He was furious. "It's just taken me half the afternoon to decode some of that!"

"Sorry," she said penitently, hands up to mouth and looking contrite. "Really I am."

The doctor snatched up the useless, rapidly-blurring writings and rubbings which had been on the paper.

"Half a day's work, ruined! Why can't you be more careful? Why have you always got to act like a wild thing?"

"I don't!" shouted his team mate, waving the stone gadget that she was still holding in his face and looking very much like the aforementioned wild thing. "And it's your fault that we're still here anyway! Mitchell told us to pack up ages ago! If you'd put your stuff away when you were meant to, we wouldn't still be here now and I wouldn't have ruined your oh-so-precious boring scribblings!"

"Stop it!" Mitchell pulled her away from the archaeologist who had shot to his own feet.

"It's always your damn fault Vala!" he shouted, unfairly. "You break everything you put your hands on."

"I do not!" her face was furious, cheeks bright pink. "That's a lie! I don't often break stuff at all. It's your fault that I broke your thing on the sandstorm planet – you were being mean to me! Again!"

Daniel was livid, and it made him feel wicked and spiteful. He didn't care that everyone had spent all afternoon working for him, there in the temple. He didn't care that they were all about to spend a second night in Monsoon City, so that he could carry on studying the temple tomorrow. All he cared about, in that one moment, was that Vala had over-reacted again, and spoilt something which belonged to him, again.

"You know, you go on and on about what a terrible life you've had, and how awful it was being host to Quetesh, but you know what? I think you blame her for the fact that you're in such a mess, when really it's all down to you and your own selfish stupidity!"

As soon as he'd spoken he regretted it. Vala's face was like stone. She opened her mouth to try and speak, but no sound came out. She didn't move for a minute, then just turned away and picked up her pack, cheeks flaming suddenly.

"Princess…" Cameron broke the awful silence. She shook her head at him and moved quickly to the doorway.

"Vala," Daniel's voice broke slightly. He tried to catch her hand but she snatched it away and broke into a run, towards the muddy path which led back to the little town.

The two men who she left behind stood, neither moving. Cam's hands were in fists at his sides. Eventually, he was the first to speak.

"Jackson?" he said, in a quiet but deadly voice. Daniel looked across at him.

"Yes?" he whispered.

"Get out of my sight."