Author's Note: I forgot to mention this in the first chapter:

This fanfiction is dedicated to leuska

Chapter 2: The Discovery is Shared

In the Briefing Room at SGC...

"This is so boring!"

All members of SG-1 looked up at Vala. She pouted at them.

"No one said you had to be here, Vala," Daniel replied tersely; he was anxious to brief Gen. Landry on the book they had found and the information inside it.

"Oh, puh-lease!" she replied dramatically, "in my cell – sorry, room, it's just so dull. At least here, I can be near my Daniel-"

"I'm not your Daniel," he corrected quietly, knowing what he said wouldn't stop this latest tirade.

"And I am awfully curious about what's inside this book," she continued, oblivious to what Daniel had said. "The gate builders are just fascinating. Aren't they, Daniel?"

"Yes, yes," he replied, looking for the General, who should be coming any minute-

"Okay, what's the latest on the book?" The General moved into the room, and slid into the chair. Everyone looked expectantly at Daniel.

Daniel moved to the front of the room, where he had a slideshow prepared.

Vala groaned, but silenced by a look from the General. Cam hid a smirk.

"Well," Daniel began. Vala tried to look interested, then yawned. Tealc looked on disapprovingly.

"The text in the book is written in Ancient, and describes what we suspected it would – an account of an actual ascension of one of the Altarians. Vala, your source was right about that."

"Where did you find whoever told you, anyways?" Cam interrupted, turning to Vala. Daniel glared daggers into the back of his neck.

"I've been around," she replied mysteriously, and finished with a suggestive wink. Cam blushed, but looked away at a "hum-hum" of the General's.

"Anyways," Daniel said loudly, and everyone faced him guiltily, "the text actually does much more than that. It goes on to describe who the being was, in minimal detail, and the circumstances of the ascension."

"Really?" the General leaned forward.

"It says she was a woman, about the age of twenty-five or so. Which I thought was unusual, since most Ancients that we are familiar with were much older than that before they could achieve ascension.

"The woman was also an outcast of society; she lived very liberally. However, the author claims her intelligence was exceptionally high, regardless of her, well, less-then proper lifestyle. Rather, he describes her living for the moment and such."

"Wait," Cam interrupted, "I thought that the Ancients devoted their lives to studying and enlightening themselves. How could this person, whoever she is, have ascended if she didn't work toward enlightenment and stuff?"

"That's what's so remarkable about this," Daniel continued, now furiously clicking the slideshow, revealing a jumble of text no one but he could understand. The tempo of his voice increased. "She seemed to have discovered a path to enlightenment that was completely different than science and philosophy. That secret alone is worth finding her."

"Wait," Landry held up a hand. "What do you mean, "finding her"? She's ascended, hasn't she? The Ancients have made it pretty damn clear that they won't interfere with our problems."

"That's the most important thing." Daniel clicked the projector excitedly, revealing a page of text. "She came back."

"What?" Sam gasped.

Tealc looked at him. "Are you sure, DanielJackson?"

"Positive. This passage is written by a different person. It tells of the decent of the Ancient, who managed to take on human form once more, but as an immortal who managed to retain all of her knowledge. In theory, she is still around today, carrying with her the secrets she learned as an Ascended Being."

"So we find her to discover the secrets of being immortal," Vala said with delight, her eyes glittering with possibilities. Daniel rolled his eyes at her selfishness.

"No," he groaned, "with her knowledge, we could defeat the Ori before they've even begun to attack us. It seems inevitable that they will come into our galaxy in large numbers sooner or later."

"You're no fun," she huffed, and she leaned back in her chair.

"So you're telling me that somewhere, in this galaxy, there is a immortal, former-ascended being that has all the knowledge still inside of her of when she was ascended." General Laundry looked at Daniel with doubt.

"According to the text. And the text has too much evidence proven by other volumes we've collected to be incorrect. The people who wrote this are definitely telling the truth."

"How in the world did they manage to put this in the same book?" Cam wondered aloud.

"Well, that's simple," Daniel dismissed, "the book was in a library on the planet the being came from. It was only removed in recent centuries."

"Well, if that's all, Dr. Jackson," Landry announced, "then I suggest you keep studying it, and find me where this being is. I want to move on this, and fast."

In Daniel's Study…

Vala opened the door slightly, and looked in on Daniel. He was hunched over the volume, magnifying glass in hand, and multiple coffee cups set beside him.

Looking closely, she realized he wasn't actually hunched over – he was asleep. The magnifying glass dangled loosely from him palm.

She moved in quietly, and pulled the book out from under him. He groaned once, but then quieted once more.

She flipped through the pages silently, stopping at pictures and diagrams. She stopped at a full page portrait of a woman. Judging by the thin line of dust coating that page, she concluded that Daniel had not yet reached it. She flipped the page over. There was not text on the other side.

Silent as a thief, she cleaning tore the page out from the book, leaving no evidence that it had ever been there.

She stole back to her room, clutching the page in her hand, with her heart beating hard and fast.