Lights blinked on as Teal'c walked forward. Daniel started doing what he did best, talking, "Teal'c you have to understand, in the timeline we just came from the goa'uld were defeated and the jaffa are free. Ba'al used a machine to go back in time and change all that. He made you his first prime and Katesh his queen so he could control you." Teal'c, his eyes following Daniel underneath his trademark raised eyebrow, "This was the secret for which Ba'al was murdered." Cam almost made her smile a little while after, when Teal'c realized that Ka'tesh was going to use the device for herself and realized that their goals were the same. Time to speak up.
"Teal'c if you let us use this device we can return history to the way it was meant to be." She filled the last phrase with all of her resolve, it would make everything better. She could make it work, that was what she did. "The goa'uld will be gone?" She nodded, happy despite the tension in the room that she could, in a way, make his dream come true. "My people will be free?" She knew him well enough that she could hear the hope and triumph in his voice. "You have our word." Daniel said. "Let it be done." His deep voice rumbled.
Sam used all her willpower not to leap to the console. She had missed this. At this point she was in the habit of explaining everything as she went."It'll just take me a few minutes to figure out exactly how it works." She ran her eyes over the alien controls, looking for a place to start. In the back of her mind she heard Teal'c ominous warning and the handing around of weapons. Cam come up behind her as she put the pieces of the puzzle together. "You heard the man."
The pillar behind them lit up, and the milkyway galaxy lit up the ceiling. The sheer magnitude of what she was doing hit her then. Again she reasoned aloud. Solar flares of course! Teal'c's deep voice and the sound of rings was a jolt to her heart. "They are here." Her friends started firing, her fingers itched to pick up a gun and help but the only way to help them at this point was to put things back to the way they used to be. She searched frantically for a suitable flare. "Sam!" Daniel cried, and she turned her head quickly, her heart beating hard against her ribs, she had to get this done! She passed him her gun. Oh crap. "I've found one but you're not gonna like it!" Neither would she. 1929? That was not where she wanted to be! "That'll have to do because I'm almost out of bull-" Her heart froze as Daniel's voice was cut off. She turned around in time to see him fall to the floor. She held back a scream. She focused on the problem, it was the only way to save Daniel now. 20 seconds to get through the gate, she shouted instructions. She dialed like the wind.
A searing pain in her back, she jerked forward from the blast. Time seemed to slow, she had finished the job. She could feel her body falling to the ground. She smiled through the pain. Everything is going to be okay. She could almost hear Jacks voice, always She could almost feel his touch and his love for her.
"CARTER!" Mitchell's cry echoed as if coming from far away "It's okay." She whispered, the sounds of gunfire and violence drowning her out. "It's okay, This will never have happened."
She kept smiling as the room seemed to grow dimmer. I love you Jack, I love you! I'm doing this for you! I don't want to take you away from your son in this life, but we have fun, we have had fun. You'll be happy again, you and me and the team You can't hear me, you won't know that this ever happened but now I know, beyond any doubt that I love you, and I love our life together.
A Samantha Carter died that day. She had been dead to others long before. She died and that is sad, but its okay, it's all going to be okay because she died loving someone. Can anyone ask for more? You can say it never happened, that it was paved over by the laws of the universe and of time but what she did there was fighting until the end for what she believed in and for the people who loved her the most. That certainty and absence of doubt can't be taken away from any Samantha Carter, in any parallel universe, in any time. It is a part of her, and it makes her someone worth all that love. It's self fulfilling. Through this act, she gave herself that certainty, and that certainty lead to this act. And now, she is at home, with her husband, and her friends because she succeeded in putting things right. Our hero, Samantha Carter.
"Begin the extraction process." Finally! She thought, looking over at her husband, she could see the same thought written all over his face. The device slowly made its overly dramatic journey towards Ba'al's head. This was the part she hated, when the voices of the parasite and host echoed in a single scream. It made her sick, but she couldn't suppress the feeling of triumph that he was finally gone. "Behold! The last of the system lords!" Glass shattered and the symbiote squealed as it died. Jack looked like he wanted to shoot it as well. "I guess that was worth seeing." Cam said. Daniel didn't seem satisfied with his reaction. As she could have predicted Jack agreed with Cam. "Nope, that's pretty much the extraction ceremony right there." She smiled and nodded. "So, lunch anyone?" God, she loved him. He could watch the event they had been waiting for so longshe couldn't remember when she first started dreaming of this moment, the system lords were gone. Jack wanted lunch, she kissed him instead. He smiled. Then looked disappointed when no one seemed overly enthusiastic. "I'm buying?" he tried. "I'm in." Cam said. She changed out of her uniform and met back up with Jack for lunch. "So that's it. No more system lords." He wrapped his arms around her. "No more super snake heads." She put one arm around him and went to join the others.