"How's the ankle, sir?" asks Sam, quickly looking at her bandaging handiwork.

Jack coughs and groans in pain. "As well as can be, for a horribly twisted ankle," he replies. There's a beat of silence for an unasked question. "I'm not going to be able to walk on it, though."

Sam nods her head once thoughtfully, then once sharply. "Right," she says. She gets to her feet and looks out from behind the tree that conceals them – only to quickly pull it back again. A portion of the tree evaporates in a fiery ball of plasma, leaving nothing but the acrid smell of burnt carbon. "We've got to go," she says, reaching for one of his hands to pull him upright.

He pulls away. "Carter," he says, voice strong but quiet. "I'll just slow you down."

She's just as strong. "No, sir."

"Major, that's an order! Get out of here!"

She looks at the troops quickly gaining on their position and makes her decision quickly. "I am not leaving you behind." She takes his weight and they hobble along, moving more quickly than he had anticipated. It's not much longer until the 'gate is in sight. They meet Daniel and Teal'c there; she hands Jack to Teal'c and the two men go through. She fires into the oncoming troops, moving backwards in small bursts. She orders Daniel through, and he goes. She turns to the rippling blue surface.

It's her turn now.

Chapter Six

I make myself as small as I can as another patrol comes my way. I'm either entering a more populated area of the base, or my luck is draining faster and faster. The patrols are coming more frequently now than I could have ever imagined, yet I'm still managing to remain unseen; I'm feeling more scared than I've ever felt before, at least as far as I can remember. It's as though now, if I'm found, it'll mean something different. It's like my contact with my friends – no longer intruders – has made me something different to Ba'al.

Each time, I've managed to hide in time to avoid detection. But I'm beginning to tire. It's taking me longer to find suitable hiding spots. The spaces are becoming narrower; suitable nooks fewer and further between. However, I breathe the tiniest sigh of relief: I've nearly made it to the transportation rings.

I poke my nose around the corner; I bring it back just as fast. Four guards! For a single room, they have assigned four guards! Ba'al really must want to find me – or perhaps Jack, Daniel and Teal'c. Maybe all four of us.

I bite my lip, considering my options. I could try and make it to the other device of this kind on this floor. However, this option makes me nervous: it's taken me so long to get here, and if I double back, that will only increase the possibility of my being caught. Perhaps I could take out the guards? I nearly chuckle aloud to myself. These men, dressed in chain mail with muscles that seem to be thicker than my head…How could I even think of being a match for them?

I begin to consider other irrational options (finding one guard on their own and hoping my strength could rival his long enough to steal his weapon) but I'm cut short as they receive a radio transmission. I don't understand the language the message is in, but they pick up their staff weapons and two of them jog out and down the hall, thankfully not in my direction. The others press a combination of buttons on the panel – different to the ones I recall Ba'al using; the ones that I'll be using – and leave in a beam of white light.

I hardly want to believe what has happened. Surely my quest to meet my friends at the device cannot turn out to be so simple? I leave a few moments just to make sure the coast it clear; it certainly seems to be. I waste no more time after that. Deciding that the sounds my dress will make as I run will be made negligible by the speed at which I will exit, I make a dash for the control panel. The symbols light up under my fingers, but not in the order I want.

Suddenly, I hear a sound from the ceiling. The rings are going to descend! My first thought is that more guards are coming; I can't afford to wait around and find out. Without thinking, I dart towards the centre of the room, where the light envelopes me and I'm transported away.

It's only then I consider what might be waiting at my destination. My stomach lurches.

My heart pounds as I scan the room.

I'm not alone.

Outside the room, there are two guards. They're not looking in this direction – perhaps, having just sent troops away, they're not expecting anybody to appear in the same instance. I must use this to my advantage.

Thinking quickly, I remove myself from the spotlight of the centre of the room. I tread carefully so the sounds my shoes make no sound on the polished floors. Tucking myself behind a bulkhead, I kneel down and observe them. They're still occupied by monitoring the hall.

Grey, coiled weapons attached to the guards' hips catch my attention; they are the same as the weapon Teal'c carried. They hang at each of the guards belts, and another idea floats into my mind – a stupid one, I feel. Perhaps, if I was quick enough…

Without thinking about my stupid plan anymore (I might lose courage if I do that) I yank the weapon from the guard's belt and activate it. In the same movement, it's aimed and I discharge it, once at each guard, and they slump to the ground as unconsciousness is forced upon them.

My breath is laboured. So much excitement… I can hardly believe what I've just done. Yet, for this action guilt is nowhere to be found. I know they will wake up – and I know they wouldn't extend me the same courtesy of being sorry.

I don't spend much time here: I'm on a roll!

Dodging, hiding, running, silence…I'm an expert now!

Outside the device is unguarded, which surprises me. I also expected Jack, Daniel and Teal'c to be here now, since I gave them the safest route, but they're not. I hide in a corner for a while.

It might be an illusion that time is dragging its heels, but it seems to me they're taking an unprecedentedly long time to arrive. Worry, which has begun to fester since I arrived, now flourishes like fed bacteria on a hot day. I move forward as much as I can with as little risk to check the other direction.

Half of me immediately wishes I hadn't.

Coming from the opposite direction, weapon-less, vest-less and escorted by two guards each, is Jack, Daniel and Teal'c. I heavily rest my head against the wall, grateful for the little bit of pain it sends through it. I begin to back away; there's nothing I can do for them at the moment.

Warm breath on the back of my neck startles me; there's somebody standing behind me.

Two guards suddenly jerk my arms behind me, roughly locking them together with their steely grips. I am only just able to catch the cry of pain before it bursts from my lips. Their other hands are on my shoulders in the same concrete holds as they shove me unceremoniously after my friends.

I manage to catch Jack's glance. "I'm sorry," I say.

"Not your fault," he says loudly. "It was an ambush."

I grimaced. The transmission that called away the guards from the set of rings I wanted to use…

Ba'al enters, rubbing his hands together. "Well, well, I can't really say it's a pleasure to see you all." My jaw drops…his voice! It's suddenly deeper, as if echoing inside his lungs, and distorted. And his eyes! For just a second, it's as though rings of liquid gold circle within them.

"The famous SG-1…" Ba'al laughs as though this is funny in itself. He rounds onto me. "And Major Samantha Carter."

My brow can crease no more. "You took my memories on purpose?" I demand. I had believed Jack, Daniel and Teal'c when they told me, but I have to admit… I didn't quite want to.

The smugness on his face answers me before he does. "Yes." he says; he's proud of this.

"Why?" I ask of him, my teeth gritted with anger that I'm trying not to let show.

A smug, self-satisfied smile comes to his face. "Since you're a lost cause, I'll indulge you," he says, pacing slowly back and forth before us, compiling his story. "SG-1 came on a search and destroy mission to destroy this extraordinary device that I have put so many resources into developing." He waves his hands towards the panel: one of the first things I ever saw when I woke up. "Instead of finding this, you found some vague details which I figured you would use to mount some sort of secondary mission – and no doubt be more successful than you were last time. Knowing this, I sent my troops to the gate to try and intercept you. Regrettably, they were too slow to stage a wholly successful ambush. But you, however, were the last one to step through the Stargate as the mission concluded and…" He smiles at the memory. "...my forces were able to capture you."

Memory swamps me and I almost stagger as the images swirl in my mind.

The event horizon swallows Daniel ahead of her. She's five steps away. Behind her, she can hear the troops getting close, and the firing of weapons, and the shouting of orders, and the bushes nearby rustling. She channels the last of her available energy into her legs: she can't be caught now, not after all they'd managed to do tonight.

It just wouldn't be fair. She is so close that she can hear the gurgle of the energy fluctuations over the pounding of her heart, the breath in her chest and the thud of her boots.

A flash of orange light. An eruption of pain. The snapping of bone on cement. The blue wall of water hovers inches from her eyes as she is doused in black.

"They left you behind."

I look to Jack, Daniel and Teal'c. They all look so guilty. They can't immediately meet my eyes. Daniel's the first. His mouth hangs open with uncertainty – he knows what he has to say but doesn't know how to say it. That's something I can very much understand.

"Sam..." he says finally. "We didn't mean...We didn't realise...It was too late..."

Jack tries to take over what Daniel started. "There was nothing we could do... General Hammond wouldn't let us..." And fails.

It's Teal'c's turn. "We are sorry, Major Carter," he says in hushed tones: it's clear that he speaks on behalf of all three of them, and means it.

But they left me behind. I shake my head at them – they may have left me behind, but I don't remember it. All I know is that they've been good to me in the short time that I've known them and that's all that matters.

It's all that can matter at the moment.

Besides, they're not the ones with guards pointing weapons at my head nor the one who wiped my memory, so in the grand scheme of things...

Ba'al raises an eyebrow and continues. "I made sure to keep the Stargate well guarded after that." He paces back and forth a few times, looking happily pensive, then turns back to me. "For a while, I tried to…persuade you–" I shudder to think at what those words imply "– to provide me with information pertaining to the security of your petty planet, but you were more stubborn than I had anticipated. I thought I could perhaps try a different approach to obtain the information by use of this device – a decidedly more gentle approach."

Panic courses through me. I desperately try to remember what I've told him over the last few days. Had I said anything that Ba'al had been looking for? Had I said anything that would endanger my friends? I try to reassure myself. I do something that I'd never thought I'd do: find comfort in that in these last few days, I've remembered nothing at all, much less anything important.

Annoyance flashes over Ba'al features. "I was then faced with the challenge of getting you to remember certain things but not others."

"That's why you didn't want me to remember your name? Because then I might have remembered that you were a megalomaniacal psychopath?"

Ba'al bobs his head. "Yes."

"And you lied to me about my name because...?"

"Quite simply, your name connected you these...things." He sneers at SG-1. "I couldn't have you remembering that they would come to rescue you, could I?" He laughs softly, then continues his explanation.

"It then became apparent to me that, regrettably or not regrettably – I haven't decided yet – my device had been too strong and your memories were buried far too deeply for me to retrieve through any manner of gentleness."

I try to swallow; my mouth has become dry. "What use was I then?" I don't know why I ask: I feel I already know the answer. "You said I was important to you."

Ba'al shrugs, uncaring. "You were very important to me. You were my hostage. You were my assurance that this lot…" His nose turns up and he waggles his fingers in disgust at my friends. "..would still show up eventually."

I can feel my anger flaring again. Daniel was gives me this look; I'm not quite sure what it is telling me, but at this moment I don't care. I have something to say.

"So let me get this straight!" I am yelling now. I don't care if he knows I'm angry. Even though I know I'm only fuelling his enjoyment of our predicament, I am sure this is going to make me feel better. "You stole my memories! You used me as bait to capture my friends!" I am positively glowering now, spitting my words like a fire spits sparks of burning debris. "You made me wear this god forsaken dress!" Despite how much it hurts, I manage to wrench my arm from the guard's hold. The other one soon follows; the guards are surprised at my strength and sheer willpower.

From day one, I have wondered about the magnitude of my own strength and yet, none of that matters as I approach Ba'al like a cyclone. He is looking almost jaw-droopingly surprised and it's as though he's not quite sure what to do as he stands there, worried.

My fingers curl themselves into a fist and I reach back to gather momentum; my fist flies forward, hell-bent on making contact with Ba'al's nose; it lands with a satisfying crunch on its target.

The guards react quickly. I soon find one of my cheeks smarting and my arms pulled behind my back once more. My friends are objecting and struggling against their captors, but their guards must've been paying more attention to them than they were to me: I, after all, was just a woman. As their struggling calms, I notice that all three of my friends keep glancing at me with pride. Especially Jack.

Ba'al's nose is bleeding, and he wipes it as he pulls himself straight. "Take them to the holding cell," he orders. I whistle softly in amusement. If he wasn't mad before, he sure is now! He looks directly at me. "Don't expect any special treatment this time, Major Carter." With his long cloak swishing, he leaves the room. "Your welcome is very much worn out."

::Author's Note::

Whoo, infodumping! I apologise for the tedious turn we took in this chapter, but I felt I needed to get that out of the way so we can move on to escaping and, if I can think of a way to make it happen, finding memories! n.n;;

Anyway...

Thanks again to beta drey'auc475 for her managing to make sense out of my chaos (and I offer another profuse apology for hounding her to finish this chapter n.n;;; ).

Thank you for reading ^_^