Author's Notes: I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing and rewriting this chapter, at least whenever I could. This was the hardest chapter to write for some reason. I'm really sorry for the long wait, but I hope you enjoy anyway! ^^;
They were grotesque. Smooth-skinned caricatures of the Unas with wide cheekbones and hair sprouting out from beneath them. Amber eyes framed by long, inset sockets stared in hunger at the sacrifices tied to the pillars. Sleeveless, brown leather vests with long shoulders tapered off at the end did little to cover the steel armor worn over their torso. Similar leather gauntlets embraced their lower arms above the wrist, leading one's eye to the wicked railgun in their hands and the double-edged long sword strapped without a sheath to their waist. Around their necks, they wore a small, thin skull suspended on a leather strip and two outward-facing spikes from either side of their neckline.
He and Vala crouched behind a bush atop a hill overlooking those beasts guarding the gate. They'd left Aziru behind in the ship. Even if Teal'c felt he had a moral responsibility to protect the former host's life, they couldn't risk losing the only source of Ba'al's memories.
"How terribly barbaric," Vala whispered in disbelief. "Who wears old leather like that anymore?"
Teal'c used a pair of binoculars to survey the area. There were six guards, three on either side of the raised platform on which the pillars and the gate stood.
"You're not seriously thinking of going down there, are you?" Vala gave Teal'c a look as if he were crazy. "What if there are others coming? They are supposed to be gearing up for war, you know. A war which you started."
Teal'c lowered the binoculars and gave Vala a very nasty glare.
"Sorry." Vala wisely apologized. "You didn't start it. I only meant..."
"They knew we were coming." Teal'c understood what she meant. The Council made the plans to invade this world before he talked them out of it. Before that, however, a certain traitor warned Cepheus they were coming. They had to be gathering more forces at the gate, since that would logically be the Jaffa's first target: their main supply lines. "Their reinforcements may be delayed. We must act quickly. Remain here and await my signal."
Before Vala could say another word, Teal'c hurried quietly away from the bush and made his way along the perimeter. He planned to assault both sides of the gate at once. Vala took a deep breath and got ready with her P90. Once Teal'c fired off the first staff weapon blast from the trees on the other side, the Nibirans quickly turned toward the noise, including the ones on her side of the field. That left their backs open. Vala took aim and fired, downing one before the other two looked back and raised their weapons.
"Oh sh-" Just as Vala ducked back away from the bush, a loud thunderclap pierced the air a mere nanosecond before a spinning blade leaving a trail of flames behind it cut through its branches. Stumbling away, Vala tried to find cover behind a nearby tree, readying to shoot down either of the two dashing up the hill toward her position.
Sure enough, they'd followed her, and Vala was able to take down one more before the last one fired. One of the blades lodged itself into the tree next to Vala's head, its metal glowing with some sort of golden light. A click and some sort of electronic whir shook Vala out of her terrified state, and she ducked just in time to avoid a bright streak of energy passing through the tree above her, leaving behind a smoldering hole.
Realizing she didn't have much choice, Vala took off. The Nibiran's weapon fired too slow to catch her as she ducked and weaved through the undergrowth. When she finally found a position beneath a fallen log, she bit her lip and tried to slow her ragged breathing. Her eyes flittered from one part of the forest to the next, looking for any sign of the creature.
It was quiet. Too quiet, Vala mused.
Then she heard it. That electronic whir. Right behind her.
Suddenly, a zak'nik'tel discharge caught the beast just as Vala rolled on to her back to face it. Rather unexpectedly, it didn't collapse there. Instead, it tried to shift its aim at whoever had just fired on him. Vala took the opportunity to fire a slew of rounds into his back, and one last bolt of blue energy finished the job. With the warrior dead, Vala crawled back out from her little hiding place, stood after seeing who her mysterious benefactor was, and brushed the dirt and grass off her otherwise impeccable uniform.
"I thought you'd never get here." Vala took a light jab at his expense. Aziru stepped out from cover and looked down at the one he'd just had a hand in helping to kill. Though it looked so inhuman, he couldn't help but feel a sense of unease from seeing a corpse. "You know what they say," Vala tried to be helpful in her own unhelpful way. "The bigger they are..."
"I haven't killed anyone since the ceremony." Of course, he meant the ceremony to remove the symbiote of Ba'al from him. That brilliant but cruel System Lord would've shown at least some restrained glee from killing anything which drew breath. "If it wasn't for the Tok'ra..."
A sound interrupted him. Leaves being crushed underfoot as two pairs of footsteps rushed toward them. Distant claps of thunder and the howling of over half a dozen beasts, most likely the dreaded Nibirans. "How about we leave that conversation for another time?"
Vala fell back to the ship, but she stopped just short of the loading ramp to see if any of them might be Teal'c. Fortunately, she saw him emerge into the grove with Rya'c grasping one of his hands. Unfortunately, Teal'c looked horribly bloodied and injured.
Just as Teal'c stumbled to the ground at the edge of the woods, he shouted at Vala: "Leave! Take Rya'c and go!" Aziru tried to go to help, but Vala stopped him. The howling and unmistakable footsteps from before were close behind. Although Rya'c wanted to protest, Vala knew not to question Teal'c on a matter as grave as this. Though it took some urging, and a quick word from Teal'c saying, "Live free, my son," Vala was able to drag Rya'c back to the ship with her just as the fallen Unas tore out of the forest and took aim. Vala fired a few pot shots as she retreated up the ramp behind Rya'c, closing the hatch right after the very first shot from the Nibiran weapon lodged itself in the bulkhead.
They had no time to lose, cloak or not. Vala rushed to the front and sat down in the pilot's seat, starting the engines and lifting them up to the sky.
"We can't leave him there!" Rya'c complained, understandably upset by what he'd just witnessed. But Vala, despite agreeing completely, couldn't let herself be distracted. She'd have to fly them out of low orbit and bypass the ha'taks without them detecting her. How they were going to do that now that the Nibirans likely radioed their location to Cepheus, she had no idea.
"Who said anything about leaving?" Vala ignored that voice of reason in her head and turned the ship around. She planned to make a run for Teal'c, use the ring transporter to catch him and the guards escorting him, and gun them down once they were in the cargo bay-leaving Teal'c alive, of course. But as she took them back towards where they'd left off, something hit the ship. And again. A sensor reading appeared on the readout between her hands.
Death gliders.
Another shake, and this time, the cloak went down. It might as well, given how useless it seemed now. Ba'al probably had time to develop a countermeasure for detecting cloaked ships after he became the last known Goa'uld in power. On the other hand, he might've found a technology long forgotten by the others...
"We can't sustain many more hits like that." Especially if they were to stay in place long enough to activate the ring transporter. They'd be sitting ducks. "Hold on!"
Vala had enough experience piloting her own tel'tak that she could pull off some fast, evasive manuevers. But if throwing off two death gliders happened to be a challenge, evading nearly a dozen careening through the clouds above would be impossible.
Cursing her luck, Vala abandoned the plan and aimed her ship up at the oncoming horde. "This is the worst plan I could ever think of." As the gliders unleashed their fury, Vala took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
She activated the hyperdrive. Swept into hyperspace, the ship narrowly avoided the staff blasts from the gliders, who were forced to break off their pursuit. Praying she wouldn't disengage the drive while passing through one of the ha'taks, or the planet's moon, Vala counted to three and gripped the piloting apparatus tightly.
When they emerged, it was far enough from the planet and the other ha'taks. With a feigned, self-congratulatory grin, Vala looked back at the co-pilot's seat where she'd half-expected Teal'c to be. Instead, there was no one. And Rya'c undoubtedly glared at her from where he was sitting, a little ways behind her. Her smile quickly disappeared.
Suddenly, the ship lurched forward so hard, it nearly threw Vala into the bulkhead beside her. Giant pulses of bright energy passed by them, followed by the unmistakable sound of staff cannon blasts caused by coma-the halo surrounding the orb of energy-sweeping against the hull. Another hit, and an explosion in the cargo bay caused the door dividing it from the cockpit to close automatically. A hull breach.
As if things couldn't get any worse, a small fleet of ha'taks jumped out of hyperspace ahead of them. Vala held her breath. This isn't how she expected to go.
But instead of finishing the job, the Goa'uld motherships ahead began firing on the ones attempting to stop Vala's escape. Vala didn't know what to make of it until she received a comm signal from one of the ships. It was Bra'tac.
"As we expected." Bra'tac smiled with a nod. "I hope we are not too late."
Vala let out a sigh of relief. "Better late than never."
But how would she explain what happened to Teal'c?
Desmond grit his teeth after nearly losing track of the creek for the eighth time that day. Somehow, he knew finding that light would be easier said than done. Whatever it was, it warped reality around it. How else could he explain it? One solitary light in a cave. And an experience that faded like a dream.
"What, did the light just pick itself up and move?" Mitchell glanced uncertainly over at Carter. "It can't, can it?"
"Well, that depends." When Mitchell gave her a disappointed look, Carter couldn't help but smile. She was enjoying this. "See, the island is surrounded by a subspace field. It's what's keeping it out of phase with the rest of our planet."
"Like Arthur's Mantle," Mitchell confirmed.
"Sort of." Again, an exasperated sigh from Mitchell. Sam tried to summarize for his benefit. "The island's only partially out of phase. The gravimetric effects of Earth's core keeps it tethered to the planet, but whenever there's a distortion in the light's energy output, the island shifts location."
"And just what kind of distortion are we talking about here?"
"I don't know, sir." Samantha glanced at their guide, who walked much further ahead. "Until we find out exactly what it is, there's no way to know for certain."
Before they knew it, Desmond stopped and threw his hands up in frustration, finally letting them rest at his hips as he turned and looked everywhere but at them.
"This is ridiculous." Desmond stared off in the distance toward a waterfall they could vaguely see through the trees. "It shouldn't be this difficult to find."
"If it wasn't, things might've been different."
That wasn't one of them. The trio turned to see who it was. Desmond narrowed his eyes. He recognized him. "You..."
"Who-?" Mitchell looked disturbed. Desmond hadn't introduced them, so Sam and Mitchell were out of their element. They didn't expect to encounter anyone out here. That was something else Mitchell would have to speak to Desmond about later. He didn't like surprises.
"My name's Benjamin Linus." A weasley little man with a receding hairline and big, round eyes. He wore nothing more than a slightly torn, linen shirt and trousers, likely sewn together from whatever materials he'd scavenged. He stared back unflinchingly at Desmond. "I never thought I'd see you here again, Desmond. Did you miss something?"
"No." Given their last encounter, Desmond didn't trust the man. It didn't matter whether or not the man saved his life once. He threatened Penelope. Nearly killed their son. Nothing he did or said after that would make up for what he tried to do. "Not a thing."
As expected, Ben said nothing. He wouldn't get anything out of Desmond. So, he turned to his cohorts. "Would you like to try?"
"Don't tell him anything," Desmond warned. That caught Ben's attention. After staring down Desmond for a few, short moments, he smiled. What I wouldn't give for the chance to wipe that smirk off his face, Desmond thought.
"You're after the light again, aren't you?"
"The light," Mitchell repeated, catching Ben's attention. "What do you know about it?"
"Why should I tell you?"
Mitchell sighed. He was getting tired of this. Nobody wanted to give him a straight answer. "Because if you don't, we'll have come all this way for nothing."
Ben stared at Mitchell with not even the slightest hint of a smile. "You're going to have to do better than that."
When it looked like Mitchell had become too irate to continue, Sam stepped in, always willing to back him up. "The fate of the galaxy may be at stake." May be? Mitchell vowed that if they got out of this, he'd have to speak to Daniel about the importance of being specific. Then again, this was the Ancients they were talking about. The masters of beating around the bush. Even Carter realized this when she said, "It's hard to explain."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere." Ben shrugged off-handedly and glanced at Desmond, who was growing more frustrated by the second. Part of him felt satisfaction in that.
Sam and Mitchell had to consider what they said next very carefully. They didn't know whether this man could be trusted, especially given Desmond's reaction to his presence. But, on the other hand, they knew they needed help. If Ben knew the Island by heart, he might be able to lead them in the right direction.
... or he'll lead us right into a trap, Mitchell thought.
When they finished conveying what little of the story they could get away with, not once compromising the security of the SGC, they hoped it'd be enough. For someone with a penchant for deception and stringing along people on fruitless journeys, Ben knew they were hiding something. Then again, they already showed him a small gesture of faith. Why shouldn't he?
"So you're saying if I don't take you to the light, the world would be in danger?" As if it wasn't already. But he wasn't about to quibble over semantics. After mulling it over for a bit, Linus shook his head. "No. No, it's too risky." Before anyone could protest, he explained what Desmond already had: "Even if I could take you there, you couldn't go anywhere near it."
"We shouldn't need to." Carter stepped forward and showed Ben the Ancient scanning device in her hand. "If you can get us within a hundred meters-"
"I wish I could." Ben feigned ignorance, but at least one person in their trio knew not to take his words at face value. "But if it doesn't want to be found, it won't let you."
"You're lying." Desmond resisted the urge to wail on the man like he had at the docks. True, it would bring him a measure of satisfaction to see the man who tried to ruin his life with his face in the dirt. But then they'd never find the light. "Where is it?"
"Desmond, listen to me-"
"No, I'm tired of hearing your lies!" Desmond took one step toward Ben, his hands balled into fists. Ben stood his ground, though it didn't take a psychic to know he was afraid. "You lied to those people I stranded on the Island. You treated our lives like a game!"
"It was for the good of the Island!" Ben held his ground, but Desmond wasn't about to let up.
"The Island, huh? The Island told you to shoot me and kill my wife?!" Desmond's frown deepened. His two newfound companions looked uncertain. He was a hair trigger away from going all out on Ben. "It was never about the Island. It was about you."
That struck Ben harder than any bullet. He visibly flinched, swallowed the lump in his throat and looked away. Desmond looked back at his two new acquiantances and said, "Leave him. Let's go."
"Desmond, think about what you're-" Ben quickly ran after him and made a grab for his shoulder, but Desmond moved aside and threw a punch far worse than anything Mitchell had done to him. Ben fell on to his back, and Mitchell had to step in to stop Desmond from outright beating the hell out of their only lead.
"Wait! Now hang on a second!" By the time Mitchell spoke up, Desmond pulled away and stepped back, shaking his head while glaring at Ben through his tears. But the colonel focused instead on Ben. "Let me get this straight. You're saying the Island can speak?"
"That depends."
"On what?"
"On whether or not you're telling the truth." Ben matched Mitchell's gaze. Desmond was right. He knew something. "The Island's already been attacked once by people like you. Twice even." None of that meant anything to SG-1. But Ben wasn't the type to explain anything. "It's learned to be cautious. If it doesn't want to be found, you won't find it."
"The light." Samantha looked at Cameron, suddenly realizing what Ben was saying. He referred to the light as 'the island'. Even Mitchell knew what it probably meant.
"Could it?"
Wordlessly, Carter nodded. If this light was, as Daniel suggested, the creation of an ascended Ancient, it could be an ascended being in its own right. The Ancients' equivalent of an artificial intelligence, if such an analogy worked.
"What are you sayin'?" Desmond only knew what they'd told him aboard the Odyssey and in the Light Post. He couldn't begin to guess what they were thinking. "That it's alive?"
"The Heart of Atlantis." But something else didn't make sense. Mitchell faced Sam and asked, "I thought the journal said it was underground."
"It could be, sir. Whatever's up here might just be an access point."
"I can't take you to the light." Ben stood and wiped the blood off his lip from where Desmond hit him. "But I can take you to the temple."
"Temple?" Mitchell glanced back at Desmond, but the latter remained focused on Ben.
"It's where the first people who came to this island worshiped it." Where he and a group of others had also, before he learned the truth. "You can still find what you're looking for. You'll just have to follow me."
As if that wasn't a bad idea...
After his latest stunt, Colonel Jensen sat locked up in a room on the Odyssey being questioned by Daniel. In a few minutes, he'd be transferred to SGC for interrogation. No matter what Daniel asked, he'd say nothing. Why did he go after the device? Did he know what it was? What was he trying to do? Is he working for someone who ordered him to acquire the technology? The NID? The shadowy group covering up the misdeeds of one Alvar Hanso, as Carter and Mitchell had discovered earlier?
When he realized he wouldn't be getting any answers, Daniel left the room more perturbed than when he entered. Akharin stood with his back against the wall, arms crossed and a distrusting look in his eye. He'd agreed to let the device be locked away again, but this time, with an access code only he and Daniel knew. That didn't mean he agreed to the military escort, however. The soldier with a hand on the pistol at his waist watched Akharin cautiously. After hearing how the immortal had been a Goa'uld, he'd be prepared for anything.
"The colonel isn't talking." Daniel rubbed his forehead in a futile effort to ward off a growing headache. "I can't get through to him."
At first, it looked like Akharin wouldn't say anything. Instead, he eyed Daniel as if trying to sort out his mixed feelings about his former pupil. Then, he spoke in a hushed voice. "Imagine that." He tilted his head slightly, a common gesture he made whenever testing someone. "Talking to someone who doesn't understand."
Daniel had also been trying to sort out his thoughts about everything Akharin told him. He glanced back at the guard but only long enough to confirm he was there. He wasn't sure he wanted to be anywhere near this man without the added protection.
"What did you mean back there?" Daniel crossed his arms, creased his brow and watched Akharin for an answer. "About a mistake?"
Akharin frowned. "A mistake is a mistake. What else is there to say?"
Exasperated, Daniel started to walk away. This caught Akharin by surprise, so he followed after a brief look toward his escort. Soon enough, they'd end up in the lift, which Daniel set to take them up to the bridge. After the doors closed, he turned to Akharin with an expression which belied the anger he withheld.
"I know you have no reason to trust us." Daniel stopped short of saying they didn't trust Akharin either. After all, the man did divulge a spectacular story that he could've kept to himself. He'd taken a leap of faith for Daniel. "We haven't exactly given you any reason why you should." Especially since they'd kidnapped him. "But don't you think not telling me would be the bigger mistake? You should've trusted me."
"If I had, this... incident... would never have happened." Akharin confirmed exactly what Daniel thought. But he wasn't fully convinced by Daniel's argument. "Then word would spread. Another would attempt what your Colonel Jensen tried."
"How do you know that?" Daniel looked at him expectantly. Akharin realized he'd just given away more than he intended and went quiet. Before he could answer, if he'd been planning to in the first place, the door opened to the bridge. When Daniel didn't get what he was looking for, he shook his head and stepped out, heading for the communications console. Akharin remained near the back, trying to avoid meeting the distrusting gaze of the guard.
General Landry appeared on the monitor in front of the woman sitting at the console. Daniel leaned forward so he could see him better. "Doctor Jackson." Landry's poor excuse for a greeting went ignored as Daniel reported the results of his impromptu interrogation. "Well, it sounds like our colonel doesn't want to let on to the idea he knows more than we do."
"That makes two of them," Daniel muttered, looking over his shoulder at the stolid figure of his former mentor... or whatever identity he went by now.
"Yes, how is our other guest?" Landry fully expected to get something out of this mess. "Has he been any more forthcoming?"
"Not yet." Daniel confirmed what he already knew. He just didn't want to hear it. "Have you found out anything about him? Who he pretends to be?"
"We sent the image you gave us to our friends at the NID for confirmation." Landry frowned. "I'm afraid we haven't heard back yet."
Daniel silently cursed under his breath. Another stonewall. As he looked up at the beautiful view outside the window, he began to wonder back to what Akharin said in the elevator. Worried, he looked back at Landry and suggested, "Or maybe it never got through."
Landry narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
Despite his better judgment, Daniel decided to tell Landry he'd get back to him and left the general to stand there on the other side of the comm line, annoyed at being brushed off again. This time, Daniel would take Akharin by the arm and drag him off to the side where nobody but perhaps the guard could hear them.
"Okay, let's say you're right. Somebody else would've went after the device." Dr. Jackson tried his best to convince Akharin to give him more information. Something he could work with. "Would they have any friends in the highest levels of government?"
Akharin wasn't sure if he should answer at first. Daniel proved to have a properly tuned moral compass. Perhaps moreso than most people. That didn't make him infallible, however.
"You don't have to tell me everything at once. It's probably better you didn't." Daniel had already been bombarded with more than enough information to digest for the next week. When Akharin hesitated, Daniel offered a compromise. "But you have to trust somebody." At this point, he was practically begging. "Whoever those people are, the ones you're so afraid of-if they've infiltrated Stargate Command, what makes you think you can stop them alone?"
A voice of reason. One that Akharin didn't want to acknowledge. "It's my burden to bear."
"No. It's not." Daniel's intense gaze caught Akharin's eye and kept him there, unable to turn away. "It's time to stop hiding. Please."
It took some time to consider the consequences, but when Akharin heard the genuine concern in Daniel's voice, he knew he'd have to say something. Even if it meant taking a risk. Something he hadn't done in centuries.
"Alright." Enki started by answering Daniel's question. "Yes. They go by many names. Humans who struggle against each other for the power you witnessed." Apples of Eden. Actually a mistranslation of the Isu term 'Aplei', a word roughly meaning 'celestial gift'. "They were meant for one purpose, and one purpose only. To subjugate and enslave your kind."
Slowly but surely, Daniel began to realize why Akharin withheld this secret from the beginning. Why he refused to share even when he knew it might be in his best interests.
"You are my greatest mistake."
Humanity. When Apsu and his successor, Anu, arrived on Earth, they used Unas slaves to mine and hunt for resources. Eventually, the Unas began to die, their minds degrading from the effects of the Apples of Eden. They needed a replacement. A species who could survive.
Daniel couldn't believe what he was hearing. He always suspected alien interference on Earth over ten thousand years ago, but to think this... it was unbelievable. Sure, he'd read it on the emerald tablet held in Cepheus' ha'tak, but to hear it straight out of the horse's mouth...
"How?" Daniel knew enough about evolution to know humanity wasn't just brought out of the sand. They couldn't have simply been 'created', as Enki claimed.
"I spliced your gene code with ours; made you in our hosts' image." That explained why the Ancients looked a lot like modern humans despite living millions of years ago. "Your minds are more... malleable." His face fell, guilt hung over it like a storm cloud. "I killed a close friend of mine... to use his symbiote's neural pattern in building yours. This kept you from ascending as a species. From understanding the nature of the universe beyond."
"That's why you came back." Akharin hadn't expected Daniel's ability to listen. Most humans would rather talk, in his experience. And in spite of the fact they had a conspiracy to uncover, Daniel still made time for this. To him, it was nothing short of a miracle. "Because you felt you owed it... to Kingu." Enki's eyes grew wide, and he quickly lowered his head. Though overwhelmed, he tried to keep it to himself. "The man you killed. To make us."
"When I found your kind spread across the Earth, I knew I couldn't protect you alone." After a moment of silence, one which he'd hoped would stretch into eternity, Akharin looked up again and answered his original question. He didn't want to dwell on the past any more than Daniel could afford. "So I entrusted a few with our... Pieces of Eden."
Then the snake came. Only, it wasn't a snake. It was human. Greed. Fear. Pride. Mankind's own ego betrayed them. They turned on Enki, and then each other.
"Your colonel may be getting help from one such group." Akharin frowned. "Who it is, I can't say."
So close, and yet...
"Some of them are likely working in your government. Others hide among civilians, leading communities and shaping society." At this point, Akharin gauged Daniel's reaction. It would tell him everything. "Seven thousand years, I've watched my mistake grow beyond my control. Watched as you killed and maimed first in our names," that of the Isu, whose names resembled the gods of old that the Goa'uld themselves likely appropriated later. "And then in yours."
Although he didn't want to admit it, Daniel understood why Akharin didn't want to trust him with this task. He already had, and look how it ended. Everything, all of human history, could be traced back to this man and his people, the Anunnaki. They were simply emulating what their gods had done to each other-doing what Enki programmed them to do.
Yet humanity could learn from their mistakes. Daniel had seen it. Maybe they were millennia away from becoming what the Ancients were. But Daniel believed they could get there. And that's the first thing Akharin saw in his eyes. The first glimmer of hope he'd seen in all these years.
"Help us." Daniel reiterated, knowing full well his former mentor had seen that in him all those years ago when he brought him in as his favorite pupil. "Please."
Akharin stared back... and, finally, he tilted his head. He would help.
He only hoped it wasn't a mistake.
Numerous wooden huts decorated with the scaly skins of killed Nibirans and their bones housed those who had arrived on the planet. Even a few symbiote bones could be seen strung along the Nibirans' upper arms as a status symbol. Husks hung off the roofs with thin, silky string, like bait on a fishing hook. Everything about the way these invaders lived proved more alien than anything Teal'c had ever seen.
In a field between several buildings, a group of Nibirans dragged Teal'c - his wrists and legs bound with some kind of rope, before his armor and shirt had been disposed of - toward a noticeably cleaner building. Around him, dead Jaffa were scattered about, their torsos ripped open with dead symbiotes beside them. At least one hanging out of a Jaffa's pouch continued to squirm. Teal'c grit his teeth and tried not to let the sight get to him.
Finally, his captors brought him before one of their own holding some kind of pole-arm with a wickedly sharp falx at the tip. He stood to the side at the foot of a small flight of steps which led on to a short deck in front of the building. With difficulty, he raised his head to see why he'd been brought there. First, he saw a pair of distinctly pale feet wearing wooden sandals. Further up, he began to see a layered robe, a human hand and... a glowing orb of bronze and gold making a low, humming noise, held in the woman's right hand.
"Asavuh, Jaffa." Her eyes glowed. A Goa'uld. "You're a long way from home."
"As are you." Teal'c defiantly narrowed his eyes. Any other Goa'uld would call it insolence. But, instead, this Goa'uld merely lowered the sphere she held and regarded him with curiosity. Though he didn't know it, she'd never encountered others so quick of wit. Certainly not among anyone but her own kind. The result was... satisfying.
"Indeed," the woman answered with an amused smirk. "Much further than you know."
Although Teal'c would've broken free of his captors and attacked, if he'd had the energy, a question lingered in his mind. "Why did you attack us?"
"Will an answer change anything?"
That gave Teal'c a chance to think. Regardless of reasons, they'd kidnapped his son, killed over a hundred Jaffa and undoubtedly planned to kill many more. He scowled. "No."
"Honesty." She sounded shocked, though not so much as to let down her guard. Her eyes scoured his as if searching for something. "Cepheus told us not to expect it."
Teal'c stayed silent. His gaze never faltered for even a second. If he was to die, at least she wouldn't have the satisfaction of seeing fear in his eyes.
"We didn't plan on you finding us this soon." Aziru had spoiled their plans. But more than that, so had Cepheus. Teal'c almost cracked a smile at the irony of it.
"Cepheus has betrayed you." Not directly, but that didn't change the facts. "He attempted to lead us here."
"I know." She stood as unmoving as a statue, a product of her species' incredible amount of patience inherited by their Ancient hosts. "I am Inara. On behalf of the Anunnaki, I extend my deepest regrets to you and your people for the deception. We know so little about you."
Regret? Teal'c steeled his anger at her apology for the moment. "What?"
"You see, we had an arrangement with your lord, Ba'al." Inara tilted her head slightly. "I hear he passed away. Is that right?"
Whatever she didn't know, Teal'c could potentially use against her. If her words meant anything, they suggested she and Cepheus didn't entirely trust one another. Though hardly a tactic worthy of an honorable warrior, Teal'c asked, "Why not ask your ally?"
"Because his ambitions do not align with ours." At that, Inara finally began to pace slowly around Teal'c. Her expression revealed no satisfaction or pleasure derived from seeing his fully battered and bloodied form. In fact, she kept her eyes on her feet, calculating each step to avoid each stone or uneven crack in the earth. "His are the children of man. Weak. Fallible." She stopped mid-step and examined the tangle of bodies nearby. "Yours are... different."
As all Jaffa learned from the time they emerged from the womb, they were created by their gods. Bred and raised to be the warriors, the soldiers who gave their lives to fight in their masters' petty conflicts with each other. Unlike many, Teal'c learned the truth. They were, from the inception of their race, the product of only one Goa'uld: Thoth. A minor lord who went unmentioned in the System Lords' efforts to legitimize their being worshiped.
Incubators. Apart from fighting in their lords' armies, the Jaffa nursed the Goa'uld symbiotes in their abdomen. That's what set them apart from the tau'ri. Inara had never seen anything like it before. The Anunnaki cared for their symbiotes in artificial pools of steaming water, much as their ancestors had done in caves.
"Every day, more of us are killed to feed these... Drengin." Inara used that word as if to mean 'beast' or 'monster'. She looked around at the Nibirans, who stared off into space as if they had no minds of their own. Subtly, the orb in her hand gave an ever so slightly stronger glimmer, and Teal'c noticed the soldiers tightening their grips on whatever weapons they held. "It cannot go on. We need a way out."
"Then why do they accept your commands?"
Inara pondered telling him the answer, her own grip tightening around the sphere she held. This didn't go unnoticed by Teal'c either. "Cepheus believed we could force your people to surrender. To give us what we need." She focused on Teal'c from where she stood like a rock. No straight answer, but if he'd known about Daniel's experience with Akharin, that shouldn't have come as a shock. "A chance to survive."
A terrifying realization dawned on Teal'c. "You intend to use us to incubate your young."
"Not quite." That surprised Teal'c, but did nothing to make him feel any less reticent about what the Anunnaki were planning. "What I intend to do is of no consequence to you. Not to a man about to be executed." Hoisting the sphere in her hand, she wordlessly ordered the one with the falx to step forward. The guards at either side of Teal'c stepped on his legs and pressed down on his shoulders until he was staring up at the sky in confusion.
The cold, rough steel of the weapon lightly touched the area above his symbiote pouch. Though he no longer carried a symbiote, that wouldn't save him should they decide to rip him open like all the other Jaffa. Teal'c grit his teeth and prepared for the inevitable.
Suddenly, a staff blast struck the Nibiran carrying the falx, throwing him aside. Those holding Teal'c down moved for their guns but were equally cut down by the attack. An army of Jaffa streamed out of the forest, firing on any Nibiran who got in their way. The Nibirans fought back, but having been caught by surprise, they were in no position to win.
Before the Jaffa could reach their position, Inara turned the orb toward them. Since he couldn't stand or even lunge far enough to throw off her aim, Teal'c shouted at the advancing soldiers. Whether they heard him or not, they'd be too late to take cover. A burst of energy erupted from the sphere and downed an entire batallion of Jaffa.
While she was distracted, Teal'c fell on to his side and used the blade of the falx to cut through the bonds on his wrist. Just as he began working on those at his ankles, Inara noticed and raised her weapon again, this time toward him. Unable to stand and take cover fast enough, Teal'c closed his eyes and braced himself. He would die... free.
Yet... he didn't. When he opened his eyes, he instead saw the sky flashing red and blue. A thick, blue mist surrounded him, but he could still see the bodies of his fellow Jaffa. Though uncertain what was happening, he knew he had to get to a weapon- one more familiar to him. He ran to a staff weapon lying near a Jaffa's body near another building.
The moment he grabbed it, he heard something running toward him from behind. He hoisted his staff, spun around, and fired when he saw a Nibiran brandishing a pole-axe charging at him. Another emerged from elsewhere in the mist, again wielding the falx in an effort to get at his non-existent symbiote. Another blast from the staff weapon ended his ambition.
Surprisingly, another struck out from behind the building Teal'c had crouched beside. Quickly, it struck at his face with the blunt end of his pole-arm and kicked the staff weapon out of Teal'c's grasp simultaneously. Teal'c responded with a kick at the creature's leg, throwing it off-balance long enough for him to stand and engage with it on a more equal battleground.
But nothing about the ensuing fight was equal. Every move Teal'c made, the Nibiran anticipated. Few of his attacks landed home, and those that did failed to dissuade the Nibiran from trying harder. It let out a beastly howl before Teal'c clashed with it again. Step, punch, parry, grapple, leap, swing, dodge. Each motion reminded Teal'c of his fight with Arkad. Though it had been years ago, he still remembered it like it was yesterday.
Just as his attention faltered, just for a moment, the Nibiran swept Teal'c off his feet and held him to the ground with the pole of his falx. Again, it opened its horrible mouth, and Teal'c closed his eyes.
"Stop this, Teal'c!"
When Teal'c opened them again, he saw the face of Bra'tac, which had clearly taken a few bruises. His eyes feverishly searched Teal'c's for any sign of his former pupil.
"What have they done to you?" Bra'tac sounded as worried as when Teal'c had been brainwashed by Apophis. A terrible event Teal'c remembered in full. "Come back to us!"
Still in a daze, Teal'c blinked. "Master Bra'tac." When Bra'tac heard this, he eased off Teal'c slowly, drawing his own staff weapon back to his side. Teal'c sat up and looked around, confused. "What happened?" He saw the Jaffa attack the camp, and then...
"You killed two of your brothers."
Teal'c's heart skipped a beat. He peered over his shoulder at the two Nibirans he'd killed. Except... they weren't Nibirans.
"Teal'c," Bra'tac demanded his attention, but Teal'c could only stare listlessly at the men he'd unintentionally murdered. Inara was nowhere to be found. "Teal'c, listen to me!" At that, Teal'c slowly turned away and faced his mentor. "We must get you off this planet. Our fleet can only hold Cepheus off for so long."
With Bra'tac's help, Teal'c weakly stood and followed him back to where Bra'tac had brought the ship. When Rya'c saw his father again, he wasted no time running to him, to help Bra'tac carry him inside. As Teal'c began to lose consciousness, his last thoughts were on the tragedy he'd unintentionally caused...
And what it could mean if the Anunnaki ensnared them all in their illusions.
