Warnings and Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

Enjoy.


'I don't know how much more of this I can take,' Jacob told his symbiote. They found themselves alone in the pavilion for the first time since they saw Sam. Ling Shou, who previously dogged his every footsteps, was determinedly keeping his distance. Knowing he was now uncomfortable in the Tok'ra's presence, and was unlikely to come barging in at odd times like before, Jacob allowed himself to relax slightly.

'I will help in any way I can,' Selmak reassured him. He sighed. Selmak was in control of their body, which allowed Jacob to focus all his attentions on the fights happening before him. He sent Daniel out on another scavenger hunt, but it was cut short when a vicious sandstorm engulfed the city during the second fight. Daniel came back covered in sand from head to toe and Jacob immediately granted permission to return to the room and get clean. He also gave Daniel permission to remain in the room for a well deserved break, knowing the team needed some time alone to process what has happened.

He turned his attention back to the fighting. The sandstorm raged throughout the stadium, buffeting the spectators as well as the contestants. The fighters kept running around blindly, unable to see anything amid the sand swirling around them. The blinding conditions didn't diminish their determination to kill each other but did limit their ability to fight effectively. Instead they were just swinging their weapons savagely, not caring who or what they hit. It was turning the brutal matches even more gruesome.

The next few rounds continued in much the same way. Sam's fight was next and the sandstorm was raging even worse than before. 'There is no way Sam will survive this. She was barely able to see before and now it will be even worse.'

'She is strong,' Selmak reminded him, but Jacob could hear the underlying worry in her voice.

'But how can she fight what she can't see?'

'I don't know,' Selmak admitted, 'but I do know she won't go quietly. She'll fight.' Jacob hoped she was right as the round ended, the victor getting lucky and decapitating his opponent in a random swing. Feeling utterly helpless, he watched as his daughter was led into the stadium. Her opponent followed her in, and Jacob's stomach dropped. She was fighting another giant. He couldn't see how her previous strategy wouldn't work in these harsh conditions.

'How is she going to survive this,' Jacob deplored again. But he was amazed what happened when the match actually started. She leapt aside, grabbed a spear, and stabbed her opponent before he even managed to get his hands on any weapon. She darted around him, stabbing anytime she had a clear shot, while he was struggling blindly in the sand. After only a few minutes her opponent was dead and Sam was being led out of the stadium as a winner again.

'That was impressive,' Selmak said, breaking into Jacob's shocked thoughts.

'How did she do that?' Jacob whispered.

'I don't know, but I'm glad she did.' Jacob could feel Selmak's relief wash over him and he couldn't agree more. He left the pavilion and entered his room, facing the shocked faces of SG-1.

"How did she do that?" Jack and Jacob asked at the same time.

"Perhaps the Chang Family's experiment was a success," Teal'c speculated.

"I don't really care what happened," Daniel said. "I'm just glad it did. She made it through another level. Only two more to go."

"Yeah," Jack agreed, "then we can get her back home and Doc Fraiser can earn her paycheck." Jacob sighed. He didn't think it would be that easy but was unwilling to dampen their spirits.

'There is some good news out of this Jacob,' Selmak said as Jacob headed for the bed. He suddenly felt a hundred years old.

'What?' he asked, lying down gingerly.

'You may now request to see the contestant that has enchanted you.' Jacob chuckled.

'There is that,' he agreed. With the hope of seeing Sam again he let Selmak guide him to dreamland.


"My Lord." A loud banging on the door jarred Jacob from his sleep. Daniel glanced at him uncertainly, wondering if he should open the door, but Jacob waved him down. He recognized the voice of the young slave. "My Lord," he called out again.

"Yes?" Selmak asked a few seconds later, opening the door a fraction to glare at the young man. Her glare had no effect though. The young slave was smiling brightly.

"I have good news my Lord. I was in the kitchens preparing the evening meal when I spotted a fellow slave from the Chang Family's court. I asked him to rely your request for a meeting to his Master and have just received a reply." He took a deep breath. "The Chang Family would be honored to have you as their guest."

"Excellent," Selmak agreed. "Can you take me to their court?"

"Of course my Lord," he nodded vigorously. Selmak smiled and excused herself to get dressed. A few minutes later, and a quick explanation to SG-1, and she was following the young slave through the streets of the city. Soon they were entering a small compound. Another slave was waiting for them. Selmak was passed to this new guide and was quickly following him through the halls of the compound.

"My master will join you shortly," she was told when they finally stopped in some sort of small room. "If you will please wait here my Lord." Selmak nodded and the slave bowed before leaving, shutting the room behind him. Jacob glanced around the room quickly. Chairs and tables lined the back wall, with the front wall dominated by a large window that currently was covered. On the opposite side of the room he could see a small bathroom, but no workstations or desks. Aside from the chairs the room was completely bare.

'Must be an observation room,' Selmak supplied, turning back to the window.

'Observing what though?' Jacob asked.

'Let's find out.' Selmak moved and ripped the curtain from the window. Jacob gasped in shock.

'Oh God.' His daughter was laying on a table on the other side of the window, hands and feet securely restrained, staring blankly ahead. 'Oh God Sel. Look at her eyes.' Selmak whispered comforting thoughts to Jacob as she slowly moved up Sam's body, inspecting every inch to ensure they didn't miss anything. There were faint scratches on her feet and legs, culminating on a very deep wound that had been hastily stitched up on her left thigh.

'Jacob,' Selmak nudged gently, mentally pointing to her leg. He recognized the cause immediately. They watched that wound get delivered.

'It's from her first solo fight,' Jacob commented. Selmak silently agreed with him. 'It looks bad.' Selmak stayed silent as she stared at it. The original wound was deep enough, but now it appeared to be infected. The stitched skin bulged around the wound, the stitches straining to keep the skin together, and there appeared to something oozing out of the corner. Shivering Selmak continued her observation. More cuts and bruises covered her upper legs and lower torso. It wasn't until they reached her midriff that the next serious wound was discovered.

The wound to her side she got while setting off the water trap in the last group round thankfully looked better than the one on her leg. It too was stitched up, though without the infection the leg wound obviously had. The skin looked raw and sore, but not red and puffy. Grateful she continued her appraisal. She glanced briefly at her arms, disgust flowing from Jacob at the sight of the markings, and focused on the burns on her chest.

'They're victory markings,' she realized, getting a good look at them finally. 'One for each level she's survived.' Jacob snorted, and she continued upward, stopping abruptly when she got her first look at Sam's eyes. 'Jacob.'

'I know Sel." Her eyes continued to stare blankly ahead, but it wasn't her blank stare that caught their eye. Her pupils were closed so tightly they couldn't even see her irises. The whites around her eyes were red and bloodshot and so dry Selmak thoughts she could see them cracking before her eyes. They could also see sand particles lodged underneath her eyelids and the start of scratches on her eyes themselves.

"She is amazing isn't she?" Jacob jerked upright at the sound of the voice. They were so intent on Sam they didn't hear the door open. He turned and gave a small bow to their host.

"Yes she is," Selmak replied turning back to the window. Jacob forced himself to see past her lifeless eyes. He instead focused on the tiny implants Teal'c had spotted earlier. He could see some irritation on the skin around them, but they were the most healed of her injuries.

'I believe we will require the skill of Doctor Fraiser to remove them,' Selmak told him quietly. He agreed. They were just about to turn to face their host when a small movement caught his eye. Beneath the straps Sam's hands were moving. Trembling. Before he could point this out his host stepped up to the window and motioned to someone inside the room. Seconds later he raced to Sam's side, a syringe full of unknown drugs in his hand. He deftly injected the contents into a vein in Sam's neck before stepping back a few paces.

"I am Chang Ching. Master of the Chang Family and your honored host." He never took his eyes of Sam, studying her intently with the cold disassociation of a scientist examining an experiment. When the tremors finally stopped he turned to Jacob. "It is an honor to have you in my presence." He gave a bow which Selmak returned. "How may I help you my Lord?"

"The Administrator thought I might find some of your recent work interesting," Selmak said, flaring her eyes for emphasis. "Interesting enough to pass on to Lord Yu."

"Of course," he said, his eyes lighting up as though Selmak had just given him great praise. "But I must ask one favor of you my Lord. We have very little time to prepare her for the next round. The inking is a time honored tradition, one we will not have sufficient time for if it is not done immediately. May I have your permission to continue the ceremony? Afterward I will answer any questions you have."

Jacob screamed no inside his head but Selmak nodded. Master Chang turned back to the glass and nodded to his assistant. The assistant retook his place at her side. He stared into her eyes intently before placing his hand over her heart then over her hands. He nodded to his Master then motioned for a third man to approach. The third man was ancient; carrying what looked to be a piece of old paper with a drawing on it. As he slowly made his way over to the table the assistant had unstrapped Sam's left arm and leg and rolled her onto her side, flinging her left arm up over her head. She was now staring blankly at her father. The assistant quickly cleaned her chest and abdomen before pouring some sort of oil all over her midriff. He then helped the old man spread the paper over her exposed skin.

The old man fussed with the paper for a few minutes, getting it positioned exactly, before nodding to the younger man. He grabbed several items from a shelf, arranging them delicately on the table in front of him, and handed the first reverently to the older man. The old man said something Jacob couldn't hear, then placed the first device on the paper just below Sam's breast and activated it. Jacob could see electricity race over the paper and could smell the stench of burning skin. He glanced back down at his daughter, both relieved and concerned when she didn't react to what was happening to her.

The assistant held two more devices out to the older man, and two more times she was shocked, the burnt flesh smell getting worse each time. Finally the old man smiled and handed the devices back to the assistant. He then reached up and carefully peeled the paper from her flesh. The paper came up easily, but Jacob could clearly see the markings that were burned into her skin. When the paper was clear the assistant carefully wiped down her side, removing the oil from her skin. He then applied a thick cream to the burns and rolled her onto her back, quickly securing her arm and leg again.

The older man immediately approached her again, this time with a smaller paper that Selmak immediately recognized as the victory brand for the latest level. The assistant quickly performed the ritual again on the skin below her neck. This time though the older man looked for approval from Master Chang before proceeding. The brands of the first three levels appeared to be interlocking, following the curve of her chest down her left side to wait just above her breast. The last level was following the same pattern but on her right side. The older man positioned the paper to continue the trend and finally Master Chang nodded his approval. The older man spoke to the assistant who left the room. He returned moments later with an old fashioned branding iron, glowing white hot.

'I think I'm gonna be sick,' Jacob said. Selmak sympathized with his feelings, though she kept a firm mask of polite indifference on her face. With devout reverence, the old man lined up the brand with the paper, muttered some words, and pressed down on Sam's flesh. The stench was more intense than ever before, but before Jacob could do anything the old man lifted the iron and handed it back to the assistant. He ran it out of the room while the old man poured some more oil on the new brand, carefully peeling the paper back from the latest brand, and cleaned the wound. Once he was done he bowed deeply to Chang Ching and left.

"Such an honor," he whispered, before turning to Jacob. "I'm sure you have many questions about my work." He walked to the opposite wall, hit a few hidden switches, and a workstation appeared on the table. "I have been experimenting with ways to enhance our natural senses." He grabbed a folder and placed several different papers inside as he explained. "We can enhance our muscles through regular training sessions and good exercise programs; even introduce foreign substances that will enable them to do amazing things. We can train our mind through study and practice, forging it into a formidable weapon. But we still can't see past the end of a crowded street. We still can't hear the whisper in the crowded marketplace." He turned and handed the folder to Jacob. "These are what I am attempting to enhance."

"How?" He glanced at the papers briefly, but quickly shut the folder and stared at Master Chang.

"I am teaching my subjects to see with more than they're eyes." He motioned Jacob back to the window and pointed to the implants. "I am enabling my subjects to see everything, even more than they could ever see with their human eyes." As they spoke a group of men came in and gathered around Sam's table. They stripped her of what little clothing she had and began to vigorously bathe every part of her body. They took special care at her new tattoos, but did wipe away the cream that had been placed over them. The skin around them was red and irritated.

"And how can a human see without her eyes?" Selmak asked, pointing at the blank eyes that stared at nothing. She was happy to see they had removed the sand from her eyes, and had moisturized them, but they still looked dried up and dead.

"I have given her new eyes," Master Chang pointed out. "Better eyes. And with the right equipment and training her brain can be taught to interpret their signals as efficiently as it interprets the signals coming from our eyes."

"Does it work?" Selmak asked darkly.

"Of course. Her performance in the last level should be proof enough of that. The sandstorm blinded the other contestants, making them extremely vulnerable in a way they could not counter. But she was not hampered in the slightest, enabling her to win the level without a scratch. An amazing performance." Jacob growled silently, looking down pretending to read something in the folder when the sound of stitches being cut made him look up again.

The men had continued to clean Sam and were now cutting the perfectly good stitches on her side to look at the wound beneath. They inspected it closely; flushing it out with what he hoped was water, then re-stitched it and continued. Jacob turned his attention to the wound on her leg. If they did that for a healthy and healing wound, what would they do for that mess?

"Can the results be reproduced?" Selmak asked, needing to keep Master Chang talking until they were finished with Sam. They had to stay even if they couldn't do anything to help.

"Unfortunately none of the other test subjects have responded as well as she has. I hope to study her brain tissue after the Contest to better understand why she responded so well to the treatment when other didn't." Jacob saw red. It was all Selmak could do to keep control and keep Jacob from pummeling every inch of their host they could reach. Only the sound of the stitches being cut was able to penetrate his fury.

They opened her leg wound and pulled out a tiny mesh drawstring bag, the string pulled tight to keep whatever was inside safe. The space around the bag was filled with pus. They scooped the pus out with their fingers until the wound was clear then flushed it with the water and applied an ointment on the inside of the wound. Then they grabbed another bag and shoved it inside the wound before they stitched it back up. They quickly finished with her front then flipped her and repeated the process on her back. Jacob breathed a sigh of relief when the only other wounds he saw were bruises and scratches, though he was enraged again at the sight of the new tattoos that wrapped around her back.

"A blind army is never strategically sound," Selmak said, allowing some of her own frustration to come out in her words. "Unless you can create a sandstorm to accompany them there is no applications for your work."

"Not yet," Chang agreed, "but my work is just beginning to yield results. Eventually I plan on teaching the brain to accept both signals, allowing the subject to switch between normal sight and enhanced sight at will. Surely you can see the advantage in that." Selmak reluctantly nodded.

"Perhaps the reason for her success are environmental or familial factors. Perhaps you should try gathering her family and neighbors to see if the process is more successful on them."

"That is a possibility I have considered," he admitted, "unfortunately there is no way I can sample from that group. She is a trespasser. An outlander who foolishly tried to enter the city. To get to her family would require use of the Stargate, which we are forbidden to do unless Lord Yu personally gives permission."

"How do you know she is an outlander?" Selmak asked before speaking silently to Jacob. 'Is it possible he doesn't know they are using the Stargate?'

'At this point I honestly don't care,' Jacob growled.

'I agree,' Selmak said honestly, 'but when the time comes to leave the fewer people we have to deal with the better.' Jacob silently agreed while Master Chang continued talking.

"I asked the security chief to provide me with test subjects. Any outlander who uses the Stargate is captured. If they meet certain criteria he passes them on to me. It is better to experiment with strangers than with friends." He gave a cruel laugh, which Selmak copied. The men had finished cleaning Sam and flipped her right side up and were gathered around her bed looking to the window for direction. "It appears my time is at an end. If you will excuse me my Lord, I really must prepare her for the next level."

"Of course," Selmak agreed. She picked up the papers. "May I keep these and examine your findings? If I find potential in your work I shall pass it onto Lord Yu."

"That would be wonderful," Chang said, beaming. He clapped his hands loudly and the slave Jacob had followed in here suddenly reappeared. "He shall take you back to the palace where I hope you will have a restful evening. Tomorrow is very big day, for tomorrow we shall know which contestants will fight for the ultimate honor of the Contest."

"I look forward to it." Chang bowed. Jacob followed before letting himself be led from the room. The city passed in a blur and in no time they were back in their room, three expectant pairs of eyes on him. He passed the folder to Daniel and told them what happened while he had been gone, glossing over the nastier parts of the experience. Suddenly a sound was coming from the cabinet. Jacob groaned. Yu wanted an update now?

"We shall retire to the other room," Teal'c announced, grabbing Jack and Daniel's shirt and forcing them through the small doorway. Wearily, Selmak put her mask back on and answered the System Lord's call.