See Chapter One for disclaimer and details. Hello all, first off we'd just like to thank everyone yet again who's read and reviewed and emailed us about the story; feedback, we crave it like you wouldn't believe. THANK YOU! For everyone who's wanted to see Senator Kinsey show up, your patience shall now be rewarded - along with all those who wanted to see what Angelus would get up to with the Gem. And we should mention, it's time to start wrapping this particular story up – there's only one more chapter left to go after this one, and then it's time to move on to other projects. So without further ado, we present the penultimate chapter of 'Time For Change'...


Chapter Nine: Endgame

A prison cell within Klorel's Ha'tak ship, in orbit around Earth

February 22nd, 1998

Xander and Lantesh did not know that Daniel and Teal'c had arrived on board the ship as part of an unauthorized mission to prevent the Goa'uld attack on Earth.

They likewise didn't know that the Jaffa and the archaeologist had discovered that they were trapped here after the launch into hyperspace; the Stargate could no longer connect back to Earth, as the point of origin was no longer valid.

Trapped and alone, Xander and Lantesh had their own problems right now.

/ Hathor and Klorel are gonna destroy Earth, we both heard 'em say it. Damn it, there's gotta be something we can do to stop them! / Xander thought angrily.

/ Unfortunately, I cannot think of anything, / Lantesh replied mournfully.

/ Terrific, / Harris thought dejectedly. / You know, I never thought I'd say this, but where's a demon to digest you in its stomach when you need one?! /

They both lapsed into mental silence. Later, the sound of boots and Jaffa armour clanking loudly could be heard outside the cell. Soon enough, the serpent guards showed up and threw inside the unconscious bodies of Daniel and Teal'c.

"Dr. Jackson? Teal'c?!" Xander tried to rouse the new inmates once the guards had left. "Wake up! It's me, Xander Harris. Are you guys okay?"

"I am blind, however it will pass. Although extremely painful, the effects of a Goa'uld shock grenade are only temporary," Teal'c said, staring at nothing.

"It doesn't matter. We've failed," Daniel spoke up miserably, likewise staring at nothing.

"Failed? Failed what? What's happened?" Xander asked. "How did you two get here, anyway?"

"We arrived through the Stargate aboard this ship," Daniel told him. "And now, I figure we're going to die here."

"You mean – there's nobody that's, uh, gonna come to the rescue?" Xander asked, his heart sinking. "You two are it?"

"Indeed," Teal'c replied, as his eyesight finally started to recover.

"Where are Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter?" Lantesh asked.

"They're still on Earth, they couldn't make it here with us," Daniel said as his own eyesight came back. "General Hammond called them in for something related to shutting down the Stargate program, just as we were about to make our move."

"The SGC is being shut down? Why?" Xander wanted to know.

"Politics and budget cuts," Jackson said morosely. "There was a hearing with this Senator Kinsey guy, and – well, I guess the details don't really matter at this point, do they?"

"I guess not. So, would you guys know if Cordelia and Jolinar are okay, by any chance? And Saroosh and Selmak, while we're at it?" Xander asked, focusing on what was important to him.

"Both your Tok'ra associates eventually left Earth, after they somehow appeared out of nowhere within the base," Teal'c said, turning to face him. "And I should mention that BuffySummers, RupertGiles and WillowRosenberg were at Stargate Command as well, when we left."

"What? What were they doing there?" Xander said in surprise.

"They arrived after DanielJackson made inquiries of RupertGiles concerning alternate realities," the Jaffa told him, which explained nothing to Harris or his symbiote.

"Wait. Someone's coming," Daniel said, as he heard footsteps. Soon, to everyone's surprise – Bra'tac came in.

"YOU!!" Lantesh suddenly snarled in sheer hatred, recognizing the same Jaffa that had been responsible for capturing himself and Jolinar on Chulak – back when their hosts had been Martouf and Rosha, and all this had truly begun.

"Okay, okay, calm down!" Daniel said hurriedly, as he and Teal'c struggled to restrain the inhumanly strong male Tok'ra from doing something foolish – especially with Bra'tac's two acolytes aiming their staff weapons at him.

"I'll calm down when this Jaffa is dead!" Lantesh shouted, even though he ceased fighting against Teal'c and Daniel after Xander had pleaded with him not to do anything that would get them killed. As the two members of SG-1 finally let go the symbiote added, "When he was First Prime to Apophis seventy years ago, this one helped kill my former host! And that of my mate as well!"

"I know that you are Tok'ra, but exactly who are you?" Bra'tac demanded, his eyes narrowed into slits. Despite all the time that had passed, he did not know this information as the Goa'uld had never used Lantesh's name in his presence.

Bra'tac turned to his former student and said, "Teal'c. What is his name?"

"Tek ma'te, Bra'tac. This is Lantesh, offspring of Egeria," Teal'c unknowingly used the same words the Tok'ra had used back in 1928.

Bra'tac's eyes widened, as the memories finally came back and he stared at Xander's physical form. "Can this be true? I witnessed Apophis consign the canopic jars containing you and – what was her name, Jolinar? – into the depths of the Chappa'ai..."

"Okay, can I ask something? Namely, what's going on and what you're doing here?" Daniel cut in.

"Be silent, human!" Bra'tac whirled to face him angrily. "By coming here, you have doomed your world and its people. I may have been able to save your planet, had you and Teal'c not interfered with my plans!"

( Plans? What plans? No, never mind... ) "Look, assuming you really have changed sides and came to break us out of here? Then I think we should get going," Xander interrupted, ignoring Lantesh's still-angry thoughts concerning the aged Jaffa.

"Indeed, this is not the place for us to talk. I have been ordered by Apophis himself to execute you two," Bra'tac gestured to Daniel and Teal'c. "An order I intend to disregard. Come!"

With that, the entire group hurriedly left the prison area, as the situation finally started to look up a little for the white hats.


Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

A few minutes later

General Hammond was studying a computer screen showing the two Goa'uld motherships in orbit. He asked, "They still haven't moved from their position?"

Harriman shook his head. "No, sir. Oh, uh, General? The first group on the Alpha site list has just arrived," Walter said after looking at his computer console.

"Thank you, Sergeant. Well, I guess I better get to it." Hammond made his way to the Gate room and stood before a group of people, his back to the Stargate.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you have all been made aware, this nation, this entire world, faces a deadly threat. That's why you have all volunteered for a mission intended to preserve humankind. You've been chosen because you represent the best and the brightest we have in all fields of expertise. What you have not yet been told, for reasons of security, is where you're going or how you're going to get there."

The Stargate roared into life behind Hammond with a loud 'kawoosh' sound, causing the people before him to gasp in shocked awe.

"You're going to step through that. Once through the Stargate, you will find yourselves on the opposite side of this galaxy. A place we call the Alpha site. If we do not prevail, you, and those that follow, will call it 'home'. A new Earth, and a new beginning for humankind. Godspeed," Hammond saluted the group and stepped aside.

The first Alpha site evacuees slowly walked up the ramp and disappeared through the Stargate. Hammond then turned to Buffy, Willow and Giles, who were standing at his side. "For the record, my offer for you three to evacuate to the Alpha site is still open."

"Forget it," Buffy said at once, shaking her head. "I'm not leaving without my mom!"

"I...I can't either. Not without Oz," Willow confessed.

"And I-I fail to see what contribution I could make there," Giles told the general. "My place is here, a-alongside my Slayer."

"I think you underestimate yourself, Mr. Giles, but to each his own," Hammond said with a slight smile.

Willow, who had been practicing the whole magic thing more and more lately, briefly ignited a small fireball in her hand. "You betcha!"

The four quickly made their way out of the Gate room. A short time later, when the second wave of evacuees was ready to go through, Senator Robert Kinsey stormed into the control room. No one was pleased to see him as the born-again right-wing fundamentalist was no friend of Stargate Command, and especially no fan of SG-1.

Kinsey demanded scathingly, "What's the meaning of this?! General, I thought I told you that this program was to be shut down immediately, the colossal waste of money and the threat to this nation thanks to that alien monstrosity-"

"Who is this jerk?" Buffy asked loudly, interrupting Kinsey's tirade.

"Miss Summers, this is Robert Kinsey – the Senator of Indiana, and the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee," Hammond made an effort not to smile at how purple the politician's face had become.

"Oh, so this is the guy who wanted us to bury our heads in the sand and cut ourselves off from the rest of the universe?" Willow scowled at the older man. "The poophead who thought God was going to protect us, if the Goa'uld showed up?"

"What are these, these CHILDREN doing here?!" Kinsey demanded of Hammond, his eyes almost bulging out in fury as George struggled not to laugh out loud.

"If I may, Senator Kinsey-" Giles started to say.

"Be quiet!! Whoever you are, get out of my sight – and take these two inappropriately dressed harlots with you!!" Kinsey shouted angrily, temporarily losing all sense of judgement.

"Oh, that's it-!" Buffy growled, and Giles only barely restrained her from punching the man unconscious.

"In feles corpus transmuta!" Willow declared in Latin, and after a brief flash of light, Kinsey had turned into a white Persian cat that started meowing loudly. The rest of the SGC staff in the room all stopped and stared as, apart from Hammond, none of them could believe what had just happened.

"Ooh, he's so adorable now!" Willow giggled as she picked up the feline and petted it.

"Willow..." Buffy started to say uncertainly, when out of the corner of her eye she saw a man walking up the ramp towards the Stargate through the control room window. She tore herself away from Giles, and just before the olive green-clad figure walked through the Stargate along with the other evacuees, he turned around to glance at her.

Angelus.

"Buffy, what's wro-" her Watcher started to say, before the blonde Chosen One raced out of the control room. With a speed that belied her petite and delicate-looking frame, Buffy tore into the Gate room and went through the Stargate, none of the SF guards having any hope of stopping her.

"ANGEL!!" Buffy shouted, once she had exited the Stargate on P3X-984. She felt a little Gate-sick, the same way almost everyone did after their first time through the Chappa'ai, but due to her nature as the Slayer she was able to fight it off almost immediately.

"What's going on-?" one of the SGC people demanded, before Angelus grabbed him by the neck and twisted viciously. With a loud CRACK! the USAF major's neck was broken, and the civilian evacuees all screamed and started running for the treeline.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Angelus gestured to the alien yellow sun in the sky, which did not affect him in the slightest. "I always wanted to see you in the daylight, lover. But is it me, or are you looking a little worn around the eyes there...?"

"Why the hell aren't you bursting into flames?" Buffy demanded, pulling out a stake.

"Simple, sweetheart. The Gem of Amara. Makes me immune to staking, beheading, fire, and oh yeah – sunlight," Angelus said with a sadistic grin, holding up his right hand and wiggling the finger containing the ring with the green gem on it.

Just then, Sam and Jack came through the Stargate. O'Neill was in a foul mood, not having been able to go with Daniel and Teal'c on their mission and then having witnessed the two Goa'uld ships come to destroy his planet; so as soon as he saw the major's dead body Jack whipped out his sidearm and double-tapped Angelus directly in the forehead.

"You people will never learn," the soulless vampire smirked as the bloody holes closed up without a trace, he was able to ignore the brief stinging pain caused by the bullets. Also ignoring the open astonishment of both the colonel and the captain, Angelus then knocked them out cold.

"Don't worry, they're not dead," Angelus said pleasantly to the flabbergasted Slayer. "Believe me, Buff, I'm going to take my time and enjoy raping her and crucifying him – after we settle things between us, of course."

"How the heck did you even get here?!" Buffy moved into a combat stance.

"You mean, once I followed you and your friends to Colorado? I heard rumours that the end of the world was nigh, after I turned one of the idiots who worked inside that damn mountain. Afterwards, my boy smuggled me into the complex – and I have to admit, it's been fun actually killing someone on a brand new planet!" Angelus said with a huge grin.

"You..." Buffy couldn't seem to find the right words to express her feelings. "That's it. As soon as that gem is history, so are you!"

Angelus chortled, "Who are you trying to kid, Buff? You can't do it. You can't kill me-"

"After all the people you've killed over the past month, especially Giles' girlfriend? That was then, this is now!"

And with that, the fight was on.

Angelus ducked the stake as it flashed down, before he spun and delivered a roundhouse kick to the Slayer's face. Buffy staggered to the side as she dropped the stake, but then she recovered and quickly delivered a series of powerful blows to his gut. She ended the attack with a brutal punch to the vampire's face.

But Angelus wasn't even fazed by it, and lunged at her. She grabbed his arm and tossed him to the ground, but he immediately got back up. The Chosen One kicked him in the face and again in the chest, and this time Angelus staggered backward. Buffy pulled out another stake and stood ready to finish the job, after coming within striking distance.

Angelus straightened up and faced her. He smirked when he saw the Summers girl just stand there, "I knew that you couldn't do it, not that you ever had the slightest-"

WHAM! Whatever else he was going to say to her was abruptly cut off by the introduction of Buffy's foot to his groin, in a most prodigious manner. There was so much power behind the kick that Angelus was actually lifted almost eight inches off the ground, before once more landing on his feet with a slight thump.

Angelus just stared at her blankly for a brief moment, and then he let out something that was between a squeak and a grunt as his eyes slowly crossed. For one timeless second, Buffy and Angelus just stood facing each other, neither moving nor saying anything.

Angelus's face, which had vamped out sometime during their fight, then reverted to normal. Those now-human, watering, crossed eyes, which had gone wide even before the pain registered, stared into nothingness as what rather looked like a constipated expression formed upon his handsome features.

Then the vampire grunted deep in his throat, before instinct kicked in and he grabbed his groin in a buckled posture that all males throughout the galaxy were familiar with. That was just before he fell backwards with a dull thud, body still pulled into that instinctive groin shield.

The entire time two very angry and confused lines of thought kept running through Angelus's evil, twisted, undead mind.

The first could be best expressed as, "OW, OW, OW! SON OF A BITCH!" Though it did occasionally include other curses and threats, many of which were aimed not only at Buffy but also the Gem's creators.

The second was more of an angry expression of his sheer disbelief, expressed generically as, "Why the HELL didn't that thing protect me against a kick to the nuts?! Were those bastards who made it women or what?!"

After what seemed an eternity the pain slowly began to recede, and Angelus noticed that he had finally regained control of his voice. So the vampire immediately shouted the first thing that popped into his head.

"YOU KICKED ME IN THE BALLS!" he shouted at Buffy, as if she weren't entirely aware of that fact. "YOU BITCH!" Rocking back and forth, Angelus said it again and again, as if he still couldn't believe she'd done it. "What the hell?!"

Meanwhile Buffy just stared at him, a stream of tears making their way down her cheeks. The pain in her heart was all the more evident as she angrily swiped at her traitorous eyes. Not once did Miss Summers look away from him, though, all the while she kept trying to remind herself that this wasn't the man she loved, not anymore.

Finally, after another thirty seconds, Angelus seemed to regain control over his own body. Grunting, he slid back and sat up, wincing slightly even as he smirked up at Buffy. "Can't do it, huh? You have me at your mercy, and you still can't finish it. You're pathetic!"

Angelus laughed cruelly. "I can see why ANGEL liked you so much. He was always pathetic, too!"

"Shut up!" the blonde girl snapped, her eyes flashing with a mix of pain and anger that had the vampire smiling viciously. Still she didn't do anything but stand there, holding her stake and glaring at him.

Forcing himself to his feet, Angelus took great care in dusting himself off, before he looked toward the sky for a moment. "Well, it's getting late. I'd love to stick around and play with you some more," he told her with a leer, "but I have a whole galaxy to rape and terrorize, starting with those two over there. So I'll just-"

Without warning Buffy darted forward, grabbed his right arm, and yanked the ring off his finger in one smooth motion. She then transitioned flawlessly into a spinning backhand strike, slamming the stake in her fist home through Angelus's back, even as he was just beginning to burst into flames.

And then, after performing her sacred duty of protecting the human race, the Slayer finally fell to her own knees, tears of tortured despair running down her cheeks as the ashes rained down gently on the alien soil.


Klorel's Ha'tak ship, in orbit around Earth

The same time

"Halt!"

The Goa'uld voice was enough to make the group turn around, and both the Jaffa and Daniel (whose weapons had been returned by now) took aim at the lone male standing there in ancient Egyptian clothing. They would have opened fire as well, if Lantesh hadn't shouted, "Wait! Khorem, is that you?"

"Fortunately for you, yes," the undercover Tok'ra spy on the ship hurried over and joined the group. "I had heard that you were aboard, Lantesh. Forgive me for not coming to your rescue, but I was unable to do so without being discovered and getting imprisoned alongside you."

"That doesn't matter now, old friend." Lantesh gestured to the others, "Khorem, this is-"

"Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, Bra'tac and his personal guard. Yes, I know," the host said rapidly. "Do you have some sort of plan to escape, by any chance?"

"Yeah, but dude, you've gotta leave this ship as well while you still can," Xander told him urgently. "We've got explosives placed to destroy it, in approximately...?"

"Sixteen minutes," Daniel checked his watch, wishing that he and Teal'c hadn't set the automatic timers with such a narrow safety margin after they'd arrived aboard.

"We should head for the Chappa'ai, then. Get word to my counterpart on board the Ha'tak of Apophis, and make our way to the new base on Abydos," Khorem told his fellow Tok'ra.

"Wait, wait, Abydos? What are you talking about?" Daniel demanded. "The Stargate there was buried not long after Sha're and Skaara were taken as hosts!"

"Uh, Dr. Jackson? I'm sorry, but I've sorta got some bad news concerning what's happened there recently..." Xander trailed off, as he knew that this wasn't the best time to tell the man that his wife was dead and her people wiped out.

"We have no time for this!" Bra'tac said fiercely.

"I concur. There is now only one option in order to prevent Hathor, Klorel and Apophis from destroying the Tau'ri homeworld – taking control of this ship, and ramming it into the other Ha'tak vessel just as it explodes," Teal'c said.

"A daring plan," Bra'tac nodded approvingly.

"Wait, wait, wait a minute. Aren't these ships supposed to be heavily shielded?" Daniel demanded.

"They are. Therefore we need to destroy the shield generators of both vessels in order to succeed," Teal'c said bluntly.

"I will see to the ones on this craft, and then bring my partner aboard in order for us to depart," Khorem volunteered. "Lantesh?"

"I will stay with them," Lantesh gestured to the others. "They will need all the help they can get in order to prevent the destruction of Earth."

"Good luck!" Khorem nodded, before hurrying off.

"Come!" Bra'tac led the way to the bridge. Once there he said to the others, "I will enter. You will follow when it is time."

"You're going in there all alone?" Daniel asked in incredulity

"I am Klorel's loyal servant," Bra'tac said to him with a slight smirk.

"How will we know when it's time to come in and back you up?" Xander asked.

"It will be obvious. Teal'c, kalach shal tek!"

Despite his impressive grasp of the language, there were some Goa'uld phrases which Jackson still didn't understand. "What does that mean?" Daniel asked as Bra'tac entered the bridge.

"Victory or death," Teal'c replied unemotionally.

A few seconds later, a loud and angry Goa'uld voice could be heard from the interior of the room. Daniel stayed outside to cover the rear as the rest of the good guys rushed inside, firing as they went. They managed to save Bra'tac from Klorel's hand device, and the ensuing firefight saw the enemy Jaffa get hit and go down before Klorel and Hathor were finally captured.

"Tal kek!" Klorel cursed, promising to kill his enemies one day as Teal'c held his host tightly around the throat.

"You will pay a hundred-fold for your crime of daring to lay hands upon us!" Hathor likewise promised Xander.

"You tortured me for nearly a week. Be silent or I will kill you – just like you and Klorel killed Amaunet," Lantesh promised her darkly, he was in no mood to tolerate the Goa'uld queen's god complex as Bra'tac began to adjust the ship's course.

"What of the host – the wife of DanielJackson?" Teal'c asked in concern, before the look on Xander's face answered his question.

"AGGH!" Daniel screamed out in pain just outside the bridge, his MP-5 weapon spraying bullets wildly during another firefight against the incoming Jaffa.

Xander and Teal'c ran outside at once after handing over their prisoners to Bra'tac's disciples, only to find Daniel bleeding and dying from a direct hit to the chest with a staff weapon.

"He is badly hurt. If I had a Tok'ra healing device, perhaps I could save him..." Lantesh began to say, examining Daniel's wounds.

"But you don't," Jackson whispered, as Teal'c opened fire on another Jaffa that showed up and killed him. "I'm dead anyway when this ship blows up and it hits the other one. Both of you, get out of here!"

"No, wait. Hathor's sarcophagus, I know where it is! Afterwards, we can use the Stargate to get outta here!" Xander said urgently.

Teal'c knew there was no other logical choice other than leaving Daniel here to die. He and his fellow Jaffa still had to transport over to Apophis' ship, disable the shields and sublight engines, and then – maybe – escape the upcoming inferno via the Death Gliders. "Very well. Go!"

Xander hoisted Daniel up and carried him away, the older man's blood leaking out onto the floor as he did so. After Harris had placed Jackson inside the healing device, the former Slayerette waited desperately for the Goa'uld machine to work its magic, knowing that time was most definitely running out.

Just as Xander and Lantesh were about to regretfully abandon Daniel, the sarcophagus opened up and Harris practically yanked Jackson bodily out of there. "Let's go!"

The two men ran for the Ha'tak ship's Gate room. When they got there, Daniel checked the timer on one of the C4 explosives placed in the area. "One minute, fifteen seconds! I'm going to dial the Alpha site-"

"No, wait! There is something Xander and I need to show you. So please, make it Abydos instead-" Lantesh started to say, before the whine of a zat'nik'tel weapon was heard and Xander's body collapsed unconscious to the floor, face-first.

"Indeed. That world suits us, for the moment," Hathor's alien voice echoed in the Gate room as she smirked at Daniel. The female Goa'uld had managed to escape from the rebel Jaffa by distracting them when they'd reached the transport rings – stabbing Skaara/Klorel with a hidden blade, and then running off. "We have greatly missed you, beloved."

"You..." Daniel choked out, even though he had no idea what he wanted to say next. Last year this woman – this Goa'uld – had bewitched him, and seduced him into cheating on his wife. Which, for the sake of his sanity, was something that Daniel had tried not to think about too often.

"We know of the crude explosives placed throughout this vessel; therefore, we suggest you hurry, beloved," Hathor's smirk grew larger. "Or else you and the Tok'ra shall both die here together."

Knowing that time was almost up, and there was nothing he could say that would sway her actions otherwise, Daniel reluctantly dialed the alien world he had called home for a year.

After Hathor had escorted Daniel through the wormhole, Xander/Lantesh woke up; and just as the timer on the C4 explosives reached zero, the Tok'ra operative hurled himself through the Stargate, scant instants before the entire ship exploded.


Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

A few moments later

Walter Harriman listened to the message coming in through his headset. He turned excitedly to General Hammond and said, "Sir, sir! We've got reports coming in from all over the country! A huge fireball in the night sky – NASA confirms, both Goa'uld ships are no longer there!"

The entire control room exploded into spontaneous cheers and celebrations, as Hammond went to get more details from his non-com and Willow grabbed Giles into a big hug.

"We've gotta work with these people more often," Miss Rosenberg said with a huge smile on her face.


The planet Abydos, approximately two hundred and seventy light-years from Earth

A few moments previously

Xander and Lantesh had no way to know that Apophis had killed his son AGAIN after Teal'c and Bra'tac had blasted their way through his ship and destroyed the shield generators, and that the System Lord had then safely departed via the transport rings.

Neither did they know that the Death Gliders containing Teal'c, Bra'tac and the other two Jaffa had been badly damaged when the two Ha'tak craft had exploded, and the quartet were now drifting downwards out of orbit, waiting to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

What they did know was that Hathor was pointing her weapon at them and saying, "You truly try our patience, Tok'ra filth. Now DIE!" Then, as Hathor opened fire, Daniel shoved her aim astray and Xander/Lantesh dived off to the side.

"You have disappointed us for the last time, beloved!" Hathor snapped out, as she activated her hand device and the yellow-orange light hit Daniel's forehead.

Suddenly, Hathor screamed in agony! She clutched the bloody stump as the shredded remains of her host's hand sailed off and landed on the ground. Daniel saw Xander, or maybe it was Lantesh, lower the smoking MP-5, whose bullets had blasted the hand device – and the hand attached to it – apart. Hathor subsequently kept on screaming, the Goa'uld queen was totally unused to this sort of pain.

"Dr. Jackson, are you all right?" Xander called out, keeping Hathor covered at all times as she began to bandage the wound.

"Yeah. Yeah, I-I think I'm actually starting to get used to that," Daniel muttered painfully, rubbing his forehead.

Just then, a contingent of Tok'ra showed up in the Abydonian Gate room. Having been briefed by the newly-arrived Khorem and his partner, they had arrived just in time to witness Hathor finally stop screaming, and so the alien rebels quickly took aim at her.

"What's going on here – oh my God, YOU'RE BACK!" Cordelia and Jolinar screamed in delight, as they grabbed their mate and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

"Uh, wait – what's going on? Where is everybody, where's Kasuf?" Daniel asked in confusion, as he looked around in search of his father-in-law.

There was no sign of any native presence as there had been the last time he'd been in this room, and Daniel suddenly began to get the creeping horrors with regard to the implications of that. ( No, no, no... )

"Oh, God – I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson," Xander said, still holding Cordelia in his arms as he turned to face Daniel. "I, I tried to tell you before – everyone on this planet was killed a few weeks back. Hathor, Klorel and Amaunet set their Jaffa loose on everyone around here – and I'm pretty sure Hathor was the one who killed Amaunet afterwards. And by extension, your wife."

Daniel's eyes went wide, then he picked up the zat'nik'tel weapon Hathor had dropped. He pointed it at the female Goa'uld and demanded, "Is that true?"

"We could spend the rest of eternity together, beloved. Do you not remember the pleasure that we once shared in our bedchambers?" Hathor did not want to sound like she was pleading for her life, but under the current circumstances...

"DID YOU KILL SHA'RE?!" Daniel screamed, almost totally losing it.

"Yes," Hathor finally admitted it.

"Right. Any last words?" Daniel hissed out, the rage having swallowed him whole. His arm was shaking as he pointed the zat weapon at Hathor.

"The Tok'ra and the Tau'ri will wither and die before the onslaught of the Goa'uld System Lords, and your world will be torn asunder once the inevitable wrath of the gods takes place," Hathor said to Daniel contemptuously, having figured out she was done for now.

"As one queen to another – that's what you think!!" Jolinar said, taking Cordelia's suggestion for the choice of wording and enjoying the priceless look of disbelief on Hathor's face.

Just before Daniel opened fire three times, and the female's body disintegrated into nothingness.

At long last Hathor was dead and gone, just like Klorel – even if Apophis was still out there somewhere.

To Be Concluded...