9/14 ~ Revelation

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"I see," Sam sighed into her phone. "Keep trying. Focus your search on castles.... Ten million, eight hundred and fifty two thousand, three hundred and eighty three and General O'Neill has to be in one of them... Thank you." Hanging up, she looked at Daniel and Teal'c, her eyes scared and her face weary. "The Prometheus' finished its scan," she told them. "They haven't found him."

"As Faith Lehane predicted," rumbled Teal'c impassively.

"Whatever kind of shields this castle's got, they're good," mused Sam.

"She called them wards..." Daniel said pensively.

"What is it?" Sam asked him. She recognised that look on his face. It was the look he got when he was trying to put his finger on a problem.

"It's just..." said Daniel. "Wards... Demons. She called her necklace an amulet... It's almost like she's from the Middle Ages."

"She was, in fact, born in nineteen eighty-three," Teal'c informed him, recalling the information from Faith's file with ease.

"Yes, thank you, I know that," Daniel said absently. "My point is... she believes in magic."

"Well, any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic, Daniel," Sam started to point out.

"On Earth?" Daniel questioned. "In the twenty-first century?"

"Are you suggesting that General O'Neill's disappearance was caused by magic?" asked Teal'c, raising both of his eyebrows.

"No," denied Daniel. "Yes. I don't know. She thinks it is though."

"I don't care how she did it," Sam told them. "I want to know where she sent General O'Neill."

"Maybe we should let her go," suggested Daniel.

"No!" Sam refused to consider it. "She's our only lead to the General."

"We could implant her with a GPS tracker," said Daniel. "Find out where she goes."

"Her destination is shielded," pointed out Teal'c.

"But at least we'd know where to start looking," replied Daniel.

"I'm going to call General Hammond," Sam decided, picking up her telephone. The head of Homeworld Security needed to know what had happened and there was a chance he might have some useful information or advice.

"No need, Colonel," a familiar voice said from the doorway and they turned to stare. "I'm already here."

"General Hammond!" Sam greeted him with a delighted smile, hanging up her phone. "What are you doing here?"

"The SGC's been making some interesting enquiries recently," Hammond said with a frown. "I thought I'd find out why. Where's Jack?"

"Uh..." said Sam.

"He's not here right now," Daniel told the General.

"Well, where is he?" demanded Hammond.

"He, sort of... disappeared?" offered Daniel with a wince.

Hammond went red, "What do you mean, disappeared?"

"Well, he was holding Faith's amulet at the time, sir," Sam started to explain. "And-"

"Faith?" Hammond interrupted her, turning purple. A look of dread entered his eyes and then he chased it away, demanding suspiciously, "Who's Faith?"

"Faith Lehane," Teal'c explained smoothly and General Hammond closed his eyes, the look of dread back in full force. "A human warrior of great skill. We encountered her in Los Angeles."

"General Hammond?" said Daniel, worried about him.

"Where is she now?" the General asked hoarsely, his eyes still shut and his colour faded.

"Locked in a cell on level sixteen," Sam informed him immediately, puzzled by his behaviour. He paled further, opening his eyes. "General?"

"Let her go," General Hammond said quietly.

"What?" asked Sam.

"Let her go!" ordered Hammond. "Now."

"Not that I'm not all in favour of that plan," said Daniel. "But why?"

"You have no idea who you're dealing with," Hammond informed them coldly. "Think yourselves lucky she didn't take it into her head to leave! And what the hell were you doing in LA? Jack's orders were to monitor the situation, not investigate it!"

Turning on his heel, he marched out of the room, leaving a shell-shocked SG-1 behind him. For about two seconds. Then they rushed after him.

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Jack focussed blearily on his captors. The familiar blonde and the pirate were talking quietly in the corner, glancing over at him frequently. Whatever they'd given him was starting to wear off now and he was hoping they hadn't noticed. Wasn't about time SG-1 beamed in?

The door opened instead and a petite red-haired woman walked into the room, shutting it behind her. Jack frowned. Where did he know her from?

"Wills!" greeted the pirate. "You're up! How you feeling?"

"I've been better," the red-head told him with a shaky smile. "Dawnie filled me in. Has he said anything?"

"Only his name, rank and serial number," the Pirate said irritably.

"And that he knows me," added the blonde.

"Huh," said the redhead, frowning, and Jack suddenly realised why she looked so familiar. Why they all did. "Weird... Ooh, maybe maybe he knows you from the Initiative!"

"Never met him," the blonde told her, shrugging.

"There were cameras all over that place," the pirate reminded them. "He could have seen footage."

"No, that doesn't work," the redhead frowned. "Because then he'd recognise Xander and me too from the whole spell to defeat Adam and the fight to get out and he doesn't recognise us, does he?"

Jack bit back the answer that was threatening to escape as the pirate shook his head, choking out his serial number instead. They turned to stare at him, the blonde's eyebrows arched. The pirate folded his arms, glaring at Jack.

"Well?" asked the redhead, a resolved look on her face. "Do you?"

Jack tried not to answer her. He really did. Against his will, his mouth opened... "Brigadier General Jack O'Neill," he gasped, unable to break eye contact. "Two l's."

"Answer me!" the redhead said firmly, her green eyes darkening as they bore deep into his head.

"Wills..." the pirate said gently.

"Yeah, I know you!" the truth burst from Jack's lips. He laughed bitterly before he admitted, "I dreamed you were a ghost once..."

"What?" asked the blonde, looking confused.

"You were a brunette," Jack told her wearily. "And you," he said, looking the pirate straight in the eye. "You were me."

"Ah, crap," cried the pirate, his arms falling to his sides. "We kidnapped Soldier Guy!"

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Sensing Teal'c's approach, Faith was waiting for him when they entered her cell, a bald guy in a snazzy uniform she hadn't seen before in front. They were all with him, Carter and Danny-boy as well as Teal'c. She stood up slowly, giving the new guy a onceover.

"Miss Lehane," he launched into speech immediately. "On behalf of the President, I'd like to apologise."

"The President, huh?" Faith said sceptically. "Get outta here."

"You are, of course, free to leave whenever you wish," the new guy assured her.

"This a trick?" Faith asked suspiciously.

"No," Daniel told her. "Still not sure on the why, but it's true."

"What about my stuff?" Faith wanted to know.

"You can have it back," the new guy said immediately.

"Except for your necklace," rumbled Teal'c. "That disappeared with General O'Neill."

"Your scans pick him up yet?" asked Faith.

"Not yet," Carter admitted through gritted teeth.

"Sucks to be you," commented Faith. She looked the newcomer in the eyes, "So what's your name?"

"General Hammond," he introduced himself. "Head of Homeworld Security."

"You know who I am?" she asked, mentally filing away the mention of a Homeworld Security as something for the watchers to investigate later. "What I am?"

"I do," he confirmed.

"Then you know I got questions about this place," she told him. "An' I won't be the only one askin'."

General Hammond nodded. "Give her the tour," he ordered. "I need to call the President."

"Still... not sure on the why..." Daniel sighed quietly to himself as General Hammond left the room.

As one, SG-1 turned to face Faith, formerly their captive and now suddenly, mysteriously, a VIP. Faith grinned up at them and Daniel suddenly shuddered as he flashed back to the look on Vala's face right before she'd headbutted him onboard the Prometheus. Satisfaction with a hint of smugness, like a cat who'd just got the cream or, possibly, the canary.

"So!" Faith cracked her knuckles, still grinning. "Tell me everything."

"Faith Lehane," Teal'c beamed at her as her grin fell away. "Welcome to Stargate Command."

"It's just Faith, T," Faith told him. "Let's start with the basics. Where are we? And please don't say the moon 'cos then I'd owe Andrew another five bucks."

"Colorado," Teal'c informed her. "Beneath Cheyenne Mountain."

"Hey," Sam said softly, smiling at Faith. "Now that we're friends and all, how 'bout you tell us where the General is?"

"General H?" asked Faith. "He said he had to call the President. Personally, I'm thinkin' he just wanted to duck out on the explanations."

"I meant General O'Neill," Sam said through her forced smile.

"Got that," Faith told her. She shrugged, "I dunno... Is Scotland part of England or not?"

"Jack's in Scotland?" Daniel perked up immediately, straightening and exchanging glances with Teal'c as Sam rushed to the phone to inform the Prometheus to concentrate their search on Scotland.

"Okay," Faith said to Daniel, folding her arms. "I told you what you wanted to know, now it's your turn to talk... What does Stargate Command do?"

"We explore other worlds and cultures, through an alien device we call the Stargate, obtaining new technologies where possible to help us defend the Earth against attack," Daniel informed her succinctly as Sam rejoined them.

Faith's jaw dropped. She'd landed in an episode of Andrew's favourite sci-fi show? Damn... there went another five bucks.