Author Notes: For those who are erroneously just now tuning in - :-P - Jack is still on SG1, Sam is still a Major, Teal'c still has his symbiote, and Lost very mildly co-incides with what's happening currently.
Sorry this is such a late update. Been very busy lately. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can. :)
Final Destination
Episode #10: Open Your Eyes
By Osiris-Ra Several Days Previously, Elsewhere On The Island...
"Do you not believe that your soul will be forever punished?"
Teal'c remembered. The screaming faces of the innocent victims who's lives he took as the First Prime of Apophis seared through his mind.
"The Goa'uld are parasites." He had told Raknor aboard Tarok's mother ship.
"They use Jaffa as incubators until they are ready to take human hosts. I have seen the world from which they originated. I have stood beside the swamps from which they first rose. They are merely flesh and blood just like you or I!"
"LIES!" Raknor had seethed. Teal'c had shot back, furious and near tears.
"Why would I lie! If there was a chance that they were Gods, if I thought that my soul would be forever punished, why would I lie? They have manipulated our bodies. So, too are they manipulating our minds with false beliefs!"
Teal'c's eyes snapped open. For a moment, his body felt cold and numb, as if it were attached but was no longer able to function. Then warmth and energy surged back into his muscles and he sat up quickly. He was in blue boxers, lying on a bed. A thin layer of hair had begun to grow, which he felt with surprise as he smoothed a hand over his head. His hand went to his stomach. Something was different. Something had gone silent in his head. That voice that used to be there when he was in danger, that singular, slightly hateful voice was gone. So was his symbiote pouch. His lifted his shirt. His belly was normal. Smooth toned muscle was all he saw.
Well of course. What else would be there?
He lowered his shirt, then pulled away the covers. As the familiar crisp coolness of the sheets slithered past his bare legs, he remembered there was something important he had to do.
It was just a dream. He was awake now. Back in the real world.
He padded across the room to a small door. It was a bathroom. He entered and glanced at his reflection in the mirror for a moment. A hand went to his forehead. There used to be something there…what a weird dream that had been. Shaking off the déjà vu, he turned the shower nozzle on full blast.
Back In The Present...
Eko sat next to Ana. She seemed very serious since the newcomers had arrived. He'd seen her speaking to the Colonel. He was wary of the Colonel. There was something about him he didn't trust. And regarding Ana's reaction to him, something was definitely afoot. He couldn't help feeling that, for the past few days, she'd been planning something.
"Tell me, Ana. What's on your mind?"
Ana didn't say anything, just continued looking ahead grimly.
"Is it that man?"
"What man?"
"The one from the new group. Who came with Carter."
"O'Neill? No." She spoke as if to make herself sure of her own words.
"Are you sure?" Eko's eye widened curiously. He studied her face.
Ana stared at him briefly before turning her gaze back out to sea.
Eko shifted positions. "Does it have something to do with what happened in the jungle?"
"What, you mean the monster thing?"
"O'Neill and Carter said something about a Stargate. I didn't think much of it until we got back to camp."
Her silence smacked of dissociation. Eko's brows furrowed into a curious glare.
"Is that what you've been talking to him about?"
Ana looked at Eko for a moment. How much longer would she have to keep O'Neill's secret? She had been thinking on telling someone anyway, when things got worse...when it was the last resort maybe…maybe she would…but maybe it was a bad idea…
"Hey!" O'Neill's voice broke into the tense silence. The duo turned to see the Colonel running up towards them. He jogged up, slightly out of breath.
"Sorry to break this up – either of you seen Carter?"
"No. Haven't seen her for a couple days now. Why?"
"She's gone. She was in the hatch, now she's not – we found some blonde guy knocked out, the safe's been broken into and there are weapons and food missing. You're sure you guys didn't see something? Me and Jack asked everyone –"
"We didn't." Ana replied.
O'Neill exhaled. "All right." Squinting slightly from the sun, he left. Ana watched him go, then returned her gaze to the ocean. Eko stayed quietly beside her, watching, and thinking his own thoughts. Both felt they were being left out of something, not being told some vital piece of information. Out of the loop, as usual. Eko didn't so much mind being out of the loop. He relied on his senses and on watching peoples behavior. It was better to know what was happening by sight and hearing, then by pushing oneself into the centre of where the action was. Certainly watching people didn't give others a lot of answers - unless you were willing to share what you knew - but if you were less known as a learned person, there was less chance of blowing ones cover, hence, hindering ones infiltration prowess. Ana worked differently. She liked to be in the centre of things. Stealth was required sometimes, of course, but as cops have it, the more one is known to know and the more one professes knowing, the more people who don't want certain things to be found out about them will be liable to make a slip. And when the slip is made, the openly knowledgeable people will be the first to expose everything, and bring the liars to their knees.
The sun shone brightly through the canopy of the trees upon the two travellars walking down a very faint path in the jungle.What could Sam make of the figure walking ahead of her? His strides long, confident and focused, never missing a beat, apparently in the know as to where he was heading, and consistantly cryptic to the clueless Major.
But in actuality, she knew where she was going. Right? After all, if the guy was a subconscious manifestation, somewhere, deep inside of her, she knew the answers to any questions she posed forth. She just needed a nudge in the right direction.
Her rational side gnawed at her, screaming at her to stay in reality. Whatever that was. She kept remembering Colonel O'Neill's question. How was she to know she wasn't being played by the orchestrators of the things pulled on her on the Island? The same ones who'd taken part of her memories could be part of this. She might as well be working for them, and snaring other innocent people into their trap. A surge of guilt washed over Sam.
"You're doing the right thing." Carlisle said, still walking confidently ahead. Sam stared. He's saying what I want to hear him say.
"I know what you're starting to think of me, Carter. You think I'm leading you and the rest of them into a trap. Well, maybe I am. But think of it this way, any one of those guys back there could have seen something like me. Why you? And why are you the only one who has taken action?"
Sam was silent. She didn't know. Frankly, it wasn't fair it had to be her. She was usually the cool headed, logical one with a good portion of the answers. Now, as O'Neill might say, she had zip, nada, zero.
Carlisle answered his question cheerfully. "Because you're smart. And you're intuitive, and you feel things, in your heart. And most of all you want to get home, isn't that right?"
Sam stopped. She leaned against a tree for a moment. Carlisle approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust yourself, Sam. Open your eyes now, in the end you'll see things so much clearer.
He turned. "We need to keep moving. We don't want to still be in the jungle come night. Come on Major, get your feet up."
To Be Continued...