Chapter 10

Daniel's scream turned to a horrible keening and then was replaced by something even more terrible to Jack's ears: silence. Sudden, absolute silence. Oh, crap, crap, crap. He couldn't be too late! He pushed himself to run faster even as his chest was heaving from the effort. His knee sent shooting pains up his leg and he stumbled, but he righted himself and kept going.

In the early dawn light he could see that the trees were starting to thin, and he realized he was coming to a clearing. He slowed himself down and dropped behind some low brush at the edge, still gasping from his rush through the trees. He heard what sounded like chanting and raised his head to look cautiously through the leaves. Blood from a gash in his forehead dripped into his eye, and he wiped it away with his sleeve. He saw several very large people kneeling inside what looked like a circle of stones, and he realized with a shock that one of them was Teal'c, who seemed almost hunched over as if in pain. Shifting to get a better view, he saw other figures lying on the ground nearby; he couldn't tell if they were alive or dead. Just inside his view, he saw three men several yards away from Teal'c, also kneeling. But no Daniel. He raised his weapon slightly and risked sticking his head out farther to see what the chanters were staring at.

Oh, sweet Jesus. Daniel!

Daniel hung, feet dangling, from a post in the middle of the circle. His head jerked back and forth and the rest of his body jumped and danced as if at the end of a marionette's strings. Even in the dim light, Jack saw that his uniform was covered in blood.

Jack's body thrummed with the urge to go to his friend. And to kill the bastards responsible. He looked again at the gathered men and women. The three closest to Daniel had what looked like a sword and some kind of clubs. Even if Jack went in shooting, if one of them went after Teal'c or Daniel, he might not be fast enough to stop them. And who knew how many more people there might be hidden from view in the woods? Jack looked back at Teal'c, hoping for some sign that his friend was himself again, but no. He knew there was no way the Jaffa warrior would stand by and watch Daniel's torment if he were himself. The Teal'c he knew would rather die.

He was on his own.

"Makepeace?" he whispered into his radio.

"O'Neill? What's your situation?"

"I've found them. I've got to get to Daniel. I see five locals and Teal'c. I don't know if they'll try to stop me. I need your 20."

"Roger that, O'Neill. I can't be sure, but from the sound. . . . From the sound before it stopped, I estimate that we're fifteen, twenty minutes out, maybe less. Wait for us."

Jack looked toward Daniel and saw his head jerk up and twist back again to the side. His eyes were empty and his bloodied mouth was open in a soundless scream. Fifteen minutes? "Negative, Robert. I'm going in. Tell Fraiser to be ready. Out."

Jack crouched down, cursing his bum knee, and worked his way quickly through the woods until he was as close to Daniel as he could get, maybe fifteen yards away, then stood up, weapon at the ready, and stepped out into the clearing.

He walked steadily toward Daniel from the side, ready to fire at the first hostile move, but no one even looked in his direction. Jack's hands shook with the urge to shoot anyway. The bastards were just kneeling there watching, watching. . . . Jack clenched his jaw and kept walking. God, what was making him jerk like that? What had they done to him?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Teal'c straighten up and look at him. His eyes were cold and red-rimmed. His mouth turned down with a sneer, but he didn't move in Jack's direction, so Jack kept walking. He hoped to God that Teal'c didn't try to stop him.

Almost there. He could hear Daniel now. Not silent, as Jack had thought, but making hoarse, whimpering sounds as his body continued its macabre dance. There was blood everywhere, down the front of his ripped and soiled uniform, dripping from his mouth and nose and his bruised cheek, turning the rope around his wrists red.

One of the men with the clubs started to get up, as did the woman behind Teal'c, but in each case a hand of a comrade halted their progress. The two knelt again, and the chanting grew louder. Teal'c remained silent, but with a look that chilled Jack to the bone. "Please, Teal'c," he thought. "Don't try to stop me."

He reached Daniel's side. He didn't know how to help him without hurting him, but he had to get him down. Jack let his weapon hang, keeping a wary eye on the chanters, and reached for his pocket knife. When he opened the blade, the woman shouted out something that sounded like no and then, "Kree!" and more that he couldn't understand. At the "Kree" he looked again and noticed the tattoos for the first time. "Crap," he muttered. Was there a Goa'uld here after all?

He had to stretch to get to the ropes holding Daniel to the post. He reached up with one hand and tried to hold onto Daniel with the other to support him, but it was no good. He let go of Daniel and grabbed the rope and sawed through it. Daniel's arm dropped and he was hanging from one bloody wrist, and he gave a short high-pitched cry, but his body kept jerking and the pain of whatever was causing it consumed him again. Jack reached for the other arm, and he heard the woman yell something again. He looked, ready to go for his weapon, but neither she not the others rose to stop him. There eyes, however, were now filled with fear, and one of the men shuffled back as if ready to run.

Jack saw him and remembered the looks on the faces of the ones he'd seen fleeing through the woods. He wondered what horror they thought he was about to unleash but forced the thought down and focused on Daniel. This time he pushed his own body against Daniel's to try to keep him up as he cut through the second rope, and when the rope gave way he caught his friend and in a controlled fall they both hit the ground.

The chanting stopped abruptly, and Jack quickly disentangled himself from Daniel and raised his P-90, but the four men and the woman seemed frozen in place, and even Teal'c had a look of fear in his eyes. If Teal'c was afraid. . . .

Jack turned back to Daniel, whose eyes looked unseeingly upward as he continued to convulse. Jack put his arms around his friend and as gently as he could turned him on his side to keep him from choking. More blood trickled from Daniel's mouth, and Jack hoped that didn't mean what he thought it did. He didn't know where to begin. It seemed that there was no part of Daniel's body that wasn't bruised, swollen and bloody, and the infernal jerking was getting worse.

Where the hell were Makepeace and Fraiser? Jack reached for his radio, but just then Daniel's body arched upward and a hoarse scream was wrenched from his throat. Dammit! Jack went to grab Daniel, to hold him, not knowing what else to do, when he felt something icy flow into his hands.

Shit, shit, what was that? Something gray and ghostlike was rising from Daniel's body and sending tendrils toward Jack, and he scrambled backwards. The shadow pulled out of Daniel, bringing another agonized scream with it and letting the battered body crash limply to the ground. "Daniel!" Jack cried. He started to move back toward his teammate, but the shadow split into dozens of smaller vibrating shapes that spun around the Air Force colonel in closer and closer circles. Already he could feel them eating at him, tearing at his insides, and he let out a yell and closed his eyes.

Then, just as suddenly, he felt something else, something . . . good, and the ice in his heart weakened and the shadows withdrew, releasing him. He heard someone shouting, something that sounded like the Church Latin from his childhood, "Dei boni de silban!" and he wondered briefly if he was dead. He opened his eyes and saw that pulsing lights had replaced the shadows, and he remembered the light in the forest that had led him here and the comforting touch before he awoke in the woods.

He sat up carefully, and the lights moved back and rose to the treetops. He blinked and shook his head. What the hell? What just happened? He felt dazed, as if he were trying to think through thick gauze.

A strangled, rattling sound brought him back to the present, and he looked down to see Daniel, still battered and bloody, with a look of panic in his eyes, trying to breath. Shit! Whatever it was had saved him but left Daniel? Jack jumped forward and leaned over his friend.

Daniel looked at Jack, pleading. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Jack watched in horror as his friend, still curled up on his side, lost his struggle to breath.

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Teal'c felt his power return as he saw the dark shadows flee, taking their evil with them. He smiled, pleased with himself for his tactic of waiting and dismissing the fear that had so recently paralyzed him. Now the two Tau'ri lay before him, like sacrificial lambs.

He watched as O'Neill leaped up and bent over DanielJackson, then turned the limp body and began to try to breathe life into it. Teal'c frowned. It would be a pity if he were robbed of this chance to continue the torture of the weak Tau'ri scholar, and indeed, it did seem as if O'Neill's efforts would be in vain. He heard the gray-haired man pleading desperately as he performed CPR. "C'mon, Daniel, dammit. C'mon!" And then he would lean back in and start again. Tears welled in the man's eyes, and Teal'c was filled with disgust that he had ever followed this man, that these two and the female scientist had ever dared to consider themselves his equal. Teal'c let out a growl and started to rise. The man and woman, still behind him, tensed, but he ignored them. He might have been denied one victim, but he would take great pleasure in sending O'Neill to his death.

Before Teal'c could stand, however, O'Neill himself stood and looked toward the treetops, where the lights still hovered.

"Help him!" he shouted, tears streaming down his face. "You can help him! Please, you helped me, now help him!"

The voice echoed in Teal'c's head, and he remembered another time, another shouted plea. "I can save these people! Help me! Help me," O'Neill had proclaimed once. Teal'c felt a moment of confusion as strange thoughts and emotions churned in his mind and gut. Hadn't he believed the man that time? Hadn't he believed in him?

Teal'c shook his head, angry at himself for even entertaining such notions. He watched O'Neill standing there, looking up into the trees, and laughed harshly at the foolishness of the man to think that he could influence the actions of spirits such as those. O'Neill turned to look at him, his brown eyes filled with anger, and turned away again. Teal'c noticed, though, that he clutched his Earth weapon more tightly, and he laughed loudly again. The hasshak was right to fear him. "You will die now at my hand, O'Neill!" he yelled.

As O'Neill turned slowly toward him, Teal'c heard a gasp behind him, and another of the false Jaffa in before him cried out, but neither was in reaction to Teal'c's vow. They were looking up toward the lights. Teal'c reluctantly tore his eyes from his prey and looked upward as well. The lights were returning!

O'Neill must have seen something change in Teal'c's face, for he looked up also, then stepped back as if to give the strange spirits room. They swept down and surrounded DanielJackson, some seeming to sink into his skin, some remaining above him. Teal'c watched with fascination as DanielJackson took a sudden shuddering breath, then nothing, then one more breath, then nothing, then another until soon there was an even rise and fall of his chest. The man so recently dead let out a piteous moan and opened his eyes. "Jack?" he whispered.