Chapter 10

Jack came to slowly. He tried to shake the fuzz out of his head, groaning as the movement sent a searing pain through his skull. Damn, he hated being zatted. He intended to bring his hand down to rub his aching head only to realize that it wouldn't budge. A moment of panic set in as he tried desperately to move his arms and legs.

His eyes clearing a bit, he lifted his head to take in his surroundings and immediately wished he hadn't. They were now in the pleasure room. Next to him was Daniel, still out cold, with his hands bound together above his head in cuffs attached to a chain hanging from the ceiling of the room. His ankles were likewise cuffed and attached to a chain in the floor. Jack looked up at his own arms and down toward his legs and realized that he was similarly restrained.

Opposite him was Sam, who was also bound, but instead of hanging from the ceiling, her wrists and ankles were trapped in cuffs attached to the wall. She was dressed only in her tank top and underwear, her scantily clad form making an X against the stone wall. Thankfully, she was alert and seemed to be unharmed.

When he looked at her, she ever so slightly jerked her head toward the corner of the room. There Jack saw Loren, pacing back and forth, a wild look around his eyes. He was mumbling, and it sounded as if he was having some sort of conversation with himself. Jack could only catch bits and pieces.

"She's mine!...But I don't want to kill her – I want her...I have to kill them?...She'll be mad...No! I said I don't want to kill her….Don't make me kill her!"

Jack looked around the room again but didn't see anyone other than the four of them. He tried to listen closely to Loren's conversation, but he was certain he could only hear one side of it.

Jack took advantage of Loren's distraction to test his restraints. They were made of a strong metal that was cutting into his skin. He pulled hard on both the wrist and ankle cuffs, to no avail. He was stuck fast. As he swept the room with his eyes, he noticed a table off to one side, near Loren. On it sat Daniel's handgun and zat, too far away to be of any use even if he could somehow manage to free his hands.

In the meantime, Daniel had roused and was watching Loren carefully. "Who are you talking to, Loren?" he asked in a calm voice.

Loren whipped his head around to face the archeologist. His eyes were red-rimmed and glazed over. "The Goa'uld." At Daniel's puzzled look, he continued. "Don't you see them? They're right here."

Jack, Daniel, and Sam looked around the room and then at each other. They were clearly alone, save for themselves and Loren. Sam shook her head slightly at Jack. He, in turn, gave Daniel a look that conveyed what they were all thinking – that Loren had lost his grip on reality.

"There aren't any Goa'uld here, Loren," Daniel replied, maintaining his calming tone.

Loren snapped. "They are here! They've always been here!" He brought his hands up to cover his ears and began shaking his head back and forth violently. "No, no, no! I don't want to!" He turned to look at Daniel, desperation written all over his face. "Don't you hear them? I always hear them. They tell me what to do." He was trembling now and crying. "I don't want to hear them anymore. I just want them to go away."

Loren's demeanor shifted abruptly, and he turned to stare at Daniel with an eerie calm. His voice just above a whisper, he looked straight at the archeologist with narrowed eyes. "They want me to kill you."

Daniel tried again. "Loren, look, these voices…"

"Shut up!" he yelled suddenly. "You have to shut up or they'll make me kill you!"

"Daniel." Jack spoke his friend's name, his voice low, intended as a warning.

True to form, Daniel would not be deterred. "Loren, these voices you're hearing. They're not real. You don't have to listen to them…."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Loren quickly picked up the gun from the table, pointed it in Daniel's general direction, and began pulling the trigger. Bullets went flying, and Jack ducked his head in an effort to protect himself in the only way he could.

When the noise of gunfire stopped, he looked over at Sam, who was still attempting to shield her face in her shoulder but otherwise appeared uninjured. He turned his attention to Daniel and sucked in a breath. The archeologist's body had gone limp, and he was hanging from the wrist restraints attached to the ceiling. Jack could see blood all over the front of his shirt, but it was impossible to tell where the bullet – or bullets – had hit him.

"Daniel!" he yelled, hoping against hope to get a response from his friend. "Daniel!" he tried again, his voice catching this time. Daniel didn't move.

Jack vaguely heard Sam crying and calling Daniel's name, but he was distracted by the white hot rage he felt building inside of him. He stared at the teen in front of him who, inexplicably, was also sobbing.

"See what you made me do," he pleaded with Daniel's still form.

"No." Jack's voice was harsh. "You did this all on your own."

Loren immediately spun to face Jack. "It should have been you. They wanted me to kill you all along. They told me from the beginning that if I just got rid of you, I could have her."

Jack's voice was low and dangerous. "That would never happen, Loren, and you know it."

"You're just like my father," Loren spat out the words, his voice full of contempt. "You corrupted her. I saw the things you did to her. You're the one who made her unworthy; you made her not want me."

"Is that why you killed your father and mother, Loren? Because they didn't want you?" Jack stared straight at the deranged teen.

Loren's face looked momentarily pained. "I had to kill him. They told me it was the only way to get her back. But then my mother…" Loren stopped for a moment and looked at the ground, uncertain. His face hardened and he looked back up at Jack. "My mother tried to protect him. She shouldn't have done that. I had to kill her, too. Just like I'm going to kill you!"

Loren brought the gun up again and attempted to shoot it at Jack, but it just clicked uselessly, the clip now empty. Disgusted, he flung it to the ground and picked up the zat.

Sam gasped. Jack had already been zatted once. A second shot would surely kill him. "Loren, please, no!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face.

Ignoring her, Loren brought the zat up and aimed it at Jack, his face a mask of pure hatred. As he moved his finger to the trigger, Jack looked at Sam trying to convey with his eyes all that he had meant to tell her.

Loren's voice was cold and bitter. "Kek kel shak."

Zat fire rang out through the room, and Jack jerked reflexively in anticipation of the pain and then felt – nothing.

When he realized he had been squeezing his eyes shut, Jack carefully opened first one, then the other. He looked right at Sam, who was smiling through her tears. He returned her smile, and was surprised to discover that not only was he still alive but that Sam was looking right past him.

"Teal'c!" she exclaimed.

Jack twisted around and attempted to look behind his back. The large Jaffa was instantly at his side and began releasing him from his restraints. "T! Thank God. What happened? How'd you find us?"

"General Hammond sent me to locate you when you neglected to check in. I heard gun fire and followed the sound to this room. When I entered, I observed Loren intending to harm you, so I disabled him."

Jack looked across the room and saw Loren lying unconscious on the floor. "You zatted him?"

"Indeed." And with that, the last of Jack's restraints was undone.

Jack rubbed his wrists and turned toward the Jaffa. "Teal'c, Daniel needs help." He hoped his friend was still alive to help.

Teal'c immediately turned his attention to Daniel, while Jack rushed to Sam and began releasing her wrists and ankles. When she was free, she let out a sob and fell into his arms. He held her tightly, burying his face in her neck. "Did he hurt you?"

"No," she whispered, holding on to him. He squeezed her once and released her. They both turned toward Daniel and Teal'c.

"How is he, T?"

"He he is alive, O'Neill. But I believe we should return to the SGC as soon as possible."

By the time they returned to the main room of the palace, Daniel had regained consciousness and was able to walk with assistance. The bullet that struck him had gone straight through his shoulder. Although there was a lot of blood loss, Jack figured he would make a full recovery once Janet was able to patch him up.

Loren was still out, but Jack was taking no chances. He had bound the teen's feet and hands, and Teal'c had him in a fireman's carry for the trip back through the Stargate. Jack watched as half his team walked through the blue event horizon, with one mentally disturbed young man in tow.

Sam and Jack stayed near the 'gate, and true to his word, Teal'c, along with General Hammond and Dr. Frasier, called back within the hour to give them an update on Daniel.

"He's doing fine, Colonel," reported the doctor. Sam and Jack were standing next to one another in front of the MALP's camera. "In fact, I'm planning to send him back to you to complete his detox tomorrow. But I want to keep him under observation for 24 hours, just to be on the safe side."

"What about Loren?" Jack asked.

Janet sighed. "That's another story entirely. He was frantic once he regained consiousness – he kept saying 'the voices' were telling him he should have killed you. I've had to keep him restrained. I gave him a strong sedative, and last I checked, he was catatonic."

Sam furrowed her brow. "Any ideas what might have caused this, Janet?"

"Actually, yes. I took a brain scan, and his looks similar to those of patients suffering from schitzophrenia. If he is schitzophrenic, there's no telling what he was seeing or hearing, but to him, it would have seemed very real."

Jack and Sam looked at each other in surprise. Janet continued. "Daniel told me about the journal he found. I have a theory. I suspect that prolonged exposure to the light device causes schitzophrenia – or something similar to it – in humans. I think it was the human servants who killed the Goa'uld guests when the palace was in operation." She paused and took a breath. "In Loren's case, his behavior was probably triggered when you started turning the device down. The fact that he has recently gone through puberty may have exacerbated his reaction."

Sam looked worried. "Janet, I heard things, too. So did Daniel."

"I think that was most likely Loren," Jack said. "He knew about the hidden passageways, and he'd been spying on you the entire time, Carter." He hadn't told her about the camera or the fact that they had been watched yet, and frankly he wasn't sure he was going to. Janet's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"I agree, Sam. I think this condition is something that develops only after months, maybe even years, of exposure."

Sam thought of something else. "Janet, he said something in Goa'uld before he tried to shoot the Colonel. How could he know their language?"

"Daniel thinks he may have picked it up from his parents, who he suspects were anthropologists, or maybe he just figured it out over the years. Some individuals who suffer from mental disorders like schitzophrenia are also geniuses."

Sam considered this information. She still wasn't sure how she felt about the teen after all that had happened, but she was far more sympathetic now that she knew he suffered from a mental disorder. "Is there anything you can do to help him?"

"I'm going to work with Dr. MacKenzie to see if we can't find a pharmaceutical regimen that will help with his symptoms. Most schitzophrenics do quite well when properly treated, and I'm hoping that will be the case with Loren."

Hammond broke in. "Speaking of MacKenzie, Major, I want you to talk to him after you return."

Sam's face fell, but Jack just grinned at her. "Have fun with that, Carter."

"I want you to talk to him, too, Colonel," Hammond said quickly. "This experience has undoubtedly affected all of you."

Sam gave her CO a smug look. He grimaced. "D'oh!"

"Is there anything else you two need right now?" Hammond asked.

"No, sir, I think we are fine for the moment," Jack responded. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "Actually, sir," he said with a small grin, "we could use a new telescope." He reached down out of the view of the camera and grabbed Sam's hand, giving it a light squeeze. He was rewarded with a dazzling smile from his 2IC.

"We'll see what we can do, Colonel. Hammond out."

After the wormhole disengaged, Jack turned to face Sam. "So, Major, any ideas about what we're going to do all alone in a Goa'uld pleasure palace for the next 24 hours?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll think of something," she said, as she stepped closer to him, her voice low and rough.

Jack cupped her face with his hand and brought his lips down to hers. Sam was getting a bit carried away with the kiss, when suddenly she heard what sounded like a low chuckle. She gasped and pulled back from Jack.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered to him.

"It was just the wind, Sam," he replied.

"But..." she started.

"The wind, Major," he said a second time, with more authority. Then his lips were on hers again, and she no longer cared whether it was the wind or not.

The End

A/N - This story has been bouncing around in my head ever since I first saw The Light. I always thought there was something not quite right about the character of Loren, and I wondered how the team spent their weeks in detox, especially Jack and Sam, since they were still fresh from their experience as Jonah and Thera.

Thanks to all of you who have followed this fic, and especially those who have reviewed, commented, or requested an alert. It's my first fanfic, so it's always good to know people are reading it, and I would love to hear your thoughts, positive or negative. I've discovered that reviews are quite addictive and very motivating!

I've thought about posting a T-rated version, so if you have any interest in that, please shoot me a note.

Finally, a special thank you to MidKnight Rider for the idea of including the Goa'uld phrase, which I think means something like "Now you die."