I pledge allegiance
to the underworld
one nation under dog
there of which I stand
alone
a face in the crowd
unsung, against the mould
without
a doubt,
singled out
the only way I know - Minority Green
Day
The banana scene in the last chapter was dedicated to all the OJBs out there.
Thanks again for the reviews guys – hope you like the next bit.
Extract in text from Leviathan
Jonas stroked the stitches in his forehead, his gaze resting on the desk in front of him. Sam reached across and gripped the young man's hand. "Are you sure about this Jonas?" She asked.
He nodded a reply, without looking up. "It was her Sam," he said quietly.
Colonel O'Neill glanced though the open doorway and tapped his watch, "hey, you two, briefing room, now."
Sam gathered her notes together and looked across at the alien who remained sitting. "Jonas?"
The Kelownan shook his head and stood up giving the Major a cheerless smile; they joined O'Neill in the corridor.
Jack placed his hands in his pockets. "So what is it about Daniel that makes him a vacation hotspot for rogue entities?" It was said lightly but no one smiled.
Sam shot O'Neill an anxious look, gesturing towards Jonas with a slight nod of her head. Jack knew better than to mouth his well practiced, 'what?'
A loud sneeze rocked the corridor from behind them, making them turn to investigate. Nurse Stoughton gave an embarrassed and apologetic smile from behind a man-sized tissue, "summer cold," she acknowledged, quickly giving her nose a deafening blow.
Jack grimaced and ushered Jonas and Sam into the briefing room, taking their customary places across from Teal'c and General Hammond.
"How are you feeling Mr Quinn?" The General enquired looking down the table at the young man.
"A slight headache, Sir," Jonas conceded, scratching the back of his neck.
"That could still be from the alcohol," Jack injected, drawing a slight smile from the Kelownan.
"How's Daniel, Sir?" Sam asked, looking to Hammond.
"He's under observation for the time being but shows no signs of any physical or mental damage. I afraid he doesn't remember the altercation with Jonas or who or what possessed him."
Sam turned her gaze to the Kelownan, "Jonas?"
The alien sighed but did not respond. General Hammond frowned, "Mr Quinn do you have any idea what attacked you?" It was more than a question.
Jonas looked at Sam, pushing the pen, he had been holding, across the desk in front of him, focusing on it. "It was Cassandra," he said clearly.
"What?" Jack lent forward, towards the Kelownan, in a doubtful manner.
"Jonas thinks it was Cassandra," Carter reiterated, her worried eyes holding the Colonel's gaze.
O'Neill looked from his 2IC to the young alien. "As in, 'I'm dead but ascended' Cassandra Fraiser?"
Jonas stared at him, "yes." Again the acknowledgement was definite; he even nodded his head.
"How is that possible?" Teal'c posed.
"I don't know," the Kelownan shrugged, "but I sensed her and, and another in Daniel, maybe he brought her back."
"She took a friend? What was this like some weird possession party?"
General Hammond held up his hand, "Jack." O'Neill sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. The General continued, "Jonas if it was Cassandra, then why would she attack you?"
The alien ran his finger over the stitches, "she's not the same." He looked around the table, "she, she has let the darkness inside consume her," it was almost said as if he was trying to justify her actions.
The statement hung in the air. "As in 'crossed to the dark side'?" O'Neill's eyebrows rose.
Sam grimaced but Jonas answered with an audible, "yes." He fiddled with his ring for a moment and then looked up. "She's much stronger than she ever was."
"Now that is bad news," Jack reflected, letting out a sigh.
"We believe that Cassandra used the same device to inhabit Daniel, which Anubis and Ragnarok used when they possessed her," Sam explained.
"The ancient device," Teal'c stated; the Major nodded.
"It's just speculation," Carter continued, "but we think its real function is as a medical tool."
"How so?" Hammond asked.
"That the Ancients used it so their consciousness could inhabit a patient's body to enable them to accurately diagnose and treat an illness." Sam looked around the table, "if you remember, Cassandra was just getting over glandular fever when Ragnorak and Anubis occupied her."
Teal'c nodded, "and Daniel Jackson has had a cold for several days."
"Making it easy for someone of Cassandra's abilities to enter in Daniel's consciousness," Jonas added.
"And Daniel was not aware of her sharing his space?" Jack asked, leaning forward on his arms.
The Kelownan shook his head, "I think she must have been observing without taking control of Doctor Jackson. We would have noticed, before now, if she had."
"We?" Jack clarified.
"Yes Colonel," Jonas sounded tired, he chewed his lip, searching their faces and rubbing his forehead.
"Jonas?" Sam voiced some alarm.
"Sorry, I just don't know how to put this."
"Take your time son," the General coaxed.
"Cassandra's only a half being."
There was silence, again he looked at their expectant faces, "…she is only partly alive."
O'Neill shook his head, "nope sorry Jonas…"
"Cassie made a pact to return, a dark pact which only allowed that side of herself to be reborn. The good in her, the, the light, was left behind; it's…, it's still 'dead' for want of a better word. That's why when she possessed Daniel he was cold to the touch and there was a chill in the air…"
"So we all would have noticed if he had been taken over before," Sam nodded her head as she spoke.
"Right," Jack confirmed clicking his fingers; the table looked at him.
"So the remaining question is what was she observing?" Hammond demanded.
They were silent for a moment, Carter spoke up. "We think it could be the frescoes."
"From P5S119?" The Jaffa submitted.
"Yes," Jonas responded, "after analysing their content, we believe that there could be an Atlantis connection in their translation."
"But you haven't found it yet?" Jack stated.
"No sir," Jonas shook his head, "but Doctor Jackson was going back to the planet to look over the ruins for himself."
"Surely it would have been more prudent for Cassandra to wait until after Daniel Jackson's return before exposing herself," the Jaffa proposed.
"Not if she wanted to stop us from extracting their true meaning, Teal'c," Sam countered. "Both Jonas and Daniel have been working on them…"
"So the little minx inhabited one to take out the other," Jack surmised.
"It would seem so Sir," Carter replied.
"Mr Quinn," Hammond addressed the young man who was busy with his own thoughts, "you said you felt another presence in Doctor Jackson's body?"
The Kelownan looked up, "it was very weak, General, but it was familiar to me." He rubbed his temple, squinting his eyes, "it was like a vague memory, one you sometimes get with a smell or a tune. It, it felt Kelownan."
"Strange how all paths lead back to Ba'al," O'Neill announced.
"It would make sense, Sir," Carter voiced, "we know Ba'al lead both us and Osiris to Anubis' stronghold, therefore it would be rational to assume that he would have stripped the base of any advanced technology that would help him in his conquest. Like the 'medical' device," she added in clarification.
"Oh I never assume Carter," replied Jack with raised eyebrows, looking towards the Kelownan; he was sure Jonas was not telling them everything.
Jonas seemed to be at the fringe of their conversation. He tried to concentrate but their words seemed to float passed like cobwebs on the wind. He watched Sam's mouth move but all he heard was the breeze ruffling the tall pine trees. Colonel O'Neill said something but all that Jonas heard was the agitated sound of a wood pigeon's wings trying to gain flight. He looked towards Teal'c but the Jaffa diminished into the waters of a lake. The meeting disappeared.
He felt the warm rays of a fat and compliant sun affectionately stroke his back, while around him the landscape basked. He turned round in a full circle, a man in a daze, deju vu shattering his thoughts.
"We were happy here." Jonas looked towards the gentle voice; Cassandra was led on a woollen blanket gazing at the sky, her one hand rolling a lollypop in her mouth.
She turned onto her side and rested her head on the flat of her hand, "this was our chocolate box moment."
"How…?"
She smiled, catlike, "I'm in your mind Jonas, we still have that connection." She took the sweet from her mouth and patted a space beside her; Jonas declined.
"Can you feel it; can you still feel how much I love you?" She had disappeared from the blanket and was stood behind him, lips close to his ear.
Jonas felt her dominance fill his mind, "I only feel your hate," he whispered, staring straight ahead.
"Love, hate they're all the same just as life and death," she crossed her arms around his neck, laying her head on its nape.
"They say you never forget your first, Jonas, and I haven't; even in death. It was me who saved you back on Kelownan, I told Sam to open the Iris to let you through; doesn't that deserve a kiss, at least?"
The young man turned his head away, Cassandra laughed. "For some reason I still want you, Jonas, even now. Maybe it's the goodness in you that I'm drawn to just as you're drawn to the darkness in me." She began to press her lips to his skin, letting her breath crawl down his back.
"Don't flatter yourself," he turned back to her and pushed her away with his mind.
Cassandra laughed, as she gracefully spun on his energy, landing with a flourish onto her feet. "I see you've grown some claws," she circled him, putting the lolly back in her mouth, "I like that, I like that a lot. I will enjoy the struggle for your soul."
"You'll not win," Jonas said clearly, shielding himself from her mental advances.
"We shall see." She threw the sweet away, "you owe me, Kelownan was not the first time I have saved you," she put her hands behind her back and disappeared.
The scene moved around Jonas in a tornado of confusion. He found himself observing the aftermath of his battle with darkness that had inhabited Ragnarok's body, when he lay dying in Bra'tac's arms with SG1 and Cassandra around him.
"The sky's above me, the grass is so sweet, this journey's circle, is not yet complete," the tender words flutter in the silence but they did not fly from Major Carter's lips.
A new shadow fell over the Kelownan and Jack turned his head to gaze upon the fragile, ivory, beauty of a woman. Her mystical sea-green eyes smiled warmly at the group and her blue robes sailed in the zephyr that was splaying her richly curled hair like a white-blonde halo.
Cassie stood up and looked at the virtuous woman who seemed to flow before her, like a reflection on a pond. She held out her hand warily and the woman took it in her own as an understanding passed between them without uttering a single phrase.
The memory paused leaving everyone still like wax dummies in a Tableaux. Cassie let go of Mia's hand and turned to him her eyes dark and hollow, "I gave my life for you Jonas Quinn," she pouted.
Jonas frowned and Cassie smiled, "you didn't know, did you?" She giggled like a child and walked towards him, her voice becoming more and more menacing, "I gave up what little time I had in this dull universe to save you, to give you life."
The truth of her words pieced his heart. "Yes, that's right, Jonas," she said cruelly, "you would have died here if it were not for me."
Jonas ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think as Cassandra walked through the barricades of his mind. He turned his back on the scene, his breathing anxious.
"Everyone dies apart from you Jonas," Cassandra baited. "You leave a pathway of death as you go through life. You are truly blessed."
The Kelownan found the strength to thwart her efforts, fuelled by the agony of loss. He turned to her, holding her meaningless gaze, "Cassie may have given her life for me and that is something my heart will have to redress but you didn't." His voice bristled in the stillness, "you are not her, you are some empty creature born of bitterness and hate with nothing but a dark void for a soul."
She flew at him like a banshee, a storm whipping round on the vortex of her words. "I was a love sick child then," venom spat from her barren heart, "I didn't know what I was giving up but now I know life and death and I want to live, Jonas Quinn. The impiety of the universe, that profane and hardened pitch, which hides in the waywardness of all creatures' souls, has given me this chance and I grabbed it and let it devour me."
"Then there is nothing left in you of the girl I once love," he parried.
Lightening baptised the sky, hitting the ground by Jonas' feet making him back away and shield his face. He fell to the ground and found himself back on the blanket with Cassandra sitting astride his body. She stroked his face with her fingertips; her touch was cold, "maybe I can change that?"
She laughed, shifting her weight pushing her knees into his sides. She bent over him and kissed his cheek, moving down to his mouth.
Jonas felt the iniquity of her lips as they pressed against his in a brutal kiss. He tried to move away, on his elbows, but Cassandra would not let him free.
She lifted up his t-shirt and traced the fine scars that her master had scorched upon his body, "do you still remember the pain, the suffering that this torment brought you?" She looked into his eyes, the answer was evident.
She smiled without emotion. "Let me purge the righteousness from your soul, Jonas," she bent her body over his, biting into his bottom lip, "let us join our bodies and you can feel what it's like to be free, without conscience. I will make it painless, my love, and pleasurable."
"No," he screamed, feeling her burrow under his skin, maiming his soul with her barbarous touch, molesting his heart with each blackened kiss.
He pushed her away with all his being, sensing their connection snap like a rubber band in his mind, stinging his head with pain.
She laughed with the coldness of death, "I see that someone else has left an imprint on your soul," she got to her feet, "looks like I have a rival."
She smiled ruthlessly as she faded from his thoughts leaving a gash of sorrow through his heart.
"Jonas, Jonas," Sam screamed his name, causing him to open his eyes.
He looked up at the concerned faces of SG1 from the briefing room floor. He wiped the blood from his nose and tried to stand but several pairs of hands held him down.
"Hang on there, Junior, we've just called for the Doc," Colonel O'Neill's voice slapped him from his confusion.
He took a deep breath, grabbing Sam's arm, "Izzie," he cried with urgency.
Can Jonas save Izzie…….
