Next chapter! Things are picking up slightly. I hope you like it, and if you do please leave a review!
Chapter Thirteen:
Jack started forward when Yami was struck only to hastily freeze when about ten staff weapons were leveled his way. Instead, he turned to his only recourse.
"So… Looks like you can only show how strong you are by attacking defenseless kids. Well, next you should try stepping on flowers. I hear it's marvelous when you want to feel all big and strong."
Heru'ur, much to Jack's immense surprise, ignored him. Instead he motioned for his Jaffa to take Yami away, and before Jack could do anything the boy was out of sight. Biting his tongue to keep from yelling something that could get Yami killed, Jack took a deep breath before speaking.
"So. Care to tell us how exactly you survived? I mean, I was pretty certain you had died in that explosion, considering Teal'c was one of the passengers in the only ship that left the wreckage."
The Goa'uld turned towards him. "You're not as perceptive as you think, human. You missed my departure as well as my escape. Aphophis wasn't able to destroy all of my ships, and I was able to use your feeble attempts to chase down your friend as a distraction."
Turning back towards Seto, Heru'ur continued. "Of course, I never dreamed I would be able to get my hands on you. After denying our father, you had the gall to lead the rebellion against him. It doesn't matter though."
"Really?" Seto commented, eyes hard. "You still seem to hold a grudge."
Heru'ur merely looked pleased. " That boy, he looks remarkably like that human child you were always following around. Before I kill you, perhaps I'll torture him until he breaks to make you suffer first."
Jack's mind was racing. From the sound of things, Heru'ur had run into their new allies before, and things hadn't ended well. Which left him with only one option…
"Well, you going to kill us now? I mean, we all know how afraid you are of us… and considering how many prison cells we've broken out of to wreak havoc on the Goa'uld who owned them. I understand if you're worried about the extremely large chance of our escape, so if you really want to kill us now, I completely understand."
Heru'ur glared over at Jack, glare deepening. "I am not afraid of you, human, and I doubt that you will be able to escape our prison." Motioning to the Horus guards on either side of them, he ordered "Take them to one of the holding cells. As far away from the other human as possible."
Immediately, he was saluted and soon Jack was being pushed down the pathway. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Seto's approving smirk. I never thought I'd say this, Jack thought to himself, but this is one thing a Goa'uld and I can agree on.
As soon as they had been thrown into a cell, Carter turned towards him. "What now, Sir?"
Mahad interrupted, looking panicked. "Why would you get us sent to a prison cell? We should have escaped and rescued Yami!"
"Idiot." Seto hissed. "If we showed that we were overly worried about him, the false god would have started the torture in front of us. Also, instead of being killed, we are now in a location that is likely close to where he is being held."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess… You're good at strategy games too?" Without waiting for an answer to his mostly rhetorical question, Jack turned towards the door. "Now that we're here, we might as well try to figure out how to escape."
Mahad, who had calmed down significantly after Seto's explanation, moved forward. "I believe I might be of some assistance in this matter."
Leaning down by the door, he whispered something under his breath. After finishing his chant, there was a faint noise and suddenly the door swung open. Jack stared in disbelief. "You've been holding out on us." He managed, trying to keep from allowing his jaw to drop.
"No…" Mahad said, hastily. "I didn't mention it and you never asked. Besides, I did tell someone."
"Hmm…" Jack responded, already creeping forward to kneel behind Teal'c. The Jaffa finished glancing outside of the door before motioning with his fingers to Jack, who in turn relayed the information back.
"There are four Jaffa, all at the only exit from this cell."
Seto smirked, "Since your weapons are… missing." He began, stressing the word missing. Jack felt his temper rise a notch, but held his tongue as Seto continued. "I will take care of the guards. I, at least, don't have to worry about losing my weapons."
Jack ground his teeth together as Seto moved out into the hall. Starting to follow him, Jack was surprised when Mahad suddenly grabbed his arm. "I would let Seto deal with them first…. In my experience, you don't want to be in the way when Seto is … taking care of people."
From the hall, there was the sound of alarm cries from the end of the hall as the Jaffa noticed Seto. Jack was about to ignore Mahad when suddenly darkness covered the corridor.
Jack and the rest of his team stared, Daniel starting to move forward curiously when Jack grabbed him. He didn't even need to hear Mahad's belated warning to know allowing Daniel to touch the thing would be a bad idea.
There was the sound of a muted roar followed by laughter, and slowly the darkness began to fade. Seto calmly walked back into the room, an almost feral gleam in his eyes. "What are you waiting for? An invitation?"
Jack moved into the hallway, seeing no sign of the missing guards except for their staff weapons on the floor. Seto motioned to them, "I decided it would behoove me to have you be armed. After all, I can't clean up all of your messes."
"What exactly did you do?" Daniel asked, eyes alight with curiosity.
Jack only had to shoot him a look before Daniel got the hint. "Right… Later."
Heading down the hall, the small group was soon moving through the building. Finally, Carter spoke up. "Sir, how are we supposed to find him? We've been through most of the cells… If he's not in the next section, we'll have a very limited window of search time before our escape is noticed. Especially since you goaded Heru'ur."
"Yeah, yeah…" Jack muttered under his breath, starting to feel a small welling of panic himself. It was bad enough to tell a child that her mother had been killed… But telling a man that his child had been killed? Jack knew how that felt, and he had no intention of putting anyone else through that pain. He was going to find Yami or he wouldn't be returning until he did.
Mahad suddenly made a small noise. Jack glanced over his shoulder in time to see the Goa'uld looking… embarrassed? "I can find him…" the Goa'uld admitted, turning even redder than before.
"You're an idiot, Mahad." Seto commented, giving him a disgusted look.
Ignoring Seto, Mahad pulled out his own Millenium Item. "Find" he whispered to it. Immediately one of the rings pointed towards the section they had just come from, just slightly higher. Immediately, Jack spun around, heading in the opposite direction.
Under his breath, he muttered, "We're coming for you, kid… You'd better still be alive."
Yami slowly opened his eyes to find himself tied up to some sort of large stone. When he tried to tug on the bonds, they refused to give even a little. His mouth was filled with a strange taste, but he couldn't focus on that right now. The sudden noise of someone moving in front of him caused him to look up, fear racing through him when he saw who it was.
Heru'ur slowly paced into Yami's vision, expression unreadable except for the small signs around his eyes that hinted as to the anger he was hiding.
"So… Imagine my surprise, young Prince, when I saw you again walking this world with your Guardians." He commented, practically spitting out the last word. "I heard of your death at the hands of my father's back-up plan. Not to mention, you were only a human. How could you have survived?"
Yami didn't respond, guessing that this was a rhetorical question. Heru'ur moved closer to him, leaning in. "I don't care if you are that slave or not, I will make an example of you."
Yami gulped faintly, feeling queasy as Heru'ur reached for one of the many knives lying on a small table nearby. Moving forwards, he drew back when suddenly there were the sounds of a huge commotion coming from somewhere else in the building. Heru'ur paused, glancing over his shoulder before returning the knife to its previous position next to an empty vial.
"I'll deal with you later." He stated shortly before turning and storming out the door. Yami slumped down in his bonds, listening to the continuing noises. As he closed his eyes, he heard the sound of the door opening once again. Yami shut his eyes tighter, not wanting to see Heru'ur again when a familiar voice spoke up.
"Hey, kid, you awake?" Jack's voice hissed through the room. Yami's eyes shot open in relief.
"Jack, I can't believe you were able to escape! How did you get away from them?"
"Let's just say Jack can be one of the most annoying people in the galaxy when he wants to be." Daniel commented, racing forward to join Jack on Yami's other side as they worked on the bonds. When he was released, Yami fell to the floor, stumbling as his legs gave way under him.
Teal'c hoisted him up, Jack starting to reach for his other side when Seto suddenly was there, assisting Teal'c. Yami blinked, feeling as though his head was filled in cotton. The adrenalin rush from believing Heru'ur was going to kill him was fading and everything seemed to be getting fuzzier.
Although he tried to help, assuring the others that he could stand on his own, Teal'c and Seto were still supporting most of his weight as they moved through the halls. Mahad moved on ahead, casting more illusion spells as they ran through the halls. Finally, after what felt like hours, they burst out into the light. Instantly, Mahad pulled the group over to the side, behind some bushes.
Vaguely, Yami thought that they must have been very lucky not to have been spotted by the Jaffa guards at the entrance. As they knelt in the shrubbery, Mahad hastily spoke. Although he tried to focus, Yami found it hard to listen to everything that was being said.
"Although I cannot get us directly to the Star Gate, I can keep us hidden while we move there with Seto's help. However, we will have to stay in the shadows for the spell to work."
Next to him, Yami felt Seto shift, hearing him speak. "Unfortunately, the Star Gate in in an clearing, which means that we will be fully visible while dialing home, as you call it."
"So, Doctor Jackson, how fast do you think you can get the gate working?" Mahad asked, turning towards Daniel.
"Very quickly if I'm not being shot at." Daniel commented, already starting to ready himself to leave.
Jack looked around, making sure that they were all present before starting off, following Mahad's lead as the man lead them through the shadows.
Yami closed his eyes briefly, and the next thing he knew someone was gently shaking him.
"Yami? You awake still?" Jack asked, leaning over him. Looking up at the blurry image, Yami managed to nod.
"Yeah… I think so." Yami managed, voice sounding distant and far away.
Jack leaned closer. "Hey, Mahad. Get over here." A few moments later, Mahad's face joined Jack's.
"I think Heru'ur gave the kid something. We're never going to get past all of the guards at the gate with him in this condition."
Before he could hear Mahad's response, Yami felt himself slowly slip away and into his dreams.
Jack turned to look back at Yami and noticed that he had slipped into unconsciousness. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say that was not good.
Mahad was already looking Yami over, a panicked expression all over his face. "What's wrong with him?"
Carter moved over, motioning for silence as she began to look Yami over. Before she could speak, however, Seto spoke up.
"Poison. That's what's wrong with him."
Jack looked over, incredulous. "How do you know that it's poison?"
Seto gave him a superior look, "I've used poison enough times to know what it looks like."
Carter looked up from her examination, "He's right, Sir. Looks like some sort of poison. Heru'ur probably gave it to him to keep us from escaping. If we tried to leave with him, he would slowly worsen until we were either caught or were forced to return."
"Well, how long do we have?" Jack demanded, worried.
"Not long… perhaps if we could get him back to base right now, but unless we get past the guards he'll die."
Jack turned back towards the clearing, looking out over the vast expanse of Jaffa. Apparently Haru'ur didn't want to take any chances of their escaping. From the look of things, it was going to do its job.
Suddenly, before he could even turn to Mahad or Seto to ask for assistance that he doubted would be enough, suddenly a loud roar echoed through the clearing. If Jack had blinked, he would have missed the white dragon that appeared in the clearing. With another roar, the dragon opened its mouth and a burst of white light shot out. When his sight had cleared, Jack squinted back at the clearing to find it completely empty.
Daniel was the first to voice an opinion. "Wow… That was… amazing. Mahad, you were brilliant!"
Mahad, however, shifted extremely nervously, muttering, "That wasn't me." He glanced over at Seto, before looking away.
Jack decided that, as strange as the occurrence was, they shouldn't waste their luck.
"All right. Everyone gets through the gate, now!" he ordered, scooping up Yami with Teal'c help as they ran towards the gate. Daniel moved ahead, hastily inputting the Chevrons to return them to Earth. As they burst through the gate, Jack wondered whether the universe just had it out for him. Standing on the other side was General Hammond, waiting for word on how their mission had gone.
General Hammond's eyebrows rose as he saw the state of the returning party. Jack held a hand to forestall questions.
"Yami was poisoned by the Goa'uld. We need to get him to the hospital immediately."
Immediately, the Gate room was a hive of activity. Yami was rapidly taken to the infirmary and Jack was soon beset upon by General Hammond.
"O'Neil, what exactly happened?" he demanded, tone of voice leaving no room for evasion.
"Well, you see, Sir, we were exploring the world and collecting samples when we decided to cross over the hill near the Star Gate. We had been relying on the scans that showed the planet as being empty, however when we crossed over the hill we saw Goa'uld ships and quite a few Jaffa. As per your orders I immediately returned to get Yami through the Star Gate however they were there waiting for us. Heru'ur, who, by the way, is not dead, appeared. He apparently had something against both the kid and our allies. He seemed more upset at them than the kid, though, as he was going to torture Yami to make them suffer before killing them."
"So they know Heru'ur, and he obviously knows them." General Hammond mused. "Well, how did you get back?"
Jack steeled himself. "Actually we owe our escape in a major part to Mahad and Seto. They weren't kidding about being able to do magic with those items of theirs."
General Hammond nodded, turning towards Seto and Mahad only to find them gone. Jack stared at the now empty space as well; this was definitely going to be a long day.
Thanks for reading! A lot of things happened, and if you have any questions about things feel free to PM us! I try to have a motivation behind everything in my writing, so there is probably a reason why characters act or don't act in a specific way. :D Please leave a review!