After an hour or so Carter got to her feet –having slid off Teal'c's broad chest shortly after the beast had taken its one way trip – and carefully approached the cliff's edge. The distance was hard to judge but it was certainly high enough to kill a human outright. Below she could see the bulk of the beast lying in a ring of gore.

"It's dead." She called back to the men.

"Salvageable?" Jack asked hoarsely. Teal'c got up and pulled Jack to his feet the two mean approached Carter.

"I doubt it but we should probably check. We're running low on the last shipment of MREs." Carter sighed.

In spite of his warnings General Hammond had used offworld contacts to ferry minimal supplies to the trio. A few had even contained notes and gifts from other SGC personnel. All had held a brief status report from Daniel regarding what they had found so far back on Earth. Those could be easily summed up with nothing.

It had been more than three months, Max was in the brig at the new Alpha Site because General Hammond wouldn't risk her and knew full well she would head to the rest of her team given any opportunity.

"Minotaur tartar sounds scrumptious." Jack sighed dolefully.

They all knew that they would be forced to return to the SGC and soon if the food situation didn't change. In all their time on the planet they still hadn't seen another living thing. Until Jack had inadvertently roused the minotaur beast.

Without speaking the three fell in line and began trekking back through the shattered forest. Beyond them the hell-light from the temple still shone, the clouds still boiled, and the bolts of unnatural pistoning lightning still fell.

"Sir we aren't learning anything new. We've literally hit a dead end."

"Dr. Jackson we have ever ally the SGC has and more than a few neutral parties looking into this. Every expert we can lay hands on has weighed in and the unanimous conclusion is that no one knows what the hell is going on down there and there's a mysteriously huge blank space surrounding that planet's existence in the lore and history of all nearby inhabited planets."

"But they're stuck there!" Daniel snapped finally losing his patience."

"You want me to send you there so you can be trapped too?"

"Just let me retrieve SG-1."

"And if they won't come?"

Daniel set his jaw.

"I'll come back, someone will have to."

"And who do you think I should send on this one-way mission?"

"Any number of Airman, Marines, Soldiers, hell international support troops will volunteer Sir."

"That's precisely my point Dr. Jackson, we could have the entirety of the SGC marching off on a suicide mission."

"Sir, we owe them this, all of us. How many times have they saved our entire damn planet?"

"You had a hand in those events yourself Dr. Jackson."

"And I'm asking you to do this, begging you sir."

Hammond looked grave and somehow older than Daniel recalled ever seeing him.

"Very well Dr. Jackson. You and two support personnel will go in two hours. Pack what you need now but pack light, we'll send a MALP through then you and your companions."

"Who will come with me?" Daniel asked after a hesitant pause.

"Dr. Frasier and myself."

"Sir?"

"I'm retiring next month Dr. Jackson, I've already briefed my replacement, he'll be here tomorrow morning and will officially assume his role two days later."

"Sir you have a family –"

"Yes I do son and we're going to get three of them back."

He hadn't seen Methos since the lightning struck. Jarod had awakened in a dark cell made of some kind of metal or stone. It was almost perfectly smooth and so small he couldn't stand or stretch out to his full length. He sat in a half crouch and slept in a loose fetal position.

Time lost all meaning his internal clock was shot to hell and as far as he could tell light never reached him. It could have been hours or weeks while he cowered in the cell. His only sustenance was a thin moist slurry that accumulated in a glass smooth divot in one corner of the cell. He would lap it or spoon in on his fingers. It tasted of cold iron and peat. He never needed to urinate or defecate and after a while his hunger and thirst seemed to fall away and he no longer knelt painfully on the cold floor to sup from the puddle.

Sleep was the next thing he lost. As time went on he couldn't tell when he was asleep or awake. At first he had dreams and the dreams were full of color and daylight, people he cared about, the nightmares too were oddly welcomed just for their color and their difference from his 'days' of oblivion. Then the dreams faded away followed by the nightmares. He still tried to sleep at first, more from boredom than much else. He stopped at some point, found he was content to simply sit in the cool darkness.

He never had histrionics, never the mad laughter or babbling he may have resorted to in the past. He simply stopped being Jarod and became something new.

The cuffs on Methos' fists had never been removed, though, at times, the pressure would slacken. The times when he pleased them.

He didn't know who or for that matter what they were. He didn't care. They were the Other and he would destroy them.

Of course he first had to get free of their bindings and games.

The bonds were the main problem. He had never managed to shift them let alone make a go at removing them. Whatever they were made from would shatter on impact; it gave slightly not quite bouncing. He had yet to find any edge he could use to cut it but his own teeth hadn't damaged them either. He tried to pull his arms apart, tried so hard that the bonds had clamped down and broken both his hands.

He healed.

Time fell away he would spend most days in a huge room hands bound. He was dressed in the filthy rags of his borrowed uniform, barefoot, hair and beard scraggly. He wondered about Jarod's fate, if SG-1 had made it off the planet, if Max had gone with them, whether anyone had come back for them. He wondered about where he was, if they had left the planet or perhaps were deep inside it. After a while he stopped wondering about that as well.

The three members of the would be rescue party waited patiently as the MALP's footages and readings were fed back to them.

"The event over the temple is ongoing Sir." Siler murmured as he adjusted the video screen displaying the footage.

"I would have thought it had stopped by now." Dr. Frasier said with a frown.

"Ready?" Daniel asked nervously. The MALP carried the majority of their gear as well as two specially outfitted aerials drones that were programmed to run a search pattern and report back to the MALP's main computer where the trio could track and triangulate results.

They walked forward side by side and into the event horizon without hesitating.

"Sir! It's a MALP." Carter hissed. The three were carefully ensconced in a hillock overlooking the Stargate and between it and the temple. Carter was holding half a pair of binoculars, the other half had been smashed in a rock slide shortly after their semi-permanent arrival.

"Any sign of movement?"

"Not yet sir." Carter said tensely. Teal'c silently shifted his weight preparing to leave their cover and approach the gate.

As the two men strained to see more Carter let out a surprised gasp and seconds later the event horizon collapsed.

"Sir, it's…Daniel…Dr. Frasier and…Sir it's General Hammond."

"What?" Jack asked and reached for the broken binocular.

"I'll be damned, let's get down there." He said after verifying the General's presence.

It took them until almost nightfall. The three had set up camp at the base of the stargate using sensors to set up a perimeter. They were studying something on or in the MALP chassis as the trio approached.

Daniel saw them first. They were careful to approach with caution not sure if the rescuing trio were real or some kind of ruse.

"Sir." Daniel whispered then cleared his throat and repeated it louder when Hammond didn't react. That caught Frasier's attention as well.

"It's them." Daniel said and the unseen iron rod of tension that had held him rigid for months fell away. Without waiting for permission he bolted toward them.

Carter caught him first and hugged him fiercely. He lead them back to the camp and immediately opened up freeze dried rations for them.

"Status?" General Hammond asked.

"Present and accounted for Sir, a little worn and a little skinny but we're here."

"Any sign of the others?"

"No, no sir we haven't seen a sign of them. We can't get close to the temple."

"I have an idea about that." Carter said around a mouthful of rehydrated fish. Janet was examining Teal'c and making a face at a fresh scar on Carter's forearm visible through the ragged uniform sleeve.

"Sir I'd like to get them back to the SGC as soon as possible for further testing and treatment."

"Treatment?" Hammond asked.

"They're malnourished and dehydrated for starters sir."

"Very well, the MALP is secured and can stay behind until the drones have completed their survey. Dr. Jackson would you dial the SGC."

He woke and found that the bonds were gone. His hands were thin, frail, pale and withered. But they were functional. He didn't remember falling asleep. The room was the same for the most part except for the wall opposite him. There a hole had opened. Just large enough from to enter if he stooped.

Cautiously he approached it and entered. It was a smooth walled tunnel, the surface almost felt like glass to his sensitive fingers. He walked until his legs were tired and his neck ached so he paused and crouched, carefully stretched his neck and pondered his options. Really the only viable one was to keep walking. So when the ache dulled he rose to his stooped former stance and kept going.

When he got tired again he sat and leaned against the cool side of the tunnel. Wondered where he could find food or water then slipped into a doze. In the cell he had eaten wafers that reminded him of desserts but were almost entirely tasteless, sometimes he thought there was an aftertaste of some sort of grass. He drank only water.

He stirred finally, opened his eyes, rose and started his trek again. As he was considering resting again he saw a glitter of light ahead of him. Weary but determined and with no other option he moved toward the light.

It was an opening, it opened, as far as he could tell, on to a sunny plain filled with long grass and wild flowers. He hesitated at the mouth of the strange tunnel. His instincts were blazing with warnings but of what? Instincts were useful had saved him countless times but what were they reacting to?

He took a deep breath and tasted pollen, dust, fresh wind and grass. He moved closer to the exit. Knelt and rand his fingers through the light sandy soil that met the obsidian like surface of the tunnel. It was gritty, slightly dusty, and as he peered closely at it he could see tiny rocks. He tossed the material aside and looked out at the horizon. No sign of trees or water, no hills and no mountains.

Methos sighed and relaxed slightly. He could turn around, return to the cell and be fed and watered or he could leave, walk out into that desolate windswept grassy emptiness and die of dehydration in less than a week. He looked back down the throat of the tunnel then down at his hands, boney and withered. Smiling ever so slightly he moved forward and buried his bare toes in the soil of the plain, then, grinning like a small child on the first day of snow, he stepped out of the tunnel.

As the SGC personnel packed up the few things worth taking back immediately there was an ear splitting snarl of a sonic boom that echoed far and wide and the abomination in the skies went still, the hell-light faded, and finally only normal gray clouds were left slowly drifting apart.

"Holy shit." Daniel breathed as the rest either reached for weapons or scanning equipment.

"Carter?" Jack asked tightly.

"I don't know sir the drones are still up but none of the data makes sense."

"Sir?" Jack asked the General.

"Dr. Jackson radio the SGC, we're going to need a science team ."

He walked until he couldn't then he sat, sometimes he dozed, other times he tried to think of a way out of his predicament. He found that he was walking slightly downhill he smiled at that and kept going, water ran downhill maybe he would find a stream or a creek.

On the third day he was saved. He wasn't aware of the strident buzzing, not consciously, until the source flew over him. Then he realized it had been present for a long time, perhaps hours. He looked up and saw an absurdly familiar sight. A drone, a six foot wingspan and a three foot body it buzzed over him again he looked up at it slightly slack jawed then grinning. As it looped him a third time he saw an insignia on its wing, a USAF insignia.

He tried to follow it but it was moving too quickly. So he sat where he was and rested certain that the little drone had reported him and help would be coming. It did but not until after nightfall.

Daniel was studying the MALP images, they had yet to be cleared to approach the temple but in addition to the science team two squads of Marines and another SG team had been dispatched. The marooned members of SG-1 had been relieved of duty pending medical clearance. Max was still at the SGC having been relieved of her prisoner status and returned – temporarily- for processing and re-assignment to the nameless planet. She would bring Jack and the others with her when she arrived.

So until he could get eyes on the temple and do real work Daniel spent most of his time watching the drone footage still being fed to the MALP. One drone had spotted the mostly rotted and dessicated corpse of the strange creature that had attacked Jack and the others. While the rot confirmed that microorganisms survived on the planet there were no signs of scavenging. The second drone had found little aside from seemingly endless grasslands. Daniel watched that footage now bored and frustrated at the lack of progress but desperately hoping to find some sign of his missing friend.

Then as he was starting to doze off from the sheer repetitive monotony of the view he sat bolt upright and lurched forward, he scrabbled at the rudimentary controls and managed to rewind and freeze the footage.

It was a ragged man staring up into the lens of the drone's belly camera.

"Where is this!?" Daniel demanded.

Two hours later Daniel, the rest of SG-1 including Max, Dr. Frasier and a handful of Marines were packed into three all terrain troop transport vehicles and hauling ass toward the drone's coordinates where the man had been sighted. The footage had been mediocre quality and the man wore rags, he was dirty and his beard and hair were unkempt but Daniel knew it was Methos and not just because a portion of an SGC patch had remained on his shoulder he knew those eyes.

"There's no sign of him here Sir." One of the Marines said.

"There have to be tracks." Daniel insisted the Marine grunted and gestured to his squad. They fanned out and after a few minutes one raised a fist. The rest piled back into the vehicles. They made slow progress and it wasn't until full night that they found him. He was curled up in a tight ball apparently asleep.

The racket of their approach hadn't disturbed him. Max and Frasier were the first ones off the vehicles. As Max approached the stirred and tried to sit up only to fall back into the grass.

"Hey shh you're safe." Max said kneeling next to him. Frasier nodded at Jack and he and the rest of SG-1 approached and carefully lifted Methos. They bundled him into the nearest vehicle with Frasier and her nurse climbing aboard.

"Run an IV." She said tersely and began to examine him as well as she could.

"Methos where's Jarod?" Max asked as he roused and tried to sit up.

"Hey you're okay you're safe we're taking you back to the SGC but we have to know where Jarod is, come on you old codger." She urged.

"I don' know." He wheezed.