Bad Day

The Next morning Lizzie awoke later than usual, call it universal jet lag. Her room was dark and dank far beneath the mountain in Colorado; a state she had yet to see. She rolled over in the dark and fumbled for the lamp, knocking a water glass onto the floor where it shattered.

"Crap." She muttered.

This world that her friends had come from was less than a day in her memory, and yet she already had distaste for it. She missed the sound of the ocean, the morning light, her friends. At least one was still around. And it seemed that she was making a new one with Dr. Jackson and possibly Colonel Mitchell if he didn't hold a grudge. She finally reached the lamp switch and squeezed her eyes shut when the yellowed bulb illuminated her face. She threw herself back down on her bed and snorted. This day was ready to be over with already. Finally she sat up and moved around to a seated position hanging off the bed. Forgetting all about the glass she hopped up to receive a sharp shooting pain running through her right foot. A large chunk of the broken glass had lodged horizontally into the sole of her foot.

Lizzie hissed in pain as there was a knock at the door. "Now what?" She cried to herself, the pain was worsening quickly and she plopped back onto the bed.

"Ummm…Lizzie, it's Daniel, are you up?"

"Yeah, just a second." This was going to take more than a second to fix. Blood was pouring out of her foot leaving drips down the bed clothes and making Pollock stains all across the floor.

"Is it alright if I come in?" Daniel sounded impatient.

"It's open…" He had barely given her time to answer as he came through the door with papers in his hands. He was looking down at them.

"Hey, sorry if I woke you up, I was looking at something and I wanted to ask you if you…" Daniel looked up to see Lizzie tending to her foot. "What happened?!"

Lizzie was digging at her foot trying to push the piece of glass out by pressing on the sides of it. "Accident." She winced.

"Here, let me help you. We need to get you to the infirmary!"

She reached quickly as enough glass became exposed for her to grab it between her forefinger and thumb. "No, it's OK, I got it." She pulled as the shard became longer and the blood began to pour more fiercely until she was holding it up like a prize from a cereal box. "See," She turned towards him, "Got it!"

"Yeah but your foot…"

Lizzie threw the glass on the bedside table and grabbed around her ankle and pulled her foot up to inspect it. "Is fine…see." She lifted it towards Daniel. As he looked he saw the last part of the wound seal up, leaving only a faint pink line in her skin. Aside from all the blood it was as if nothing had happened.

"Wow."

"Daniel, would it be alright if I clean up this mess before we start working today?"

"Um yeah sure…"

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Daniel couldn't help standing there studying the young woman like some strange artifact. How could she be so calm about something like that. She had shuffled to the bathroom and grabbed some towels and was now hastily scooping up broken glass and swiping blood swirls off the floor.

Lizzie realized he was still staring at her. She stopped her work as she was crouched on the floor and looked up at him cautiously. He realized that he had been staring, and quickly raised his expression and turned. "See you in a bit." Then he left. He was well aware that she hated people looking at her like she was something un-human, and yet something was odd about her that he just couldn't place.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

When Lizzie had finally gotten changed into a pair of now worn in jeans and a black t-shirt she made her way out into the halls and tried to get her bearings. SFs were already staring at her and she quickly made eye contact with the concrete floors and followed one of the colored lines away from scrutinizing eyes. Anyone who knew her well enough would have realized something was bothering her when she didn't look for the commissary. Halfway to Daniel's office she ran into the one face that could cheer her up.

"Jack!" He was dressed in his best, very odd, and Lizzie slowed her approach to try and analyze the situation.

"Hey Lizzie. So how was the first night?"

"I think the word you would use is 'sucked'."

Jack was taken aback. "Oh come on, it couldn't have been THAT bad."

She cocked her head to the side. "Nightmares with a side of glass up my foot this morning."

Jack winced. "So not good, but hey, at least you weren't in a prison cell!" Jack put on a grin to try and lighten the mood.

Lizzie just rolled her eyes. "You mean like the other day?"

Jack halted eyes wide. If he could have lifted his foot to his mouth and swallowed it he would have. "Yeah…sorry."

"Don't worry about it. You were just trying to help." She gave him a meek smile. "So…wanna get some breakfast, I'm not that hungry but you could tell me about Washington…or we could…"

Jack broke her off. "Yeah Lizzie, about Washington…"

Lizzie's heart broke right then and there. It would have stopped beating entirely if she could have controlled it. "You're going back aren't you?" She already knew the answer.

"Yeah." Jack now slumped as well.

"Have a safe trip then. I guess I'll see you around." Lizzie started to walk away, forcing herself not to just sit down and curl up in a ball. Now she was all alone, wishing no one had found her on that stupid planet.

Jack however, unexpectedly grabbed her as she started to leave and pulled her into a bear hug. "Hey, you're not getting off that easy!" He ruffled her hair a bit before he let her go. "I'll be back soon enough," He looked around to see if anyone was listening in. "A certain Colonel and myself have some things to work out still if you know what I mean." He gave her a wink and she smiled in spite of herself.

"Yes you sure do don't you?" She smiled again.

"Well." Jack coughed. Showing this much emotion when he was supposed to be a tough General when someone could see him at any moment was starting to worry him. "Go play nice with Daniel, I'll talk to you soon."

She started to saunter off as he made his way to the elevator shaft. "And Lizzie!"

She stopped and turned as he stepped into the elevator.

"You need anything, anything at all, just tell Daniel or Hank to call me. Don't even worry about the time difference…I'll just…pick up the phone…" He gestured with his hands.

"Yes, Sir!" She called back as the doors began to shut, and Jack was gone.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Lizzie skipped over her breakfast idea and made her way into Daniel's office where he was hidden from view by stacks of reference books and files.

"Daniel?"

His head popped up like a gopher. "Hey! Glad you made it, did Jack catch you before he left?"

"Yeah." She pursed her lips and clapped her hands once rubbing them together. "So…shall we get started?"

"Sounds good to me. I've got some copies for you already…" Daniel pulled out a set of folders teaming with lose papers that were ready to fly out at any moment. "Here you go." Then he reached for one more, much smaller and tidier one. "And here is what we've got so far."

Lizzie measured the large stack now precariously situated under one are in comparison to the smaller folder now balanced delicately on one palm. "This is all you've been able to translate out of this?" She motioned to the stack now beginning to slip as she quickly threw it up on the only empty desk space she could find.

"We'll we've been busy on some other stuff too…and I have a bit of an issue that doesn't go away that much…" Daniel looked away for a moment. "But we have the better part of a week without that particular interruption so what do you say we get started?"

Lizzie grabbed a stool and hopped up on it, shimming a bit to get the feel for it. "So why don't we start with what we already know?"

Daniel got a wide grin and pulled up a chair as well. "I was just about to suggest that myself." He pulled out the smallest file. "OK, here's what we know besides what I've already told you." He pulled up a single document. "This part here seems to be the introduction of sorts; it tells what the purpose of these walls was. They refer to something that was 'left to be found by those who need it most. It raised the great mountain to the ground and bestowed power to the great defenders of the rightful power of Earth.' Which is rather inconclusive when the rest of the information is scattered like it is. The rest of it talks about the destruction of a great mountain and so on and so forth. There is more information about this 'future power' but only small parts have been deciphered yet, and a lot of it seems to be repeated."

"Daniel?" Lizzie was pulling an image out of the stack. "I don't think the context of this is completely accurate."

"What do you mean."

"Well I'm assuming this is where you found the introduction. But these languages are so jumbled that they can mean different things…"

"How many of those do you understand exactly?"

Lizzie laid the picture down and began to point to four separate areas of the text.

"You understand ALL of those?"

"Yes…and these two look familiar as well." She pointed to another set of images.

"All five of the languages on here you know?"

"Well to a degree yes, don't you?"

"Well yes but I'm a linguist…"

Lizzie cocked her head. "So?"

"Never mind." He shot out quickly as she raised her eyebrows at him. "Why don't you work on the images over there, and I'll work on these."

"Good plan."

And so Daniel and Lizzie began their tedious work of translating the writings and putting them into several different contexts to see which one would come out right. Little did she know, but Lizzie's bad day would become a rather bad week. She woke up in a poor mood everyday and spent half of her days helping Daniel translate and the other half trying to sleep away her emotions.

Finally one morning Lizzie got to a page that had yet to be translated in any way. "Hey Daniel!" She called eagerly.

"Yeah?"

"I think I may have found something!"

"Really?" He got up and quickly moved closer to where she was seated. Her eyes had bags under them and she looked slightly gaunt from where she had been skipping meals. True she was eating enough to feed a healthy young airman, but her metabolism required greater intake than most.

"Here." She pointed to the page she was on. "If I'm reading this right…and I'm pretty sure I am…then…wow."

"What does it say?" Daniel could have taken a stab at it himself but over the week he had learned to give Lizzie the benefit of a doubt. He trusted her abilities and was happy when he saw her figure something out on her own. It was as if he was proud of her. She had such an effect on everyone and in that short time he had come to see what it was that Jack and Sam couldn't stop raving about.

"OK, let me see." She sat back. "'The power is the key to the entirety of its entity of future purpose'." She looked at him rather mystified in what she was reading. "'It's hands are stained and will stain those of it's', and I can't figure this word out. It looks like 'owners' but it doesn't make since like that, its more like…like…'leaders' or someone in charge, like the power has someone who is in charge of it, but they don't own it.

"Where do you get that?"

Lizzie pointed to a single symbol. "Free will."

"How can 'power' have free will?" Daniel wondered out loud.

"Power can't. But a person can." Lizzie looked up at Daniel slowly.

"What makes you say that?"

"Daniel come on, we both know why I'm really here. You could have translated this by yourself eventually."

"Lizzie…"

"No, I want this out in the open. I'm being honest with you; I want you to be honest with me, please." Her eyes were so sad he couldn't lie.

"We think that there may be a connection between you and these walls, or better yet, the power that they're talking about."

"I'm guessing the free will part justifies the idea that the power may have been a living thing?" Lizzie looked for his response.

"Sounds like it. Plus…" He wasn't sure if he should continue. "Plus we found you on the planet that the walls named."

"Thought so."

"Look Lizzie…"

"Daniel, I'd rather know now…at least I think I want to know. Can we just finish figuring this out please?" She turned around.

"Unless!"

"Unless what?" She was shocked by his exclamation.

"You said you remembered people calling you Athena right? And that's who that prophet or whatever he was on that planet in the Pegasus Galaxy thought you were right?"

Lizzie nodded.

"What if you, or whoever they thought you were, or someone else entirely perhaps, controlled the power?"

"Excuse me?"

"What if it really was a weapon or something? Maybe the free will was that of the person who used it?"

"Daniel, I don't think that's how it worked…I mean…"

Daniel's excitement dropped automatically and he stood straight. "But it's possible isn't it?" He had made his point. The fact was that they didn't know. And jumping to conclusions without proper facts wasn't going to solve the riddle. They still needed time.

"Oy." Lizzie slapped her forehead. Daniel couldn't help but smother a chuckle at her reaction.

With his point made, Lizzie and Daniel continued to try and unscramble the other sections of the text. Even when they were able to decipher a language, the patterns themselves continued to elude them. Soon enough a pair of boots could be heard lightly bounding into the room.

"Hey Daniel, I'm back!" Vala Mal Doran stopped suddenly as she entered his cluttered office and saw the silver headed younger woman seated beside Daniel.

Lizzie and Daniel both turned towards the visitor who immediately began to size up the former.

"And you are?"

"Lizzie." The girl said with a nervous hesitation.

Vala continued her interrogation. "And you're working so closely with Daniel because?"

Lizzie was becoming thoroughly confused by this new woman's behavior. "Because that's what I'm here to do; help Daniel translate."

Daniel took his glasses off and set them down on top of his papers. "Vala, we're busy right now. Can we talk about this later?"

"We most certainly cannot! When were you going to tell me you got some trollope of an assistant?"

Lizzie's mouth shot open in an indignant reaction, but she said nothing.

Daniel stood up calmly. "Vala, this is Lizzie. She just arrived a few days ago from Atlantis. We're trying to help her get her memory back because she doesn't know who she is. And hopefully these translations may help us figure that out."

Vala was a bit taken aback. "Oh." She drew a smile across her face towards Lizzie. "Sorry about that. But just so you know he's a terrible…"

"Vala!"

Lizzie was biting her index finger as she took in the scene between the two.

"You brought this on yourself Daniel, you should have told me before I found out on my own, which I ALWAYS do…"

"Um, sorry to interrupt guys but…"

Daniel sighed. "Go ahead Lizzie."

"Vala you really don't have anything to worry about, he's not my type." Lizzie saw Daniel's expression become rather comical at that remark, eyebrows high and an 'o' shaped mouth. "No offense."

"None taken." He said in a hushed tone.

Vala however decided to keep the issue heated. "Well why not? He's a very attractive man."

"Yes I guess he is but…I kinda have one of my own…"

Daniel spun around. "Really? You can remember that?"

"Why wouldn't I…oh." Lizzie clenched her jaw and shut her eyes. Way too much information. This was getting out of hand.

"Wait a minute, someone on Atlantis?" Daniel stepped forward like an interrogator.

Vala had now completely forgotten about the argument she had fired up and hopped forward mischievously "Oh do tell!" Daniel just shook his head at her.

"I'd rather not." Lizzie said with a stretched wince.

"Lizzie, do I need to call Jack about this?"

Suddenly her voice sounded like she had sucked the helium out of a balloon. "No!" She looked all around the desk in front of her for some tool of assistance. She picked up a page. "Oh look!" She waved it around in front of Daniel, "Ancient texts that have yet to be translated. Could be very important!"

Vala stepped forward to grab the paper from her hand, but in doing so she came close enough for Lizzie to feel something that she was ill-prepared for. She jumped from her seat as it clattered to the floor and pushed up against the table. Her eyes suddenly became engulfed in a radiating light blue.

Vala jumped back behind Daniel as quickly as she could. "Goa'uld!" Both women shouted in harmony.

Realizing how quickly the situation was about to go sour, Daniel stepped between the two just as Lizzie began to take on a dark expression and two SFs came running into the office having hear the commotion. "NO! NO! NO! No one's a Goa'uld, stop!" Everyone froze and looked at him.

"Lizzie, Vala's like Caldwell, former host, just like Sam…please think about this."

Vala was holding Daniel's arms from behind. "Daniel, her eyes…"

"She's not a Goa'uld either."

The SFs lowered their guns upon hearing this but remained fervent at the doorway.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that Daniel."

He never took his gaze from Lizzie, her eyes still boiling brightly. "What are you talking about?" He said in hushed tones.

"I remember those eyes." He finally looked at her dead on. "At least, Quetesh did."

"Who?" Lizzie said, eyes blending slowly back to brown.

Vala finally became serious. "The Goa'uld that invaded me a long time ago."

Daniel waved the SFs out of the room. Then he sat up the chair that had been overturned as Lizzie subconsciously found it and sat down.

"Where is this Goa'uld now?" Lizzie asked again.

"She's dead."

"Good."

"Very, but why do you want to know where she is?"

"Because you said she knew me."

"She knew your eyes, at least I think she did. When they looked like," Vala indicated Lizzie's face, "That. I remember flashes of them. Nightmares hidden within her memories."

Daniel looked perplexed. "Vala, are you saying that Quetesh knew this girl?"

"Either that or it was in her genetic memories." Vala looked back to Daniel. "Either way, those eyes were a source of great troubles for the Goa'uld; long before you guys or anybody else I can think of."

It was Daniel's turn to slump in his chair and rub his face over with his hands. "This just keeps getting better and better." He mumbled.

"Daniel where did you find her?" Vala questioned again.

"She woke up from stasis in the Pegasus Galaxy. And from what you've just said, I'm guessing she'd been in there for a good long time." He looked over to Lizzie with a solemn stare.

Her eyes didn't widen, they didn't do anything. They just stared blankly at the space in front of her. "Can I got get a bite to eat, please?"

Daniel didn't know what to say. In her position he would probably be rather catatonic as well. "Sure."

Lizzie got up silently and walked out of the office. Behind her she could hear Daniel and Vala bickering about something but she could care less. So was she the power? Lizzie knew it was possible. But what did would it mean? For a Goa'uld to have known her it would have been possible she'd been locked away for thousands of years. If so everyone she had known before was dead, if she had known anyone else at all. The people in her memories; she would never find them. She continued to walk aimlessly through the halls, never looking for the correct way to the commissary. As she made her way, none around her could hear the voices now raging through her mind. Old voices, long since heard, but she knew them somehow.

"This is what we were born for." A young man's voice echoed in private.

Another random voice came in. The man who called out to her from the battle cried out again. "You killed him, of all the people who would have, I never thought it was you."

"Don't look at me like that." Lizzie spoke this time, but she didn't know to whom.

Then there was a voice of woman, one she didn't remember but knew somehow. "Athena, you're in command now…" Command?

Suddenly a flanged voice spoke deeply in her ear and she turned to see nothing. "Pathetic." It was mocking her.

Still more voices, some old, some new. "Where did you come from?"

"Why her?"

"She'll be the death of us all."

"I'll be the death of us all."

Now she heard the sound of weapons fire and huge explosions. "We have to go back!" Lizzie was screaming.

"It's too late; they're dead Get in the ship, you're the better pilot, now put it behind you and get us out of here!"

"Stop it!" Lizzie yelled out into the hall. Thankfully no one was there. The voices subsided. She was near her room now. Suddenly food seemed even less appetizing than before. She decided that curling up in her dark and windowless room would be a far more inviting option for her current mood. She went into her room; an SF apparently had been alerted to her movement and was now taking up a position beside the door. She went in and curled up onto of the blankets, shoes and all. Within a matter of minutes she was in the deepest sleep she had ever known. A sleep brought on by the depression of losing her home and friends, of weakness from not eating enough, and above all else, the release of finally knowing perhaps who she had been. But as deep as the sleep was it was not peaceful. This would be the sleep that showed Lizzie what had happened on that horrible day she was placed in her tomb.

"What did you do?!" A man's voice cried out in her ear.

"Let go of me! I'll kill you too! I swear I will!"

"Stop it, this isn't you!"

"There is no ME left! You saw what I did!"

"That wasn't you... you never would have killed so many people like that, certainly not HIM."

Her eyes grew cold as stone. "Wanna bet?"

A sudden pain could be felt in Lizzie's stomach and she grabbed at it's source. A dagger was now buried deep within the center of her abdomen. Blood began to drip from her lips. "It's gonna take a lot more than that to kill me."

"I'm not going to kill you, yet." She locked onto green eyes before she passed out.

When she awoke she was laying on a smooth and cold surface. There was only artificial light and she lifted her head. She had been redressed in a white gown. The same one they had found her in. As she began to get up someone grabbed her by the hair closest to her scalp and began to drag her across the room. She was still weak from the loss of blood and she tried in vain to fight back. Her attacker made himself known and tried too look him the eyes but he avoided her glance. It was the same man who had saved her in battle. Green eyes. It was the same man who had awoken her in the valley. Dirty blonde hair. But he looked somehow more warn, distressed. His eyes were blood shot.

He reached down and lifted her off the ground as she continued to struggle. Suddenly she splashed into a tub of water. But it wasn't a tub. And it wasn't water. She was in the tomb. The lid was open and it was filled to the brim with a liquid that burned her eyes and mouth when it splashed in.

"Stop! Please!" She choked as he pushed her under the first time. Her strength was returning and she grabbed for his hands and pushed him back a bit.

"I'm doing this to save you."

"I don't want you to save me, we have to finish it!"

"We already did, Athena, please don't fight me on this."

"No!" She gurgled as he held her under once more, her necklace being tugged at.

She fought back again and once more breached the surface. She could taste blood running down her throat from whatever the fluid was doing to her. "Please! Let me explain." Her voice was raspy now, fading quickly.

He grabbed her face in his large hand and pulled her close. "I know what happened. But we're done. And I know you won't go back after what happened. Consider this the last thing I could do to protect you after you saved me all those times."

"Please." She was hurting, fading faster now. "What about you?"

"You worry too much about me. Now it's time to say goodbye."

She gasped raggedly her eyes fading as he became more blurry before her. The man holding her couldn't make out her first words, but there was one that stood out clear even though it was scratchy. "…honor…"

Quickly he pulled her forward and looked into her eyes before shoving her back into her tomb one last time. As she continued to fight he ripped away her necklace. Then the strange water took her, and Lizzie died if only a little.

Wow, that was intense. Not much to say this time….other than THANKS to everyone for the reviews. I really appreciate them, they make me want to write even more but this story is starting to get a little long so look for it to start connecting dots. Someone let me on to a great idea that I didn't know about, so now anyone can review now and I hope that you will! (Thanks for the tip!)

Should be done pretty soon…within 6 to 8 chapters I'd say. Conclusion is written already, just gotta get there : ) Has anyone figured it out yet???

Review Review Review!!! Any one can now! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!