Disclaimer: Any characters you recognize do not belong to the authors. Some of the ideas were inspired by Xanthia Morgan's wonderful fic, Brother of My Soul.
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A/N: This story is coauthored by Rina and Shade—we hope you enjoy it! Thank you so much to everyone who posts reviews. Feedback is greatly appreciated.
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Chapter 24
Selmak rushed over to check Rick's vitals. He hung his head, then turned to look at the others. "His pulse is very weak. Only time will tell if he survives the toxin."
"He will survive." Ardeth told them, not giving up his hold on Rick's hands. "The brother of my soul brought me back from death—there is no way I will allow him to be taken from me before it is time!"
Selmak nodded. He wanted Ardeth to continue thinking so. He knew it would give both boy's strength. But then they both were magic users. And as he looked up he could see that the older Rick was still there. Though he knew that if the younger Rick did die, the older one would simply cease to exist, in truth would not have existed beyond that point. But Rick had brought Ardeth back from the dead, so Jacob allowed himself to be more hopeful in this diagnosis then he would have with others.
The adult Ardeth stepped forward. "Come, let us leave them alone." He released the spell on Rick and left the room, so that his brother would feel compelled to come find him and scold him.
The room cleared leaving the two boys to themselves. Jack had adjusted the chair to where Rick wouldn't be hanging from the straps when he awoke. Dr. Frasier with some coaxing from the colonel agreed to give them a while before she insisted on checking on Rick's vitals periodically. The silence in the room was almost deafening after what had just happened. Rick's fingers were still firmly clasped around Ardeth's wrist, all of his muscles still taught from the strain.
Ardeth stayed next to his brother, shaking slightly. The bond had been open so wide he had felt the poison as it began to flood Rick's system as though it was going through his own veins. Now he was coming off of an adrenaline high from Rick's life being in danger, and from using his powers again. At least he had seen his adult self, so he knew he hadn't inflicted permanent damage on himself from using magic so often.
After a while Rick's eyes opened slightly. He couldn't get his eyes to focus, but he knew it was Ardeth beside the chair. "Hey, buddy," he murmured, his voice barely audible.
"Rick!" Ardeth whispered, his own voice thick with suppressed tears. "How are you feeling, my brother?"
"Spent, but he's gone. I've never been so glad to be exhausted," he managed a tired smile. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine—I didn't have a creature in my head." Ardeth told him, moving closer to Rick—as close as he could get since Rick was still strapped in.
"I could feel you there," he said as he remembered sensing Ardeth's presence through their connection as the creature had tried to kill him. Rick tried to straighten slightly in the chair but all of his limbs felt as heavy as lead, so he soon gave up. "You stopped the poison. I know the strain that puts on you."
"How could I let the creature take you away from me, my brother—my twin? We've only just learned who we are. You brought me back from death, I just prevented death from getting its claws in you."
"Thanks," Rick said as he closed his eyes again, resting them. It was almost to tiring to speak out loud with how labored his breathing already was, so he switched to the bond. 'When you died, I... I couldn't keep going. For once, I finally have family back and for that moment you were gone...' he couldn't finish the thought. 'I've come to depend on you more than I have on anybody else. And I don't think I've told you how proud I am to be your brother.'
'No more proud than I am to have you for my brother. Rest, Rick—we will talk more later, when you are stronger.' Ardeth told him, quietly.
Rick gave a small nod. He was gone in an instant. The muscles in his body gradually began to relax. His face was still very pale, but it was not as stark as it had been during the extraction.
Ardeth slid to his knees, too exhausted to stay upright any longer, and rested his forehead against Rick's leg. Keeping one hand tangled in Rick's, the younger boy fell asleep also.
The older Rick had returned to the commissary to see if the plate of food he had made for Ardeth was still there, though he would still have to find his brother to give it to him. It was gone, but he quickly made another plate and left the mess hall with the food in hand, looking for the Med-jai king.
He found the Med-jai in the room that had been assigned to them when they first arrived at the SGC as children. Hearing the door, Ardeth whirled, robes flaring out, hand on his scimitar. He relaxed when he recognized his brother. "Rick."
"Ironic to find you in here. The last time we were here, we couldn't wait to get out of this room. I come bearing food. You haven't eaten since before we met up with SG-1 at Hamunaptra," Rick said offering his brother the plate.
"Thank you," Ardeth took the plate, surprised when his stomach growled as soon as he smelled the food. He settled down on the bed, and glanced up at Rick. "Are you all right, my brother?"
"Yeah," Rick said assuring as he rubbed his face then stretched his neck slightly. "Just a little tired. But I'm glad that's over. You?"
The younger man was quiet for a few minutes, as he ate. "It was . . . difficult to go through that again." He said at last, tiredly scrubbing a hand through his hair.
"I'm sorry," Rick said quietly. "At least we don't have to redo that again," he commented handing his brother one of their canteens. "And both sets of us can go home soon."
"Yes. I want to be back in the desert—it grows more and more difficult to leave as I get older. Soon I won't be able to join you on these little adventures." Ardeth told Rick, finishing the food and drinking from the canteen. "The ties between me and the protections the king upholds grow stronger every season."
Rick scoffed for a moment teasingly. "The day you quit going is the day I hang up my guns, because honestly, what would be the fun of going without you?" But Rick's face was serious after a second. "You will do what is best for your people as you always do, but I think if duty didn't require your presence you'd still be able to go out on a few more adventures yet."
Ardeth laughed. "Oh, I'm certain that if we don't go in search of some adventures, the adventures will come searching for us. And then, what would your wife say to that?"
Rick groaned, but there was a smile on his face to think of the prospect. "Half of her would want to start scolding me, and the other half of her would want to join in. Jonathan would not be so pleased. He's just lucky we got there in time to help him escape from Peru with his hide intact."
"He was very fortunate indeed. Jonathon really ought to know by now that anything like that would not be safe to get into."
"Ah," he shook his head waving his hand dismissively. "You know Jonathan. Anything to get an easy buck. But he must have been pretty desperate to try tomb raiding again. Huh. And he say's we're the mummy magnets."
"Yes. Well, it is our job—he just is a magnet. Come, we should go back to the observation room and check on our younger selves."
Rick nodded, adjusting one on the guns on his belt. He stood and followed Ardeth to the observation room.
Ardeth glanced through the window, then shook his head and laughed. "It appears that I have fallen asleep—you also."
Rick chuckled. "I'd say at this point we could both do with the rest." He saw Jacob enter the room with blankets for the boys and smiled. "I had an interesting discussion with Jacob and Selmak on the plane. He was asking a lot about how our people were doing. Apparently news of the Med-jai has been hard to come by since he left."
"If he is able to spare the time, we ought to take him home, to Kiriyah Gan. I think he will enjoy seeing what our people have done." Ardeth said, smiling as the man gave up on trying to get the boys to let go of each other and just tried to make them more comfortable.
"He's more than willing that's for sure," Rick mused. After a moment he sat down in one of the chairs at the desk that sat in front of the glass. "I wonder how Jack and the rest are doing in explaining this to General Hammond. They're supposed to have the debriefing soon. Daniel wasn't sure whether our presence would be required or not, but I'm sure that the general will want to see us before signing off on the report."
"I'm certain. Well, at least it is fairly obvious that we are the adult versions of ourselves. It will save some of the complications."
"Some," Rick snickered nodding. "I imagine, sooner or later, we'll have to discuss with them the manner of our transport home."
The king nodded, and sighed. "This part could get complicated. Well, I'm going to go return this plate."
Rick nodded. "And I'll keep an eye on us."
"I will see you shortly, then." Ardeth promised, and went off.
Rick sat and watched the boys sleep slowly processing all that had happened then and now. His ruminations were interrupted only periodically by Jacob or a member of the SG-1 team coming into the main hold to check on the young Med-jai. They didn't notice Rick sitting in the observation room, and at the moment Rick was glad that the overhead light was turned off preventing anyone from seeing through the one way glass. Though when he saw Dr. Frasier sneaking into the room, he quickly made his way down to ward her off, mindful of his promise to Ardeth. 'Frankly, I'm surprised it took her this long to sneak in,' he thought.
Dr. Frasier went over the boys and started checking them over, obviously unable to deny her medical training any longer.
Rick rolled his eyes. Ardeth's going to kill me, he thought. "They're fine," he assured her, "but they need to sleep."
The doctor sighed heavily. "Well, at least help me get them into a more comfortable position." She ordered, obviously frustrated at not being able to do anything.
Rick sighed, then walked over to help her. He pulled another chair over for Ardeth so at least he wasn't sitting on the cold floor. Rick looked at the young Rick's and Ardeth's hands clasped together. He knew if he separated them, it would definitely wake Ardeth up at least. He motioned for Dr. Frasier to take the chair while he lifted the prince off the floor. * Once she wheeled the chair underneath the boy, Rick set Ardeth gently down on it.
Ardeth stirred a little, but just tightened his grip on Rick's hand and was deeply asleep again in seconds. Dr. Frasier shook her head. "Other than the effects of removing the symbiote, are either of the boys injured?"
"No," Rick lied with a straight face. In truth, they were much improved from how they had been. Ardeth's injuries had all almost completely healed and the presence of the symbiote had taken care of Rick's injuries. He stood with his eyes fixed on the boys, giving no outward sign, but in the back of his mind sighing in relief that his younger self's shirt was concealing the brand marks on his shoulders.
The doctor frowned at him, but let it go, and went off. Ardeth curled up on the chair, leaning over the arm to get closer to Rick in his sleep.
Rick smiled gently. Shaking his head he wondered, Has it really been that long ago? His younger self had thought he had seen so much, but he really had no clue. Even with the knowledge of the symbiote, he hadn't seen anything yet.
A moment later, the adult Ardeth peeked in. "Watching yourself sleep?" he asked quietly, smiling as he saw the boys.
He chuckled and replied, "More like keeping my promise to keep the doctors away. She can be quite determined."
The king shook his head. "Yes, she can be. At times, I think she is worse than Amir."
"I think you're right."
A few minutes later, a young airman came into the room. "Sirs, the general would like you to come to the briefing room."
The Med-jai nodded and followed him out of the room. Rick had to stifle his laughter when he saw the rather large unit of soldiers standing outside the isolation ward. 'Well, I guess they don't want to risk anything happening to us this time,' he commented through their bond.
'Apparently not. Hopefully they will also prevent Dr. Frasier from going after us as well.' Ardeth said, nodding solemnly to the soldiers as he passed them.
'Somehow I doubt that,' Rick thought to his brother. 'Maybe she'll be at the briefing.' He hoped so, but he doubted that too since she had not had a chance to examine the boys.
They met SG-1 on the way to the briefing room. Dr. Frasier, Jacob, and General Hammond were already in the room talking quietly.
As they entered the room and took a seat at the table, General Hammond looked up at the movement and, catching site of the two men, stared at them for a second wide-eyed.
"It is good to see you again, General Hammond. It's been quite a few years," Ardeth told the man, unable to reign in his mischievous side.
It only took a moment for the seasoned general to recompose himself. He had seen many strange things while working at the SGC, he didn't know exactly why this threw him. But he nodded back to Ardeth and Rick. "It is good to see you again and to know that you two are safely back."
Both Med-jai sat down. "Thank you, General."
"Now that you two are present, we can start what looks to be a long debriefing. Who wants to go first?" he asked raising his eyebrows as he looked around the table.
Daniel looked up hopefully, then winced as Jack kicked him under the table.
Daniel glared at the colonel, who returned the harsh look. "We don't want this to go on for any longer than it has to," he said pointedly, knowing the archaeologist's tendency to ramble for long spans of time.
Rick laughed. 'Yup, just like we remember them.'
'Yes, exactly like.' With a quiet sigh, the king started detailing exactly what had happened to the two boys on their little adventure.
General Hammond listened to the story intently only asking occasional questions. Once they had finished, Jack looked smugly at Daniel. "See? Brief, concise, to the point," he said, implying that Daniel should follow Ardeth's example.
"Give him a few decades of giving orders and briefings, and he will learn to be more concise," Ardeth advised.
"Moving along, people," General Hammond said, gently steering back to the topic at hand, "what is the status of their present condition?" he asked looking towards Jacob, Dr. Frasier, Rick and Ardeth.
"They will both be fine, and grow up into reasonably normal adults." Ardeth told the man, trying not to smile.
"Reasonably of course being the key word," Rick muttered more to himself than to the others.
Jacob nodded in agreement with Ardeth. "They are in better condition than we expected them to be in considering the abuse they suffered at the hands of the NID. And from what I can tell young Rick is making a steady recovery from the poison." Here he looked at Ardeth having guessed by now what had saved the boy. Even when he had established the Med-jai, he had never expected their regenerative powers to reach such levels, especially in boys so young.
The king raised an eyebrow when he caught Jacob staring at him before turning his attention back to the briefing. Jack detailed what SG-1 had done while searching for the boys.
"Do we have any idea as to which faction of the NID is responsible for the boys' abduction? Did they leave behind any clues at the facility?" Hammond asked SG-1 and Major Davis who had been in charge of the interrogating the NID that were found at the abandoned building Rick and Ardeth had been held in.
"Not yet, sir, but my team and I are working on it." Davis told him, offering a folder of papers. "Here is what we've managed to learn so far. There are at least three more sleeper agents—we've found two of them."
Hammond nodded, glancing over the file on top, and deciding to give them a more thorough examination once the debriefing was over. Once he had the report from all parties on the events over the past few days since the boys were taken, he sighed. "Now that we have the boys safely back in custody, we are back to our original problem: how do we get them home?"
Ardeth glanced over at Rick and raised an eyebrow. "I think we might be able to help with that."
All present around the table looked at the two of them in confusion.
"You do?" Carter asked.
"Wait a minute," Jack asked. "If you have the solution, how come you didn't just use that when you first got here or to send us home when we came to Ahm Kaldoon or whatever that place is?"
"Well, Rick and I only found it a few years ago when we were investigating a strange report from near the pyramids. After we figured out the controls, we moved it to a storeroom in the City for safekeeping."
"So you found some sort of machine? What does it look like?" Daniel asked. Something tugged at the back of his mind something familiar but he couldn't coax it forward. He had a feeling that they should know what device Ardeth was referring to.
"It is some sort of flying vessel. We discovered that it is capable of leaving earth's atmosphere safely when Rick started pushing buttons to see what they did." Ardeth shot a glare over at his brother.
"We couldn't exactly lift the thing and carry it home," Rick protested, putting up his hands defensively. "We had to either turn it on or leave it in the sands."
"But no one would be able to turn that thing on unless they..." Jack started but his voice trailed of as Hammond and SG-1 all turned to stare at the two Med-jai in surprise. "...unless they have they Ancient gene," the colonel finished.
Ardeth stared back at them. "What exactly is this Ancient gene?" he asked.
"The Ancient gene is a component of DNA that occurs only rarely in a person's genetic structure which makes them able to power or use technology from a race we have come to call the Ancients," Carter tried to explain.
"English, Carter!" Jack groaned, rubbing his forehead, scrunching up his face at Sam's techno-babble. "It means that you're an advanced breed of human," he translated.
"Ah. Well, all Med-jai have abilities that are somewhat unusual for most humans." Ardeth told them. "We just happen to be some of the more powerful."
Jacob smiled; Selmak had already known. He knew that the Med-jai would be facing some great challenges from the evils they fought and had chosen his men accordingly.
Rick shook his head. "No wonder the goa'uld went after one of us."
"He thought that since we're part of the royal family, we would have more power—he did not count on that power being trained at all, or able to be used against him."
Rick shook his head to think if the goa'uld had found him before he had discovered he was a Med-jai. 'Two or three months sooner...' he thought.
'Two or three months soon, he was sealed in a jar, unable to do anything, my brother.' His younger brother told him, through the bond.
'True,' Rick replied, then spoke out loud. "So we can travel back to Kiriyah Gan and use this ship to transport the younger version of us back to the time they left." Then he turned to Ardeth. "Though we may want to either wait until the scarabs are dealt with or bring ourselves to the outside of the tomb," he suggested.
"Probably outside of the tomb. If we wait for Father to clear the scarabs, he will have worked himself into a full panic."
Rick nodded.
Jack looked at General Hammond. "Permission—"
"Granted," Hammond agreed before he even finished the question. As glad as he was to have the boys back safe and sound, he would feel better having this situation resolved. "As soon as young Rick and Ardeth are awake and fit for travel, you have a 'go'."
"Thank you, sir." Jack said, and the general rose.
"Keep me updated on everything, people." He ordered, before going into his office.
As SG-1 went to prepare for the trip, Rick turned to Jacob. "If you can spare the time for the trip, you are welcome to join us. I know that our families would be glad to meet you."
"Selmak and I would enjoy that. It will be good to see what the Med-jai have done." Jacob told them.
Rick smiled at Jacob and then turned to Ardeth. "I'm gonna go check on us, see if we're awake yet."
"All right. I am going to go retrieve our weapons. I will meet you in the isolation room in a little bit."
"See you there," Rick said, nodding then heading off.
Ardeth nodded to Jacob before starting off. He absently wondered how many weapons his brother had carried at fifteen, and if he would be able to carry them all by himself.
Fortunately the SF who had taken their weapons had had the foresight to keep them separate from the rest of the base's artillery. The Med-jai weapons were tagged and close together on the weapons rack.
Ardeth took the weapons, laughing quietly at the number of guns and knives Rick had been carrying.