A New Enemy
Chapter: 26
0oo0
The day after the re-taking of the two planets, the SGC was one of complete activity. There was Gate activity all day long with SG teams coming and going. Even the Asgard stopped by for a chat and to ask if they had heard anything of Tanis, who had not returned to any of their ships after appearing on Amun's mothership.
The next day, Riley was on her way to Sam's lab after going to see Janet for her to remove the wrap, when she had this strange urge to go to the briefing room. Running there, she arrived there just as Walter's voice called over the tannoy for her and SG1 to report to the briefing room. When Riley ran up the stairs, she saw Tanis sitting in a chair by the table.
"Tanis!" Riley said, running to kneel by the Ancient. "Are you alright?"
Tanis didn't look the same. The light that seemed to radiate from within her seemed… dimmer.
"I am alright my child," Tanis said softly.
"Really?" Riley asked, looking her in the eyes.
"Maybe I am a little tired," Tanis replied.
"She just appeared here," General Hammond said, placing a glass of water in front of Tanis.
"What's up General?" Jack asked as soon as his head appeared over the railing. He then noticed Tanis as he walked further into the room. "Something's off about you."
"He's right," Sam said taking the seat on Tanis' right. "You seem… I don't know, less… shiny."
"Real scientific word there Carter. Word of the day calendar?" Jack asked sitting on the opposite side of the table. "But she does have a point."
"She is stronger than I ever anticipated," Tanis said, taking a sip of water.
"You went up against her? What happened?" Riley asked urgently.
"Breathe my child. Sit and I shall tell my tale," Tanis said. "I faced Wadjet two days ago. She had such power. Power I did not know she possessed. She is now a part of Amun, bound to him in body, mind and blood."
"Three parts of a perfect whole," Riley said slowly.
"Yes. How did you know?" Tanis asked.
"I don't know. That machine on the planet put stuff in my head," Riley said.
"Wasn't Thor supposed to take that stuff out?" Jack asked.
"Thor said there was nothing to take out. Just that Riley's gene somehow became activated," said Sam.
"Apparently something stayed in there," Riley said. "The Ancients went behind you and your husband's back."
"What?" Tanis asked sharply.
"The Ancients made drastic changes to your DNA sequence to make it compatible. Those changes had adverse reactions," Riley said, staring at a spot on the wall, willing herself to remember.
"Those women on the first planet," Jonas spoke up. "They were experiments."
"They left the laboratory behind for the children of the Ancients who stayed behind on Earth," Riley said.
"That obviously didn't work," Jack said. "Ra found it and made an army of superwomen."
"What about the 'three parts of a perfect whole'?" Jonas asked.
"It is the union between a man and a woman that you call marriage," said Tanis. "We are bound to one partner in body and mind. Ra seems to have strengthened the bond by using blood. My powers may fail against hers, which is why I look less… shiny, I believe was the word used."
Jack snickered, but quickly turned it into a cough when Sam glared at him.
"What do we do now?" General Hammond asked.
"I must regain my strength. In the meantime, anyone can make their move," said Tanis.
The red phone in General Hammond's office started to ring.
"Excuse me," said General Hammond.
Everyone started talking softly while General Hammond was on the phone. A few second later, General Hammond came back out.
"Colonel Munro, the president is on the phone for you,"
Riley frowned as she got up and went into General Hammond's office.
"Mr. President? I'm fine, everyone's nice, feels like my first job. Bad news? Missing? What do you mean missing? Send a plane to Peterson; I'll be ready to go in forty-five minutes."
Hanging up the phone, Riley said a few choice words before walking out of the office.
"I have to go," Riley said.
"Where?" General Hammond asked.
"Melissa took the job I turned down. As of 0200 hours, she was officially pegged as MIA. She doesn't miss a check-in for no reason. I'm heading down there now," Riley said, walking to the stairs.
"There where?" Sam asked.
"Beirut."
0oo0
"Riley!"
Riley turned around from walking to her truck to see Jonas running towards her.
"Hey."
"How long will the mission take?"
"I don't know. You should know that I can't be in contact while I'm on the mission."
"I know. Just promise that you'll be careful."
"I will. I have something to come back for."
Riley stepped forward into Jonas' arms to kiss him.
"Don't worry about me," Riley said stepping out of Jonas' arms and into her car.
Riley smiled at Jonas as she pulled out of the parking lot.
0oo0
A/N: I'm happy that people are still reading this so I thought I'd give you a sneak peek into the next chapter. In it we find out part of what Riley's job for the U.N. entailed. Sorry I can't tell anymore without revealing too much of the plot. This chapter should be up by Wednesday.
"I came to rescue your sorry arse Melissa. You're very welcome by the way," Riley said tossing Melissa the extra gun and keys.
"I was going to rescue myself, thank you very much," Melissa grumbled as she unlocked the lock and started unwrapping herself from the chains.
"You always have a hand free. And how, if you don't mind my asking, were you going to rescue yourself when you were chained in a crate in a plane and didn't know where you were going?" Riley asked as she took the unwrapped sections of chain.
"I had a good plan of attack," Melissa said climbing out of the crate.
"Plan of attack, my arse," Riley said.
Thanks again for reading! :)