Vala and Sarah waited for Jack trying to keep Zadi with them. He kept making attempts to leave and Sarah would run after him, trying to hold him in one spot until Vala rejoined them. It wasn't long before they arrived near the beacon and Vala talked briefly to Cam, letting him know where they were.

Jack and Samantha joined them much quicker than Vala had expected.

"What's going on?" Jack looked at Sarah who shrugged her shoulders letting Vala respond instead.

"We were in that restaurant Zhaan pointed out killing time and trying to dry off, when Zadi got upset."

"Why?"

"He wouldn't say anything other than 'bad' and I think he was saying the server wasn't being honest."

"Not tell truth." Zadi repeated what he had said while still clinging onto Jack's leg.

Jack crouched down to Zadi's level after prying the boys hands from his knees so he could bend them. "So what happened?" Jack directed the question to Vala.

"I'm not sure. I tried to order something and he kept saying no and we had to leave. The server got offended and we left."

"Did you notice anything else?"

"Vala noticed some men sitting in the corner." Sarah hadn't seen them and wondered why Vala had told her about them. It was nothing unusual for others to be in a restaurant curious about the newcomers.

"Men?"

"They looked like men but I didn't get a clear enough view. They had the long robes on that these folks wear over their clothes..." Vala tried to remember what else she had noticed in that brief glance.

"Plain robes? Heads covered? Sitting, watching?" Samantha spoke up, moving closer and lowering her voice as she did so.

"Yes. Did you see them?"

"Yes, but they weren't here. Three of them watched us as Jack asked about Zadi's father."

"Where was this?" Jack had no idea what Samantha was talking about.

"You were arguing with D'Argo about the best way to ask about someone who you had no idea what they looked like. They were sitting behind just inside the foyer we came through."

Jack snapped his fingers as he remembered. "That's when we got Vala's request about Zadi. We left."

"Yes. but we can't have seen the same men. Besides, what if they're just travellers like us, all this might not mean anything." Sarah nodded as Samantha spoke.

"I don't trust coincidences. It's never...hey!!" Zadi let go of Jack and began running quickly over the slippery mud. "Zadi, come back..."

Sarah took off after Zadi, Samantha following right behind her as Jack stood, groaning as his knees complained.

"So what do you think about these men?" Vala asked as she looked around nervously.

"Dunno. They could be a group of wackos or just curious about us. I couldn't..." Jack stopped as they heard a pulse pistol discharging close by. "Down!" He pulled Vala down to a crouching position as they both readied their weapons.

Together they crossed the short distance to the side of the building where Sarah and Samantha had disappeared. Hearing sounds of a struggle Jack stepped around the corner and fired, running towards Samantha as she fell from the man's grip.

"Sam! Where's Sarah?" Jack reached her side just as she fell to the ground and grimaced as a trickle of blood trailed down her pale face.

"They took her."

Jack reached for his comm and called to Cam. "They've got..." He was hit from behind before he could get another word out, falling beside Samantha, unconscious. Vala quickly turned around and fired, stunning the man who had hit Jack as Samantha tried to stand up. She didn't see or hear another man behind her, too caught up in trying to eliminate the shooter and get Samantha and Jack to safety somehow.

Suddenly she felt someone pull her back and she lost her balance, falling roughly to the ground, her jacket tearing as her captor held on. He pinned her down and pointed his weapon at her.

"Officer Aeryn Sun I presume." His accent sounded similar to the English accent Sarah had.

"No."

"No? Then who are you?"

"Vala Mal Doran." She could hear Samantha trying to fight off the other man unsuccessfully and she tried to move out of the grip he was holding her in. "Have we met before?"

He sneered at her in response and hauled her to her feet. When Vala stood she could see that Samantha was being held by another man but she was struggling forcing the man to change his grip.

"Where's Sarah?" Samantha yelled at her captor.

"You'll see her soon enough..." The man yelped as Samantha bit his arm hard and he let go of her momentarily. Samantha got a few steps before the man regained control and hit her in the temple with his pulse pistol. She dropped to the ground, out cold.

Vala used the distraction Samantha had caused to knock the weapon out of her opponents hand. He retaliated by taking a swing at her, but Vala moved so it avoided her face, but dropped to her knees in pain as he hit her collarbone. She felt his hand connect her jawbone as he hit her again, and slumped onto the ground, barely holding on.

"Others are coming." Vala opened her eyes to see Samantha being lifted up onto the one mans shoulders. She felt hands grab her roughly and force her into a sitting position.

"Stand!" The man attempted to haul her to her feet but as her head was still swimming from the last hit Vala was unable to do so under her own steam.

"We've got this one and the other one. That is enough."

"Leave her?"

"Yes." Vala sighed in relief as she felt the iron strong grip release her. Still sitting in the mud, braced by her hands, she didn't expect the man to hit her again. When he did she saw blinding lights explode behind her closed lids and felt herself falling to the ground. As her face hit the mud she heard the men speaking.

"We must leave. You grab her..."

"We can't take this one. Just grab the fair haired and go."

Vala heard their footsteps squelching in the mud, leaving her behind. She moved and tried to sit up, but when she did, blackness engulfed her.


"Jack is awake." Zhaan joined Cam and D'Argo left to watch over the man they had captured.

"Did he say what happened?" Cam was still holding Vala in a sitting position, her head resting on his chest, smearing mud over his clothes.

"He is still a little disoriented but says they were ambushed."

"They took Sarah and Samantha. Left me behind." Vala spoke slowly, the pounding headache making it hard to talk.

"Who?"

"The men in the restaurant. Same as Jack saw in the inn."

"Yeah, we saw some of 'em too. Did they say who they were or where they were taking the girls? Whoa, easy." Cam moved as Vala tried to stand up, swaying on her feet.

"No."

"There are more coming. We need to get out of here." Chiana returned with Jack, his arm around her shoulders leaning on her for support.

"What about Sam and Sarah?" Jack protested trying to stand on his own. "We can't leave them..."

"Moya's sensors have picked up a Marauder leaving the planets surface. Nerri is preparing to fire." Pilot's voice interrupted Jack.

"No! Pilot, Samantha and Sarah could be on that ship." Zhaan thought that a Peacekeeper ship leaving the planet and the capture of Samantha and Sarah had to be connected somehow.

"Moya is trying to convince Nerri that the ship is not to be fired upon, but he isn't listening!"

"Can you stop him?" Cam asked Pilot.

"No."

"Pilot, can you or Moya disable his weapons?"

"No. But he seems to be calming down a little now. If they don't come too close he should be fine."

"Good. Pilot, please track where the ship goes so we can follow."

"Zhaan, do you wish us to chase the ships?"

"No. It is not safe for us to remain here if there are Peacekeepers with us. We will go back to the transport pod and join you shortly. Track them until they are out of range of Moya's sensors."

"Yes, Zhaan."

"Where's Daniel?" Cam had last seen him as he had ran to Jack's aid after he had been called over the comms.

"He's with Zadi." Zhaan pointed to where they had found Jack and Cam could see Daniel sitting in the mud, his head in his hands.

"I'll go talk to him." Jack shrugged out of Chiana's hold and walked over to Daniel and Zadi.

"Chiana and I will head to the transport pod. We will come for you." Zaahn hurried off, Chiana running to keep up with her.

"Can you stand?" Cam didn't want to stay where they were, separated from the others.

"Help me." Vala reached out for Cam's hand and he helped her stand. They walked slowly to where D'Argo was standing, a few feet from Jack, Daniel and Zadi.


"Daniel." Jack stood over him feeling uncomfortable.

"She's gone..." Daniel broke down again.

"We'll find them."

"How? In case you didn't notice there's plenty of places to hide out there." Daniel gestured violently towards the sky as he spoke.

"We'll get them back." Jack couldn't think of what to say to calm Daniel down. Fortunately for him Daniel stopped speaking and returned to his own thoughts, leaving Jack to think on how to mount a rescue attempt.


Once they returned to Moya the group met in the dining room and sat, mindlessly eating food cubes, discussing what their options were and where to go from there.

"What about that one man we brought back?" Cam had not paid attention to that conversation earlier as he had been trying to convince Vala to stay and rest in his room.

"He is locked in a cell. A DRD will inform us when he awakens."

"And the point of us bringing him here?" Daniel's voice was devoid of emotion. Cam guessed that he was exhausted and more than likely needed rest that he wouldn't be able to get, thinking about what had happened that day distracting him too much.

"When he awakens we shall discover what he knows." Zhaan stated it as a fact that he would awaken and then tell them what they wanted to know.

"You mean where they took Sarah and Samantha." Vala rested her head on her hands gingerly. Her head still hurt and she had several dark bruises along her jawbone as well as other places not visible.

"Yes. Once we have that information we shall do what we can to rescue them."

"What about Zadi?" Jack had not allowed the boy to be at the discussion. Instead he was in his room, hopefully sleeping.

"I do not believe that his father is on that planet..."

"I knew it!" Vala interrupted Zhaan, banging her hand on the table as she spoke.

"Knew what?" D'Argo narrowed his eyes at her wondering what she had to say.

"Xandia. He led us there."

"Xandia is part of the resistance. He would not betray us." Zhaan did not waiver in her trust in Mavinoc who had spoken of Xandia.

"Then who did? He was the one who told us to come here. We didn't get those co-ordinates from anyone else."

"Zhaan, Vala has a point. We will have to talk to Mavinoc to find out what happened." D'Argo nodded his agreement with Vala.

"I have a question. Who were those guys?" Cam wanted to know who else was out to get them.

"Peacekeepers." Zhaan and D'Argo replied in unison.

"They didn't look like 'em." A small part of Cam was glad that they hadn't pissed off a new bunch of people, but not too happy that his friends were in their hands.

"I believe they are Special Ops. They do not behave as other Peacekeepers."

"Kinda like undercover then."

"I have heard Aeryn refer to them once. She mentioned Black Ghosts and that it was a nickname for those serving in Special Ops. I have never seen one before but I would guess that the men are these 'Ghosts.'"

"Ok, Zhaan, so we saw four of them, D'Argo four, and Jack...?"

"Three I think."

"Making a total of eleven. We've got one here on Moya. Three we killed." There had been a small firefight before Zhaan and Chiana had returned in the transport pod. Cam, D'Argo and Jack had each killed one man.

"So that's a total of seven left. I only saw three others when we left." Jack had made a mental note of how many there were as they had been fighting, not knowing if the information would be useful later.

"Ok, that makes four not accounted for." Cam did the math again, double checking his numbers. "How many could've escaped in that ship..."

"Maurauder." D'Argo interjected.

"Ship, Marauder, same difference. My point is, how many left? Did the remaining four leave to tell their Peacekeeper bosses where we are? What about the three we know are on the planet? What are they doing?"

"Cam's got a point. We need to find out where they all are." Jack drummed his fingers on the table as he thought.

"Pilot, do you have any idea where the Marauder could be headed?"

"I do not Zhaan. When they left Moya's sensors they were travelling at Hetch 7 and not showing signs of slowing down. They are well out of range now."

"If there's another ship on that planet for these ghosts we need to take care of it." Jack didn't want them following Moya when they left.

"We need to kill those remaining."

"And how do you suggest we do that, D'Argo?" Jack laid on the sarcasm as he glared at D'Argo. "We were lucky when no one else showed up to see what was going on. We don't want to piss of the inhabitants if we haven't already."

"I am sure we can think of something. For now, we wait. When the one we have captured awakes we will see what he knows and go from there." Zhaan hastened to quell the brewing argument between Jack and D'Argo. "If another Marauder leaves the planet, Pilot will inform us."

"So what about them down there?"

"I am sure that I have something that will take care of that issue." Zhaan stood gracefully and prepared to leave to her lab of sorts. "Chiana, I could use a little help."

"Sure."

"Pilot!"

"Yes D'Argo."

"Are the DRD's finished in the maintenance bay?"

"Not quite yet."

"What's taking them so long?"

"The transport pod sustained some damage during your fight. They are still working on it."

"Fine. I'll go down there myself and see what's wrong." D'Argo stomped out without a word to anyone else.

"So we're just going to wait? What about Sarah? We need to go find them now!" Daniel stood and began paging, his frustration coming out as anger.

"Daniel."

"Jack."

"Daniel, sit down." Jack spoke the words much like General O'Neill would to Dr. Jackson and Cam smiled at the similarity, despite the situation.

"Don't you care?" He didn't move to obey Jack's command, standing in one spot running his hands through his hair.

"Of course I care."

"Then why don't you act like it? How can you be so calm and collected? This is two of our own that have been captured!"

"Thinking and acting on your emotions puts your team in jeopardy. I want to rescue them, not get everyone involved killed. You can't get emotionally involved if you want a successful rescue."

"That's alright for you to say. It isn't your wife out there."

"Sam's with her too in case you've forgotten. And it doesn't matter if it was my wife that was taken or not. Two members of our team have been captured by an enemy I know next to nothing about. I want them back here, and yesterday wouldn't be soon enough." Jack barked at Daniel and strode off down the hallway leaving an agape Daniel watching him leave.

"I hadn't forgotten." He said it more to himself than to Cam or Vala, watching the scene unfold before them.

"He knows that." Moving to comfort him Vala hesitated, unsure of exactly how to do that. With her Daniel she would've had no problem giving him a hug and saying something inane to get a smile or a rise out of him, but this wasn't the Daniel she had known for the past few years.

Cam sensed Vala's uncertainty and spoke, earning him a grateful look from her.

"Back on the base that tone of voice would have everyone scrambling to do the General's wishes. He never left anyone behind then and I doubt that this Jack would do the same. They're too similar and have pretty much identical histories up till about 15 years ago."

"So what changed him then? The way you talk about your General O'Neill, something drastic must've happened." Daniel always encouraged stories from Cam and Vala wanting to hear more about himself and those he was friends with.

"The Stargate." Cam replied simply.

"But what about it? It's just a giant circle that you walk through. From what you've told me it was a dangerous job and not too rewarding."

"Well, I wouldn't say that. We've made some good friends.."

"And enemies." Vala interjected.

Cam frowned at her jokingly before he continued. "It's a thrill every time you step through the gate. Going to a new world, exploring new possibilities. I've seen things I never would've imagined and I know it's changed me."

"You've told me about why I joined up. Catherine, that's her name right? She wanted someone to translate and I tagged along when they went through the gate. Why was I part of a military expedition? I can't imagine that happening here!"

Cam thought about what to say, hoping that Vala wouldn't jump in first. He knew Daniel's history and why he joined SG-1 but the conversation had steered away from his wife and he was hesitant to bring the focus back to that now that Daniel seemed a little calmer.

"What is it? Vala told me that I lived on a planet called Abydos for a while and then I came back to work with SG-1." Daniel sensed some reluctance on Cam's part and became very curious as to what he had to say.

"Did she tell you that you were married on Abydos?"

"Yes. It was to a woman named, uh, Sharey."

"Sha're. You lived there for a year until the Serpent Guard arrived. Sha're was one of those taken to Apophis and you vowed to find her and bring her back."

"She had one of those snakes in her?" Wide-eyed, Daniel tried to remember all that Cam and Vala had told him of their enemies, the Goa'uld.

"Yes."

"So did I find her or am I still looking?"

"Daniel found her."

"And?"

"She tried to kill him. Another member of the team stopped her." The way Cam spoke the words left no doubt in Daniel's mind that the woman who was the other Daniel's wife was no longer alive.

"Oh. So what happened then?"

"Daniel tried to leave SG-1 but came back. When I asked him about it he shrugged his shoulders and said that there was an enemy to be defeated still." Cam had only asked once or twice and never received more than that in answer. He did not ask anymore as it was obviously still an understandably painful subject.

"Then your Daniel isn't married? What about Sarah?"

"Sarah is not the same woman you know. She was taken host by Osiris, a Goa'uld. One of our allies managed to extract the symbiote and she continues her life on Earth." Again Cam didn't know all the details, only what he had read in old mission reports.

"It seems like I get the short straw in both our worlds." Daniel had begun pacing the hallway again, thinking how his life in Cam and Vala's reality was so different, yet still had alarming similarities.

"Daniel, it has nothing to do with you being jinxed. Bad things happen all the time, trust me, I know." Vala swallowed, pausing as she thought of her own experience as a host. She felt Cam's hand rest on her waist and began speaking again. "Out here it's different than on Earth. There you are protected, sort of. Out here, it's a whole new set of rules and even we don't know all of them."

Daniel stopped pacing to stare at Vala. He could see the shadow on her face and in less than a microt it disappeared leaving him wondering what her life before she had arrived on Earth had been like. He tried to respond but couldn't find the words.

"We'll get them back." Vala placed a reassuring hand on Daniel's shoulder and got a weak smile in return.

Daniel turned and left, heading towards his room. Both Cam and Vala realised he needed some time alone and let him go, Cam making a mental note to get Jack to check on Daniel in a few hours.

"We have to get them back." She spoke the words as if saying the words would make it come true.

"C'mere." Cam held Vala as she looked beseechingly at him, looking for reassurance in his eyes. They stood there together, comforting each other. Cam suggested they go get some rest after several minutes passed, unsure as to when the captive man would wake, and wanting to make sure that Vala didn't become exhausted. He traced the darkest bruise on her face with his fingers.

"I owe you an apology."

"For what?" Despite the pain underneath the bruises Vala didn't want Cam to stop.

"I didn't believe you about Xandia."

"Cam..."

"You were right and I didn't listen."

"It doesn't matter. Besides, we don't know if it was him that betrayed us."

Cam grasped Vala's hand and led her to their rooms hoping to get some sleep before a plan was devised.

They managed to get as far as Cam's room before Zhaan's voice announced on the comms that the prisoner was awake.

AN: This is what survived after work scared the muse away... After much coaxing and bribing she returned and I ended up re-writing this chap several times... does it fit with the rest? What did you think?