Jack opened his eyes into a squint and saw the most beautiful thing ever. A glow lit his vision and he felt himself start to give into it before realizing it was not the sarcophagus but the light in his cell. He was pretty sure he'd have an aversion to overhead lighting for the rest of his days. The light without the warm euphoria of healing caused an itch to start under his skin and suddenly he felt as messed up as ten miles of bad road. He did his best to ignore it. He tried to sit up but couldn't even force the molecules of his body to respond and, screaming one by one, the cells of his body eased back down again and he wasn't sure if he hated the feel of the floor under his back or if he was indescribably thankful that it was impossible to fall off the floor no matter how much his head swam.
"Daniel?" Jack murmured throatily into the empty air of his cell once again once he located his voice and brought it out to play.
This time there was an answer.
"I'm here."
Jack let out a sigh and kept his swimming gaze focused on a spot on the wall near the light instead of the motion he caught in the corner of his eyes. "You were gone."
Daniel knelt down on one knee. He sounded tired. He moved like he carried the weight of the world, no of the entire universe, on his once mortal shoulders.
Did energy beings even have shoulders anymore? The shoulder bone's connected to the - no, that's not right. Jack shook his head slightly as if to try and clear it but instead just felt himself slipping gears from dizzy to that state where your brain is being waterboarded. Thinking in terms of what Daniel actually was anymore was difficult.
Daniel Jackson was, Jack was beginning to realize, as alien as the rest of them. Teal'c with his being a literal alien, Jonas too, Sam being too scientist and too soldier to ever be one or the other, and Jack liked to think of himself as the glue that keeps them all together and seeps into their cracks to keep them from falling apart. Daniel'd been put back together so many times that none of his original parts from the factory were in him anymore. Was that what was happening to Jack, too?
But thinking about factories made him think of Earth and thinking about Daniel in relation to Earth made him realize that of his home planets, Earth was the one that held the most pain. On Abydos he lost his wife and brother because of Earth's constant interfering. On Earth he lost everything else, including himself. No wonder he felt more comfortable with Oma's crew.
Daniel's voice brought him back from the tumble of disjointed thoughts.
Daniel was an anchor.
Daniel was solid in ways that transcended the fact that he was a vision and nothing more.
Daniel was there and Jack finally realized what he was trying to do, to be, for him.
"I know," Daniel said softly, his voice a little sad. "I'm sorry, there was something that I had to do. But I'm back now and I promise I'll stay with you until this is over."
Jack tried not to laugh. "It'll never be over," he lamented. The words silently echoed. Never be over. Never be over… He was losing his mind and he couldn't even summon the faintest desire to care. MacKenzie would be having a field day tripping through his brain full of landmines and tripwires, trying his best to keep up.
"Yes it will."
Despite the healing of the sarcophagus, Jack felt older than he ever did before. The torture felt like it had taken decades off his life, and he wasn't a spring chicken to start with. He assumed that the only reason he lasted as long as he did was because of those years of experience that now weighed him down like an anchor around his neck.
He was tired. So tired.
"Daniel, you have to end this," he pleaded after a moment. He'd long ago had his pride burned out of him somewhere between a knife in the heart and acid in his veins. He'd always prided himself on being the one to never give up, to never go back to the depths of darkness that made him think a suicide mission involving a nuke wasn't just a good idea, but a necessary one. He may have talked Daniel off a literal ledge before and he may have kept his finger off the trigger in a storeroom, but Daniel was the one constantly saving his life and the realization that even Daniel couldn't be his saving grace this time was a difficult thing to swallow.
"Jack, you just have to hang in there a little while longer."
"No," Jack said, resting his head back against the wall where he sat. "I can't go back in there." He hoped Daniel really was just a delusion, not really there, not seeing him in this state, not responding to Jack to just hear himself talk. "If I go back, I swear to God, I'll give Ba'al what he wants," he choked out. "I'll tell him."
"Tell him what?"
Jack sighed. "That he loved her," he admitted.
"Kanan?" Daniel questioned, even though he knew the answer.
"He came back for her," Jack said quietly. As broken down as his walls all were, he could feel a whisper of remembered emotions pump through him and he suddenly wanted to cry but everything inside was as dry as the desert that Daniel loved so much. Oh Daniel. Jack was suddenly sorry he was the lynchpin that made everything in Daniel's life painful aside from the death of his parents. No, there was more there before Jack was on the scene and he knew it, he just had trouble connecting the dots in his brain, even when it came to Daniel and Daniel's lot in life. He belonged on Earth as much as he belonged with Oma, which was far less than he belonged on Abydos. No, he belonged to Abydos. Why did he ever reopen the gate to bring him back? Why did he, no why did Kanan , need so strongly to come back?
Jack licked his cracked dry lips a little, suddenly aware of the limitations of his body in addition to the ones of his mind. "He wanted to save her."
He wasn't sure if he knew this all along or if it was a new revelation. It was just part of him and he realized that was his new reality. He'd stopped fighting it and suddenly things became much easier to understand, the emotions and half remembered memories locking into place like a five thousand piece puzzle he forgot buying and dumping out onto the coffee table.
"Ba'al doesn't know this," Daniel stated.
"If he finds out, he'll do to her what he's doing to me," Jack said, still staring straight ahead. "Daniel, if you don't end this, I'll tell him."
Jack couldn't stand the thought of anyone being tortured like he'd been. Especially not someone he had feelings for, even if they were strange echoes of feelings and not true emotions.
He felt outside of himself looking in.
There he goes again, jumbled mind trying to take on responsibility for the universe. There was a time when he was sure it was Daniel's job, not his. With Jack, it was extrinsic. He took on the mantle of being the savior of the world because it was his job and it was expected of him. Daniel, however, was entirely intrinsic about it. He took on the weight of the world because he liked it. Maybe it made him feel useful and needed. Maybe it was because he had so little of that in his lifetime. But Daniel wanted to save the world one soul at a time and he seemed to be starting with Jack's. Or maybe he wasn't quite done with Jack's yet. He really started the moment he burst into Jack's life with floppy hair, ill-fitting clothes and cheap glasses. He declared war on behalf of Jack's soul when Daniel scolded him and chided him for taking on a suicide mission. Maybe this was Daniel's way of bookending their lifetime together.
Next to him, Daniel almost smiled. "You won't have to," he said.
Jack let his head give in to the pull of having him close and he shifted his neck muscles enough so he could look closely at Daniel. He knew that look. "There's something you haven't told me. What haven't you told me?"
Daniel looked away and the fleeting shift to his expression gave him away. Jack had been able to read him as easily as Daniel could read the geometric lines and swirls of Ancient. Daniel was fluent in twenty odd something languages, but Jack was fluent in Daniel. He knew the difference of the set of his mouth to mean he was holding back or not being entirely truthful versus the one that meant he didn't know something and it was tearing him up inside to not understand.
"You knew him. This Ba'al. Is it because of your whole glowy thing? Have you been spying on him for Oma or something?"
"No," Daniel said softly.
It took a moment before Jack realized exactly what was going on. Even with his mind splintered and shattering as it was, his ability to read Daniel stemmed from his very bones. There was some level of this being personal. More than just a faceless nameless strike at the Goa'uld, even if he was a System Lord. "You met him at the Summit, didn't you?"
Daniel gave a slight nod. "Yeah. When I realized that it was Ba'al who had you- Jack, I know what he's capable of. More than any of the rest, he doesn't see this as a means to an end. He enjoys it."
"So that's why you wanted me to Ascend. You knew he was nuts when this all started."
With a slight wince, Daniel nodded. "Yeah. But don't worry. It's almost over, Jack."
Slowly, Jack turned his head and looked at his friend. "How?"
"You were right," Daniel pointed out. "There's always a way out. Well, at least there's always a chance. Your journey isn't over, Jack. Not yet."
"What'd you do?"
Daniel shrugged a single shoulder and looked down. Jack knew that expression well. It was Daniel trying to be coy in order to hide something. "I didn't do anything. It was, uhm, Sam and Teal'c. And uh, Jonas, too."
Jack fought back the surge of hope that sparked again in his chest. Hope was bad. Hope let you down. But he couldn't resist asking "What?"
Daniel just smiled. "They thought of something."
"What?" Jack repeated but this time he was suddenly energized as he jumped to his feet. It couldn't be true. Daniel had done something he was known for. Despite being a stickler for rules in some ways, Daniel Jackson had always loved bending the rules he didn't agree with. He'd found a loophole somewhere. Before he could even ask anything more, a distant sound of an explosion tore through the cell and the lights flickered off and on again.
Daniel stood to join him. "This is it. All you ever wanted was a fighting chance, Jack. Now you have it. If anyone can make it out of here, you can."
The sound of fighting came closer. A voice shouted that Lord Yu was attacking the outpost.
How had Daniel arranged all of it? Pitting one System Lord against another was playing dirty. Jack didn't mind. But was it Daniel who was behind it?
He didn't have a chance to ask. With another crashing sound that shook the facility, the room started to shift gravitational orientation and he stumbled to the wall that would become the floor.
"Daniel?" he asked, turning to look and finding the cell empty. The lurching of his stomach stopped as he reoriented himself and he felt the adrenaline start to sizzle along his veins, clearing his head.
The lights flickered again and Jack staggered to the new floor and approached the exit. With his hand out slightly, he tested it and found the barrier gone.
He stepped out into the hallway and heard the sound of a Jaffa approaching. Just one by the sound of the steps. Before the Jaffa was even fully around the corner, Jack launched himself at him, racing the few steps so he could tackle him down to the ground and strike him repeatedly in the face with all his built up rage. It had been a long time since Jack had fought in unarmed combat but his constant training paid off. Fueled by his anger and desperation, he beat the guard into submission. He paused to look at his handiwork and for a moment felt sickened by his own brutality, but he didn't have time to waste. He slid the guard's Zat gun out and stood, orienting himself. His body was better than ever even if his mind was still an unsteady blur.
Think Jack, think. He took a deep breath and focused.
He envisioned the plans to the place in his head and figured out the path he needed to follow and ran. Despite the way his thoughts all swam and blurred, he'd memorized the paths that he'd been taken as best he could and he took off in a weary run. He met no resistance on the way to her cell. It matched his. She stood huddled against the wall halfway in.
Her eyes went large as he rounded the corner. "Come with me," he said as he held out his hand toward her.
"No," she cried out, shaking her head. "He'll stop us."
Jack reached for her and grabbed her hand, pulling her along behind him. "Come on."
She barely hesitated as they took off running hand in hand through the hallways. As everyone else ran toward the fight, they ran away.
He was never so happy to see a mothership fill the sky. He was even happier when he realized the shape on the ridge as a Tel'tak.
We're free, was his last thought as they staggered toward the ship and darkness overcame him.
