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Chapter 38
As soon as they were on the other side O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel raised their weapons and spread out from the 'gate platform to check for jaffa. Danny drew his gun as well, but hung back, watching warily. After a moment it became obvious that no one was currently in the cavernous chamber and the five relaxed somewhat.
Jack straightened. "Okay—Carter, Teal'c, make sure Daniel gets where he needs to be. Danny, you're with me."
There were nods all around, and a 'yes sir', and within moments the first three-person division of their forces had moved out, heading deeper into the underground complex toward where the time device was kept.
Then the younger Jackson turned to O'Neill. "What are we doing?" he asked, confused.
"We're looking for Sha're," Jack shrugged. Without another word the colonel started toward another, smaller exit on the other side of the room.
Danny stared after him for a moment before he came to his and smiled to himself. Thanks, Jack, he thought silently. There was no point in saying it aloud. O'Neill knew how much gratitude he was feeling at the moment, and if Danny tried to tell him Jack would only brush aside what he was doing for his friend as no big deal. He didn't like to make a fuss of such things.
Danny followed him silently through the corridors, still hurting from watching the older Sha're leave and hoping above all hope that they would be able to rescue his own today. He'd waited more than two years for this chance. If only they didn't blow it…
O'Neill and Jackson were approaching a corner when suddenly several jaffa advanced from the other side, staff weapons open and aimed straight at them. The colonel fell back a step and Danny's eyes widened. Both turned quickly back in the direction they had come but more jaffa were pouring into the hallway from a now open door not far behind them.
"Crap, when did jaffa learn to sneak up like that!" O'Neill complained loudly.
"Kree, Tau'ri!" One of the jaffa shouted at them.
"Daniel…?"
Danny gulped. "He wants us to put our weapons down."
Jack sighed. "Thought so." Slowly he lifted the strap from around his neck, at the same time discretely flipping a switch on his radio, leaving it on so that the others could hear what was happening here, but couldn't respond and let the jaffa know there were more intruders on the base. Danny caught the action and turned his own radio off as he set his gun down, so the continuous transmission from O'Neill's could not be heard over his.
Once both humans' weapons were on the ground and they had straightened, hands up at their sides, the door through which the jaffa behind them had come opened again. This time it was Amaunet who stepped into the corridor. Danny swallowed hard as she smiled.
"Doctor Jackson, Colonel O'Neill—what a pleasant surprise."
"Yeah, I bet," Jack snorted.
The Goa'uld glared in his direction. "Jaffa, bring them," she ordered shortly. Then she turned on her heel and marched away; two of the jaffa closed in on each of the captives, caught their arms and pushed them after her.
"Jack, what now?" Danny whispered.
O'Neill shrugged. "Carter and Teal'c'll get the other you home, break us out, and we go back through the 'gate," he replied quietly.
Jackson's eyes rolled. "You make it sound so simple-"
"Silence!" one of the jaffa snarled at them, as simultaneously the butts of two staff weapons cracked into the back of the humans' heads—not hard enough to knock them out or cause damage but definitely harsh enough to hurt. Both Jack and Danny ducked forward, yelping, and came up wishing their hand were free enough to rub at the offended spot.
O'Neill groaned. "Okay, this is officially bad," he muttered.
Danny said nothing in return, not wanting to risk being clobbered again. Instead he stared silently at Amaunet's back as she led the jaffa behind her to wherever she was having her two prisoners taken. He felt his emotions rising in his throat again and gulped them down. Now was not the time to get like that. They had to escape so they could rescue Sha're. He couldn't let her stay that way, trapped in her body. It wasn't right.
"Sam, wait," Daniel said quietly, but urgently, putting out a hand to stop her and Teal'c. The small party stopped and fell silent, listening to the sounds and conversation-or what there was of it-coming through their radios.
Carter pulled in a breath. "Darn it. They've been caught." It didn't take them much longer to realize that one of their friends' radios was being purposefully left on for their benefit. Now they would know what was happening on the other end; they just had to keep from getting captured out.
"Daniel, you can get to the device and get out of here without us, can't you?" carter asked then.
Jackson blinked. "Well, yeah, but why would I? I'm going to help you get them out of there."
"You need to be back in your own time, Daniel Jackson, and you know more than any of us how many times we have succeeded in rescues. We will all be fine. You must go."
"Teal'c, part of my team is in trouble. I don't care if I'm in a different time. I'm not just going to walk away."
Sam sighed. "All right, let's go," she relented. There was no reason to argue the point. There was no point, not to mention that at the moment they had friends that needed their help.
Moments later Amaunet disappeared through a doorway, and the jaffa brought in the humans after her. Jack had no reaction to where they were, but Danny's blood ran cold when he recognized it as the same chamber where he had been tortured, and Sha're had been tortured…
But Jackson was pulled from his thoughts when he realized that now that they were all inside all of Amaunet's attention had turned to him, and she did not look happy.
"So you have returned--to allow your older self to travel home, or perhaps in hope of capturing me, no doubt," she scowled, hitting both nails on the head. "It does not matter. I chose to revive you last time and it led to the escape of both of you. I will not make the same mistake again, Doctor Jackson."
Danny stood frozen, but O'Neill's ears perked up at that. "And just what is that supposed to mean?" the colonel demanded. He gave the hands around his arms an experimental test but was only jerked back to a motionless position.
Amaunet ignored him, advancing on Danny. "It ends here, Daniel," she glared, raising the hand that bore the ribbon device. His eyes widened, realizing now what she meant.
"No-" he gulped, pulling back, but the jaffa held him.
"Whoa, wait a minute-" Jack protested.
Still she did not acknowledge the colonel, and in seconds the hand device had snapped on and its thick orange beam had caught Danny in its clutches. The scientist gasped in pain and his knees buckled, bringing him down.
No, not again! It didn't end this way last time she tried. Please, don't let it end this way…
"Hey!" Jack shouted, lunging forward.
"Hold him back!" Amaunet ordered, turning to glare at the older man briefly, who glared right back at her. Then she turned back to Danny, and the beam from the hand device bore down, intent on snuffing out Daniel Jackson's life.
Daniel screamed. He dropped to his knees, trembling as his body phased in and out.
"Daniel!" Carter yelped. She came down beside him, looking around warily to make sure no one had heard that. Thankfully, no, there didn't seem to be anyone in the vicinity of where they were in the corridors of the complex.
They'd heard the ribbon device activate on the other end of the radio connection, and O'Neill's protest as they hurried to where the signal was coming from. She'd been worried then, but now…
"Daniel Jackson, what is wrong?" Teal'c asked urgently.
"She is-Ah! She's killing him!" Daniel gasped, hands clasped around his head as the threads of space and time pulled at him again.
Sam tried to touch him, but her hand went right through; the fluctuations were too fast. The major paled, and her stomach tightened. "Uh-oh…" Then she realized another problem: The sudden bout of ECF was too severe. Daniel couldn't breathe.
"Daniel?" But he wasn't answering anymore, trying too hard to get air into his lungs that wouldn't come. "Daniel, hold on!" she yelped in distress. But even if O'Neill could stop Amaunet in time to save Danny, Daniel could still die before that from loss of oxygen.
"Stop it!" Jack shouted yet again, still struggling against his captors. "Don't do this! You don't have to kill him!"
"Yes, I do, Colonel O'Neill. You are not Goa'uld. You would not understand. Now kindly be quiet."
"Oh yeah right, lady. I am not just going to stand here and let you kill my friend, you hear me! Leave him alone!" O'Neill was seething outwardly, but inwardly he was scared out of his wits. What would he do if Daniel died…? He didn't want to think about it. Jackson was his best friend, and he wasn't afraid to admit--to himself, at least--that he would be lost without him. He'd already been through more than one instance of believing that Daniel was dead, and he didn't plan on going through that hell again if he could help it.
But even though he protested as loudly as he could, it still seemed as if that possibility was drawing closer. Danny's face was contorted in pain, fresh sweat covered his brow and he was growing weaker by the second. If the attack wasn't stopped soon he would die, just as Amaunet wanted.
"DANIEL!!"
Finally Amaunet turned to him again and scowled. Reluctantly she withdrew her hand and the beam flickered off. Danny collapsed with a cry, curling on his side and holding his head as he gasped. But at the same time his mind swirled in confusion. Had that been Sha're's voice he had heard in his mind? Dan'iel, I'm sorry. He thought he'd heard her, just before the beam had turned off.
The flickering suddenly stopped, as through the radio waves they heard Amaunet deactivate the hand device. Daniel slumped back against the wall, but his eyes were still wide in panic; his lungs weren't cooperating again yet. Desperately he tried, his chest heaving, but still nothing found its way in. Against his will his eyes were drifting shut; they were losing him.
"Daniel Jackson!"
Sam grabbed his shoulders. "Daniel, come on, breathe!" she pleaded, shaking him. His eyes focused on her, and finally he was able to suck in precious air. Greedily he gulped it as Carter almost collapsed in relief.
"Thanks goodness!" she cried, tears filling her eyes as she hugged him tightly. She let Daniel lean against her for a moment or so as he continued to pull in air, holding onto him as if afraid he might disappear again. Jackson accepted the support gratefully, suddenly almost worried of the same thing himself. Too much had happened in the past few days for him to be sure that at some point before he made it home something wouldn't happen to erase him from existence.
Jack blinked, relieved that Danny wasn't going to die but still confused as to why she had, in fact, stopped. "Why…?"
But Amaunet said nothing until Danny had recovered enough to look up at her weakly, the same question in his now exhausted eyes. She smirked down at her host's husband.
"It seems that your friend is quite insistent that I not kill you," she said almost casually, taking a step away from Jackson and closer to O'Neill. "Of course I cannot oblige his request, but I suppose I could spare him from having to watch." She raised one eyebrow at Danny. "Do you think that would be more satisfactory?"
Still breathing heavily Danny pushed himself up on one elbow, trying to straighten his mind out again enough to understand what she was saying. Jack looked back and forth between the two, confused as well.
"Huh?"
But now Amaunet was smiling even wider. "Yes, I do believe that will work much better. I will have the satisfaction of killing you, and the enjoyment of seeing your horror when I kill one of your friends…" She trailed off and glanced pointedly at O'Neill, who paled.
Danny pushed himself up farther, eyes going wide. "N-no!" he objected weakly.
"Oh, but it will all be so much more fun that way," the Goa'uld sneered.
"B-But you never wanted Jack. You only wanted me dead. Let him go; you don't need him."
"Precisely why there is no reason not to get rid of him. He is a nuisance to all the Goa'uld, as are you and the rest of your team."
Danny winced. Okay, wrong choice of words.
"Hey, quit talking about me in the third person. I'm right here you know," O'Neill said in annoyance, trying not to show that he wasn't any happier at the thought of dying himself than he was of his friend being killed.
Amaunet turned on him, still smirking with her superior attitude, and again lifted her left hand. The colonel struggled against the jaffa again, and Danny tried to get to his feet.
"Don't!" Danny shouted. But Amaunet, of course, did not comply with his wishes.
"Jack!!" The cry that came through the radio next chilled Carter to the core and she let go of Daniel, sitting back on her heels.
"Are you okay?" she asked of him quickly. When he nodded she stood, and he followed. "We have to move-now," she stressed.
"Way ahead of you," Jackson gulped, picking up his zat and sprinting down the corridor in front of them. His head still pounded and his body tried to protest, still weak from being rattled around so much, but he ignored the discomfort and led Sam and Teal'c on in the direction of their friends.
His comment that he was way ahead of them was, in fact, true. When Amaunet had come close to killing his younger self only moments ago he'd felt the reverberations through the timeline, the effect it would have if she succeeded, and now that she was trying to kill O'Neill Daniel could feel that, too.
Unbidden, images of a past from this point on with no Jack O'Neill pulsed through his mind. Daniel pushed them away; none of them were pleasant. He wouldn't let it happen. Jack was his best friend, and even if it was the last thing he did he wasn't going to let him die. He wouldn't enjoy that any more than he Sha're or Janet's deaths, and the last thing he needed right now was another loss.
Despite the fact that Danny continued to try to pull himself up or toward Amaunet and shout at her to leave O'Neill alone, the jaffa did not bother with him. The archaeologist was still too weak from the effects of the ribbon device to stand, and they did not see him as a threat to their goddess's plans.
Now it was O'Neill on his knees before the Goa'uld, grimacing agony as the beam from the hand device drilled into his forehead. It had been too long. He should have been dead already…but then again the colonel was the military man, tougher in general...Amaunet frowned and intensified the beam, and Jack's mouth fell open in a nearly silent scream only heard by his sharp intake of air.
"No!" Danny shouted. "Stop it! Sha're, please!" But there was no answer from either his wife or the Goa'uld. He and O'Neill were on their own. "Jack!!" he screamed again.
The next few seconds happened in a blur. Without warning the door open and Carter, Teal'c, and his older self stormed in, zats blazing. Daniel came first, quickly firing on Amaunet and dropping her away from O'Neill. The hand device deactivated as she fell, and once Sam took out the jaffa holding him up he collapsed, unmoving. Teal'c took down the other two jaffa that stood near Danny.
"Danny, you okay?" Carter asked, looking in his direction as she knelt beside Jack, who appeared unconscious.
Jackson nodded wordlessly and crawled to Sha're's side. Daniel was already there, looking down at her with a stricken expression on his face, the reason for which became obvious when Danny saw that she was still conscious--barely. But was it Amaunet?
"Sha're?" Danny asked hesitantly, pushing her hair from her face. Weakly she gazed up at him and his counterpart, and when he saw the emotions that swam behind her eyes he knew that it was, indeed, his wife looking back at him. He lay his hand on her cheek. "Hold on, Sha're. It'll be okay, we'll get you out of here…" he trailed off when his throat closed up. Please, he pleaded silently. Please let this be it. Please. I only want her back. Just let me have that this time…
On the floor her hand groped a bit, found his other one there and closed around it. "Dan'iel, I love you," she whispered.
"I love you too," he managed to respond, before she lost consciousness.
"Guys, the colonel stopped breathing!" Carter cried suddenly.
"What?!" Daniel yelped, immediately scurrying to her side.
Danny looked up quickly once he'd pried his eyes from Sha're, ready to do whatever was needed to keep Jack alive, but Sam and his older self had already stared in on the CPR. He was scared more than he cared to voice that O'Neill wouldn't make it, but insanely the thought that went through his head was that he was glad it was Daniel who was doing the chest compressions, because if he'd had to see himself breathing into Jack's mouth--which would have just looked wrong--the image would have haunted him forever. Not to mention that the colonel never would have let him forget it. Thank goodness for small mercies.
After that slightly humorous thought Danny was ready for this to be simply another, uneventful close by SG-1's standards, but it wasn't looking so good. They didn't seem to be having any luck. Teal'c hovered over them worriedly, if a jaffa could look worried, while Danny remained frozen where he was, attention riveted to his friend's chest, looking for any indication that he was breathing again. So far there was none.
"Colonel, don't do this!" Carter pleaded between breaths.
"Come on, Jack, you're not getting off from all those bad jokes this easy," Daniel gulped. He tried to make light of it, but Danny could see the tears in the corners of his counterpart's eyes as he realized that their chances of reviving O'Neill were sinking by the second, and he felt more of them in his own eyes.
"Darn it, Jack, wake up!" Danny called desperately, adding his own two cents to theirs even though all of them knew he couldn't hear them.
But it seemed almost as if he had, because finally the colonel coughed and pulled in a shaky breath. There was a simultaneous sigh as Carter and Daniel sat back, grinning.
Danny let his head drop. "For cryin' out loud, Jack. I know you hate it when I do that, but did you have to get me back that way?"
Jack cleared his throat and took a few more breaths before letting Carter help him sit up. He shrugged. "What would have been the fun of doing it another way?"
"He has a point," Daniel shrugged, still smiling in relief.
Danny frowned. "Hey, you're me; how can you be on his side?" he complained.
"I'm not on his side. I didn't enjoy that any more than you did. I'm just saying he has a point.
The younger Jackson sighed and shook his head. "Okay, whatever…"
O'Neill, who was massaging his own forehead, grinned wickedly. "Maybe you should listen to him, Danny. This older you here seems to have more sense.
"Sure Jack-" But Danny was cut off when the eyes of the other four in the room widened and all seemed to shout a warning at him for some reason at once.
"Daniel-!"
"Look out!"
"Daniel Jackson!"
"Behind you!"
Only the last one gave him much clue what they were talking about, but by then it was too late for him realize that behind him Amaunet had already awakened. Before Jackson could do much more than turn to look in her direction her hand had closed around his left wrist. With no match for the strength of a Goa'uld, he was helpless to stop her as she quickly twisted his arm behind him--which brought a cry of pain--and pulled him back against her, roughly grabbing his chin in the other hand. There was no doubt in any of their minds that she could snap his neck in an instant if she so wished, so none of them moved. Danny too froze, holding himself rigid against her, knowing she would have qualms with killing him right that moment.
By now, O'Neill was glaring. "You know, I'm reaaally getting tired of you snakeheads right about now."
She scowled right back at him, and simply twisted Danny's arm that much more harshly. Jackson shouted.
"Whoa! Hey easy!" Jack protested, holding his hands up.
"Silence. Release me and surrender yourselves or he dies."
"I don't think so. You'll just kill all of us eventually anyway, and him first because you want him out of the way," Carter replied.
"So how about you let the nice archaeologist go, and come back to earth with us," O'Neill suggested.
"I will do no such thing," the Goa'uld frowned. "Now all of you, put your weapons down, or I willkill him." To prove her point she purposefully gave Danny's arms another harsh twist, and the younger man howled in pain when one of the bones in his forearm snapped. The others were only a few feet away, and could hear the sound from there. Eyes widened and faces went slack in horror. Danny slumped, gasping in pain, but Amaunet did not release her iron grip on either the newly broken limb or his head.
"Sha're, please, stop," he choked. By now there were tears slipping from his eyes and forming trails down his cheeks, and not all of them were from physical pain. But for his efforts to reach his wife Amaunet only rewarded him with another twist to his arm. Danny screamed, and the rest of his team reacted.
"Stop it!" Sam cried.
"Let him go," O'Neill grated, at the same time giving Teal'c a minute gesture with his head. The jaffa caught the action and acted immediately. Before Amaunet could move to kill the younger Jackson his zat came up and fired. The beam enveloped both Danny and the Goa'uld, but that couldn't be helped. Both slumped to the ground, out.
Jack rose unsteadily to his feet with Carter's help, and after figuring out that he couldn't walk on his own quite yet he leaned on her. Teal'c had bent to pick up the unconscious Danny even before O'Neill's mouth opened to tell him to, so he started with the next object at hand.
"Uhm…we're going to have to get her to the 'gate somehow, and without any jaffa seeing us, hopefully."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow as he straightened with a Jackson over one shoulder. "It is unlikely we will not, O'Neill."
"Yeah, kinda figured…"
"Jack, she's dead!"
Daniel had moved to Sha're's side again, but now his voice rose from below them, panicked.
"Crap," O'Neill winced. "Are you sure?"
Jackson nodded, his face white. He'd planned on keeping the timeline the same, not letting it change so that Sha're died sooner…
Sam swallowed. "Oh no. It must have been too soon after she got hit the first time. Oh crap, Daniel, I'm sorry…"
"Hold it, Carter," Jack interrupted. "They have a sarcophagus, remember? She'll be fine. We'll still have a chance to get that thing out of her her, but just not today. We'll have to leave her this time." He looked around at the others. "Right?"
Daniel nodded weakly and stood, shaking. "Y-Yeah," he stammered. Despite the fact that he knew she would be all right…for another couple of months anyway, seeing her lying there again, dead, shook him.
There was silence for a few seconds more, until it was broken by the sound of jaffa boots clanging in a nearby corridor.
"Uh-oh, time to go people," Jack ordered, ignoring the fact that he was in no condition to be commanding anything, still leaning on Carter.
Daniel swallowed again and finally looked up at the rest of them. "Okay…look, I know where the device is. You guys get back to the 'gate. I can make it."
"Daniel, I told you we were going to make sure you got home," O'Neill protested.
"Jack, those jaffa sound too close. If you try to follow me back there and then get back out to the 'gate you'll never make. I'll be all right, really. Just get home yourself."
The two men stared each other down--not for the first time.
"Uh, sir, he does have a point," Sam added finally.
Jack rolled his eyes. "All right, fine. But take care of yourself, Daniel. Don't go and get yourself shot on the way back there or anything, got it?"
Daniel managed a smile. "I'll do my best."
O'Neill nodded. "Good. Well…nice having you around, I guess, since I can't exactly say 'meeting', you know…"
"No, you can't, really," the scientist shrugged. "It was nice, too, being…back here again, I suppose, in a way…" But he trailed off, not knowing what else he should say. There really wasn't much he could.
"See you on the other side?" Sam smiled.
Daniel actually laughed at that, once. "Yeah, I guess so. I don't know exactly how we'll all remember this when I get back home though."
"Well we'll find out, won't we?" Jack said. "Now let's get out of here before those jaffa get too close, Carter."
"Oh! Right, sir, going," the major complied.
With that, the younger SG-1 left. All three conscious members cast their friend's future self one last glance over their shoulders to wave before turning the corner and disappearing from sight.
Daniel sighed when they were gone. He knew he need to get moving as well, or he would be found. Quickly he bent beside Sha're again and kissed her forehead.
"I love you," he whispered quietly, one last time, before straightening. He looked down at her for another moment, trying to hold his cracking heart together. When he had gathered himself enough he left as well, headed the opposite direction from the others.