Author's Note: So this is the final instalment of this series. I hope to wrap this up at the end and leave you without any questions.

Prologue: Advent of Darkness

Jack stormed into Haruka's office without knocking, slamming the door behind him. She could tell by the expression on his face that he was spitting mad and ready to tear into someone, anyone and it looked like today's candidate was her. She chose to say nothing and waited for him to explain himself and he did just that in spades.

"Just what are you playing at?" He demanded as he tossed a pile of papers at her and they flew all over her desk and fluttered to the floor at her feet.

She still said nothing as she scanned the paper closest to her and she knew what this might be about. She braced herself for a fight, because Jack wasn't going to back down. Getting to her feet she made no move to pick up the scattered papers as she came around her desk. In fact she went a bit out of her way to step on one of them.

"Just what bee is in your bonnet, Jack?" She leaned against her desk crossing her arms, not giving him an inch. She was pretty sure she knew what this was about but she wasn't going to do Jack any favors, especially not after his temper tantrum. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes there is. I thought we had an understanding and you didn't follow through with your end. I told you specifically-" He waggled his finger at Haruka like she was a child and she fought to stay calm, but Jack's rudeness, even for Jack, was getting the better of her. Resisting the urge to stomp on his foot with her heel, hard, Haruka cut him off as she crossed the room to where her tea kettle waited.

"Tea Jack? And then once you have calmed down we can speak about your issue like civilized adults." Her voice became very quiet. "I don't like to be shouted at, especially by my friends. So choose, sit and talk like adults or I can have you ejected."

Jack took a deep breath and she could see the wheels spinning in his mind as she switched gears on him. Then suddenly he laughed. "I was being an ass wasn't I?"

"Just a bit." She told him as she placed the kettle on the burner. "Ani-baka, yes, but my ani-baka. That's what a Red and Blue Oni duet is after all."

He loosened his tie. "I would love a cup and I'm sorry, I really am." He drew a deep breath. "I've been in meetings all week trying to get the funding needed for various projects and I'm getting the runaround. Then the final list for the SGC candidates came across my desk and-" He dropped onto the couch tossing his tie onto the table. "Charlie Kawalsky was missing. She was on the top of my list for the SGC. I want that girl going off world and helping us out, hell I'd send her to Atlantis in a heartbeat, I can't imagine what she'd do to Shepard. I'd pay money to see her keep that boy on his toes. She'd fit right in on that all girl's team they have."

Haruka's hand faltered as she poured in the tea leaves. This was about Charlie, not Cassie and Jon being on the list? Neither of them would be accepting the posting- not yet, but she wanted them both to get a little bit of experience before disappearing back into academia.

Silence fell as she finished making the tea, which gave her enough time to prepare an explanation that would keep Jack on an even keel.

Placing the tray on the table she poured each of them a cup and then she waited for Jack to finish his first cup before explaining.

"Charlie wasn't on the final list because someone else laid claim to her first. They spoke to her and got her agreement before I could even let her know there was another offer. You know how carefully I have to tread when it come to the SGC, all those checks I have to do before I'm allowed to speak to them. By the time Charlie was cleared it was too late."

Jack held out his cup and Haruka filled it again. "So who are these yahoos, not that I probably couldn't guess. There's only one other group that cherry picks like that."

"Black-ops, the nasty kind. She's going to disappear down that rabbit hole like you did and I hope she comes out okay. Hell, they dangled the opportunity to get a Masters degree wherever she wants it from in front of her just to make really sure. Don't get me wrong she'll be a great soldier but I would have loved for her to have that second option. Not everyone survives being tried by fire."

Jack leaned back against the couch. "Me too. That girl would have given the Wraith or the Lucian Alliance nightmares. Well, I will keep an eye on her and given the chance I'll steal her back. I just hope they don't destroy her." Jack rubbed his hand across his face. "You know how close it was with me."

"You do that Jack for her sake and Nate's." Haruka said taking a sip.

His eyebrow popped up. "Nate, what's he got to do with this?"

"Nate and Charlie are an item, I'm pretty sure they'll get married after graduation. Her relationship with him might be the thing that saves her, keep her anchored in the real world. Nate asked her to marry him but she didn't say flat out no, so my guess is when the time is right…."

Jack spat his tea across the table. "What-" He wiped at the mess with a napkin. "I knew that Nate was interested but I didn't know that Charlie was at that point too. Wow, I wouldn't have thought she was the marrying kind."

"After everything you'd been through I would have said the same thing about you before Sam."

Jack chuckled and finished the rest of his cup. "Touché."

"Any word of Phil Miller, that marine who was being held with Nate? I thought you guys would have found him by now."

Placing his cup on the table Jack turned to Haruka. "We did but… he was gone. Taken by someone else. We were just minutes behind them and I'm a little annoyed. Whomever took him left the records and so we know that he was showing signs of very special abilities. We need to get him back, now. I have a feeling that he's is deep trouble."

Phil Miller rolled over on his narrow cot still caught in the stream of images that flowed through his mind. In the beginning he'd tried to shut them out but no matter what he tried to do they were there swimming before his eyes. Over time he learned better control over them, but then his captors just increased the drugs making him lose that control.

Most of the images made no sense to him, but they came anyway. A great spinning metal circle, men with snake/eel like things being placed in their head, strange weapons and floating pyramids that seemed to be space ships as the humans watched them fly away. Then it was a blur of human history, everything from notable events to the lives of everyday people. Phil had no idea why these people entered the stream, it was never the same, other than the beginning. Modern people fighting these snake men and there were time when he'd see himself among them.

Then finally it was the hardest part for him, the scenes of his life, memories that he'd tried so hard to forget. They were never exactly the same but they were most painful pieces of his life for him to see. His father slowly slipping away from the family after he returned from the Gulf War and subsequent death on the streets, his little brother getting caught up in gangs and being lost, the death of his older sister as she stepped out of a convenience store in a drive by when he drove the vehicle, subsequently his brother's suicide over the mess he's made of his life and lastly his mother's death slowly by alcohol as her family fell apart around her.

Everyone is his family was gone, there was no one to care if he lived or died, this was why "they" had chosen him. He was a ghost, a nobody, he'd set out to make his family proud and in the end he'd had to watch them slip away due to their own darknesses and now he was lost in the dark as well, but not of his own making.

There was a sound and his daily bowl of slop was delivered. Opening his eyes to cut off the visions. His daily dose of drugs would be in his meal. He's tried not to eat, to starve himself to death but they'd only strapped him to a bed and hooked him up to an IV to keep him alive.

Rolling off the bed, Phil wondered if there was another way to make it all end, to take his life, but then a vision swam before his eyes. The one that came unbidden, the one he couldn't shut away even by opening his eyes like the other ones. This was the only happy moment in all that he saw. There was a squalling sound made by an infant and the newly born child was placed in his arms. He felt an overabundance of love for this child and from the child. This would be his daughter, his hope for the future. He walked a few paces and sat down on a hospital bed. A woman pulled the blanket back and pressed a kiss on the babies head before smiling up at him. "I love you, Phil."

Then it the vision was gone, but the feelings remained, some how, some way he would escape, he only needed to bid his time and wait, but most of all not lose hope that Charlie, whoever she was would find him.

As always with these stories I have two more chapters up on my website. Check it out by googling my pen name. There you will find the whole series starting with Who Am I; Who Are You?