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-Mia-

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The door of the briefing room rocked on its hinges and Daniel hurried through. He looked apologetically at his assembled teammates, General Hammond and Dr Fraiser.

"See, I told you," Jack said, "Daniel's still working on Tok'ra time."

"Sorry, I was with Jonas, forgot the time."

"Is he alright?" Sam asked looking quickly towards Janet.

Daniel rested his hands on the table, sighing before he answered, "seems he's 'lost' contact with the Ascended."

"And that's bad because?" Jack asked.

"Because Olmec 'powers' were only passed to him temporally, Oma was meant to transfer them from him."

"Is Mr Quinn in any danger?" The General looked from Doctor to Doctor.

Janet took up the answer, "we don't know, sir, each time he has an 'episode', it takes him longer to recover. Both the Tok'ra and myself ran extensive tests and found no evidence that this is harming him physically."

"But mentally Doctor?" Hammond enquired.

Janet looked around at the others, "I don't know General. If it were any other member of SG1 I could tell you. We've only known Jonas for just over a year and with every thing that's been thrown at him I would say he's handling it pretty well, maybe better than you or I, but that's only on the surface." She looked down at her blank pad; "I don't have any background on him, his life before the SGC but my gut feeling is that he will need our support more than ever. Jonas, for whatever reason, always has this need to prove his worthiness, even if it means taking chances with his health. I think, as his friends, we should just keep an eye on him."

General Hammond nodded and looked for agreement around the table, which was unanimous, "Dr Jackson, I would like your view on the Asgard's 'truce' with Anubis, do you think they will align themselves with him?"

"Going by his past record, Anubis doesn't keep his word," Daniel replied, Abydos stinging in his response, "but the Asgard are desperate for cloning knowledge and Anubis has used this technology."

"Yeah, but look at the results he had, Daniel," Jack interjected.

"I am Jack. He managed to produce a Hok Taur, from an Asgard point of view that has to be worth looking in to."

"So you think we should be worried?" The General asked.

"I think Jonas was right, I think that the aim was to split the Asgard and while they're debating Anubis can concentrate on other matters."

"Like us?" Janet said to the silent room.

General Hammond looked across the table, the wheels in his mind already in motion, "so people our main priority has to be finding this city of the Ancients. Dr Jackson, the scroll Malek gave you were you able to decipher it?"

Daniel rubbed the bridge of his nose, "no, but I think Jonas and Cassandra can."

"Daniel?" Sam asked.

"It's the key thing, again, isn't it?" Jack answered.

"Yeah Jack, it's the key thing."

"Dr Frasier?" General Hammond directed his gaze at Janet.

"General, again, I would like this carried out under close medical supervision just as a precaution."

"Understood. Okay people let's get on it!" Hammond cried eagerly.

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Ragnorak stared into the eddying darkness of the portal he had just opened. He touched the fringes of its outer tendrils and felt the enormity of its power.

"Why have you summoned us," came the commanding voice from within the blackness.

"My Lord, the Taur'ri posses the means of finding the lost City."

"Ah, but there are many steps before the doors can be opened and we are monitoring their progress, closely. Do not fear; they grow weaker in your shadow as it darkens their hope."

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Jonas felt a growing unease as he waited in the infirmary. There was something watching, something that could hide in corners, something that could whisper to a man's heart.

Teal'c felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, "Master Bra'tac," he began.

"I feel it to," Bra'tac confirmed as he nodded toward Jonas.

Jonas turned his attention to the scroll hardly noticing as the room suddenly went blank.

He looked up into the fog that now surrounded him trying to sense what it held.

A lone figure skipped out of the opaque and stood before him, the balloon, tied to her wrist, dragging on the floor.

She looked at him with hollow eyes that held nothing but emptiness, "you will fail, Jonas," she spat in a voice of malice and shadow, "can you not feel it, in your heart? All those people relying on you, all those people you're going to let down, all those people who are going to die because of you. You can't afford to have friends, Jonas, something bad always happens to those who get too close to you."

She smiled at him with decaying teeth and whispered close to his ear, "do you still hear me in the night, sobbing, begging for my life, calling for you, brother, to come save me? But you're not my brother are you Jonas? You're not even Kelownan, you were manufacture in a lab, a product of someone's used cells, you're not even unique."

She began to laugh but there was no humour in it's sound, "what's it like having the same face as evil, the same face as a monster? You know, you should get 'Daniel' to lend you his copy of Frankenstein, it's a film you could relate to."

A soft light suddenly reached through the menacing gloom that was encasing his soul and following its plume was a small, blue, butterfly that brushed against Jonas's hand.

"Bitch," echoed the corpse like child as Jonas came spiralling back to the infirmary.

He found himself looking into Cassandra's warm eyes, her fingers delicately touching his temple, "what the hell was that all about?" O'Neill asked.

Jonas stood up from the chair he had been occupying, freeing himself from the Doctor's monitoring equipment, "I can't do this, people are going die," he looked round at the other members of SG1 for support.

Cassie went to him but he shied away from her touch, "Jonas," she said the concern flowing in her voice, "something is trying to deceive you, whatever you think you're seeing it's not real."

The Kelownan spread his hand out before him sensing the malevolence unfolding in the room like the wings of a hungry raven. It started with a solitary sob, a child crying against the dark, distress and torment in its voice escalating into screams of terror.

"Oh my God," Janet said feeling the panic and fear course through her, taking breath from her lungs.

Jonas covered his ears, trying to block out the sound of his name that was haunting the room in broken sobs.

Sam saw the young man's eyes fold into tears as he slid down the wall bringing his knees up to his chest for protection.

The small girl that Jack had seen earlier floating over Jonas's bed, appeared before them. She studied the infirmary through the vacant cavities that were once her eyes and smiled using a face emaciated with death. "Hi Jack," she said through broken lips and with a voice too low to be hers.

"And you would be?" O'Neill asked.

Another smile split across the wax of her face, "why, I'm Jonas's dead sister, Mia, please to meet you all." She dipped in a dainty curtsy, pulling at edges of her tattered dress.

"The hell you are," Jack said looking toward Jonas for confirmation but the Kelownan's face was completely blank.

"Always the cynic, eh Jack? Well, let's not beat about the bush, then, shall we? I've come for the scroll."

Cassie placed her hand over the paper to guard it, "yeah, well, no can do there, little lady," O'Neill replied scratching his head, "how about something more for your age group?"

"But I want that! And I want it now," Mia scream her face contorting into something more demon than child.

Without warning she leapt across the room much the same as a cat with a mouse in its sights. Bra'tac managed to get off a shot but it fell short of its mark.

Cassie gathered up the parchment and threw it to Daniel as Teal'c blasted another shot in the direction of the child but it just rolled off her, "humans," she spat, "so two dimensional. Gentlemen, your weapons will not harm me, although they may just piss me off and you don't want to do that now, do you?"

Mia stood facing Cassie; a battle of wills priming the air in between them until the demon child stuck a small hand into Cassandra's chest. Cassie's monitor flat lined and she crumpled to the floor as Mia held a glowing orb of light in her hand, "Dr Jackson, 'Daniel', the scroll please or I'll crush this bitch's life-force."

Daniel went to hand it over but Jonas stopped him, "no!"

Mia turned her attention the Kelownan whose eyes were glazed over white, "that really freaks me out," O'Neill said to Sam as they both readied their handguns.

Jonas fired a blistering pulse of energy that cracked the air like a whip as it coiled at the child, winding her as it struck. The light in her hand flew back to the body of Cassandra restoring the breath to her inert body.

"Would you hurt me Jonas?" Mia's voice changed to that of a small child.

"I do not know you," came the cold reply.

"I am your sister."

"No, my sister is dead."

The child became more menacing as she walked to the Kelownan, "who let me die, Jonas, who let the man take me?"

Jonas began to doubt himself, "Jonas, this isn't your sister," came Cassandra's firm voice clearing the stupor in his mind.

He threw a bubble of energy from his body encasing and suspending the struggling child in the air. He walked over to her and spread his hand on the outer shell of the enclosure, "Mia's dead," he said to the trapped being, "and I have re-lived the day she was taken since I was ten years old. Yet I have seen you in my nightmares, heard your voice taunting my soul, making me forget who she really was, the laughter and joy of her being," Jonas closed his eyes and a cascade of childish giggles filled the room.

The demon child's body fluctuated like a weak signal until it stretched and separated into two. The bubble of energy around both forms burst and they both fell to the floor.

One was a small delicate girl, of about seven years, with porcelain features and a mass of unruly, white, blonde hair. In her hand she held the other, a tumour of black matter that swirled like a mini universe. The Child turned to Cassandra and smiled a smile that would melt the heart of any parent. She then walked over to Jonas and handed him the dark orb, which he crushed in one hand until it was nothing but dust on the wind.

The child reached up to touch Jonas's face as two wayward tears tumbled down his cheeks, "thank you for letting me go," she said handing him the dragon balloon that was tied around her wrist.

He bent down and she kissed his cheek, "I'll always be here, Jonas," she whispered placing a hand on his heart as she faded in cloak of pure light that blinded the whole room.

When Jack and the other's eyes had re-adjusted both Jonas and the girl had gone, one to another level of existence, the other, topside to release the balloon.

"Sir," Sam said, "shouldn't we?"

"I'll go," Cassie replied heading for the door.

"Cassie," Janet cried after her.

"Let her go," General Hammond said softly taking Janet lightly by the arm.

Dr Fraiser smiled lightly at him and nodded.

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Cassie looked at the lone figure silhouetted against the sunset. She walked over to Jonas, a smile relaxing her face. He turned to greet her, no words necessary. She watched him release the balloon into the late evening sky, its gold dragon shimmering in the soft light.

Cassie encircled him in her arms and he pulled her to his chest, her cheek just inches away from his heart. She closed her eyes, listening to its comforting beat, her own heart soaring with the balloon. She had changed in the two months spent with Olmec. She had gone from a surly, frustrated teenager into a mature, assured young woman. Olmec had guided her but it was a path, she'd known, one day she would take and all the pieces of her life were coming together. Well almost.

Jonas released her and took her hand, his eyes skyward with the balloon. One day, she wished, he will see me for the woman I have become and if our lips should meet, I will give him everything.

But for now they stood in the solace of each other's company watching the sun wilt in the mist of evening and a child's green balloon reach for the stars.

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