The Other Point of View: Chapter 3
At the AU SGC:
It was quiet... too quiet. Ok, so this was a storeroom that wasn't exactly in the centre of things, but way too quiet for Sam's liking. Her senses were alert to every sound. There was none. Then she heard faint footsteps, getting louder; lots of footsteps, marching on their direction. She breathed a sigh of relief when the Jaffa went right on past the room.
"Ok, Jeffries, you're with me for a recon." Said O'Neill.
"It's me that should come with you." Sam was slightly indignant.
"Sam..." O'Neill calling her that still felt a little weird, especially in the context of a mission.
"With all due respect, Sir, that's Major, or Carter on this mission." She could see his reluctance, and the internal struggle, play on his face briefly; he wasn't used to a Sam that was in the Air Force, let alone his team.
"Ok... Major," Sam thought it probably rankled with him to call her that, "nevertheless, Jeffries is with me. The rest of you stay here. We'll be back soon." He leaned closer to Sam and whispered. "For god's sake, Sam, loosen up a little. It just feels wrong to call you Major, or Carter. Please?" She opened her mouth to say something, and he almost saw her own struggle flicker across her face.
"Ok, Jack." She replied, instead of the tart response she had originally thought of. O'Neill nodded at her, a twinkle in his eye, and left with Jeffries.
Jack. Sam uttered the name back to herself. She had never called her Colonel that. It was not appropriate, but she thought it sounded good on her lips and repressed a little smile at her thoughts.
When O'Neill and Jeffries came back they were hotly pursued by the Teal'c of this reality. When he entered the door, the real Teal'c pointed his staff weapon directly at his counterpart.
"Kel'noc" He said to his double.
His alternative self looked shocked and replied, "Kel'shak!"
"Renounce Apophis as a false god and join in our deliverance of this world and I will spare you."
"Shol'va!" As his double prepared to fire his staff weapon, Teal'c squeezed on his own, killing his duplicate immediately.
O'Neill looked over at Sam with a slightly shocked expression and then walked over to Teal'c and the dead body.
"The idea was to zat him." He said to Teal'c.
"I do not, however, believe that you are unhappy he is dead, O'Neill."
O'Neill had to agree with that. This guy had killed his wife. He wouldn't have minded killing the bastard himself but did not waste time by regretting it. The big guy from the other reality had just gone up way higher in his estimation, and he nodded at him slightly in acknowledgement.
They could hear a couple of Jaffa coming along the corridor and Teal'c grasped hold of Daniel, taking him out of the room and closing the storage room door behind him. He roughly pulled Daniel along the corridor, as he would if he was the Teal'c of this reality.
Once they'd gone O'Neill breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ok kids. Part one complete; now let's get the rest of this show on the road." He and Sam left the room, leaving Jeffries to fiddle with the remote control for the mirror, trying to find the right reality for their return.
They carefully navigated the corridors of the SGC, knowing them like the back of their hands. Stopping at an access panel in the wall, Sam strategically planted some C4 while O'Neill kept watch, alert to any sound or movement. Luckily there was none. When they rounded the corner O'Neill blew the charge and, soon after that, they disappeared into the hole it had left behind.
Meanwhile Teal'c presented his prize captive to Apophis in the control room, bowing humbly as he would if he was still First Prime.
"Who is this?" The Goa'uld asked.
"I found him trying to escape."
"Then maybe he can tell us the address of the planet to which their leaders have escaped, Teal'c. Question him. I will return to hear your results." He handed Teal'c a device to use for the torture of Daniel and left the room. Teal'c dismissed the two other Jaffa who were present, telling them that he would deal with this. He and Daniel were alone; the plan appeared to be working. They started work on the gate control systems, uploading the programme that would allow them to access the Asgard planet that Jack had been to in the other reality.
O'Neill kicked out a metal grating and he and Sam emerged on a different level of the SGC, heading towards the generator room. Once they arrived Sam started to hook up the transformer that Jack had built when his head was stuffed with the Asgard database.
"Sam?"
"Mmmm?" She continued to work.
"I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for helping."
"We don't know if it will work yet."
"Well, thanks for trying, then."
Sam turned and smiled at him. "I'm done."
"Then power it up, Major." He returned her smile and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand.
"Jack, please don't." O'Neill nodded, withdrawing the hand, his smile fading to a look of sadness.
"You will get over it Jack... eventually. It's one of those cliché things that you hate, but it's true."
"Yeah, sure." His expression was grim and told her that he didn't really believe that. It made her wonder all the more about the relationship he'd had with his Sam. She wished she had more time to talk to him. Once the initial discomfort had worn off a little she realised she was more than curious about this other Jack and Sam. On the other hand she knew that there lurked a danger that could threaten her own little piece of reality. She turned on the transformer and they left to return to the storage room without exchanging another word.
Back in the control room Daniel was dialling the Asgard address.
"Let's hope this Colonel O'Neill is as good as our Jack, and that Sam and he got that generator working. Otherwise, this is gonna be a total disaster." Commented Daniel as he worked.
As the gate went on to dial the eighth chevron and then exploded into life, Teal'c nodded to Daniel.
"It appears that he is. It is best that you leave now, DoctorJackson, before we are discovered."
Daniel headed down to the gate room and, as he entered, so did another Jaffa from the opposite direction.
"Jaffa! Kree ho'nel! Ho'nel, Jaffa!" Teal'c ordered through the microphone. Daniel took full advantage of the Jaffa's hesitation and fled up the ramp and through the gate. The wormhole disengaged and Teal'c heard noise behind him.
"Why do you betray me?" it was Apophis and a couple of his Jaffa. Teal'c was trapped.
O'Neill and Sam cautiously approached the storage room and he opened the door, only to be confronted by a handful of Jaffa. They had their staff weapons pointed at Jeffries. One of them was crouching beside the dead Teal'c and looked pissed.
"Crap!" muttered O'Neill.
"Lower your weapons or we will kill him." Said one of the Jaffa.
"Colonel?" Sam asked. O'Neill was in charge of this mission, even if he was not her real CO.
"Yeah, we should do that." Replied O'Neill, shaking his head in disgust at their defeat and slowly lowering his weapon to the floor. They had been captured, a good plan turned into a disaster. The Jaffa turned to look at Sam curiously.
"You?" he said, "my Lord might be most interested in meeting you."
*************************
The real SGC:
Jack was fretting, pacing, and then fretting a bit more. He was like a caged lion, with the rest of his pride on the other side of the bars. He couldn't contact them, had no way of knowing whether they were okay, succeeding, failing miserably, or even dying. He had neither a way of knowing if they needed any help, nor a means to help them. It frustrated him the hell out of him.
He must have been mad to let his team go on this mission; a planet that had just been invaded by Apophis' army of Jaffa? What we he thinking? He refused all suggestions that he leave the room while his team was away. In the end General Hammond had to order him to take a break, even if only in the canteen. He promised that they would contact him if anything happened in his absence. Jack was not happy about it, but disobeying such a direct order would have been pointless. It was probably result in a frog march to a holding cell and a reprimand in the morning. That did not suit his purpose at all. He wanted to be back here as soon as he could get away with it.
Less than 20 minutes later he returned, watching the mirror like a hawk. The SFs on duty told him that, at one point, Jeffries had managed to 'tune in' to their location, but had quickly turned off the mirror again, looking behind him anxiously. Jack balled them out for not calling him, and then apologised as he knew damned well he would never have got there in time to see anything useful. He was angry with himself for missing something, What the hell had happened? Jack cursed inside that he had not held out waiting for another few minutes.
The alternate SGC:
O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c and Jeffries were lined up on their knees as Apophis walked along the line eyeing them.
"Deja-vu." O'Neill muttered under his breath and was rewarded by a smack round the head from the butt end of a staff weapon. "Ow!" He rolled to the floor in pain and Sam started to reach out to him. Apophis jerked her head round to face him.
"Stop! Who are you? My First Prime killed you before my very eyes, and I revived you again in the sarcophagus. You are on board my ship. How can you be in two places at once?"
O'Neill looked up at Apophis shocked. Revived? Sam's alive? Before he had the time to think this through Apophis turned to Teal'c.
"And who are you? What magic is this?"
"Well you should know better than anyone there's no such thing as magic." Quipped Jack, earning another blow from the staff.
I really should learn to keep my big mouth shut, he thought to himself as he writhed on the floor again. This hit had dislodged a tooth and he could feel his face starting to bruise and swell. Sam was torn between exasperation that he let his mouth run away with him, just as his counterpart could in her own reality, and concern for his welfare.
Apophis turned his attention back to Sam.
"I know someone who is most anxious to meet you. She comes. My love, I have some pets for you to play with." He looked towards the doorway and indicated the group with his hand. In the doorway stood the alternate Sam, dressed in Goa'uld finery, her eyes glowing gold at the captives.
Both O'Neill and Sam gasped and Jack moved to get up. The Sam who kneeled next to him grasped his arm to restrain him and he fought to be the Colonel, not the husband. His Sam was a Goa'uld! His heart broke once more and he struggled not to let his emotion show.
"Meet my new queen, Amunet. I will leave her to play with you at her whim, for now." Apophis stalked from the room leaving Amunet and a couple of Jaffa behind.
At the mention of the name Amunet, Sam and Teal'c looked at each other. Sam felt sick that it was her alternative self that had become Apophis' queen in this reality. It was hard to stomach. Teal'c took her arm to steady her.
"Well, what have we got here?" Amunet asked rhetorically, a sneer on her face. "The Shol'va. I am sure that my husband will want to play with you himself. I will leave him some pieces of you to keep him happy. You," She looked at Jeffries, I do not know you. But you," she looked at Sam and O'Neill, "I know you both. You are the husband of my host. We could have some fun." She sniggered, her sneer turned to a seductive smile, but with tongue firmly in her cheek. "As for you. You are me. That is not possible. Who are you? Tell me where you come from."
"From an alternate reality!" Sam replied honestly. "One in which, by the way, your Lord is dead."
Amunet indicated to a Jaffa, who shot Sam with a zat.
"Oh, come on!" O'Neill cried.
"What she speaks is true." Teal'c confirmed.
"What nonsense you all speak." She grabbed a zat from the hand of a Jaffa and made ready to fire. O'Neill's eyes widened. Crap, she was going to kill her alternative reality self. This was his wife!
"No, please!" He cried, "We'll explain everything."
Amunet lowered the zat and O'Neill bent towards Sam, who was starting to recover from the first blast.
"Sam. Are you ok?" Sam nodded briefly.
Amunet approached O'Neill, stroking under his chin and around his neck with the zat.
"Come, husband, stand before your new queen." O'Neill rose to face her and she continued to stroke his face with the zat while running her hand slowly down his clothing to his crotch. She grabbed him softly, teasing and rubbing him. "Can Amunet stir the lust that you feel for this host?" She flirted. O'Neill tried to remain impassive but he could not help his body's reaction to her touch. It was both a pain and a pleasure, the zat teasing him threateningly at one end and the hand seductively at the other.
Teal'c could see that all this pained MajorCarter a good deal. She was finding it hard to mask her sympathy for O'Neill, and for her alternative self. At the same time he could see a look of hatred directed towards her double. She did not like that this would hurt the Colonel, no matter that it was not the Colonel from their own reality.
Amunet broke her gaze into O'Neill's eyes and turned them on Sam. Seeing her discomfort she smiled. "Oh yes, this is going to be fun. What a wonderful wedding gift my Lord has given me."
Turning her attention back to O'Neill she reached her hand up to his face and leaned to kiss him gently on the lips. Sam could see a silent tear fall from one of his eyes. This was probably worse torture for him than any physical pain might be, and Amunet knew it. She smiled her triumph.
"You will be my pet. I can play with you when my husband is not in need of me." A small laugh escaped her lips and O'Neill cringed at the sound; it was so like his wife's laugh, yet unlike it. It was like a hollow impersonation; a laugh with no hint of the mirth that could fill Sam's laughter.
"Go to hell!" O'Neill spat at her.
"Oh, my love, but I'll have you begging for me, pleading for me to touch and pet you."
"Never." Said O'Neill, defiantly.
Amunet took his face in her hands and kissed him again. This time she forced his mouth open and her tongue inside. O'Neill was finding it hard to resist her. This was his wife. He was still mourning her, but here she was. She kissed him like Sam would, and he responded. Pulling back from him, an evil grin crossed her face.
"You will give me much pleasure. Maybe I should ask my husband for a symbiote for you."
O'Neill shuddered at that concept. A snake? It was his worst nightmare, apart from the one he was already living in. He knew his wife was still inside this body somewhere, imprisoned, totally controlled and helpless. The pain that gave him was worse than anything he had felt up until now. He would rather die than have that happen to him; would rather kill his wife than have her suffer this. Was she watching these events without the means to do anything to stop them? That would be pure hell.
Once more she stroked his face and neck with the zat, her other hand seducing him, caressing his body, then his manhood. O'Neill gasped and moaned, unable to control the reaction of his body to her touch. She continued her ministrations while Sam and the others looked on in horror. Having taken him so far she withdrew the hand and slapped him hard around his face, the hand device cutting a gouge in his cheek. He reeled from the shock but remained standing, still defiant.
"I will control you, husband of my host. You will obey my whim." She said.
He said nothing. Despite the desire she had caused to rage through his body, he could not allow himself to submit. Amunet saw something in his eyes that she didn't like and, as punishment, she hit it hard where she had caressed seductively only moments before. He doubled over with the pain, falling to his knees. Sam made to move towards him but Amunet raised her zat towards her once more.
"That would not be wise." She said, and Sam desisted in frustration.
She was revolted by the actions she had just witnessed, appalled that her counterpart tortured O'Neill in this most hurtful way. As O'Neill tried to get up, in obvious agony, she could see tears in his eyes once again. She suspected it was not just as a result of having been hit so hard in his most sensitive areas and her heart bled for him.
"I told you that you would obey me, beg me and be mine to do with as I wish. I will win, O'Neill." Said Amunet as he was rising. To emphasise her point she lifted her hand and zapped O'Neill with her hand device, sending him flying towards the wall. Sam made a move to get up and go to him, acting on instinct.
"I told you not to move." Amunet struck Sam with the hand device, but not with the same force. She was reaching into Sam's inner being, zapping her brain of its strength. Sam cried out from the pain. O'Neill, trying to recover in the corner, begged Amunet to stop.
"Please don't. I'll do anything."
"I find it amusing that you care about this double of me. I will keep you both as pets and you can each watch the other as I play with you. Now tell me where your leaders have gone; the co-ordinates. Now!" She held her hand up ready to strike at Sam again. "She will not be able to take much more as she dies painfully." She sneered again.
"I'll do anything but that." O'Neill replied, resigning himself to the inevitable. They were all going to die here. Rather them than reveal the Beta site.
"Very well." About to strike she was interrupted as a Jaffa ran into the room.
"Kree no'tan re'no'kea." He indicated towards a monitor.
On the monitor a blip on the radar was moving in fast to their location. Amunet raised her hand again towards Sam, determined to do more damage, and disappeared. Neat trick, thought the surprised O'Neill. The Jaffa looked around in shock and when the gate opened, they ran downstairs to beat a hasty retreat through it. Apophis' ship moved off rapidly, shaking the whole mountain. . "Ok, I'm guessing..." Started O'Neill.
"Asgard!" Sam interrupted, jubilantly.
"Alright!" Jack smiled. His emotions were fighting within him. He wanted to laugh; they had won and Apophis had left. He wanted to cry; his wife was alive but she was a Goa'uld and Apophis' bride. He had no idea where she had gone.
"It appears DoctorJackson was successful." Teal'c said, at which moment Daniel appeared before them.
"Hey, I brought the cavalry, the Asgard." He said jubilantly.
"We guessed that."
Daniel was so overjoyed that the plan had worked that he had only just noticed the mixture of happiness and sadness displayed on the faces before him. O'Neill slumped into a chair not knowing what to do next.
"What did I miss?" Asked Daniel of Sam.
"It's a long story Daniel," Sam started to explain. "I don't know how to say this, it's pretty weird." Daniel looked at her curiously. "Amunet has taken my body as a host in this reality. I am Apophis' new bride."
Daniel was stunned, but she had other concerns. Turning to O'Neill, almost feeling his anguish and pain, she walked over and knelt by him, taking his hand. She could see the mixed emotions in his face and tears pricked her own eyes.
"Jack? I'm so sorry."
She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close and whispering all the time how sorry she felt. He held her tightly, no longer able to hold back his tears, his emotions overwhelming him.
"It's not your fault Sam." He whispered back to her, his voice cracked with the strain, "none of this is your fault."
The others felt embarrassed to witness this intimacy between them and discretely left the room.
End of Chapter 3
Continued in Chapter 4
At the AU SGC:
It was quiet... too quiet. Ok, so this was a storeroom that wasn't exactly in the centre of things, but way too quiet for Sam's liking. Her senses were alert to every sound. There was none. Then she heard faint footsteps, getting louder; lots of footsteps, marching on their direction. She breathed a sigh of relief when the Jaffa went right on past the room.
"Ok, Jeffries, you're with me for a recon." Said O'Neill.
"It's me that should come with you." Sam was slightly indignant.
"Sam..." O'Neill calling her that still felt a little weird, especially in the context of a mission.
"With all due respect, Sir, that's Major, or Carter on this mission." She could see his reluctance, and the internal struggle, play on his face briefly; he wasn't used to a Sam that was in the Air Force, let alone his team.
"Ok... Major," Sam thought it probably rankled with him to call her that, "nevertheless, Jeffries is with me. The rest of you stay here. We'll be back soon." He leaned closer to Sam and whispered. "For god's sake, Sam, loosen up a little. It just feels wrong to call you Major, or Carter. Please?" She opened her mouth to say something, and he almost saw her own struggle flicker across her face.
"Ok, Jack." She replied, instead of the tart response she had originally thought of. O'Neill nodded at her, a twinkle in his eye, and left with Jeffries.
Jack. Sam uttered the name back to herself. She had never called her Colonel that. It was not appropriate, but she thought it sounded good on her lips and repressed a little smile at her thoughts.
When O'Neill and Jeffries came back they were hotly pursued by the Teal'c of this reality. When he entered the door, the real Teal'c pointed his staff weapon directly at his counterpart.
"Kel'noc" He said to his double.
His alternative self looked shocked and replied, "Kel'shak!"
"Renounce Apophis as a false god and join in our deliverance of this world and I will spare you."
"Shol'va!" As his double prepared to fire his staff weapon, Teal'c squeezed on his own, killing his duplicate immediately.
O'Neill looked over at Sam with a slightly shocked expression and then walked over to Teal'c and the dead body.
"The idea was to zat him." He said to Teal'c.
"I do not, however, believe that you are unhappy he is dead, O'Neill."
O'Neill had to agree with that. This guy had killed his wife. He wouldn't have minded killing the bastard himself but did not waste time by regretting it. The big guy from the other reality had just gone up way higher in his estimation, and he nodded at him slightly in acknowledgement.
They could hear a couple of Jaffa coming along the corridor and Teal'c grasped hold of Daniel, taking him out of the room and closing the storage room door behind him. He roughly pulled Daniel along the corridor, as he would if he was the Teal'c of this reality.
Once they'd gone O'Neill breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ok kids. Part one complete; now let's get the rest of this show on the road." He and Sam left the room, leaving Jeffries to fiddle with the remote control for the mirror, trying to find the right reality for their return.
They carefully navigated the corridors of the SGC, knowing them like the back of their hands. Stopping at an access panel in the wall, Sam strategically planted some C4 while O'Neill kept watch, alert to any sound or movement. Luckily there was none. When they rounded the corner O'Neill blew the charge and, soon after that, they disappeared into the hole it had left behind.
Meanwhile Teal'c presented his prize captive to Apophis in the control room, bowing humbly as he would if he was still First Prime.
"Who is this?" The Goa'uld asked.
"I found him trying to escape."
"Then maybe he can tell us the address of the planet to which their leaders have escaped, Teal'c. Question him. I will return to hear your results." He handed Teal'c a device to use for the torture of Daniel and left the room. Teal'c dismissed the two other Jaffa who were present, telling them that he would deal with this. He and Daniel were alone; the plan appeared to be working. They started work on the gate control systems, uploading the programme that would allow them to access the Asgard planet that Jack had been to in the other reality.
O'Neill kicked out a metal grating and he and Sam emerged on a different level of the SGC, heading towards the generator room. Once they arrived Sam started to hook up the transformer that Jack had built when his head was stuffed with the Asgard database.
"Sam?"
"Mmmm?" She continued to work.
"I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for helping."
"We don't know if it will work yet."
"Well, thanks for trying, then."
Sam turned and smiled at him. "I'm done."
"Then power it up, Major." He returned her smile and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand.
"Jack, please don't." O'Neill nodded, withdrawing the hand, his smile fading to a look of sadness.
"You will get over it Jack... eventually. It's one of those cliché things that you hate, but it's true."
"Yeah, sure." His expression was grim and told her that he didn't really believe that. It made her wonder all the more about the relationship he'd had with his Sam. She wished she had more time to talk to him. Once the initial discomfort had worn off a little she realised she was more than curious about this other Jack and Sam. On the other hand she knew that there lurked a danger that could threaten her own little piece of reality. She turned on the transformer and they left to return to the storage room without exchanging another word.
Back in the control room Daniel was dialling the Asgard address.
"Let's hope this Colonel O'Neill is as good as our Jack, and that Sam and he got that generator working. Otherwise, this is gonna be a total disaster." Commented Daniel as he worked.
As the gate went on to dial the eighth chevron and then exploded into life, Teal'c nodded to Daniel.
"It appears that he is. It is best that you leave now, DoctorJackson, before we are discovered."
Daniel headed down to the gate room and, as he entered, so did another Jaffa from the opposite direction.
"Jaffa! Kree ho'nel! Ho'nel, Jaffa!" Teal'c ordered through the microphone. Daniel took full advantage of the Jaffa's hesitation and fled up the ramp and through the gate. The wormhole disengaged and Teal'c heard noise behind him.
"Why do you betray me?" it was Apophis and a couple of his Jaffa. Teal'c was trapped.
O'Neill and Sam cautiously approached the storage room and he opened the door, only to be confronted by a handful of Jaffa. They had their staff weapons pointed at Jeffries. One of them was crouching beside the dead Teal'c and looked pissed.
"Crap!" muttered O'Neill.
"Lower your weapons or we will kill him." Said one of the Jaffa.
"Colonel?" Sam asked. O'Neill was in charge of this mission, even if he was not her real CO.
"Yeah, we should do that." Replied O'Neill, shaking his head in disgust at their defeat and slowly lowering his weapon to the floor. They had been captured, a good plan turned into a disaster. The Jaffa turned to look at Sam curiously.
"You?" he said, "my Lord might be most interested in meeting you."
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The real SGC:
Jack was fretting, pacing, and then fretting a bit more. He was like a caged lion, with the rest of his pride on the other side of the bars. He couldn't contact them, had no way of knowing whether they were okay, succeeding, failing miserably, or even dying. He had neither a way of knowing if they needed any help, nor a means to help them. It frustrated him the hell out of him.
He must have been mad to let his team go on this mission; a planet that had just been invaded by Apophis' army of Jaffa? What we he thinking? He refused all suggestions that he leave the room while his team was away. In the end General Hammond had to order him to take a break, even if only in the canteen. He promised that they would contact him if anything happened in his absence. Jack was not happy about it, but disobeying such a direct order would have been pointless. It was probably result in a frog march to a holding cell and a reprimand in the morning. That did not suit his purpose at all. He wanted to be back here as soon as he could get away with it.
Less than 20 minutes later he returned, watching the mirror like a hawk. The SFs on duty told him that, at one point, Jeffries had managed to 'tune in' to their location, but had quickly turned off the mirror again, looking behind him anxiously. Jack balled them out for not calling him, and then apologised as he knew damned well he would never have got there in time to see anything useful. He was angry with himself for missing something, What the hell had happened? Jack cursed inside that he had not held out waiting for another few minutes.
The alternate SGC:
O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c and Jeffries were lined up on their knees as Apophis walked along the line eyeing them.
"Deja-vu." O'Neill muttered under his breath and was rewarded by a smack round the head from the butt end of a staff weapon. "Ow!" He rolled to the floor in pain and Sam started to reach out to him. Apophis jerked her head round to face him.
"Stop! Who are you? My First Prime killed you before my very eyes, and I revived you again in the sarcophagus. You are on board my ship. How can you be in two places at once?"
O'Neill looked up at Apophis shocked. Revived? Sam's alive? Before he had the time to think this through Apophis turned to Teal'c.
"And who are you? What magic is this?"
"Well you should know better than anyone there's no such thing as magic." Quipped Jack, earning another blow from the staff.
I really should learn to keep my big mouth shut, he thought to himself as he writhed on the floor again. This hit had dislodged a tooth and he could feel his face starting to bruise and swell. Sam was torn between exasperation that he let his mouth run away with him, just as his counterpart could in her own reality, and concern for his welfare.
Apophis turned his attention back to Sam.
"I know someone who is most anxious to meet you. She comes. My love, I have some pets for you to play with." He looked towards the doorway and indicated the group with his hand. In the doorway stood the alternate Sam, dressed in Goa'uld finery, her eyes glowing gold at the captives.
Both O'Neill and Sam gasped and Jack moved to get up. The Sam who kneeled next to him grasped his arm to restrain him and he fought to be the Colonel, not the husband. His Sam was a Goa'uld! His heart broke once more and he struggled not to let his emotion show.
"Meet my new queen, Amunet. I will leave her to play with you at her whim, for now." Apophis stalked from the room leaving Amunet and a couple of Jaffa behind.
At the mention of the name Amunet, Sam and Teal'c looked at each other. Sam felt sick that it was her alternative self that had become Apophis' queen in this reality. It was hard to stomach. Teal'c took her arm to steady her.
"Well, what have we got here?" Amunet asked rhetorically, a sneer on her face. "The Shol'va. I am sure that my husband will want to play with you himself. I will leave him some pieces of you to keep him happy. You," She looked at Jeffries, I do not know you. But you," she looked at Sam and O'Neill, "I know you both. You are the husband of my host. We could have some fun." She sniggered, her sneer turned to a seductive smile, but with tongue firmly in her cheek. "As for you. You are me. That is not possible. Who are you? Tell me where you come from."
"From an alternate reality!" Sam replied honestly. "One in which, by the way, your Lord is dead."
Amunet indicated to a Jaffa, who shot Sam with a zat.
"Oh, come on!" O'Neill cried.
"What she speaks is true." Teal'c confirmed.
"What nonsense you all speak." She grabbed a zat from the hand of a Jaffa and made ready to fire. O'Neill's eyes widened. Crap, she was going to kill her alternative reality self. This was his wife!
"No, please!" He cried, "We'll explain everything."
Amunet lowered the zat and O'Neill bent towards Sam, who was starting to recover from the first blast.
"Sam. Are you ok?" Sam nodded briefly.
Amunet approached O'Neill, stroking under his chin and around his neck with the zat.
"Come, husband, stand before your new queen." O'Neill rose to face her and she continued to stroke his face with the zat while running her hand slowly down his clothing to his crotch. She grabbed him softly, teasing and rubbing him. "Can Amunet stir the lust that you feel for this host?" She flirted. O'Neill tried to remain impassive but he could not help his body's reaction to her touch. It was both a pain and a pleasure, the zat teasing him threateningly at one end and the hand seductively at the other.
Teal'c could see that all this pained MajorCarter a good deal. She was finding it hard to mask her sympathy for O'Neill, and for her alternative self. At the same time he could see a look of hatred directed towards her double. She did not like that this would hurt the Colonel, no matter that it was not the Colonel from their own reality.
Amunet broke her gaze into O'Neill's eyes and turned them on Sam. Seeing her discomfort she smiled. "Oh yes, this is going to be fun. What a wonderful wedding gift my Lord has given me."
Turning her attention back to O'Neill she reached her hand up to his face and leaned to kiss him gently on the lips. Sam could see a silent tear fall from one of his eyes. This was probably worse torture for him than any physical pain might be, and Amunet knew it. She smiled her triumph.
"You will be my pet. I can play with you when my husband is not in need of me." A small laugh escaped her lips and O'Neill cringed at the sound; it was so like his wife's laugh, yet unlike it. It was like a hollow impersonation; a laugh with no hint of the mirth that could fill Sam's laughter.
"Go to hell!" O'Neill spat at her.
"Oh, my love, but I'll have you begging for me, pleading for me to touch and pet you."
"Never." Said O'Neill, defiantly.
Amunet took his face in her hands and kissed him again. This time she forced his mouth open and her tongue inside. O'Neill was finding it hard to resist her. This was his wife. He was still mourning her, but here she was. She kissed him like Sam would, and he responded. Pulling back from him, an evil grin crossed her face.
"You will give me much pleasure. Maybe I should ask my husband for a symbiote for you."
O'Neill shuddered at that concept. A snake? It was his worst nightmare, apart from the one he was already living in. He knew his wife was still inside this body somewhere, imprisoned, totally controlled and helpless. The pain that gave him was worse than anything he had felt up until now. He would rather die than have that happen to him; would rather kill his wife than have her suffer this. Was she watching these events without the means to do anything to stop them? That would be pure hell.
Once more she stroked his face and neck with the zat, her other hand seducing him, caressing his body, then his manhood. O'Neill gasped and moaned, unable to control the reaction of his body to her touch. She continued her ministrations while Sam and the others looked on in horror. Having taken him so far she withdrew the hand and slapped him hard around his face, the hand device cutting a gouge in his cheek. He reeled from the shock but remained standing, still defiant.
"I will control you, husband of my host. You will obey my whim." She said.
He said nothing. Despite the desire she had caused to rage through his body, he could not allow himself to submit. Amunet saw something in his eyes that she didn't like and, as punishment, she hit it hard where she had caressed seductively only moments before. He doubled over with the pain, falling to his knees. Sam made to move towards him but Amunet raised her zat towards her once more.
"That would not be wise." She said, and Sam desisted in frustration.
She was revolted by the actions she had just witnessed, appalled that her counterpart tortured O'Neill in this most hurtful way. As O'Neill tried to get up, in obvious agony, she could see tears in his eyes once again. She suspected it was not just as a result of having been hit so hard in his most sensitive areas and her heart bled for him.
"I told you that you would obey me, beg me and be mine to do with as I wish. I will win, O'Neill." Said Amunet as he was rising. To emphasise her point she lifted her hand and zapped O'Neill with her hand device, sending him flying towards the wall. Sam made a move to get up and go to him, acting on instinct.
"I told you not to move." Amunet struck Sam with the hand device, but not with the same force. She was reaching into Sam's inner being, zapping her brain of its strength. Sam cried out from the pain. O'Neill, trying to recover in the corner, begged Amunet to stop.
"Please don't. I'll do anything."
"I find it amusing that you care about this double of me. I will keep you both as pets and you can each watch the other as I play with you. Now tell me where your leaders have gone; the co-ordinates. Now!" She held her hand up ready to strike at Sam again. "She will not be able to take much more as she dies painfully." She sneered again.
"I'll do anything but that." O'Neill replied, resigning himself to the inevitable. They were all going to die here. Rather them than reveal the Beta site.
"Very well." About to strike she was interrupted as a Jaffa ran into the room.
"Kree no'tan re'no'kea." He indicated towards a monitor.
On the monitor a blip on the radar was moving in fast to their location. Amunet raised her hand again towards Sam, determined to do more damage, and disappeared. Neat trick, thought the surprised O'Neill. The Jaffa looked around in shock and when the gate opened, they ran downstairs to beat a hasty retreat through it. Apophis' ship moved off rapidly, shaking the whole mountain. . "Ok, I'm guessing..." Started O'Neill.
"Asgard!" Sam interrupted, jubilantly.
"Alright!" Jack smiled. His emotions were fighting within him. He wanted to laugh; they had won and Apophis had left. He wanted to cry; his wife was alive but she was a Goa'uld and Apophis' bride. He had no idea where she had gone.
"It appears DoctorJackson was successful." Teal'c said, at which moment Daniel appeared before them.
"Hey, I brought the cavalry, the Asgard." He said jubilantly.
"We guessed that."
Daniel was so overjoyed that the plan had worked that he had only just noticed the mixture of happiness and sadness displayed on the faces before him. O'Neill slumped into a chair not knowing what to do next.
"What did I miss?" Asked Daniel of Sam.
"It's a long story Daniel," Sam started to explain. "I don't know how to say this, it's pretty weird." Daniel looked at her curiously. "Amunet has taken my body as a host in this reality. I am Apophis' new bride."
Daniel was stunned, but she had other concerns. Turning to O'Neill, almost feeling his anguish and pain, she walked over and knelt by him, taking his hand. She could see the mixed emotions in his face and tears pricked her own eyes.
"Jack? I'm so sorry."
She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close and whispering all the time how sorry she felt. He held her tightly, no longer able to hold back his tears, his emotions overwhelming him.
"It's not your fault Sam." He whispered back to her, his voice cracked with the strain, "none of this is your fault."
The others felt embarrassed to witness this intimacy between them and discretely left the room.
End of Chapter 3
Continued in Chapter 4