TITLE: The Sought Ones
SEQUEL TO: The Lost Ones
AUTHOR: Cyn(di)
EMAIL: custardpringle@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13. Language, thematic issues, sexual references, angst.
CATEGORY: supernatural, drama, romance, angst
SUMMARY: They were supposed to be gone forever. But "forever" is a very relative thing.
SPOILERS: I'm assuming "Heroes" and "Lost City" never happened, but anything else is fair game.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wasn't going to post this chapter—I really wasn't. But then Jess posted a review that ruined the cliffhanger, so I figured: what the hell, the damage is already done. Besides, I wrote a nice epilogue and I want to show it off ;) that should be appearing in a couple of days, depending on Louise's workload.
Speaking of Jess . . . she just got invited to prom, which is way better than I, or any of her other friends, have managed to do. So go read her Animorphs fic (her pen name is Korean Pearl) and say nice things to her, because she really does deserve it. (No matter how pissed I may be at her at the moment.) I don't even read Animorphs, and I still love her fics.
-------------------------------------------------
Jack gazed around at the other four with a desperate, almost pleading look in his eyes that none of them had ever seen on his face before. "Please," he said, swallowed hard, and started over. "Please tell me I imagined that. I did, right?"
The only reply anyone could think of was silence.
"Fine." Jack heaved a sigh, got slowly to his feet, then bent down and lifted Charlie's inert form into his arms. "If we get him to the Tok'ra right away, they'll be able to fix it. Let's go."
"O'Neill," Teal'c observed suddenly, "I do not believe your son has become host to a Goa'uld."
"Really." Jack turned and glared at his friend. "Y'know, Teal'c, I'd agree with you . . . except for the whole glowing-eyes thing. That's kind of a dead giveaway."
"That's true, sir," Sam agreed, also getting up. "But the eyes of a Goa'uld host usually glow white or pale yellow. Charlie's were more of a bluish color."
"And . . .?" Jack stared at them. "What else could have happened to him?"
"Jack," interjected Daniel, who was staring at the wall, "they're right. It isn't a Goa'uld after all."
"Then what the hell just happened to my son?" Jack nearly yelled in frustration. "'Cause you don't look very happy about that."
Instead of replying aloud, Daniel simply reached out and pressed a symbol on the wall, seemingly at random. It wasn't random, though; a moment later a grinding noise began to come out of the wall, and a section of the wall about two feet square gradually slid back to reveal a compartment hidden in the wall. Inside was something uncomfortably familiar: a large, ornate, doughnut-shaped object mounted on the wall, through the center of which one could dimly glimpse brightly colored lights dancing in the shadows behind.
It was blue, rather than red, but that really wasn't much comfort at this point.
Jack looked at it for a couple of seconds, and then groaned in defeat, gripping Charlie's body more tightly against his own. "Somehow, I don't think the Tok'ra are gonna be able to fix this after all."
-----
"I'm going to have to agree with Daniel's theory, Colonel," Janet said regretfully, looking up from her computer screen. "Charlie's brain is showing incredibly heightened activity, exactly as yours did when the repository of the Ancients was downloaded into your head several years ago. The only problem is that it didn't take you nearly as long to wake up afterwards as it's taking Charlie." It had been several hours, and the boy had shown no further signs of regaining consciousness.
"That's easy," Jack shrugged bleakly. "Charlie's just a little kid . . . that thing's killing him much faster than it would've killed me. That's it, right?"
Janet shook her head. "Actually, no. I'm not yet seeing any of the signs of brain damage that I was beginning to see in you before. As a matter of fact—" A blindingly bright white light suddenly flashed behind her, and she turned to find herself alone in the office. "Colonel . . .?"
There was no answer—not that Janet had really expected one.
She groaned out loud. "Great timing, Thor."
-----
"Great timing, Thor," Jack observed simultaneously, albeit with somewhat more enthusiasm. "I've been wanting to talk to you buddy."
"I am not surprised," Thor answered gravely. "You are no doubt curious about what happened in the temple."
"Damn right," said Jack angrily. "All explanations are quite welcome, thank you."
Thor nodded. "Very well, although you must be patient; it is a complicated story."
"I'm not surprised. Please continue."
"You have already surmised, and correctly," said Thor, "that Aurel, or Avel, is not one of the Ancients. She is something far older, and far more powerful—at least, she was, until several of your years ago. At that time, perhaps out of desire for companionship, she selected a Goa'uld—Anubis, who had recently been cast out by the System Lords. Recognizing in Anubis a depth of darkness akin to her own, she helped him Ascend, thus giving him power nearly equal to hers as well. However, the Ancients detected Avel's action and tried to force Anubis back into his original form. So as to prevent him from returning to a fully mortal form, Avel found it necessary to sacrifice a certain amount of herself, giving it instead to Anubis. He took advantage of this sacrifice, and used it to become her master, rather than the other way around. Avel—who then renamed herself Aurel, as a sort of oath to herself to reclaim her former stature—was then subjugated to Anubis. This state of affairs lasted until his death, at which point the severed portion of Aurel was absorbed by Anubis' killer, Daniel Jackson. After that, it was all but impossible for Aurel to recover her lost powers directly. The only way she could manage it would be to wait until a child of his was conceived, in which case the powers would be transferred into the developing zygote and Aurel could easily reabsorb them. In order to facilitate this, Aurel chose to bring Daniel's wife back from the dead—and I believe you already know what happened after that."
"Oh." Jack's lips moved soundlessly for several seconds, trying to find something polysyllabic to say and failing. "Wow."
"Indeed." A hint of amusement seemed to pass over Thor's face, although one could never be quite certain. "Your son might have explained it to you as well as I could, but I do not know how much longer he will remain unconscious. I thought it best not to wait."
"But Charlie will wake up, right?" Jack asked eagerly. "You can help him like you helped me?"
Thor said nothing.
"C'mon, buddy," Jack continued, a trace of alarm no edging his voice. "This is Charlie we're talking about here. I know you can help him."
"The repository your son encountered was located in the temple to Avel, was it not?"
"Well, yeah . . ." Jack squinted in confusion. "What about it?"
The alien's large black eyes gazed soberly at him. "Then I cannot help him. The information he now holds is far more valuable than his single life."
-----
A flash of light again, and Jack was back in the infirmary.
"Hello, Colonel," Janet greeted him hopefully. "What happened?"
Jack related everything he'd learned about Avel, keeping back only the end of the conversation.
Janet's face darkened slightly. "So that's what happened. I tried to get Daniel and Sha're to talk to me about it, but I only got the basics. Neither of them mentioned that she might be pregnant."
"Probably didn't want to keep their hopes up for nothing," Jack said thoughtfully. "But I'd bet Sha're'll be back here in a week or so to get tested." The thought of children depressed him suddenly, and he fell silent.
Janet noticed. "Colonel, is something wrong?"
"You could say that." He told her.
"Oh, damn." Janet was about to say something more—something comforting, no doubt—when a small movement on the other side of the glass caught Jack's eye.
Looking over, he saw that Charlie was stirring, his eyes opening again; this time, they were mercifully normal-looking, showing only the usual brown iris without even a hint of blue glow. "Excuse me, Doc," Jack said hastily, and dashed out into the isolation room to join his son. "Hey, kid . . . how are you feeling?"
Charlie moaned softly. "I have an awful headache."
"I heard that," Janet said over the intercom. "I'll be in there in just a second with some painkillers."
General Hammond stuck his head in the doorway. "Oh, I see he's awake. That's good. Colonel O'Neill, may I have a word with you?"
"Just briefly, if you don't mind, sir." Jack followed him out into the corridor.
"All right," Hammond snapped, "just what the hell is going on here? I'm getting all sorts of insane reports from Dr. Fraiser and the rest of SG-1."
"They're all true." Jack grimaced and saluted mockingly. "Official report, sir: Daniel's wife who's been dead for four years is, at a guess, probably having a nervous breakdown right now. My son, who's been dead for ten, is dying again. Oh, yeah—and the single most evil being who's ever existed has just been restored to her full power. Is that what you wanted to know, General?"
SEQUEL TO: The Lost Ones
AUTHOR: Cyn(di)
EMAIL: custardpringle@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13. Language, thematic issues, sexual references, angst.
CATEGORY: supernatural, drama, romance, angst
SUMMARY: They were supposed to be gone forever. But "forever" is a very relative thing.
SPOILERS: I'm assuming "Heroes" and "Lost City" never happened, but anything else is fair game.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wasn't going to post this chapter—I really wasn't. But then Jess posted a review that ruined the cliffhanger, so I figured: what the hell, the damage is already done. Besides, I wrote a nice epilogue and I want to show it off ;) that should be appearing in a couple of days, depending on Louise's workload.
Speaking of Jess . . . she just got invited to prom, which is way better than I, or any of her other friends, have managed to do. So go read her Animorphs fic (her pen name is Korean Pearl) and say nice things to her, because she really does deserve it. (No matter how pissed I may be at her at the moment.) I don't even read Animorphs, and I still love her fics.
-------------------------------------------------
Jack gazed around at the other four with a desperate, almost pleading look in his eyes that none of them had ever seen on his face before. "Please," he said, swallowed hard, and started over. "Please tell me I imagined that. I did, right?"
The only reply anyone could think of was silence.
"Fine." Jack heaved a sigh, got slowly to his feet, then bent down and lifted Charlie's inert form into his arms. "If we get him to the Tok'ra right away, they'll be able to fix it. Let's go."
"O'Neill," Teal'c observed suddenly, "I do not believe your son has become host to a Goa'uld."
"Really." Jack turned and glared at his friend. "Y'know, Teal'c, I'd agree with you . . . except for the whole glowing-eyes thing. That's kind of a dead giveaway."
"That's true, sir," Sam agreed, also getting up. "But the eyes of a Goa'uld host usually glow white or pale yellow. Charlie's were more of a bluish color."
"And . . .?" Jack stared at them. "What else could have happened to him?"
"Jack," interjected Daniel, who was staring at the wall, "they're right. It isn't a Goa'uld after all."
"Then what the hell just happened to my son?" Jack nearly yelled in frustration. "'Cause you don't look very happy about that."
Instead of replying aloud, Daniel simply reached out and pressed a symbol on the wall, seemingly at random. It wasn't random, though; a moment later a grinding noise began to come out of the wall, and a section of the wall about two feet square gradually slid back to reveal a compartment hidden in the wall. Inside was something uncomfortably familiar: a large, ornate, doughnut-shaped object mounted on the wall, through the center of which one could dimly glimpse brightly colored lights dancing in the shadows behind.
It was blue, rather than red, but that really wasn't much comfort at this point.
Jack looked at it for a couple of seconds, and then groaned in defeat, gripping Charlie's body more tightly against his own. "Somehow, I don't think the Tok'ra are gonna be able to fix this after all."
-----
"I'm going to have to agree with Daniel's theory, Colonel," Janet said regretfully, looking up from her computer screen. "Charlie's brain is showing incredibly heightened activity, exactly as yours did when the repository of the Ancients was downloaded into your head several years ago. The only problem is that it didn't take you nearly as long to wake up afterwards as it's taking Charlie." It had been several hours, and the boy had shown no further signs of regaining consciousness.
"That's easy," Jack shrugged bleakly. "Charlie's just a little kid . . . that thing's killing him much faster than it would've killed me. That's it, right?"
Janet shook her head. "Actually, no. I'm not yet seeing any of the signs of brain damage that I was beginning to see in you before. As a matter of fact—" A blindingly bright white light suddenly flashed behind her, and she turned to find herself alone in the office. "Colonel . . .?"
There was no answer—not that Janet had really expected one.
She groaned out loud. "Great timing, Thor."
-----
"Great timing, Thor," Jack observed simultaneously, albeit with somewhat more enthusiasm. "I've been wanting to talk to you buddy."
"I am not surprised," Thor answered gravely. "You are no doubt curious about what happened in the temple."
"Damn right," said Jack angrily. "All explanations are quite welcome, thank you."
Thor nodded. "Very well, although you must be patient; it is a complicated story."
"I'm not surprised. Please continue."
"You have already surmised, and correctly," said Thor, "that Aurel, or Avel, is not one of the Ancients. She is something far older, and far more powerful—at least, she was, until several of your years ago. At that time, perhaps out of desire for companionship, she selected a Goa'uld—Anubis, who had recently been cast out by the System Lords. Recognizing in Anubis a depth of darkness akin to her own, she helped him Ascend, thus giving him power nearly equal to hers as well. However, the Ancients detected Avel's action and tried to force Anubis back into his original form. So as to prevent him from returning to a fully mortal form, Avel found it necessary to sacrifice a certain amount of herself, giving it instead to Anubis. He took advantage of this sacrifice, and used it to become her master, rather than the other way around. Avel—who then renamed herself Aurel, as a sort of oath to herself to reclaim her former stature—was then subjugated to Anubis. This state of affairs lasted until his death, at which point the severed portion of Aurel was absorbed by Anubis' killer, Daniel Jackson. After that, it was all but impossible for Aurel to recover her lost powers directly. The only way she could manage it would be to wait until a child of his was conceived, in which case the powers would be transferred into the developing zygote and Aurel could easily reabsorb them. In order to facilitate this, Aurel chose to bring Daniel's wife back from the dead—and I believe you already know what happened after that."
"Oh." Jack's lips moved soundlessly for several seconds, trying to find something polysyllabic to say and failing. "Wow."
"Indeed." A hint of amusement seemed to pass over Thor's face, although one could never be quite certain. "Your son might have explained it to you as well as I could, but I do not know how much longer he will remain unconscious. I thought it best not to wait."
"But Charlie will wake up, right?" Jack asked eagerly. "You can help him like you helped me?"
Thor said nothing.
"C'mon, buddy," Jack continued, a trace of alarm no edging his voice. "This is Charlie we're talking about here. I know you can help him."
"The repository your son encountered was located in the temple to Avel, was it not?"
"Well, yeah . . ." Jack squinted in confusion. "What about it?"
The alien's large black eyes gazed soberly at him. "Then I cannot help him. The information he now holds is far more valuable than his single life."
-----
A flash of light again, and Jack was back in the infirmary.
"Hello, Colonel," Janet greeted him hopefully. "What happened?"
Jack related everything he'd learned about Avel, keeping back only the end of the conversation.
Janet's face darkened slightly. "So that's what happened. I tried to get Daniel and Sha're to talk to me about it, but I only got the basics. Neither of them mentioned that she might be pregnant."
"Probably didn't want to keep their hopes up for nothing," Jack said thoughtfully. "But I'd bet Sha're'll be back here in a week or so to get tested." The thought of children depressed him suddenly, and he fell silent.
Janet noticed. "Colonel, is something wrong?"
"You could say that." He told her.
"Oh, damn." Janet was about to say something more—something comforting, no doubt—when a small movement on the other side of the glass caught Jack's eye.
Looking over, he saw that Charlie was stirring, his eyes opening again; this time, they were mercifully normal-looking, showing only the usual brown iris without even a hint of blue glow. "Excuse me, Doc," Jack said hastily, and dashed out into the isolation room to join his son. "Hey, kid . . . how are you feeling?"
Charlie moaned softly. "I have an awful headache."
"I heard that," Janet said over the intercom. "I'll be in there in just a second with some painkillers."
General Hammond stuck his head in the doorway. "Oh, I see he's awake. That's good. Colonel O'Neill, may I have a word with you?"
"Just briefly, if you don't mind, sir." Jack followed him out into the corridor.
"All right," Hammond snapped, "just what the hell is going on here? I'm getting all sorts of insane reports from Dr. Fraiser and the rest of SG-1."
"They're all true." Jack grimaced and saluted mockingly. "Official report, sir: Daniel's wife who's been dead for four years is, at a guess, probably having a nervous breakdown right now. My son, who's been dead for ten, is dying again. Oh, yeah—and the single most evil being who's ever existed has just been restored to her full power. Is that what you wanted to know, General?"