Darkness Hides the Hunter – Part Three
Dawn
He watched the woman, saw her legs trembling with fatigue. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost. But she was the enemy and he couldn't allow himself to feel sympathy – too many lives depended on the information he could gain from them.
She had been careful to hide the look of revulsion by turning away, but he knew his actions had disconcerted her. The man had looked ready to throw up, a few convulsive gulps all that stopped him. All the better – keep them guessing, stay unpredictable. He had already discovered weaknesses he could use.
He raised the mug to his lips, savouring the bitter taste of coffee after so long without. Their packs had been a treasure-trove, replacing his lost supplies, even the energy bars tasting good.
The man sagged, his knees buckling, and with a cry of pain, he pulled himself upright again, shaking his head as if to clear it. The cut on his neck had begun bleeding again, slowly turning his uniform collar dark with moisture.
"Sir, please, he can't stay like that. Please, you could keep him tied, just let him put his arms down." The woman pleaded. "Please, Colonel. It's Daniel. You don't really want to hurt him."
Once, long ago, she might have been right, but now all had changed. He had changed as he did whatever he had to do to get the job done. He had taught himself not to listen, and with each mission, lost more of himself, until now he knew he was so close to the darkness that it almost engulfed him.
He tossed the remains of the coffee into the fire, and took another step away from the light.
He ignored her words, concentrating instead on the man. His eyes were wide and staring, as if straining to see, his breath laboured.
The weakest link.
He swung his open hand, the slap loud in the dawn quiet. The man's head jerked sideways with the impact and a thin trickle of blood ran from his bottom lip where his teeth had cut into it. He didn't give the man time to recover, following the slap with a punch to the stomach. The man gasped, his breath forced out of his lungs. He took two deep, shuddering gulps of air.
"Jack..." His eyes were squeezed shut.
"What is your objective here?"
"God, Jack, please. I don't know what you want me to say." The voice was weak and strained.
"Wrong answer." He stepped back. "I'll have to ask your friend here instead."
The reaction was all he could have hoped for. The head came up. "No...don't. I'll tell you everything you want to know, just leave Sam alone."
So predictable. So easy.
"What are your objectives here?"
"We were exploring. Remember...General Hammond sent us here...from the SGC.....through the stargate."
A flash of anger raced through him at the other's obstinacy, but he quickly dismissed it from his mind. He couldn't afford anger, it could cause mistakes.
"Very well." He didn't raise his voice, just walked away, to stand facing away from them.
"Think about it, Colonel. How did you get here? Try and remember. You came here with us...from Earth...the SGC." The woman's anxious voice intruded into his thoughts, but she wasn't saying anything worth listening to.
Nothing worth listening to at all.
It was the work of a moment to turn, takes the few steps necessary to reach her side, and sweep her feet out from under her with a swift kick.
He turned away again, the gurgling sounds of slow strangulation a discordant counterpoint to the tune he was humming.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
When the Colonel turned towards her, Sam had steeled herself for a blow. Nothing in his expression warned her just how much she had underestimated his ruthlessness. She was down, the rope tight around her neck, before she even felt the kick against her legs.
She gulped convulsively for air, desperately struggling to find solid ground beneath her bound feet. Dimly she heard Daniel's voice shouting, but the pounding in her ears overwhelmed any other sound until all she knew was the need for oxygen as she began to fade out, her eyes staring into nothingness.
She had no idea how long it was before she was able to push a breath past the hard obstruction in her throat, the noose gone from her neck. She managed one breath, then another, pulling oxygen into her lungs, the effort agonisingly painful, as she swayed on her feet.
Finally she opened her eyes, to confront what she knew she would find.
He was standing in front of her, his hands still half raised from loosening the rope, the half smile on his lips not reaching his dead, cold eyes.
The Colonel. Her Colonel.
The man she would trust with her life.
The man who had almost killed her.
"You upset me." His voice was emotionless, despite his words. "You should try not to do that again."
He stepped in, reaching out to cup her face with his hand, and she couldn't help the flinch as he traced along her jaw line with his thumb.
"Sam! Leave her alone, Jack." Sam could hear the desperation in Daniel's voice.
A long finger ran down the still bleeding cut on her neck and she turned her head to the side.
"Damn it, Jack, leave her alone!" Daniel's angry voice broke the silence once more, and the hand dropped.
Even in the dim light, Sam could see the moment when the Colonel changed, the last spark of life dying from his eyes, leaving only darkness. As he turned way from her, his knife out once more, Sam knew she had only seconds in which to act, only seconds to prevent the death of her friend.
"Wait...I'll tell you everything...anything you want...stop." She screamed the words into the sudden silence.
He paused.
"What is your mission?" He was back, standing beside her.
She struggled to think of something, anything to distract him, to keep him busy and give Teal'c time to rescue them.
"We were sent ahead to scout...check for any signs of the enemy...we hadn't found anything." She tried not to babble, to keep it as convincing as possible, and hurried on. "We were just heading back when you caught us. "
"How many of you are there?"
"Just the two of us. We are several miles ahead of the main force."
The Colonel smiled, a smug, satisfied smile.
"Excellent."
She breathed a sigh of relief. It was working.
He stepped forward, until she could feel his breath on her face. "You deserve a reward for that." The knife was out and the ropes holding her hands to the tree were cut in one swift move. Sam's arms fell to her sides, the sudden return of circulation causing pain to shoot through her limbs. "Yes, you certainly deserve a reward" The knife flashed upwards, slicing through her shirt, and biting into her T-shirt, parting them and leaving her clothes hanging loose. "A reward for such fine acting."
Sam's arms barely twitched as she attempted to bring her hands up to shield herself. The Colonel hadn't stopped smiling, his voice was calm and controlled, but every instinct she had screamed to her of danger. She took a deep breath and matched his calmness, keeping her tone as matter-a-fact as possible.
"Daniel and I were alone, sir."
What she saw then shocked her almost as much as anything that had happened in the last few hours. The Colonel's left eye twitched. It was a tiny involuntary motion, but it was so unlike him that for a moment she was stunned into speechlessness.
Suddenly she understood. She hurried to speak, her tongue almost tripping over itself as she realised her mistake.
"There were three of us, but our companion went on ahead to report."
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, as Daniel straightened, but she ignored him.
The Colonel knew. She saw it in his eyes. He knew she hadn't been alone with Daniel. Her mind spun with the possibilities. Did he have some memory of their camp? She swallowed, remembering the Colonel's ruined pack.
Oh god! There had been no native. There had only ever been the members of SG-1 here on the planet.
That meant ...
Sam looked into the smiling face just a few inches from her own and saw the answer waiting for her. As she watched, he nodded and turned, seating himself again, holding his knife loosely in his right hand. He casually flipped it in the air, end over end, catching it again, and repeating the move as he spoke.
"Shall we try it again?"
Sam shut her eyes, and asked, not knowing if she really wanted to hear the answer.
"Sir, what have you done?"
"Sam?" She heard Daniel's puzzled voice, but spoke over the beginning of his question.
"Daniel – he knows. He knows we weren't alone. Think about it." She kept her eyes shut, her heart suddenly cold. "Sir. You are Colonel Jack O'Neill. You are the leader of SG-1. There are three other members of your team – myself, Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson – tied to the tree next to me, and Teal'c." On the last word she opened her eyes and stared straight at the man, the so familiar figure of the man she no longer knew. "Sir – what have you done with Teal'c?"
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Teal'c? Daniel pushed himself upright once more. What did Sam mean? Why was she telling Jack about Teal'c?
Then, with a flash, he understood.
Jack knew about Teal'c. He looked at his friend, sitting so calmly watching them, his head half cocked to one side, his eye twitching. Perhaps this was some other Jack? Some alternate Colonel O'Neill who had walked through the mirror and ended up, through a bizarre coincidence, on the same planet as them? Maybe their Jack was just waiting for a chance to rescue them?
The alternative was too horrifying to contemplate. Jack couldn't have turned into this cruel, hard person, willing to hurt his friends for the sake of some meaningless information about an imaginary enemy. Willing to kill to get it.
But that was the flaw in his argument, and Daniel knew it, because he understood, deep down, that Colonel Jack O'Neill was perfectly capable of doing all those things, and more. And he looked over at Sam, and saw her eyes open, saw the despair in them as they caught his gaze.
If he was able, Teal'c would have stopped Jack by now.
"God, Jack, what have you done?" He strained forward, trying to get the other man's attention. "You're sick....please...let us go. We'll find Teal'c and get you back to the SGC...find out what's wrong. It'll be okay once we get home." There was no reaction, but he kept talking. "Listen to Sam...she's telling the truth."
But as Daniel searched for a way to reach his friend, to make him understand, he hoped that what he was thinking was wrong, because, if Jack had done something to their teammate...if he had done the unthinkable...when all this was over, Daniel knew without a shadow of a doubt, that Jack would never forgive himself.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Their words were less than useless.
He didn't want questions. He wanted answers.
He had accounted for three of them – that left one more. One that could be anywhere, could be already warning the enemy of his presence. Jeopardising his mission.
He tossed his knife one last time, seeing the sun gleaming off the blade. It was time to be moving on. It didn't do to stay in one place for too long. He had to keep on the move, keep hidden.
The fourth member of their team – they had said so little about him, but behind their worried eyes, and frightened stares, there had still been hope. At least until a few minutes ago.
What had changed?
He had seen the moment the woman had realised that the man they called Teal'c would not be coming to save them, but there was still another to be accounted for. Why were they dismissing him as a rescuer? Had he already gone back to report? Had the enemy been warned of his presence?
He stood, his decision made.
He needed to be gone from here, before he was found. But before he left, he had to be sure there would be no one to give away any information about him to the enemy.
He concealed a shudder. This was the part of his job that he hated. It was one thing to kill in the heat of battle, but to do it in cold blood was something he could never get use to.
Still, it had to be done.
Their words washed over him, beating against him, their tone becoming more and more urgent. One part of him wanted to listen, another knew that to do so would be a fatal error.
The woman was shouting now, the man pulling against his ropes, the veins standing out on his forehead as his struggled.
He lifted his knife, already at the woman's side. Always eliminate the most dangerous threat first.
It was then that it happened.
Just for a second it was as if he had split in two. One part of him only concerned with the need to complete his mission, the other screaming for attention as he looked into the terrified gaze of his second in command.
For that split second, he paused, his knife raised.
And something hit him between the shoulder blades, the explosion of pain throwing him to the ground and sending him straight back into the so familiar darkness.
TBC
Dawn
He watched the woman, saw her legs trembling with fatigue. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost. But she was the enemy and he couldn't allow himself to feel sympathy – too many lives depended on the information he could gain from them.
She had been careful to hide the look of revulsion by turning away, but he knew his actions had disconcerted her. The man had looked ready to throw up, a few convulsive gulps all that stopped him. All the better – keep them guessing, stay unpredictable. He had already discovered weaknesses he could use.
He raised the mug to his lips, savouring the bitter taste of coffee after so long without. Their packs had been a treasure-trove, replacing his lost supplies, even the energy bars tasting good.
The man sagged, his knees buckling, and with a cry of pain, he pulled himself upright again, shaking his head as if to clear it. The cut on his neck had begun bleeding again, slowly turning his uniform collar dark with moisture.
"Sir, please, he can't stay like that. Please, you could keep him tied, just let him put his arms down." The woman pleaded. "Please, Colonel. It's Daniel. You don't really want to hurt him."
Once, long ago, she might have been right, but now all had changed. He had changed as he did whatever he had to do to get the job done. He had taught himself not to listen, and with each mission, lost more of himself, until now he knew he was so close to the darkness that it almost engulfed him.
He tossed the remains of the coffee into the fire, and took another step away from the light.
He ignored her words, concentrating instead on the man. His eyes were wide and staring, as if straining to see, his breath laboured.
The weakest link.
He swung his open hand, the slap loud in the dawn quiet. The man's head jerked sideways with the impact and a thin trickle of blood ran from his bottom lip where his teeth had cut into it. He didn't give the man time to recover, following the slap with a punch to the stomach. The man gasped, his breath forced out of his lungs. He took two deep, shuddering gulps of air.
"Jack..." His eyes were squeezed shut.
"What is your objective here?"
"God, Jack, please. I don't know what you want me to say." The voice was weak and strained.
"Wrong answer." He stepped back. "I'll have to ask your friend here instead."
The reaction was all he could have hoped for. The head came up. "No...don't. I'll tell you everything you want to know, just leave Sam alone."
So predictable. So easy.
"What are your objectives here?"
"We were exploring. Remember...General Hammond sent us here...from the SGC.....through the stargate."
A flash of anger raced through him at the other's obstinacy, but he quickly dismissed it from his mind. He couldn't afford anger, it could cause mistakes.
"Very well." He didn't raise his voice, just walked away, to stand facing away from them.
"Think about it, Colonel. How did you get here? Try and remember. You came here with us...from Earth...the SGC." The woman's anxious voice intruded into his thoughts, but she wasn't saying anything worth listening to.
Nothing worth listening to at all.
It was the work of a moment to turn, takes the few steps necessary to reach her side, and sweep her feet out from under her with a swift kick.
He turned away again, the gurgling sounds of slow strangulation a discordant counterpoint to the tune he was humming.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
When the Colonel turned towards her, Sam had steeled herself for a blow. Nothing in his expression warned her just how much she had underestimated his ruthlessness. She was down, the rope tight around her neck, before she even felt the kick against her legs.
She gulped convulsively for air, desperately struggling to find solid ground beneath her bound feet. Dimly she heard Daniel's voice shouting, but the pounding in her ears overwhelmed any other sound until all she knew was the need for oxygen as she began to fade out, her eyes staring into nothingness.
She had no idea how long it was before she was able to push a breath past the hard obstruction in her throat, the noose gone from her neck. She managed one breath, then another, pulling oxygen into her lungs, the effort agonisingly painful, as she swayed on her feet.
Finally she opened her eyes, to confront what she knew she would find.
He was standing in front of her, his hands still half raised from loosening the rope, the half smile on his lips not reaching his dead, cold eyes.
The Colonel. Her Colonel.
The man she would trust with her life.
The man who had almost killed her.
"You upset me." His voice was emotionless, despite his words. "You should try not to do that again."
He stepped in, reaching out to cup her face with his hand, and she couldn't help the flinch as he traced along her jaw line with his thumb.
"Sam! Leave her alone, Jack." Sam could hear the desperation in Daniel's voice.
A long finger ran down the still bleeding cut on her neck and she turned her head to the side.
"Damn it, Jack, leave her alone!" Daniel's angry voice broke the silence once more, and the hand dropped.
Even in the dim light, Sam could see the moment when the Colonel changed, the last spark of life dying from his eyes, leaving only darkness. As he turned way from her, his knife out once more, Sam knew she had only seconds in which to act, only seconds to prevent the death of her friend.
"Wait...I'll tell you everything...anything you want...stop." She screamed the words into the sudden silence.
He paused.
"What is your mission?" He was back, standing beside her.
She struggled to think of something, anything to distract him, to keep him busy and give Teal'c time to rescue them.
"We were sent ahead to scout...check for any signs of the enemy...we hadn't found anything." She tried not to babble, to keep it as convincing as possible, and hurried on. "We were just heading back when you caught us. "
"How many of you are there?"
"Just the two of us. We are several miles ahead of the main force."
The Colonel smiled, a smug, satisfied smile.
"Excellent."
She breathed a sigh of relief. It was working.
He stepped forward, until she could feel his breath on her face. "You deserve a reward for that." The knife was out and the ropes holding her hands to the tree were cut in one swift move. Sam's arms fell to her sides, the sudden return of circulation causing pain to shoot through her limbs. "Yes, you certainly deserve a reward" The knife flashed upwards, slicing through her shirt, and biting into her T-shirt, parting them and leaving her clothes hanging loose. "A reward for such fine acting."
Sam's arms barely twitched as she attempted to bring her hands up to shield herself. The Colonel hadn't stopped smiling, his voice was calm and controlled, but every instinct she had screamed to her of danger. She took a deep breath and matched his calmness, keeping her tone as matter-a-fact as possible.
"Daniel and I were alone, sir."
What she saw then shocked her almost as much as anything that had happened in the last few hours. The Colonel's left eye twitched. It was a tiny involuntary motion, but it was so unlike him that for a moment she was stunned into speechlessness.
Suddenly she understood. She hurried to speak, her tongue almost tripping over itself as she realised her mistake.
"There were three of us, but our companion went on ahead to report."
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, as Daniel straightened, but she ignored him.
The Colonel knew. She saw it in his eyes. He knew she hadn't been alone with Daniel. Her mind spun with the possibilities. Did he have some memory of their camp? She swallowed, remembering the Colonel's ruined pack.
Oh god! There had been no native. There had only ever been the members of SG-1 here on the planet.
That meant ...
Sam looked into the smiling face just a few inches from her own and saw the answer waiting for her. As she watched, he nodded and turned, seating himself again, holding his knife loosely in his right hand. He casually flipped it in the air, end over end, catching it again, and repeating the move as he spoke.
"Shall we try it again?"
Sam shut her eyes, and asked, not knowing if she really wanted to hear the answer.
"Sir, what have you done?"
"Sam?" She heard Daniel's puzzled voice, but spoke over the beginning of his question.
"Daniel – he knows. He knows we weren't alone. Think about it." She kept her eyes shut, her heart suddenly cold. "Sir. You are Colonel Jack O'Neill. You are the leader of SG-1. There are three other members of your team – myself, Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson – tied to the tree next to me, and Teal'c." On the last word she opened her eyes and stared straight at the man, the so familiar figure of the man she no longer knew. "Sir – what have you done with Teal'c?"
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Teal'c? Daniel pushed himself upright once more. What did Sam mean? Why was she telling Jack about Teal'c?
Then, with a flash, he understood.
Jack knew about Teal'c. He looked at his friend, sitting so calmly watching them, his head half cocked to one side, his eye twitching. Perhaps this was some other Jack? Some alternate Colonel O'Neill who had walked through the mirror and ended up, through a bizarre coincidence, on the same planet as them? Maybe their Jack was just waiting for a chance to rescue them?
The alternative was too horrifying to contemplate. Jack couldn't have turned into this cruel, hard person, willing to hurt his friends for the sake of some meaningless information about an imaginary enemy. Willing to kill to get it.
But that was the flaw in his argument, and Daniel knew it, because he understood, deep down, that Colonel Jack O'Neill was perfectly capable of doing all those things, and more. And he looked over at Sam, and saw her eyes open, saw the despair in them as they caught his gaze.
If he was able, Teal'c would have stopped Jack by now.
"God, Jack, what have you done?" He strained forward, trying to get the other man's attention. "You're sick....please...let us go. We'll find Teal'c and get you back to the SGC...find out what's wrong. It'll be okay once we get home." There was no reaction, but he kept talking. "Listen to Sam...she's telling the truth."
But as Daniel searched for a way to reach his friend, to make him understand, he hoped that what he was thinking was wrong, because, if Jack had done something to their teammate...if he had done the unthinkable...when all this was over, Daniel knew without a shadow of a doubt, that Jack would never forgive himself.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Their words were less than useless.
He didn't want questions. He wanted answers.
He had accounted for three of them – that left one more. One that could be anywhere, could be already warning the enemy of his presence. Jeopardising his mission.
He tossed his knife one last time, seeing the sun gleaming off the blade. It was time to be moving on. It didn't do to stay in one place for too long. He had to keep on the move, keep hidden.
The fourth member of their team – they had said so little about him, but behind their worried eyes, and frightened stares, there had still been hope. At least until a few minutes ago.
What had changed?
He had seen the moment the woman had realised that the man they called Teal'c would not be coming to save them, but there was still another to be accounted for. Why were they dismissing him as a rescuer? Had he already gone back to report? Had the enemy been warned of his presence?
He stood, his decision made.
He needed to be gone from here, before he was found. But before he left, he had to be sure there would be no one to give away any information about him to the enemy.
He concealed a shudder. This was the part of his job that he hated. It was one thing to kill in the heat of battle, but to do it in cold blood was something he could never get use to.
Still, it had to be done.
Their words washed over him, beating against him, their tone becoming more and more urgent. One part of him wanted to listen, another knew that to do so would be a fatal error.
The woman was shouting now, the man pulling against his ropes, the veins standing out on his forehead as his struggled.
He lifted his knife, already at the woman's side. Always eliminate the most dangerous threat first.
It was then that it happened.
Just for a second it was as if he had split in two. One part of him only concerned with the need to complete his mission, the other screaming for attention as he looked into the terrified gaze of his second in command.
For that split second, he paused, his knife raised.
And something hit him between the shoulder blades, the explosion of pain throwing him to the ground and sending him straight back into the so familiar darkness.
TBC