[Melony]

She tried to ignore the voice. She hurt, and didn't want to wake up and face that hurt just yet – if ever.

[Melony. I need you]

No...

[I know. It will hurt. But you need to wake up for me for a moment]

No.

She was a stubborn as any host he'd ever had, and it served her well. But this time, he needed her awake whether she wanted to be or not, so Talon tried again.

[It's important]

I hurt, Talon. Can't it wait?

Already she was close enough to consciousness that she could feel the leading edges of the pain that was to come, and it wasn't something she could face. She wasn't strong enough just then.

[We have to contact Tao]

Who?

An image of her First Prime flashed through her mind – accompanied by a sharp pain as the image brought her even closer to wakefulness. She cried out, and Talon was quick to soothe.

[I'm sorry, love. I didn't know it would hurt you like that]

"Colonel Mitchell?"

This time the voice wasn't coming from inside her.

[It's Doctor Fraiser] Talon told her. He couldn't see, since Melony's eyes weren't open, but he recognized the voice as easily as she would have, if she'd been thinking clearly.

Tell her I'm sick...

[You need to wake up. We have to send a message to Tao, now, before the remaining system lords think you were killed in the ambush]

She groaned. He was right. There wasn't time to rest. Not yet. She had to do that as soon as possible. Before Tao could think she was dead, and allowed her armies to be grabbed up by the system lords who hadn't been at the ambush. Those that had were all dead.

She forced herself awake, and cried out again as the pain crashed down around her. Talon helped – he tried to block as many of the nerve endings as he could to dull the pain – but it was incredible, and left her gasping. Which hurt, too. She opened her eyes, and saw Doctor Fraiser hovering over her.

"Colonel..."

"Doc..." She gasped the word out from a dry throat and a parched mouth. "I... need to send a... message..."

"It'll wait, Colonel," Fraiser said, gently, wondering how she was awake when it was obvious she was in so much pain. Far more than she should be able to handle. "I'm going to put you under so you can-"

"No!"

The word hurt. God, everything hurt.

"I have... to send a message..."

Fraiser's eyes became concerned. What was so important that she – and presumably Talon – would put herself through the pain she was obviously in?

"Do you need paper?"

She shook her head, and that hurt as well. She tried to move her arm to reach her other wrist, but both were bandaged, and the device on her right wrist was covered. Melony could feel tears forming in her eyes.

"I need... my wrist..."

Talon couldn't take over to help her. He was too busy trying to keep the movements from ripping open the initial healing he'd already started. Even her increased blood pressure, respiration and heartbeat from simply being awake were doing damage to her body, so she was on her own in this struggle. She was awake, now, though, and she knew what she needed.

Fraiser frowned, but cut the bandages off her right wrist, and then took the splint off.

"Your arm is broken, Colonel," she said, softly. "You have to be careful."

"I need to send... a message..." She repeated. "Thirsty..."

Janet wet a towel and brushed the Colonel's lips with it, but she didn't let her have anything to drink. There was a tear in her stomach, and until Janet knew for sure that the stitches she'd put in were going to hold, she wasn't going to allow anything to be eaten or drank.

"Who are you calling?" She asked as Mitchell closed her eyes, and panted, trying to get enough strength to do what she had to do next.

"Tao."

She raised her arm, and gasped. Yeah, that hurt!

"Easy..." Fraiser reached out and supported the arm so that Melony's damaged muscles didn't have to.

When Mitchell could see the device on her wrist, she reached up with the other hand – which hurt so bad her eyes blurred once more – and started to input a short message.

A moment later, she sighed, and her hand came down. Janet took that as a sign that she was finished, and carefully lowered the other one, as well.

"Thanks..."

Mitchell closed her eyes.

[Daniel] Talon reminded her.

"Daniel." She opened her eyes again, and looked at Fraiser, who was already starting to resplint the broken right wrist.

"He's going to be fine, Colonel. He took a nasty hit when he came out of nowhere, but a few broken bones and some burns. He'll be okay."

Mitchell nodded. That was good.

[You can sleep, now, Melony]

"Sleep..."

Fraiser nodded. She didn't know what message was so important that it couldn't wait, but now that it was done, she was going to put Colonel Mitchell so deep in medication that she wouldn't wake up again until at least a little damage had been fixed.

"You sleep, Colonel," she whispered, injecting the IV with painkillers and sedatives. "I'll tell everyone you said hello."

[Well done, Melony]

We did it...

[Oh, yes. We certainly did]

There was a definite smugness in Talon's voice, even though there was also weariness and concern.

[Go back to sleep. I have a lot of work to do]

Okay

And like that, she slipped back into that place where nothing hurt. There were no dreams. No aches. No nothing. It was the only place she could rest deeply enough that her heart stopped racing, and the adrenaline stopped flowing, and Talon could continue the healing he'd already started.

..............

Janet found SG-1 – minus Daniel – and SG-2 in the commissary. The damage that melony had done on her... reentry... to the SGC had been repaired, although a badly dented serving cart was a reminder of just how much force she'd hit it with. The teams were sitting in a quiet group in the corner, and Jack looked over as soon as he saw movement in the doorway. When he saw who it was, he paled, and Janet smiled as she walked over, to let him know that she wasn't bringing him bad news. She saw him relax marginally.

"Doc? How are they?"

"Daniel's still asleep." She said, sitting down and giving Brad Anderson a nod of thanks when he poured her a cup of coffee. "Colonel Mitchell woke up for a few moments."

"She's awake? Can I see her?" Brad and Jack both started to get to their feet, but Janet waved them back down.

"She's not awake. She's in a coma, now. But I put her there."

"What?"

"She never should have woken up in the first place." Janet explained. "She probably did more damage to herself by forcing herself awake before she was ready." And it was obvious she hadn't been ready. "Sleep is the best way to heal, you guys. She needs to sleep, now."

"What did she say?" Brad asked, anxiously. "Anything?"

"She needed to send a message to someone named Tao."

Jack frowned, but Sam had seen the name in her notes.

"Tao is her First Prime."

"Undoubtedly, she has sent the message to inform him of what has taken place," Teal'c said. "It would be paramount that she inform her Jaffa armies that she is still alive, and she most likely has instructed them to take control of the armies of those system lords that did not survive the ambush."

"I wonder how many she took out..." Jack murmured, mostly to himself.

"No clue," Sam said, taking a sip of coffee. "But I'll bet there were a lot."

"She is most assuredly the most powerful of all the system lords, now." Teal'c said, and Jack decided he looked rather smug about that.

"Yeah... well, the most powerful system lord or not, she still needs her rest," Janet said. "So you guys stay away from her room, and I mean it."

The men nodded. They'd do whatever it took to let her get her strength back, even if it meant staying away. For now.

.........

On Melonyville, a planet far from where Mitchell was now resting, the message that she sent was reaching a small device in a secret lab. The machine whirred to life, and a moment later the typed in message was being transformed into spoken word. Words in Goa'uld and spoken by Talon. Once the mesage was in voice form, the device clicked over to send, and a new message was sent out to another device, this one worn by a large Jaffa warrior, who wa at that moment standing on the bridge of a warship. He didn't know it at that moment, but he was the First Prime to the most powerful system lord that had ever existed.

Tao listened to the message as it came in, and there was a smile of satisfaction as he sent off messages of his own. The war was pretty much over, and his Goddess had won. He was glad, because he had a feeling she had different things in mind for him and his people, and change was definitely in the wind. In the case of the Goa'uld, as far as Tao was concerned, change could only be for the better.