"Hang on... don't leave me alone..." the pleading call reached Sam even in the deep ocean of trance she was trapped in. She could hear it but was much too far away to respond to it, her mind was still out of control not responding to her tries to regain it. Suddenly Sam was pulled vigorously into another dream...
"Sirs?" Dr. Fraiser appeared on the doorstep of General Hammond's office as he was just going through the rescue mission's report with Colonel O'Neill. The two of them looked up at her.
"Any news, doctor?" Hammond inquired.
Janet nodded closing the door behind her. She walked over to the desk putting the folder down she had brought with her.
"What have you found out?" Jack asked her nervously.
"Well, if you please look at that", Fraiser took an MRT image out of the folder turning it around so that O'Neill and Hammond could look at it.
"What is that?" Jack questioned pointing at a small spot on the picture.
"This appears to be a device Baal has implanted to Major Carter's cortex", Janet told him.
"You say he has...?" Jack's mouth fell open with shock.
She nodded sadly. "I can't figure out if it's activated or inactive, yet."
"Can you remove it?" Hammond exquired.
"Not easily. It's position is very difficult to reach, a removal would likely cause irreversible damage."
Janet put the image back into the folder.
"How is Sam, generally?" Jack wanted to know.
"Not much has changed, but perhaps she'll wake up in some hours, her reaction slowly starts to get better."
"Can I come see her?"
"Sure. She could use some company."
Jack turned to look at the general: "If you don't need me any more, sir, I'd..."
Hammond nodded showing him to go.
Sam looked around, she was surrounded by a dark, empty hall with dull blue light shining down from the ceiling.
"Hello?" Her voice was echoing all around her ricocheting from the walls of the large room.
Sam heard footsteps, she turned her head to look in all directions. To her left somebody appeared walking out of the shadows. She turned toward the person to see a tall woman with short, blonde hair with dark strands dyed into it. She was wearing a wide, black dress and her grayish eyes seemed to have lost their sparkle long ago... Sam looked at her a bit closer, the woman reminded her of herself, she was herself.
"Who are you?" Sam asked.
"I am you ... if your friends hadn't been able to save you and you had chosen to serve Baal."
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to tell you not to be foolish now. It depends on you what happens next..."
"What do you mean?"
"You have to fight to return to the surface of your mind. But as it seems you've chosen to run away. This is not the Samantha I once used to be. You must not believe a single thing of what Baal told you as I did."
"You mean no one has averted from me? No one has turned to hate me?"
"No. They are all hoping for you to return to them, you're having a chance I've never had. Return before it is too late. Fight."
The vision faded away into nothingness. Sam did not ponder about her parallel ego's words for long. She gathered all of her remaining physical and psychical strength pushing her way up to the surface. Every second of the way hurt her, but she kept on thinking of home or what she remembered of it. She finally reached the border that was hard to cross...
"Jack", Sam opened her eyes gasping for air. She shot up from the bed cramping together with pain.
"Hey hey, easy, Sam" , Jack shoved her back gently.
Sam reached out a hand, he took it between his caressing it with his thumb.
"I'm sorry", she brought out before she broke out into tears.
"For what? Everything's okay", Jack comforted her wrapping an arm around her. Sam rose a little, burying her face into his shoulder continuing to sob quietly.
Sam was at the end of her strength but she eased as she realized that no one was blaming her for anything. Albeit though she could not stop crying, she did not even know why...
Jack held Sam in his arms tightly. He did not want to let her go again. Even though she was awake now, he was highly worried about her and what Baal had done to her. One day he would pay for it, Jack swore it.
To be continued... Prepare for some surprises...