Sorry about the delay! I promise the next few chapters will come out faster. Thanks to all those who have reviewed so far! (Sila the LOTR ref is for you J )

Releasing his friend's wrist, Daniel ignored the pain shooting through his wrenched and strained muscles. He watched with bated breath, and a sort of horrified fascination as his friend swung away from him.

In a fluid motion, Jack O'Neill grasped the wrist of his 2IC, and turned her round to face away from him, her loose arm dangling. Already he was beginning to slide off the beam.

God, Teal'c hurry!

Teal'c frantically sought to grip the arm of Major Carter. O'Neill was already losing his balance on their thin support, and if he fell, both he and Major Carter would be killed, dooming Daniel Jackson and himself in the process. And it would all be Teal'c's fault.

To his surprise, and considerable relief, a hand reached up to grip his, and squeezed tightly. It was nearly over.

Sam could do little else but hold on tight, as she was pulled up and back onto the beam. Once up, she swung a leg over, and grasped the girder tightly with both hands, trying to stop shaking. A hand on her shoulder steadied her, and through the blackness, a voice broke the silence,

"Way to go SG1."

Daniel gave a slight smile, relief spreading through him like some anti-adrenaline agent. Exhaustion flooded through him and he was keenly aware of the pain being emitted from both arms now. Sam was safe.

And now they had to finish this.

Looking back at Jack, who was checking on Sam, he received a nod, he should carry on. As he wearily began to pull himself forward, shuffling along the beam, he began to hum idly, "The road goes ever on and on…"

"Daniel?" Jack's disbelieving voice cut in. "You've seen Lord of the Rings?"

Uh oh. "Once"

"Just once?"

"Sam made me."

"Daniel!" Sam's voice rang out in indignation. Daniel chuckled. In actuality it had been Cassandra that had asked him to come. Sam had merely 'encouraged' him, with the bribe of first look at the new artifact SG7 had brought back. Samantha Carter, who'd chatted to more aliens than Captain Kirk, who'd blown up a sun, and helped save the world more time than he could remember, was scared of an afternoon at the movies with a bunch of teenagers.

Jack was looking between them. "Well just don't let it happen again. Last thing we need is Danny here learning elfish to confuse aliens with!"

A grin from Sam, Teal'c smiled, Daniel felt his lips twitch. Nearly over.

It was with a great feeling of relief Jack clambered off the narrow beam. The final few meters had stretched seemingly into miles, and they had moved at a snail's pace, desperate to avoid any further incidents. At least the darn thing hadn't started shaking again after Carter's little mishap. He turned, holding out a hand to help his 2IC off the beam, then remembered that she couldn't see and grabbed her arm anyway. After depositing Carter against the wall with Daniel, he turned to help Teal'c. The Jaffa was obviously hurting. He gripped Jack's arm tightly as he pulled himself off the beam; the fact he accepted help worried Jack more than anything. Still, there was nothing he could do now. They had to keep moving. With all his team safe across, he finally allowed himself to sit down, leaning heavily against the cool stone wall for a minute. Just a minute…

"O'Neill!" Teal'c called softly, his voice edged with anxiety. He could not hide his relief when his commanding officer raised his head, blinking slowly. "Geeze Teal'c I'm up already." Teal'c inclined his head, ignoring the throbbing reasserting itself as he did so. "Should we not continue O'Neill?" a groan, "Yes Teal'c I'm sure we should." Teal'c rose, as the rest of his team slowly got up, not without pain in their movements. Daniel Jackson winced as his injured arm grazed the wall, Major Carter seemed unsteady on her feet, unable to see where she should be walking. O'Neill took her arm, steering her forward down the passage, "Let's go kids, Daniel, Teal'c, you guys okay?" Teal'c nodded, watching Daniel Jackson do the same, "Great, let's follow the yellow brick road." Having long ago seen, and indeed, re-seen 'The Wizard of Oz', Teal'c no longer pondered the obscure comment, or the colouring of their path, and simply followed on. To see the wicked witch again.

Her humiliation increasing with each step, Sam stumbled on Only too aware that if her CO removed his hand from her arm, she'd probably walk straight into a wall. She'd endangered her team back there, she had heard Daniel gasping in pain, felt the Colonel slipping, almost seen the grimace of Teal'c as he strained to pull her to safety. No matter what the cost, she could not do that again.

"Stop it Carter." The voice pulled her out of her dismay.

"Sir?"

"Quit beating yourself up already, what happened back there, not your fault. We got through it, that's all that matters."

Uncomforted, but grateful, Sam mumbled a "Yes Sir" and concentrated on walking. One step, two step, three…

Ignoring the grinding pain in his shoulder, Daniel forced reluctant feet to keep up pace. When did walking get so hard? If he had to go much further his legs would give out. He was woken from his inner grumbling as he walked into the back of one Jack O'Neill.

"Well give me a cherry and call me bakewell." Came the awed if rather dismayed voice of his friend.

Daniel looked up ahead and inwardly echoed the sentiment. About ten meters ahead the corridor opened up into a huge hall. Another large gap bisected the hall, and from below, the glow of flames could be seen. No beam this time, just oddly floating tiles forming a complex path across the gap. Across it, about fifty meters away, Daniel could see two poles, one red, one blue. The blue one had a red flag in it, and voce versa.

Almost done then.

"Well then…" Jack's voice echoed, as they walked into the hall and stood about a meter from the gap. "I suppose we're meant to cross this…pit thing?"

"No Colonel O'Neill. Major Carter is to cross. You shall direct her from here." The cool tones, they were rapidly becoming accustomed to spoke. They all turned as one, even Sam who obviously could not see the alien. Jack looked furious; "did you EVER hear of the word 'hello'?" He demanded of their impassive captor belligerently. Daniel clenched his fists, hypocritically wishing that he could just hit, rather than attempt to talk to this alien. She stared back at them indifferently. "I am completely familiar with your primitive attempt at language. As I said, only Major Carter is to cross to the other side. If you attempt to follow her, your death shall be assured."

"And if she falls into that oven you've got going down there?"

"Then your deaths are also assured. She must cross the expanse and complete her task. Only in that way, will any of you have a chance to survive."

Daniel opened his mouth to speak, remembering the 'freeze' that had occurred out on the beam, when there was a flash, and she had gone.

"Yup, you really handled her that time Jack." Daniel quipped, finding his voice. He earned a glare from his friend, and with a sigh, set about explaining the situation to Sam.

Jack watched his 2IC step onto the first tile unhappily; he did NOT like this situation. But after ten minutes of collaboration by the 'brains' of SG1 they could think of no alternative. Carter would try to negotiate the path of tiles over the canyon, and they would yell directions to her from their end.

The problem, Jack considered, is it was bound to be more complicated than that. The task would be difficult as it was; the tiles did not go straight across the gap, but turned and zigzagged at random intervals. To make it worse, they were all different sizes, so they'd have to advise her how far to step or she could go right over the edge. And with it being forty different kinds of hot down there, not a good idea.

"Are you ready Sam?" Daniel asked; looking about as nervous as Jack felt. Never a good sign.

"Sure Daniel, can we get on with it?" Carter didn't sound too confident either. Jack didn't blame her.

"Okay Sam, take three normal steps forward." Jack watched her limp forward, the sprained ankle obviously beginning to bother her again. Couldn't any of his team stay in good shape? Was one healthy teammate too much to ask? Obviously so.

"Good Sam, now a tiny bit more forward, and a large step to your right, that's it."

Jack groaned inwardly, it was going to be a long wait.