Well here's another one up for your perusal.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your warm reviews big smiley face
Not got long to go now......
Disclaimer: Nope still don't own, just the story below is mine, mine, all mine manic laughter
============== =
Daniel felt the daylight burn his vision as he exited his tent. He'd had a rough night, connecting with Jonas, with the past, had left his mind feeling totally drained and his body, shaken. He rubbed his face, ironing out the creases of a fretful sleep that had brought no rest.
He put on his sunglasses, to block out the sharp, citrus glare of the sun and surveyed the confusion of the camp; everyone was packing, ready to leave.
He refilled his canteen and took a greedy sip trying to loosen his tongue that was 'Velcroed' to the roof of his mouth. He poured a small amount over his head and pushed back his hair before resealing the cap. A shadow joined his own, he glanced over his shoulder, "hey Jack," he said, attempting not to sound too fragile as he put his hat firmly on his head.
"Daniel," O'Neill replied in greeting, "how ya feeling?"
The Egyptologist squinted at him through his dark glasses, "a little rough," he revealed, noticing how Jack chewed the inside of his jaw and how he avoided eye contact.
"I bet," he responded, taking a sip from his own canteen, "we should be ready to leave in about a hour's time, if that fits in with your schedule?"
His voice sounded annoyed, the words spoken almost methodically, "Jack," Daniel stressed, "what happen yesterday couldn't have been avoided..."
"Save it Danny, it took you almost an hour to come round after you two 'blew' apart in that chamber down there and Jonas stopped breathing for a time. Hell, Teal'c and I had to take it in turns watching him throughout the night, God knows what nightmares he battled." He shook his head and sighed, looking at the other man, "we should have waited."
"For what, Jack? We're hardly in control of any of this."
"I don't know, a medical team, maybe, to monitor you both, for Jonas to get a good nights rest? I just don't think it was worth it, okay, putting both your lives at risk."
Daniel smiled slightly, "it's nice to know you care, Jack."
"Yeah, well, let's just say I want SG1 to be a Russian free zone," he took another sip of water and gave Daniel a ghost of a smile.
The Egyptologist scratched his head, "how's Jonas?" He asked.
Jack nodded over to a lone figure sat upon a sand dune, looking aimlessly at the dig site, "a little better than you, on the outside, by the looks."
"Has he said anything?"
"Nope, not a word. I think he's avoiding me."
"I'll go and take him a drink," Daniel replied, replenishing the water in the canteen.
"And tell him we're gone in an hour," Jack called after him.
Daniel walked to where the Kelownan was perched, the desert breeze chasing his footsteps in the loose sand. He stretched out his aching leg muscles and looked down at Jonas, who was drawing non-descript hieroglyphs with a stick. The alien looked up, under the subtle shade of a baseball cap, and Daniel offered him the canteen.
"Thanks," he whispered, his voice horse.
Daniel rested a hand on his hip and looked out over the desert, "how you feeling?"
Jonas shrugged and took a drink, "okay, I guess," he moved the stick over the ground, again, without really focusing on what he was doing.
Daniel sat down next to him and the Kelownan handed him back the canteen and dropped the stick, relaxing back on his hands. "Sorry," he said softly.
"For what?" The Egyptologist asked, a frown settling on his brow, while he placed the water between them.
"For putting you through all that 'after vision' stuff," Jonas narrowed his eyes against the sun to look at Daniel, "I didn't think about all the harm it could do, I guess I'm kinda use to it."
He sat forward nervously wiping his hands together to scatter the grains sand, "Jonas," Daniel emphasised, "I'm fine, apart for the headache and the nausea of course," he smiled, "I wouldn't have missed what you showed me for the world, it was truly amazing."
"Wanna swap?" The alien said lightly taking another swig of water.
"Hey, I got thrown out of the ascendancy club because I couldn't handle it, remember? That would hardly make me a good candidate for 'vision boy'."
Jonas arched his eyebrows, "vision boy? Cute." He murmured, shaking his head with a smirk on his lips.
Daniel smiled, burying the tip of his boot in the sand, Jonas looked over his shoulder back to the camp, "is, is the Colonel still mad?" His voice sounded anxious.
"Mad?" Daniel turned away, another willowy smile curving at his lips.
"Yeah, you know, he gives off these intense, sort of, grey, red vibes, when he's," Jonas searched for the word, "um, pissed?"
Jackson kicked his foot out in a fountain of sand, "I'd say prickly, more than mad," he informed the younger man.
"Prickly," Jonas took a mental note, filing the word away, "is, is that 'good'?"
"It's better than mad."
The Kelownan nodded, Daniel felt him relax.
They both sat there, staring into the distance, passing the canteen between them. "It looks so peaceful," Daniel reflected turning to Jonas.
The Kelownan looked down at his hands and sighed, "Daniel," he began, struggling, "when we get back to the base," Jonas stopped and surveyed to landscape again, eyes narrowed against the light; Jackson waited.
"Um, Dreylock, she gave me the, um, the report," Jonas rubbed his eyebrow with his index finger and turned to Daniel "on, on the investigation into my sister's, um, death." He swallowed, "I was wondering if, if when we get back to the base, you could...?"
He looked away, Daniel touched his shoulder, "yeah sure, you've not looked at it yourself?"
He shook his head, "no, there never seemed to be a right time."
"Sure."
They sat in silence again letting the breeze caress them with sand. Daniel took off his hat and wiped his brow looking at the expanding sun above and then turned his gaze to the Kelownan once more. "Jonas when we were in the chamber you said that the images we, we experienced were of what had gone before but the Goa'uld, Huitzilopochtli, he, he saw us, he knew we were there?"
He alien frowned, "he sensed our presence but he didn't see us."
"How is that possible?"
Jonas picked up the stick and began to draw again in thought, "usually the visions are just flashes and feelings, you never get the whole story just pieces that have been left behind," he explained. "Here the link with the past is much stronger."
"Because of Mia?"
"I'm not sure," he massaged his temples. "On Kelowna, when I was in the catacombs, the visions I, I 'received' were much the same as here, extreme, passionate, sharp. The collective group of, of, 'beings', that were emitting these intense feelings, were caught up in the tunnels, down there, and didn't want to move on. They were happy to feed on the terror, the misery, the, the darkness that seemed to bleed from the streets above.
"I feel, the same thing here, only," he hesitated, "only that the entities here are trapped and can't progress to a next level, like there is something blocking them. They're frustrated, restless, unable to communicate what they need because their anger runs too deep in their 'ka'."
Jonas sighed, "I think that's what Huitzilopochtli sensed, tapped into, the portal, the link, that these lost 'souls' manifested for us to see into their past."
"And he heard me speak your name," Daniel surmised.
"Yeah," he said with a regretful laugh, "maybe that was just the fates entwining our destiny's."
Jonas twisted the stick into the ground and wiped his hands together, "did they ever build it?"
Daniel turned to the younger man, "huh?"
"Sorry, the city, on Earth, the Aztecs?"
"Yes in the Valley of Mexico. According to legend the city of Tenochtitlan, or "place of the Tenochcas" was built where the Aztec priests found an eagle poised on a cactus devouring a snake."
Jonas smiled, "and was it the beginning of a great empire?"
Daniel shook his head, "It might have been but then it was conquered by greed, religion and smallpox."
"So Huitzilopochtli was left to wander the universe, in, in search of tonalli."
"Yeah, it would seem so," the Egyptologist answered, regretfully.
He stood up, even though his body protested, and dusted himself down, smiling at the Kelownan, "I've a few bits to gather together before we leave."
"Do you need any help?" Jonas asked.
"No, thanks," Jackson held up a hand, "you rest a little longer, it's a bit of a hike back to the gate."
Jonas looked at him, "I'm okay, you know?"
Daniel smiled, "yeah, I know but don't knock it, Jack will probably have us march double time back to the gate."
The alien raised an eyebrow and smiled, shaking his head.
==========
"O'Neill, I have accompanied the cadets and archaeologists back through the gate," the Jaffa rested against his staff weapon, "the SGC are standing by for us to return."
"Good, T, good," Jack responded, picking fluff from his own jacket, "didn't loose any on your way back?"
"No, they went through relatively unharmed."
"Relatively?"
A small smile played on the Jaffa's lips, "yes, the alcohol they consumed last night did not aid them on their walk to the Stargate."
The Colonel smiled slightly and looked at his watch, "well, that's the babysitting over with, let's gather up the rest of our team."
He looked around, "have you seen Daniel?"
"I believe he is getting some equipment from the site."
"Right," O'Neill shielded his eyes with his hand and frowned; "now where do you think Junior's going?"
Teal'c followed the Colonel's line of vision, a disquiet twitching on his intuition.
Jonas had seen the young man out of the corner of his eye. His shadow had eclipsed him with its indifferent form, making him turn his attention to the youth's path. It was the boy; only time had stretched his body into early manhood with graceful manipulation.
Curious, Jonas followed this apparition on its solemn journey, through the sand, feeling the mix of emotions that was emanating from this, now, self- assured being.
The boy stopped at a shallow pit that had been dug in the supple ground and bowed his head over the fragile form that had been placed within the hollow. He looked around, to see if he was being observed, and then began to whisper soft words that stumbled, long forgotten, in his once native tongue. His voice held a melancholy in its tone and yet around the edges there was scorn buried in the melody of his veneration.
Jonas moved closer to examine the scene. The dead body of the potter rested in the pit, eyes closed for eternity, a withered and matted hole cleaved with malice into his chest.
The boy opened his hand and several small figurines fell into the grave, he looked at them scatter with contempt and then turned and walked back into the forgotten mists of time.
Jonas watched the image pitch and swirl as the present's indentation became apparent, swathing him with an icy kiss. He screwed his eyes up and touched his forehead, feeling the symbol on his hand begin to tingle in apprehension. He massaged his palm, through the glove, his eyes suddenly drawn to the sand shifting and crumbling beneath his feet.
"Oh crap," he cried as something grabbed his ankle and pulled him under the spongy surface.
"What the..." O'Neill yelled as he saw Jonas abruptly disappear, "T!"
Both he a Teal'c dashed across to the spot where the Kelownan had been standing and started to dig fervently with their hands.
Jonas felt his heart race against this chest but he wasn't breathing, he could tell, he was somewhere in-between the realms of life and death. There were many down here, old dry bones, reaching with dusty fingers to touch him, to caress him with their misery, angst and suffering. Death had forgotten them; they were lost in an eternal vacuum unable to break free.
They tried to speak, vexed murmurs echoed around his head but it was as if their lips were sewn together; they made no sense. He tried to reach out, to comprehend, but the sentiment was as meaningless as the sunken cavities that once contained eyes; they could not convey what he needed to know. Frustration turned to rage and Jonas found he was choking.
Teal'c's hand brushed against something smooth and warm. He grabbed it and pulled, "O'Neill, here," he yelled.
Jack seized what looked like Jonas' jacket and yanked it hard, pulling the struggling Kelownan between them as they fell back onto the ground.
Jonas' gasped for air, fighting for each breath, his hands drawn to his throat trying to dislodge a skeletal hand that was clutching his windpipe. Teal'c reacted first, quickly releasing the ivory fingers that were obstructing the young man's airway and throwing the lifeless bones across the ground in revulsion.
He looked to O'Neill who was clearing the suffocating sand from the Kelownan's face in a bid to help him breath regularly.
Jonas coughed and then seized his chest, as he felt the familiar seep of blood soak through his fingers, "no, please," he cried in alarm, "I don't understand."
He looked up at the Jaffa, who had placed his own hand over the wound that had appeared, "I don't understand," he whispered, before the voices, in his head, drowned out all reason.
He fell back against the soft sand, his bloodied hand holding onto Teal'c's arm and began to recite, fiercely, in a voice not of his own. "Pay good heed, O righteous Judge, to the weighing in the Balance of the heart, whose word is truth, and place the heart in the seat of truth in the presence of the Great God."
He seized Tealc's arm tighter as his body shook and then slipped into unconsciousness.
============
:o]
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your warm reviews big smiley face
Not got long to go now......
Disclaimer: Nope still don't own, just the story below is mine, mine, all mine manic laughter
============== =
Daniel felt the daylight burn his vision as he exited his tent. He'd had a rough night, connecting with Jonas, with the past, had left his mind feeling totally drained and his body, shaken. He rubbed his face, ironing out the creases of a fretful sleep that had brought no rest.
He put on his sunglasses, to block out the sharp, citrus glare of the sun and surveyed the confusion of the camp; everyone was packing, ready to leave.
He refilled his canteen and took a greedy sip trying to loosen his tongue that was 'Velcroed' to the roof of his mouth. He poured a small amount over his head and pushed back his hair before resealing the cap. A shadow joined his own, he glanced over his shoulder, "hey Jack," he said, attempting not to sound too fragile as he put his hat firmly on his head.
"Daniel," O'Neill replied in greeting, "how ya feeling?"
The Egyptologist squinted at him through his dark glasses, "a little rough," he revealed, noticing how Jack chewed the inside of his jaw and how he avoided eye contact.
"I bet," he responded, taking a sip from his own canteen, "we should be ready to leave in about a hour's time, if that fits in with your schedule?"
His voice sounded annoyed, the words spoken almost methodically, "Jack," Daniel stressed, "what happen yesterday couldn't have been avoided..."
"Save it Danny, it took you almost an hour to come round after you two 'blew' apart in that chamber down there and Jonas stopped breathing for a time. Hell, Teal'c and I had to take it in turns watching him throughout the night, God knows what nightmares he battled." He shook his head and sighed, looking at the other man, "we should have waited."
"For what, Jack? We're hardly in control of any of this."
"I don't know, a medical team, maybe, to monitor you both, for Jonas to get a good nights rest? I just don't think it was worth it, okay, putting both your lives at risk."
Daniel smiled slightly, "it's nice to know you care, Jack."
"Yeah, well, let's just say I want SG1 to be a Russian free zone," he took another sip of water and gave Daniel a ghost of a smile.
The Egyptologist scratched his head, "how's Jonas?" He asked.
Jack nodded over to a lone figure sat upon a sand dune, looking aimlessly at the dig site, "a little better than you, on the outside, by the looks."
"Has he said anything?"
"Nope, not a word. I think he's avoiding me."
"I'll go and take him a drink," Daniel replied, replenishing the water in the canteen.
"And tell him we're gone in an hour," Jack called after him.
Daniel walked to where the Kelownan was perched, the desert breeze chasing his footsteps in the loose sand. He stretched out his aching leg muscles and looked down at Jonas, who was drawing non-descript hieroglyphs with a stick. The alien looked up, under the subtle shade of a baseball cap, and Daniel offered him the canteen.
"Thanks," he whispered, his voice horse.
Daniel rested a hand on his hip and looked out over the desert, "how you feeling?"
Jonas shrugged and took a drink, "okay, I guess," he moved the stick over the ground, again, without really focusing on what he was doing.
Daniel sat down next to him and the Kelownan handed him back the canteen and dropped the stick, relaxing back on his hands. "Sorry," he said softly.
"For what?" The Egyptologist asked, a frown settling on his brow, while he placed the water between them.
"For putting you through all that 'after vision' stuff," Jonas narrowed his eyes against the sun to look at Daniel, "I didn't think about all the harm it could do, I guess I'm kinda use to it."
He sat forward nervously wiping his hands together to scatter the grains sand, "Jonas," Daniel emphasised, "I'm fine, apart for the headache and the nausea of course," he smiled, "I wouldn't have missed what you showed me for the world, it was truly amazing."
"Wanna swap?" The alien said lightly taking another swig of water.
"Hey, I got thrown out of the ascendancy club because I couldn't handle it, remember? That would hardly make me a good candidate for 'vision boy'."
Jonas arched his eyebrows, "vision boy? Cute." He murmured, shaking his head with a smirk on his lips.
Daniel smiled, burying the tip of his boot in the sand, Jonas looked over his shoulder back to the camp, "is, is the Colonel still mad?" His voice sounded anxious.
"Mad?" Daniel turned away, another willowy smile curving at his lips.
"Yeah, you know, he gives off these intense, sort of, grey, red vibes, when he's," Jonas searched for the word, "um, pissed?"
Jackson kicked his foot out in a fountain of sand, "I'd say prickly, more than mad," he informed the younger man.
"Prickly," Jonas took a mental note, filing the word away, "is, is that 'good'?"
"It's better than mad."
The Kelownan nodded, Daniel felt him relax.
They both sat there, staring into the distance, passing the canteen between them. "It looks so peaceful," Daniel reflected turning to Jonas.
The Kelownan looked down at his hands and sighed, "Daniel," he began, struggling, "when we get back to the base," Jonas stopped and surveyed to landscape again, eyes narrowed against the light; Jackson waited.
"Um, Dreylock, she gave me the, um, the report," Jonas rubbed his eyebrow with his index finger and turned to Daniel "on, on the investigation into my sister's, um, death." He swallowed, "I was wondering if, if when we get back to the base, you could...?"
He looked away, Daniel touched his shoulder, "yeah sure, you've not looked at it yourself?"
He shook his head, "no, there never seemed to be a right time."
"Sure."
They sat in silence again letting the breeze caress them with sand. Daniel took off his hat and wiped his brow looking at the expanding sun above and then turned his gaze to the Kelownan once more. "Jonas when we were in the chamber you said that the images we, we experienced were of what had gone before but the Goa'uld, Huitzilopochtli, he, he saw us, he knew we were there?"
He alien frowned, "he sensed our presence but he didn't see us."
"How is that possible?"
Jonas picked up the stick and began to draw again in thought, "usually the visions are just flashes and feelings, you never get the whole story just pieces that have been left behind," he explained. "Here the link with the past is much stronger."
"Because of Mia?"
"I'm not sure," he massaged his temples. "On Kelowna, when I was in the catacombs, the visions I, I 'received' were much the same as here, extreme, passionate, sharp. The collective group of, of, 'beings', that were emitting these intense feelings, were caught up in the tunnels, down there, and didn't want to move on. They were happy to feed on the terror, the misery, the, the darkness that seemed to bleed from the streets above.
"I feel, the same thing here, only," he hesitated, "only that the entities here are trapped and can't progress to a next level, like there is something blocking them. They're frustrated, restless, unable to communicate what they need because their anger runs too deep in their 'ka'."
Jonas sighed, "I think that's what Huitzilopochtli sensed, tapped into, the portal, the link, that these lost 'souls' manifested for us to see into their past."
"And he heard me speak your name," Daniel surmised.
"Yeah," he said with a regretful laugh, "maybe that was just the fates entwining our destiny's."
Jonas twisted the stick into the ground and wiped his hands together, "did they ever build it?"
Daniel turned to the younger man, "huh?"
"Sorry, the city, on Earth, the Aztecs?"
"Yes in the Valley of Mexico. According to legend the city of Tenochtitlan, or "place of the Tenochcas" was built where the Aztec priests found an eagle poised on a cactus devouring a snake."
Jonas smiled, "and was it the beginning of a great empire?"
Daniel shook his head, "It might have been but then it was conquered by greed, religion and smallpox."
"So Huitzilopochtli was left to wander the universe, in, in search of tonalli."
"Yeah, it would seem so," the Egyptologist answered, regretfully.
He stood up, even though his body protested, and dusted himself down, smiling at the Kelownan, "I've a few bits to gather together before we leave."
"Do you need any help?" Jonas asked.
"No, thanks," Jackson held up a hand, "you rest a little longer, it's a bit of a hike back to the gate."
Jonas looked at him, "I'm okay, you know?"
Daniel smiled, "yeah, I know but don't knock it, Jack will probably have us march double time back to the gate."
The alien raised an eyebrow and smiled, shaking his head.
==========
"O'Neill, I have accompanied the cadets and archaeologists back through the gate," the Jaffa rested against his staff weapon, "the SGC are standing by for us to return."
"Good, T, good," Jack responded, picking fluff from his own jacket, "didn't loose any on your way back?"
"No, they went through relatively unharmed."
"Relatively?"
A small smile played on the Jaffa's lips, "yes, the alcohol they consumed last night did not aid them on their walk to the Stargate."
The Colonel smiled slightly and looked at his watch, "well, that's the babysitting over with, let's gather up the rest of our team."
He looked around, "have you seen Daniel?"
"I believe he is getting some equipment from the site."
"Right," O'Neill shielded his eyes with his hand and frowned; "now where do you think Junior's going?"
Teal'c followed the Colonel's line of vision, a disquiet twitching on his intuition.
Jonas had seen the young man out of the corner of his eye. His shadow had eclipsed him with its indifferent form, making him turn his attention to the youth's path. It was the boy; only time had stretched his body into early manhood with graceful manipulation.
Curious, Jonas followed this apparition on its solemn journey, through the sand, feeling the mix of emotions that was emanating from this, now, self- assured being.
The boy stopped at a shallow pit that had been dug in the supple ground and bowed his head over the fragile form that had been placed within the hollow. He looked around, to see if he was being observed, and then began to whisper soft words that stumbled, long forgotten, in his once native tongue. His voice held a melancholy in its tone and yet around the edges there was scorn buried in the melody of his veneration.
Jonas moved closer to examine the scene. The dead body of the potter rested in the pit, eyes closed for eternity, a withered and matted hole cleaved with malice into his chest.
The boy opened his hand and several small figurines fell into the grave, he looked at them scatter with contempt and then turned and walked back into the forgotten mists of time.
Jonas watched the image pitch and swirl as the present's indentation became apparent, swathing him with an icy kiss. He screwed his eyes up and touched his forehead, feeling the symbol on his hand begin to tingle in apprehension. He massaged his palm, through the glove, his eyes suddenly drawn to the sand shifting and crumbling beneath his feet.
"Oh crap," he cried as something grabbed his ankle and pulled him under the spongy surface.
"What the..." O'Neill yelled as he saw Jonas abruptly disappear, "T!"
Both he a Teal'c dashed across to the spot where the Kelownan had been standing and started to dig fervently with their hands.
Jonas felt his heart race against this chest but he wasn't breathing, he could tell, he was somewhere in-between the realms of life and death. There were many down here, old dry bones, reaching with dusty fingers to touch him, to caress him with their misery, angst and suffering. Death had forgotten them; they were lost in an eternal vacuum unable to break free.
They tried to speak, vexed murmurs echoed around his head but it was as if their lips were sewn together; they made no sense. He tried to reach out, to comprehend, but the sentiment was as meaningless as the sunken cavities that once contained eyes; they could not convey what he needed to know. Frustration turned to rage and Jonas found he was choking.
Teal'c's hand brushed against something smooth and warm. He grabbed it and pulled, "O'Neill, here," he yelled.
Jack seized what looked like Jonas' jacket and yanked it hard, pulling the struggling Kelownan between them as they fell back onto the ground.
Jonas' gasped for air, fighting for each breath, his hands drawn to his throat trying to dislodge a skeletal hand that was clutching his windpipe. Teal'c reacted first, quickly releasing the ivory fingers that were obstructing the young man's airway and throwing the lifeless bones across the ground in revulsion.
He looked to O'Neill who was clearing the suffocating sand from the Kelownan's face in a bid to help him breath regularly.
Jonas coughed and then seized his chest, as he felt the familiar seep of blood soak through his fingers, "no, please," he cried in alarm, "I don't understand."
He looked up at the Jaffa, who had placed his own hand over the wound that had appeared, "I don't understand," he whispered, before the voices, in his head, drowned out all reason.
He fell back against the soft sand, his bloodied hand holding onto Teal'c's arm and began to recite, fiercely, in a voice not of his own. "Pay good heed, O righteous Judge, to the weighing in the Balance of the heart, whose word is truth, and place the heart in the seat of truth in the presence of the Great God."
He seized Tealc's arm tighter as his body shook and then slipped into unconsciousness.
============
:o]