Mirror Mirror
Part Three
The room they hid in possessed an unexpected find: a sarcophagus.
"This brings back old memories," observed Jack dryly. "Anyone home?"
He and Teal'c aimed their staff-weapons at the entrance as Daniel flipped the opening mechanism and Sam covered the two prisoners.
It was empty.
Jack put his staff-weapon down, "Right. Ska'ara, get in."
Daniel didn't properly hear what his friend had said until a few seconds later. "Now wait a moment, Jack..."
"They're only dangerous when the person's healthy, Daniel," Jack pointed out in the voice Daniel had privately nicknamed 'commanding officer'. "We need everyone around here in top working condition. Ska'ara, get in. A few minutes in there should fix that right up."
The young man looked doubtfully at Jack, who asked, more gently: "Look, Ska'ara, do you trust me?"
"Of course, O'Neill."
Daniel wondered if the prompt response was to the Jack O'Neill Ska'ara remembered from five years ago – the friend who had come after Ska'ara on Chulak only to be duped into believing himself faithful to Apophis – or the Colonel Daniel knew. Probably a mix of both. Certainly during the year on Abydos, Ska'ara had wanted to know everything about Jack O'Neill that Daniel could tell him – which was, unfortunately, not much at all.
"Then get in."
Daniel felt like protesting, but caught Sam's glance and shut up. He'd protested Jack's command decisions before – but those other times they'd been in situations where Daniel could object vocally without too much danger to the rest of his team. Jack certainly didn't know best all the time, but there were points at which Daniel had learned it was wiser – for the sake of his team – to keep quiet.
Ska'ara climbed in and the gold panels slid slowly over him.
Sha're made a sharp sound of distress and instinctively, Daniel took a step towards her.
He intended nothing more than comfort. She was his wife – had been his wife in another world – but at that moment, Sam chose to interrupt: "Sha're, do you know how to use one of these?" She indicated the zat'nik'atel Ska'ara had handed his sister before he climbed into the sarcophagus.
"No, mistress."
Sam grimaced as she pulled the headdress off, the gold ornaments on it jingling faintly. "I'm not your mistress, Sha're. My name is Sam."
Bitter disappointment filled Daniel as Sha're turned to Sam with an immediacy that made plain her discomfort with him. She'd said very little to him, hardly met his gaze at all. But then, he reminded himself, he wasn't the Daniel Jackson she knew.
He glanced at his counterpart, the Goa'uld glaring at him with open hatred in his eyes.
Daniel regarded him back, openly curious. He'd never met himself in either previous reality – in both previous encounters with an alternate reality, he'd probably been dead. He'd met one Jack, two Sams and two Teal'c's in those 'otherworlds' – but he'd never come face-to-face with an alternate version of himself.
He tried to think of himself without the five years of experience travelling through the Stargate. Without the people he'd met, the places he'd seen, the things he'd learned. With a snake in his head, controlling his thoughts, raping his mind... His breath sucked out of him at the thought, leaving him reeling.
"Daniel?" Jack came alongside him, one hand gripping Daniel's shoulder in hard reassurance. "You okay?"
Dragging himself from his stupor, Daniel smiled grimly at his friend. There were things he had nightmares about in the quiet of his nights. One was Sha're crying inside her mind as Ammonet used her body. Another was being deserted by these people who began as strangers, became his friends and were now his family. The third was to be possessed by a Goa'uld.
He'd been lucky so far. Sam had endured Jolinar's ungentle touch and Jack had come so close to being possessed by Hathor's little friend, but Daniel had never yet been implanted with a Goa'uld. Intimate, yes – and that memory still had the power to arouse and revolt him; implanted, no.
It was still one of his worse nightmares.
In this place, one of his worse realities.
"I'm okay, Jack," he lied and knew that the older man didn't believe a word of it and he'd be facing a concerned Jack later on when they got back home. "Just trying to come to terms with..." He paused, searching for the best way to put it.
"...having a snake in the head?" Jack supplied with his customary directness. "Been there, done that, don't recommend it." With the latitude of three years the military man could joke about it, but it had been no joking matter after the return from Hathor's planet. Daniel still remembered Jack's nightmares and the infirmary and house camp-outs that SG-1 had undergone to help him deal with his near-possession.
He glanced over at Teal'c, standing with his weapon trained on the two prisoners. Jack followed his gaze. "Although I personally think being a Jaffa's only marginally better. At least nobody else gets a say in your brain."
"Do we have a decision on what to do with Jaffa-Jack?"
"We put him in the sarcophagus," Sam stated, joining the conversation. Daniel glanced over at Sha're who was holding the zat gun steady on Jack's still-unconscious counterpart. He ached at the ruthlessness in her eyes - the kind of life Sha're lived in slavery to these Goa'uld had given her a toughness which Daniel's wife had never possessed. Not around Daniel at any rate.
"Explain, Carter!"
Instead of answering him directly, Sam turned to their team-mate. "Teal'c, are Jaffa usually put inside the sarcophagus?"
Teal'c's eyes didn't stray from the prone form of Klor'el. "They are not, Major Carter."
"It's usually just the Goa'uld, right?"
"That is correct."
"Sir, I think the combination of a Jaffa body chemistry in the sarcophagus produces some kind of reaction in the brain which removes the Jaffa's attachment to memory. The restored Jaffa becomes susceptible to implanted suggestions at this point – like Teal'c did on Apophis' ship. All memories are then filtered through the implanted suggestion and the reasoning behind them changes accordingly."
"And you have proof of this?"
She held Jack's gaze steadily. "No, sir. But Janet and I did some talking with Teal'c after the Rite of Mal Sharim and we think it's to do with the effect of the sarcophagus on a Jaffa physiology."
"You think?" Jack was unimpressed and Daniel had to admit it was a thin connection between the theory and reality.
"Sir, it's try it or kill him. Trying it give him a chance at least."
"Oh."
"So we put Jack... Jack-the-Jaffa," Daniel amended hastily when he caught Jack's glare, "into the sarcophagus to heal, bring him out and remind him that he's not a loyal servant of Apophis? What then?"
"Yeah, Carter, what then? He might no longer be loyal to Apophis, but he'll still have a snake in his belly! No offence, Teal'c."
"None taken, O'Neill."
Sam blinked and gave her next answer. "Then, instead, we remove the symbiote and put him in. The sarcophagus also heals a Jaffa's immune system – it worked with you when you were turned into a Jaffa by Hathor..."
Jack looked sour. Daniel snickered, amused by Jack's expression, "System Lords seem to have this fixation on you as their loyal Jaffa, Jack. Any idea why that would be?"
"Shut up, Daniel."
"Sir, a Jaffa intent on bringing down Apophis would be a valuable ally. Especially one with your kind of knowledge – both Jaffa and human and your military skill."
"And who would he be allied to? There's nobody to ally with in this place."
"Well, it's either turn him to our side, de-Jaffa him, or kill him," Daniel observed, more serious now. The third option was not a pleasant one, but it had to be said and faced. The grinding noise of the sarcophagus opening made them turn. "I guess Ska'ara's finished." He looked back at Jack questioningly, "So what do you want, Jack? Subverted operative or human?"
"Personally, I prefer human," grumbled the older man. "All right. Leave him as a Jaffa – he has more options that way. We'll try to convert him – but we don't have the time to stick around here and wait for him to sort out his allegiances. Daniel and I will take Ska'ara, Sha're and Daniel-snake to the gate, then head back here. Carter, Teal'c, you guys keep an eye on Jaffa-me and see if you can convince him to switch sides. If he won't, disable him by any means necessary." The tone of his voice made it clear that if 'disabling' meant 'killing', he expected his 2IC to do it.
"Uh...Sam, are you sure you'd want to..." Daniel tried to think of tactful way to ask her if she was okay with shooting a man who was, in another world, her commanding officer – and in yet other worlds, had been fiancé and husband.
"No, Daniel," she said, grimly, "I'm sure I won't."
"She'll do what she has to, Daniel," Jack interrupted Daniel's concern, gesturing at Daniel's counterpart. "All right, keep an eye on Klor'el, Carter. Teal'c, gimme a hand with the First Prime."
Daniel quietly fumed over the blatant disregard for Sam's state of mind as the First Prime was hauled into the sarcophagus. He'd never fully understood the military mindset and he doubted he ever would: 'Do what you have to do to get the job done.' Such a mindset had prompted Jack to kill a young woman – whatever her origins, Reece had been a real person, not just an android or a robot – with no recourse to other solutions.
It had been a long, hard road back to friendship and trust from that event. The journey had been difficult, not only for him and Jack, but also for Teal'c and Sam who were forced to witness their friends' conflict – internal and external and refusing to be drawn to one side or the other. In the end, it had been that which brought them through the bitter patch more than anything else: the realisation that their continued need to be 'right' was not only destroying their friendship, but their friends.
"Daniel." Sam's voice broke into his thoughts and he turned to look at her. "It's okay."
It might be 'okay' for her, but it wasn't 'okay' for him and he wanted to explain that to her – only to meet her steady gaze and realise that she knew and understood his anger – even if she didn't share it.
It's not a nice job, but someone's gotta do it.
Jack turned to the six people watching him and clapped his hands together. "Right, we're off to see the wizard who'll get these guys back to...well...somewhere safe, even if it isn't Kansas. Carter, Teal'c, we'll contact you once they're through the gate." Jack indicated the golden sarcophagus, "Once he gets out of there, get his affiliations sorted out and relocate somewhere else."
"We shall, O'Neill."
"Stay on channel three and if you get into real trouble, Ferretti and the guys are on channel five."
"Yes, sir."
They refastened the restraints on the Abydonians and hauled Klor'el up off the floor. Jack muttered something to Klor'el who looked venomously back at the Colonel.
Daniel shot Teal'c and Sam a brief grin before he turned his VDU back on, lifted his chin and followed Sha're and Ska'ara out the door into the corridors again.
----
Sam stared at the sarcophagus and wondered.
She wondered what it would be like to wake up one day and realise that you'd been living a lie for the last five years of your life. She wondered what it would be like to discover you'd been serving your worst enemy as his best soldier for those years. She wondered if this Jack O'Neill could take it – or if they'd be forced to kill him.
She wondered if Dr. Carter had been right.
It had been a brief, offhand comment while they were in the lab working on the Asgard power booster.
"Seems like Jack's a bit of a handful."
"He keeps General Hammond on his toes," Sam replied lightly. She was still uncomfortable about the discovery that the other woman – the other her had been married to the Jack O'Neill of the other reality. Sure, Daniel had mentioned the reality he found himself in where General O'Neill and Dr. Carter were engaged, but that had been...distant. Abstract. Someone else. Someplace else.
"I imagine he keeps you and your friends on your toes as well." Fortunately, the other woman had the intuition to know that Sam was distinctly uncomfortable with anything that even hinted of the personal between her and the Colonel and the grace to lead the topic into other areas where her counterpart wasn't quite so edgy.
"Definitely." That was certainly easy enough to say.
"So...a handful whatever universe you turn up in."
Sam grinned in spite of herself and glanced up at Dr. Samantha Carter. "I think that's a fairly safe bet."
Returning to the present, Sam shook herself. "Teal'c, what was it like waking up from the sarcophagus that time on Apophis' mothership?"
Her companion considered the question. "It was bewildering. I awoke and the sarcophagus opened. Apophis greeted me as his First Prime and congratulated me on my successful infiltration among the Tau'ri." The dark face contorted in sudden anger. "He told me I had served him well in those years, but that it was time for me to openly bring my allegiance back to him." She felt his eyes thoughtfully upon her as she considered the sarcophagus again. "You are considering what must be said to the Jaffa O'Neill when he emerges?"
"Yes." In some ways, Sam was surprised that the Colonel had agreed to her suggestion – it was only a theory after all. Based on some tests she and Janet had run a few days after the Rite of Mal Shariim while the guys were off doing some 'male bonding'.
Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised. He trusted her on missions – sometimes more than she thought was healthy. Attempting to hotwire the doors on Apophis' ship was just one example when he'd put his faith in her ability to get them out of a situation involving technology and she'd been unable to keep that faith.
"Major Carter, O'Neill's other will possess the memory of these five years serving Apophis. While he may be easily 'turned' when he emerges, it is also possible that he will not be able to cope with the knowledge that he has served Apophis faithfully all this time." Both Teal'c and Sam knew how exacting their friend and CO could be on them and he was doubly harsh on himself.
Sam took a deep breath, "In which case we'll have to shoot him." Except this time it wouldn't be an alien masquerading as her commanding officer, but the man himself. "We'll have to take that chance, Teal'c."
A little voice reminded her that this man was not and never had been her commanding officer. Even if his life had followed the same path as the Colonel up until the mission to Chulak, he was a different man to the Colonel she knew. Still, she wasn't sure she could look into such a familiar face and pull the trigger of the zat gun twice.
God only knew how the Colonel had managed it that time she was possessed by the electrical entity and started running amok on the base. It had taken nearly a month before he'd look her in the eye again without flinching.
"I will undertake that responsibility, Major Carter," Teal'c stated calmly from the other side of the sarcophagus. "You need not take it upon yourself."
She grimaced, understanding his reason for offering, but knowing that if they had to kill this alternate reality O'Neill, it should be her. Teal'c had enough on his soul already. "It's okay, Teal'c. If it comes down to it, I'll do it."
And it would come down to it very soon, she realised as the sarcophagus' covers began moving back.
With the zat in one hand and a ribbon device over the other, she was hardly helpless – but the sheer weight of the choice she would shortly have to make rested heavily on her.
The doors were fully open and after a minute the man inside the sarcophagus sat up, the heels of his hands rubbing at his eyes. "Now there's a feeling unlike any other," the familiar voice drawled. "Waking up in..." He paused and his hands dropped from his face as he looked up, his gaze falling unerringly on Sam.
She saw the twitch of his brow as he attempted to determine what had happened to him and stepped to attention and saluted, incongruously military in her outlandish garb. "Major Sam Carter reporting for duty, sir."
He stared at her a moment and she suspected that behind the dark opacity of his gaze a million thoughts and memories were swirling about in a frenetic dance of mayhem. "I..." He frowned, put one hand to his forehead and screwed up his face in an expression so familiar it was eerie.
"O'Neill."
First Prime O'Neill turned, jaw dropping. "Teal'c!" With a graceful fluidity that stunned Sam, he leapt out of the sarcophagus. Evidently a larval symbiote in the belly did wonders for bad knees. "Teal'c, buddy...I...I saw you die..." He turned back to look at Sam, "Captain Carter?"
She decided that correcting the rank wasn't a priority at present. "What do you remember, sir?"
"I remember...you became one of them – you..." His hands rubbed his eyes. "I became..." Abruptly, the hands dropped from his face and scrabbled at his tunic and he pulled it aside to stare at the cross-shaped incision in his abdomen. "Shit!" He fell to his knees, still staring at his pouch.
Exchanging a look with Teal'c, Sam went to him, kneeling down beside him. "Sir..."
"I...I'm a Jaffa..." Dark eyes looked up at Sam, suddenly lost, "I...I've served the snake-heads for...five years..." He blinked again. "My God... Earth...the SGC..."
"It's gone, sir. Hathor took it over without us there to fight her." Although technically it was Sam and Janet and the other women who did the fighting rather than the Colonel. The guys were too busy being led by their libidos.
"Us?"
"SG-1."
"SG..." He shook his head. "You're not Ammonet?" One hand gripped her shoulder in automatic familiarity. Sam forced herself not to jerk back, although she couldn't help tensing. "You've been blended?"
To take her mind off his proximity, she answered the question. "With a Tok'ra..."
"A Tok..." He frowned as something else registered. "You said you were Major Carter. When did you..."
They didn't have time for the history lesson – and given that this was Jack O'Neill, he'd probably act confused as all hell if she 'technobabbled' him. To say nothing of the fact that while her commanding officer had learned to cope with her technical gymnastics, this man had not.
"We're from another reality, sir. A reality where Sha're was taken as Ammonet's host. We - you, me and Daniel, were unable to save her or stop Ska'ara from being taken as host to Klor'el."
"Another reality."
"You persuaded Teal'c to betray Apophis and help save the people in the prison on Chulak and he joined us on SG-1."
"SG-1. Five years. Cap...Major, I'm getting a headache. Another reality?"
She didn't have time to explain the 'divergent choices' concept to him right now. They had to relocate before someone came to check out the sarcophagus. "Teal'c – his allegiances?"
"He is no longer loyal to Apophis, Major Carter. We should find another room in which to take cover as O'Neill suggested."
"I didn't..."
"Your counterpart, sir," Sam interrupted, ignoring the scowl that crossed his features at the way she cut him off. "Teal'c, do you remember anywhere nearby where we could hide out until the Colonel contacts us?"
"There is a weapons storeroom down the next corridor. It should not be difficult to reach."
"Who died and put you in charge of this mission?"
"Your counterpart put me in charge, sir, under whose command I work. With all due respect, you may outrank me as a Colonel, but you've also spent the last five years as a soldier for Apophis and you don't know what our objectives are."
"And what are our objectives, then, Major?" Oh, she remembered this Jack O'Neill. The slightly belligerent, 'I like women, but have a problem with scientists' attitude that she hadn't missed one bit as time, familiarity and friendship eroded it away.
Sam took a deep breath, "To get out of this room before someone else comes in and realises you're no longer Apophis' loyal minion, sir."
"That assumes that I'm gonna trust you," the man drawled. "You've given me a very nice cover story, but nothing that would prove to me that you are who you say you are."
"You have a cabin in Minnesota beside a lake in which there are no fish and many small insects of your world."
He glared at Teal'c. "I told you that..."
Sam cast her mind back through the bits and pieces she had learned about her CO over the years. "You served in Black Ops for over fifteen years..."
"You could have learned that from reading my file."
She grimaced, not wanting to do what she was about to do – lay his private life – the fragments of his soul that she'd collected up over five years of constant daily working – open before him. But their time was running out, her team-mates might need her at any moment and Sam didn't have time to baby him.
She took a deep breath and began her litany. "Your code of ethics requires that you don't leave anyone on your team behind because you were once left behind on a mission to Iraq. You were a prisoner of war for four months and the name of the commander who left you behind was Colonel Frank Cromwell – and you never forgave him for it.
"You like dogs, play chess and listen to opera – Verdi, I believe. You're smarter than you pretend. You have a distinct fondness for the Wizard of Oz and have never seen Star Wars. At the time of the Abydos mission, you were mourning the death of your son, Charlie. He shot himself with your sidearm – and that was why you were willing to take the commission by General West to go through the Stargate the first time. Upon returning from the mission to Abydos you found your wife Sara had left you and moved back in with her father." She stared back at him, "Enough proof, sir?"
He'd turned pale as a sheet. "Okay, okay, you've convinced me that you know me better than you're supposed to... Now, how do you know I'm not still Apophis' loyal minion?"
"Teal'c knows," she said, jerking her head at the door to indicate that her team-mate should get to the door and check for anyone coming. She just hoped she could answer the First Prime's questions before they got out into the corridor.
"And you trust him?"
"The coast is clear, Major Carter."
"The..." First Prime O'Neill spluttered. "Teal'c, where did you learn...?"
"I have lived among the Tau'ri for five years in my reality, O'Neill. It would be strange had I not learned your expressions." A corner of the wide mouth tipped upwards, "It has been your instruction which has extended my understanding of Tau'ri terminology."
Sam watched his amazement and saw the realisation which crossed his face. More than anything else she and Teal'c had said or done, that momentary glimpse of Tau'ri humour convinced the First Prime. She chose to follow up that moment with: "You're in front, sir. I'll follow and Teal'c will bring up the rear."
"And I can trust you to be watching my six?" The distrust in his question was obvious.
"If you keep asking questions, sir, you may leave me no choice but to zat you. Our original mission parameters were only to get away Ska'ara and Sha're." Not you, her tone of voice implied. She wasn't entirely joking. If it came down to a choice between him and her team, she'd pick her team in a moment. If that meant having to kill him...she'd live with the scars and whatever nightmares might come.
"Away to where?"
"Classified, sir. Move out, Colonel."
"I have clearance higher than you, Capt...Major."
"O'Neill, we do not have time to waste here. Lead the way."
He sighed and grumbled, "You owe me an explanation later."
Sam handed him the zat. She trusted Teal'c's judgement. "You'll only get a headache, sir. Now, if you please..." With a sweep of one arm she indicated the door.
He glared at her and went and she gave Teal'c a wry grimace and saw the answering amusement in her team-mate's eyes as she followed First Prime O'Neill out of the room. Behind her, she heard the snap of Teal'c's helmet as it closed over him and they walked out into the corridor.
They passed one or two house servants who prostrated themselves promptly before 'Ammonet'. One of them gave her a strange look, half-rising from his obeisance. Sam fixed the man with her coldest, most intense expression and the man fell back down again.
Close call...
Then their luck ran out.
They turned the corner and ran into a serpent guard who promptly aimed and activated his staff weapon at them. He didn't fire.
Sam lifted her hand with the ribbon device and snapped at him, "You dare to challenge your god?"
The serpent guard didn't change his stance one iota.
Damn.
From within the depths of the armour comes a distortedly echoing voice. "Maktal kal ser rokash vir, O'Neill."
"Kal ser vi kek tal, yataki kree."
"Kol shak." The helmet of the armour snapped back revealing a familiar face.
Sam stared incredulously at him. "Master Bra'tac?"
He looked from First Prime O'Neill to her and back. "O'Neill?"
"Uh, Master Bra'tac meet...Major Samantha Carter." Behind her, Sam heard the metallic clink of Teal'c's armour folding down. "And I believe you already know Teal'c."
Jaffa or not, Jack O'Neill retained his slightly twisted sense of humour.
Regarding Sam and Teal'c, the old Jaffa warrior narrowed his eyes. "O'Neill. You are not aware that two of the human slaves were caught with two men – the first was of identical appearance to Klor'el's host. The second was of identical appearance to you. They had taken Klor'el prisoner along with two slaves."
Damn. Evidently the other party had been caught on the way to the Stargate room. "Where were they taken?"
For a moment she thought the Jaffa would ignore her and felt brief resentment at the male chauvinism of the Jaffa society, before Teal'c spoke up. "Master Bra'tac, Major Carter is vitek ma tay. I trust her with my life. She is a warrior in body and spirit. The other two who have been captured are our friends. Where have they been taken?"
O'Neill turned and arched his brows at her in surprise at Teal'c's wholehearted recommendation and the very direct nature of his enquiry.
If the elderly Jaffa was similarly surprised he gave no sign of it. "They have been taken to Ammonet. She was curious regarding the nature of these strangers. A search is presently underway for any other intruders. We must take cover. Follow me." And without a further word, the Jaffa snapped his helmet shut and turned on his heel.
Sam blinked as First Prime O'Neill grinned. "Coming, Major?" She glanced at Teal'c in question. Another unexpected ally in the palace was no bad thing. As long as he was an ally and not merely masquerading as one.
"Master Bra'tac has been aware of the nature of the Goa'uld as long as I have known him, Major Carter. He will not openly rebel without good cause to believe he could win, but he will help us. Of that I am certain."
She nodded once and followed Bra'tac and O'Neill down the corridor. First Prime O'Neill kept giving her measuring glances over his shoulder.
"You really do trust him, don't ya?"
"O'Neill, do not linger," Bra'tac informed him. "Time is limited."
He rolled his eyes at her and she almost smiled before she caught herself.
Dr. Samantha Carter was right.
Whatever reality you were in, Jack O'Neill was a handful and a half.
End of Part Three