Part Four

I came home in the morning
And everything was gone
Oh what have I done
I dropped dead in the hallway
Cursing the dawn
Oh come on son
Why must I burn
I'm just trying to learn

I stared into the light
To kill some of my pain
It was all in vane
Cause no senses remain
But an ache in my body
And regret on my mind
But I'll be fine

Cause I live and I learn
Yes I live and I learn
If you live you will learn
I live and I learn

God kicked you in the head
So I started a fight
Cause I knew I was right
But I learned I was wrong
I remember a slaughter
I remember I fought
For the money I brought
I got blistered and burned
And lost what I earned

But I live and I learn
Yes I live and I learn

I got, I got it now
She's got, She's got it now

I came to one a corner
With some help from a man and goddamn
I don't seem to have learned
That a lady in need is guilty indeed
So I paid and got laid in return
And I don't know what I've learned

Well you get what you give
And hell yes I lived
But if you live as you learn
I don't think I'd be learned
Oh with the sun in my eyes
Surprise, I'm living a life
But I don't seem to learn
No I don't think I can learn

Rhys closed his eyes, the feel of the cool metal on his skin grounding him suddenly. He had lost, it was over. He would pay for his betrayal in his own blood, as he deserved to.

How had he done it? How had he forgotten himself in his fear of another's power. Fear of Seryna's power. Of what she was capable of.

He had done her work for her, making every decision that had ultimately lead to the moment he had lost the fight. Making every move for her.

He should have smelt trouble when he had discovered Merritt missing. But he hadn't. He had been too blinded by everything else that was happening.

"We both know what happens next Rhys. But ultimately it's your choice." Daniel's voice echoed off the walls as he held the sword to his opponents neck, expression grim. He knew what he had to do, he just hoped that this time there was another way. That he wouldn't have to add another name to the long list of people he had had a hand in killing.

Rhys wasn't as evil as so many people seemed to think. Or at least Daniel didn't believe he could be.

Rhys stiffened beneath the blade, leaning forward to press his forehead against the cold stone floor. How had it come to this? Why did he have a choice? "What if I say I want to die? What if I say I want you to end it? Will you?"

Daniel frowned at the long man knelt in front of him. "Why? Does it matter?"

A bitter laugh escaped Rhys' lips. "No, it doesn't." Rhys starred numbly at the floor in front of him taking a deep breath. "Love doesn't matter. It doesn't mean anything."

Raven bit her lip as she watched her lover fall, her heart skipping a beat. He had betrayed her, he deserved to die. Didn't he?

She listened to the short conversation between the two combatants, moving slowly away from the wall, expression blank, prepared to face her lover.

"Love doesn't matter. It doesn't mean anything." His words echoed, cutting into her as she froze a few meters away, a single tear tracking it's way down the side of her face.

"Doesn't it?" She almost yelled the question at him, as she stood shaking, brown eyes full of angst.

"Raven?" His voice was soft with disbelief, as he turned unaware of the sudden absence of the blade at his neck.

She frowned at him confused. Where was the confidence and easy nature that she knew so well? Where was the happiness, the open defiance of others? When had everything changed, when had it all left him?

"If love doesn't mean anything, then why do I hurt so much." She whispered it starring at him through her tears. "Why do I hate you so much?"

Rhys shook his head silently tears rolling down his cheeks, he reached out to her silently.

"I hurt inside!" She yelled it at him backing away shaking her head. "Every time I believe in you, believe that you won't betray me again - you do. And that hurts!

I have believed for so long that you aren't like the others - I know you - you're not evil." Tears ran freely down her cheeks as she shook her head at him softly. "I love you."

Rhys blinked, expression vacant in his disbelief. How could she still love him after everything he had done? How could she even stand to be anywhere near him?

"I never stopped to think." He jumped startled at the sound of his own voice, but meeting her gaze he continued. "I do love you."

The young woman lent back in her chair frowning. Not only had her target vanished, but three other members of the Cheyenne base staff had also gone AWOL. More or less. They weren't absent with out leave. They were just absent. Off the radar.

Things weren't looking good.

All she knew was that where ever those three were, HE, was. But at present the home team seemed to be headed towards victory, leaving the visitors in the dust.

At least for now.

Lily hung off Tom's arm, keeping a tight grip on him, determined to take as much time off work as she could to make up for their lost time. Pale blue eyes rested on the three mortals stood off to one side and her grip loosened slightly. She couldn't imagine how hard it had been for them to watch as her father and Rhys had fought, not knowing who would be the victor. She had lived her entire life aware of the danger involved in her father's, even before she knew he was immortal. Before she even knew that of herself.

Looking up she met Tom's gaze, expression grave, it was hard not to worry about people, it was a part of her nature. Almost limitless compassion towards everyone and anyone. It was what made her such a good doctor, she was easy to get along with, and inspired trust in her patients.

She worried about her father. He had always seemed so distanced from other people, especially mortals, he had long since built himself a wall to hide behind, to keep at a distance from the people. He choose his friends carefully, never really trusting people until they had proved themselves in some way.

These mortals had earned the old man's respect, and now, the relationship was almost invisible to her. There was a connection between them still, but was that enough? Was anything ever enough?

Glancing towards Raven and Rhys she smiled vaguely. Well, maybe.

Daniel glanced at his mortal friends, his gaze flickering between them and the pair in front of him. He felt bad. The first time that they had ever seen him fight, and he had nearly killed someone, and not cared.

It was hard to explain to people, how when you fought everything was just black and white. Your life or your opponents. No questions, no hesitations, no nothing, anything like that would have gotten you killed on the battlefield, once upon a time.

Nowadays battles were very rarely fought face to face, guns and such 'modern' weapons had introduced a distance to battles that hadn't ever been there before. When he had first learned to fight the only way to truly fight from a distance was with arrows and slings, but even then the range had still been limited enough that you could see you victim, stare them straight in the eyes as they died. If you couldn't hack it then you were a dead man.

His grip tightened on his sword for a moment before he sheathed it, preparing himself for the face off that he was very aware was about to occur.

Jack O'Neill was not the kind of person to ignore things like his 'friend' being capable of killing so calmly with a weapon that was very personal.

And Daniel was scared. Scared that things would never get any better than they were. Scared that the relationship, the 'connection', was gone, never to be revived.

Jack walked calmly across the room, having waited until his 'friend' had sheathed his blade. He didn't need the constant reminder of what he had just seen in his face while he spoke to the immortal.

He had never seen the weapon before, never even seen a weapon of it's kind used with such knowledge and confidence. Never seen it used in a serious battle. Swords were old weapons - weapons that the 'people' believed were no longer used, hadn't been for years. But that was another lie. Like so many others that he had seen uncovered in the last month. What more was there to come?

Was it worth wondering if it had been worth it? If they would have been better never knowing? Continuing to believe that 'Daniel' really was just plain old Doctor Jackson? Just waking one day to find Daniel Jackson gone, vanished without a trace?

It hadn't seemed real, any of it. Daniel rising from the dead. Watching him fight, using the ancient weapon with such skill. No emotion on his face as he prepared to kill a man just because?

But in reality it was all true. It wasn't a dream that he would wake up from. It was real.

All too real.

Teal'c followed his commander and friend, expression grim. There was so much more waiting in the shadows, things that they most likely could only battle united. Things that threatened more than just them, immortals and mortals alike.

But everything was wrong. Their relationship as a team was broken, pushed roughly back together in some vague form, all of them reeling from the events transpiring before their eyes, before they could truly breath again, settle their differences.

Fate was playing the tricks she loved to play once more. And even he, in all his life and experience, didn't know how to deal with it all.

All but one thing. It was still there. That confusing connection that had held them together as a team for so long. It wasn't quite broken. Yet.

Sam stayed behind the others, knowing that Jack needed space to say what he thought. Knowing that she and Teal'c were much closer to recovering than him. That they had a stronger understanding, born of recent years, of their immortal friend.

O'Neill and Daniel had drifted apart, their once strong friendship fading, and Sam had found herself filling the gaps for the two men. Proving the banter that her commanding officer expected, and the support that Daniel never really sort, but needed nonetheless.

It had been hard, but she had hoped that they had started to heal their rift, becoming closer once again. But as ever it had been too good to be true and it come to this.

She watched as Jack moved forwards, his gaze locked with his friend's, back stiff.

Jack stopped muscles tensed, keeping up the eye contact that he had been careful to sustain. He needed to say something to his friend, say what he honestly felt and thought. Offer an opinion.

"This isn't over is it?" Jack nodded at the discarded blade casually as though it were an everyday occurrence. Blue eyes flickered towards the couple for a moment before returning to meet Jack's gaze once more.

"Because it isn't, it never is." Jack frowned, he'd never heard his friend sound so weary, so old and tried. It added to the weight of the age that had always existed in the other man's eyes.

"Never?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "Bit of a dark comment."

Daniel smiled vaguely, sighing. "Most likely it is, but I promised to be honest with you."

Jack nodded shifting his weight slightly, awkward. While he had doubted it before, he knew it was the truth now, and knew that his comment days ago deserved readdressing. "We should, get back to base now I guess. Considering it's all happy families again."

Daniel blinked cocking his head on one side. "Back to base?" The comment had thrown him for a loop, so different from the tension that had seemed to drift from Jack during the past eternity.

"Yeah, back to work, there's no place like home." Their gazes met and Daniel nodded his understanding.

"We should get back." He met Teal'c and Sam's gazes in quick succession, startled by their open expressions.

Maybe they would be all right.

Tom smiled as he hugged his new fiancé, meeting his soon to be father in law's gaze as he prepared to leave. The past week had been hard on all of them Tom mused, glancing over his shoulder at the other six immortals hanging back while the final farewells were said.

The three mortals that had just entered their lives were intriguing, promising a different kind of support than he was used to. He hadn't had all that many mortal friends since his 'death', finding himself seeking out immortal company more and more, to avoid the sense of loss born out of mortal relationships.

He had fallen in love with Lily the first time they had met, on her seventieth birthday, and had found his relationship with her father deepening, his understanding of the other man evolving. And yet, he had never expected to see Alastair the way he had seen him during the past few days.

And now it was time to say goodbye again. Watch the man leave again to go to his new found home in Colorado, and the job that meant so much to him.

Lily smiled frowning up at him as though sensing his thought and scolding him for them. She trusted her father, and he knew she expected him to trust her on that. But all the same it was hard.

A vague smile touched his lips as Alastair made a final comment before pulling away and dropping into the driving seat of his car.

"Look after her Thomas. I know you will."

Jack smiled lightly as the four of them entered the mountain, welcoming the cool shadow of the base after the heat of the sun. It had been a long eventful week. And the drive home had been no different. On a spur of the moment decision he had decided to take the passenger seat of Daniel's car, passing it off as an opportunity for Teal'c to practice his driving skills.

The trip had helped, the soft conversion between himself and his immortal friend sealing a part of the foundations of their friendship back into place.

They were going to be alright. He could feel it. No matter what life and the 'Gods', if any such beings truly existed, threw at them, they would get back to how they had once been. Maybe even better.

So Daniel might not be the young and innocent little geek boy, but he was still the same person they had grown to love as a part of their family. The supportive, maybe not 'wise beyond his years' brother who was always their when you needed him. Just now, they were learning more about each other. Learning about weaknesses, and finding new strengths.

So what if all wasn't well in SG-1 land now, it didn't matter, what did was their future. And the road they had to continue walk down. It would be ok.

If they willed it to be hard enough.

George nodded to the sentry on guard as he stepped through the check point and out across the car park and into the fading light. Pale blue eyes fixed on the horizon, and the lights of the city of Colorado Springs in the near distance.

SG-1 were finally making their first steps back to their old relationship. Doctor Jackson and Colonel O'Neill were more comfortable with each other, the tension had eased. It was good to watch.

But even then, they still had a fight on their hands, fate was throwing everything she had at them, testing their endurance to the limits. They would soon enough be facing a battle to retain their immortal member, to stop their 'allies' from taking him away to 'safety'. And even if they won that battle the war was far from over. In fact he had a feeling that had only just truly begun.

Glancing at the sky he turning and headed back into the depths of the mountain, to the pile of paper work awaiting his attention.

Darkness was falling.

And on we go,

The schizophrenic Gatekeeper