Disclaimer: See Prologue.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone!

I'm skipping through the timeline very quickly, only touching down very occasionally in this chapter until a certain point. I also steal a scene from the first episode of the SG-1 series and change it up just a bit. Please remember that this has an AU sticker on it. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 4

Years passed, and decades. Jaffa lived for a very long time, barring injury, and Tac'an wasn't aging. She didn't know why, only guessing that it was a Slayer thing. For sixty-four years, Tac'an was the strongest threat from the Jaffa rebellion. And Teal'c slowly rose in the ranks from a simple soldier until he was the First Prime of Apophis. The strongest fighter and the strongest spy, and together they were the best chance there was for the Jaffa to free themselves.

But fate couldn't leave the Slayer alone, and things took a turn for the worse on a world called Ramak. Teal'c and Tac'an were working this one together. Teal'c wore a cloth turban over his gold-filled tattoo to keep his identity secret from those he fought. The mission had gone badly. It was one of Heru'ur's weapons factories; he had known they were coming somehow, and it had been a rout. Now they were just trying to make it back to the Stargate before they were caught by the Horus Guards. Tac'an shouted, "Get in there! I'm right behind you!" Teal'c leapt for the event horizon and disappeared.

Tac'an didn't follow. The Stargate closed and Teal'c felt his heart freeze. His wife was in grave danger. "I have to go back!" He moved to reactivate the Gate.

Bra'tac stopped him. "No, Teal'c. She is strong. She will make it back to you. She would not want you putting your life at even greater risk. We will wait for a day. Then if she hasn't arrived here, we will go back and look for her."

Teal'c hated it, but he knew that Bra'tac was right. So he waited. He waited, and exactly one day later he was back through the Gate with a team of six. They searched for nearly a week, but they found no trace of her, and they could wait no longer, as Apophis wanted a face-to-face meeting with Teal'c.

Most of the Chulaki rebellion became convinced that Tac'an had died on Ramak, and they took it hard. Teal'c, however, couldn't believe that she was dead, and as the years passed, he never gave up hope of finding his beloved wife. Not even after nearly eight years. But he was ready to give up hiding in Apophis's shadow.

And then fate took a hand again, changing his life forever.

Apophis said, "Kill the rest."

Complete panic gripped the prisoners, setting them to screaming and crushing each other into the back of the cell in fear. Apophis and Amonet left the chamber with the ones they had chosen to host their children, the door closing behind them. Teal'c stood with five other Serpent Guards, men under his command who he would gladly kill. But he didn't see any way to get away with this, not with Apophis here, right where he could destroy everyone.

He had noticed the foreign technology, the fact that these three were not panicking with the rest and that they were not quite aware of what had happened to their loved ones. They didn't know the whole truth, but they had at least the beginnings of a way to fight. As he activated his staff, he found himself at a turning point, a place in his life that would change its course and that of every creature under the heal of the Goa'uld

One of them seemed to notice his indecision. He was the leader of the strangers. He shouted, "I can save these people!" Teal'c whirled to face him, aiming his staff at the human. "Help me!"

In a flash, he decided. "Many have said that!" He spun around to blast at the men he despised for their blind servitude of Apophis. "But you are the first in a long time who I believe could do it!" Then he tossed his staff to the human leader.

One of the guards blasted into the crowd. The human fired the staff on him, and Teal'c took up his weapon. Together they killed all of the remaining serpent guards. The human blasted a hole in the wall, then stuck his head out of it to make sure there weren't any guards on that side. He and the other two foreigners started getting people out through the breach. Distracted, Teal'c started removing the armor he hated. He looked around at the destruction he had wrought, watching with morbid fascination as the lights in one of the snake heads went out.

The human had turned back to him. "Hey, come on!"

"I have nowhere to go." If he tried to stay on Chulak he would become a danger to the rebellion there. He would now be labeled shol'vah, a traitor. He would be far too infamous a presence on Chulak now.

But the human was unwilling to just let him flounder. "For this, you can stay at my place. Let's go!"

Teal'c stared at him for a moment. He almost sounds like Tac'an. Then he left with the humans.

APRIL 7, 2004, CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN, CO

Daniel watched as Teal'c ran through some katas with his Egyptian broadsword. They were currently in a discussion about Chulaki culture, which didn't distract the big Jaffa from the task at hand in the slightest. "So a warrior can change their name if they thought that their old life was dead? Is that common?"

"No, DanielJackson, it is not. I only know of one who has done so." Slash, thrust, block, cut.

"Who was it? Why did they do it?"

"She is now called Tac'an. Where ever she is now." Teal'c stopped his movements, emotions threatening to overwhelm him.

"She?"

Teal'c took a deep breath. "Yes. She is my wife."

Daniel's eyebrows flew into his hairline. "Wife!? How come we didn't know you were married?"

"Like you, DanielJackson, I have constantly been searching for my wife. I was very sorry when I had to kill Amonet, because I knew the pain of that search, of not knowing for sure that they will survive, or if they are whole."

Not wanting to stir up any wounds, Daniel was careful with his next question. "Was she taken?"

The big warrior shook his head. "I do not know. We were running for the Stargate, and I made it through. She did not. I have never discovered what happened to her. I and Bra'tac looked, of course. She is his adopted daughter. But we found nothing."

"Tac'an. I've heard that name before, haven't I?"

"Yes, when I told you the story of the liberation of the planet Melnor. She was instrumental in that campaign. To speak the complete truth, she was the warrior hated most by Apophis until I committed treason against him. Tac'an was never a part of his armies, so she did not betray him. I am the only one who did that." Teal'c smiled sadly. "It has been sixteen years since I last saw my beloved. But I cannot believe that she is dead. I can only pray every day that I will learn something of her."

"I hope you do, my friend." Daniel stood and left the room, leaving Teal'c to his memories.

"So do I, DanielJackson. So do I."

General Hammond was glad that his meeting with these particular Tok'ra would not be held at a time when SG-1 was home. Colonel O'Neill was as likely as not to try and deck Anise any time he saw her, only half the time remembering that it was only the host that suffered, and Freya didn't often have much control over what her symbiote was doing. Not to mention that they still needed this alliance with the Tok'ra.

As the Gate activated, he brought himself to attention, preparing himself to play the diplomat. Anise was working on a new device that had the potential to destabilize the energy matrix of certain Goa'uld technologies. As it was a surface-to-space device, it would be extremely valuable in the event of an attack. The ship would be able to do nothing offensive but launch gliders, and the missiles on American fighter planes were sufficient to deal with them. They needed this device, and they needed Anise's good will and the good will of the Tok'ra High Council to get it. It was a very good thing that Jack was not here.

As the event horizon stabilized, three people stepped through. The first was Anise, the second was Martouf and the third was a small blonde woman that Hammond had never seen before. She didn't act like a Tok'ra. As she cleared the platform, she was looking with curiosity over the Gate room, not really paying attention to what the rest of her group was doing. She noticed the ceiling, where the deactivated opening of the old missile silo lay dormant. She noted the group of marines that surrounded the platform, ready for any hostiles that might come through uninvited. She noted both exits and noted the observation windows of both the conference room and the control room. Soldier, he thought. Interesting.

He, in turn gave her a once over, noting several things. Her blonde hair was plaited down her back in a very long braid so that it would stay out of her way. She wore very light-weight clothing that was tight so that it didn't catch on things and easy to maneuver in. She had a knife and a Zat in her belt, a sword across her back and knife sheaths in both boots. Her intense green eyes caught every detail of her surroundings. This was someone who had been caught unawares at some point in her life and had no intention of it happening again. And yet she didn't look any older than twenty. That and the fact that she couldn't have been more than 5'2" made her quite a mystery.

Coming back to the task at hand, Hammond greeted his guests."Welcome to the SGC. Anise, Martouf. And you are?"

"My name is Tac'an."

Tac'an sat in the ordinary military boardroom, shocked and trying not to show it. This was Earth, she knew it! But at the same time it couldn't be! She had been gone from Earth for eighty-five years, but the wall calendar only showed that five had passed. April of 2004. And the calendar she'd kept in her head all this time told her May. She knew that this had to have something to do with the mess she'd made of Graduation Day, but what that was, she hadn't yet figured out.

One thing she was sure of, though. As the General offered coffee, her face had to have lit up. After all, it had been eighty-five years since she'd had a good, hot cup of coffee.

And Hammond didn't miss that reaction either, nor the way she seemed to savor the dark beverage. There was a story here, and once the business at hand was complete, he intended to solve it.

"So, how go the preparations for the weapon?"

Anise said, "They go well. It is nearly completed. Have you decided yet what our compensation will be?"

The President is currently working on plans to provide a permanent home here for the Tok'ra. When you have chosen an Ambassador, they will have quarters here, and they will be informed of every operation we maintain. Full disclosure on both sides; that's what the President wants."

"That may not be possible, General." That was Martouf. "The council is worried that loosing secrecy, which has always been our best weapon, is a mistake."

Hammond opened his mouth to argue the point, but suddenly the klaxon went off. The Gate was being opened. SG-1 wasn't due back for hours, and neither were any other teams. He stood and nearly ran to the control room. When he got there, he called out, "Do we have a GDO?"

"It's SG-1, sir."

"Open the iris." He went down to the Gate room, noticing that Tac'an, who hadn't said much yet had followed him.

"What's going on?"

"This team wasn't due back for several hours. Anything could be wrong."

"Can I help?"

He looked at her and nodded. If anything, he could keep an eye on her. They arrived in the Gate room and Tac'an drew her Zat, dropping to one knee and aiming at the Gate, keeping herself out of the line of anyone else's fire. The seventh chevron locked and the wormhole formed, wooshing outward, then inward before stabilizing into the watery event horizon. Not two seconds had passed and first Jack, then Daniel, Sam and Teal'c ran through the Gate. As soon as Teal'c was through, Jack shouted, "Close the iris!"

The order was followed just a second too late and one eagle-headed Jaffa launched himself into the SGC. He was met by a hail of bullets and was killed instantly.

Tac'an stood, her eyes as wide as saucers. "Teal'c?"

Recognizing the voice apparently, Teal's spun around. His eyes widened to match hers and a huge smile blossomed on his face, such a rare sight that everyone else could only stare. "Tac'an!" They ran toward each other and the big Jaffa picked up the tiny woman and embraced her fiercely. It was like they were alone, too wrapped up in their reunion to notice that there were people around them who were utterly confused.

Still, Daniel had at least one answer. "Did he say Tac'an?"

Hammond nodded. "That's what she said her name was. What's going on here?"

Daniel grinned. "I don't know everything, but Tac'an is his wife. He's been looking for her for sixteen years."

Jack's jaw dropped. "He's been looking for sixteen years? She can't be much older than sixteen in the first place! And she's his wife? Why didn't I know he was married?"

Tac'an giggled, the sound watery from joyful tears and from being muffled by Teal'c's chest. "I'm older than I look." She looked up into the face of her husband. "You are not going to believe the kind of day I've had!"

Teal'c's smile widened into a grin. "I have had a strange day, as well, Tac'an."

Hammond just had to get his answers. "Look, I don't mean to interrupt, but what the hell's going on here?"

Tac'an grinned at him. "It's a very long story, General, and I don't have all the pieces. We need to have a new meeting, I think." Suddenly her face darkened. "Did Anise know that you were here, Teal'c?"

The big man frowned, not liking the sound of that question. "Yes. She has known me since she first came to the SGC four years ago."

The blonde growled. "That little bitch!" Suddenly she pushed away from Teal'c and headed for the conference room.

Jack's eyes widened. "Why do I think that pissing that little girl off is a bad ideal?"

Teal'c simply followed his wife. "Perhaps because people and objects often fail to survive her ire? The conference table may be in dire jeopardy."

Hammond and the rest of SG-1 traded looks at the ominous bit of humor, then followed Teal'c. Things were definitely about to get interesting around here.

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