Title: Moonshadow

Author: Arathi

Rating: PG-13

Category: Supernatural/Action/Adventure with some Drama mixed in

Disclaimers: Not mine, not getting money for this (although reviews are a good replacement hinthint)

Season: pre-Evolution

Spoilers: Random small spoilers may be scattered here and there.

Warnings: Later chapters will contain non-graphic reference to nudity and some blood.

Status: WIP

A/N: Yes I know it's been forever since I last updated. Blame my muse, she decided to get totally off track and didn't want to work on this for a while. --muse looks innocent-- I've got her back to this thankfully. Hopefully in the future she will listen to me a bit more.

Matt and Terri, thanks for the support while writing. And a big thank you to Jakefanatic for betaing!

JDee alien freak, lady rosebit, SamCrazed, Crazy Kat, Hakureiki, and cL235 thank you for the reviews.

This represents a change in POV----------

On with the fic!

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Tanis walked among the ruins of buildings left by the Goa'uld when they were driven from his world. He was one of a scarce few that knew them by that name, his father's people called them "Kalir" and his mother's people called them "demons." Kalir actually translated to demon and the names were not undeserved, as he knew all too well.

Walking alone among the ruins was a regular activity for him. The majority of the people of his world, both human and Sacheni, avoided them. He visited often to chase away the few who did come to visit, keeping them well clear of both the hidden and not-so hidden threats the ruins contained. He knew the dangers of the place perfectly, and how to avoid them. But there was another reason he visited the ruins, and that was to keep watch on the Chappa'ai.

In his lifetime, only one man had come through. Tanis had kept a close watch on him during his visit. He could tell the man was Kalir-hach, demon-held, when he arrived, but while in the lowlands beneath the ruins he was bitten by a Tas-lizard and the demon within him died. The man had barely survived the ordeal, it seemed to Tanis, but after several days he'd recovered enough to slowly climb the trail to the ruins.

After the Goa'uld died, Tanis had wanted nothing more than to talk to him, ask him some of the many questions he had about other worlds. He was virtually the only one on his world that realized others existed and could be reached through the Chappa'ai. But he had been told quite strictly to have no contact with him, only to watch and, if needed, warn a settlement of the demon's approach. No such warnings had been necessary, but he could well understand the caution with which the man was treated. He had bent the rule by leaving food for him when he was unconscious, but was not willing to break it outright.

Since the day the man had left, device had remained inactive. Until that day, when six figures came through the rippling surface of the Chappa'ai, followed by some kind of mechanical… thing. Five of the visitors were men, the last a woman. The six walked within thirty feet of his hiding place in the bushes nearby but didn't see his hiding place, thanks to his Sacheni instincts for silence and stillness. They knew he was there somewhere, but that didn't matter. As long as they couldn't find him he was safe. Tanis noted that the tall dark-skinned man was Jaffa, and he could smell two others were hosts to Goa'uld, though he wasn't quite sure which two. He also noticed one of the men was the visitor from two years earlier.

It was the woman who caught his attention though. She was beautiful, yes, but it was not her looks that held the most interest to him. Her scent was that of an Ilmarn, like him.

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Jack just had to tease Jacob about how unusual it was to see him in BDU to match his team instead of the usual Tok'Ra garb. Jacob laughed and joked back as they went through the Gate, followed by the rest of the team and a loaded FRED.

The Gate was just outside the remains of a walled city on a low rise. They were in a large valley between mountain ranges that dominated the skyline before them and behind. The naquida mines were reported to be on the far side of the city in the nearby foothills. To the right the valley sloped downhill into brush filled land that Keathu had told them was only solid ground for half the width of the valley, the other half being marshland. The marshes eventually emptied into an ocean that was out of view. To the left was an open grassy area with scattered ruins. The grassland ended in tree covered hills about half a mile away which in turn gave way to mountains in the distance.

Almost as soon as he finished taking in the sights, Jack got the feeling they were being watched. Glancing at Teal'c he could tell his friend felt it too, and he wasn't the only one. Both Carters seemed wary and Keathu's hand was hovering near his zat. Daniel was the only one who wasn't immediately aware of the eyes watching them, but he was quick to pick up on his teammate's behavior and was cautious.

The ruins themselves were nothing if not just what their name implied, ruins. Half-crumbled and badly overgrown, it was mainly their shape that pointed to less-than-natural origins. A single large building was surrounded with variously sized smaller buildings, and the whole town was surrounded by a thick wall. The buildings scattered outside the wall seemed in worse shape from what they could see. In some places the trees and brush obscuring many of the major buildings seemed to have been intentionally planted there to hide them. The vines especially seemed placed to camouflage, making it hard to the find entrances to many of them.

Inside the buildings of the walled city, roots from trees and other things growing on the second floor, or occasionally a still-intact roof, hung down from the ceilings of many main-floor rooms and corridors. Dead leaves, branches, and other debris had collected in entranceways, courtyards, and every corner where the wind couldn't blow it away. There were some pieces of pottery and a few personal effects left in some of the residences, but the shops seemed to have been cleaned out when the Goa'uld were driven away. Part of the city looked like it had burned.

SG-1 and the two Tok'Ra split into teams when they reached the main complex. Jack and the two Carters were on one team, while Daniel, Teal'c and Keathu were on the other.

The main complex seemed to be in better condition than the rest of the city, probably because it was built with more durable materials. There were broken bits of pottery in what appeared to be the kitchens and statues that had been smashed here and there. Any loose jewelry or other gold had been looted long ago. What was odd was that there were no tablets, of the page-turning kind or otherwise, and no data crystals, even in a room Jacob suspected had once been a library of sorts. Some of the panels of control crystals had been opened and certain key ones removed as well.

Someone who had at least a vague idea what they were doing had gone through the main complex with a fine-toothed comb. Evidence pointed to this having happened in very recent years, as opposed to the general looting that took place when the Goa'uld were first driven off. Teal'c even radioed in saying he'd found a bit of evidence that someone had been in the ruins, and in the main complex, earlier that very day. Maybe the one who had been watching them when they arrived?

What they did find was graffiti written in a language which Daniel, reporting by radio, said that he didn't recognize. When the two teams met up he immediately turned to Jacob about the writing, since Keathu apparently hadn't been able to answer his questions.

"I'm guessing this is written in the Sacheni language," he said to Jacob. "Am I right? It's not a human language that I recognize, or even all that similar."

"Looks like it," Jacob responded.

When Jacob didn't elaborate Daniel started to get impatient, finally asking "So what does it say?"

"Beats me," was Jacob's response. At Daniel's questioning look he added, "I may recognize the language when I see it, but I can't read a word of it."

Daniel's response to that announcement was a disappointed, somewhat deflated look. Jack couldn't help but find it amusing.

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Sam half listened to Daniel and her father as they talked. It seemed odd to her that her father couldn't read the runic Sacheni language Daniel was so interested in. After all it was her mother who had taught it to her as a child. Why her mother had done that, Sam did not know. She herself wasn't very good at it, being years out of practice, but she could still read enough of it to understand the basic point of the graffiti. Presumably "Kalir" which roughly meant "demon," was a reference to the Goa'uld. If that were so, then much of what she'd seen so far was a variety of anti-Goa'uld slurs.

Sam was uncomfortable knowing a language understood by neither Daniel nor her father, host of the "oldest and wisest" of the Tok'Ra. Something inside her told her to keep her knowledge a secret, and because of her discomfort, she listened to that something.

Only for the time being, she thought to herself.

In one corridor, Daniel found a fierce, many-toothed mask partially blocking the entrance to a room. Sam could hear him muttering about it from down the hall, where she was trying to decipher another bit of graffiti. When Daniel headed into the room, she went to look at the mask. The room consisted of a pond surrounded by a four foot wide walkway with the walls covered in writing, some of which the archaeologist was trying to read. There were three other doors out of the room, one in each wall, and each half-blocked by a mask.

Her father moved past her into the room, but he only glanced at the walls briefly before slowly approaching the pond and looking into it. From where she stood, Sam could only just make out a flicker of motion in the water. A fish perhaps? Her father stiffened at the sight. His reaction made it quite clear that whatever it was, it wasn't a fish.

"Daniel, get out of this room," he snapped.

"Why?" Daniel asked.

"Just get out now," her father replied, grabbing the younger man by the arm and showing him the door.

"What's going on?" Colonel O'Neill's voice came from behind Sam.

"The pool in there is home to a few Goa'uld symbiotes," Jacob told him. "Somehow I don't think anyone here wants one taking a flying leap at them."

Daniel looked spooked at the news. Anywhere in that room was in range if one had made a jump, and he'd been in there with his back to the pond, a perfect target for a Goa'uld in need of a host.

"That might be what the masks are here for," he said absently.

"What?" the Colonel asked.

"Well, if there are Goa'uld in that pond and the locals knew about it, and since we know they don't like Goa'uld, then the masks might be a warning to stay out of the room," Daniel said in one of his typical run-on explanations.

"And you didn't think of that before you went in there?" the Colonel asked him.

"It's only a guess based on what I know now that I didn't know then," Daniel replied. "I have no frame of reference for this culture. I had no way of knowing what they meant, or even guessing, before Jacob warned me about what was in there. And that's still all it is, a guess."

The Colonel shook his head. "Whatever Daniel, just try to be more careful."

The group went back to exploring, this time avoiding the Goa'uld pond room. Sam soon found herself trying to read another bit of graffiti. But instead of a short statement of "down with the Goa'uld" or some equivalent, it was a short story. It was harder to read than most of the other bits and pieces. She had fairly quickly remembered the meaning of the most commonly seen words used in the crudely carved statements on the walls, but this was more complex and her rustiness with the language was starting to show.

Lost in her own thoughts, Sam almost jumped when her father put his hand on her shoulder, sensing his symbiotes presence just in time to avoid being startled.

"Interesting reading?" he asked.

"I'm out of practice," she told him.

Her father pursed his lips and nodded, accepting her explanation. "The others are moving on down the hall, we should catch up. For now we'll just finish exploring, you can come back and read more later." He paused, before adding, "I won't mention that you can read this stuff if you don't want me to."

"Yea, thanks, I appreciate it," she stammered, moving past him towards the rest of the group.

"Sam," her father said, his tone stopping her. "I know there's something bothering you and I'm sure this mission isn't helping. But I'm here if you want to talk. In fact I'd prefer if you did talk to me over this pretending there's nothing wrong like you've been doing. I'm just worried about you Sam. Whatever it is, I just want to help."

In truth she did want to tell him. But how? All she could do was nod and tell him "okay." His disappointed look was no surprise to her, but for the time being, she couldn't help it.

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They set up camp in a wide, shallow cave in the side of a hill overlooking the ruins. After dinner, they began figuring out what needed to be done and in what order. The two Tok'Ra were happy to avoid the marshes. There was nothing of interest in them, according to Keathu, and it was the habitat of the lizard with the symbiote-killing bite. But they still needed to explore the city in more detail, examine the outlying buildings, and contact the natives, not necessarily in that order.

Jacob's years in the military helped him stay focused on the task at hand, but once conversation turned away from the mission, he lost interest. He was worried about Sam. She wasn't one to share her problems unless she was in over her head, a trait she'd gotten from him. It was fairly rare for her to get in too deep, but some parental instinct was telling him that this was one of those times. Her stubbornness had saved her life several times, by all accounts, but right now Jacob was cursing that part of her inheritance. She wouldn't talk to him about her troubles, even though he could tell she needed to. He wished there was something he could do, but without knowing exactly what was wrong, he was powerless. It was not a feeling he enjoyed.

Finally, watches were divided up, and everyone headed for their tents. Sam had first watch, and Jacob debated spending some of that time trying to coax answers out of her, Selmak could help him stay awake when it was his turn anyway. Keathu and Taleem, however, had other ideas. They wanted to discuss some things about the Tau'ri, concerned that they were making a bad impression. When that conversation finally ended and the recently blended pair headed for bed, Jacob sat watching Sam for a moment, listening to Selmak's words replaying in his head.

'I do not think that in your heart you truly believe she is incapable of handling the truth, Jacob. I think that you fear her going where you cannot follow, that you fear loosing her, fear that she will change with that knowledge. It is a part of her, Jacob. Whether or not she is aware of its presence within her, it is still a part of her.'

The arguments he and Selmak had been having about telling Sam certain long-kept secrets had finally come to a head, partly because Selmak had requested the mission they were currently on in order to force the issue. Deciding that maybe it would help Sam if he went first, he made up his mind that it was now or never.

Just before he could get up and go to her, though, she seemed to go on alert. Something was wrong.

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Sam had been on watch for about half an hour when she first felt someone watching her. She could hear her father and Keathu talking quietly, and her teammates were asleep. That left someone not part of their group observing them to explain the feeling.

She couldn't see the watcher, and didn't sense a threat at that moment, but it made her nervous. She never took her eyes off the forest around the camp, straining eyes and ears to pinpoint whatever was there. She was debating alerting the others to the stranger's presence when the odd feeling came over her. Almost immediately, she could feel the difference. It was like a repeat of what had happened in her lab the day before, and suddenly she froze as she tried to make sense of everything she could now perceive.

As her nightvision became more acute, she could see deeper into the forest. She could hear the soft rustle of leaves as some small creature scurried about and the shifting of fabric as one of the two Tok'Ra went to bed and the other came out of the tent. The rich scents of the camp and its surroundings filled her nose. Apparently the gentle breeze was blowing the wrong way because she still couldn't pinpoint their observer.

Sam tensed, and slowly backed up into camp. She bumped into something, and the sound of her knocking over a few things apparently woke the Colonel, as he stuck his head out of the tent to make sure everything was alright. Her father was standing off to one side, watching her intently as she told the Colonel what was going on. She was careful not to look at her commanding officer as she did so, knowing that when her nightvision improved her eyes looked strange. Why, she didn't know.

A few moments later, it was decided that there was nothing to be done about it for the time being, and that as long as they were content to watch, there was no reason to antagonize them. After all, a major part of their mission was to befriend the locals. She was told to stay extra alert to any signs that they might be doing more than watching, but beyond that, the matter was left alone and the Colonel went back to sleep, never noticing anything different about her in the dim light.

Her father, however, did. But his reaction was not what she expected. He ducked into his tent and woke Keathu, asking him to take the rest of her watch. Then he grabbed a radio and a zat and asked her to follow him to somewhere they could talk privately. No fuss, no insisting on a medical exam, nothing. Just an unreadable expression on his face and some muttering about telling her something. She couldn't think of anything else to do but follow him.

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Next chapter; the title will be explained and well… telling the rest would give it away.

Reviews feed my muse and keep her on track! --muse gives puppy-eyed look--