Jack awoke in a darkened room with his hands tied to the chair he was in. An all too familiar voice called his name from behind him and he turned his head towards it. The room was too dark for him to see anything clearly, but he knew that voice all too well.
"You've aged well, Jack. I'm glad we get to spend this quality time together." The voice was just to his right, but he couldn't see his face.
"What do you want with me?"
"I want the truth. Why did you betray us?" He felt a fist connect with his jaw and winced as a droplet of blood trickled down his chin. "Muggles have such amusing ways of getting information out of their prisoners. I think this will be delightfully entertaining."
"You should know me better than that, Lucius. I wouldn't betray my master." The words left a bitter taste in his mouth but he allowed himself to say them.
"Don't try and sound so loyal. I know you were working with Dumbledore. If it hadn't been for you and your friends, the plan would have succeeded."
Something hard connected with his face and he hit the floor with a thud. "You're wrong. What would I stand to gain by helping that fool?"
"I'll get the truth out of you before I'm finished, Jack. Mark my words. You will tell me what I want to know."
A final blow to his face and Jack lost consciousness. Those words would be last he remembered before he woke up in yet another strange place. Feeling around he tried to figure out where he was, but nothing seemed remotely familiar. There were voices all around him, but none he recognized. His eyes felt as though they were glued shut, and the noise was making his head pound in his skull.
He struggled to his knees and used his hands to try and feel his way around. All he knew for sure was that he was on a busy sidewalk. People seemed to be moving around him, and if he was right, they were trying to avoid him. Slowly he felt his way up the nearby wall and to his feet. With every ounce of his strength he pushed himself forward using the wall as a guide.
As he moved down the sidewalk his eyesight began to come back to him and he realized there was something vaguely familiar about the sounds he was hearing. It took several minutes for his eyesight to fully return, but once it did he was stunned to find out where he was.
Everything looked almost the same. It was hard to believe it had been over 12 years since he'd walked these streets and seen these familiar sights. Most of the shopkeepers were the same as when he'd been here before. He took a quick look at his attire and groaned. It made perfect sense why people were avoiding him; he was dressed in raggedy clothing that made him look like a muggle beggar.
Diagon Alley looked as though nothing had changed in the years since he'd last been there and a thought struck Jack as he brushed at the tattered clothes that were barely clinging to his appallingly thin frame. He had no idea of the day or even a clue as to how long he had gotten here. Try as he might, nothing came to him.
He stopped young witch walking into Flourish and Blotts to ask the date, and to his surprise it had been four days since he was back at the mountain. He was certain that the General would be looking high and low for him, and he knew he desperately needed to get back. Quickly he gathered himself and found an empty alley just past Knockturn Alley and tried to focus enough to make himself apparate, but nothing happened.
For several minutes he tried repeatedly to apparate, but it wouldn't work. Frustrated he walked to the end of the alley and looked around the corner. If only he had a wand he might just be able to make himself apparate. A thought came to him as he peeked around the corner and he scanned the street for an easy mark. It took a few minutes, but soon he found what he was looking for.
With a devious smile he set his sights on a young man carrying a mountain of books just across the street from him. The man was black robes and a cap, but what made Jack smile was the fact that his wand was hanging out of his left pocket. Slowly Jack made his way towards him and pretended to try and walk around him. As he did so he purposely brought his elbow up to tip the books forward.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry." Jack bent down to help the lad up, and ever so carefully reached into his pocket and swiped his wand, and stuffed under his shirt.
The young man didn't notice a thing, and he shook his head and brushed himself off and proceeded to pick up his books. "It's alright, sir. I should have moved over just a bit more. No problem though. None of them hit you did they?"
"No. I'm fine." Both men picked the rest of the books up and Jack piled them into the young man's arms
"Thanks for helping me. Have a good day."
"You too." Rolling his eyes, Jack turned around and headed back towards the alley.
Once he was out of sight again he pulled the wand from his shirt and stared at it for a moment. Whispering a silent prayer he brought the tip of the wand up and closed his eyes. He concentrated hard on where he wanted to go, and then spoke. "Apparate!"
He felt and heard a loud cracking sound and opened his eyes to see he was back in his house. There was a rather startled airman lying on the floor in front of him, and Jack stepped back.
"Sir! What just happened?" The airman shouted as he tried to get to back away.
Biting back the curse that wanted to leave his lips, Jack shrugged his shoulders and reached a hand out to help the airman to his feet. "Not quite sure myself, but I could really use a shower."
"What do you mean you don't know what happened, Colonel?" General Hammond's voice echoed through the office door. "You were missing for 4 days!"
Jack sighed and gave the General his best 'I really don't know' look and sank deeper into his seat. "I don't remember sir. The last thing I'm certain of is driving home a few days ago, and then I was in my house with a rather confused SF in my living room."
Hammond looked around the room from Jack to each of the members of SG-1 and solemnly shook his head as he sat up in his chair. "And no one has any clue as to what could possibly have happened?"
"Could have been any number of people, General. Jack has a lot of enemies." Jack looked in Daniel's direction and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Daniel's right, sir. Between the NID and Senator Kinsey, and whomever else dislikes the Colonel, it could have been anyone." Carter chimed in from her seat at the end of the table.
"I hate to say it, but they're right. I have a lot of enemies, and I seem to keep racking them up. On the bright side, Frasier checked me out and says I'm fine." General Hammond was less than amused at his 2IC's lighthearted attitude and shot him a glare that surprised and quieted the Colonel.
The story the SF was telling was that the Colonel had simply stumbled into the back door of the house, with no memory of what had happened. Thankfully Jack was pretty handy with memory charms and had managed to alter the young airman's memory so that he didn't have to explain how he really showed up out of nowhere. Unfortunately for himself, he really had no memory of what had happened or how he had ended up in London in the first place. Jack had tried to come up with any number of possible explanations that the General might buy, but none of them seemed to make enough sense. He knew it would be risky to simply admit to not knowing what happened, but he hoped that it might work out to his advantage, though he wasn't quite sure how.
The next week on General Hammond's orders, was spent trying to determine exactly what had happened to Colonel O'Neill. Jack and the rest of the team and exhausted themselves trying to figure it all out, and in the end had come up with nothing. No matter how hard he tried Jack couldn't remember anything about what had happened, save for a few flashes in his dreams that he thought might have been images of what had occurred. And only his team knew about waking up in London and him having to erase the SF's memory. Still, the General wasn't pleased that their efforts had brought back nothing. Reluctantly he ordered SG-1 to discontinue their search but wasn't quite ready to send them back through the gate again. Jack however had not given up. He was determined to find out what had been done to him, and he knew the only way to find out for certain was to go back to the world he had left behind so many years before.
"Jack, you should take someone with you." Daniel pleaded with his friend, but it didn't seem to be doing much good.
"I can't risk it, Daniel. Going back there is going to be dangerous enough for me. I don't even want to think what could happen to you or Carter or even Teal'c if you came with me."
"Other than a few flashes of memory that you can't even distinctly place, all you know for sure is that you woke up in an alley in London with no idea how you got there. How is going back alone going to help you figure anything out?"
Jack groaned and shook his head as he continued to pack his bag. "I can't explain it. I just know that I have to go back."
"You said you could get put in that wizard's prison if someone catches you, what are you gonna do if that happens?"
"That's a risk I'm willing to take. Now leave this alone. I'm going and that's the end of it." With that Jack zipped up his bag and tossed it over his shoulder and walked out of the room, leaving a furious Daniel behind.
As he walked towards the door Jack felt a bit guilty. Daniel was only trying to help, but he really had no idea what Jack was about to risk by going back. He stopped at the door and turned to see Daniel just behind him.
"I'm not going to argue with you, Jack. I don't doubt you know what you're doing, I just want to make sure you're not rushing into this blindly."
"I realize that Daniel, but none of you would have a clue what you were walking into, and I don't want anyone getting hurt. Not if I can help it."
Sighing Daniel raised his arms to show he wasn't going to say another word on the subject and Jack reached out and opened the door so they could leave. Daniel watched as Jack took off in his truck after locking his door, and he decided then and there that Jack was going to get some help whether he liked it or not, and whether he knew about it or not.
"General Hammond, I know this is a bit of an odd request-"
"I don't know what would make you say that. When it comes to SG-1 there is very little that I consider odd anymore. Take the time and hopefully when you all get back things will be back to normal." Daniel nodded as General Hammond waved him out of his office.
Daniel knew it wasn't what Jack wanted, and that the other man would probably be beyond angry if he knew what they were doing, but he also knew that Jack had drilled it into their heads that they were a team and they had to stick together. And this was one of those times that sticking together seemed like a far better idea than going it alone.
Quickly he made his way down the corridor and stopped in Samantha Carter's office. She was busy at work when he popped his head inside.
"Hammond gave us the time off. Will you be ready to leave by tonight?"
She looked up from her experiment and reluctantly nodded. "I guess."
"You know if you'd rather not go, then-"
"I told you I would, what else do you want from me, Daniel?!" The anger was clear in her voice and Daniel shook his head and turned to leave.
Ever since she'd found out about Jack's abilities she'd been completely unbearable to the rest of the team. It was almost beyond Daniel how she could be so obtuse about something just because it went against what she believed. He'd never pegged the Major as that type of person, but more and more she was showing herself to be just that.
Leaving the Major stewing, Daniel headed up to Teal'c's quarters to let him know and then went back to his office to settle things so that he could go home and finish packing. A few hours later he was packed and ready to go, and Teal'c and Carter met him at the airport to catch their flight to London.