"The plan is going well and on schedule, now that our fool of a brother is out of the way there shouldn't be anymore power struggles here."
"Of course, brother… but Bashir was no threat to you."
Akil smiled. A cold, terrible smile.
"And may that serve as a reminder to you all, my dear sisters."
The women bowed low and departed, chilled to the bone.
Akil Anwar smiled again, eyes flashing as he watched them leave.
Very good news, indeed.
Daniel groaned.
While Nadira was gone the Jaffa had returned.
And this time they did not hold back in the least.
For hours, it seemed, they tormented him with the pain sticks and the occasional right hook to the jaw, gut, groin, you name it and it was bruised. But not once did they as him any questions. In fact, they were completely silent until Nadira returned, screaming at them to leave him alone.
They left at her command, and she fell to the floor beside him.
"Daniel, darling! What did you do? Why did you provoke them?"
Daniel gasped as she pulled him over and up on to the mattress.
"I didn't do anything," Nadira shook her head in sorrow and disbelief at his words.
"But they wouldn't touch you unless provoked, what did you do?"
"Nothing," the bloodied man cried, clutching an aching arm to his chest.
Nadira stroked his forehead as she always did when the Jaffa had hurt him.
"Did you curse at them?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Did you make some sort of physical threat?"
Again he shook his aching head.
"What about your nonverbal speech? Were you passive or aggressive?"
The corner of his mouth twitched and he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"I might have been glaring a little," he confessed.
Nadira sighed and cupped Daniel's bruised face in her hands.
"Love, you shouldn't! The smallest excuse and they'll kill you, and there's nothing I can do to stop them if that happens. Don't make me loose you," she cried, touching her smooth forehead to his.
Like that they stayed for a long time.
Almost touching lips but not quite, as his body slowly healed.
Earth, earlier
"I don't see the point in this little operation. Not many Jaffa will be willing to listen to a washed up systems lord and the former first prime of a dead Goa'uld."
Braítac and Selim/Osatahara exchanged equally annoyed glances. Braítac rolling his eyes, Selim flaring hers.
O'Neill shrugged and held out his hands.
"Hey, I only speak in caution… y'know. Just be careful."
Again, Braítac rolled his eyes, but Selim… or rather, Salima, smiled and shook the general's hand.
"Take care of Daniel," she leaned close and whispered lightly into his ear.
Osatahar was a pretty girl, O'Neill realized, and was possibly falling for the resident nerd and chief know-it-all Danny-boy.
He smiled back at the Toak'ra and nodded his head, "sure."
In the background the shimmering wormhole burst open and engulfed the room in a glistening blue light.
Giving the two daring adventurers a mock salute and moving back to stand next to the silent Teal'c, Brigadier General J. O'Neill watched as the two robed forms disappeared through the 'gate.
The 'gate disengaged and he turned to see an apprehensive look on the solitary Jaffa's face. O'Neill patted the large man's shoulder and said that the old guy would be okay.
Teal'c nodded, but turned away without a word and left the gate room.
Jack sighed, looking over at the strange ring covered in meaningless (to him) symbols and other junk and, not for the first time, how the hell he had gotten himself into this mess?
Briefing room
Daniel watched as the 'gate disengaged and turned to the Carters.
"Is it just me, or does something just not feel right about this?"
Father and daughter exchanged anxious glances and turned back towards the window and gazed absentmindedly at the stargate, wondering, and not for the first time, how the hell he had gotten himself into this mess?
Later
"Carter!"
Jacob and Sam looked up in surprise at O'Neill's shout.
"In English, please!"
Jacob snickered, but this was far too routine for Sam's liking.
"Just read a science magazine or something and get up to speed, I don't always have time to simplify everything for you!"
Both men were shocked by Sam's outburst, but neither even thought for a second of contradicting her. Jack had even taken a small step back.
The little voice in his head told him that he really should try to understand what she's saying if he ever wants to try and get a relationship going, but Jack quickly shook his head and dismissed the thought. That new addition to his personality since the attack/accident, whatever it was, would take some getting used to, but in the meantime it was spoiling his fun.
'I guess almost dying does that to a person… but wait a minute… I've nearly died lots of times! Heck, I think I died quite a few times back there when that smarmy snake had me… that's when Daniel came to me in my cell…'
Jack pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, though he knew it wouldn't do any good. That little voice kept nudging at him, and it was driving him nuts.
"Damn it, why the hell are we doing this when we should be finding Daniel and Teal'c?"
Sam bit her lip and Jacob wrapped an arm around her protectively.
Jack's shoulders slumped and dropped his head as he leaned against the bulkhead in Sam's lab.
"I'm sorry," he said in an unusually deep and hoarse voice.
The Carter's were silent except for a small sniffle from Sam.
O'Neill looked up, his eyes flashing brightly in the dim lab light.
"We'll find them."
Jacob smiled distractedly, reaching over to pat Jack's shoulder.
"We will."
Goa'uld world
"We will get no more from the human – he is dry of knowledge. However, the Jaffa still proves defiant and refuses to share a handful of memories."
Akil's eyes flashed dangerously, "How is this possible?"
The female Goa'uld bowed deeply, covering her face with her veil.
"He is strong, brother. He is unsusceptible to the misinformation we have attempt to feed him with. However, he has run out of this 'tritonen' medicine and is nearing death now."
The green robed false god waved a hand dismissively and flashed his eyes.
"Dump the Jaffa on one of the planets their kind is in alliance with – let him be an example to them that I am not so easily crossed."
The blue robed female bowed again and quickly left her brother's throne room.
Under the veil, her mind whirled and a plot arose in her thoughts.
She hurried to find her sisters.
Daniel heard hushed whispers outside his cell.
One of the voices was Nadira, he could guess, but the other was different.
The muted conversation continued for some time, before fleeting footsteps disappeared in the opposite direction and Nadira crept back into the cell.
Daniel pretended to sleep.
"Stop it, poppet. I know you're awake."
Daniel frowned and sat up, "how'd you know I was awake?"
Nadira smiled and sat down on his lap, ruffling the prisoner's now quite shaggy brown hair. "I didn't."
The couple froze as a lone Jaffa stood in front of the force field of the cell.
Daniel's body immediately went rigid and his eyes dropped to the floor.
Nadira smiled.
Earth
"Sir, incoming wormhole from the Kelownan's."
O'Neill nodded and let Carter order the iris open.
First through was a familiar face – Jonas Quinn. But this face obviously wasn't a good thing, as it was written with sorrow and unshed tears.
Jonas moved to the side and looked over his shoulder as four men walked through, carrying a prone form on the stretcher between them.
O'Neill cursed and Carter gasped as they saw the gold mark of Apophasis on a still forehead.
They ran down to the sickbay, meeting Jonas just as they came around the corner carrying Teal'c.
"What the hell, Jonas?"
The young man grasped his former CO's shoulders and forced him to look at him, not at the deathly still Jaffa.
"Colonel, erm, General O'Neill, you have to listen to me."
O'Neill tore his eyes away from his friend and looked into the deep eyes of the former member of his team. Those eyes had always intrigued him, something mysterious about them that he hadn't been able to identify until just then. The whites of his eyes were way whiter than most peoples'.
As though a sort of charm had taken hold of him, Jack's body slumped and his graying head dipped.
"What has happened here," he asked in that low, gravelly voice.
Jonas took a deep breath and tightened his grip on O'Neill's shoulders.
"It was just as we were dialing out on a mission, the gate opened and Teal'c was tossed through. Luckily we had some of the tritonen you sent us handy, we gave him a shot then dialed you up."
Carter touched Jonas' shoulder lightly, and he let go of O'Neill, who dropped down and cupped his head in his hands.
"You said it happened as you were dialing out? That's what happened to us, too. It must be their way of making sure there isn't something like the iris when they come through."
Jonas raised an eyebrow at Carter's comment.
"But how can they tell? Do they have some way of tapping in on which 'gates are dialing or what?"
Carter shrugged and looked down at the grieving General.
Jonas bit his lip and put a hand on her shoulder.
"It'll be okay… but do you think you can tell me what's going on?"
'This new opponent has some way of spying on the star gates. This is unexpected. Selmak and Jacob will have their hands full when they hear about this new development.'
Jack stood up and absentmindedly wandered through the halls of the SGC.
'Yeah, but how could it work? Do they have spies, or is there some kind of fancy techno junk reason, like they crossed their warp-drive capacitors with our gamma-quadrant positronic impulse engines, or something like that?'
'What's that supposed to mean?'
'How the hell should I know, but that's the kind of junk Carter is always babbling on about. Kinda like the stuff that Daniel jabbers on about, all in about thirty different languages… damn.'
'You're afraid that you're going to loose Daniel again, and you're beating yourself up over it. You need to focus on your work, you need to figure out where Selim went with Braítac.'
"Shut up!"
"Sir?"
Jack looked around in surprise to see a young man standing next to him in the hallway.
It was that weird Canadian kid again.
"What's up, sailor? Anything new out and a-boot," Jack tried to crack a lame joke at the kid's expense, but only got a highly unwanted look of concern.
"Sir, you shouted 'shut up' at me," the Canadian commented uncertainly. "Are you alright?"
O'Neill looked at him with fury in his eyes, and the Canadian took a step back.
"Sorry, I meant, are you alright, sir?"
The pure guts of this kid caught him off guard and Jack felt himself about two centimeters away from bursting into uncontrollable laughter… or tears.
He patted the kid on the shoulder, "yeah, just a little bout of talking to myself." He tapped his forehead and grinned cockily, "just getting old and senile."
The kid grinned back and nodded his head, "noted, sir."
Strangely, Jack felt himself relaxing, like the tight knot in his stomach was finally working itself out and loosening his muscles. He didn't mind this kid.
The little voice in his head told him that he was near the dinning hall and that maybe it would do him some good to talk with someone. Talk to this kid.
"Want some jello? On me?"
The kid smiled and said he could go for some jello.
Goa'uld world
The pain was too much, and the voice floating in over it was almost even more painful to hear.
"They abandoned you to this! They left you here to be tormented, to suffer every day, every waking moment. They did this to you," the terrible voice accused.
"No," Daniel moaned, "no, they wouldn't. I know what you're trying to do, I won't!"
The pain paused for a moment.
A face appeared before him, and suddenly he felt like he was looking upon the very face of cruelty itself. It smiled.
"You won't? Not to save yourself?"
Daniel steeled himself for a new burst of pain.
It didn't come. Instead, his eyes were drawn to a bound and pale figure being dragged into the room.
"And you won't to save her?"
Quickly closing his eyes, Daniel heard the whistle of the pain stick being brought down on Nadira's bear back, her tormented screams, and the chuckling of the bastard Goa'uld.
On it went, he kept his eyes closed, but her cries were slowly breaking him.
Akil Anwar watched on with amusement as his Jaffa tormented his sister. She would recover fine enough, of course. This was necessary to break the Tau'ri.
Finally, the human cried out 'stop it, please, stop!'
Akil held up a hand and the screams slowly silenced.
"At what price?"
Daniel held his breath until his lungs screamed for oxygen.
"Fuck you."
He knew that was the wrong thing to say, and soon enough he payed for it, but at least, he thought as the pain dragged him into darkness, at least they aren't paying attention to Nadira anymore.
But before he was out and gone, a small thought drifted though his mind.
'They left me here, and now Nadira's paying for it.'
Oooh, angsty!
This is quite a creative streak I've hit, here. It's 1:45 am here and I think I might start up another chapter.
I'm planning on not letting you in on a few things... you might figgure them out, and some of them you might not.
Please, if you think you have figgured one of my little plot twists out, feel free to shout them out in a review. :)
mwa ha ha ha, thats all folks.
Oh... ps... is that Canadian crack from south park? Isn't there a song that goes something like 'blame Canada'? lol. fun fun fun. ;)