O´Neill was still sharing a bed with death. Southrons were mean people, but they were not stupid. They had learned much from the Goa´uld in the past, and they had managed to aquire some of their technology, mostly weapons. Most of these had been aquired after the Goa´uld had left, in raids the Southrons had been responsible for on the remaining Jaffa. They had taken all their weapons apart, studied them and in the end, had figured out a way to make them posionous. They could never understand how they worked or how to reproduce them, but when they began to loose power, they figured out how to make them poisonous. The shot could not possibly have of killed anyone (unless they had terrible luck and found the only Southron who bothered with aim), the poison, was a different story. It had started to work immediately after O´Neill was hit. It was practically miraculous that he was still alive. Janet had done everything he could for him, but even she had to admit she was loosing.
After helping Sam and Daniel, Kaia had demanded to see O´Neill. She took down five more soldiers before making it to his room. Shots would have been fired if Janet hadn´t interceded. She would not risk O´Neill´s life simply to capture a girl who seemed only interested in saving him. Janet did not know it, but Kaia came to respect her greatly for it. Janet reminded her of the Healers back home: they would risk life and limb simply to save another. It was honorable. Far more honorable than many of the other soldiers there.
Sam and Daniel were right behind Kaia. Neither of them attacked a soldier, but they did nothing to stop Kaia either. This fact did not go unnoticed by many in the base, including General Hammond, who was on his way down. He was not about to have two members of his best team cooperating with a single girl to wreak havoc all over the base. But for the time, General Hammond was not there, and Sam and Daniel had quite forgotten about him. Whatever Kaia had done to them had changed them greately, they felt different and they saw the world different. For now, all they cared about was saving O´Neill. They had not yet fought any of their own, but they would if it was necesarry. Teal´c had followed them reluctantly. They suddenly saw a great line between them and the Jaffa. They would fight him too.
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Everything was extremely dark, more so than if the light had smiply been turned off. He was alone, in a vast void. Nothing. No one. He tried calling out but nothing answered, not even his own echo, or thoughts. Finally, he stayed still. Quiet. He was getting cold, and every second, it seemed harder to keep his thoughts clear. In the still darkness he thought he sometimes saw a light, but it was swallowed by the darkness. Other times he felt heat, but that died with the cold around him. The only thing he could keep clearly in his mind was this: he was going to die. He was dying. He found he had many regrets, but he could keep none of them in mind. In the end, as he found himself being still and trying to take comfort in being alone, he could gather only one sensation: dying sucked.
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"It is admirable that he is still alive, your people are right to trust in you." Kaia´s words made Janet feel somewhat important, she shook the thought away. She did not need this child´s approval. She walked forward as she began to pull and take away all of the different machines and medicines going into and monitoring O´Neill. Kaia looked up at her, "Do not worry. You may be a commendable healer, but you do not know what ails him. I can heal him. In your care he would die a slow death."
Without another word she raised a bag that hung on her left side. Janet had no idea were it had come from. She´d taken it from the girl herself. She looked at Daniel and Sam, they didn´t know where the bag had come from either. No one thought it at the time, but Teal´c did not want to see O´Neill die anymore than the rest of SG-1. He had helped the girl, if only to save his friend. As long as she did this and no other thing, he had no intention of stopping her.
So it was that Kaia shut her eyes and for a moment she almost believed she was back home. Instead of cold concrete walls there was a light cloth between her and the night. The wind blew warm and there was soft grass beneath her feet. She remembered what her Master had once told her, before he´d died. She was two days away from meeting with the Great Babushka, the oldest dragon of all, only she could decide if someone bacame Padeos. She had already been tested by her Master several times, and she expected to be tested even more by the old dragon. Two days before Bolshoi stayed with her all night talking, as was his costum with every Padeos he´d ever trained before. Bolshoi had never liked the idea of Kaia becoming a warrior, he felt she had another future, one with less death and more life. Kaia knew in her heart that was not true, she may have been born with the skills of a Healer, but her duty was somewhere else. The Great Babushka only confirmed it when she was given clothes with a blue dragon upon them. Bolshoi had been devastated, even outraged, in the end he could not fight fate and he died defending the girl and the future that he´d not chosen for her. Kaia thought of this as she helped O´Neill. He reminded her so much of Bolshoi...
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The darkness suddenly went incredebly bright. The cold...well the cold didn´t leave as quickly or as much. O´Neill couldn´t keep his eyes open, it was so bright. It took a second for him to realize that was not his biggest concern. There was noise, great noise everywhere. It felt like it would crack open his skull. He covered his ears, he cursed, he wriggled on the small bed. Dr. Fraser had enough, she pushed Daniel and Sam out of the way and tried to help O´Neill, but she didn´t know what was wrong. He´d been lying there, until Kaia had put something in his wound and given him something to smell. He wasn´t convulsing, he was desperate. The image of Sam in the hallway came to her all of a suden, whatever it was, Sam had suffered from it too. Her brain was going a mile a second. Chances were Daniel had been affected as well. What about Teal´c? He didn´t seem any different...something happened to the other three. Was it because of the symbiont? It was very likely...the others were changed then. How? Something altered them, bothered them greatly whenever they woke up. It was something to do with noise...or something. She had no more time, because Kaia grabbed O´Neill´s head and made him look at her. It happened much the same way as before. Janet felt useless, and she was quickly growing to deeply dislike this girl.
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The darkness had left. His ears worked too well for comfort, somehow, he could never quite remember how, it all came under control when Kaia spoke to him. In that pitiful state he had not much choice but to trust her. She was right, he turned all the noise down...it was hard at first, it seemed he needed to concentrate way to much and he was very hungry. All was fixed in a few hours, when General Hammond took away Kaia and Janet and it was not so hard for Sam and Daniel to get him something. Daniel noticed how worried Sam looked. She´d actually turned three shades of green when they´d first seen him. In all the years they´d worked together, he´d never see them get so close so quick...for now he put those thoughts away. They had a lot more problems to worry about...
