Chapter 7

A half of a day later, Jack and Teal'c stood on the launch ramp. Jack had misgivings about leaving before Sam had woken, but as Janet had said there was no telling when the Major would rise. Jack glanced at Teal'c's impassive face before crossing the barrier. Just to come face to face with his near double.

It seemed that Harlan and the clone of Jack never felt that fixing the burn mark was necessary. Jack wished that they had, seeing the large silver hole in his face gave him the willies. He felt a small amount of relief when he heard Teal'c step through the gate.

There was a silent face off. Jack stared at himself and smirked a bit at how weird that sounded even in his own head. He had more pressing matters and broke the silence.

"We've come to talk to Daniel."

"Why can't you talk to him yourself?" His double sneered, his words cut into the fresh feelings of loss. Before he could reply he heard the Daniel's voice, incredibly soft. He was standing off to the side. His figure was silhouetted.

"Because he died, didn't he?" Jack was sure his face took on a pasty hue because his double's countenance suddenly softened. The silence from the other man was welcome. The clone waited for him to compose himself before saying.

"Then I'll leave you to discuss things with Daniel." With that the man walked away.

Jack's breath caught in his throat as he saw the clone move into the light. It looked so much like Daniel before. He couldn't finish that thought. The pain was still too fresh.

"How did he die?" There was a hint of curiosity in the soft voice. Even though he looked like the man, the way he talked was totally different now. As far as Jack could tell, this clone was as unlike Daniel as Jack's clone was like himself. Which was very odd considering they were supposed to have all the same memories up until the creation. Jack was saved from answering by Teal'c.

"DanielJackson was crushed by a collapsing temple." Curiosity satiated the clone nodded and leaned against a rail.

"What do you want to know?"

Jack looked to Teal'c and nodded. The Jaffa then pulled out a laptop from his pack and handed it over. Jack placed it on the ground and booted it up. As he worked he explained.

"We managed to get Daniel out of the cave in." He choked a bit on his words. "And back to base. Unfortunately he died in the OR" Another moment to compose himself. "Shortly after he died, this." He stopped for a lack of word, "thing enshrouded Daniel's." He couldn't finish the thought. Fortunately he'd finished setting up the laptop and was ready to play back the footage from the lab. "Whatever it is now, it left through the stargate, and apparently with Daniel's memories. We are hoping you could give us a hint to where he went."

With that he started the video and stepped aside to let the clone watch. As the other watched the video, Teal'c and Jack watched the clone. He was not sure what he was looking for, but when the figure on the screen finally finished forming itself, the clone looked a little sick. When it got to the point where Jack was thrown into the wall, the man shook his head near imperceptibly and whispered a soft "no" before darting out of the room.

"Daniel!" He called after the figure had disappeared into the twisted and small corridors. Jack gave a mental sigh and motioned Teal'c to follow. Unfortunately the robot Daniel was fast and soon lost them in the winding corridors. It wasn't long before Jack and Teal'c were so lost that they were sure finding their way back to the stargate would take more than an hour.

"He's probably up top." Sam's voice made Jack jump.

"What?"

"Daniel, I heard him run past." Sam's blue eyes twinkled merrily. "It's where we go when we need a moment alone."

"Take us there Carter," Jack momentarily forgot that this wasn't the woman whom was under his command, but a duplicate.

"Sure thing sir,"

Sam turned and led the group. They walked in silence for a short while before Jack spoke up.

"Carter,"

"Yes sir?"

"I was wondering, both you and my counterpart act so much like we do, but Daniel seems so. . ." He trailed off looking for the right word.

"Different?" Sam supplied.

"Yeah, that."

"That's because I'm not a monster," Daniel's soft venom filled voice startled Jack. He hadn't noticed the other appear near them.

"What?" Jack was minorly amused to note that Sam had said it at the same time. Teal'c had raised an eyebrow.

"How could you say that?" Sam asked with a confused voice. Daniel nodded toward Jack.

"You've seen what he is," he paused, "You even have pictures. How can you say he's not a monster." There was a trace of self loathing in his voice.

"Because he stopped himself." Jack felt confident that whatever had Daniel's real body he somehow was able to wrestle control. Although by the reaction this was not the correct thing to say.

"Stopped himself?" A snide laugh, "Then why did he murder his own children? Why did he wake up bathed in the blood of his daughter?" the man started to choke on his words. "He's a monster. He hasn't been human since nineteen-forty-eight."

That got Jack's attention.

"Jackson's only thirty three?" Jack knew his voice was confused. He looked around and saw Teal'c's visage show disbelief while Sam was staring at the mechanical Daniel with the type of fear one has when they think their best friend had just gone off the deep end.

"Daniel Jackson would be thirty three. If he's still alive. He would have been the same age as." Daniel paused for a moment as if what he was about to say was difficult to think of. "Sean Alexander Murphy junior."

He paused to perch on one of the many pipes that ran across the complex. "Look, you came here for the truth and you want to find him." He lowered his head. "In forty eight Sean was hiking around the mountains."

Daniel took a deep breath, "he fell into a cave and was. . ." he shrugged while looking for the right word. "Attacked. By some sort of organism that ensnared his body."

Daniel looked up and Jack could see the pain in his eyes. "You've seen what it looks like. Now I know too. He passed out and when he woke up it was gone and everything seemed normal."

Jack was going to interrupt. He couldn't really believe this, but one look at the eyes of the other man and he was silenced.

"Thirty years passed and he'd forgotten about it. Then that weekend." Emotion clouded Daniel's voice.

"They were climbing." Daniel's eyes took a far off look. "He fell." The man was nearly whispering and Jack had to strain to hear him. "Darkness. . . Then he woke, bathed in blood starting at the shredded remains of his little girl."

Daniel's eyes focused on Jack, his voice much louder but just as emotionally torn, "He had killed her. Sweet innocent little Sarah. The shock was so great. I don't know what happened to little Alex. I'm not sure how long he stood there before he noticed that he was not human. The horrible green plating all over him was covered in blood. He screamed."

Daniel's eyes lost focus again, his attention turning to memories. "Tried to rip the plates off. It eventually worked, but he wasn't him anymore. The arms, too small, the clothes fell off. He'd shrunk. He ran. Ran."

Back to whispering. Jack wished the man would just keep it to one level. "Ended up running off a cliff. Blacked out, but woke up again, with that damn green crap all over him again. I don't know how many times he managed to kill himself. But every time he woke up again. Until one time he woke up in a hospital bed."

Daniel focused again. "They told him his name was Daniel. The told him that his parents had died in the museum. And when the memories started to return, he didn't believe them. Blocked them as figments of the imagination." A derisive snort. "How could a fifteen year old have the memories of a forty?"

Jack was speechless. He couldn't believe what Daniel had just said, but the way the man spoke and armed with the knowledge that the stargate brought he couldn't totally discount it either.

Sam spoke up, "Oh come on, you don't really expect us to believe that."

Daniel's eyes pierced into hers and she stopped. She looked a little less confident.

"Believe what you want. I can only tell you what the memories of Sean Murphy are."

"But this doesn't tell us where he is now."

Daniel closed his eyes and looked down.

"Do you remember, that planet, the cave." He looked at Jack, "The sweet seductive voices that no one else could hear. The ones that made promises by a long extinct race?"

Ok, now Jack was confused.

"P3X-780" Jack nearly didn't hear the whisper.

"What was that?"

"P3X-780, try there." Daniel said one more time before disappearing into the pipes.

AN: yes yes I know it took forever. But honestly I've been trying to update for quite a while. It 's just that life isn't always going to acquiesce to my desires. I hope I've made this bit even a little interesting. And now you know what happened. The rest is just rapping it up I guess. But it's still going to take me a while. ::Sigh::