Title: As the 'Gate Turns: Retribution
Author: Annerb
Rating: Violence, language
Summary: "It's not about good and evil, right and wrong. It's about not being a victim."
Classifications: Series, Drama, Action
Season: Mid-season 8, up through End Game (AU from there)
Disclaimer The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

Author's Note: Things are rapidly coming to a head here. I am immensely grateful that you have stayed with me this long! Oh, and as feb04 so aptly commented, I'm 'going all out' in the concluding chapters…:) Triptnx and Montage-Thanks!

Feedback: Always appreciated!

Part 19: Retribution

Enki didn't turn around, not even when he heard the thud of fists against flesh and the thump of bodies falling senselessly to the floor. He could smell the tang of blood in the air and it made his head spin pleasantly, like a heady perfume. Eventually the last of his guards fell and silence descended over the peltak. He could hear her footsteps as she approached him.

"The return of the prodigal daughter," Enki remarked lightly with his back still to her.

"You have much to answer for, not only what you did to me, but to the children."

Enki could easily detect her fury, the fiery rage that burned inside. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. "Yes, I know," he said, his voice betraying his satisfaction.

She fell silent and Enki turned to see her staring at him, confusion clear on her face. He could see the moment her curiosity temporarily overrode her fury. "You must have known it would come to this. You must know that I won't let you live," she said eventually, her voice as sharp as broken glass.

Enki felt his love for her curl pleasantly in his stomach. "You are just as magnificent as I always knew you would be." He longed to reach out and touch her, but he knew she wouldn't allow it.

"This was your intent…from the very beginning," she said, her voice slightly breathless.

Enki smiled. "I have spent my entire existence working for this moment. You are my masterpiece," he said reverently. "Baal would have been happy with information or a nice host for his Queen, but my goals have always been loftier."

"You just wanted to see if you could do it," she said in growing understanding.

"You are the greatest power this galaxy has ever seen, will ever see. And I made you. I made you of me."

"You used your own DNA," she said, her voice dripping with disgust.

Enki just smiled again, not particularly minding her revulsion. "In some ways, I'm your father, just as much, or more so even, than your human one."

"Jack O'Neill is my father," she said harshly.

"Of course he is," Enki said calmly. He laughed at the look of surprise on her face. "What? You thought I didn't know? Come now, child, give me some credit. It's his fault, after all, that it took this long for you to come to me."

Enki paused for a moment, watching her as she processed what he was saying. "That was the one major obstacle. The Ancient knowledge. It protected you, even as you weren't aware of it doing so. It gave you the tools to fight your nature, to create defenses against your fate. But I knew, I always knew, it was just a matter of time until everything would fall away. And here you are, just as I always dreamed."

"My fate…" she said softly, staring at him with haunted eyes.

Enki felt a twist of pleasure in his gut in response. "But you didn't come here for answers, my sweet. You already have them," he reminded her, tapping at his temple.

He could see her mentally shake herself. "Perhaps," she finally said slowly, before raising hard eyes to his face. "But I also needed a ship."

Enki laughed softly, reveling in the calculating gleam in her eye, the fire burning just below the surface. He only wished that he could be there to watch her burn her way through the galaxy. But seeing her here like this, it was enough. "Well, now you have one," he said sincerely, gesturing around the peltak.

"You really don't care, do you? You have doomed your entire race, and you don't even care."

Enki just smiled in response, his heart full of fanatic joy. "It will be an honor to die at your hands, god-slayer."

Haley's eyes flashed with anger and disgust. "You are a monster," she growled, once again advancing on him.

Enki closed his eyes in anticipation, memorizing the feel of her hands on his flesh. The wide, fanatical smile never left his face, not even when death finally claimed him.

"Somebody want to explain that to me again?"

Sam sympathized with Jack. This was the second time she had heard the story and she was still having a difficult time with it. It was hard to grasp what exactly millennia-old apocalyptic stories had to do with their current situation.

"This explains much," Teal'c said in the following silence.

"Maybe for you," Jack mumbled, leaning back in his chair.

Sam shook her head at Teal'c. "I still don't really understand. If what you say about Dinah is true, that she was some sort of superhuman…er…super-Unas, Goa'uld killer, then why would Apophis or Baal ever risk producing another harcesis?"

"Arrogance has long been the Goa'uld's greatest weakness, Colonel Carter."

"Teal'c is right," Selmak agreed. "Also, Apophis was quite young in the scheme of things. He did not live through the cataclysm, but was born much later. In fact, the only Goa'uld that survives from that time now is Lord Yu."

"Right," Sam said slowly. "From what you've said, they were nearly hunted to extinction. How many survived Dinah's purge?"

"Less than a hundred."

"That many?" Jack asked.

"Before Dinah, there were thousands throughout the galaxy. Plus, only a handful of Queens survived, all of which you have managed to dispose of in the last few years. It took them thousands of years to rebuild. The other survivors, Cronus, Ra, Sokar, Anubis, Osiris, well…you are well aware of what has happened to them since. They have also done a nice job of killing each other off along the way. These days, it won't take much for the harcesis to finish them off, once and for all."

"What happened to Dinah in the end?" Daniel asked, finally breaking his long silence.

"It was never clear. It is said that in the end her own people turned on her. Cronus's brother, Hyperion, was under attack from Dinah, who had managed to capture one of the Goa'uld's ships. Hyperion, unable to escape, ordered that his chamber be filled with Unas, believing that she would never harm her own kind just to get to him. Dinah reduced the entire palace to dust. The price of one Goa'uld's death was more than five hundred of her own people's lives. It is said that her people's fear, in the end, was the only thing that could destroy her. She was betrayed and murdered.

"Ra, fresh from his new discovery of the Tau'ri, waltzed back to become the Supreme System Lord of the surviving Goa'uld. The breeding of hosts was strictly forbidden, that one law held sacred by all Goa'uld."

"Until Apophis and Baal."

"Yes. I imagine the appeal of a host with nearly apocalyptic abilities was too much for them to resist."

"There's got to be some sort of poetic justice in there somewhere," Jack noted humorlessly.

An incoming wormhole interrupted any further conversation. Anise and another Tok'ra came through a few moments later.

"Oh, here we go," Jack complained.

Selmak didn't even bother to glare.

Upon reaching the briefing room Anise said, "I am sorry to interrupt, but we needed to speak to Selmak urgently."

Before Jack could even speak, Selmak had already moved out of her chair to Anise's side. "It is alright, Anise. What brings you here?"

Anise was clearly distressed. "Kalresh has been murdered."

Selmak didn't look surprised. "So," she said, nodding slowly, "it has begun. Was anyone else hurt?"

"No. Just Kalresh. It wasn't…quick." The look of horror on Anise's face filled in the details.

Selmak just nodded slowly. "I'm sure it wasn't. At least she is still distinguishing between friend and foe, though."

Jack, who had been silently watching the exchange, jumped in at this point. "I'm sorry, but am I to understand that you assume Haley had something to do with this?"

Anise and Selmak shared a look. "Kalresh was a Goa'uld spy," Selmak eventually said.

"What?" Jack snapped, this being new information to him.

"Yes. He was the one who betrayed Haley to Baal. She was able to identify him before we left the planet."

Jack looked like he was about to have an apoplexy. "And you didn't do anything about it! Or think that we deserved to know?"

"He was useful for feeding false information back to the Goa'uld," Anise offered calmly.

"Plus, Haley seems to have ensured he receive proper punishment," Selmak noted dryly.

"There is something you are not telling us, Selmak," Anise accused.

"I did not wish to cause undue panic by voicing unconfirmed suspicions. Unfortunately they have turned out to be true. Haley is harcesis."

The two Tok'ra went completely pale.

"Okay, someone needs to tell me why you Tok'ra as so freaked out by this. It's getting ridiculous," Jack said.

"You must remember that as much as we hate to admit it, we do descend from the Goa'uld. We have their memories as well as their fears. Egeria, our Queen, lived through Dinah's purge. She did not found the resistance until many millennia later."

"You're scared she may not be able to tell the difference," Daniel offered, still sitting at the table.

Selmak nodded. "It is something we need to consider."

"Are you trying to say that Haley might try to do in the Tok'ra, too?" Jack asked. At the moment, he honestly wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Selmak suddenly lowered her head and then Jacob was speaking. "Jack. I know this is still hard to grasp and that you aren't inclined to trust any Tok'ra right now, but you need to let us go back. You need us and our intelligence if you have any hopes of following what Haley might be doing out there."

"And what if we just want to try and find her ourselves?"

Jacob frowned slightly. "You can try, but I don't think you will have any luck. Not if she doesn't want to be found."

Jack thought back to how easily Haley had eluded all of them after she had escaped the NID. And now she had the entire galaxy at her fingertips. "Needle in the haystack," Jack commented tonelessly.

Jacob nodded.

Suddenly out of choices, it seemed that they were going to have to rely on the Tok'ra. Jack felt a headache coming on.

The meeting with the Tok'ra was as mindless as Jack knew it would be. It had taken weeks to get everything worked out between the two former allies, much to Jack's endless annoyance. Now they were meeting on the Tok'ra base, cementing their new relationship and comparing notes on the 'situation' as they had started calling it.

Daniel was in his element, diplomacy had always been his strong point. Jack was happy to just be a figurehead. He'd gotten pretty good at keeping his mouth shut and nodding at the appropriate time. But man, was he bored!

About twenty minutes into the indeterminable meeting, one of the Tok'ra's particularly pithy voice cut through Jack's haze of boredom. "Are you sure you have no idea where she is?"

Jack didn't care for his tone. Boredom began to be replaced by anger, the only two feelings he seemed to be capable of feeling when it came to the Tok'ra. They were not on trial here and he refused to be treated like a criminal. He didn't like the insinuation that they were withholding information. But before he could do or say something rashly undiplomatic, Daniel interrupted him.

"Uh…I have a pretty good idea where she is," Daniel suddenly said, staring over Jack's shoulder.

Jack slowly turned around to see Haley standing calmly at the chamber entrance. There was a long tense silence and then she smiled.

"Hey guys. Long time, no see," she said, her voice rather cheerful as if she was actually glad to see them.

It was nearly the last thing Jack expected. She seemed almost…normal. He cleared his throat. "Uh…Haley. What're…uh…" He had no idea what to say.

But Haley just smiled wider and laughed. "Jack O'Neill, at a loss for words. Not sure I'd ever see the day."

"I think he meant to say, what brings you here?" Daniel said casually.

Jack was impressed by his carefully diplomatic tone.

"Oh, just doing a little spring cleaning," Haley answered, just as carefully casual as Daniel. It was only in that moment that Jack finally noticed the body lying at Haley's feet. "I didn't have much time on my last visit."

They could have been discussing knitting, her tone was so relaxed and matter of fact. Jack was completely thrown. On the one hand, she seemed completely normal, on the other, well, there was a dead body at her feet. He wasn't sure what he had expected. A black cape and a mustache? Anything other than the complete normalness she seemed to exude.

Haley carefully stepped over the body and walked a few more steps into the room. "Sorry to interrupt what I am sure is a fascinating meeting…" Her eyes darted to Jack and she gave him a small smile, as if she just knew that he was bored.

The Tok'ra, at her approach, all watched her warily, some outright jumping out of her way.

"Calm down," Haley admonished gently, even as she pulled a gun from her waistband. "I only came for Theta."

The Tok'ra in question stood abruptly from her chair, her eyes flashing. But her voice, when she finally spoke, was quite tremulous. "I don't understand. I haven't done anything!"

Haley just shook her head and aimed the gun at her. "See? Now you're a spy and a liar." She looked around at the other Tok'ra. "You guys have the worst Goa'uld pest problem."

Anise, in a moment of bravery that Jack hadn't known she had in her, jumped out of her seat. "Let us try to save the host at least. You may do whatever you wish to the Goa'uld."

"Sorry, don't have the time," Haley answered.

At the last moment, Anise gave herself away, her eyes darting nervously over Haley's shoulder towards the Tok'ra guards that were currently aiming zats at Haley from behind.

"Nice try," was all Haley said, not even bothering to turn around.

"Please!" Theta squeaked.

One of the guards fired and there was an orange flash as the energy beamed bounced off a shield surrounding Haley.

Haley just sighed. "You know, Jack, I beginning to think you're right. The Tok'ra really aren't any better than the Goa'uld, are they?"

Jack ignored the quip, a little too focused on other things. "Nice shield you got there, Haley," he noted, secretly alarmed at this newest development. There was just something wrong about her using Goa'uld technology.

"Yeah. Nice, huh? Enki gave it to me. Well, maybe not gave…but he doesn't really need it anymore."

Theta, meanwhile, had begun skirting slowly around the table, probably hoping to make a dash for the exit. None of the other Tok'ra made to stop her.

"Don't," was all Haley said.

But Theta, pushed by fear, rashly reached out and grabbed Sam, a small Goa'uld device on her finger. "Let me go, or I will kill her."

Haley didn't hesitate. She wiped around, gun extended, and took Theta out with a single shot to the head.

Sam glanced, eyes wide, from her daughter to the collapsed Goa'uld spy behind her.

"I don't respond well to ultimatums," Haley said lightly to Theta's prone body. "Sorry to leave you with such a mess…" Haley flashed them all another smile and walked past the two stunned Tok'ra guards, heading towards the exit.

Daniel was the first to move forward and stop her. "Haley. Come back with us. We can help you."

"Help me?" Haley asked in confusion. "Help me with what?"

"I know it's probably confusing, but you don't have to do this," he said carefully.

"This?"

"The killing."

"Ah." She smiled slightly. "I get it. You've managed to convince yourselves that something is wrong with me."

"But the memories-"

"I don't know what old wives' tales these guys might have been sharing with you, but I am not being possessed by my memories. This is me, it's always been me."

"But, this isn't you, Haley. You're not-" Daniel broke off abruptly, as if he was incapable of saying what exactly she was.

Haley considered Daniel for a long moment, her head gently tilted to one side. "It's not about killing, Daniel," she said with soft earnestness, as if willing him to understand. "And it's not about good and evil, right and wrong. It's about not being a victim."

That statement managed to effectively silence Daniel. Jack couldn't help but remember Haley when she had first come to Earth, right after Jonathan's death, her eyes blazing as she swore, Someday the Goa'uld will have to pay for what they have done. I will make them pay. The only way any of them had managed to wade through all of the recent craziness was to work under the assumption that Haley was sick and just needed their help. The thought that she was doing all this under her own power…it was difficult to accept, even if not hard to believe.

Pulling her eyes from Daniel, Haley smiled at the room at large and moved for the door. "Well, if you'll all excuse me, I have an appointment with good ole Bastet."

"We can't let you go, Haley," Jack said evenly.

"Don't see that you have much choice, Jack," Haley quipped lightly.

"Stop this and come home, Haley," Sam said softly.

Haley stopped and shook her head at them, clearly confounded by their behavior. "I don't understand you. Isn't this what you want? The end of the Goa'uld? I would think you would all be happy! Daniel, you will finally have revenge for your beloved Sha're. Teal'c, your people will no longer be slaves. And you two," she said, swinging around to face her parents, "you will finally be out of excuses. No more stealing kisses in time loops or making out with hallucinations. How is this not a good thing?"

"This isn't the way to do it," Jack said softly.

Haley shook her head in disbelief. "Fine. Think what you want. Just make sure that you stay out of my way."

That sounded far too ominous to Jack. "Or what?" he questioned.

Haley rolled her eyes and sighed. "Please, Jack, spare me the melodrama. I'm just trying to give you a chance to avoid getting swept up in the whirlwind. But if you insist on meddling…"

"I don't think we've ever really known you, have we?" Daniel asked softly, carefully not looking at her.

Haley actually looked pained for a moment, before she sneered at them. "But I know you." She turned and looked pointedly at Jack and Sam. "I know every person you have betrayed; I can feel the blood of every one of your victims flowing over my hands. I know what you are capable of. In some ways, you really are no better than the Goa'uld yourselves."

"Does that mean we should expect the same treatment?" Sam asked, gesturing vaguely towards the body of Theta.

The soft question clearly startled Haley. "I don't have time for this," she finally ground out. As she strolled out of the room, she casually called over her shoulder, "If you've got any agents with Bastet, Tok'ra, I suggest you recall them immediately."

With that last ominous warning, she was gone.

Jack carefully crossed off Bastet's name on the board in front of him. With the help of the Tok'ra, they had put together a sort of family tree of known Goa'uld. Every couple of days the Tok'ra would share the intelligence they managed to gather on Haley's movements throughout the galaxy. Dead Goa'uld were slowly crossed off, one by one.

Less than a week after Haley's appearance at the Tok'ra base, Anise reported that Bastet, along with five of her hat'ak class motherships, had mysteriously reached a fiery end. Three Tok'ra agents, a minor Goa'uld named Maahes, and over six thousand Jaffa died on those ships. The sheer scale of the attack had floored everyone. Logically, Jack knew that Jaffa couldn't really be considered innocents, he'd killed more than his fair share, after all, but the death toll still seemed excessive.

Enki, Kalresh, Theta, Tefnut, Shu, Camulus, Ares, Tobosaku and Itzamna had all fallen in the two months Haley had been out there, their names carefully crossed out with red ink. There were sure to have been dozens more that they did not hear about, as the Tok'ra generally only had spies in the ranks of higher level Goa'ulds.

Nameless thousands of Jaffa had also fallen, though, according to Teal'c, they were beginning to abandon their gods in droves, now that the mythical apocalypse seemed near. The Jaffa rebellion was growing in strength, just another nail in the coffin of the Goa'uld.

He should be celebrating and watching their demise with glee, but he can't quite muster the energy.

"I'm not really sure what to feel about it either," came Sam's soft voice from behind him.

He could feel her standing right behind him, but didn't turn to look at her. He wasn't sure he could resist holding on to her right now. "Nothing's ever easy for us, is it?" he said instead.

"What would be the fun in doing something the easy way?" she quipped lightly. Jack wondered when she became the one trying to make him laugh all the time. That used to be his job. He continued to stare broodingly at the board in front of him.

Then her hand on was his arm, squeezing gently. "We'll deal with it, whatever happens."

Jack didn't know how she could sound so quietly confident, but it helped to hear it. He abruptly turned to find her smiling gently at him.

"But for now…let's just go eat some cake and be thankful that this war seems to be reaching its end."

Jack was suddenly very glad that he wasn't trying to do this alone.

Two weeks later, Jack was roused out of an impromptu nap on his desk by droning klaxons.

"Unauthorized off-world activation!"

"Now what?" Jack grumbled as he headed down to the control room.

"IDC?" he asked Walter, glancing up at the iris shuttered Stargate.

Just as Walter began shaking his head a shimmering light began to appear at the base of the ramp. It slowly materialized into the familiar form of Lord Yu.

"Somebody's managed to scavenge some of Baal's toys," Jack noted wryly to Walter.

"It would seem so, sir."

"Guess I should go see what he wants," Jack said resignedly.

After waving for the airmen in the gateroom to stop pointing their guns uselessly at what was clearly a hologram, Jack turned to Lord Yu with an expansive smile on his face. "Lord Yu! To what do we owe this pleasure?"

Lord Yu did not look impressed. He looked down his nose at Jack as if contemplating a particularly annoying bug.

"I propose an alliance against our common enemy," Lord Yu said without preamble.

Jack just stared at him for a moment, wondering if he could have possibly heard him right. "Our common enemy?" he managed to ask eventually, even though he had a pretty good idea who he meant.

"Yes. The harcesis. She has already killed countless thousands."

"Wow. You and the System Lords must be getting pretty desperate to come to us."

Lord Yu now looked like he had a very bad taste in his mouth. "The System Lords are dead."

"Dead? What, all of them?" Jack asked in surprise. The Tok'ra had mentioned nothing of this new development.

Yu nodded once stiffly.

Jack began counting off on his fingers, "Kali, Morrigan, Amateratsu, Olokun?"

Yu didn't need to nod, his displeasure clear on his face. "They were imprudent enough to walk into a trap."

"Interesting. Guess that last meeting didn't go so well."

"Will you help or not?" Yu bit out harshly.

"Uh…" Jack said with one hand stroking his chin as if mulling the question over, "I'm gonna have to say no."

"No?" Yu actually had the temerity to sound surprised.

"Look, Yu, buddy. Sure we've collaborated in the past, heck, we've even had some halfway decent conversations. But you're a Goa'uld. Does the phrase 'mortal enemies' mean anything to you?"

"Without my help, you will have no chance at stopping her. Don't be a fool. You need me as much as I need you."

"You seem to have forgotten, she's not after us."

Lord Yu sneered at Jack, his contempt of the Tau'ri leader clear. "Do you honestly believe that when she is done with us, that she will just stop? She is a killer. That is all she will ever be. She won't stop until this galaxy is a wasteland."

His words hit a little close to home, but Jack remained impassive.

"Are you all completely free of sin?" Yu demanded.

"She won't turn on her own people," Jack claimed, but it rang hollow, even to his own ears.

"You are a fool," Yu scoffed, "and you damn us both today."

When Jack made no move to respond, Yu sighed once, sounding unnervingly human for a moment. "I guess my only solace will be in knowing that you will all soon follow me into death."

Before Jack could think of a suitable response to that, Yu disappeared.

Jack knew he had done the right thing, turning down Yu's offer, but that didn't stop the feeling that everything was rapidly closing in on all sides. It was getting tough not to feel claustrophobic. He sighed once and headed for the briefing room to cross off four more names on the dwindling list of gods.

A week later, Lord Yu was dead, the last of his generation and soon to be the last of his kind. And quietly, in the back of everyone's minds, was one question. Who would be next?