Chapter 26: The Time of Truths
Jack cursed out loud; holding nothing back as Coris stared him down. And he had been doing so well. Damn! Well, all good things have to come to an end sooner or later. It may as well have been then.
"Jack? What're you doing?" Coris asked threateningly.
"Uh...me? I'm doing nothing, I swear. I'm being a good little soldier." Jack replied in a sarcastic tone.
Coris continued to stare him down, sending chills up and down his spine. He locked onto her gaze his piercing brown eyes boring into her and not even phasing her where it would've sent a well-trained soldier into alert.
Keeping Coris's gaze, Jack devised a plan. If he could just get that pendant. Oh,he didn't want to go in after it, but if that was what it took to save Sam, he'd go for it. With that thought fresh in his mind he lunged at her, both of them hitting the ground.
Jack reached into the pocket he'd seen Coris drop the pendant in only to find it was gone! He was out of luck there.
"Colonel, Over here!" Sam yelled. Jack looked at her.
"In my front pocket. Hurry!" Sam yelled again.
Jack scrambled off of Coris and took off at a run towards Sam, he heard Coris come after him but, kept going, He plowed through the executioner and plunged his hand into Sam's pocket. There! He felt the coolness of the metal between his fingers and pulled it out.
It was a diamond shape, made of green glass, and the chain was gold.
He threw the pendant down and brought his booted foot down upon it. It smashed under him and released a whirlwind of green into the air, a violent breeze blowing around him.
Coris screamed from behind him in a fit of rage and Jack couldn't help, but smile. He grabbed what was left or the chain and glass and tossed it over the edge.
"Executioner, push her over!" Coris screamed. Jack went into overdrive; he leapt at the executioner and flattened him.
"I don't think so!" Jack yelled.
Suddenly from under him the executioner vanished and he hit the ground. Recovering quickly, he jumped to his feet and put himself between Sam and Coris.
Carter was watching desperately over her shoulder at what was going on and saw Jack put himself behind her.
Coris was advancing, a mutilated and tattered mess, her hands were shaking in the pale light, and she was furious. Jack backed up until he ran into Sam; he could go no further.
Coris stopped then and she jumped at him, Jack felt a cool mist as she hit him and then she was gone, just like that. He felt Sam teeter behind him and thrust his arms around tokeep her from falling and he turned back to her, bending down and releasing her hands. From there he moved to the chain around her ankles, it was broken. And the cuff had been released.
"When you destroyed the pendant, you destroyed her power and that's all that she had left. It must've counteracted everything." Sam stepped back away from the cliff, the blue gown flowing around her, and she was shivering in the night.
"Look at you Carter, you're freezing." Jack replied, shucking off his jacket, and wrapping it about her shoulders. Her shivering slowed as she moved back to the cliff and peered over.
"I can't believe it." She stated, clearly meaning Jonas's shove over the edge.
"Maybe it didn't happen at all." Jack replied, a wishful tone in his voice, he knew very well what had happened.
"Okay, we can wake up any time now!" Jack called into the night. He didn't wake up and he was still standing on the cliff-top.
Sam pulled the Jacket closer and kept her gaze shifted over the cliff into the dark water. She felt a gentle touch on her shoulder, and leaned into it. Jack put his mouth close to here ear.
"Let's go see if we can find him." Were his words. The words were shaky, flooded with sadness and some sort of reserved hope, but she didn't mention it, both of them were hurting at the moment. They were afraid of what might have happened to Jonas. It wasn't something they wanted to face, but it had to be done.
"Okay." She replied quietly, her voice threatening to crack.
Jonas felt like he was living a dream. Pain seared through his right arm, he was cold, and soaked. Water swirled around him, and he couldn't breathe. He pushed himself to the surface as fast as he could, his lungs burning, his arm protesting.
Before reaching the surface he felt something grab his ankle. Looking down, panic stricken he saw long bony fingers interlaced around his ankle and he couldn't free himself. He looked beyond the hand, and found himself staring into the hollow eyes of a woman, her mouth in a satisfied smile.
"There's no escape for you, Jonas." The mouth spoke. It was Coris's voice, and Jonas struggled against the grip.
He opened his mouth to yell for help and only succeeded in pulling in a mouth full of water. He choked on the cold liquid as it grabbed onto him and he continued to struggle.
Finally he pulled himself free and dashed to the surface. He broke through coughing and choking. Shaking in the chill. He brought his hand up to his temple where a sticky substance claimed his finger tips, he must've hit his head on the way down.
He continued to cough and he tried to pull himself to land. Before reaching it though, a pair of strong hands grabbed him. He felt himself being pulled free of the water and looked up into the night, wondering who had just saved him, and finding no one.
He rubbed at his temple again before giving into the darkness that embraced him.
He awoke sometime later and felt the hard ground beneath him. He could hear voices coming nearer to him and he recognized them as SG-1. Sam and Jack actually. He wanted to yell out, but couldn't, his voice wouldn't obey, and instead he dragged himself along the ground, too weak to get to his feet.
He'd traveled about a foot when he gave into exhaustion and instead, just waited for his friends to come to him.
"If he's alive, he'll be around here Sir. That is, if he managed to get out of the water." Sam's voice floated to him, through the fogginess of his brain.
"Let's hope that he did." Came Jack's voice.
Branches snapped from near him and he felt the presence of someone draw closer.
Jack broke through the woods and looked over the riverbank. Jonas couldn't be dead, he couldn't! He continued to search desperately and finally caught sight of a still heap, on the ground ahead.
"Carter, over here!" He shouted, and Sam came running.
Jonas heard Jack's yell and smiled, he'd been found! The shout was followed by the sound of pounding feet and a figure dropped next to him. He looked up through bleary eyes and was looking into the deep brown eyes of Colonel O'Neill.
"Jonas! You're just like a bad weed, you're impossible to kill, aren't you?" Jack asked, despite the way the words sounded, there was a playful tone inthe Colonel'svoice and Jonas couldn't help, but smile.
"You sound so disappointed." Jonas stated, his voice a raspy whisper in his throat.
"Not at all."
"Is she...?" Jonas asked, meaning Coris.
"She's gone, Jonas and you're going to be fine." Sam replied, moving into his view.
"Let's get out of here and go back to the gate, Teal'c's probably having a fit." Jack replied.
Jonas nodded, and gasped as Jack pulled him to his feet by his right arm.
"Sorry, wrong arm." Jack said.
"Yeah." Jonas replied and allowed himself to be lead away.
The three members of SG-1 moved slowly into camp, Teal'c, moved from the open gate where he'd been sending a message to the SGC of further...complications and greeted them with a relieved smile.
"It is good to see you are well O'Neill." Teal'c replied, he then looked to Carter who was wrapped in Jack's coat and to Jonas, who was leaning heavily against Jack.
"Oh yeah, peachy." Jack replied, holding the trembling Jonas steady.
"Can we get out of here yet?" Sam asked.
"I do not know Major Carter, I was merely reporting to General Hammond the further complications before I set out to retrieve you." Teal'c stated, lending a hand with Jonas.
"Uh, General?" Jack asked, moving closer to the open gate.
"Colonel O'Neill, is everything all right?" Hammond's voice drifted through the radio to them.
"Oh yeah, peachy keen Sir, we're uh gonna try to come back, if we do succeed we'll need Dr. Fraser and a med. team standing by, Jonas is due for some time in the infirmary." Jack said.
"Very well, I'll call them down. I hope to see you soon, Hammond out." The General's voice was cut off then and the gate remained open.
"Well kids, let's go home." Jack stated moving towards the gate. Before he reached it though, Dr. Jackson appeared out of the night.
"Daniel, hi, thought you weren't gonna leave us on that cliff top all alone. What happened to that plan? It was a good one." Jack asked.
"Yeah about that, sorry, I had some things to attend to." He smiled softly and looked toward Jonas, who was leaning against Jack, head up, looking blearily at him.
"You." Jonas whispered, he knew now who had saved him from certain death and he smiled weakly.
Daniel nodded.
"You should be able to get out of here, give it a try, and I'll see you all again soon. I have to go now." Daniel disappeared into the darkness.
"And he says he's not a ghost..." Jack mused.
"I'm not a ghost, Jack." Came the disembodied voice of Daniel.
"I hate it when he does that, it's seriously freaky."
Teal'c and Jack led Jonas to the shimmering pool of blue and took a deep breath.
"The moment of truth is upon us." Jack said as he stepped through the gate, Jonas in tow. Sam followed him. Hopefully this time would be a charm...