A/N: Sorry it's been so long! Parents got back from Europe this week, boyfriend left to go back to France (for good, won't see him until Christmas when I go over there to visit), and it was all on the same day so a bit of upheaval in my life! Oh, and classes started again :-(.
Thank you to everyone again for their reviews! They make me so happy (warm, fuzzy grin)! I know it was a bit of a mean cliffhanger for you all to endure so I made sure that I gave this chapter the detail and length I thought it deserved! Actually, I would have liked to make it two chapters, but hey… this works too.
Thanks Revvie-S for your comment. I love doing the funny bits of dialogue but this fic has been so angsty that I've been struggling to find appropriate spots for it! I think that's why I spent so many chapters at the SGC before they actually went anywhere… ("Senic? Sir? How much concrete can you want to see?" hehe). Thanks for your email too!
And to janissima, not that I want to spoil any aspect of the ending of this fic, but I would NEVER do that! I like them all too much! So rest assured for my fics…
Fyi, the title of this chapter is a French word that kind of means upheaval and/or change... but with a slightly different sense... it's hard to explain,sorry - Ijust thought it well described the chapter. Right, here's the next part… end suspense music!
Togar welcomed the flash of white light that engulfed him. Sitting idly by while those insolent humans and the grievous 'error' that was Togar plotted against him had made him murderously irate. He didn't care where they were putting him, he would find a way to avenge their mutiny, but it would have to be better than trapped in that chair, watching helplessly as they defied his authority. His happiness was short-lived, however, as he rematerialised to see two familiar faces glaring at him darkly.
"Ovar… Seego…" he stammered their names, aghast at the sight before him. "I was not expecting you for many hours." Togar felt himself edging backwards from the two men – identical in appearance to him but wearing different clothing – towards the wall behind him, subconsciously searching for an escape.
"Togar, it is indeed fortuitous that we have arrived ahead of schedule." The man on the left, a large 'O' embossed on his clothing, spoke.
"Undeniably fortuitous, I would think," contributed the man next to him, who was sporting a large 'S' on his clothing. "There have been concerns in the Association as to the efficacy of your experiments. We thought an impromptu visit would provide us with a vastly more accurate representation of your work."
"And indeed it has done so." Ovar took a menacing step towards Togar, who was now pressed against the wall. "Was it your intention to be overrun by the prisoners and your 'error'?" The tone of Ovar's voice was serious, but Togar could tell from his expression that the malicious overseer of scientific research was quietly plotting his downfall.
"You… I… you must understand…" Togar couldn't string the words together adequately with the piercing glares of Ovar and Seego trained on his face.
"SILENCE! FAILURE!" Seego swept his right hand over his left wrist and invisible shackles jumped out of the wall Togar was pressed up against to restrain and gag him. "WE HAVE NO TOLERANCE FOR FIASCOS SUCH AS THIS!"
Togar struggled against his restraints but it was to no avail. His eyes were wide open as he looked to the men in front of him, trying to communicate his situation. It was no use.
"We have come to shut down your operation." Seego's voice returned to its normal, cold, timbre. "The subjects will be terminated. Never again shall anything or anyone come through the great circle. It is too dangerous. Look what they have done even in controlled conditions! They could have overrun the entire Association!"
Togar tried to nod vigorously, in agreement with the overseers, but achieved only a slight tremor of the head. His eyes followed Ovar, who was moving to the wall to his left. He watched the man reveal the control panel hidden in the décor and stifled a snarling laugh at seeing him trying in vain to activate the computer functions.
"What is the meaning of this?" Ovar turned swiftly towards Togar. "I demand that you reactivate the controlling panel for this installation!"
Togar suddenly felt the invisible gag slide away from his mouth. Moving his lips in a circular motion to rejuvenate the blood flow, he let his mouth form a large, malevolent grin.
"It is not I who has altered the system, but the 'error' you so spoke of." He adopted a scolding tone of voice. "I told the Association of Urgo's potential but nobody believed me. Here is the proof that an 'error' such as he can vastly compromise our situation."
"THE ASSOCIATION'S DECISION IS FINAL!" screeched Ovar, astonished that such insolence could exit the mouth of a respected member of the Organisation. He calmed his voice, moving closer to Togar, who was still restrained, although now able to speak. "Your punishment for endangering our world through the use of the great ring was warranted. However now I see we should have terminated both you and the 'error'. It is like a virus… it has corrupted you." He spat the second last word out as if it denoted the most horrible fate that could ever become a human being. The look of disgust on his face made his opinion perfectly clear on the subject. "In fact," he looked to Seego briefly, who nodded, before continuing. "I think you will be terminated with the 'error' and your test subjects. Yes, a most fitting end for a most unsatisfactory scientist."
Before Togar could protest, a white light engulfed him and he found himself, now divorced of his technological wrist devices, once again restrained in the chair in the experimentation room, with his four test subjects gaping at him in disbelief.
"Uh, Urgo?" Jack kept his voice light, as if he were asking the man to pass him the salt. "What's he doing back here?"
Togar looked around him dejectedly, feeling impotent without his various technological devices. He looked angrily to the grey-haired man who had spoken and snarled at him before surveying the scene before him properly. With a start he realised that more had been taken from him than the wrist bands that had been fused to his skin. He could no longer see Urgo in the room.
"I do not know of what you speak," he growled, vainly hoping the human was playing with his head. "Urgo is not presently in this chamber."
Sam looked up sharply at Urgo in shock and surprise. She saw Togar looking blankly in the direction of the control panel in the middle of the room, but he seemed to be looking straight through the man standing at the station.
"You can't see him anymore?" her voice was breathless with amazement at the possibility that Togar could have been altered in such a way by whoever 'they' were. "But he existed within your implant…" her voice trailed off as she tried to make sense of the situation.
"Oh my, they've completely disassociated him!" Urgo looked aghast and thrilled at the same time. "I am finally free of his control!"
Jack looked from Urgo to Togar in amazement. "So what, like you've been punished for losing control?" he asked Togar tentatively, knowing the alien could explode with rage at any moment. "They've taken all your techno-thingies away?"
"Exactly!" Urgo screeched from the middle of the room.
Togar, for his part, merely deepened the scowl he was directing at O'Neill. He had prepared a retort but saw the soldier's attention redirect to the middle of the room and assumed that Urgo was in fact speaking.
"The only reason you can see me is that he'd deactivated me and I'd taken refuge within the main computer systems of this place, I've configured your microprocessors so you can see me!"
Daniel had been slowly lifting his head out of the hole in the bench he was laid on. Looking at his own vomit on the floor was doing more harm than good. He shifted to his side, with some effort and help from Sam, so that he was now looking at Urgo.
"So that's why we don't need those attachments that Togar used before?" seeing the confused look on Jack's face, he quickly explained. "Before when Togar still had control, he put something above my ear, saying it let me 'perceive' Urgo."
Urgo nodded, having now returned his attention to the screens in front of him. His expression became increasingly concerned before in a moment, all the muscles on his face relaxed and he looked around the room, satisfied.
"We're getting out of here!" he beamed at the people in the room who could see and hear him. "We've just got to give Teal'c some time to recover consciousness and then I can make the arrangements." Seeing Sam looking intrigued by this developments, he grinned at her. "Come over here and I'll show you, Major," his tone was light-hearted and warm, he was immensely enjoying helping SG1. "When I locked us in here I purposefully didn't bar any transfers into the room. I hoped they would try to transport in to retake power of this facility. In that moment, a weakness would be created whereby I would safely be able to extend the protection field that is preventing them from manipulating our systems or transferring us out of here."
"So that's what you've done?" Jack was now sitting against the wall where Teal'c still lay unconscious, his eyes flitting from Urgo to Togar, who was looking murderous with silent rage. He ignored him. "You've extended this field-thing? Where to?"
"Ah, Colonel," Urgo grinned before motioning again at the control panel. Sam was now standing beside him, leaning over the controls, fascinated by the complexity of the systems. "Within our protective 'bubble' we now have the room where the stargate resides, and also the room where overseers were situated."
"So these… overseers… they're the ones that took Togar's implants away?" Daniel was scrunching his eyes up with the effort of concentrating.
"Is that wise?" Jack's eyebrows shot up, nearly touching his hairline in mock horror. "They're obviously not here to help us after all…"
Urgo grimaced slightly and tilted his head from side to side, as if weighing up the pros and cons of his decision. "It's true, they can move freely about the containment area, but I have deactivated all their sources for power and they will not be able to alter any of the computer systems." He made a few final adjustments to the panel in front of him before moving away from it finally with a purposeful step. "It doesn't matter. We'll be gone before they figure out what's happened."
Sam stood still where she was in front of the panel and looked intently at Urgo, puzzled. "Um, Urgo? How?"
Urgo didn't understand the sense of Sam's question. "What do you mean? You of all people shouldn't need me to explain exactly how the stargate works!"
Sam shook her head slightly, aware that she was about to cause a great disappointment to the man standing in front of her. "That's not it, Urgo. You said you'd remove our microprocessors… but if you do that, how will you come back with us? Togar doesn't have one anymore… you can't 'swap' with him…" To her surprise, Urgo merely grinned.
"Of course not, I will take one of the overseers' physical forms." He rolled his eyes as if this solution were the most obvious thing in the world. "Stop worrying and come with me to get your possessions – I've had to deactivate the transport mechanism so we'll have to walk there."
Before he could walk through the door in the corner of the room, however, it slid silently open and two men, identical in appearance to both Urgo and Togar, burst into the room brandishing P-90s.
"STOP WHERE YOU ARE! Insolent humans!" Both the Urgo/Togar clones boomed, waving the guns around in a sporadic manner. "We know your weapons can cause great damage. You would do best to stay put." The one on the left added menacingly.
Jack looked at the two men who had entered the room with surprise. They obviously had no training whatsoever in combat because they hadn't even looked around them properly.
"Togar said there were four of you." One of the men growled, "I only see two, plus the 'error'."
Before Togar could alert the men to the presence of Jack and the still-unconscious Teal'c against the wall behind them, Jack pounced on the one closest to him, and with a swift upwards action with his fist, cracked the man's jaw while simultaneously kneeing him in the groin to disarm him. He expertly grabbed the gun from the man who was now crouched over in agony and pointed it to the other one.
"Ovar!" the man who was still armed screeched in astonishment. "You let yourself be overpowered by a degenerate such as this!" While he spoke, he lunged forward at Sam and grabbed her by the arm, twisting it behind her and positioning himself behind so she acted like a shield between in and Jack. "Shoot at me and I will kill her!" he snarled aggressively.
Jack looked hopelessly at Sam, not knowing what to do. Seeing her wincing with pain he felt as if his chest was filling with lead. The weight of seeing her in such a dangerous predicament meant he could barely breathe, but he knew he had to keep the gun aimed on the man in front of him. He knew that if it came to it, he would have to shoot.
"Well… done… Seego…" Ovar gasped from his crouched position on the ground. "These two have great … emotions … towards each other. He will not shoot."
Sam struggled indignantly against Seego, who, although shorter than her, had a tight grip. "We're soldiers before anything else," she fired back to Ovar. "He will shoot if necessary." She locked eyes with Jack and realised that what she had just said was probably not true. She could see the anguish in his eyes as he led an internal battle between his soldier-instincts and his feelings for her.
A sudden change in the look on his face was the first clue that something was going on. His gaze shifted from her and Seego to over her shoulder, where she knew Daniel was on the bench. She cocked her head slightly, silently asking him what was going on, but to Jack's credit, he merely returned his attention to her and her captor, pretending nothing was going on.
What came next was so fast that Sam barely had time to see it before they were running out the door. Daniel had gotten up and was sneaking up behind her, holding the large metal contraption that had been hanging over the experimentation table where he lay. Unaware of this, Sam saw Ovar's eyes widen in shock and she heard him take in a sharp breath, ready to shout a warning to Seego when suddenly a great flash of dark skin moved behind Jack and pounced on the Urgo/Togar clone. That split second of action allowed Daniel to tackle Seego to the ground before kicking his gun away from him. Sam whirled around just in time to see Daniel fall to the ground next to the alien, clutching his head and breathing heavily into the ground. Sam quickly picked up the P-90, grabbed Daniel by the arm and started running to the door, following Urgo, Jack and Teal'c who were already in the next room.
"Urgo!" Jack boomed, all the while running through a corridor, "We need to leave – NOW!"
Urgo was running ahead of them, leading the way through the labyrinth of rooms. "Ok, ok." He made a complicated hand gesture towards the ceiling and, in a flash of white light, the team found themselves in a large chamber, once again wearing the full outfits they had had when they first came through the gate.
Startled to have suddenly arrived in another location again wearing all their military-issue equipment, all four of them stopped for a second in confusion. Sam looked up to Urgo in surprise, realising that he must have turned the security systems off.
"Wasn't that a bit risky? Anyone could be getting into the facility now." She looked at the other members of her team who were subconsciously exploring their vests to check that everything was present. She caught Jack's eye briefly and nodded to him, indicating she was ok. He had raised his eyebrows and was moving towards her nevertheless.
"They would have gotten in soon anyway." Urgo spoke quickly, and moved behind yet another console that seemed to control the computer systems. "I will hold them off until you are back home safe… we just need enough time to remove the chips."
Sam snapped her eyes away from Jack, who had reached her side and protectively placed a hand on her arm. "But what about you? Aren't you coming with us?" As much as she hated the idea of using another's body as a 'host', and as much as she dreaded more regular contact with the annoying man, she didn't want to see Urgo stay on Togar's planet.
"There's no time." Urgo stopped what he was doing momentarily and looked at her and Jack intently. "None of what has happened is your fault. It's Togar's. I won't give up but the most important thing is for you to get out of here before the entire Association arrives."
"Urgo, we'll figure something out-" Daniel began, from his corner where he and Teal'c were standing – with difficulty.
"No Daniel." Urgo was firm. "It's alright. I have learned a lot with you people here. There is a greater cause than my happiness, and I want to make sure this kind of horrible exploitation of other species never occurs again."
Jack looked at Urgo with renewed respect. "Well buddy…" he began, unsure of what to say. "I guess thank you…" He looked at Sam, who had an increasingly melancholy expression on her face. Interlocking his fingers with hers, he brought her hand up to his mouth and placed a light kiss on the back of her hand. She looked up at him and smiled weakly in return, causing his heart to warm slightly.
"Oh, Urgo… another thing." Jack was trying to ignore Teal'c's raised eyebrow in the corner. He could have done without Daniel's smug grin upon seeing such affection between him and Sam as well. "Can we keep our memories this time?" He glanced at Sam, realising that he never wanted to forget what he'd learned in the past couple of days, despite the torture of arriving at the understanding they'd reached.
Urgo's face cleared from its serious expression into a knowing smile. "Of course!" He started working frantically again. "Usually the removal of the microprocessors incorporates the eradication of your memories of this place, so I will have to change the system and treat you individually… but it can be done."
A large bang resonated from the far-off distance, causing everyone in the room to jump. "Hurry, we must begin now!"
Jack gave Sam a small push in the back and indicated for her to step up to the platform Urgo was pointing to. She moved quickly and felt the not-unpleasant penetrating lasers remove the microchip from her brain. With a strange zapping-popping noise, Urgo disappeared from view in front of her. Looking around to Jack, she nodded at him before stepping off to allow him access.
Just as Urgo disappeared from Jack's field of vision, the sound of angry voices reached their ears. The members of the Association were getting closer to their position.
"Jack!" Daniel shouted. "Urgo says we have to go!" He's got to remove my and Teal'c's chip quickly and then we'll be directly transported and sent through the gate – cover the door!"
Sam and Jack both clutched their P-90s and positioned themselves on either side of the only door that seemed to lead into the room. They could hear the sound of approaching footsteps as strange white lights penetrated Teal'c and Daniel's skulls at the same time, before…
"-illy?" Teal'c stopped to look around him as they arrived in the gate room. Puzzled, he addressed the General, who was standing in the middle of the room, looking immensely relieved "General Hammond, did we not just leave the SGC?"
Before General Hammond could respond – before anyone could say anything – all four members of SG1 collapsed onto the ramp, unconscious.
A/N: So they're home! Yay! We're almost at the end of the fic… I'd say one, maybe two chapters left…
Oh, and the "-illy?" bit refers to what Teal'c was saying when the left the SGC … just like in the episodes on the show where they come back through the gate as if no time whatsoever had passed.
Don't all jump on me about the memory/time thing, I have a plan (you'll probably guess it – I'm not that complex)… just wait until the next instalment (a big ask, I know, but it's the weekend so I should be able to get it out pretty quick).
In the meantime, please let me know what you think! You know I love seeing the email alerts!