Chapter 27: Final Battle
O'Neill's knees gave out, and he crumpled to the floor, moaning in pain. Sam raced to catch him, while Hammond rushed to steady Jonas.
"Get them on the beds!" Fraser yelled, her voice alarmed.
Teal'c aided Sam in getting O'Neill onto the bed next to Jonas, while Hammond easily lifted Jonas onto the other bed.
Jonas was vaguely aware of what was happening. He felt pain, then he felt someone lift him onto the bed. Deadly images flashed violently through his mind, each one ploughing through his thoughts with the force of a herd of wild horses. He heard sounds, smelled scents, and felt emotions.
Through the flashes, he clearly saw two glowing eyes, and beneath the eyes was a wide, grinning mouth. Jonas cringed away from it, but it still watched him. He felt his face flush again, and he felt the room lurch around him. The eyes seemed to be growing closer.
"Stay away!" Jonas yelled frantically. Hammond jumped back in time to avoid a solid swing from Jonas.
"Don't you dare die on me, Colonel! I already lost one patient today. I don't want to make it two!" Fraser yelled. O'Neill's form had fallen still, and his eyes slid shut. She reached a hand to his neck to feel for a pulse, but found merely a dying flutter beneath her fingertips.
"Damn! Get the paddles, we're losing him!" Fraser shouted.
Nurses rushed to obey, and seconds later the paddles were brought to her. She flipped the switch and tore O'Neill's jacket open, yanking his shirt up.
"Now!" Fraser shocked O'Neill, and the heart rhythm picked up slightly, but died away.
"Again!" Another shock was administered, and O'Neill's rhythm remained steady.
"Got him!" On the bed next to O'Neill, she saw a small vile resting in his jacket pocket. She took it and handed it off to a shocked looking Sam before moving onto Jonas.
"We'll have to sedate him. His fever spiked again, but this is the highest I've seen it, except for the night we had to strap him down." Fraser was handed a needle with a liquid in it. She prepared the injection and slid it into Jonas's arm, which was rather difficult amongst his thrashing.
When she'd emptied the contents into his system, his form fell limp, and she reached to find a pulse. There was a strong one beating beneath her touch.
"I think we're clear, for now." Fraser said after checking both men over again.
"What the hell happened?" Hammond asked, his voice anxious.
"I think that the rubbing alcohol had an effect on the toxin, speeding its effects on Colonel O'Neill. As for Jonas, it looks like the same thing that's been happening since he was attacked on that planet." Fraser said.
"Can you fix it?" Hammond asked.
"I hope so, Sir." Fraser replied with a curt nod.
"Get on it." Hammond said.
Fraser nodded and got to work.
The base alarms sounded and a technician's voice reported an incoming wormhole. There were sounds of yelling in the background, followed by the Tech's voice again, sounding panicked and afraid.
"We have a breech, I repeat, we have a breech! Security to the Gate room, we require security!" the voice was cut off by an interference of static, and the halls of the base echoed with footsteps.
Jonas snapped awake, the sedation having worn off after a few hours. He sat up in the bed, and looked over to where Colonel O'Neill lay, wires and monitors hooked to him. The base lights died away, and Jonas heard the sounds of wind being tossed around the corridors.
With a sharp breath, he got from his bed, and was stopped by no one as he dressed quickly and hurried to the gate room. As he approached the room, he saw that the door was standing wide open and panicked shouts came from inside.
Jonas felt a strange sensation tugging in his stomach, and he knew almost immediately that the breech had been caused by the shadow. He couldn't explain how, but he just knew. He pushed through the crowd of fleeing soldiers who were obeying the command to evacuate the gate room. Jonas however ignored the wise words and went inside anyway.
He stopped a few feet inside; two or three men lay on the floor, clearly dead, while the gate flickered madly behind a shadowy shape that seemed to be blowing about in unseen wind. The shadow turned to Jonas, and the young man stifled a scream. He saw two, vibrant red eyes staring at him, surrounded by ashy grey skin.
"Jonas Quinn." The creature spoke, the voice sounded like gravel beneath running feet, and it clearly sent messages of warning.
"Yeah, what do you want?" Jonas asked fiercely.
"It's not what I want, it's what I'm going to do."
"Really? What would that be?"
The doors slammed shut behind Jonas and the young man turned to them in a hurry. He was trapped with no way out, and the shielding doors were shut over the windows looking into the briefing room and the control room. He was trapped and nobody knew where he was.
"I'm going to kill. I'm going to kill you, and whoever gets in the way. Nobody who I mark ever survives. I do not know how you did, but you will pay for it." The shadow snarled.
"Why punish me? I can't help it if your curse didn't work on me." Jonas snapped.
"It should have worked! You should be dead!"
"Well, I'm not, but I have a friend who may be very soon if you don't tell me how to reverse your mark." Jonas replied, getting right down to business.
"Reverse? Why would I want to give you that information?"
"So I can save the life of a friend."
The creature laughed maliciously.
"It can be reversed, can't it?" Jonas asked.
"Perhaps, but you'll never find out how."
Jonas glared with fiery fierceness. He didn't dare to look in the thing's eyes, so he cast his gaze above the creature's head slightly.
"How can you be so sure?"
"You will not live long enough to learn it." The creature lunged, and Jonas dodged it like an expert.
The thing lunged again, and Jonas jumped out of the way, landing on his stomach and gasping as the connection sent waves of pain through his injuries. He turned onto his back and saw three large claws glinting in the flickering light of the gate, other than that, all was dark.
Jonas rolled as the claws descended upon him. The creature's hand hit the ground, and sent sparks glowing secondarily in the thing's face. The creature recoiled quickly; shouting something that Jonas couldn't make out. That didn't matter though, Jonas now knew the thing had a weakness and if he could use the weakness against it, he might be able to gain the upper hand.
Wait, if the creature was vulnerable to light why was it able to survive in the flickering of the gate?
"That is a very interesting story. You see I have shielded the gate and the shield cannot be removed. Despite what you see, the light will not hurt me. I have made certain of it." The shadow thing growled.
Jonas mentally cursed himself, if he could see into the shadow's mind, it only made sense that the thing could see into his mind, and possibly control his actions. That wasn't something that Jonas wanted to think about right now, though.
"Very good, you are a bright person. Too bad I have to do away with you." The thing lunged while Jonas was lost in thought, Jonas was struck and thrown across the room, he connected with the wall and hit the floor, dazed, but otherwise okay.
Carter ran into the infirmary when the power died. O'Neill's life depended on the power staying on! He was hooked to machines that were temporarily keeping him alive. Machines that were helping him through incase he ran into some difficulties.
She hurried to O'Neill's bedside and pressed her fingers to his neck, there was a pulse, but it was irregular. She turned to Jonas's bed and saw it empty. Her heart raced. Where was Jonas? She didn't have time to think about it now; all she knew was that Jonas was gone. She'd help get him back after the power was restored. She dashed from the room, and nearly ran into an officer who was running by. Without an apology, Sam hurried to get the power back up and running.
Hammond was standing in the control room, the widow into the gate room blocked. The power had died, and Hammond's thoughts immediately turned to Colonel O'Neill in the infirmary. There was no way he could survive long without the power!
"Sergeant Siler, get down there and see if you can get the power back on!" Hammond yelled to Siler, who still seemed to be suffering from his double concussion.
Nonetheless, Siler nodded and hurried to see what he could do.
Jonas lay panting on the floor; he was losing this encounter miserably. He was at the point now where he just wanted it all to end. He was in so much pain, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the upper hand against this thing.
He struggled to kneel and was about to get up when he was struck again, he was violently tossed back, and his head hit the wall. There was an audible crack, and Jonas felt his world blossom in newfound pain. The room lurched around him, and his vision drifted in and out of focus. He shut his eyes tight against the spinning and knew that was the worst mistake he could make. He was almost certain to be killed now. He opened his eyes quickly, but saw that it was too late, three claws were shoved at him, aiming to stab clear through him.