A/N: The second to last chapter! Yay! Deep thanks to those who reviewed and brought me a little extra joy. Your time and effort don't go unappreciated. –your humble author

Chapter Ten: Making Amends

Hours later, Daniel stood firmly on the embarkation platform. Inside, he shook from pain, fear, and psychological trauma. Everyone eyed him nervously. Janet couldn't seem to decide between indignation and worry. Jack, Sam, and Teal'C all shared glances. Hammond regretted giving his approval, the events of only a few days ago too fresh in his mind. In everyone's minds.

"MALP has released the gas and the guards appear to be unconscious." Everybody looked up at Sgt. Siler, who shrunk back in his seat. "The, um, gate looks secure."

Jack nodded gravely and pulled out his gun. "Let's go."

SG teams one, four, seven, and eight stepped onto Chulak's solid ground. SG1's archaeologist stumbled and fell to one knee when the gate spit him out. He straightened without help, took a deep breath, and carried on with the same grim expression he'd worn for days. The expression hid everything he didn't want others to see, and it succeeded, except with his teammates.

"Daniel," Jack beckoned. "D'you have any idea where Qingu might be?"

"Apophis's palace."

"You sure?"

Danny finally turned his face toward Jack. He looked…haunted. "Yeah. I'm sure."

They split up and decided to approach Apophis's commandeered compound from all four directions. Everyone walked in silence, lest they should alert even the bunnies in the forest. Fortunately, neither the bunnies nor Qingu thought he'd be encountering a threat any time soon, least of all the dead Daniel Jackson. The fear that, perhaps, Qingu could sense him as much as he could sense Qingu worried Daniel; but his gut instinct told him that, since the Goa'uld had entered his mind instead of the other way around, the edge stood in Earth's favor.

"Sir!" Sam whispered, simultaneously ducking and pointing with her gun. They followed her direction and saw two Jaffa silently walking the outer perimeter of the massive fortress. From the information provided by Shin'ar's inhabitants, Qingu had taken approximately 500 of his best men on the mission, leaving a mere hundred behind. Presumably, he wanted to assimilate Apophis's guard into his own.

Jack and Teal'C pulled out their zats and diffused the threat. "Great," Jack remarked softly, turning to look at his team. "Two down, 498 more to go. Carter, go look around the edge of the entrance and tell me if you see anyone. Teal'C take point and make sure we're not being tailed. Daniel, are we getting closer?"

Danny nodded. "We need to step back into the brush and follow this wall past the gate to the wall that's perpendicular. We can enter from there."

Jack's brow furrowed slightly. Earlier, Daniel had stated that he couldn't know what Qingu was thinking or really anything more than the Goa'uld's general location. The new information seemed oddly specific. Besides, they'd be impeding on SG8's territory.

"Are you sure?"

"We need to go that way and keep our eyes peeled for Jaffa coming in the opposite direction."

The Colonel gave his assent with a shrug and called back Carter and Teal'C, who reported, respectively, that they saw ten and no one. As they moved in silence toward their goal, a few hundred meters in the distance, one of their team members slipped away. He had a plan.

He was going to surrender.

Danny walked through the entrance with his arms raised. Had one of the guards not been shocked to see a formerly dead prisoner, Daniel would surely have been shot. Instead, the single flabbergasted sentry started a bit of a ruckus, running forward and jabbing with his staff weapon at the archaeologist. Was he real? An apparition? How could this mortal be walking? Was he a mortal?

"I have come to see Qingu," Daniel told them as steadily as he could. Being on the receiving end of a staff weapon always made him uneasy. "I surrender, but I must speak with him."

All the Jaffa looked at each other, trying to decide if such an action would be prudent. Here was a man, come back to life, who had followed them through the Chaapa'ai, and now wished to willingly surrender to their god. This didn't happen every day.

Tentatively, the lead guard—the one who recognized Danny—stepped aside and pointed for Daniel to walk ahead of him and into the compound. He would let Telal deal with this development.

Together, they walked inside and up many flights up stairs. Daniel could feel Qingu's presence as he neared the god's room—the same sensation as when they'd shared minds. It wasn't a good feeling. With every step forward, a bigger, stronger wave of…hopelessness? washed over him. He'd known anxiety and depression growing up. Heck, he'd known anxiety and depression from after his parents' death until he met Sha'uri and ever since her kidnapping. But at the moment, the intense feelings swallowed him up. He wondered if, given their proximity to one another, Qingu could feel him, too. He got his answer when the Goa'uld flew out of his chambers, his cape fluttering behind him.

"You!"

Daniel stood face-to-face with Ekur/Qingu. The young man had to discreetly catch his breath while quelling the panic and merely gave his enemy a pensive stare. Telal and a few other of Qingu's personal guards levied their weapons. Everyone engaged in a staring contest until Daniel broke it.

"I've come to surrender."

Qingu's suspicious frown upturned itself into a seductive smile. He didn't want to seduce Daniel, though; unlike most of his fellow gods, Qingu didn't have sex with any and every thing that came his way. He only engaged others in that manner only for revenge or to achieve an end; otherwise, his heart belonged to his beloved Tiamat. No, Qingu wanted to seduce the situation.

"I am pleased you have decided to surrender yourself to me. As all of my children know, I am happy to show mercy and kindness to those who seek it," he said magnanimously and ushered his prisoner into Apophis's private sitting room, waving away Telal who sought to accompany them. He smiled benevolently from the doorway, praised the Jaffa who'd brought Daniel and sent him away, then closed the door.

Before Danny could even react, he found himself pushed up against the wall and roughly frisked. He had to bite his lip to keep the tears of pain at bay. Truly, he was in no way physically fit to be on this mission. Besides, Qingu was going to find—

"Ha!" Qingu scoffed triumphantly, holding up a zat. "Do I look foolish to you, boy? I will admit I am very surprised to see you alive, although I began to sense something unusual as you came near here. But this futile attempt at an assassination is laughable. And now I have the enjoyable option of keeping you alive to watch me take over the universe or kill you slowly."

"Do you seriously expect Earth to just give up? You were in my head; you know what we're capable of."

"That's exactly it, boy: I do know what you're capable of. That is how I'll conquer your planet, gain the respect of my fellow System Lords, and then conquer them, as well. But you already knew that. Just as I know you didn't come alone."

Daniel's brow creased. "Do you think we all came here and then they sent me to assassinate you? I did this on my own and, while we're speaking, they're changing every code on the entire base." They had already done that. "If there're two things we humans are good at, they're temerity and tenacity."

"Then why did you come?"

Danny eyed Qingu scornfully. "To free Ekur and make amends."

The Goa'uld's upper lip quivered with a sneer. "I'm going to keep you alive. And you'll watch me conquer Earth. You'll watch me slaughter every person in your precious SGC and bring each feeble government to its knees. Then you'll witness my takeover of the System Lords. But you know what I'll enjoy showing you the most?" He moved closer to his pale, pained, pathetic prisoner and laid a gentle hand on Danny's chest. "When I find Ammonet, you shall be present as I claim her for my own wife. Of course, as she writhes under me, I suppose you'll only see the face of your own wife. Or, at least, what's left of her.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to verify whether or not your friends have come." Qingu then departed, leaving a Jaffa to guard Daniel with orders to shoot if the prisoner moved or spoke. Given his colossal failure, Danny felt tempted to do both.

"O'Neill, Daniel Jackson is no longer with us."

Jack and Sam spun around, brought out of their watchfulness by Teal'C's announcement. They looked left. The looked right. Jack sprinted past Teal'C and looked towards their last location. He found nothing until he glanced down and saw Daniel's gun.

"Do you think they took him, sir?" Sam asked.

"No. I think he left. He's gone in to get Qingu himself.

"Surely you don't think he'd be that foolish."

"Captain, I think he thinks he knows what he's doing. The only problem is that he doesn't. Try as he might, Danny isn't cut out for espionage or conflict; but Qingu is. He may have just given us away." Without waiting for his 2IC or Teal'C to comment, Jack reached for his radio. "Sierra Golf four, seven, and eight, we have a situation. Report."

"Sierra Golf four reporting in."

"Sierra Golf seven here."

"Sierra Golf eight reporting. What's wrong, Colonel?"

Jack ground his teeth. He was really starting to hate the way Daniel wandered off. "Daniel's gone AWOL to confront Qingu. That means our positions may be compromised."

"He might have succeeded in assassinating him," Sam offered weakly to dubious glances.

"What're we gonna do, Colonel?"

Jack let his eyes glaze over as he mustered up a plan that would, essentially, allow him to save Daniel, kill Qingu, and keep anyone else from getting hurt. Simply wonderful. Would this malarkey never end? How could he…? The idea floated into his brain in the same way that a paratrooper gently falls from the sky. He loved it when that happened.

"Sierra Golf four, send two of your men to the Stargate to await departure; we're gonna have to haul it and I don't want to wait for dialing. Seven and eight, I want you to converge on what we designated the eastern side of the palace, but stay out of sight with your weapons drawn. Teal'C and Carter will move there and call the guards' attention; you are to wait until Captain Carter gives you the signal to join in their fight, at which point I want you attracting and destroying as many Jaffa as possible. You will do this for as long as you can, then go to the Stargate and return home. If Daniel and I haven't joined you by then, you are hereby ordered to go without us. We will follow. Am I understood?"

A chorus of "yessirs" rang over the radio, followed by silence as the teams began obeying.

"What's the plan, sir?"

Jack strapped the radio back into his vest and sat down on a tree stump. "I'm going to have you," he said, pointing at Teal'C, "pretend you're still one of Apophis's cronies. You're gonna hold Carter and claim you captured a human and want a reward. When they come, you'll both take care of them. But don't do it until you're sure they've sent out a call for help. I want you to distract just as many of them as possible. I'll make my way into the compound, find Daniel, and kill Qingu. I'm gonna need time and as few guards as possible. You got that?"

"Indeed, O'Neill. I must caution you, however, that your plan is unlikely to succeed."

Jack grinned. "When has that ever stopped us before?"

Sam returned his smile. "Indeed, sir."

"You ready?" Sam whispered, wiggling a little to get more comfortable in Teal'C's grip. She'd never noticed before how hard his muscles felt; his wife mustn't have enjoyed snuggling in bed.

"I am. Are you also prepared?"

"Yep. On three: One…two…three! Help! Uh…help me!" She struggled lightly and mentally kicked herself for never taking drama class in high school.

"Jaffa! Kree! Bradio!" He knew they would understand "Jaffa," but he couldn't be sure Qingu's guards knew Goa'uld commands. He kept repeating his calls until the sound of men trampling through the forest rang in his ears.

A small horde appeared with their weapons drawn, although they relaxed slightly when they saw another Jaffa holding a very fair woman. They didn't even notice as she reached for something at her side.

They did notice when she shot the guard farthest to the left. Then the Jaffa who had been holding her aimed his staff weapon at them and killed the man on their right. Suddenly the female yelled something and ten more people appeared, firing guns and zat weapons.

Qingu's Jaffa radioed for help and played directly into Jack's plan.

Jack waited for his moment and then crept into the palace's courtyard. Everyone was distracted with what they assumed was a full-scale attack. Knowing for sure that the Goa'uld was in the palace, he assumed Qingu would want to occupy Apophis's former quarters and had asked Teal'C for their location. As he weaved inside, he decided he needed to get Teal'C something nice for all the guy's hard work and wealth of knowledge. Maybe a new fishing pole or tackle box.

His Black Ops training paid off in abundance as he evaded and then dispatched the occasional guard in the halls.

He hit pay dirt when he happened upon a large, ornate doorway guarded by two heavily armed Jaffa. Jack knew, though, that no amount of weaponry made up for a surprise attack; weapons are useless if the equipped is lifeless.

Jack waited for a moment after zatting the guards, expecting others to come running or, hopefully, Qingu to pop out and ask what had happened. Something nagged at the back of his mind, though, as he nestled out of sight. Had he heard an extra thud? His brow furrowed, his mouth hung open slightly, and he tried to replay the adrenaline-filled moment in his mind. It dawned on him that the other thud had come from behind the closed doors, leading him to believe the fallen victim might be Daniel.

The Colonel raced for the door and flung it open, his gun ready to disintegrate Qingu. Instead, a staff weapon blast put a hole in the door only millimeters from his head. Without thinking, Jack discharged the zat gun and realized only a moment later that he'd hit Daniel.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" he exclaimed as he rushed to his fallen comrade. The hit knocked him out, but only momentarily; after a minute of somewhat forceful prodding from Jack, Danny opened his eyes.

"Why'd'you shoot me?" he asked from his position on the floor.

"I could ask you the same thing. You almost took off my head."

"Sorry," the archaeologist mumbled as he struggled to sit up. "I thought you were someone else. What are you doing here?"

Jack glowered. "Again, something I could be asking you."

"I only did what I thought I had to do."

"No. You did what you wanted to do. Dammit, Daniel, I have got Carter and Teal'C and three other teams out there risking their lives because you decided to wander off and get your revenge. I understand you wanna kill Qingu—hey, so do I—but you're being stupid, irresponsible, and dangerous. For cryin' out loud, Daniel! I have assassinated people before; you study rocks! Do you have a death wish?"

Danny felt torn between angry at Jack's outburst and ashamed at its truth. "I hate him, Jack. I hate him and Apophis and all of them. I don't understand how they can…do…what they do. But I hate them so much."

Jack's exasperation melted a little. "I know you do. I hate them, too, but there's a reason I don't go gallivanting off when I want one dead. Besides, we got Apophis, didn't we?"

"Technically, we disobeyed General Hammond's direct orders, commandeered the Stargate, and gallivanted off to fight Apophis. Oh, and we risked legal proceedings."

Jack pursed his lips. Leave it to Daniel to ruin a perfectly good point. "But we always do it as a team, right?"

Daniel actually smiled a little and seemed strengthened by the reminder that he had his team to lean on. "Yeah, we always do it as a team."

"That's the space monkey I know."

"So what're we gonna do?"

"We? Nothing. You're gonna hide out in the corridor with a staff weapon, in case any Jaffa decide to show up while—hey." He finally noticed the dead Jaffa by the door. "How did that happen?"

This time Daniel grinned proudly. "I might study rocks, but I study people, too. You're a fascinating subject…and a good teacher. When I came here, Qingu took my zat, but he never found the little pistol I had tucked in my waist; I faked sick, doubled over, grabbed the gun, and killed the guard. Actually," he admitted as the grin faded, "I wish there had been some other way. He was a slave, just like all the other Jaffa. He didn't deserve to die."

"You did the right thing. And it's nice to know that the old faking sick thing still works. Anyway, you hide out there with a staff weapon, in case any unwanted company shows up. I'm gonna stay in here with a staff weapon and wait for Qingu. The minute he steps through that door, I'm gonna put a hole in his stomach so big, you could fly an F-15 through it."

Danny grimaced. "What a lovely mental picture."

"Yeah, just go stay out of sight. And if you do anything stupid—"

"I think I'm done with that."

"For today, at least."

Daniel only raised an eyebrow as he walked out, perfectly aware that Jack did way more than his fair share of stupid things. He crouched low in the same corner Jack had hid in and immediately regretted doing so. He wondered if the pain would ever cease.

"See anything?" Jack whispered loudly after a few minutes.

"Not yet. I imagine everyone's a little preoccupied with your ruse."

They waited in tense silence. Daniel tried to relax his taut muscles, but every time he got one to loosen up a little, all the others responded by constricting further. Truly, both men hoped their target would show up soon so they could end the nightmare. Sadly, as they had long ago discovered, enemies rarely sought to help them.

A muffled thud drew Danny's attention from looking for Jaffa in the corridor to Apophis's quarters. A moment later, he heard Qingu's patronizing voice.

"Come in here, child."

"Daniel, g—"

The archaeologist's breath caught in his throat as he heard Jack's urgent warning get cut off. He couldn't see either man from his position. Slowly, he stood up, valiantly fighting off the terror-induced paralysis. He armed the staff weapon and inched his way to the door. A few meters away, he saw Qingu holding a knife to Jack's throat and using him as a shield. The situation looked hopeless. As usual.

"Will you kill him to kill me?" Qingu taunted, applying more pressure to the knife so it sliced through the first couple layers of dermis. Jack winced, but kept his attention focused on Daniel.

"Shoot," he commanded breathlessly.

Danny knew he had to do something. He couldn't shoot Jack, but he couldn't give up. If he shot at Ekur's head—the only available target—he risked the Goa'uld leaving the host's body and entering his friend's. Fear and pressure reverberated in Daniel's breast and he thought his heart might explode through his ears.

"Put down the staff weapon or I will spill all of his blood onto your conscience."

Jerkily, Daniel began to raise his leveled weapon until it pointed at the ceiling above Qingu and Jack. He tensed in anticipation and then activated the trigger, sending a bolt into the plaster and taking the Goa'uld completely by surprise.

Qingu threw Jack away and stepped back to avoid getting hit by falling chunks. Simultaneously, he brought up his hand to blow Daniel out the door, but didn't have the opportunity. Daniel fired at Qingu/Ekur's stomach, effectively killing the Goa'uld. And the host.

"Daniel," Ekur rasped from the floor, dying. "Damiq resussun…damiq…" His death rattled echoed in the room and stung Danny's soul.

"What did he say?" Jack asked, getting up and rubbing his head where Qingu had struck him.

"'Good help.' I think…I think he wanted me to kill him."

"You okay?"

Daniel shrugged and finally tore his eyes from Ekur's fallen form. "I hope so. Are you?"

"Yeah."

"Jack, we need to leave here as quickly as possible; I think I'm gonna pass out as soon as this adrenaline wears off."

Jack nodded once and together they raced for the Stargate, where all the SG teams were waiting for them. Once back on Earth, Daniel promptly found his way to the infirmary and crumpled onto a bed. He slept more peacefully this time, safe in the knowledge that Qingu could hurt no one else. Yet, to his weary spirit, it seemed as though the fighting might never end and would forever plague them with pain and death.

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