"Daniel?" the voice came from the darkness, it was light a woman's, familiar and yet wrong. "Danny where are you Danny?"

"Mom?" No, that can't be right she's dead. Daniel looked up from where he was sitting. The bright light surprised him; he was sitting cross-legged on a bench. But where was he? Daniel looked around, glass cases, phosphorus lighting, no, that can't be!

"Danny? Where did you go?"

"I'm here." A woman came around the corner, she wore glasses like his but her hair was darker and she wore a colorful headscarf. She smiled when she saw him.

"There you are Danny; I've been looking for you." Daniel closed his eyes squeezing them shut. "Danny, what's wrong?" Daniel turned away from her covering his face with his hands. "Danny, what are you doing?" Daniel looked at her through his fingers.

"Hiding." He said.

"From what?" she asked moving his small hands from his face. Small hands? Somehow he'd thought they were bigger and how could he sit cross legged on this bench without falling off? He looked down at himself and saw the body of an eight-year-old. "Danny?" asked the woman again. She sounded worried this time. "What are you hiding from?"

"From you." He said quietly, a small voice to match the small him.

"Why are you hiding from me Danny?"

"Because you're not real." He told her.

"I'm not real?"

"No." whispered Daniel.

"Then what am I?"

"You're dead." He whispered burying himself in his hands and a long mop of hair.

"Daniel Jackson!" her voice was sharp. "Apologize at once."

"Sorry," said Daniel sullenly, I'm sorry you're dead; he thought but could not say.

"That's better." She held out a hand for him and reluctantly he took it. "What say we go out for an ice-cream?" The boy nodded not trusting himself to speak. The woman smiled. She led him out of the building that Daniel now knew was the New York Museum of Art. They walked slowly, but Daniel stumbled still unused to his new size. "Watch out there Danny." The boy smiled tears in his eyes. "What's wrong did you hurt yourself?" The concern showed in her eyes.

"I'm okay," he said sniffing back the tears; he'd long since learned to suppress those emotions out of sheer self preservation.

"No you are not Daniel Jackson." Daniel's head jerked up at the pronouncement it hadn't come from his mother or from anyone nearby and yet he knew that voice, and he understood what it meant, this was a test.

Jack stared down at his friends through the glass of the observation room window. Daniel was now completely a Jaffa, Teal'c had told him to let it happen and he did, Jack was astonished. Daniel gave up and now he wasn't even human. No, Jack shook his head that wasn't fair; he was still Daniel, wasn't he?

Jack watched as Daniel writhed in pain and Teal'c did nothing to help him. He pulled off his dressings and pierced the opening in his stomach. The image of this turned Jack inside out with nausea and guilt. If he hadn't distracted Daniel on the ramp he might not have fell and this whole mess could have been avoided. There's no use going over what ifs now O'Neill, he chided himself, what matters now is saving Daniel. Saving Daniel? How can I save him? He's a Jaffa now and he will die from an infection because there's no way to get him a symbiote in time and even if they could Jack wasn't at all sure Daniel would be okay with living out his life dependant on a gould. He knew he wouldn't accept it and in that state could he still be a member of SG-1? Jack had no problems but the pentagon might.

They seem to be performing a ceremony, thought Sam, a welcome for a new Jaffa? No, Teal'c told them it would help, but why did he lock them in if he was helping? He'd told Daniel to give up and Daniel had trusted him. Sam trusted Teal'c and Daniel was following his direction, but not to have asked for permission meant that whatever they were doing was dangerous. Sam pushed back that thought, what's more dangerous than letting Daniel die without an immune system? She was still mad, frustrated beyond reason, she wanted to help needed to be there for Daniel, but now all that seemed left to her and everyone else was to watch.

Teal'c sat in front of Daniel waiting for him to enter his quest, as soon as he began to speak to another; Teal'c knew his greatest fears would soon present themselves. He needed to warn his friend that he was in a dream state and he must hold out to continue, so when Daniel said he was okay, Teal'c took the opportunity to give him the only advice he could. After that there was nothing else he could do, Teal'c stood and walked over to the window and the waiting members of SG-1. He stood below them and said in a low voice.

"Daniel Jackson has asked me to help him in the ritual of Primtak it is his only chance to cast off the change that has over taken him."

"Teal'c you told him to let it happen." hissed Jack.

"The change must be complete to begin the ritual." Teal'c replied evenly.

"What's going to happen?" Frasier asked; eager to know the state of her patient.

"Daniel Jackson, will meditate for the next three days and nights, in that time he will have three visions and will need to pass the tests presented there."

"Tests?" questioned Sam.

"Tests of courage, faith and choice."

"How do you test choice?"

"Choice is most important, because choice is why the ritual was begun in the first place, a way to choose to be free, free from the gods and free from their slavery."

The assemblage was quiet for a moment, until Jack asked the question that was on all of their minds.

"What if he doesn't pass a test?"

"Then he will die."

Daniel Jackson knew the woman he was walking with wasn't real; he knew that he was having a dream, and that any moment now he would wake up alone in his apartment and grieving the loss all over again. He also knew that at this precise moment, at this time in this dream he didn't care as long as he could hold her and she was real for as long as he willed her to be.

"So Danny, how'd you like America so far?"

"It's okay." He mumbled beneath a huge ice-cream cone she'd bought for him.

"Only okay?"

"Yeah, it's not as good as home."

"Danny, this is home."

"'Snot." He told her. "Egypt is home."

"That's where we lived Danny, but this is where we're from."

"Not me. I'm from there, not here."

"Okay Daniel whatever you say." The boy looked at what remained of the ice cream and felt a little sick.

"I'm finished." He said handing the woman the sticky mess. "What are we doing today?" he asked her smiling as if to throw off the homesickness he felt.

"Daddy and I are going to build the temple in the museum today, you know that." She frowned and looked down at her watch. "In fact we'd better get going; your Dad wants us to be there when they unload the pieces from the crates." Daniel frowned he knew, what happened next he couldn't say why, but he had to try to stop it from happening.

"I don't want to." He said, "Let's just walk around for a while; let the workers set up the temple."

"It's the center piece to the exhibit Danny, your Dad and I have to help them set it up right."

"I know." he told her, defeated by destiny.

The box was small; he hadn't seen it before. "What's this?" he asked his mother as they sat overseeing the workers bring the pieces of the temple into the main exhibit room.

"I don't know," she frowned referring to the list of artifacts they'd brought for the exhibit. "It's not on the manifest. Let's have a look shall we?" she smiled and they scooted down off the crates they'd been sitting on and went towards the box. "Hey, can you help us with this?" she called to one of the interns, a pretty young woman with wavy blond hair. She turned and smiled at Daniel. "Hey Daniel, long-time no see!" Sarah smiled at him in delight as she helped his mother with the box. "What is it?" she asked.

"We don't know." They tried to pry the lid off but it wouldn't budge.

"Hey, Sam." Called Sarah, to a young woman with short-cropped hair, she was talking with one of the movers about the huge ring they were rolling in but she turned when she heard the call. Daniel stared at Sam as she approached their little crowd.

"What are you doing here?" he asked without thinking.

"Daniel, don't be so rude! Sam's here to help us she's very smart like you." Daniel's mother patted Sam on the arm and she kneeled down to get a better look at the box.

"But this is wrong," he told them "you're not supposed to be here."

"Of course we are Daniel; we're all here for you." Daniel stared in disbelief, at the three women arranged around the box.

"Ladies, Daniel,"

"Jack!" cried the women smiling,

"And you brought a crowbar how useful." Daniel's mother smiled.

"Hey, anything for old Danny boy here, don't know what I'd do without him." Jack messed up Daniel's hair affectionately. Sam busily began prying the lid off with Jack's crowbar. "Watch out Carter, I don't want you to strain something."

"Almost-got-it," she heaved, and just as the lid came loose a blast of energy hit her full in the chest. She gasped in surprise and fell into a slump just as another blast took out Jack. A jaffa had come through the huge ring one of the movers was holding and was firing a staff weapon at the assembly near the crates. He didn't wear a helmet though his face was obscured Daniel cried out as another blast caught a fleeing Sarah in the back and another ricocheted off the temple exhibit causing it to fall onto of Daniel's parents who were hiding there.

"This is wrong!" cried Daniel screwing up his eight year old hands in to fists and running full tilt towards the Jaffa he was caught in his grasp struggling to break free. "This isn't how it happened!"

"Don't worry," said the Jaffa turning the boy around. "The symbiotes will heal them." Daniel turned and saw the box Sam had opened was spilling over with Gould symbiotes.

"No!" cried the boy struggling ineffectively to break free from the Jaffa's grasp. "No, you can't!" he cried again loosing all his strength only able the watch as the Goulds slithered along the floor to his wounded friends. "Jack! Sam!" he cried "No!" he tried to turn away as the symbiotes reached Jack first, then Sam and Sarah; curling around their necks before diving in through the back. "NO!" Yelled Daniel as one by one his friends got up eyes glowing. The Jaffa released Daniel and fell down a burning staff blast in his back. Teal'c un-cocked his weapon and stood behind the Jaffa, he handed a fully loaded revolver to a now full-grown Daniel.

"Daniel Jackson you must defend yourself."

"I can't," he cried in anguish. "They're my friends."

"They are your friends no longer; you must survive to avenge them. Defend yourself Daniel Jackson!" Gould Jack advanced on Daniel eyes glowing with the evil that now lived inside him. Daniel raised his weapon; "I can't he-" he sobbed lowering it.

"You must!" Jack raised his hand somehow he'd gotten a hand device the crystal glowed in his palm and he was about to attack. Daniel fired, he didn't even remember rising the weapon, Gould Jack fell where he stood, but Daniel wasn't finished yet he saw Goulds Sam and Sarah take up positions behind Jack and he knew they both had hand devices too.

"I'm sorry," he whispered under his breath and fired. He shot Sam in the head and got Sarah in the heart. No more pain he thought looking down at their glazed faces, for you at least. Daniel fell to his knees exhausted.

Tears rained down from Daniel's closed eyes and Teal'c knew the first trial was over. Daniel slumped where he sat in the circle of candles, but the steady breath told Teal'c he had passed the test.

Teal'c walked to the window where Jack and Sam still sat waiting.

"He sleeps," Teal'c told them. "The first trial is completed." Sam let out a long breath she didn't know she was holding and Jack beamed a smile of relief.

"One, down and two to go." Jack grimaced he didn't think he could take another day of this, let alone two. He'd nearly jumped thorough the window when Daniel had screamed his name. Jack didn't know what his friend was seeing, but a cry like that told him nothing good.

I want to know, too much angst too little? An suggestions comments questions? You know where that little review button is, go on you know you want to. :-)