Now, there was only one thing left that was different about them. Those annoying stitches. They would be a problem at one point or the other, but he hoped he'd have time to worry about them later. Maybe he could sell a few priceless artifacts and pay whatever it took to a plastic surgeon, to get rid of the scars. Or then, he could always arrange an accident of some kind. An injury. A staff blast to the side would effectively hide any trace of the two cuts, but he didn't know if he'd have the guts to do that.
It had been bad enough to slash himself with the bread knife, to make it look like someone had attacked both him and Teal'c. Of course, it had also been important because it had offered him a very easy way to get rid of those surgical gloves he'd stolen and used to keep the knife hilt clean of fingerprints. He's just dropped them on the floor in the infirmary, and some nurse had probably put them into the trash can without a second thought.
Yet another ECF seizure forced him to stay in Daniel's room for a while. It was the worst so far, and left him feeling entirely spent. But he had to hurry, or they'd catch him too soon.
Now, where would he be, if he wasn't in his room? Where would the other Daniel be?
He might be in the infirmary, watching over Teal'c. Or anywhere in the base, talking to Jack or Sam. That wouldn't do. On the other hand, he might just be in his lab. It was the perfect place to be when he wanted to get his mind off other things. Just bury himself in work. If he wasn't there now, he'd probably show up there sooner or later.
Daniel left his room, and started walking the familiarroute through the corridors.
Sam saw from afar that there were no guards at Jackson's door. She ran the last stretch, and grabbed the handle, but the door was locked. She knocked, and got no answer.
She turned and ran away, to get the key. Whatever had happened, it couldn't be good. Though she tried to be as fast as she could, she felt like she was moving in slow motion.
She got the door open, barged in, and nearly tripped over the two bodies lying near the doorway. The guards were dead, lying on top of each other, blood all over them. She couldn't see Jackson anywhere.
Out of the two guards, the one on top had a knife in his chest. The one under him--Sam had seen death before, far too much of it, but she felt the bile rising in her throat at the sight. The guard had a pair of scissors protruding from his neck.
If Jackson had done this--and he had. There had been no one else here. Just him. If he was able to do something as horrid as this, Jackson was nothing like Daniel. The way he looked, his manners, his voice, they were just the same, but he must've been lying to them all along about his feelings. Maybe the accusations against him had really been justified. Maybe he really had murdered all those people--and still, maybe he hadn't. He might've just been absolutely desperate to get out of this room, for some reason she didn't know. Or maybe he had a Goa'uld in him. She refused to believe that he was simply evil. He was Daniel, after all.
Sam left the guards to search the room for any sign of what Jackson might be up to. The uniform Jackson had been wearing was on the floor, and it had blood all over it. She couldn't know if it was all from the guards, or if some was actually Jackson's.
The bathroom door was open. She checked it as well, and found hair littering the floor and the sink. It took her a while to realize what it had to mean. Jackson had cut his hair. He'd removed the one thing that instantly told him and Daniel apart.
Jackson looked exactly like Daniel now. He'd have free access to nearly anywhere in the base. Sam couldn't guess what he'd do with it. She didn't think he'd be stupid enough to go to the infirmary and try to attack Teal'c again.
She ran to the phone, to call Hammond. They'd have to search the base for anyone looking like Daniel, and put them in the brig. If they'd catch the real Daniel as well, he'd understand. They'd have to get Jackson before more people got killed.
Daniel didn't even look up when he heard the door opening again.
"Jack?" he called out.
"Sorry, but no," the answer came in a voice just like his.
He heard the door close with a click. Locked. He looked up, and saw Jackson standing at the door. Daniel couldn't guess why he'd come to visit him now, let alone why he'd chosen to lock the door.
"Jackson. What's up?"
There was something really odd about the look on Jackson's face. Daniel had seen that look before, back at the airport, when he'd first met Jackson. That look he couldn't interpret. Sad and angry in the same time.
Jackson raised his hand. He was holding a pistol.
"I'm... I'm sorry, Daniel. We... This is going to end here and now."
Daniel stared at him in disbelief. He noticed another strange thing about Jackson. His hair was short. The same as Daniel's. And he was pointing a gun at Daniel. Why would he do that? How could he...
"Look, I really don't want to do this. It was different with the others. They were, well, they were other people. They didn't understand me. You do. We're the same. But that's also why it won't be so bad. When you're gone, I'll remain, and as long as I live, you live as well. Daniel Jackson will live on."
Daniel felt like the floor was falling from under his feet. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't be hearing what he thought he heard. It couldn't mean what it had to mean.
"You... You're... You attacked Teal'c?" he managed to stutter.
"I wanted to give that to you before I had to... I knew you'd never have what it takes to do it yourself, though I'm sure you wanted to. You know Teal'c's not your friend. He killed Sha're. He deserves to die."
That wasn't true. Teal'c was his friend. Teal'c... Although Daniel's feelings were horribly jumbled, although he was angry at Teal'c, he knew he shouldn't be. Teal'c was still a friend. One of the most important people in his life. But if Jackson thought that way, it would mean...
"God--you killed Teal'c in your universe? And the others--Sam? Janet?" Daniel stood up behind his desk.
Jackson waved the pistol irritably. "Well," he sighed. "I guess I'll just have to be the evil maniac you think I am and explain it all before I put my plans in action. Teal'c--it wasn't what you think. I'm not a murderer, Daniel. We're not as different as you think. After Sha're died, I... Nothing ever was the same. I thought that... if I got my revenge... If I got rid of Teal'c... I thought it would change things. It would make the pain go away. I thought about it for a month, and then, all of a sudden, I got the chance to do it, and I couldn't help myself... And then he was dead."
No, Daniel didn't want it to be that way. He didn't want to hear this. Didn't want it to sound so understandable, so... Could he really have ended up that way? Could he have become like Jackson? Could he still become like that?
"But... the others? If Teal'c was..."
"The others... There was this woman. I only heard her name later, when they had somehow put together the evidence--Joan Trent. I met her at O'Malleys. She looked like her. Like Sha're. But the things she said... Said that she wondered if a geek like me had ever seen a girl before... And other things. I guess she was trying to pick me up, in an irritable way, but she offended her! I couldn't... I couldn't stop myself. I never meant to kill her. Just... Show her. Tell her to shut up. And Makepeace... He was NID anyway... And..."
Jackson looked every bit as upset as Daniel felt. Jackson was lost in the memories. In that horrible past Daniel still couldn't believe, let alone accept. Daniel hated taking advantage of it, but it might offer him the way out of this situation. Slowly, he took a few steps, edging closer to Jackson.
"Sam. Did you kill her as well? And why? What did she ever do to you?"
"I never touched her!" Jackson shouted. "I didn't, I swear I didn't... But she was... She was getting everything that belonged to me. Taking over the credit for things we'd done together. And she was going to take Jack from me. I'd seen them together in alternate realities. And there were these... hints, these small things, in my universe, and I was afraid... I couldn't let that happen. Jack wasn't for her! I had to do something. It was a neat arrangement... In Hadante... I made a deal with some of the other prisoners. I told them how to get out, how to activate the gate, the way Sam and Linea had figured it out, and gave them a working gate address. And in return, they took care of her for me."
That made it clear. Jackson was mad. Twisted beyond what Daniel could imagine. He'd--he'd killed Sam, because he thought Sam was getting between him and Jack? That was the most absurd thing Daniel had ever heard.
The tiniest trace of doubt still remained in Daniel's mind. He really didn't know what to think of Jack and Sam being together. It was a weird idea. It felt wrong to him. Could he... No, he couldn't believe he could ever have... But this other Daniel was still him, wasn't he? They had probably done all the same things, been exactly the same all along, until Sha're had died in that other reality...
Jackson had nearly dropped the pistol already. His hand was shaking. Daniel was almost there, now, just a few steps, and something to distract Jackson, and he'd get it.
"Janet, then. You really did stab her, didn't you?"
"She wasn't my friend either, she... She sent me to that mental ward, she wouldn't believe me, when I'd got Machello's Goa'uld-killer in me that made me look like I was mad... She had been faking friendship for so long! I just regret I didn't get that MacKenzie as well!"
Daniel was about to go for the gun, when the phone rang. Jackson jerked out of it, straightened up, and the pistol steadied in his hand again. It was awfully near now that Daniel had moved closer to him, and he kept it trained on Daniel's heart.
"Don't answer it!"
Daniel raised his hands, and didn't move. "So, this is it? You'll kill me, and go on with the massacre in my reality?"
"No! No, no, no! I'm not going to kill anyone ever again. Well, maybe a few Goa'ulds, but they don't count, do they? No, I'm going to become you. I'll be good again. I'm not bad, Daniel, you know me--you are me--I'm not evil! I can change, I can go back to what I was before... I... No!"
Daniel felt it as well, just in time with Jackson's exclamation. The ECF. It struck them both at the same time, and they were both convulsing, flickering, quivering, and now that they were both here, the disturbance was between them as well, the air between them looked thick, twisted, like smoke in a distorted mirror, and it felt like they were being pulled together and pushed apart at the same time...
But if he could fight it, just a bit, this could be his one chance...
Daniel fought to control his hands, and reached towards Jackson, towards the gun, he felt his hands close around it, but Jackson's hands were there as well, and he didn't know where it was pointed. Caught in the seizure, they fought over it...
The bang of the pistol going off was deafening at such close range.