four
It happens a lot faster this time, Jack knows. He doesn't remember much about his own turn before, when the Ancient's knowledge invaded his brain the first time, but he recalls the feeling of panic and the headaches and confusion. He hated the way he seemed to lose control, and the way the knowledge inside him used his body as an empty vessel.
His older self, the original Jack O'Neill, is sitting silently next to Jack into the humvee, eyes glazed with a deceiving blankness. There is more knowledge and power and hope inside the man's head, Jack knows, than the vacant eyes give credit too. If Daniel or Carter knew what was inside the man's head, they would have fought tooth and nail to be the one allowed to stick their head in the device.
Pity, really, that neither of them possesses the damn Ancient gene. It would be more useful with one of them, Jack thinks dully, turning his attention away from the older man and staring at the empty strip of runway.
Two seconds later a Tel'tac materializes, a familiar Tok'ra stepping from it.
Jack studies Jacob curiously; the man looks a lot older than Jack remembers him looking. Then again, everyone looks older than he remembers. Still, out of everyone Jack's seen again, he would have thought that Jacob would age the least given his Tok'ra. Apparently even Tok'ra got old, Jack realizes.
Hammond intercepts Jacob before the Tok'ra reaches the vehicles, and Jack guesses Hammond is explaining the situation to him. His guess is confirmed when Jacob lurches backward awkwardly, staring with a stunned expression at the vehicles. Hammond reaches out an arm and steadies Carter's father, still talking.
Eventually, Jacob nods. Hammond turns to the vehicles and jerks his thumb across, indicating they can get out.
Jack's the first one out, feeling significantly younger and shorter than a General he used to consider a friend, even if the man had a snake in his head and was the father of his second in command.
"Holy Hannah," Jacob whispers after a heartbeat, his eyes settling on Carter. "Sam…"
"Hi, Dad," Carter says, smiling shyly.
"Oh, God, Sam," Jacob says, and lurches toward her. Jack feels like a voyeur as he watches Jacob reunite with his daughter, and wonders why cloning wasn't around when he lost Charlie.
"I really hate to interrupt this," Hammond says gently, looking awkward, "but we really need to get you going."
The Tel'tac, like everything else, appears bigger and roomier and almost more interesting from his shorter perspective. He picks his usual corner and settles down silently as the others climb on board and the Tel'tac smoothly takes off.
---
He had dreams about flying through space, but the dreams never quite lived up to the color and silence and immenseness of its reality. Jack stares down at the planet below where everyone except him and Teal'c have ringed down to.
"You think they'll be okay?" Jack asks Teal'c, shattering the silence in the Tel'tac.
"Yes."
Apparently a year in high school with air-heads and jocks hasn't done anything to improve Teal'c's vocabulary.
"What are you going to do to now?" Jack asks, turning from his view to face Teal'c.
The Jaffa, looking small and childlike against the hull of the Tel'tac, is silent for some time, but Jack's used to Teal'c's silence before speaking.
"The Jaffa would not understand or accept me as Teal'c," he says quietly. "They believe Teal'c is dead, and any attempting to replace him would be met with distrust."
"You're quite important to the Jaffa," Jack says blandly.
"No," Teal'c denies. "Once Teal'c was a great name amongst Jaffa, but his death has damaged the Jaffa conviction of freedom."
Jack was suspicious that maybe Teal'c was placing himself on too high a pedestal, but he knew the Jaffa had seen Teal'c as a savior. As someone who stood up to fight against oppression and won time and time again. For Teal'c to lose and die would be a harsh bite of reality, and Jack supposes that if the rebellion is as shaky as it used to be, Teal'c's loss of legend status could throw the rebellion into disarray as people lost faith.
"So what are you doing to do now?" Jack repeats his question.
"Grow strong and old again," Teal'c says simply. "Fight again for Jaffa freedom."
Teal'c's always been tenacious, and Jack's in awe of his friend's strength of convictions. "I'll help you," Jack says quietly. "I'll help you as much as I can."
Teal'c nods. "Thank you, O'Neill."
The Tel'tac falls silent once more as the two of them are lost in thought. Jack's not sure what he's going to do now, whether he even wants to be at the SGC with his older version still around. Not to mention, he thinks with a smile on his face, the fact that the BDUs are too damn big.
---
The Tel'tac is zipping over the ice fields of Antarctica, skimming over blinding white and glaring snow. Jack shields his eyes and tries to take in the vastness. He's been here before, long ago, when he and Carter inadvertently discovered the second Stargate. And then there was that jaunt when he got himself infected with an Ancient's virus. He wasn't really in a frame of mind then, to appreciate the awesomeness of the landscape, and the weather was exactly conducive to sightseeing. Currently he's got nothing to do except worry and fuss and panic, so he decides staring at the scenery would be more productive.
Unexpectedly, the Tel'tac jerks to a halt, and Jack is caught unawares. He sprawls across the hard floor of the Tel'tac and tumbles to a stop in the rings device. His older self is already standing there, looking down at him.
Without stopping to ask anyone or say anything to Jacob, Daniel and Carter join them in the ring device. Teal'c hangs back, shaking his head. A second later the rings flash and when Jack opens his eyes he's lying on a smooth floor in an alien room that feels hauntingly familiar.
"Atlantis," Daniel's saying, moving around the room with a barely controlled eagerness. "We found Atlantis, Jack! The lost city!"
The older Colonel ignores Daniel's ramblings and heads straight the middle of the room, clutching the ZPM in his hands. There's a chair, which Carter immediately tells him is like the chair on the planet where they found the ZPM.
"So we're going to look at pictures of more planets?" Jack asks dryly, watching his older self fiddle with the ZPM and the chair.
"I don't think so," Carter says, shaking her head.
Two seconds later the Colonel climbs into the chair, and the room lights up. Ten minutes later Anubis' ships are blown out of the sky, and the Colonel is lying unconscious in a stasis pod.
Jack's not sure exactly what happened, or what will happen next, but suddenly he's staring at the chair. He climbs onto it carefully and settles into it. It holds him easily, and he gains a strange feeling of comfort from the alien technology. He closes his eyes and relaxes, and feels something whoosh to life. When he opens his eyes, he's staring up at a bright display of planets and stars swirling gracefully through the sky.
"You can do it too," Daniel whispers in awe, staring at him.
Maybe there is room for two Jack O'Neill's on Earth after all, Jack thinks, staring at the model of earth spinning slowly on its axis.
---