Part 8

We had one last mission to accomplish. Avenge the death of our friend, sister, warrior and one true love.

The guards had not tied us up again, so this was an advantage. They thought we had been broken, seeing Sam perish in front of us.

They didn't know that this only fuelled the fire in us to kill their god.

Haras saw us prepare for an attack and asked if he could help.

"Haras, what are you doing?" Magus asked when he saw Haras turn to us to ask whether he could assist us.

"Magus. I listened to you and the others when the demons came. I should have gone with my instinct and said no. They had come to us in friendship and all we did was hand them over to the demons. No! I will not cower! I will fight these demons, it's the least I can do for the people we lost. We deserve to suffer and they do not."

Magus showed that he wanted no part of it.

"Then you die on your knees, begging them to save you. If this is the last thing I do I will kill as many as I can of these demons that have wreaked havoc on our lives. We have nothing to live for. Our families are gone. I know you are not a coward Magus. Fight with us. Fight for those that we have lost."

I looked at Magus and he closed his eyes.

"You are right we should have fought when we had the chance. We have nothing to go back to. I will help you. I would rather die on my feet than die begging on my knees."

Five against an army the odds were getting better.

The doors opened and two guards came in. We waited. The doors closed and one positioned himself in front of Teal'c.

"You are Teal'c, the Shol'va, the one that speaks of freedom for his jaffa brothers?"

Teal'c looked up.

"Yes I am Teal'c and I do not worship false gods. I live to be free and if I die today I die a free man."

The second guard nudged the one in front of Teal'c.

"We also wish to be free. We have seen that Lord Ba'al is not a god. We wish to join the rebellion. There are others amongst us that have longed to leave but did not know how."

Our luck was changing. 5 had just become 7 and counting.

He extended a hand to Teal'c, who grasped it and helped him up.

"I am Rist'ka and this is Lom'ec. We will assist you in escaping. All we ask is that we be allowed to come with you along with any others wanting to leave the service of Ba'al."

I got up and stood next to Teal'c. He was looking at them, sizing them up to see if they were telling the truth or flat-out lying.

"We cannot stay long. We came to tell you that you have friends here and that we will be here to assist your escape. The false god Ba'al has gone back to his ship. He is preparing to leave. He has been summoned back by his new master."

Oh, this didn't sound good.

New master?

"Any assistance you can render us would be accepted."

They bowed to Teal'c, who turned to me.

"We need to get on the ship, O'Neill. To fulfill our mission we need to strike now. He has other things occupying his attention. We have the element of surprise. We will be able to execute our plan with minimal difficulty."

Teal'c was right. This could be our perfect opportunity. If we didn't take this opportunity we might not have another chance.

I agreed. Teal'c asked Risk'ta if they could take us to Ba'al's ship he looked at him in confusion.

"Why would you want to return to the ship? We are offering you your freedom. We can get you to the gate, but if you return to the ship you may not return."

Daniel moved forward.

"We are thankful for your assistance in getting us to the gate, but we still have unfinished business."

I looked at him and I knew he would not back down. I wanted to send him, the two elders and our new jaffa friends through the gate. It would be better if Teal'c and I did this alone. Less casualties and at least I would go in knowing that Daniel would live.

In his short life, he had already suffered enough.

I opened my mouth to voice my opinion and he saw, but nodded no.

"I'm not leaving Jack. I promised to help you kill that son of a bitch. Don't take this away from me. I'm okay with it. I need to do it. He has caused enough pain. It's for Sam as well as Karina. She never had a chance to grow up and maybe if we find her and the rest of the village we might be able to save some of them. It's the least we can do. Sam would want this. I know she would."

Haras and Magus came forward too, saying that they would not leave if there was a chance to save some of their people.

The guards were getting jumpy, but Teal'c reassured them that we would be successful in killing Ba'al.

"Put your trust in me and the Tau'ri. We have killed other false gods and we will be successful again. He has taken from us a sister in arms, a friend."

Lom'ec whispered to Risk'ta.

"You speak of the woman that was with you? She was taken to the ship her body is there."

Daniel blurted out, "We have to take her back. Jack, no one gets left behind. It'll be closure for all of us."

I nodded and agreed.

"We kill the bastard, take Sam back and blow that son of a bitch's ship out of the sky so no one else can use it. Risk'ta we need our weapons and everything we came with. Can you get these things?"

"Yes, we can as they are in room close by. We can stop there first and go directly to the rings to transport us up to the ship."

"Okay, there's still a chance to back out if you guys want to."

No one moved. I looked at all of them and I could suddenly see that they had the same determination as I did.

We would take back what was ours.

We would kill him and show him no mercy.

I walked over to the pedestal and saw that the knife had been put back into its place. I picked it up and showed it to my team.

"I get the first crack at killing him. But promise me that it will be done with this knife if I don't kill him. It's the same one he used on Sam. I want him too feel the pain she did."

Daniel nodded.

"Indeed, revenge will be ours O'Neill."

The others nodded also.

I looked at the knife, "to not leaving anyone behind, to killing that son of a bitch and to revenge long over due".

I lifted the knife in an odd salute and watched in surprise as my gesture was returned by everybody present.