A/N: okay its going to get rocky the next couple of parts if you don't want to read understandable and skip to part 13 which will be posted soon. Just giving everyone a heads up and a warning its gonna get dark before it gets lighter
Part 10
I feel the warmth of the light surrounding me.
It feels so safe.
I can't open my eyes. It's too bright, so I lie here in the dark.
I must be dead.
The stories of a bright light and a walk down a long tunnel come to
mind.
Will a loved one be there to greet me?
I smile, for I know who I want to be there to receive me.
I am at peace now. Everything that I've accomplished flashes through
my mind.
But also the regrets, the regrets of promises unfulfilled, of things
said, things left unsaid and actions never taken.
I am sorry to have left my friends, my family, the one I loved behind.
I will watch them and protect them. It's the least I could do.
Then the light is suddenly fading and I am yanked away from my
peaceful state.
I am pulled up and out of the box I was lying in.
I try to focus and dread fills me.
I see who has taken me out of my gentle slumber.
Two Jaffa guards are pulling me towards a door.
I look back and see the box I had been roughly taken from.
A Sarcophagus.
-----
Everything rushes back to me and I try to pull away from them.
I grab for my neck and feel the wound has been healed, as has the one
on my shoulder.
Oh God! Where is Daniel, Teal'c? Where is the Colonel?
The grab me again and drag me to my doom.
I bite my lip trying to suppress the scream. I have to be brave; I
have to keep my mind.
They'd expect no less from me.
Ba'al had revived me in the sarcophagus. I was brought back, only to
be tortured again.
The smell of the acid burning my skin is a fresh memory.
The feel of the blade slicing through my neck is there too.
I'm finding it hard to breathe. The memories of watching them watch
me die are flashing through my mind.
The feeling of my own death chills my bones.
I could still feel the blood pouring out of me; I could still see my
team yelling out to me. I see Daniel's tear stained face as he calls
out my name and shrieks out curses in Go'auld. Teal'c is silent but
his eyes openly show his horror.
My colonel cries out. A cry ripped from his very soul, and from
mine.
"No!
His gaze showing just how broken he is inside.
Then darkness.
Oh, my heart was aching.
They had been forced to witness that. If the situation were, God
forbid, reversed, I would have fallen apart.
I reached for my throat again, as I thought about my team.
Where were they?
Where they even alive?
They had to be. What would happen if they were not?
And where the hell were they taking me to?
I half prayed it was back to the chamber. At least I'd know if they
were alive. The torture I could withstand if it meant I found out
what had happened to them.
I started to recognize the hallway and I closed my eyes.
We were on a ship. Not good.
That meant I was no longer on the planet and it would be harder to
escape.
Two doors slid aside in front of me and I hear crying.
I opened my eyes and saw the villagers.
Ba'al had gone back on his word. This was no surprise to me, but it
still hurt that the elders had betrayed us for nothing.
I was shoved into one of the cells and fell to my knees.
"Major Sam, are you alright?"
I looked up to see Karina, Daniel's little shadow as she was dubbed
by the colonel. She had come down to sit in front of me. She cupped
my face with her hand and I smiled.
"I'm fine Karina, are you okay? Where's your mother?"
"I am here, Samantha, as are all the women and children from the
village."
Haras's wife came forward and she had obviously been crying. I sat
up and looked at all the women. I had to think of something to say so
I wouldn't panic them, but what could I say? We were all in the same
boat.
"We are sorry to have betrayed you and your team. We didn't think we
had any choice. They had killed so many of the younger men and the
elderly…"
She dabbed her eyes.
"We were told we would be allowed to go free once you were captured,
but they lied. We should have fought, I know this now, but they were
going to kill Karina next if we did not agree. I'm sorry, my
daughter means the world to me and to Haras, and the elders feared
their own children would be the next to be chosen. So we agreed."
She looked away in shame.
I told her I understood, as did the team. They'd had no other
choice. But they did not know what the future held for them.
A life of slavery, of torture, of death.
She tried to reassure them, to reassure herself.
"Don't worry, the colonel will find a way to get us out of here. You
must all be brave, we'll survive this and you will all return to your
home."
"Now that you are here, we have hope, Samantha, that we will, and
also that we will be reunited with our loved ones."
I nodded and went to sit down. Karina took my hand and led me over to
where the other children were sitting.
They were scared.
Karina shushed them and told them all would be well, now that I was here.
The demons would not take any of them, now that I was here to protect them.
I suppressed a sob. I wanted to cry out that I was as scared as they
were. But I put on my best face and told them we would be getting
out very soon. They smiled and each one gave me a hug.
Karina was the last and she whispered into my ear, "I knew you were
an angel when I first saw you. I know you will not let any harm come
to us and you will bring back my poppa."
I smiled and said that I'd do my best.
I told them all to get some rest and that we could be leaving at
anytime. They all went back to their mothers and Karina took my
hand, wanting me to follow her again.
"No, Karina, I'm going to stay here. You go to your mother and
rest. I'll be okay, really."
"Alright, Major Sam, but if you get scared I'll be just over there."
Her young face was serious with concern.
I gave her a smile and she smiled back. She had so much trust in me,
even though she knew I was scared.
The colonel was right; she was far too smart to fool. That's why she
had latched on to Daniel, absorbing his knowledge like a sponge.
But I instinctively knew I could trust Karina not to tell the others
just how scared I was, how very afraid.
-----
I sit and think over my situation.
I died.
I died.
I don't know what has happened to my friends. I'm in a cell with
women and children. I'm on a Go'auld Mother Ship and I'm a prisoner
of Ba'al.
Just thinking his name chills me.
I now knew how the colonel must've felt when he saw who had captured
us. Fear, fear of going through the torture again, fear of losing
himself in the sarcophagus, fear of waking up again only to be killed
once more.
I fight back the tears. I must live, both to find them and to save
these people. They are innocent, just pawns in this.
I wipe away the stray tears that have betrayed my soldier façade and
try to formulate a plan.
Before I can get started, the doors open and 5 guards approach me. I
look at them and they order me to get up.
When I don't, I'm yanked upright. Karina yells out in protest and
grabs my hand. She's pleading with the guards to not take me. Her
mother comes over to restrain her just too late as the guard bats her
away with the staff weapon, knocking her to the other side of the
cell.
My instincts kick in. I feel the fury deep inside me and I take the
guard to my right down, quickly using his staff weapon to kill
another guard, before being hit on the back of my head and falling.
I'm seeing stars and I'm pulled up again by the head guard.
"You will pay for this! I will inform my lord of your attempted
escape and he will punish you, and those that aided you! Take the
child!"
I started to struggle, to shout out no, but it was of no use. He had
motioned for another of the guards to pick up Karina, who was still
unconscious.
Her mother started to fight with the guard who was lifting her, and
she was zatted into unconsciousness.
"What is the meaning of this? Our lord has demanded the Tauri woman
to be brought to him and you are bothering with insignificant slaves?
Go now, before I report your behavior to our God".
The guard that had brought me to the cell was standing in the
doorway, glaring furiously at the Jaffa in the room. After he had
dressed down the guard in charge of getting me, I was thrown out the
cell. I landed on the floor and was kicked in the ribs. I was told
to stand up again.
Through the closing doors, I could see the others tending to Karina
and her mother, as I hauled myself to my feet.
With one last look, I turned my head away and let the armored Jaffa
lead me away to my fate.
-----
I'm expecting us to go to the transport room and ring down to the
compound. But instead I am taken to another chamber on board the
mother ship.
As I am thrown onto the floor, I look up and see that I am in a
throne room. And I cannot stop the wave of panic that overtakes me
when I see the dark eyes of the Go'auld seated there, alongside his
lotar.
Ba'al.
I had known where I was being taken, whom I was being taken to.
But seeing him instantly made the already painful memories so much
stronger, so much more upsetting. It was almost too much for me.
He smiled as I shuddered on the floor.
I didn't care.
I prepared myself to die.
Again.