Author's Note: Once again it's been a long time since I last posted. Sorry 'bout that, but at last it's finished! This is the last two chapters in one, along with the Epilogue. The last, final bit of this very long fanfic! Warning, this isn't beta'd, not because it doesn't need it, (for I'm sure it does) but I opted to just post it for purely selfish reasons. I really really wanted to finish and post this story before it reached '06. Two years is long enough for one fanfic, I think. ;)

Thank you to everyone who's read this fic. It's the longest piece of writing I've ever done, for anything. Woot!

-+-+-+-+

When Akh's ship blew up outside the massive black ha'tack, the bright flash, while it did no direct damage to the shields, or even the hull in general, caused one of the thousands of sensors to overload. This in turn fried a circuit, the only one of hundreds with a faulty resistor and one missing crystal that normally served as the glass-like unit's capacitor. The entire board overheated to the point of fracturing all the crystalline circuits, causing what might be considered the equivalent of an electrical fire.

The entire ship was plunged into darkness as systems went down everywhere, but Jack wasn't aware of any of this. He was trapped in another kind of darkness, one filled with memories and emotions, and not all them his own.

When the gun rang out, Jack instinctually ducked, but when he looked back up, to his horror he could see that the shot had hit it's mark. "John," he breathed out in shock, his blood running cold. Taking the chance that the sniper would wait for a better shot, Jack dashed out into the open and grabbed John's vest, pulling him back behind the meager cover of the short stone wall.

Jack searched for the hole, feeling the blood on his hands before finding it with his eyes, but the moment he located the wound, he knew it was already too late.

Face pasty and white, John, his commander by several years of experience, cockily grinned up at him, murmuring with a slurred tongue, "So much for Satellite Recon. Jack, take care of Barbara for me, man?"

Jack wanted to tell him to hang on, to not die, but his throat seized up even as John choked out his last breath of air. Jack hadn't been on the team long, but he and Sara had quickly become close friends with John and Barbara. It was as if he'd known John for years. Tears stung his eyes and he raised his head to call the retreat when the memory flickered, changing to something very different, and yet very much the same.

Blood spurted up between his fingers as he tried vainly to cover the wound in Jesse's chest. How could this have happened? What was he thinking! The echo of the shot still rang hollowly in his ears, burning into his mind an abhorrence for guns he knew he'd never fully eradicate. As the tears blurred his vision, the memory changed once again, to the sound of another echoing gunshot, one Jack had heard while sitting with Sarah on his front porch. It was the single most terrifying event in this life.

And as if his mind couldn't handle the emotional terror of reliving that moment, it swept back in time, to the single most incredible moment in his life. It was the moment when Jack had held his son, Charlie, for the very first time. Joy filled him to the point of making him weak in the knees, but the precious bit of life he'd help create was crying, twitching his little arms blindly in all directions and Jack held the baby boy closer. Silently promising to always protect the child, no matter what.

"So I guess Sam is short for Samuel?"

"Actually it's Sean. Sean A, Malloy. S, A, M. Sam."

"What's the A stand for?"

Sam hedged. "I don't like to tell people."

He smiled, and then guessed, "Angus?"

The look on Sam's face was priceless. "How did you know?"

But all he could manage was a feint smile as he murmured, "She always did like that name." He'd realized it only moments before, and it was all he could do to try and deal with the conflicting emotion warring inside him. Grief at finding out Kate was dead, mixed with anger to find that she had kept the secret of her pregnancy from him, and joy at the discovery that his very own flesh and blood, his son, was standing right before him, as if fait rather than chance has brought them together, or perhaps both. In the end, the emotions were put on the backburner to be dealt with later, and instead, he resolved to let himself live in shock for a time.

Then the moment was passing, and a variety of other memories surged forward to take its place. Jack's first time to the academy, getting bored with the physics and chemistry classes that seemed to take up too much time with the homework, and hold too few challenges to keep him there, that stupid instructor who didn't know one cent about proper aerodynamics, taking off to explore the world, learning that life existed on other planets…

The pain that suddenly engulfed his mind was enough to snap Jack back to awareness. He opened his eyes to be confronted only by blackness, and for a moment he thought he was still submerged in Sedet's Shadows, but the frantic sounds that assaulted his ears were real, and the groan to his right was felt as strongly as it was heard.

Kicking up blindly, Jack's foot smacked something hard. If he actually hit a Sedetian or just a piece of machinery, he didn't know, but as he rolled over, his hands quickly found Mac. "Come on!" He hissed, hoping the man was at least somewhat awake.

Mac elicited another groan, but Jack felt he heard more awareness in that small noise, and then slurred words reached out to him, "Wass'going on?"

"We're getting outta here," Jack grunted, grabbing Mac's arm and tugging it around his shoulder as he heaved the man up to his feet.

A sharp cry from behind was their only warning, and both Jack and Mac instinctually separated, dodging to the side as something large and ominous came crashing down between them.

If only they could see! Jack silently cried.

The emergency lights flickered on, revealing the massive form of Sedet standing in front of them, his five glowing eyes ablaze with fury. Momentarily blinded by the sudden light, Jack was able to dash away from the angry alien, but the light worked both in their favor as well as against them. With the path clear, and the room in a panic, Jack and Mac were able to run directly to the door, but there wasn't enough time to pass through it before several recovering Sedetians opened fire, their targets now plainly in sight.

It was as if he'd known exactly what would happen, and if his brain had had time to think things over, it'd confirm this fact, but right then, Jack was just moving. The shots of energy sizzled around them, pocketing scorch marks in the walls and door, one such bolt hit the door switch, causing it to open and short out. But another struck MacGyver in the shoulder, and the man cried out sharply in pain before falling unconscious.

Jack was already there, catching his twin even as MacGyver fell. Jack adjusted for the sudden weight, grimacing heavily as his own injured shoulder protested to the sudden strain. He dragged them the last couple feet out of the room and kicked at the side of the doorframe in the hopes that the door would close again.

His hopes were well rewarded, and the Sedetians were trapped inside, but it wouldn't last long, he knew. Clenching his teeth to keep from passing out himself, Jack pulled Mac's unconscious form down the hall and into the first room he found. They needed a bit of time. How long did Mac say he'd been out? He wasn't sure. A while. How long was a while?

First making sure his semi-brother was breathing fine and would actually be okay, Jack went back to the door to see if he could jam it shut somehow. He needn't have worried, the systems were still down, and while a small light was glowing softly purple in the corner, the door was completely unresponsive. Luck alone had given them entrance, and that was more than enough to make Jack suspicious.

Turning around, he began a careful examination of the room they'd landed in. It was oddly shaped, along with everything in it. Including one long object with a flat polished surface that could have been a table, and several smaller objects that looked suspiciously like they might have been stools before being bent and deformed out of proportion. Then, suddenly, he realized just what it was that was giving off the purple light.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Slowly walking over to the small machine, Jack ran a hand through the light. Little floating symbols immediately appeared. Running fingers around the edges of the machine, Jack found a latch and popped the top off the device.

There it was, the third key sitting perfectly at peace on the alien made black light, projecting the symbols as if it had nothing better to do. For a minute, his fingers randomly played with the images, moving them from place to place. Squeezing a couple together he watched as they blended, becoming a completely new and different symbol. Then he flicked at another, and the symbol burst apart, turning into two completely separate entities.

It was mesmerizing, and for a while he was lost in the patterns that were suddenly making perfect sense to him. He might have stood there forever if the loud bang on the door hadn't knocked him back to reality.

Sedet must have discovered where they were, which meant that was no longer a way out for them. "Aww man," Jack grumbled.

"Isn't that my line?" a soft voice groggily questioned.

Looking down, Jack found Mac awake, but with his face scrunched up in pain. Walking over, Jack simply asked, "Think you can stand?"

"Maybe." In the end Mac had to use both the wall and Jack for support to get up. Mac really shouldn't have woken up so soon, Jack realized, but Sedet wasn't giving them a choice. "What now?" Mac asked with a pant.

He seemed steady enough with just the wall, so Jack left him there, walking back to the alien device and fishing out the Key. "Look what I found?" He waved the small disk in the air with a grin, but all he got was a feint smile in return. A barrage of shots rammed into the door, and the controls sparked with life, but thankfully the door remained stubbornly shut. Needlessly, Jack stated for lack of anything better to say, "We need to find a way out of here."

"Ya think?" Mac caustically remarked, bringing both of them up short. Exchanging nervous looks, Mac hesitantly questioned, "When Sedet had us trapped in my mind, did you…"

"See a bunch of your memories? Ya, and I bet you saw a bunch of mine," Jack finished for him.

Mac's faced paled even more, if that were possible. "Jack. We might actually be becoming the same person."

The thought terrified Jack as much as it did his twin, but he couldn't worry about that right now. "How do we get out of here, Mac? You're good at these types of riddles."

It took MacGyver a moment to actually focus his thoughts on their present predicament, but as the man looked up, a cunning smile suddenly creased his face. Jack followed Mac's gaze to see what he realized must be a vent. He grabbed the edge of the table-like object and pulled, intending to move it over to the vent so he could get up there.

It didn't so much as budge.

Grumbling, Jack took a couple of the precarious looking 'stools' instead, and working hard to keep his balance, climbed up to examine the opening. No matter how advanced a race got, alien or otherwise, air had to have room to travel.

Experimentally, he grabbed the grating and pulled. It came loose in a shower of rust, and Jack could see were the siding that was holding the panel in place, had long ago withered away. A spot of luck on their side. Score one for the good guys! Jack thought humorously. "Looks like we can get out through here," Jack remarked, jumping back down to help Mac over, but MacGyver seemed reluctant. "Come on Mac, this is the last stretch."

"Are you so sure?" Mac asked, sounding wearier than Jack had ever heard him.

Frowning with worry, Jack shrugged. "Of course. All we gotta do is get off this tub, activate the keys so Daniel and Carter can figure out the doohicky, and…" He trailed off uncertain.

With a wry grin, Mac supplemented, "Save the world?"

"Exactly! Now come on!" After another balancing act on the stools, and some frantic wiggling and pulling, they both managed to squirm their way into the air duct. It was a little tight, but there was just enough room to maneuver their way along. What they didn't have was any light to see by.

Jack took the lead, carefully reaching out with searching hands for sharp edges that could slice him up, or anything else that might prove harmful. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before he found exactly that. "Ow!"

"What?" Mac called up to him.

Sucking at his injured hand, Jack mumbled, "Nothing. I think something bit me."

"Bit you! As in the alien version of a rat?"

Jack wasn't sure what had bit him, but when he swept his hand around in the dark, whatever it had been was gone. "Never mind, Mac, it's nothing." Ya, right, Jack thought sarcastically to himself.

"Ya, right," Mac grumbled, echoing Jack's thoughts.

Jack pushed on, suddenly very eager to be out of the cramped air ducts. Ahead of him a point of light appeared, and Jack moved towards it with great vigilance. The light soon grew, casting an errie green glow into the air duct through another vent. Unless they wanted to backtrack, this was their only exit.

Not much could be seen through the thin grating, but Jack didn't think he could hear any movement in the room below, so he pushed on the grill. It came loose as easily as the other one had, confirming that this was where chance wanted them to be. Either that, or the Sedations kept some seriously poor maintenance on this ship. Jack highly doubted that.

The room was empty, and the green glow was coming from a tower of computer screens at its center. "Sweet!" Jack slid out, dropping awkwardly to the floor. Quickly getting back up, he went to the nearest screen. It was currently spitting out writing that looked like some variation of goa'uld. A few random keystrokes later brought up a floor plan of the ship. Jack didn't have a clue what any of the flashing side notes were indicating, but basic engineering made the map easy to read. What they needed was some way off the ship, like a hanger bay or some other such place. His eyes drew immediately to one location on the map in particular.

A crash behind him quickly reminded Jack of MacGyver, and he turned to find his twin slowly extracting himself from more of the peculiar stools. "Tell me we don't need to crawl through any more air ducts?"

Jack grinned. "I don't think so. How's the shoulder feel?"

"It hurts," Mac stated, a little more surely than usual, but Jack felt much the same. Then suddenly Mac sat down heavily on the one of the stools, surprisingly with perfect balance, and glumly stated, "Jack, we can't keep doing this."

Annoyed, Jack sat down across from his twin. "I thought we already covered this?" But the look Mac gave him was one Jack had seen too many times in the mirror, on himself. It was the look of pain, of dead hope, of the desire to just let things end.

And just when had Jack truly lost that look? And when had Mac picked it up? Looking up at him, Mac quietly asked, "How have you lived with the pain?"

"The same way you have, by surrounding yourself with the things you care about," Jack told him with pure honesty.

But Mac shook his head, looking away. "This is different. Your son…" His voice trailed off, and Jack found his throat too constricted to answer. In his mind the memories surfaced, his memories, and Mac's. For a few moments it was too much to deal with, and that, Jack realized, was the problem.

"We have to focus, Mac. Focus on what we want to save."

"But what are we saving? And how?" MacGyver argued, the frustration clearly evident in his voice. A frustration Jack completely agreed with.

Identically, they each ran a hand through their hair and sighed. But the action froze their minds with the chill of fear.

Forcing a grin, Jack hesitantly replied, "It's like you said before. We're saving the world."

"Or destroying it."

Again, silence reigned between them. Jack wanted to make a quip, some sort of sarcastic remark to lighten the mood, but nothing would come to mind. At this point, anything could happen. The only thing he was certain off, was that he didn't want to give up, and he was fairly certain Mac didn't either. "Let's get to a hanger bay."

Mac didn't say anything, but he stood up, and before heading for the door, turned around to fiddle with the control panel. An eyebrow rising, Jack questioned, "What did you do?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Mac replied, but there was the faintest hint of a smile at the corners of his lips before the subdued expression took up residence again.

Checking the hall, Jack and Mac slipped out of the room, making a mad dash for the hanger bay. Or what Jack was pretty sure was a hanger bay. With a few quick turns, they had managed to just miss several passing aliens, but just at the last turn, they ran right into Sedet himself.

The goa'uld's eyes glowed with rage, and as the alien raised one of his multiple arms, a pulse of energy picked the brothers up, slamming them into the opposite wall. His body screamed in pain, but Jack had no voice to actually vocalize the agony. For a brief moment, he actually felt filleted, the energy searing his body with an unseen flame. Collapsing to the ground, Jack curled into himself, his skin alive with pins and needles.

The goa'uld was yelling at them, or yelling at his minions, Jack wasn't sure. Any sound at all was like a thousand bells in his head. Eyes tearing, he forced himself to sit up, trying to get control over the shaking that had taken over. But a few moments later, he realized he wasn't what was shaking. It was the ship.

Then there was even more yelling, more bells, and a heat that began to consume his body. He reached out blindly until he found Mac. MacGyver had been reaching for him, too, and they clasped hands tightly. All at once the noise and pain died down to something manageable.

You okay?

The thought was and wasn't his own, and so Jack replied, Ya, you?

Ya.

Blinking back the tears, Jack could see where small explosions were ripping up the sides of the hallways. Sedet was yelling and hitting his minions for their inadequacies with typical goa'uld fury. As if things were really in their control!

Jack turned to meet Mac's gaze, and with mutual consent, they used the diversion to crawl the rest of the way to the hanger bay doors. Sedet noticed them just as the doors opened, and chasing after, sent a volley of shots that sliced above their heads. The energy passed so close Jack felt like it set his hair on fire, but took the chance that it hadn't, seeing as how Mac's wasn't, and kept going. They'd been lucky to survive the first attack, another would surely kill them, but as luck would have it, one of the energy bolts had struck the lock for the doors. Jack and MacGyver jumped through the closing doors, making it just in time. Jack didn't even wonder if the doors had locked behind them, he just knew they had. Loud bangs reverberated against the doors, but it was hard to distinguish them from the rippling explosions within the ship.

"That was close," Mac breathed out.

"You can say that again," Jack returned, and ran a hand through his hair, just to be sure it was still all there. Then shaking their heads, Mac and Jack tried to dispel the foggy tingling that still consumed their bodies, before they got up to take a look around. The hanger wasn't big, holding only about ten of the strangely shaped death gliders. At least, Jack hoped they were like the death gliders, those he already knew how to operate.

Wasting no time, they climbed into the nearest one. "Aww man!" Jack complained once he got a look at the controls.

"What?"

Jack hesitated, but another explosion rocked the ship with such violent force it almost knocked the black glider from its docking clamp. They were out of time. "There hasn't been a vehicle made yet, that I couldn't fly!" He stated, more to himself, than Mac.

Even so, Mac groaned, "Awww man!"

Jack hit a button, and the vehicle suddenly dropped, falling like a rock. "Crap!" He hit a bunch more buttons, sending off two shots of energy. One that conveniently took out the other vehicles in a chain reaction, and another, that at last opened up the doors leading outside.

Out the side window, Jack could see the inside doors blow inward as Sedet made another appearance. With a grin, the Colonel pressed another button at random, and quite suddenly, the force field on the outside bay doors completely disappeared. Thus removing any way of keeping the ship pressurized. In response, emergency doors slammed down inside the hanger, preventing more sedatians from following Sedet into the hanger, and likewise, trapping the goa'uld inside.

For all his multiple limbs, the goa'uld, like any other mortal being, was yanked towards the vacuum of space, helpless to prevent it. So was their little ship, but the life controls had come on automatically, keeping them safe from the threat of open space. The suction caused by the depressurization of the hanger projected them out and away from the gigantic black ha'tac. Just in time to watch it completely combust.

The gigantic ship glowed a bright red a moment before it happened, and for that one moment time stood still. And then, suddenly, it came apart in one final explosion that ripped the crippled ship apart from its center. Large chunks of metal exploded in all directions, including directly at them.

Several projectiles sliced at their little hull, and learning the controls the hard way, Jack quickly maneuvered them around the majority of the deadly debris. Lights and sensors were going off everywhere, and a voice emulating the bug-like aliens was repeating something in the same infuriatingly calm monotone their own government created AI's used to report dangers.

They got through the worst of it, but not all of it. One large piece hit them so hard it jarred their systems and sent them careening towards Earth. Jack fought with the controls, but too late, they became caught in Earth's gravity. This wasn't exactly the way he'd planned on getting back.

"Jack?" Mac nervously inquired from the back seat.

"Just hold on," Jack told him through gritted teeth. The force of their plunge was pulling hard against him. He couldn't even guess how many g's they were pulling right now, but they needed to slow down. He got the vehicle out of its spin, and forced the nose up right as red spots began to cloud his vision. Fighting to stay conscious, he finally found the inertia dampeners, just in time, too, as the hull began to heat up and glow bright red.

Now came the fun part, seeing if the ship was built for space to atmosphere combat, or if it'd completely burn up on decent. Considering it didn't go up by more than a few degree inside the ship, he figured it was the prior, and with a grin, he allowed himself a moment of enjoyment as he watched the ground quickly approach. His stomach squirmed, like it always did, but while Jack usually found excitement in the sensation, for once, he had to fight down the nerves instead.

"Wow," Mac breathed out behind him, also staring out the window. "Do you think we're going to crash?" He asked, sounding far calmer than Jack would have expected him to. But then…

"Probably."

"Okay."

Their prediction came true, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. As they entered the atmosphere, Jack gained back a bit more control over the ship and was able to bring it down while keeping them intact. Amazingly so, considering they landed the way a meteor generally did. Hard, hot, and fast. Luckily, they had landed over land, not water. If Jack had to hazard a guess, they were even in the United States somewhere.

Steam clouded their view, but as they pushed up the top hatch and stood up, wind cleared the air and brought with it a clean gust of fresh air. The ship had scathed a deep line into some rather dry wilderness, parking them right next to an interstate freeway. A lone car on the road had seen their crash, and its occupant was quickly exiting the vehicle, an expression of shock covering the young man's face. "Dad!"

"Sam?" Both Jack and Mac exclaimed, equally surprised.

"I thought you were in London?" Jack demanded, but then Mac thwapted him from behind.

"He's my son, not yours," Mac remarked, but then demanded of the young sandy brown haired man, "What are you doing here!"

At first the young man, Sam Malloy, as Jack had recognized him from Mac's memories, was too stunned to answer, his eyes glancing back and forth nervously between the two twins. "What's…what's going on?" He finally asked.

"Sam, this is Jack," Mac replied, motioning to Jack, but then, suddenly, Mac jerked, almost loosing his balance as he flung something violently away from him. "Ow! Crap!"

"What?" Jack demanded, but considering his hand had started throbbing again, he felt he could hazard a guess.

"Something bit me!" Mac sullenly replied, but then exchanged worried looks with Jack. They compared hands to find they had the exact same injury in the exact same place. Jack's had even started to bleed again, the small drop of blood forming anew.

When their alien stowaway had bit Mac, his son, Sam, had hurried across the road, skid down into their still steaming ditch, and was gingerly climbing over singed rock and dirt towards them. "Dad!"

"He's fine." "I'm fine." The twins replied.

Their response halted the young man and once again he was looking between the two of them, confused. "What's going on?"

"We really don't have time to explain, Sam," Jack replied, finding it hard not to think of this brown haired man as his own. Memories flooded his mind, none of them his own. Only thoughts of Charlie kept him grounded in reality.

"We don't have long," Mac continued, "We have to get to Colorado as fast as we can."

"But…we're in Colorado," Sam stated, shaking his head as if he could dispel his own confusion.

"Sweet, I'll drive," Jack immediately stated, gingerly climbing out of the still hot ship. Mac did likewise, and Sam looked like he wasn't sure whom to help.

"Wait. What's going on?" Sam demanded.

"It's a long story," the twins replied, and then Mac added, "One I promise I'll tell you about on the way, but we have to get going."

Sam looked like he wasn't going to budge, but with worried looks at them both, Jack didn't surmise they looked all that pleasant, he stated. "Fine, but I'm driving!"

Jack grinned. The boy's stubbornness had to be a family trait. It was just as well, Jack was ready to collapse, and he was sure Mac was, too.

"Sam," Mac said as they reached the car, looking at the Volvo with a raised eyebrow. "How did you get here?"

"Well, I had planned on a surprise visit, but my plane had to make an emergency landing in Florida and the next available flight wasn't for a couple days. Since I wasn't in a hurry," at that, Sam made a wry expression, "I decided to rent a car and drive across the states, instead." Sam looked at them with a expression Jack knew very well. It meant the kid was thinking, and likely guessing correctly, too. "That's when things started to get crazy. The news has been talking about Armageddon. Is it?"

Neither twin knew how to answer that, but they grimly replied, "Not if we can help it." Then Jack did a few calculations in his head. "Sam, when exactly did you leave London?"

"It was the nine am flight, four days ago."

"Same time you first got picked up by florists?"

"Yes." Mac had the thinking look on his face, too. "To think, things have been in motion since then, or earlier. We are cursed."

"Haven't I been saying that this whole time?" Jack retorted.

Sam was confused again, and exclaimed, "What are you guys talking about? You're lucky I passed by when I did, the roads have been empty for hours.

"You don't know the half of it," Jack remarked, and then settled into the back seat. Maybe this time he could catch more than a minute of sleep.

-+-+-+-+-

Sam let out a long tired sigh. She'd been given one of the few available gurneys to 'rest' on, but no matter how exhausted she felt, or how much pain medication she was given, because Janet had insisted on giving her something, Sam just could not sleep.

Daniel was in the gurney next to her, and in similar condition. They were a mess, each with fresh casts, Daniel's leg, and her arm, and each was half mummified with every available bandage Janet could find. If this ended well, Sam was definitely taking a week off. After the medical leave. But right then, the only thing that really stuck in her head was the word if.

"How do you think they're doing?" Sam asked.

The group of them, herself and Daniel on the beds, Teal'c watching over them, and even the strange pilot Dalton, who'd decided to stick to them like glue, were all waiting in a corner of the overcrowded medical pavilion.

There hadn't been much Sam could offer the General in the line of information, and none of them were in any condition to be of much more help, but she hated feeling useless.

"If I know Mac, he'll be blowing the place up right about now," Dalton offered with a cheery smile.

Sam wasn't sure if that made her feel better or not.

Then Sergeant Siler was weaving his way through the crowd towards them. "Major Carter." His face stayed calm as usual, but there was a slight excitement to the tone of his voice. "I thought you'd want to know that NORAD has reported a large explosion in the sky. They believe it was Sedet's ship."

"See? What'd I'd tell ya?" Dalton exclaimed, full out grinning.

"Did any escape pods make it out?" Sam quickly asked Siler.

He shook his head. "They said there was too much debris to tell. Most of it burned up in the atmosphere."

For a long moment the group was subdued by that news, but then Daniel stated, "I'm sure they got out. They've got luck on their side, remember?"

Sam didn't think it wise to mention that that same luck was as much for them as it was against them. But then something strange happened. The pavilion tent collapsed. And as surprised as she was, it was the best reassurance she could be given. With a wide grin, made a little wider by the influence of the drugs in her system, she remarked, "They're back!"

Teal'c's voice responded somewhere to her left. "Indeed."

It took them a lot of effort and teamwork just to even find the edge of the heavy tent, and when they entered the open air again, they could see that all the tents had collapsed, probably at the same time. The sky had also gotten darker.

Frowning, Sam looked up at the dusty looking clouds above. They seemed grayer than they should, and the surrounding land had lost most of its color, the hues turning as gray and dull at the clouds. It began to rain, only, it wasn't rain that came down but a dry white fluff. Sam held her good hand out to catch a piece.

Dalton had done the same, and examining the little flake closely, he suddenly exclaimed, "Is this ash!"

They all look up and around for signs of smoke, but other than the darkening sky, there was no readily visible sign of fire. Then more began to fall, and in bigger pieces. Sam took a whiff of a small clump of ash, instantly recognizing the smell of sulfer. "It's volcanic!"

"There's a new volcano in Kansas," Daniel offered. Teal'c had him around the waist, the jaffa practically carrying the anthropologist. More people were trying to get out from under the tent and the little group shuffled out of the way.

Sam was having a hard time thinking and moving at the same time, but once they stopped, she shook her head. "This is too thick, there must be another volcano closer."

"Then how'about we get this show going?" A new voice interjected.

"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed, seeing the Colonel and his twin approaching with a few others in tow, including a young brown haired man dressed in civies.

"Hey Daniel," Both men answered.

Sam sucked air in through her teeth in alarm. Where they both the same now? In fact, she wasn't sure who was who anymore. As if to confirm her fears, one of them grimly stated, "We don't have much time."

"Do you have the black light board?" The other quickly asked.

Thankfully, they did. The General had been kind enough to send men to pick it up from the Colonel's house, but before Sam had a chance to say so, Dalton suddenly exclaimed, "Sam! What are you doing here? I thought you were in London?" He and the young man shook hands and grasped each other in a hug.

"Oh, you know," the man answered with a shrug and a grin, "the usual. Not to mention, picking up a couple hitchhikers."

"Everyone," the one who Sam figured had to have been MacGyver, introduced to the group, "this is my son, Sean Malloy."

"Call me Sam," Malloy interjected.

But the pleasantries ended quickly. One of the escorting airmen had gone to fetch the General. "Colonel!" General Hammond called out as soon as he was near enough, but stopped short when he spotted MacGyver.

Sam could see the confusion wash over the General's face, mixed with anxiety and concern, probably at the twin's appearance. The trip into space hadn't improved things for them. And while they seemed to be moving around better than her or Daniel, they looked far worse. At last, only one question came out of the General's mouth. "Colonel. Is the threat over?"

"No, sir," They both answered at once, and then the Colonel extrapolated, "Sedet is gone, sir, but unless we figure out how to work Gent's device, the Earth is in real trouble."

Again confusion stirred across the General's face, and he slowly questioned, "Is this device the reason for all the strange disturbances that have been going on?"

"Not exactly, sir. But there's no time to explain now, I'll have to later. Or Carter will."

Sam's blood ran cold with those words. She no longer doubted in her CO's ability to explain science, but the way he'd said, 'or Carter will' made it sound like he might not be around to explain things to the General.

But the Colonel was right, they didn't have time, as was evident by the thick ash falling in the sky, and to make it worse, it was getting colder by the second. As soon as Sam told them where the makeshift reader was, the General had two men off to fetch it, and when they brought it back, everyone watched with interest as the Colonel pulled out the final key. Teal'c handed over the two he'd been carrying, and the three were placed on the reader with each key touching each other.

A flick of a switch, and four extra long extension cords to a new power source, later, the little symbols appeared in the air. With the sky as dark as it was, it wasn't a problem seeing them.

"Ready?" The twins simultaneously asked each other, and then nodding, they began moving the symbols around. Sam could only stare in fascination. Their fingers moved swiftly and confidently. Moving symbols from one key to the next, flicking several apart, and joining others till all of a sudden the impossible puzzle was solved and information burst forth into the air.

Daniel quickly hobbled forward to examine the writings. He raised his hand, and like with the symbols, the projected information acted much like a touch screen computer. The information changed, and scrolled, and changed again.

"Well?" The Colonel asked a little impatiently.

"This is amazing!" Daniel exclaimed, but in the next second his face fell. "But…"

Both twins groaned, and MacGyver remarked, "Now how did we know there was a but coming?"

Daniel suddenly looked anguished, telling them, "The dialect isn't the same as what we've previously found. They must have used a completely different language for this. It'll take me at least a week just to begin to understand what any of this says."

"It's okay Danny, it was a long shot anyway," the Colonel replied with a grim smile.

"But it could still work," Sam immediately protested, not willing to give up. "We just have to figure out the device."

"Teal'c?" The Colonel asked, holding his hand out. The jaffa obligingly deposited Gent's device in his hand and O'Neill silently examined it. But his expression was grim when he tossed it to MacGyver for him to look at as well.

The genius shook his head, and looking up, he and the Colonel seemed to have come to a decision. Sam swallowed hard, fearing what that decision would be.

Turning to General Hammond, the Colonel solemnly requested, "Sir, we need to get to the stargate."

Hammond shook his head. "The mountain isn't safe right now. I can't allow it."

But MacGyver stepped forward, insisting, "If Jack and I don't get off Earth, than no one is safe."

Hammond frowned, but before he could say anything, MacGyver's son had gripped Mac's hand and questioned, his voice filled to the brim with worry. "Dad?"

MacGyver turned to the young man and giving him a tight hug stated adamantly. "I'm so sorry, Sam, but it's the only way. I love you so very much, just remember that, okay?"

Malloy nodded, but reluctantly let go of his father. Sam felt tears glisten in her eyes, and wanted to say something, but even knowing all of what was happening, she couldn't bare the thought of them leaving, either.

"Sir," Colonel O'Neill quietly asked, his eyes saying far more than his voice ever could. "Please. We have to go."

"And where will you go?" Hammond, just as quietly, questioned.

"To as remote a planet as possible."

The General didn't reply, but turned and headed for the complex entrance.

It was deathly quiet inside the mountain. Thankfully the ground remained as still as it was meant to, as if the Earth itself was holding it's breath. In fact, every door Mac and Jack approached opened without them having to even touch it.

"Sir, it might still work," Sam stated at the bottom of the ramp to the gate. More than just their little group had come with them back into the SGC, some by General Hammond's orders, and some on their own accord.

"Sam," Colonel O'Neill said softly, a faint smile touching his lips. "We'll give it a shot, but we can't chance that it won't, either." Sam bit her lip, but then he whispered, "It was an honor to serve with you, Major."

"Jack," Daniel said, once again clinging to Teal'c. "There has to be another way."

"O'Neill," Teal'c added, "There might still be time."

But the Colonel shook his head. "We all know that isn't true." As if to emphasis the point the ground began to shake. Slowly at first, but with increasing crescendo. "General!" O'Neill and MacGyver yelled up to the overlooking room where the General and others were trying to get the gate operating again.

"Something has short-circuited the dialing system," General Hammond told them through the speaker. But as they struggled to keep their feet the lights flickered with a power surge and the gate began dialing. Sam glanced up into the room, and guessed from the look on the General's face, that they hadn't set the gate to dial.

The Colonel and his brother must have had the same thought, because they simultaneously yelled up, "Outgoing, or incoming?"

"Outgoing, but we don't know to where," the General once again replied through the speaker.

The twins just exchanged looks, and MacGyver stated, "I guess this is it." As if in response to his statement, the ground stilled, leaving the shaken group alone with only the sound of the dialing gate. The seventh chevron locked, and the gate opened, the glistening blue pool looking more ominous than it ever had before.

"Wait, Dad!" his son cried out, his eyes looking frantically at the gate. "Where are you going? Through that?"

Again MacGyver hugged his son. "Make sure you finish your masters. And never give up following your heart." When they parted, Malloy had tears in his eyes. Then MacGyver shook Dalton's hand, saying with a grin, "All the trouble aside, I could never have had a better friend!"

"Likewise, Mac. Likewise."

The Colonel was also giving his team hugs, saying his goodbyes, Sam realized. Even knowing they planned to leave, even standing here before the open gate, Sam hadn't been willing to accept that this was it. All of a sudden her mind had gone completely numb. She only barely registered the Colonel exchanging words with Daniel and Teal'c, and then he was there, standing in front of her.

His face was smeared with ash, blood, dirt, and even a bit of the orange fire retard. He looked tired. More tired than she had ever seen him look before. She opened her mouth to try and talk him out of going, of trying the device here, instead, but his eyes were pleading with her and her voice caught in her throat. At last, she managed a barely whispered, "It's been a honor, sir," imitating his words from before. It was the standard military farewell and good luck, spoken when they didn't expect to see each other again.

He didn't say anything, but he pulled her into a hug, and Sam clung to him tightly for several seconds before forcing herself to step back. Then, suddenly, everything was in motion, and she was helpless to stop it. The Earthquake resumed with a vengeance, and the twins dashed up the ramp. MacGyver's son tried to follow, but Dalton caught the young man's arm, stopping him.

Right before they reached the event horizon they stopped, and turning, the Colonel gave one last order, "Whatever you do, do not try reaching us for at least a week!"

"God speed, son," General Hammond solemnly intoned over the mic.

And then, just like that, they were gone. The earthquake stopped the second the gate shut down. At the same time the power went out, and for several long minutes before the backup generators kicked in, they'd been plunged into complete blackness. And, as they'd find out later, so had the entire Earth.

-+-+-+-+-

Post Author's Note:

CairisRin: Well there are no jaffa in this-
Teal'c clears his throat.
CairisRin: Except for Teal'c. I just loved the whole thought of calling this chapter The Jaffa Tango too much, to not do it. :D
Teal'c (a little miffed): A jaffa does learn how to dance as part of his training.
CairisRin: Er...really?
Katchi: Cool! Let's see!
Teal'c does the Jaffa Tango.
CairisRin: . o.o Um...that's um...very nice, Teal'c.
Katchi (whispering to CairisRin): Doesn't the tango involve two people?
CairisRin (whispering back): I'm not even sure I'd call that dancing, let alone the tango.
Teal'c begins to hum his own music as he does the Jaffa Tango.
O.O

Happy New Year Folks :D