Teal'c was still sitting by Barney's side, together with Denver. It seemed to Sam that he was there more for Denver's sake than for Barney's. Barney had been unconscious ever since the early afternoon, when the blending had taken place. Doctor Fraiser said he was improving fast, thanks to the symbiote, Ranys. Before Sam's dad had had to leave again to take part in some Tok'ra meeting on some distant planet, he had estimated that the blending would be complete and Barney fully healed in the morning. Then, Ranys could take care of explaining things to Barney. Denver, on the other hand, was still nervous and afraid, and he refused to leave Barney's side. The last time Sam had visited the infirmary, she'd actually found Teal'c trying to offer food to the younger dinosaur, who had refused.
As the digital display of her watch changed to show all zeros for midnight, Sam finally forced herself to get up and leave. She had to admit that it was unlikely her two missing team mates were going to contact them anymore. Sitting here was no good. No matter what, they wouldn't leave to search for O'Neill and Daniel before the morning.
She turned her back to the silent gate and walked away. Maybe she could catch a few hours of sleep--though she was almost sure she wouldn't. Not when half her team was somewhere out there.
Ghhrrwuaghr, the former head librarian of the Great Temple of the Rulers, currently the councilor of the rebel elders and their reluctant, unofficial leader, woke up feeling that something had changed. He could not point it with his forefinger's claw, as the saying went, but something was different.
He remembered the betrayal and the attack. He and his party had been at the meeting place, waiting for Rwghaurg. She had indeed come, but with her had followed a dozen of Rrragrathssh's guards. The rebels had been taken by surprise, and they had been badly outnumbered. They had fought, but it had been hopeless. The ruler's guards had had weapons, and they had used them against their own kind, even though ageless tradition forbade it.
Ghhrrwuaghr had seen his friends fall, one by one. He had went down as well, and the ruler's guards had taken him for dead. But he had had enough strength left to crawl all the way back to the camp. It had been a nightmare. The pain had been unimaginable. He had been injured before, several times, on hunts, but he had been young at that time. Since then, he had grown too fond of the old archives, of reading, writing and learning, to care about the thrill of running in the jungle. And these injuries, caused by the claws of those of his own kind, were far worse than the heavy hit of a shell-bearer's tail or the piercing stab of a three-horn.
Ghhrrwuaghr had been sure he would die, but he had made it back to the other rebels, and the humans. The one called Daniel, whose name Ghhrrwuaghr could not say, had been there, trying to help. Just like Ghhrrwuaghr had been trying to help him when he had been hurt.
He did not have many memories from the time between that moment when he had been lying on the ground in the camp, and the present. He remembered the pain. He remembered that it had felt even worse every time he had woken up. From the fragments, he could make up a whole: the humans had carried him through the jungle, and taken him to their world. They had tended to his wounds, but he had still felt weaker and worse. He had been asleep, deep in nightmares. Then, the tall, dark-skinned human called Teal'c had spoken to him. He had asked if Ghhrrwuaghr would accept their help if it would change his life. The human's speech had been hard to understand, but that had not mattered. Ghhrrwuaghr had agreed. He would take any help that would allow him to live.
Now, Ghhrrwuaghr was alive. He was no longer in pain. And something was different. It must be the change Teal'c had spoken of.
As Ghhrrwuaghr thought back on things that had happened, memories came up that were not his. That were from a span of years far longer than his life, far stranger than anything he had ever done. The memories of someone who was not he, and yet they were his.
"Worry not. I am Ranys, and we are now one," a voice spoke inside his head, a voice within him that was not his and yet it was a part of him.
"How can this be?" he thought.
"Seek the memories and you will understand. You are now one of the Tok'ra. The resistance who wish to overthrow the Goa'uld. I am a symbiote, of the same race as the Goa'uld, but completely different from them in all that truly matters."
Ghhrrwuaghr sought his memories, and slowly, he began to understand how his life had changed. It was different in a good way. Now, he knew languages that he had never even heard of, and hundreds of planets, and many things about the stargates, about weapons and space ships. More than Rrragrathssh would ever know. This knowledge would help him fight Rrragrathssh and win. Ranys was pleased as well, of the knowledge of Ghhrrwuaghr's people, their language, their tales. He enjoyed learning and studying, just like Ghhrrwuaghr. They were very much alike.
Ghhrrwuaghr, who was now also Ranys, opened his eyes and looked around. He knew he had been in this room before, but he could barely remember it. The walls were white, and there were many strange things around him, although Ranys could explain many of them, and then they were no longer strange.
Grruarch was there as well, not far from him, and as soon as she saw that his eyes were open, she ran to him.
"Ghhrrwuaghr?" Grruarch asked. "Can you hear me? Can you speak?"
"I can. I am well again, Grruarch," he answered, his voice coming through weak and soft. "Although perhaps I should say that we are well, for I am now different. There is another being who is now a part of me. But you need not fear. It is good."
Others stepped into his field of vision, taking their places by Grruarch's sides. There was Teal'c, who had been with him when he had been sick, and Carter, the female with hair light as the morning sun. But Jack was not there, and neither was Daniel. Ghhrrwuaghr didn't know why they were not here. He would have expected to see Daniel--though he barely knew the human, he had come to consider him a friend.
"Doctor? He's awake--Barney's awake," Carter called. It took Ghhrrwuaghr a good while to realize that he had understood. Carter had spoken in the humans' language, and Ghhrrwuaghr had understood every word.
The Doctor, a short female who often appeared in Ghhrrwuaghr's hazy memories of this place, emerged before him, and the others gave way so she could get near enough to examine him.
"Yes, I am awake," Ghhrrwuaghr told her, in the human language. He knew he still could not pronounce it well, because it was simply, physically too strange. Nevertheless, the Doctor must have understood him, because she stopped and stared at him with wide eyes.
It was the strangest thing to hear Barney suddenly speak up in English. The dinosaur seemed to have as much trouble pronouncing the words as Teal'c had when speaking the Goa'uld-Dinosaurian dialect, but it was unmistakable. Of course, Ranys, the symbiote, would know many languages, and now, Barney shared that knowledge. They would no longer need Daniel Jackson to translate each time they wished to negotiate with the dinosaurs. Barney could do it as well.
"Barney--I am sorry, I cannot pronounce your real name well, and this is the name we use for you," Teal'c told the dinosaur, who was still lying in his infirmary bed, though Doctor Fraiser had already removed the restraints. "Daniel Jackson and Colonel O'Neill went through the gate to your home world, to talk with the elders. A day has passed since. They have not contacted us again, and we have been equally unable to reach them. We fear that they are in danger, and we wish to return to search for them. Can you come with us?"
"The blending was successful, but Ghhrrwuaghr is still weak," Ranys answered this time, his speech doubly distorted, as the symbiote spoke with the dinosaur's mouth. "Nevertheless, we can accompany you to the planet. We are worried for your friends. They are our friends as well."
The dinosaur climbed off his bed, and took some time to step around, searching his balance. Denver eyed him curiously, like he couldn't decide what to make of this Barney who wasn't exactly Barney anymore.
"So, how soon can we leave?" Barney growled in his Dinosaurian English.