Author's Warnings: Okay, if you're seriously squicked by torture scenes, you might want to skip the end of this chap... You won't be missing much of anything critical to the story, I can promise that. Though it's not really that bad--no blood and guts, just lots of pain and suffering, and I'm sure it's not nearly as dark as it could and maybe should be, since I'm not sure I can write this sort of stuff very realistically.

The guards were back again, for the third time in a few hours' time. They walked to the cage, stood there, stared, growled a few words at each other, and left. Jack got the disturbing feeling that they were checking to see whether Daniel was conscious. Maybe they were waiting for him to wake up so they could take him away again.

Jack sat and waited. Hours passed, the dinosaurs came again and went away and returned and left. Daniel stayed unconscious, and Jack didn't see any change in his condition, which was both good and bad. Bad, because it just wasn't normal for anyone to be out and completely unresponsive for this long. Good, because he didn't seem to be in any pain, and his vitals were perfectly steady.

As he listened to the soft, regular sound of Daniel's breathing, Jack couldn't help thinking about their last time here. About the way Daniel's breathing had sounded then--all wrong, loud, raspy and strained. Maybe this time wouldn't be that bad after all, he tried to convince himself. Come morning, a full day would've passed since they'd left the SGC. By now, the folks back home would already have guessed that something had happened, and they'd come to look for them. Though Jack didn't know how they'd ever be able to figure out what had happened, if all they'd find would be an empty dino camp.

The moon had just begun its descent, showing that morning really was approaching, when Jack thought he picked up a slight catch in Daniel's breathing. His worry doubling instantly, he crouched closer to check him again, and found that Daniel had finally opened his eyes. They were wide, the look on his face bewildered.

"Daniel, thank God," Jack uttered, pushing a few stray locks from his friend's forehead, and then placing a hand on his shoulder. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Jack? I... I should be dead!"

Just speaking a few words made Daniel feel like his head was about to implode. Every muscle in his body was aching, even the ones he had never realized he had. It was the sort of feeling that he'd come to associate with a recent zat hit. His chest was wrapped in bandages, and his torn jacket was spread over it. The stinging pain of the cuts could barely rival his headache. The only place that actually wasn't hurting was where Jack's warm hand rested on his shoulder.

The surroundings were dark, lit only by faint silvery moonlight. Jack's face was hovering above his, looking hazy, which wasn't that strange, since Daniel had lost his glasses somewhere. Jack was frowning.

"Huh? Of course you shouldn't be dead! Why do you say that?" Jack said incredulously.

"Two zat hits," Daniel answered, his voice actually sounding better than he felt. "And I thought you'd be dead too."

He'd thought he was dead for sure. The last moments had been horrifying. He'd thought they were both going to die, that the guards were going to kill Jack, but there Jack was. Daniel could just discern the bars of the cage behind him. They were both alive, and still imprisoned.

"They brought me back here and left me to rot," Jack explained. "And dragged you back a few hours later. You've been out for several hours. So--two zat hits? Really?"

Daniel frowned, and realized where he'd gone wrong. "Hand device, actually," he clarified it to Jack. Rrragrathssh had hit him twice with the hand device, and even though it both felt and looked like a zat blast, it seemed it wasn't exactly the same. Two hits wouldn't kill.

"All right. So, it's not a zat," Jack came to the same conclusion as Daniel. "But it's no healing device either."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Daniel grimaced.

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty much feels like how it'd feel to be zatted twice and live."

"Good thing they let us keep our stuff," Jack commented, and offered Daniel a couple of painkillers--the strongest sort they had--and water. Lifting his head from the stone floor enough to get a drink was a feat he'd not have managed on his own. His limbs felt like lead, except that lead wouldn't be this achy.

Running out of supplies wouldn't pose a problem anytime soon, but if Rrragrathssh would continue his interrogation, simple survival might. Daniel didn't know how many of those hand device zat hits it'd take to kill him, and he'd rather not find out.

Daniel didn't really say much about how he felt, but Jack could tell by the look on his face that he was really sore. He stayed still on the ground, and didn't even try to get up. Jack didn't want to hurry him to do it, either, since he was afraid that all too soon, the dinos would return and take him. Unless they could cheat them. So, when Jack heard the sound of the approaching dinos again, he told Daniel to close his eyes and lie very still.

The dinos came, stared at them, talked, and left.

"Yess," Jack whispered under his breath. "Any idea what they said, Daniel?"

"None whatsoever. They spoke in Dinosaurian. I only do Goa'uld."

"Okay. Well, if this is going to be this easy all the time, I won't complain."

Sitting around without anything to do felt a bit easier with Daniel around. At least they could talk. To Jack's relief, Daniel seemed to be thinking as fast and clear as always, and he seemed to be getting better, too. After the dinos had paid their second visit and Daniel had played dead for them again, Daniel actually sat up, and then stood, with a bit of help from Jack.

"Okay. I'm okay," Daniel assured Jack, sounding pretty convincing. "If something unexpected happens and we get the chance to run, then I can run."

Of course, something unexpected happened, but they didn't get the chance to run. The dinos returned all too soon, taking them by surprise, and they found Daniel on his feet. They opened the cage and grabbed Daniel by the arms.

"Oh for crying out loud, cut him some slack, can't you even wait till the morning?" Jack shouted at them uselessly. All he got was an angry roar and a pair of jaws snapping menacingly in front of his face.

"Daniel, just..." Jack started, but he didn't really know what he was trying to say. Don't give up? Daniel wouldn't, Jack knew that. Take care? That would be a really stupid thing to say.

"I know, Jack," Daniel answered--it didn't make much sense in reply to Jack's unfinished sentence. Jack got the feeling that Daniel had some trouble trying to figure out what to say too.

The dinos were dragging Jack's best friend away so the ruler could torture him again, and neither of them could do anything to stop that. It was a nightmarish situation. There really wasn't anything to say that would make it any better.

"Daniel, I'll be seeing you. Got that? See you soon," Jack finally called out when the dinos had already closed the cage door in front of his face.

Daniel shivered. Mostly because of the night air that felt cool against his bare skin, though he wouldn't deny that he was afraid. The dinos had showed up so suddenly that he hadn't even gotten his jacket on. All he had were the bandages wrapped around his upper body. As the lingering aches and soreness of the hand device hit had slowly faded, the sting of the cuts had grown worse in turn. Daniel had to use all his willpower to keep himself from touching them, since it really wouldn't do any good.

The dinos took him to the throne room again. The ruler was waiting for him, standing at the foot of the throne, talking with a few other dinosaurs. One of them was holding Daniel's glasses, so it seemed that this time, Daniel actually hadn't lost them himself. The dinos had taken them when he'd been unconscious. Of course, they'd never seen glasses before. Last time, Daniel had lost them when the Tyrannosaur had attacked, before he'd even entered this temple.

"Finally!" Rrragrathssh greeted Daniel, sounding as exasperated as only a Goa'uld could. "I thought you were never going to wake up! Truly, I am amazed that creatures as weak as you can stay alive at all."

The ruler walked closer to Daniel. He crossed his arms protectively across his chest. As if that would help.

"Wargrawh, my counselor here, says that it was the wounds and the loss of blood, but Arrwgrawh blames the hand device hit. They would like to make this an experiment, and dissect you once it is over. I, however, don't care. Once I have the information I need, you will die, and they can do whatever they wish to your body."

"And... About my friend," Daniel tried cautiously, knowing that just asking might put Jack at risk. So far, the ruler had seemed to have forgotten about Jack completely.

"He will take part in the next Remembrance of Choosing, and we shall make sure that he will not win. We will prove once and for all that the last time, you humans cheated, and that we are still the true chosen hosts. He will pay for your attempts to undermine our divine rule. But why do you care? You will be dead long before him!" the dinosaur's voice suddenly grew menacing, and he aimed the hand device ominously at Daniel's face.

"Wargrawh expressed an interest in how long you will endure the pain. Perhaps we should try, just to let him know. Unless you are willing to tell me how you came to this planet, and how you vanished so fast again."

Daniel shook his head slightly. "If you kill me, you'll never find out," he said softly.

"I will find out," Rrragrathssh roared, and activated the hand device.

The blue flash hit Daniel, and he fell to his knees, but--unlike before--unlike a zat blast--the pain was more intense, and it didn't let go of him. Didn't even let him fall. He felt his muscles cramp, like from some strong electric current, he was frozen on his spot, on his knees, his back bent and head tilted backwards, and the pain... Was he screaming? His mouth was open, but he couldn't hear... God, the agony...

Suddenly, finally, it let go of him, and he crashed to the floor, face first. Even the lingering echo of the pain was so bad that landing on the recent cuts felt like nothing at all. Rrragrathssh was speaking, somewhere far away--he barely heard it past the thunderous sound of his heartbeat ringing in his ears--he could feel it pounding against the floor.

As the pain receded, all too slowly, he could think again, concentrate enough to realize what had happened. Rrragrathssh had held him in the hand device's grip just like Ra or Apophis had done with theirs, only the pain was completely different. Worse, if such a thing was possible. The Goa'uldosaur's hand device could be activated for longer periods of time, so it definitely wasn't a zat.

A heavy weight landed on his back, followed by the unmistakable sting of a dinosaur's claws. Rrragrathssh had stepped on him, pressing him against the floor.

"You are still there, aren't you?" the dinosaur hissed, and grabbed Daniel's hair to yank his head up from the floor. "Speak!"

Daniel didn't know what'd happen if he'd let the dinosaur use the hand device for a second time. All he wanted was to prevent that from ever happening again. The stargate... He couldn't let them know about the stargate... but did the Goa'uldosaurs even know what stargates were, anyway? Daniel had to say something. He had to come up with a story. A good one. Think fast, even through the pain...

"We... We came in a ship," he gasped out. "A ship that's cloaked."

"As simple as that? And you would take all this torment just to keep that knowledge to yourself?"

"Yes, yes, I would," Daniel stuttered, suddenly coming up with something that'd let him know what Rrragrathssh knew. "And I did, because... Because there's a stargate on board the ship."

"Stargate? A stargate inside a ship?" the dinosaur let go of Daniel's hair. Grateful, he rested his cheek against the cold floor. But his story hadn't been good enough. "No, such a thing is not possible," Rrragrathssh declared.

The Goa'uldosaur knew what a stargate was, then--of course it did, since it had the Goa'uld genetic memory. But its memories were from the distant past, since the contact between this world and the other Goa'ulds had been completely cut. It seemed that in that distant past, no Goa'uld had figured out that a gate could be positioned in a ship. Which was bad, really bad, for Daniel.

"You take me for a fool, human, and I will not suffer it," Rrragrathssh growled, and for the fourth time in all too short a time, the zat-like pain of the hand device hit Daniel. Mercifully, he blacked out right away, so he never found out how long it went on.