"Level 28"

By "AriadneInLove"

DISCLAIMER: This Fanfic is based on Stargate SG-1 right after Daniel returned from Ascension and before Mitchell joined the team and Jack O'Neill became a general. (Circa Season 7, Death Knell) I did not invent Stargate or own any part of it or its characters.

SUMMARY: (Sam has recently been MIA and has just been rescued. This takes place as soon as she gets back to Stargate Command and 48 years after.) A powerful stranger from the future seeks asylum at Stargate Command. What will happen when SG-1 discovers she's the daughter of one of their own and wants to kill her parent before she can be born? What will Daniel's feelings for her develop into when he realizes who and what she is? READ and REVIEW!

MAJOR 'SHIPS: Jack/Sam, Daniel/Adrienne.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: First, I'd like to thank all of those who've reviewed my story. But oh are you wrong…

--Who says Adrienne even likes Daniel yet?

--What "powers" have her genetic alterations brought forth onto humanity?

--Who created her?

--When is she finally going to go off-world?

--Where's Teal'c?

--And most importantly… What or who did she leave behind?

Thanks again for all the feedback. Made my day. Pass the story along. STARGATE FANS UNITE! lol.

And now…

PART THREE: Essentially a Mother

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Jack got home around 9:00pm that night, which was after all, relatively early. He'd, however, stopped at a bar (something he hadn't done in years) and had himself enough margaritas, vodka, and beers to take down a yeti.

When he arrived at the SGC the next morning, he had to wear sunglasses inside to hide the bruising under his eyes, not that he was very happy with indoor lighting at this moment.

He sat down in the mess hall across from Teal'c, refusing to even look at food, despite his inane hunger.

"Whoever invented alcohol should be shot," he said, banging his head on the table.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Indeed."

"What am I doing to myself, Teal'c? No matter how much I try, I can't get her out of my head."

"Adrienne O'Neill?"

"No… Sam…. Carter… whatever."

"Have you reason to worry about her? Is Major Carter in danger?"

"No, it's not that. It's…"

"Ah, you refer to your romantic aspirations towards her."

"Hmm," Jack muffled, his head still pressed against the table.

This can't be sanitary, he thought.

"What has brought on your sudden realization of your feelings towards her?"

"Adrienne. She's… she's our daughter," Jack whispered.

The Jaffa did not look happy, but did he ever? "I see. Are you taking her presence as a leave from your military regulations?"

"I wish I could, T, but I can't let myself go there. Anubis is getting more powerful. Giving in now could compromise the SGC if either one of us couldn't be here. Plus, the NID is just dying to have something on us," he explained, his eyes painfully shut behind his sunglasses.

"Then perhaps it is a matter of priority, O'Neill. Could you not simply wait until the approaching time when it is appropriate for you to do so as per Adrienne's birth?"

"You mean Adrienne wouldn't be here unless there would come a time when it'd be ok for us to be together."

"Precisely."

"I've been waiting 7 years, T. I don't think I can wait any more, not if I know we're going to end up together anyway."

"Then perhaps your instincts are correct. I cannot advise you further, O'Neill."

Jack lifted his head from the table and nodded. "Yeah there's not much more I can do."

"No, I cannot because Major Carter approaches."

Jacks eyes opened wide. He looked back and surely enough, Sam had just walked in. She saw them and sat down beside him, hardly looking up from her papers and coffee.

"Do you live off that stuff?" Jack asked before she could greet them with her usual smile.

"It comes with the job description, sir," she responded in a very distant tone. Jack leaned in and saw she was going over Adrienne's papers again. She noticed and leaned away, looking at his sunglasses with a raised eyebrow.

"Late night?" she asked. He only answered with a muffled groan.

Teal'c, however, responded, "Indeed."

She shot a look at Teal'c and another at Jack who seemed to return to his place with his forehead on the table. She had her confused-but-worried look on and it was unsettling to Teal'c, who felt like a third wheel.

"I shall leave you two to converse in private," he said, getting up from his chair and bowing slightly as he always did. Sam smiled as he left and Jack just groaned what Teal'c took as a "See ya, buddy."

"Well you look like crap," she said after a short pause, still refusing to look away from her papers for a single moment. Jack had gotten used to this and just kept talking, knowing she was listening.

"Guess what. I feel like it too. I hit Barkley's after we met."

"Barkley's? Are you kidding me? Now I've driven you to drink. What a great future I see us having."

Jack lifted his head at this. He took off his sunglasses, shaking off the sensitivity to the even dim light of the mess hall and looked at her.

"A future, huh. So you do see us together someday."

"Well if you need any more proof, check out our care package in the VIP room."

Jack laughed. "Was that a sign of sarcasm and wit in your voice?"

"I get it from you."

He laughed again and returned his head to the table. "Whatever you say, dear."

She smiled at this, knowing he couldn't see her. It felt like just one big joke, like it could never happen no matter how deeply she wished it did.

That's when she reached the report from the genetics team Hammond had called in. "Colonel, you have to see this," she said, her hand shaking.

He reluctantly lifted his head and took the paper. "What am I looking at, Carter?"

"Her DNA results, sir. It says there's no way I can be her mother."

"What? Why?"

"Because her DNA not only matched yours, it's nearly an identical match. She's a clone, sir."

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Daniel and Adrienne had spent the evening talking in the mess hall. Adrienne had gone through several cups of Jell-O and two full pies. He enjoyed watching her eat. It was impulsive but she didn't eat desperately or like a pig. She has such grace to her every movement, the way she played with her spoon.

What I wouldn't give to be that spoon, Daniel thought and smiled inwardly.

They talked of Daniel's childhood and his parents. She said she understood growing up without them but he tried not to ask further questions about that.

Then they talked about the base and laughed over how little had changed.

"…They still have pie every Tuesday. It's homage to Jack, I always thought. Most of the teams are still military-based but the funding all goes to research now and less on development. I don't know how many people have screwed up the economy but I blame the president and we had so many cutbacks last year thanks to the NID that most of the projects got circumvented elsewhere. It was our major problem. We have alpha sites and beta sites and all the way to omega but that one's so far away that it's a last resort. We couldn't reach it by ship in time to save anyone so people mostly use it to make out on weekends and to go fishing in-between seeing as it actually has fish, three heads or less. We consider it our parked car by the lake -- only worldwide…"

Daniel had become interested on this omega site. "Kissing you say?"

"Oh among other things. Several a new base personnel were conceived right on that planet. My second in command, Rogers, was born right on the shore. His mother wanted an underwater birth but didn't notice the piranha-like inhabitants of the water and now he has tiny teeth marks all other and a chunk of his foot missing like someone grabbed him and bit him."

Daniel couldn't help but laugh and she laughed right along with him. She had an infectious laugh, when she wasn't heavily armed.

"Want to get out of here, Dr.?" she said brazenly, a huge smirk on her face.

"Lead the way?"

She took his hand as they walked through the halls smiling the whole way. He knew he had to be careful but he felt like a giddy schoolboy around her. So he gave in to temptation.

"I wonder if it's still here. There was a bunker head like a closet somewhere around here," she said.

"A closet?"

"All the rooms have cameras and Jack would kill me if I left the base."

So he didn't complain further. It might not be romantic but she was forward and it saved a lot of messy conversations.

She finally reached it and climbed the stairs up into the bunker. He followed suite, wondering how she could move around the base so easily, so mindlessly. After nearly 8 years, he still got lost from time to time.

"I grew up around here, Danny. I know every curve and nick in this place and even the ones that have yet to be made," she responded to his thoughts.

It struck him as strange and asked, "How did you-"

"One of my many talents, love," she said. "Minds are far too easy."

"You can read minds?" he asked, stopping dumbstruck in place, not so much about the confirmation but of what she had heard or seen coming from his.

"Don't worry, Danny. I can't see into the mind. I can only sense feelings. Your secrets are safe."

He chuckled nervously and followed her cautiously. She reached a door that opened to a ladder that led into a bunker with a very large fan. But essentially, it was a large room.

"Are we in the ventilation system?" he asked.

"Yeah, so nobody can hear us."

"Listen, Adrienne, I don't know what it is you expect from me but I'm-"

"Oh you know exactly what I expect… but don't worry. I just want to talk."

He sat down against one metallic wall across from her. The roof was not very high and they could not stand fully so they just laid back against the walls, the fan in-between them.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked. She had begun to crawl towards him across the room. The fan blew her hair loose and her eyes began to shine deep blue as she approached him. It looked like blue smoke emanated from her, completely untouched by the fan's current.

"Well I lied somewhat," she said, pretending to slip on the metallic floor and falling on top of his chest. His legs had completely outstretched in front of him and he was extremely sure he was drooling.

He usually didn't go for this but it was hard to turn something one wants away.

Just as she leaned in to kiss him, she pulls out a knife from her boot and brings it to his neck.

Her devious, playful smile was gone. Anger seemed to flow through her.

"Hey, whoa, I'm sorry but I'm not into all this," he said, trying to avoid the blade at his neck.

"Tell me where to find Dionysus," she growled angrily.

"What are you talking about?" he responded firmly.

"Only you would know where it is. Tell me where I can find Dionysus."

"Dionysus? The only Dionysus I know is in Greek Mythology…"

"Yes, he married Ariadne after she was abandoned by Theseus. I need to find him."

"Is he a Goa'uld?" he asked quietly as she closed the knife closer to dampening skin. At his question, she backed off a bit.

"You don't know what it is, do you?" she whispered, kneeling beside his legs, the knife at her side. "I've come too far back."

As Daniel saw her face turn to solemn, he placed a hand on her shoulder. "You didn't have to resort to this, Adrienne. I would have told you."

"No you wouldn't have. I don't know you Daniel. I don't trust people easily. I had to get you in a… compromising position to read you."

"So the mind thing only works when I'm freaking out?" She smiled a bit, something he heard like a laugh. "Tell ya what. I'll help you find whatever it is. Just please," he said, taking the knife carefully from her reluctant hand. "No more slice-and-dice."

She let him take the knife and threw it aside. She was still dangerously close. He could smell her perfume and felt slightly faint by it. It was a delicate scent but strong.

"What do you say we go back to my office and look up this Dionysus, eh?"

"Hmm. I don't know. We're here, now, alone… Some might take advantage of the situation."

"Well you know how I feel about that," he said more squeakily than he wished.

She smiled and leaned in slowly, kissing him gently on the lips and moving away just as cautiously. She knew he wasn't the type to jump on her first chance he got.

But she was wrong. She began to move away when he grabbed her arm and pulled her back in with a smile, brushing her hair back with his hand where the fan blew it asunder.

When she backed away, he noticed a tear down her face. "You're not him," she whispered. "You're not him." And she crawled back to the ladder entrance.

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Adrienne could not be found the hours after Sam's realization. Jack and Sam split up and tried to find her, talk to her before going to Hammond, but she wasn't in her room and she wasn't anywhere near the infirmary. Where else could she go?

Jack took the lead and searched all the rooms, the control center, and asked around if anyone had seen her in the labs. He reached Daniel's office and figured he'd ask him for help. But there she was, fallen asleep with her head in her arms, hidden behind piles of books. She'd been researching, but for what?

He didn't know whether or not to wake her but he had his gun drawn and was aiming it straight at her head. That's when he heard someone clearing their throat behind him. Daniel was at the door holding two cups of coffee and a newspaper, looking at him blankly.

"What's going on here?" Daniel asked, with eyebrows raised.

Adrienne woke up at the sound of his voice and looked up at the gun near her head.

"Yeah, just what I was about to ask," she said, her face more worried, innocent even.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jack yelled, refusing to lower the gun.

"What are you talking about?" Daniel asked, taking a step inside. "Jack, just lower the gun and we'll work this out, ok?"

"She's not what she says she is, Daniel. She's a clone."

Adrienne began to laugh out loud. Jack slowly lowered his gun, his instinct telling him otherwise.

"So, is that all you're worried about?" she asked, her laugh slowly dissipating.

"Is it true?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, it's true. But not in the way you think. You're right, I was made from your DNA but I'm not your clone. Nor am I Sam's. After all, she was the one that made me."

Jack felt fear running through him but his face showed only hurt. "You're not my daughter."

"You died before I was born, Jack. I was part of a project led my Colonel Samantha Carter to create a quicker method of reproduction, codenamed Ariadne. It was funded by the Asgard. I was going to be the first genetically viable clone. An offspring for a civilization of reproductively-challenged clones. They were the ones that insisted we use your DNA," she explained as if it were merely a tale to entertain little children, a run-of-the-mill little story.

Daniel's mouth was slightly open in shock. "What did you mean I didn't approve of how you were born?" he asked, moving closer behind Jack. What time they had spent together felt like a lie.

"The offspring required human incubators. When the project was shut down prematurely, a rogue group kidnapped Colonel Carter and forced her to finish The First. They used her as an incubator, no matter how reluctantly, making her essentially my mother. But my birth nearly killed her. You said you could never condone the birth of one for the death of another, but while trying to rescue her, you were killed by rogue mercenaries. She raised me right her at the base until it got taken over and then a month before I left, the enemy faction took her prisoner," she continued.

"Is this faction the betrayers you were talking about?" Jack asked.

"No, they were just pawns."

"Who then?" Daniel demanded, putting down the coffees before they burned the Styrofoam cups and onto his hands.

Her lips curled into a smile and a shrug surely followed. She couldn't tell them but they knew that's why she was here: to stop them.

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To be continued in PART FOUR:

--How will Sam respond to the news of Adrienne's nature? Did she know already?

--How far are Jack and Sam going to go?

--What the hell's going to happen with Teal'c?

--Is Adrienne going to finally join SG-1?

--Will Sel'mak have any answers? Permanent solutions?

--What killed everyone in the future?

--Who will betray them all?

--Will Daniel still feel the same way about Adrienne or will it get deeper?

--And finally… What is Dionysus?

Keep tuned in! It gets a little scary for a while and then someone dies. Stories develop between characters. We finally understand the natural abomination that is "Adrienne O'Neill." The snogging begins! Someone retires, someone gets married, someone dies, and someone goes all the way down the rabbit hole… READ & REVIEW!