"Level 28"
Special thanks go out to Jenn (roseofthegate) for her continued fandom. And for StupidMajor for being with me since the beginning, helen8uk for joining in the groupie list, scottiedog for making me laugh, and 001ElvenWarrior for being my first reviewer. That means a lot.
----AriadneInLove---
And now…
PART FOURTEEN: Home
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Jack and Teal'c stepped through the Stargate onto the alpha site looking deathly. And death was just what they were expecting. Jack's thoughts were on Sam. He didn't care that he'd died. He hadn't even realized that. Teal'c wasn't sure if he remembered. After being tortured by Ba'al so many times, Jack was used to the sarcophagus. But he knew that if he woke up in one again, it might be the last time before he lost the last of his humanity.
Already Jack felt the effects. He didn't care anymore, and that was not normal. Had he been the Jack he once was, he would have gone back for Bra'tac's body or tried to free some of the slaves. But he didn't. He wasn't even sure where they had been or how long it had been. He just wanted to get back home… back to Sam. Where she was, home was. And right now, it was much too far away.
In his mind, he was preparing to say goodbye to a dead body, his speech to the corpse of a fallen angel. He'd get his chance.
"O'Neill, where is the base personnel?" Teal'c broke Jack's train of morbid thoughts.
"I don't know, Teal'c. How long has it been, anyway?"
"Months."
Jack cursed under his breath. "There's no one here. They'd be in the beta site. This place has been condemned since… since the last one was destroyed," he said, thinking of how he felt when he thought he had lost her. It was the same now, but worse. He had done nothing to help.
And then a plan came to mind. He could still save her.
"There's an underground bunker up ahead. It's automatic but it has hidden weapons and a radio system just in case. We can call home and see how they all are. And then we can keep searching for a cure. Who else can help?"
They reached the bunker at a hill. They hadn't been sure of its location but they found it hidden by shrubbery.
Jack jumped in eagerly and sent Teal'c back to dial the Gate with his staff weapon, a radio, and a zat to protect the outgoing wormhole.
He began to fiddle with the knobs as soon as Teal'c confirmed he had dialed Earth. He started the camera and began to send a signal through the wormhole.
"Stargate Command, this is O'Neill. Do you read me? I repeat, do you read me?" he said into the primitive mike. He wondered why the equipment was so out of date but he figured it had to do with the Goa'ulds and proper interfaces and that Sam would give him a reason eventually.
Nobody answered at first. He closed his eyes and rested his head atop his hand on the head of the mike in sad defeat.
And then the voice of an angel came through.
"Jack? It's Sam." an emotional shrill voice came through. He realized he was sending a video signal from the camera above and quickly went back to the mike.
"Yea. Yea, Sam it's me," he responded with a face of tearful relief.
"Oh God, Jack are you ok?"
"Yea, I'm ok. Teal'c's out at the Gate. He's good too. Bra'tac didn't make it though."
"Damn it, Jack. I never should have let you go."
"That doesn't matter now. How are you doin'?"
He could hear Sam's voice choke as she tried to reassure him, "Yeah I'm pretty good."
"Frasier find out what's wrong?"
Sam was hesitant to respond. She didn't want to tell him about Janet yet. "No, we got nothing on this end."
"Well you sound good. You sound damn good."
Sam giggled a bit and he smiled tearfully. She saw it and stopped. It was hurting him. "Yea it's thanks to Adrienne. Uh, let's just say I'm in very rough territory right now."
"You can't be so bad. From what they told me was gonna happen, I would have expected-"
"Jack, please come home. I'm opening the Iris. Just go to the Gate and step through. I'm begging you."
"I can't, Sammy. We hit a little snag along the way. I don't have a cure yet."
"It doesn't matter! I don't care. Just come home!" she was yelling in full sobs. Her voice slipped and Jack noticed. It changed. It wasn't hers.
"Sam?"
"Yeah I'm still here," she said but her voice was different. She was too hysterical to hold back Adrienne's voice. She looked around and noticed everyone in the control room was looking at her sympathetically.
"Adrienne? Is that you?" he said, imagining the worst.
"No it's me. There's something I have to tell you. That I have to show you actually but I promise you it's me. Somewhere under here… it's me."
"Sam, there's somewhere I have to go. I know where I can find a symbiote."
"Damn it, Jack. Come home right now," she said through gritted teeth. It wasn't shielding her dwindling voice.
"I'm sorry, Sam. I'll be back in a few hours… I love you." But before she could respond, he sighed, got up off the seat and left the camera running.
Sam found her hand shaking and her bottom lip quivering but it didn't stop her from crying her eyes out as soon as he clicked off and the Gate shut down.
Adrienne had kept quiet, just like the busy control room. General Hammond hadn't opened his mouth for a single instant. He knew if anyone could bring him home, it'd be Sam. But that hadn't worked and now he was the only one left to pick up the broken pieces of her heart.
Sam, pick yourself up. Right now! You've got work to do, Adrienne finally said in a stern voice.
What is it Ree? Sam asked back, getting up from her chair in the control room, on her way back to Adrienne's room. What could it possibly be now?
Dionysus is gone.
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"O'Neill, the Gate shut down. Were you successful in your communications?" Teal'c asked as Jack came down the slope on the other side of the hill.
"Yea, T. We got one more stop to make," Jack said and began to dial an address Teal'c had never seen before.
"Might I ask where?"
"Nope. Just trust me, would ya?" And the Gate began to turn. Teal'c felt it beckoning trouble, and trouble was screaming at him to notice but he had to trust Jack. After so much time being alone or scared, he had Jack again and now he had to do it. Even if it was just to watch his back.
"Very well, O'Neill."
When they stepped onto the new planet, they saw a clearing in a sparse forest. The grass looked scorched and trampled. It reminded Jack of the forest on the planet where they'd found Dionysus, but not quite. His mind kept drifting back home. He had to hurry. They couldn't get caught now. He knew Sam's time was ending, no matter how much she had tried to hide it.
"We have to go about 3 miles up north to find the battlefield."
"What battlefield? Where are we, O'Neill?"
"It's a planet called Sirianya. I heard about it from Anubis. They just had a big fight up here. They left an entire battalion behind of injured Jaffa."
"I do not feel comfortable ending a fellow Jaffa's life."
"You won't have to. We find some mortally injured soldier or if I have to, I'll take it from the head of Ba'al himself."
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"How the hell did he get out?" Sam yelled to the airmen.
"We didn't know he was a prisoner, ma'am. We would have watched him more closely if we knew he was dangerous. He was very polite. It didn't seem like he wanted to escape. I mean, why wait till now?" the lowly soldier said apologetically.
And then it hit her. Why would he wait till now? Had he reached his peak of power?
Everything's different now, Sam, Ree said. I don't know what's really going to happen.
How powerful is he? Sam asked back, angrily walking away from the airmen towards the control room.
He can take away everyone you care about. Isn't that powerful enough?
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Jack and Teal'c had reached the battlefield. He'd been right. There were hundreds dead, a relatively small slaughter for Anubis. They knew super soldiers still lingered so they stealthily scrimaged through the field of dead bodies in search of a dying survivor.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c yelled. "I believe you should see this!"
Jack ran over and knelt beside Teal'c. A smile came to his face. Teal'c got up and moved to see the other dead, avoiding having to see Jack kill so cold-heartedly, no matter the circumstances.
"Ba'al, we meet again."
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Jack walked through the Gate with a face of mixed shock and sadness. His eyes were so tired, yet so expectant. He wanted to see Sam waiting there for him. But she wasn't. Hammond was. He didn't take it as a good sign.
"Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c... welcome back," the general said.
"Hey George. Where is she?" Jack bluntly said.
"She's leading the search party for Dionysus. He escaped. Did you get anything?"
"Yes, General. We have a symbiote in stasis awaiting implantation at the alpha site," said Teal'c.
"Hmm. Then there's something you need to see." And Hammond led them to the infirmary. Teal'c went off with a nurse to get his many injuries fixed.
As soon as Jack saw Sam's limp body on that bed, he felt his stomach fold onto itself and gulped. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. "I thought you said she was out looking for Dionysus?" he asked, slightly angry but mostly if not completely knocked off his rocker.
"It's Adrienne. After Major Carter went blind, she slipped into a coma. Adrienne couldn't heal her so their consciousnesses blended or something like that. She can explain it to you later."
"But I just talked to her a little while ago!"
"No you talked with the major through Adrienne's body. She's been given full control of all motor functions."
"And Daniel? Where the hell is Daniel!"
Hammond looked down and away for a moment. "He's trying to find Dr. Frasier."
"Where is Frasier anyways? Shouldn't she be taking care of her!"
"Dr. Frasier was recently kidnapped by what Adrienne has identified as rogue agents a few days ago to try to implant her with a Goa'uld. Daniel's on a search mission but Ree says it'll be years before we see her again. By then, she might as well be dead. But he insisted on searching for her."
Jack was about to be sick. It was too much for him. He bent over slightly at the waist, holding onto his stomach as it whirled. His eyes got so heavy that the last thing he saw was the floor just before he hit it.
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To be continued in PART FIFTEEN:
--What's Jack going to do when he sees Sam as Adrienne?
--Will Sam return to her own body, if she even can?
--When will we meet the betrayer?
--What about Janet and Daniel?
--Will Daniel give up looking?
--How will Adrienne handle Daniel being alone from now on?
--Where the hell is Dionysus? Is he really the bad guy?
--And finally... Who was responsible for making Sam sick in the first place?
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