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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I love this story because there's not really a bad guy. There are factors, not antagonists. The people do what they do because of circumstance. At one point in this chapter, we realize that the Goa'uld have nothing to do with this plot. Ba'al causing Sam's death was really Jack's carelessness. The soldiers that killed Bra'tac are all pawns to a greater evil: ourselves and the way we are brought up.

Adrienne was never born. She never had convictions of her own despite her independence and spirit, only what Sam taught her. And now, even though she is free of her past, a past she could only escape by going to a time where she was free to change it, her obsession to escape her actions despite them being beyond her control will inevitably drive her to madness.

But these are my views and I am merely 16. I welcome you to interpret "Level 28" as you see fit and feel free to tell me your views via review. I thank you for reading this far. And to the following people for keeping up with these seemingly never-ending adventures and adding me to their story alert list:

Anaika Skywalker, CeltAngel, Chezza, dark3princess, ElDani, fancymemad, Grub5000 SJ Fan, harrywandless, helen8uk, jestlilome, JoSG1fan, Katrell RavenHawk, katy1986, Kit37, linkinparkgundam, Matt1969, Matts-Girl1, meowx2, Moonrays and fridays, NadineCarter, Nibikko, novastar22, picco, Quarkie, roseofthegate, sea2209, selache51, Spamurai, stargazzr8-28, StupidMajor, stusue, trtlsoup2001, and x-izzles-x.

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10,000 hits since May 26, 2006…

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PART TWENTY-ONE: Don't cry for me...

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NOTE: Some parts of this chapter are best read to the sounds of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." It's a tear-jerker. Consider yourselves warned.

Daniel had gone home before the lockdown had been initiated. As soon as he walked through the door, he just slammed head first into his couch and fell asleep right on the dusty cushion, embracing the dryness of his bed. He'd never find out how long he slept for nor did he care to know.

A harsh yet hesitant knock came from his door. In his sleepy daze, he woke up to open it. An omen stood in the doorway. She would not bring good news.

Janet.

"Hey," he said, taking aback. "Janet, come in."

She didn't let him finish. "No. You have to come out here. We've gotta go to the SGC. Now!" she said, determined.

"What's going on?" he asked, realizing his shirt was all askew, possibly missing buttons in places Ree had ripped them off. He still missed a shoe and hadn't even noticed it as he walked out of the base. It explained the strange looks. And he wasn't sure how it had happened but he was missing a small chunk of hair. He wondered if Adrienne was radioactive and raised an eyebrow.

"Adrienne told me to get you as soon as you got back. That I couldn't let you go home, Come on if you want to live!"

He gave her a small smile and joked, "You'd make an excellent Terminator, you know that?" She didn't find it too funny given Adrienne's arrival. She didn't find anything funny any more. Her exterior was so cold, so hidden under fear and grief.

"Are you coming or not?" she asked, pulling on his arm towards her car before he could even answer.

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Sam and Jack stayed awake the rest of the night in opposite sides of the room, leaning up against opposite facing walls. She hugged her knees and rocked back and forth, looking to the floor in-between them.

He looked at her. Just her. There was no one but her to him. She refused to accept it.

"Where ya gonna run to now, Sam? There's nowhere else, no one else. Just you and me," he said.

She looked up at him. "She's doing this to us, Jack. We're her pawns. She's messing with us. Everything that's happened is her doing!"

"No, Sam! There's no one else here. Forget about the world! It's just you and me," he said almost calmly. His voice had the feel of surrender. He was giving up on her.

Sam gave a sharp gasp like a scoff just before she'd begun to cry. But then she calmed down. She let a single tear escape and looked straight at him, got up, and sat down beside him on the cold floor, resting her head on his shoulder as she always did.

"Are you alright now?" he asked, tired.

"I'm me, for the most part… if that's what you mean," she responded.

"Sam, what do you remember?"

"Stop asking that. It's hard to know. But I know who I am and that's enough."

"No it's not. What do you remember of dying?" he insisted. She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him in awe. How dare he bring up tragic memories?

"I remember… I remember reaching for a gun and shooting my way down the stretch to the control room. I remember the pain of him leaving me to die on the floor -- I remember the look in your eyes when you held up the gun that shot me. And I remember… saying goodbye," she said, her voice croaking under the memory and the weight of salty tears.

He was breaking down too but more at the knowledge that it was him that put the pain in her eyes. He hugged her tightly on the floor and kissed her forehead. "Sam, I'm sorry. I never… I never meant for this to…"

Her voice got firm again and she pulled back. "It wasn't you, Jack. You didn't kill me. Adrienne did. It's what I've been trying to tell you."

He looked at her with extreme worry. It couldn't be true. He thought she was delirious at first but what if she was right? What if they were pawns in this chess game?

"Sam, are you sure? Think about what you're saying."

"She spoke with Orlin. She planned my return a long time ago. He only saved me because she wanted him to because she knew I was going to die. You didn't know what was killing me because it was her."

Realization hit him like a brick. "Why would she want to kill you? Why would she need for you to Ascend?"

"Power, perhaps? Maybe she wanted me gone… She wanted me to miss something. Did anything happen while I was gone, something I don't know? What is she trying to change about the original timeline?"

"I don't know… I--" He stopped and thought about it. "Janet. Janet was taken… by rogue NID agents, she said. Dionysus escaped. Uh…"

"What was that planet you found me on? What was so special about it?" she asked.

He looked straight into Sam's downtrodden eyes and whispered, "Aileia…"

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Aileia waited in Hammond's office. She didn't know where the general had gone or where Adrienne had skulked off to. All she knew was that she was alone without Teal'c to protect her, her strong and honorable guardian.

She knew it was foolish but she was never one to stay in place, never one to hide. So she did the one thing she knew how to do. She escaped, perhaps from the only shelter she'd ever know, but she escaped nonetheless in search of companionship.

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Adrienne ran to the control room. Something called her there. She often heard the Stargate's moves in the back of her head. They were kindred. Made. But his was different. The Gate didn't call. Someone did.

So she answered the unnerving call. She walked through the halls as if in trance, the doors opening before her, sensing her every step closer to absolution. And then she heard it… over the speakers:

"Come to me, Ariadne… I need you here with me…" a sweet voice called forth. It sounded so loving, not demanding, and it bore into her soul. And then she was at the control room, facing the Gate.

It was empty but she knew her angel was always over her shoulder, standing watch. Was he an angel? She didn't even know anymore.

And there he was, standing over her shoulder. "Welcome, love," he said.

She turned around and her breath went away. He smiled down at her, now a full man. "Dionysus, I…"

He took a step closer till his nose was an inch from hers. One hand ran down her right arm. The other pushed back a strand of lose hair covering her eyes, and he caressed her cheek. It made her quiver as it always did. His touch felt not there and not gone. She felt him so deep within her, despite his gentle touch. It was killing her.

And then she thought of Daniel and she snapped out of it. She breathed in deeply and took a step back against the consoles. She was cornered.

"You cry, Ariadne?" he laughed. "You thought I wouldn't remember? It's hard to forget what we were born to do. But don't cry for me, beloved. I've left you once before."

Adrienne's breathing turned to gasps. She tried not to remember the past. She'd tried to run from it, kill it, drown it in tears… But there it was, facing her after so much effort and so many trials to her humanity.

"I don't cry for you," she said. "I cry for what I do and did to never see this face in my head again."

He looked surprised, even raised an eyebrow and moved back. "Why do they fear me? Why do you? Tell me!" he yelled. He feared himself, something she was not expecting.

Her gasping and tears stopped. "You don't really remember, do you? You're not him. You're not the man I knew."

"I am! It's me! It's Dionysus!" he cried, not really sure himself. "I died for you, Ariadne. I cheated death to come back for you but you were gone. You had left me for another! So I retreated. I hid till I could find you again."

He wasn't whom she thought. "You're not him, child. No matter how much you grow on the outside, you're still a child. You know nothing of what happened because that wasn't you. That part of you died when he did. Start over. Go on. Leave us and find your place."

"MY PLACE IS WITH YOU!" he yelled, moving upon her once more. The edge of the console dug into her thigh but the pain in her heart overwhelmed it all. "Why did you run from me? You hid from me! I tried to find you but you were too far away! I saw you with him!"

She felt pity embrace her and her hand went to his shoulder. She knew he could hurt her with a single touch but it seemed a single word would do the trick a thousand-fold. "I can free you, child. I came to do so because of how much I love you. But know you can never be the man he was because you are still pure. There's still humanity in you. They fear you because they don't know you as I do. They don't know what you once were. You are nothing compared to that. And I hope you understand what I have done for you someday," she said solemnly. It was goodbye, but something in his eyes could not accept it.

She looked over her right shoulder to the Stargate. It had begun to turn. Chevrons began to dial. And alarms began to sound.

"What are you doing?" she asked, desperate.

"No matter what you say, I can't deny it, Ariadne. You are mine as I am yours. I know it in my blood, in every cell. I'm going back to my cell, but I'm not going alone. Either you come with me or I destroy your precious mountain of steel."

The Gate activated and the event horizon was sent forward. She felt her heart caught before it and wished she had been standing on that ramp rather than having to face her demons. When she looked back towards him, it seemed he awaited an answer.

And then a voice came from the stairs to the control room. Its words echoed in the void in Adrienne's head. "She's not Ariadne. She's not who you want."

He turned around and there was Aileia. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I am she. My genes are spawned from Ariadne's. From the original. This woman is an imposter, a false god," she said. Adrienne stood frozen. "Before your mate met you, she had a child with a man named Theseus. This child was cursed. She could only bear daughters, as all the men were born without a soul and dead. Her children bore children, all awaiting your return, milord."

"Stop it. Make her quiet!" he yelled.

"The child I bear is of this line. It's a boy… without a soul. And he's waiting for you," Aileia stopped. She placed a hand upon her stomach and cringed. Despite the hatred she felt for her line, she loved the child as would a mother.

"No… I can't do it," he said, a little calmer. He looked upon Aileia with a sweet smile. And then he turned stern and dark and afraid. "I won't do it."

"Be reborn, Dionysus. It's the only way to start over… I won't let you turn into that thing. You can be human! You can be free of all those memories," Adrienne pleaded. Her eyes stung with salt.

Dionysus was… confused. Lost. His mind wandered but he couldn't understand what Aileia was asking. He'd have to kill himself to be reborn. He'd have to die again. And his child's mind could not accept such a thing.

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Daniel knew that if the mountain was in lockdown, the only way in was through the side access shafts. The codes wouldn't have been changed and they'd done it before. He could get in. He helped Janet down and before he knew it, they were walking the halls of Cheyenne Mountain.

"The control room," he said. "We need to override the lockdown. Maybe find someone."

"All the offices are locked. There isn't anyone in the halls, Daniel. This happened at night when most people were gone. Anyone left here is locked inside there… or they left before anything could happen," she said, wiping away a tear.

He stopped and turned around. "What is it?"

"It's a ghost town, Daniel. What if they're all dead? Why is everyone gone?" she asked.

"No, hey. Come on. We'll find them. Level 28, right? Let's go," he assured her in the sweetest, calmest voice he could muster. He took her cold hand and led her down into bowels of the mountain and the very core of pain in all their hearts.

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Adrienne tried to override the computers quietly with her mind but the passwords had to be activated and the clacking of the keyboard drew him to the monitors. He pushed her away and saw the Iris close.

"NO!" he yelled and made it stop just moments from fully closing. It struggled to close and the scraping of metal could be heard from inside the control room. Aileia gasped.

The Iris was being pulled towards them, the slices of titanium bending and snapping open like the lid of a can exploding outward.

"No! You're causing a gravitational pull! That Gate is underwater!" Ree yelled, trying to push him away but he was melted into the floor, his hands so heavy that they dug right into the metal console as if it were sand.

"Close the bulkhead!" Daniel screamed, running up with Janet behind Aileia who stood frozen at the sight of the creaking Gate.

"I can't! The controls are sheet metal," Adrienne yelled back, then turned to Dionysus and pleaded in tears of coagulated terror, "Stop! I'm begging you! I'll do whatever you want! Just please, DON'T KILL THEM!"

Nothing happened. The Gate still crept and the field holding the water back still crept until slices of the Iris went flying off from the Gate towards them, blasting right through the glass and straight into Dionysus' abdomen, splitting him open.

He froze and looked down, his mouth open as he tried to grasp at breath, at sweet life. Janet let out a sheer shout of horror that echoed throughout the mountain. Scientists in their labs shriveled into a corner. General Hammond knelt down in the mess hall with the others and prayed.

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Adrienne yelled out his name but it was too late. There was nothing she could do. She tried to help him, to put the blood back in but it formed puddles over the sunken command. She held his face and gasped for breath, hiding her crocodile tears.

"NO!" she yelled, weeping as she caressed his face with her bloody hands.

But with his last ounce of strength, he lifted his right arm to hers and wiped away a single tear. "Don't-- Don't cry for me… beloved," he said in a final gasping breath and he fell back, held a standing corpse by the large sheet of metal running through him.

A small ball of light left his dead chest and floated towards Aileia who smiled at it as it floated before her and went straight into her stomach. She gasped as she felt the baby give a kick.

As soon as Dionysus' hand fell from Adrienne's face, the Gate began to leak water until an entire ocean slipped into the Gate room in a large rushing tunnel of crystal blue death.

"Adrienne, stop it!" Daniel yelled and Ree quickly extended both her hands, palms forward as if holding back the wall of ocean trying to enter. Like a glass wall, it was stopped but the strain was too much for her. Her knees and her arms were giving out under the great pressure.

Daniel, Janet, and Adrienne stood shocked. Then something snapped in Daniel. He couldn't help thinking of their tryst at the lake on Aileia's planet. He thought of her playful words: …when I get 'emotionally' excited, I tend to create a lot of excess energy.

He smiled and ran to her, dodging flying debris and cold drops of water that escaped her slipping shield. He looked around frantically for a way in and slipped under her arm so he could stand before her and face her and kissed her passionately.

It took her breath away, his warm hands. It sent such a surge through her that her hands didn't need to be held high and they went to his face. Her eyes opened wide and turned to a pure blue that made her freeze and Daniel broke away. He tried to get as far back as possible. They all waited for what they knew to be a glorious end with eyes held high and strong, fearless hearts secretly praying to a god they didn't believe could hear.

"I'm opening the doors to the Gate room! I can't hold the incoming pressure anymore!" Adrienne yelled and surely enough the bulkheads on either side burst open and water rushed through the empty halls of Cheyenne Mountain.

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"Jack? Do you hear that?" Sam asked in her lab. It was rushing sound like smooth on metal, breaking the comfortable silence of their long embrace.

It slammed into the bulkhead door like a wild animal gone rabid then kept sloshing down the halls in stampede. Sam gasped and then felt sounds of creaking metal above them. They were a floor below the Gate room.

"Oh my God," he answered breathlessly. "What is that?"

And then through the ventilation shafts, the water spread and through the vents, it came creeping up on those locked like animals in cages throughout the base.

But in this little cell, this lab Sam had known for so long, her tears blended with the salty ocean as her eyes refused to leave Jack's.

"Is this goodbye?" she asked just as the water reached their stomachs.

"No," he said with a smile. "If I'm to die today, I die in your arms… and that's a good death. A good death…"

And the water swallowed them without remorse, taking the salty tears and spreading them through the cold cement of the sinking base so everyone could feel a tiny bit of their love watching over them as they sank too…

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To be continued in PART TWENTY-TWO:

If I told you Adrienne was the bad guy all this time, would it have make you question everything that's happened? What if I told you this wasn't goodbye? What if I said fairy tales aren't that far off course?

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"The end is coming, Daniel. Our story's almost over." --Adrienne.

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This is dedicated to someone I truly love and to all my fans who've read this far.

Pink Floyd. Wish You Were Here...

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

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