What Hurts the Most
Chapter 4: War
Daniel Jackson wandered around the helicopter pad on the top of base, waiting, watching for the ascended being that they had asked for to come to guide the rest when they came so they could begin the journey to the newly located super gate. They were waiting for the word that the Asgard and the Nox were on the planet. Both races had agreed to fight the Ori, but they hadn't received a response from Ba'al yet. Daniel planned on visiting the system lord very soon if the ancients hadn't come.
Sam waited beside Daniel, lost in her own thoughts. She wanted this to be over with as soon as possible with the most damage on the enemy lines and very few on theirs. What had her worried was the fact that they had sent Teal'c to speak with Ba'al yesterday, but he hadn't yet returned with an answer. It was hard, not knowing if Teal's was alright. She hoped that her partner was all right.
" He'll be all right, Sam. Trust me. I'll go see them myself very soon, that is if he appears," Daniel quietly whispered to her before he turned around and shouted out angrily. " Damn you, Jon. If you can't keep a promise to be here on time, forget about coming!"
" No need to scream, Daniel," a male voice said out of thin air. Turning around, both Daniel and Sam watched as a ball of light changed into a human form with light hair and clear eyes filled with wisdom.
" Jon, get here earlier next time. I have a schedule to keep, and it's extremely uptight. Sam, tell Jack and Hank that I've gone to visit Ba'al and see what's keeping Teal'c," Daniel said, smiling softly at her before he disappeared.
" Let's go," Sam said and she led the ancient down inside Cheyenne Mountain, keeping a wary eye on their guest.
Daniel materialized on Ba'al's ship. The jaffa on guard duty in the control room aimed their staff weapons at him but they didn't fire, despite being primed and ready for combat. Shaking his head, Daniel walked down the corridor until he encountered Ba'al and his first prime.
" You hide from a threat greater than yourself," Daniel said as he stepped into their line of sight from the shadows of the corridors. " Are you a coward?" he asked as he approached.
" Who are you?" Ba'al asked when his first prime activated his staff weapon and it failed to fire. He did his best to hide his surprise when he heard and saw the stranger who had spoken.
" One who will have your alliance to fight with us against the Ori. I am ascended," Daniel answered. " We need your help, or else we would not come to you for it."
" So what the sho'va says is true. These beings called the Ori are that powerful and threaten your world?" Ba'al asked, an eyebrow raised.
" Not only mine, but yours as well. All of those that you control now. Would you want to see all of your followers follow Origin, or continue to follow your rule?" Daniel said, reasoning with the Goa'uld.
The silence of the alien gave him his answer that he had come here to receive. Cocking his head, Daniel stayed silent as Ba'al ordered his first prime to leave him alone with the stranger.
" When do you need me to help you?" the system lord asked.
" We need you at Earth as of yesterday," Daniel answered, crossing his arms as he continued to speak. " Now, on to another fact that I would like to have an answer to. Where is Teal'c?"
" Come with me and I shall show you," came the answer that Daniel never liked in the first place.
Walking with the ascended being made Ba'al extremely nervous. How would he know if this creature had made up this story or if he found him out?
Meanwhile, Daniel had similar thoughts running through his brain. Why had Ba'al given in so easily? Was he trying to hide something? Or was he trying to cover some one else's story? Either way, he would soon find out.
Teal'c sat in the middle of a prison room when Ba'al and Daniel walked up. Silently, he watched as the archeologist seethed in rage, but instead, the linguist walked straight through the bars as if they were never there in the first place, hoping to help his friend. He only wished that he had the strength to warn him of the trap that had been laid for him.
" Are you all right, Teal'c?" he asked, wary as his instincts suddenly went into overdrive.
" Run, Daniel Jackson. This is a trap to lead you here and into the hands of the Ori," the jaffa whispered weakly, knowing that it was now too late for the archeologist to escape this trap.
" You tricked me," Daniel hissed angrily as he turned back to the door and a smug-looking Ba'al.
" Of course. What did you expect? I will be heading to the battle, but I will hand you over to the Ori so they shall leave my worlds alone," Ba'al said, taking out a tranquilizer dart as he spoke. " I have been given a serum from the Ori that is very effective on the ascended or the ancients. I will not tell you what its effects are; you shall find out on your own."
Strands made up of some type of metal reached for the ascended archeologist, holding him in the place where he stood. He tried to struggle out of their grip, even Teal'c, as weakened as he was, got up from his place on the ground to try and pry him free from the metal, but it was no use. More of the stuff drew the jaffa back and held him solidly against the wall.
" Hold still, my friend, and it should not hurt," Ba'al said, smiling, and released the dart, watching in satisfaction as it struck the archeologist in the right shoulder. The side effect was almost immediate. Daniel cried out in pain and wriggled against his bonds in futile desperation, trying to get away from the spreading burning sensation before he fell into merciless unconsciousness. The metal strands that held Teal'c to his place fell away and onto the wall, becoming almost invisible, but the ones keeping Daniel where he stood stayed, holding the archeologist up right.
Teal'c could not believe it. Daniel Jackson was now unconscious, the excruciating pain he was still feeling evident on his face. He now knew that defeat was a battle away for the Tau'ri. One of their chances at beating the Ori was now officially gone from their small list. Turning away for a moment, he noticed that Ba'al had left. For once, his usually stoic face fell. He was truly worried. Even now, he could hear Daniel's breathing become more labored as he struggled to take a breath.
Sam watched as Jon walked through the entire bottom level, getting a feel for the place that would soon house his warriors when they came and where the rest of the humans stayed until it was time for them to be beamed up to their waiting ships. She wanted to see Daniel. Something told her that he needed help, and she was powerless to do anything.
" You know that Daniel is in trouble, don't you?" Jon asked as he appeared beside her
" Yes. And I can't do anything. I never felt anything when he died, but now, it's so strong. I should be there with him," Sam said, head hanging low.
" Don't worry, we'll get him back," Jon said, trying to comfort her, thought he didn't know why, before heading back to his investigation of the bottom level of the base inside Cheyenne Mountain.
As soon as Jon had completed his investigation of the level, the rest of the ascended ancients appeared, each armed with a sword and they wore brown robes, as did Daniel when he was on the prior's planet.
" We haven't received word from Daniel or Teal'c, so we're presuming that either something has happened to them, or they got the answer that none of us wanted," Sam told General Landry and General O'Neill.
" It's too late to get any other help. We have to leave now," Mitchell said as he walked up. " Prometheus is ready to receive her cargo; she's beaming them up right now, Sir. Our battalion of 302's are strapped down in her cargo hold."
" You have a go, SG-1," Landry ordered, watching grimly as they headed to the beaming station, located in the gate room, with the rest of the base command that would partake in the fight for the rights of believing what each wanted. He knew that there was something seriously wrong when he had heard that they had lost contact with Teal'c and Daniel while they were gone to Ba'al's ship, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Sighing, he walked over to one of the communications station and took an available handset. " Prometheus, beam General O'Neill and myself to the White House, the President's office."
Immediately, they were bathed in a bright light. When it had gone, they were in the Main office in the White House. " Mr. President. The cavalry has just left," O'Neill said as he looked around and took a seat beside an old friend, General George Hammond, the commander of Stargate Command before himself. " But we may have another problem. We haven't received any communication from Teal'c or Daniel since they left for Ba'al's ship."
" Jack, Daniel's dead," Hammond said as he looked up sharply at his ex 2IC.
" Then you haven't been reading the recent reports. Turns out Daniel ascended after he had actually died. Which surprised me as much as any one else, only that Carter had called me up and told me to get there, pronto. I found out personally after they came back from their recent mission," Jack responded.
" NASA has tracked the Prometheus before it entered hyperspace," Landry added his two cents worth. " Deep space tracking inside the SGC will be monitoring the progress of the battle and keep us up to date on any recent happenings."
" I have a feeling that this is going to be along couple of days. I'm just glad that I told every one that my office was completely off limits until any further notice," the President said as he settled into his chair. " Do we have a live line from the SGC to here at the moment?"
" Yes we do, Sir. In fact, we've connected the phone lines to that wire and we're ready to receive," Landry answered.
" Put it on speaker," the President ordered.
From then on, they were kept up to date on the progress of the battle as soon as the Prometheus exited hyperspace and waited as the Asgard showed up.
Teal'c waited silently beside his friend as they headed to the battle site. Daniel had become much worse. The ascended archeologist was cold and clammy, and he was having much more trouble breathing. Ever since the dart had struck him in the shoulder, they had received no visitors. The metal strands had stayed in place ever since, keeping the linguist on his feet.
" Teal'c," Daniel whispered.
The jaffa looked up, surprised to see that his friend was awake. He stepped closer so he could hear what he was trying to say.
" I need you to do something for me," the linguist said in between wheezes. " Take my sword; get free, help others fight Ori."
" I shall not leave you here to be at the mercy of Ba'al and of the Ori, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c replied.
" How touching. It is too bad that he will die, but we are at the site of the battle, and your friends think that I am here to help them," Ba'al said, appearing as if from no where.
Raising his head from his chest, Daniel glared at the system lord. " You are not undefeatable, and I will find some way to defeat you, no matter what," he ground out, trying to contain his anger and pain.
At that precise moment, a voice spoke over an intercom, speaking in an urgent tone of voice in another language. Ba'al swore and left, leaving the two alone.
" Okay, scratch the first plan. I have a radio in my hood. Take it and send Prometheus a message," Daniel said, the pain becoming even more intense before he lost consciousness again.
" Colonel Mitchell, do you hear me? I repeat, this is Teal'c. I have an urgent message for Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c said into the radio, hoping that the transmission would be picked up by the right people.
" This is Thor, of the vessel Daniel Jackson. I shall forward your message to Colonel Mitchell. He shall be able to respond very soon," a voice came on the radio channel, before it was replaced with a familiar voice within moments.
" Teal'c! What's with the late calling?" Mitchell asked.
" I was captured by Ba'al. He intends to give myself and Daniel Jackson over to the Ori in order to protect the planets under his rule," Teal'c hurriedly explained. " I need immediate extraction. Daniel Jackson has been injected with a serum that is effective against the ascended. It is produced by the Ori, and it will kill any of the ancients should they be exposed to it."
" All right. I'll see if we can get to you and beam you up," Mitchell said. For a few moments, the line went dead before Mitchell came back on again. " We need to locate you before we try to get you off the ship."
" We are on the mid level in the prisoner quarters. You are needed to hurry," Teal'c said and waited while they were located.
" We have you on our screens. We're beaming you up now," Mitchell said.
Soon enough they had beamed the two up. Mitchell ran over to Teal'c and supported him as he collapsed. " What the hell is this stuff?" he asked, motioning to the metal that had been beamed aboard with the archeologist.
" It is a substance that when given a specific order, shall carry them out. I do not know how Ba'al managed to get his hands on it, but it would not have had an effect on an ascended," Thor answered as he walked to over the unconscious linguist. " What is wrong with him?"
" He has been injected with a serum. Ba'al said that it would kill him, and all other ancients," Teal'c responded.
" I see. I would need to run a series of tests on him to insure that it is not contagious to any one," Thor said before beaming himself and Daniel to the medical bay.
" Come on, we have to get you that tritonin in you, and call Prometheus. Every one's been worried since we lost contact with you and Daniel," Mitchell told the jaffa as he took the weight of the alien on one side. " Prometheus, this is the Daniel Jackson. We have some good news. Daniel and Teal'c are all right. But there are other matters at the moment. Daniel's been injected with some kind of virus. Don't send any of the ascended over here. This virus is formulated for them."
" This is Colonel Dereks. I'll send one of my pilots to Earth and inform them of the nature of this," A new voice came over the channel. " We also have one of the ascended demanding to know exactly what has happened."
" Tell him what I said before. Daniel's sick and it'll kill him," Mitchell said and waited a moment until the message had been relayed. " Oh, and tell Major Carter nothing. She doesn't need to know about it."
" Agreed. She has enough on her mind at the moment," Dereks answered.
In the medical bay, Thor had just started to run the tests on the blood that he had extracted from Daniel's arm. Once the tests were running, he went ahead to try and deprogram the metal so it would not hinder him.
" Thor?" he heard his name being called. Turning around, he noticed that the archeologist was awake.
" Dr. Jackson. It is good to see you, but not under these circumstances," Thor said as he continued to change the strand's programming. " I am, however, running into problems with your health."
" I'm aware of that. Just, please, stop fiddling with those programs," Daniel pleaded. The strands were getting tighter and he was starting to lose even more breath.
" I am sorry, Dr. Jackson," Thor said. An incoming transmission from one of the ships from his kind stopped him from doing any more work. " It seems that the Ori have been defeated. The entire fleet has been destroyed."
" Good news. Now, can you hurry up with those tests? I don't think that I'll be awake for very much longer," Daniel said, feeling the darkness trying to claim him.
" We've received word from one of our 302's. It seems that Ba'al had captured both Teal'c and Daniel and planned to give them to the Ori so they would leave his planets alone. The SGC reports that we won the battle and that we need a containment center ready. Daniel's caught some type of virus and it's slowly killing him," a technician reported to the President and the few who knew about the Stargate program.
" That's bad," Jack whispered to no one in particular.
I was nice. I let the Ori lose.
Okay, whoever reads this story must review. Like I said before, I'm not being encouraged enough.
Next chapter, Sam finds out about Daniel being sick, Jon tries to help Daniel cure himself and the Ori come to Earth in a bigger and better ship.