#

"Who are you?" Heset demanded, whirling to face the newcomer.

"Yes," Thmei agreed, her eyes narrowed in obvious suspicion. "Who dares interrupt our summit without an invitation?"

"Silence, you fool. You are here at my invitation." Anise glared at the Goa'uld for a moment, before turning her gaze to To'ran. "And you," she continued, though there was a waver in her voice Sam hoped Heset and Thmei would be oblivious to. "Explain yourself. You were to support my Lo'taur during these negotiations on my behalf, and here I find you about to betray her?"

To'ran looked confused and, for the first, time a little afraid. "I... I..."

"To'ran," Thmei interrupted, drawing his attention back to her. She leaned in closer, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face as she stopped, her lips a hairsbreadth from his own. "Who is this woman? What is her role here?"

"She is... She is..." To'ran swallowed hard. "She is A-"

"Ament," Anise interrupted, eyes flashing. "I am Ament, true ruler of this world and all who dwell within it. I apologise for the deception but we felt it was necessary. We had reason to believe this summit was nothing more than an excuse to assassinate me, so devised a plan to have my Lo'taur, Sam'an, pose as me until such a time that we were able to establish the validity of the claims you made." Her lip curled back in a sneer as she glared at Thmei. "As suspected, it would appear you cannot be trusted, Thmei. What were you hoping to gain from this game of yours?"

"It would appear that the only person playing a game here is you, Ament. If you truly are who you claim to be. This one," Thmei prodded To'ran's chest with the tip of her finger, the metal of the hand device making him flinch. "This one told us that the woman you claim to be your Lo'taur is no other than Samantha Carter of the Tau'ri. That her lover is Jack O'Neill and the other masquerading as her First Prime is the Tok'ra known as Jacob Carter, host to Selmac. How do you explain this, Ament?"

"Simply," Anise retorted, waving her hand dismissively. "To'ran has deceived you, just as he has deceived me in declaring himself to be loyal to me and only me. To'ran?" She turned her attention to her lover, eyebrow arched. "Explain yourself."

"I..." To'ran glanced from Anise to Thmei, his expression desperate. "She lies!" He declared after a moment, raising his hand to point it at Anise. "She is also Tok'ra," he announced. "She deceives you, Lady Thmei, Lady Heset."

As Anise stared at him, doing her best to conceal her shock and surprise, Heset narrowed her eyes and glanced from one Goa'uld to the next. Her gaze travelled to Sam and Jack, standing silently together, and her expression turned to one of mild interest. "If you are telling the truth, To'ran, when why would you profess your loyalty to a Tok'ra?"

"They promised me a symbiote," To'ran explained hurriedly, unable to look in the direction of the heartbroken Tok'ra. "They said if I helped them with this deception that my reward would be to become one of them."

Heset laughed derisively. "And you agreed? You wished to be Tok'ra?"

"I wished for a symbiote," To'ran corrected, hanging his head. "I wish to be a God. To know the true power of the Goa'uld -"

"Tok'ra have no power," Heset said dismissively. "They are weak and they are unworthy."

"On this, we can agree," Thmei added, glancing back at Anise. "Are you Tok'ra?" She asked, idly stretching her fingers, the jewel in the centre of the hand device she wore beginning to glow in response. "Have you deceived us?"

"I am Goa'uld. I am Ament." Anise held her head up high, eyes flashing gold as she glared at To'ran. "It is he who deceives us all," she continued, lifting her own hand to reveal the hand device she, too, wore. "He would seek to destroy us, to prevent an alliance from taking place."

Thmei looked from Anise to To'ran. The man at her side gulped, his face pale and sweaty. "Do you deceive us, To'ran?" She asked sweetly. "Do not lie to us. We are a Goddess. We know all."

"I do not lie to you, my Lady Thmei." To'ran stumbled over his words. "I-I serve you, my Queen. You promised that if I did -"

"What did she promise?" Anise demanded, sweeping the skirt of her gown aside with one hand as she took a step closer. "Tell me, To'ran, what did Thmei promise in order to earn your loyalty?"

"She... She promised to make me a God," To'ran announced. "She promised that I could serve at her side, that she would allow me the gift of the symbiote carried within the womb of her First Prime when it has matured."

Heset laughed again, shaking her head. "You are a fool, To'ran. Thmei has no intention of serving alongside any other. It is the reason Ra chose Hathor as his consort. He knew as do all among the System Lords that Thmei cannot be trusted. She will betray any who trust her at the earliest opportunity."

"And yet here you are, Heset," Thmei growled, pushing To'ran away from her, making him stumble. "You claim you came here intending to pledge allegiance to us, yet now you say we cannot be trusted?"

"You cannot. No Goa'uld can." Heset shook her head. "We had hoped that an alliance would allow us to gain an increased foothold amongst the System Lords but we see now that this will not be possible. We will take our leave," she continued, addressing her comments to Anise. "If you truly are Ament, perhaps our paths will cross again." She glanced at Sam and Jack, a small smile playing on her lips, "and if you truly are the Ta'uri of Earth, we are sure we will meet again."

The Goa'uld turned on her heel and strode from the room, her Jaffa falling into step behind her. Borral and the slave girl who served her hesitated, both glancing at Thmei for guidance. When neither was acknowledged by the Goa'uld who'd ordered them drugged, they hung their heads and followed Heset from the room.

"This is unacceptable!" Thmei screamed. She started towards Anise, then changed her mind, advancing towards Sam instead. "You! Answer us! Who are you?"

Sam was quiet for a moment, studying the irate Goa'uld in front of her. "I don't have to answer to you. You are no God of mine."

"Insolence!" Thmei spat, raising her hand. "You have deceived us, and will therefore pay the price."

As two hand devices were activated, all hell broke loose.

#

There were two bodies on the floor, both in crumpled heaps where they'd been thrown by the raw power of the Goa'uld hand device.

The Jaffa belonging to Thmei fled and no one cared to stop them; their Goddess was amongst the dead and there would be no retribution for their desertion.

Sam knelt at Jack's side, her hand trembling as she wiped at the blood oozing from a gash at his brow, trying to keep it from getting into his eyes. "You shouldn't have done that," she chided him softly, her heart rate slowly returning to normal as the bone-chilling fear she felt at seeing him thrown back away from her began to fade.

"If I hadn't, she would've hit you with the full blast," Jack argued. He tried to sit up, groaning at the nausea the gesture brought on.

"Take it easy, Jack," Jacob advised, crouching down on his other side. "You took quite a blow to the head when you hit that wall."

"Could've been worse," Jack muttered. His gaze landed on the body nearest to them and he found himself barely able to stifle a shudder, able to imagine it was Sam's far too easily.

Thmei's lifeless eyes stared back.

"C'mon," Jacob murmured, putting his arm under Jack's. "Let's get you up. We'll have to get you cleaned up and check out that wound. I had Teal'c bring the healing device so we should have you back to normal in no time. Relatively speaking," he added with a grin, though his eyes still showed his worry for the younger man he'd come to love like a son.

Worry and gratitude, for he knew just as well as Jack did that if the Colonel hadn't moved so quickly, nothing short of a sarcophagus could have saved Sam.

Shaken, and a little bruised herself from falling to the floor when Jack had pushed her out of the way, Sam stood unsteadily, watching her father lead Jack towards the table and the only chair at it that had survived unscathed. She longed to follow, wanting to stay close to him, but she knew he wasn't the only person in need of comfort.

She stepped over Thmei's body, and made her way to where Anise sat on the floor.

The Tok'ra's expression was lost, her eyes wild with grief and pain. In her arms lay the broken body of To'ran, the man she'd loved, the man who'd betrayed her.

The man Sam had had no choice but to kill.

Three blasts from the hand device had resulted in two instant deaths.

Thmei had injured Jack in her attempt at killing Sam; Anise had killed Thmei in a responding attack.

The howl that had escaped To'ran was inhuman, full of rage and bitterness. He'd charged at Anise, dagger he'd taken from his robes in hand, screaming at her for killing the Goddess who'd drugged him and promised him the world.

Sam had acted on impulse, on instinct. The device on her hand had become a part of her, fuelled by her fear that Jack was hurt, fuelled by anger that To'ran had betrayed them, fuelled by gratitude that Anise had saved her life.

To'ran had been thrown across the room, away from the lover he sought to kill. There'd been a sickening crunch as bones broke on impact and he'd slumped to the floor, lifeless.

"Anise," Sam began, doing her best not to look at the broken body of the man Anise cradled in her arms. "Anise, I am so, so sorry. He was going to kill you. I had no choice -"

"We know." It was Freya who spoke, her voice soft and broken. "We owe you our lives, Major Carter, and we are grateful for it. But..." A tear escaped her eye, slid down her cheek and landed on the still face of the man she'd loved. "Anise is angry," she continued quietly. "She uses anger to hide her hurt. We believed that he loved us. That he wanted to be Tok'ra to be with us."

Sam bit her lip, wanting nothing more than to find some way of comforting the heartbroken woman who suddenly seemed so much younger, so more unworldly than Sam knew her to be. "He was drugged," she started to say. "He was under Thmei's thrall. Perhaps if he hadn't been..."

"He betrayed us. Me." Freya lifted her gaze to Sam's, her eyes shimmering with tears her symbiote called her weak for letting show. "His eyes were clear when he came towards me. I froze, as did Anise. We would have let him kill us had you not stopped him."

"He loved you," Sam started again, not really believing it but wanting to ease the pain in the other woman's eyes.

"He loved the idea of what we could give him. A symbiote." Freya's eyes flashed and Anise took over. Her soft expression hardened, disgust taking the place of distress as she all but pushed To'ran body off her lap. "He believed we were no different from the Goa'uld. He sought power and control and would have been an insult to the Tok'ra. You did us a great service, Major Carter," the Tok'ra continued, getting smoothly to her feet. "If you will excuse me, I will contact the others and let them know what has happened here."

Getting to her feet once again, Sam watched her go before taking her place beside Jack and her father.

"Let her be," Jacob advised her softly, removing the gauze he'd been using to step the flow of blood from the wound on Jack's head. "She'll be fine, Sam."

"She's heartbroken," Sam argued quietly, picking up a fresh piece of cloth to press it against Jack's head. He made a small, pained sound but she noticed him lean into her touch. "She thought he really loved her."

"Maybe on some level he did," Jacob said with a shrug. "I don't suppose we'll ever know." He cleared his throat and, on hearing Selmac tell him that the command couple in front of him needed a moment alone, sighed softly. "I'll go and get that healing device."

"See if you can find out what brought Anise back here, too," Jack added as the older man began to take his leave. "Not that I'm not grateful - that was excellent timing - but I'm curious why she came back so soon."

Jacob nodded his agreement as he started out of the room, also curious as to what had brought Anise back to the Temple. "Will do, Jack."

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Well, this was unexpected. Something triggered my muse to come back with a vengeance so here we are. Last choice for you now as I'll wrap this up in the next chapter: where do you want the story to end? In the temple with Sam and Jack, or back on Earth?