Chapter 5

Disclaimer: As much as I wish, I do not own Stargate: SG1, Highlander the Series, or any recognizable characters. Any character that you do not recognize are mine to use and abuse as I see fit. Everyone else will eventually be returned, but they might be a bit scuffed.

Sometime later, Daniel found himself in some sort of gymnasium. There weren't any basketball hoops or balls to be seen, but the shiny wooden floor was clearly marked out for the game. Scientists, in their lab coats, armed with their clipboards, stood off to the side. He had no idea if it were day or not. There were no windows to see out of. There was a grey folding table against one wall with several swords sitting on top of it. He recognized his Jian among the weapons.

"What the fuck do you want now?" Daniel yelled. "You want to watch me play Four-Square by myself?" Yes, he was being pissy, but pissy was better than being flat out crazy. It meant that he felt there was something still worth fighting and being angry for.

One of the scientists, a tall, balding man with a narrow, sinister face smiled briefly. "We want to see how you would do in a fight between yourself and another Immortal

Daniel smirked sarcastically at the others. "You kind of need two to see that and I only see myself," he shouted back at his tormentors.

"Ask and you shall receive," the lead scientist answered, his voice dark and foreboding.

Behind Daniel, he felt a presence that he hadn't felt in years. The Quickening signature was familiar.

Turning around, Daniel felt like he had been punched in the gut. It was hard to breathe, his chest constricted by horror and surprise.

Victor Orozco, the Immortal he had killed in revenge after killing his and General Hammond's mutual friend: Mark. Short, bald with tattoos on his skull, scowling at the world he felt owed him something, wearing a pair of jeans and a ratty looking black t-shirt. He had a somewhat slight build, with a clearly defined upper body. The only problem was that he was dead, or at least supposed to be dead. Daniel had killed him in an act of revenge for the death of his friend.

It had been a fight where Daniel had wondered if he had bitten off more than he could chew. In fact, he had nearly lost the fight and his head.

The man was wiry, explosive in his movements making it hard to predict and follow. Victor didn't allow his smaller stature keep him from showing others that he was a warrior. He twirled his sword, a short spatha, with ease, never taking his eyes off Daniel.

He walked slowly towards Daniel, walking in arcs, not in a straight line.

Daniel looked at the other man through a narrowed gaze. He backed up slowly to the table where his Jian had been placed. While he didn't relish the idea of fighting another Immortal in front of an audience, he wasn't going to allow himself to be sacrificed. He was Daniel Jackson, once upon a time known as Hades, and he did not give up easily. Giving up while sitting in a cell, was one thing, he did not know how to give up on a battlefield.

Luckily his captors had kept him well fed, allowing him to retain his strength. Picking up his Jain, a feeling of a connection with his weapon of choice came easily. Stretching his neck from side to side, feeling the pops and kinks work themselves out. He then swung his left arm, then his right, preparing himself for a fight.

Victor chose this moment to rush at Daniel, his sword held high. They clashed, their blades meeting, crossing, blocking each other from slicing the other's head off. The other Immortal pushed off, retreating slightly since staying locked in made no sense. Retreat, regroup, attack again from a different angle.

The two Immortals, quickly letting their mortal audience disappear into the background, forgetting about their presence, fought back and forth. Each Immortal swiping at each other, using all of their dirty tricks at their disposal. Kicks, punches, a couple of open-handed slaps were used by both, trying to give themselves an advantage over the other.

Both men were sweating up a storm. The temperature of the room seemed unusually warm and both men were working hard at trying to kill each other.

Victor managed to fool Daniel somewhat, sucker punching him in the face, causing him to stumble and fall to one knee, slamming his knee into the wooden flooring.

Daniel, somehow managing to carry on an active thought process during his fight, remembered this was how this originally went when they had fought in the 1970s. It was all familiar. From how they started off the fight, to the roundhouse kick Orozco delivered after pushing off Daniel's thigh with his left foot, launching himself up in the air, and kicking Daniel upside his head with a roundhouse kick from his right booted foot. That one knocked Daniel halfway across the room, out of the immediate fight enough so he could pick himself up off the floor and regroup.

This time though, Daniel found himself falling forward towards his opponent. He twisted slightly, landing to the side of Orozco, taking the brunt of the fall to his left shoulder. There was a loud pop and fire blazed across his shoulder, chest, and arm, letting Daniel know that he at the very least separated the joint.

His sword clattered to the ground, falling from his right hand. There was nothing he could use to block the sword that was swinging down to sever his head from his body.

Out of desperation, Daniel reached out and grabbed Orozco's leg and yanked, causing his opponent to fall back, ending the immediate threat.

Daniel then scrambled to his feet as Orozco struggled to sit up, having the wind knocked out of him.

He raised his sword, using his opposite hand, and with a flash of metal, cleanly decapitated Orozco, his head falling to the wayside. A familiar mist rose up from the headless corpse, tendrils snaking out in search of the victor. The transfer of energy and power from the loser to the winner was as spectacular and frightening as Daniel remembered it to be. Every cell of his body felt as if it were on fire. Daniel screamed in victory and rage, angry that he was forced to kill someone for another's entertainment or like an experiment. He felt used but at the same time, enjoying that he could feel the strength of his opponent enter his body, it energized him, the rush was exhilarating, but all too soon it was over, leaving him feeling drained and weak. He couldn't stand any longer, and fell weakly to his knees.

Daniel looked over at the scientists in the room, noticed them standing around an array of machines on some tables.

"You happy," he croaked, his throat raw from screaming.

The one scientist, a blonde with short hair, looking down at a screen attached to a gizmo that looked like a smaller version of a Tesla coil, with lightning rods sticking out of it in all directions, looked up and smiled a familiar smile that reached her china-blue eyes. "Actually yes," Sam said, looking slightly pleased. "The data we got from that one Quickening is amazing."

"Sam?" Daniel stared in disbelief. "Why are you here? Why are you helping them?" He was beyond shocked, seeing his longtime friend actually working with the NID, using him as a guinea pig. "Does Jack know you're doing this? What about Teal'c, Cam, and Vala? Do they know?" he asked, not believing for a second that Jack would agree to any of this.

Sam looked slightly confused. "Of course, Jack knows. Who do you think ordered this? As for the others, they don't care. They have other things to worry about. Teal'c has the Free Jaffa Nation to deal with and Cam is busy making sure Vala stays in line with the SGC. Your situation is the least of their concerns."

"Oh gods," Daniel, groaned, feeling the tears stream down his cheeks. His friends had betrayed him. "How can you do this to me? You're one of my best friends." The pain he felt was like nothing he had ever experienced in his entire life.

Sam smiled and shrugged. "Orders are orders," saying it like it was no big deal. "Thanks to you and the research we've been conducting we've developed the ability to capture and store the energy released from a Quickening. The hard part was determining if the lightning discharged by one of your kind is positive or negatively charged. After several trials, which got a little messy and depleted our supply of Immortals, we were able to determine that the charge coming out is positive. Then we had to build capacitors and rectifiers to equalize the currents of incoming strikes. Once we were able to determine that, then we had to build a way to distribute the energy into the proper devices with the proper mechanisms that would allow us to use the energy and not blow ourselves up in the process."

"Too fucking bad you didn't," Daniel growled, angry at his friend's betrayal all in the name of science. "Has the past ten years meant nothing to you? How can you do this? This is wrong!"

Again, Sam looked pretty calm and shrugged, dismissing Daniel's protests. "We are now able to transfer an Immortal's energy into a ZMP, thus powering the SGC, the Antarctic outpost, Atlantis, the BC-304s, not to mention being a source for clean energy for the planet. Depending on the strength of the Immortal, it only takes three to five Immortals to fully charge one ZPM and their power supply theoretically will last for years. We figure that with the really powerful Immortals out there, it might only take one or two Immortals to charge one."

"One or two?" Daniel asked, afraid of the answer.

Sam grinned and turned towards another scientist. "Bring him in."

A/N: Well, what do you think? Hit the shiny review button and let me know. I always appreciate constructive criticism. It helps me improve my writing and storytelling.