Author's Note. I don't own any of Stargate. Italics in quotations indicate that the characters are speaking in another language.
Chapter Four
The Sun beat down from the sky scorching everyone assembled before the pyramid. Ra sat upon his throne, his mask covering his face that I knew held a sick smirk underneath. Below on the ground thousands of natives were forced to their knees. Less than twenty feet away O'Neill, Kawalsky, Feretti, and the remaining survivors of my team were also kneeling, awaiting their executions. Through in the face of imminent death, none of them showed any fear.
Next to me Daniel's hands were shaking. The Anubis guard shoved his staff out of him, waiting for Daniel to take it. Daniel eyes traveled the length of the weapon. I knew he was debating whether to take it.
"Destroy them!" Ra commanded lifting on one of his gold plated fingers.
Daniel looked back at me and took the weapon. He hesitantly moved his feet, trudging down to our team. He switched the staff on, a electric current traveling over the tip.
The Anubis guard grabbed my forearm, his clawed fingers diging in deeply, drawing blood. I had to bite my lip to keep from whimpering. He yanked me back, my feet tripping over each other until I was standing side by side with Ra's throne.
"Please, don't make him do this." I begged the god but he ignored me.
Daniel was about to fire when a reflected light shinned in his face halting him. I saw it too and traced the lights path down into the audience. Skaara stood close to the edge of the ramp with Sha're. In his hand was the lighter O'Neill had given and he was using it to reflect the sunlight into Dani's face. From under his robe he slightly pulled out the butt of a gun.
Daniel nodded his head slowly at O'Neill who twitched his hand to show he got the message. I tensed, ready to spring into action at any moment.
Suddenly he whirled and fired the staff weapon at Ra just barley missing and hitting the wall to his left. The flying rock and debris was enough of a distraction for me to rip my arm from the guard.
My team ran into the mass of people and many of the native rushed forward to throw tan robes over them.
I slid down the ramp after them, my eyes searching for Daniel. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Sha're grab him.
I had almost made it, I was so close. Just a few more feet and I to would be lost in the panicked crowd.
One of the soldiers was fleeing when a blast of fire erupted from his back and knocked him to the ground.
I fell to my knees on the sand next to him and wrapped my hands around his arms. His was so heavy. I could barley hold him up and run at the same time.
"Clark." He choked. Blood came pouring out of his mouth. "Get out of here."
"No!" I shouted. The soldier needed medical attention right now! "We're going to make it. Just a little further."
Without warning a clawed hand grabbed my neck from behind in a vice like grip and the soldier fell out of my arms. My feet came off the ground as the Anubis guard held me up with one arm. My fingernails scraped at his hands while my breaths came in shortening stutters. The sound of a body hitting to the ground told me that soldier didn't make it. Tears leaked out of my eyes.
"Airen!" Skaara was running towards me, having to shove his way through the thick crowd. He raised his gun shooting at the guard. The bullets ricocheted off his armor, but to no effect. A stray bullet
The guard pulled me close, whispering in my ear, "There is no where to run." He shoved his arm forward launching me through the air.
In slow motion my body moved closer and closer to the side of one of the obelisks. I felt a resounding crack as I collided head first with it.
I crumpled too the ground in a heap. None of my limbs moved when I commanded them to. A vicious blackness hovered on the edges of my vision. Something warm was dribbling down the side of my face tinting my vision red. I felt cold.
"Airen!" Shaara's face appeared above me. His mouth was moving, but no I heard no sound coming out. His arms came around me pulling me up, but it felt like it was happening to another person's body.
I couldn't fight anymore. The weights on my eyelids pulled them shut.
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"Erin." A faintly familiar voice called to me. "Can you hear me? You gotta wake up."
"Come on Kid." another floating voice penetrated the thick veil.
I knew that voice. "Fer-Feretti?"
A hand squeezed mine.
I pried open my eyes and immediately shut them when a bright light pierced the darkness. "Ow!" I moaned raising my hand to shield my eyes.
"Feretti you idiot, shut that thing off." there a a click. From a flashlight?
"Kawalsky?" Opening my eyes again Kawalsky and Feretti's blurred faces slowly came into focus. "What happened?" Glancing around our surroundings I saw we were in a cave with at least a dozen natives. A fire was burning in the center giving off a soft illumination.
"You got hit on the head pretty hard. You've been out for hours." he answered.
"How did I get here? The last thing I remember..."
Kawalsky cut me off. "That boy, Skaara. He carried you the whole way here. Even once we got here it took the both of us to convince him to let go of you so we could take care of your head."
Reaching up I touched my head where I had hit the obelisk. I hissed and jerked my hand away when a jab of pain rushed over my forehead. "How bad is it?"
"You probably have a concussion, though not to serious. There is a gash on the left side of your face just above your eyes that will mostly likely scar. Other than that and some bruises you should be fine." Feretti answered.
"Is everyone else ok?"
"We lost one man." Feretti said sadly. I felt a pang in my chest remembering the soldier I tried to help.
"There's something else." Kawalsky added. "There was a sandstorm, we got separated from O'Neill and Daniel. A few of the boys went out after them along with Skaara and two of our men, but its been hours."
"I have to find them." I tried to sit up. Kawalsky caught my shoulders holding me in place.
"Oh no you don't. If you went out in that storm we'd never find you. These kids know what their doing," he gave me a reassuring smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "I'm sure they'll find them."
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I had dozed back off after a few hours of waiting for the boys to come back. I was hovering just on the edge of consciousness when I felt a hand gently shaking my shoulder. Slowly I sat up to avoid a rush of pounding in my head.
The woman I had seen with Daniel was holding out a bowl of water in her hand. "Hello," I said. "Sha're right?"
"Yes." She smiled sadly at me. "You should drink before you become ill."
"Thank you." Taking the bowl I tried to refrain from gulping down the water.
She nodded but her eyes kept glancing worriedly at the cave's entrance. "I worry for them. Skaara has faced storms in the open before, but never has he been gone as long as this. But if anyone can find Dan-yell and O'Neel, he can." Sha're took a deep breath to calm herself. "They will be back soon."
Hooting came from the entrance as several men stumbled in from the storm outside and collapsed to the ground.
"See?" Sha're smiled.
"Do you think you could help me over to them?" I asked getting to my unsteady feet.
"Of course." She wrapped one of her arms around my shoulder and held my hand with the other.
Daniel sat on the floor of the cave taking in deep gulps of air. Sha're sat me next to him then took a bowl of water from one of the other women to hand to Daniel.
"Thank you." he croaked, finishing the whole bowl in one gulp.
When he was finished I wrapped my arms around him in a crushing hug. "Hey Erin. I'm fine, I'm okay. Um,"he tried to pull away, "but I still need oxygen."
Quickly I dropped my arms. "Sorry."
"Skaara!" I heard Sha're call to her brother. He had barely gotten the heavy gear from earth off before she pulled him to her in a hug.
I smiled to myself resting my head on Dani's shoulder.
"To our victory!" Skaara shouted gleefully. He handed his gun to O'Neill who was sitting across from Dani and I. "We recovered your weapons."
"Hey Colonel. So what do you think?" Kawalsky plopped down on O'Neill left side. "They aren't special forces, but they sure are eager to join up."
O'Neill's face twitched as he looked down at the weapon in Skaara's hands. Angrily he ripped the gun away from him. "Take these away from them before they hurt themselves."
"Sir?" Kawalsky was confused. But I was getting the sense that there was something going on with the Colonel that we didn't know about.
"Send them all home." O'Neill ordered.
"There's no place for these kids to go, anyway we could sure use their help right now." reasoned Kawalsky.
O'Neill blew. "To do what huh? To do what?!"
All the separate conversations that had been going on between the natives minutes before had abruptly cut off as they all stopped to watch us. Skaara glanced over at me, a question of whether to intervene was in his eyes. Shaking my head slightly, indicating him to stay put, my eyes went back to the fuming Colonel.
"Why don't you just tell them everything?" Daniel glared up at the Colonel, visibly shaking. "Why don't you tell them about the bomb?"
"What's he talking about?" Kawalsky demanded.
"My orders were simple." O'Neill fell back to the ground with a huff. He drew his knees up resting his arms on them. His eyes meet with each of his remaining men before he proceeded. "Track down any signs of danger, and if I found any blow up the Stargate. Well I found some." he laugh humorlessly.
"Well your bomb is his now. " Daniel growled, I hadn't seen him this angry or serious before. "And he is going to send it back to earth with a shipment of the mineral. And when it goes off the blast of be a hundred times more powerful that what the bomb alone is capable of."
"I'll intercept that bomb before he can send it through." O'Neill cut him off with a clipped statement.
"Why wasn't I told of this?" Kawalsky looked at his superior in shock.
"Because there wasn't any reason to tell you Kawalsky." He shouted. "You were all supposed to go right back through the gate with Daniel and Erin. I was going to stay behind and blow up the Stargate, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do."
"Its the gate on earth that poses a threat, that's the one we need to shut down." Daniel said.
"You absolutely right, but since you don't know how to get us back we don't have that option do we?" O'Neill rose and stalked off deeper into the cave.
I rose to follow him.
Daniel grabbed my hand. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to talk to him."
"I don't think that's a good idea right now." Kawalsky mumbled throwing some dirt into the fire.
"Someone has to try." My wobbly legs carried my in the general direction O'Neill went.
"Do you need help?" Skaara stood holding onto one of my arms to steady me.
"I'm fine." I assured him.
"What has happened?" he swept his hand to where the rest of my team was still sitting.
I sighed, "I don't really know, but I'm going to find out."
"It will be okay, I'm sure it will." he said
"I hope so." I brushed my hand over his. "I'll be back." Skaara let go and went to sit by Daniel.
Continuing after O'Neill I found him in a darker part of the cave. He sat staring off into space absentmindedly twirling a knife in his hands.
"Colonel O'Neill?" I asked softy lingering in the doorway of the chamber. When he didn't answer I tentatively used his first name. "Jack?" The only indication I got that he heard me was that he stopped playing with his knife setting it on the ground. "You accepted that fact that no matter what happened, you weren't going home. Why?" My voice hitched. "Don't you have people who care about you? Don't you have a family?"
"I had a family. No one should have to outlive their own child." He spoke with no feeling but the constant pain that had been ever present in his eyes made sense now.
"I'm so sorry." I got on my knees so we were eye level. "But your men, they don't want to die. These people don't deserve to die. They have families, children." Carefully to see how he would react, I place one of my hands over his. "Help us safe them."
"That wont be easy."
"I know it wont be easy, but its the right thing to do." I said.
He meet my eyes for the first time since I found him, "We'll try."
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The day had grown late and everyone was winding down from the whirlwind of events that this day had been. Around the fire sat Skaara, his friends and I. I was resting my still pounding head against the side of the cool cave wall. The bandage that Kawalsky had changed a few hours before was itching and was really getting on my nerves. I had caught only one glimpse of my injury earlier in a mirror I had found in Dani's vest. A deep red gash ran the length of my left eyebrow and curved down the side of my cheekbone. My little reminder from where I had hit the sharp edge of the obelisk. What remained of my team treated me like I was made of glass, insisting that they do everything for me, even bring me water. I was grateful for their concern but I drew the line when they tried to hold to bowl for me.
But this wasn't the only thing I noticed that was different. On several occasions I found Skaara staring at me in concern, sometimes even regret. Whenever I stumbled he was always the first there to catch me. What surprised me more was how bereft I felt each time he let go of me. It was strange, I mean we'd only known each other for a few days. And yet he saved my life, saved Daniel and O'Neill and carried me all the way here. .
"Hey Erin," Daniel sat down beside me. "Are you hungry?"
"Oh yeah." My stomach grumbled, it'd been almost a day and a half since I'd eaten last.
"I'll get you something." He scooped out some mashed food from bowls set around the fire after they'd finished cooking.
"Dani, you really don't have to..." Across the fire Skaara and Nebeth were snickering to each other, "Skaara?"
He stopped laughing and glanced at me sheepishly.
"What's so funny?" Daniel asked handing me the bowl of food.
I was so hungry that I immediately took a mouthful, not caring about how it tasted.
Skaara grinned up at him, "Husbands don't do this kind of work."
"What?!" I screeched, which I probably shouldn't have because I almost inhaled my food.
Daniel scrunched his face up in concentration. Suddenly his eyes widened and he met Sha're's gaze. Slowly he rose and walked over to where she had retreated into a makeshift tent.
They were to far away to hear any of the words that they said to each other. Sha're looked away from Daniel and fixed her eyes on the ground sadly. Daniel reached up brushing his hand across her face. He leaned forward and softly kissed her.
Skaara got up and pulled the flap over the entrance to the tent giving them privacy.
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The sound of rock scraping on rock woke me late in the night. Skaara was crouched by a wall of the cave carving symbols in to its surface.
Pulling the covers off my legs I stepped around the sleeping bodies to make my way to him.
"Hi." I joined him on the ground drawing my knees to my chest.
"Should you not be sleeping?" Skaara put down his tools.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping too?" I countered.
He took a deep breath before answering. "I couldn't sleep."
"Me neither." reaching out I ran my fingers across the fresh carving Skaara had made on the wall. "What are you doing?"
"I am drawing the day of our victory." he said triumphantly old up his tools.
For a few minutes neither of us spoke. Sleep was tugging at my mind, begging me to come back.
"I am sorry." Skaara said breaking the silence. The grief he held in his voice jerked me awake.
"You sorry?" I asked incredulously. "For what?"
"For this." He lightly touched my forehead where the bandage covered the gash. He was so gentle that my head didn't give one twinge of pain.
"My head, you didn't..."
"But I was the cause. If I hadn't attacked the guards then you would not have been injured. If I had been quicker."
I had to stop him. "Hey, hey. None of this is your fault." Tentatively I took his hand in mine. When he didn't pull away I continued. "If you hadn't done what you did O'Neill, Kawalsky, and Feretti would all be dead. And after Ra had his way he would have killed Daniel and I. No one is to blame except Ra. I certainly don't blame you. I never have."
It was then I realized how close we had gotten. Our faces got closer and closer until just one more inch and... we both leaned forward at the same time and our lips met. He brushed a hand through my hair careful of my bandage.
I never believed in the proverbial fireworks that were supposed to go off when you kissed someone, that was until now. For the moment nothing seemed to matter. It might have been a minute or a few hours and I doubt either of us would have noticed.
"Whoa. Were'd that come from?" I whispered when we stopped to breath.
"Uhem." A familiar voice cleared their throat behind us.
Skaara and I jumped apart like we had been electrocuted.
"Daniel." I was gasping for air. Part of the reason was the shock of Daniel's sudden arrival, the other had nothing to do with Dani and everything to do with a certain dark haired boy.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
That was an obvious lie. No matter how old I was, he was always going to see me as his little sister.
"What's that?" he asked pointing behind us. Daniel's face was blushing deep purple and he was careful to keep from making eye contact with us. "Wait a minute." he rushed between where we were sitting almost knocking us over, all embarrassment forgotten. He began mumbling to himself, "Connect the moons, this is it, this is the symbols for this planet. We found it." he bellowed wrapping me in a tight hug.
"Jackson, what are you doing?' A newly awaken, and rather grumpy Kawalsky demanded.
"We found it." Daniel repeated a little louder.
"What are you talking about?"
"The seventh symbol, we're going home!"
Deep down I knew I should feel over-joyed at this, but I couldn't help the odd burning pain I felt in my chest when I thought about leaving this place. Ever since we had lost our parents no place seemed like home. No group of group of people felt right, then we came here.
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Ra had doubled the works load of his slaves, punishment for daring to aid his enemies. The people had to work the mines now constantly, no time for rest.
O'Neill had gotten us up at the crack of dawn to do recon on Ra's men at the mines. We now wore hoods to hide our faces as we lifted and hauled the mineral Ra demanded.
Skaara and I were working side by side. As he passed a bucket of ore to me I in turn passed it to the next person in line. One of the guards strode by and Skaara tensed next to me. I ducked my head so guard wouldn't see my face.
A middle aged man carrying a huge hunk of rock, that should have been carried by at least two men, collapsed under its weight. The Horus guard drew his lacerated whip, bringing it down again and again on the screaming men.
"I've had enough of this." O'Neill's lips tuned up in a snarl.
He threw off his disguise distracting the guard. Before he could bring his weapon around O'Neill squeezed the trigger on his gun pumping the guard full off bullets in a weak spot in his side armor. The guard stumbled back clawing at his sides like he could dig out the bullets. Then he fell to the ground, dead.
All the people ceased their work, reminding me eerily of the first day we came here.
With the only threat gone the rest of us pulled off our robes. After I had mine off Skaara took my hand and we started after the rest of the team heading towards the pyramid.
Kasuf plowed though the shocked crowd shouting in panic. "You will bring disaster to all of us son!"
Kasuf grabbed Skaara's shoulders trying to force him to kneel on the ground with him.
Skaara shook off his hands, "Father we will not live as slaves!"
But Kasuf ignored him. By now all his people had fallen to their knees. Various mumbled prayers of forgiveness were filtering through the air.
"No! No!." Skaara continued to shout. "Get up!"
"Kasuf." Daniel called to leader uncharacteristically grave. "Take a look at your gods." he pressed a button on the guards Horus mask. A metallic clicking sound was accompanied by the mask retracting to show a dark skinned man beneath. "Take a good look."
Kasuf's rose to his feet staring down at the dead body that he had moments earlier considered a god.
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"Here's the plan." O'Neill had us huddled behind a sand dune in front of the pyramid. "Daniel and I will go in with a group of natives, try to take out the guards in the immediate vicinity. Kawalsky, Feretti and Clark will remain outside ready to come in once we have taken out the guards inside. The priory is to intercept that bomb before Ra can send it through to Earth. We clear?"
"Yes sir." his men answered.
"Hey Clark." O'Neill grabbed my arm when I started forward with the rest of the group.
"What Jack?"
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" he waved his hand in the general direction of my head, which still pounded faintly.
"Truthfully, no." I cocked my handgun. "Lets do this."
O'Neill smiled faintly at my enthusiasm. "Move out." He stowed his own weapon under his robe and hefted one side of the cart full of Ra's mineral. Daniel and Sha're each took another peg of the cart. Skaara, myself, and the rest of our team trialed behind.
Two guards were stationed outside the pyramids with their staff weapons trained on us. One of the guards was the Anubis guard who had shot the solider I had tried to save. I felt a hot wave of hate roll through me.
Slowly we made our way up the ramp. The group carrying the cart disappeared into the darkness of the pyramid.
Skaara tiled his head slightly and whispered to me, "What now?"
"Now, we wait for O'Neill's signal. Then we move in." I took a deep breath to steady my nerves.
Kawalsky and Feretti were adjusting their robes so that they would be ready to throw them off and there was the distinct sound of the safeties on their guns being flipped off.
We didn't have to wait long. Gunfire rang out from inside. Running up the ramp we hefted our guns out and shot at the opening where a guard stood ready to fire his weapon at us. The bullets bounced off his armor.
A stone door began to lower from the top of the door way. Just as we were about to reach it the guard activated his weapon. I saw energy crackle off the end as the guard took aim at Skaara.
"Skaara!" I screamed and barreled into his back knocking him to the ground. The blast sizzled the air as it passed above us.
The was a loud thud and the stone door closed, sealing us out of the pyramid.
Skaara got up pulling me with him.
"Are you ok?" I asked him, a little winded.
"I'm fine. Thank you." He to was breathing hard as he pressed his forehead to mine.
A screeching electronic buzzing rang out and two black boomerang shaped ships exited from the mother-ship.
"We must find cover, now!" Skaara stared at the ships in horror. He grabbed my arm as we ran the rest of the way up the ramp and dove into the limited shelter of the doorway. The ships fired a blast of energy and where we had just been standing exploded in rock and dust.
Blast after blast kept us crouching where we were.
"We have to do something." Feretti screamed over the explosions.
"I've got an idea." Kawalsky stood and looked back at the rest of us. "Cover me!" And he promptly ran out shooting at the ships.
" Cover you?!" Feretti yelled in disbelief at the same time I screamed, "With what?"
"He's gonna get himself killed." Then Feretti followed him along with most of the native boys.
I tried to run after them but as soon as I came out into the open the concussion of a nearby blast knocked me back.
Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the doorway. When the dust cleared I saw that it was Skaara's friend Nebeth.
"Thanks." I yelled trying to be heard over the battle.
Suddenly we had to duck to avoid debris when yet another blast came to close for comfort. A huge hunk of rock hit Nebeth in the head, but he was unhurt thanks to the military helmet he was wearing. Next time we might not be so lucky.
"We cannot stay here." Below at the end of the ramp I could barely make out through the dust a makeshift fox hole where Kawalsky had gathered everyone. "When I say we have to make a run for it. We need to get to that hole. Stay right by me."
"I'm ready." Nebeth said though he was slightly shaking. Now more than ever was his young age showing.
In the air above the ships were making another pass. I tensed up waiting for the right moment. The ships stopped midair and started to swing back around, "Now!" I screamed and I grabbed Nebeth's hand as we barreled down the ramp.
"Nebeth! Airen!"Skaara's panicked voice broke my concentration on the ground I was running on. I looked to him and saw Kawalsky holding him back from running to us.
"What the?" A buzzing filled the air, closer than it should have been. The ships were right over us. I had misjudged how long it should have taken for them to reach us again.
bright orange fire shot out of glider and pounded into the ramp. The ground mere meters from our feet began being ripped apart. Where our feet was one second was a smoldering mess of molten rock the next. As we ran the blasts chased us. There was no where to go except for one path, not the best but it was going to have to do.
I made a snap decision.
Wrapping my arms around Nebeth's waist I threw us off the side of the ramp.
Nebeth's helmet went flying off as the last blast propelled us forward in midair.
We landed, hard. The soft sand only slightly cushioned our fall.
"Come on." I placed one of Nebeth's arms over my shoulders and helped him up. He was limping slightly as we made our way to the fox hole.
When we got closer I could heard Skaara and many of the other young boys crying in grief. Feretti was firing at the enemy screaming out a string of profanities. Kawalsky just sat staring at his gun in shock.
"What's going on?' I questioned, hefting Nebeth over the sandbag wall and them tumbling over it myself.
They all started when they heard me. Each of their faces we're equal parts shock and joy.
"Erin?" Kawalsky grabbed me into a hug. "You're alive!"
"Aren't I usually?" I laughed patting him on the back.
"Kid!" Feretti called over still firing. "You gave us one hell of a scare."
"Nebeth! Airen!" Skaara rushed to us and wrapped us in a hug. When we pulled back Skaara caught my face in his hands, his grip was tight.
"We're fine, we're..." I started but was cut off when Skaara crushed his lips to mine. Whatever I had been about to say went out the proverbial window.
"Hey." Feretti shouted sounding somewhat annoyed. "I hate to break this up but were kinda in the middle of a war."
Skaara and I broke apart and he handed my a gun lying one the ground. "Right!" I said taking fire at the guards that had begun to approach on foot.
Kawalsky's gun stopped firing. "Feretti, you got any rounds left?"
"No!" he shouted when his gun also ran out. "What about you Erin?"
My gun clicked and the stream of bullets ceased. "Crow! I'm out to." I yelled throwing my gun down.
All our guns were running out of bullets. Skaara's gun, the last one with ammo finally ran out to.
The guards were still getting closer, though the ships had thankfully stopped blasting at us.
"Kawalsky we've got to do something." Feretti said.
Kawalsky rose and stepped out of the fox hole with his arms raised in surrender.
Skaara tried to grab him, "No, no! What are you doing?"
"Hey! Hey!" Kawalsky shouted to the approaching guards with his hands up. He knelt down on the ground keeping his arms out at his sides. Slightly waving his right hand in a forward motion he gestured for us to follow his example.
One by one we rose from the fox hole, careful to keep our hands above our heads. We knelt in a line with Kawalsky on my left and Skaara on my right.
The guards kept approaching until they stopped about ten feet from us. They held their staffs trained on us and kept their masks up, making it impossible to discern what they were thinking about doing to us.
Their mechanical masks twisted in an inhuman way side to side taking all of us in. In a swift motion they activated their staffs and energy crackled out ready to fire.
Oh, God. We surrendered and they were still going to kill us.
I felt Skaara grasp my hand tightly and I reached out grabbing Kawalsky's hand. We raised our heads, staring directly at the guards in defiance. If they were waiting for us to cower or beg, they were going to be disappointed.
A battle cry echoed from high on a sand dune in the distance. The guards swirled around.
There was Kasuf yelling with his staff raised high in the air. He turned behind him and waved his staff forward. A line of people all around the pyramid appeared holding axes and pickets and clubs.
Normally these weapons would be useless against a powerful staff weapon. However the guards were outnumbered a thousand to one, and they knew it.
The crowd ran as one towards us, brandishing their weapons. After firing futility at the crowd the guards resorted to swiping at the people with their staffs. In a matter of minutes they had been overpowered by the natives, disappearing beneath the numerous waves of weapons and people. The guards Horus masks were thrown of into the air in triumph.
Skaara grabbed my arm and pulled me atop some rumble where. From there we could see everything. Skaara shouted up at the sky pumping his gun in the air. I couldn't help but laugh, joining him in relief and joy.
A faint shaking rumbled through the ground.
I threw my hands out to keep my balance atop the unstable rubble. I cautiously glanced behind me. Ra's ship was beginning to rise from the pyramid. "Skaara! The ship is leaving." I shouted to him.
As everyone noticed the rising ship the elated cried died down until all was silent except for the techno-rumble of the ship.
A horrible thought entered my mind. What if Ra planned to destroy us from above? Surely he had such weapons.
"Oh no." With the ship right above there was nowhere to run. I turned to Skaara and he must have seen my horrified expression.
"What is it?"
"Ra is going to bomb the planet!"
Skaara's eyes widened and he wrapped his arms around as we watched in silence the ship getting farther and farther away.
A blinding white light erupted. This is it. I tuned my face away, not wanting to see.
"Airen look!"
I opened my eyes. The light dulled till only the wreckage of Ra's ship floating space was visible.
"Thank God!" I sank to the ground in relief.
The dust from the battle began to settle. Three figures stumbled out of the pyramid. Jack, Sha're and, "Daniel!" I shouted running to him, carefully maneuvering around the gaping holes in the ramp.
When I reached him I crushed him in a hug. With one arm still around Sha're, he wrapping one arm around my waist tight lifting my feet off the group before putting me down. After he let me got Daniel turned to Sha're. They stared at each other intensely before leaning towards each other kissing passionately.
I felt my cheeks redden, this was a seriously private moment between them. Trying to keep my embarrassment under control I turned to Jack who was grinning ear to ear unabashedly at the two of them.
"So how you doing?" Silly question, but I asked anyway.
"Oh you know, kill the bad guy, free a planet, save the world, same old same old." He answered with a smile that actually reached his eyes for once. and clapped me on the back. The real Jack seemed to be finally emerging.
A booming cheer arose from the thousand of people. Kasuf lead them from atop a bolder. With every cry of victory he pumped his staff in the air.
Skaara had gathered what was left of our team and the boys who had fought with us in the fox hole around his spot upon the rubble where I had left him. Amidst the cheering they grew silent. With swift synchronized motion they raised their right hand over their eyes in a crisp salute to Jack.
If it was possible Jack's grin grew larger as he returned the salute.
Next to me Daniel and Sha're had come back to reality and I glanced at them then back at the people gathered around the pyramid.
"Daniel?"
"Hm?"
"What do we do now?"