A/N This story takes place after Ark of Truth and follows on directly from my story 'Myrddin's Shield'. In my mind, it takes place before Ba'al was finally captured in Continuum.

Memories Past & Future Dreams

Chapter One

Vala waited in the Gate room for the others to arrive and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. It was ridiculous, this feeling: she wasn't excited about the mission; her heart was fluttering away in anticipation of Daniel walking through the door. Ridiculous. They'd been working side by side for two years and she'd never felt this way before but then things were a little different now. On their last mission, everything had suddenly changed between them.

"Take a chance on me?"

"If you'll take a chance on me."

Just a few simple words and the world had changed. Her world had changed: she was no longer alone; she belonged. She wasn't quite sure how this was all going to work in practice but she was going to try to make sure it would. Be professional at work. She could do that, couldn't she? She'd told Daniel that she could, on their first proper date last night, and she wasn't going to blow it. Pull yourself together, Vala. Nothing's really changed just because you and Daniel are dating.

She thought about last night. Their date had been a meal at the Penrose Room in Colorado Springs. When they'd pulled up outside, Vala had wrinkled her nose thinking it looked a bit boring but once inside she realised why Daniel had chosen it: a glorious view from their window-side table of the sun going down over the lake and the pretty candles burning in the chandeliers overhead. The music came from a bygone age, Daniel had informed her, and, although to her it was totally unlike any sort of music she was used to, it sounded romantic and was the perfect accompaniment to a quiet, intimate dinner.

She'd wanted to dance and, after only a little persuading, Daniel had obliged. Remembering the feel of his arms around her, how he had taken her hand when they'd walked back to the car, how he had put his arms around her again in the elevator ride back down to their quarters and how he'd kissed her goodnight when they'd reached the door to her room, Vala felt her pulse quicken and a tingly feeling run through her body. It wasn't quite like anything she'd ever felt before. Just the anticipation of seeing him today was causing this heightened state of nervousness. She sighed. Oh yes, being professional was going to be a slice of cake, or whatever the earth phrase was.

She was a little surprised by her own reaction to their fledgling relationship: it almost felt like she was a young girl again with her first crush, but what really surprised her was that she had agreed so easily to do things Daniel's way. Not only was she fighting her natural instincts but she was determined to let him take the lead and not rush things. She didn't want to mess things up with him so she would wait for his cue to move their relationship on…her heart skipped a beat as he walked into the Gate room and smiled at her…and she would be professional, dammit.

"Hi."

"Hi," Vala said softly. She chewed on her lip. Was it okay to even mention their date? No-one else was even around. "Hi…I had a really nice time last night, Daniel." Was it her imagination or was he blushing? How sweet.

Daniel cleared his throat. "So did I."

For one brief moment, he looked as if he wanted to take her in his arms then and there but he shook himself and concentrated on checking his backpack as if his life depended on it. Vala felt ridiculously pleased that she wasn't the only one struggling to keep her mind on work and smiled to herself.

When Cameron, Teal'c and Sam came in, she gave them each a grin and then turned to watch the Stargate as it began to spin round. As each chevron locked in place, she bounced in place in anticipation of another mission that would take them who knew where to find who knew what.

As SG-1 walked up the ramp together, Vala took up her station at Daniel's side. It was a habit that they had fallen into a few months ago, walking side by side into the glowing pool of light that would transport them to their destination, and it was one that made her feel safe. With Daniel by her side, she could tackle anything.

As SG-1 stepped out on the other side of the event horizon, a wave of tropical heat hit them, instantly making their clothes stick to their skin in an unpleasant and uncomfortable manner. The wormhole shut off behind them and the five team members took a circular look at the view. There was jungle as far as the eye could see for at least three-quarters of the surrounding area. Vala saw Daniel grimace and knew exactly what he was thinking: give him a hot, dry planet and he was a happy man, transported back in memory to his childhood and his parents' digs in Egypt, but hot and humid made him cranky. He wasn't the only one.

"This is going to frizz up my hair," Vala complained.

"Mine too," Sam agreed with a groan. After wiping the sweat from her face with a tissue, Sam checked the information on her palm reader. "The UAV showed a fortification about a klick through the jungle this way. As we thought, there's no path so we'll have to cut our way through."

Cameron and Teal'c pulled out the machetes they had packed for this very reason and began hacking at the undergrowth in the direction Sam indicated. It was hot work and after thirty minutes they stopped for a drink and Vala and Daniel took over the job of cutting a path through the vines and enormous leaves that were trying to prevent their forward progress. After a few minutes, the sea of trees began to thin out a little and they caught glimpses of rough terrain leading away from the jungle towards towering terracotta coloured walls that were obviously the outer edge of the fortification.

Once free of the jungle, SG-1 made their way across the uneven ground, picking their way between scrubby ground-hugging plants and varying size rocks. They reached the burnt-orange edifice and started making their way along its length trying to find an opening. The UAV had indicated there was no life within five miles of the stargate and it was eerily quiet. Vala ran her hand along the wall, which was uneven and deeply pitted in some places, and felt the warmth under her fingertips where the stonework had been warmed by the sun.

"Banyk'tel," she murmured.

"Vala? Did you say something?" Daniel asked.

"I think this place is called Banyk'tel."

Cameron looked over his shoulder at her. "You know this place, Vala?"

"I'm not sure. It seems familiar somehow."

They reached a huge archway, which originally must have had two stout wooden doors hanging from either side. These had been blasted into pieces and a few slivers of split wood were all that remained. SG-1 exchanged looks and cautiously stepped through the archway and scanned what remained of the settlement. The huge boundary running around the length of the large town was topped by a crenelated wall and dotted with sentry posts at regular intervals. As they drew closer to the first rows of houses within, the first bodies appeared: dying where they had fallen, the skeletal corpses lay strewn in doorways and in the middle of the street. Bones had been licked clean by whatever was Banyk'tel's equivalent of coyotes. Vulture-like birds hovered on rooftops nearby and eyed the visitors with interest.

"What the hell happened here?" Mitchell muttered. "Those marks on the walls have been made by staff blasts, don't you think, Teal'c?"

Teal'c nodded in agreement. "This is the action of some petty Goa'uld looking to take over a rival's power base…and it must have happened some length of time ago given the condition of the bodies."

"So which Goa'uld did this and which Goa'uld used to own this place?" Cameron wondered. "Anyone want to make a bet?"

"My money's on Ba'al for the destruction," Sam said.

Vala frowned, something nagging a way at the back of her mind. "Well, this place is on the edge of his territory so that's a safe bet…but he's not usually so wasteful…Unless someone seriously angers him."

Further into the settlement, the ground began to rise and a structure emerged which towered over the rest of the buildings. It looked like Goa'uld temples they had seen in so many places across the galaxy but this one was even more imposing. They all stopped to stare, taking in the impressive size of the building. Daniel turned to speak to Vala and saw her face drain of colour.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Daniel asked.

"I…I've definitely been here before, Daniel…I remember…I'm not sure what I remember," Vala answered. She shook her head as if trying to clear away a jumble of images in her mind to bring the relevant ones into sharper focus. She looked up at the temple again and suddenly broke into jog as she made her way up the hill towards the huge edifice.

Cameron was taken by surprise and could only shout after her, "Hey Vala, what's the hurry?"

There was no response as she either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him. Daniel exchanged looks with their commanding officer. When Cameron gave him a nod, he started to jog to catch up with his teammate and his…friend? Girlfriend? That didn't sound right either. The person who means the most to me in the whole universe? Daniel laughed at himself. It was descriptive but a bit of a mouthful.

Reaching the top of the hill, he saw Vala enter the temple archway and disappear inside. A few seconds later, he reached the building, just in time to see Vala come running out, tears rolling down her face. She shouldered her way past him, hardly seeing him and ran to the corner of the building where she emptied the contents of her stomach onto the dusty ground.

When she finally stopped retching, she turned around, knowing that she would find what she had come to expect after all this time: her Daniel. He never failed to be by her side when she needed him. Concern written all over his face, he held out a packet of tissues and a flask of water. Shakily, she took the offered items and mumbled thanks.

Daniel took note of her obvious anguish but wisely decided not to ask any questions just yet. He stood close by, continuing to offer support while his eyes idly scanned the decorations and inscriptions around the temple entrance. Idly that is until a name jumped out at him and a small sigh of understanding escaped his lips.

"Qetesh."

Cameron, Sam and Teal'c had just arrived behind them and grimaced at the name, taking in Vala's clearly visible distress. Sam exchanged looks with Daniel who shook his head at her and shrugged his shoulders to say he wasn't sure what was going on yet. Giving Vala time to compose herself, Teal'c and Sam went for a walk around the perimeter of the temple, noting the damage done to the statues decorating the building. They had been deliberately destroyed and all the images of Qetesh had been mutilated in some way. Meanwhile Cameron went into the temple and soon wished he hadn't.

The interior was gloomy and the air was musty. Shining his torch around the columns at the entrance, he could see only one body at first, dressed in fine robes which may have indicated he was a priest or something of that nature. He walked further in towards the altar, which had been turned over on its side and blasted to pieces. Here, he could see the bodies of children and two adults. The vultures hadn't made it into the building so the sight was gruesome and the sense of execution more immediate. It looked like the children had been huddled together when they had been cut down. Possibly the two adults had been trying to protect them, begging for mercy for their children.

Anger flared in his chest at yet another example of the cruelty of the Goa'uld. The sooner they were finally eradicated from the universe the better. He headed outside again and stopped Sam from going in with a shake of his head. Then he spoke to the whole team: "Well, this place is a bust. Anything worth anything looks as if it's already gone. Think we may as well head home."

"No." It was Vala speaking. "No we can't leave them like that. We've got to bury them…or burn them."

"You can't be serious. There's hundreds and hundreds of them, Vala. We can't possibly move all those bodies."

Vala stepped up to Cameron and looked into his eyes, seeking understanding. "Please, Mitchell…just the ones inside the temple…I can't leave them like that…I just can't."

Cameron looked around at the rest of the team and found sympathy and understanding on their faces. "All right, Vala, just the ones in the temple then."

He turned to Teal'c. "You got your zat with you? Disintegrating them would be the quickest thing."

"No." Vala shook her head. "They should be given a proper farewell. Fire," she choked on the word and couldn't continue.

"We'll need to make a pyre if you want to burn them," Cameron said, accepting that this was important to Vala for some reason. He could clearly see the anguish written on her face. He turned to Sam, suggesting, "Why don't you and Jackson take Vala to collect some wood and pile it up on the ground over there, on that flat piece of ground in front of the temple. Teal'c and I'll deal with the remains."

"Sure," Sam said. "Let's see if there's any furniture we can break up in the nearby houses." She took Vala's arm and guided her away down the hill a little towards the nearest dwellings.

Daniel followed them with a worried expression on his face. He hadn't seen Vala this upset since her bout of insomnia and nightmares after the Goa'uld Athena had used a memory device on her and stirred up all her memories of being host to Qetesh. It had taken Vala some weeks to get back to her old self after that experience. He was afraid that this mission was going to cause her some of the same problems.

The members of SG-1 worked in silence at their allotted jobs: the horror of the task getting to all of them. Following Teal'c's suggestion, Cameron wrapped another of the bodies with cloths torn down from the temple pillars and laid them out in a row in the courtyard. When the pyre was high enough, Cameron and Teal'c began to lift the bodies between them and placed them across the mountain of branches and broken wooden furniture.

Vala knelt down next to the second to last child's body: despite the care Teal'c had taken to wrap the small form in yellow silk, a wisp of blonde hair had escaped from between the folds of material. Vala carefully pushed back the shroud until she could see more of her blonde hair. She gently touched the hair and tried not to look at the terrible damage that had been inflicted on the small body in front of her. Tears rolled down her face as she rewrapped the golden shroud and took the slight body in her arms. She struggled to her feet and carried her over to the funeral pyre.

The last body was placed gently with its companions and Teal'c went back into the temple, reappearing with a torch. Daniel lit it for him with the lighter he carried with his kit and Teal'c passed the flaming torch to Vala and took up position by her side facing the pyre. Daniel came to her other side and took her cold hand in his, offering support. Vala choked out a few words in Goa'uld which Daniel recognised as a Jaffa warrior prayer for the dead.

Then she stepped forward and held the torch against the bottom of the pyre. The flames spluttered then gradually gained strength, licking their way through the wood. As the fire took hold, smoke rose into the sky and heat began rolling from the pyre towards the watching substitute mourners. They stared at the flames for a while: each of them lost in their own thoughts. Vala dashed away tears from her cheeks with the back of her hands and turned away: leaving behind the temple dedicated to Qetesh and beginning the downhill journey that led back through the city and jungle and onto the Stargate and home.

Daniel fell into step beside her, a comforting presence by her side. It was all he could do not to take her into his arms: she was hurting and he just wanted to make her feel better, to find out what memories had been stirred up by their discovery of this temple to Qetesh. Soon Sam joined him, sharing an anxious look with him and flanked Vala's other side while Cameron and Teal'c brought up the rear. Nobody felt much like talking so they made the long journey back through the jungle mostly in silence.

When they reached the Stargate, Sam input the symbols for home and sent through the IDC signal that would let the SGC know that SG-1 were on their way back. Sam and Cameron walked through the event horizon first, followed by Teal'c. Daniel waited as Vala turned and gave one last look around and whispered something under her breath then they stepped through together.

Landry was waiting at the end of the ramp as the team made their way down to report to him. "You weren't gone for long, Colonel Mitchell. Nothing of interest there I take it."

"Not much, sir." Cameron waited for Vala to walk past and out of the room before he continued: "Just a whole heap of dead bodies and a ruined temple, sir…It was a bit grim to tell the truth."

As Landry accompanied him out of the embarkation area, Cameron said, "Vala was a bit rattled by what we found…There was a temple dedicated to Qetesh. It may have stirred up a few feelings for her."

"Let's leave the debriefing until tomorrow morning then," Landry suggested. "Give Vala time to settle. I'll let you get to the showers and your medicals."

"Thank you, sir. It was a bit hot…quite unpleasant actually."

"I can tell," Landry said dryly before walking quickly away.

Cameron turned to Teal'c. "Do you think he's trying to tell us something?"