"Step away from her."
Cameron whipped his head around to find himself face-to-face with a zat. Behind the zat was a member of the Lucian Alliance. He struggled to recall a name.
"She's about to bleed out," Cameron said, looking back at his teammate. "As in she's dying."
He frowned. "That does complicate things." A second member entered the room. "Decidedly inconvenient. But not insurmountable, of course."
"Karug, is this her?"
The first member grunted. "One and the same. Two-for-one with her. Collect that old bounty on her head."
Cameron would have socked him right in his face if he wasn't trying to think and stay alive. "I'm sure-" he paused, stayin'alivestayin'aliveahahahahstaylinalive, "worth more alive than dead Karug." It took him a moment to remember the bleeding and he hurriedly shoved a rolled up piece of bedding under Vala, the thought of modesty long gone. She could yell at him about propriety when they got back home.
The second member, who Cameron vaguely recognised, walked over and put his hand on Vala's cheek. "And one of the only ones left who's been through the extraction ceremony." His eyes met with Cameron. "Oh, but a dead member of the Tau'ri on our watch? I'm sure that's…" he leaned forward, "priceless."
Cameron reluctantly ripped his hands away from Vala and threw all of his force into pushing Rameris to the ground. Karug immediately sprung into action and leaped over the pair, reaching Vala in two easy strides.
"Stay the hell away from her!"
Karug took one look at the state of her and stepped back. "What the hell is this?"
Cameron took the opportunity and booted Rameris in the face and lunged at Karug with an animalistic grunt. "I said, stay the hell away from her!"
A brief moment of understanding hit him. The Lucian Alliance had attacked the Tok'ra base looking to get the extraction technology. Had they known Vala was here? Or was it opportunity?
Who had given them the intel?
Before he could grab onto Karug, Rameris's hand snaked around his ankle. "She's dying," he pleaded.
"I don't care," Karug hollered back.
It was then that a force ripped both Rameris and Karug away from Cameron. He looked up and stared straight into the glowing eyes of Ba'al.
A dark, rich voice penetrated the room. "I believe it is time for you to bow to your God."
Daniel had spent at least two hours at the entrance of the pyramid. He had expected Vala to show up after one hour, full of innuendo and whining about the change in temperature. It was usually how it went with them. When she didn't show, he started to feel awful. After the first hour he felt a deep shame over his actions and his words.
Being confronted with the image of Sha're- no, Amaunet, had shocked him more than he had expected. The artist had done an incredible job of capturing her likeness. He often stared at the pictures of her that lived in his office and at his home but this was something else.
In his self-imposed exile from Vala, he had had time to calm down and carefully study the cartouches and inscriptions. He could make out a fair bit, he was the world's foremost expert in languages after all, but he found himself wanting to clarify strange phrasing or words with Vala. He knew his words had hurt her and he had wanted to give her some space and seek him out once she was ready.
It was nearing the third hour and, while he had studied the Promenade of the Goddesses in some detail, he was dreading going back through the lit hallways and being confronted with his wife. Not only her, he reminded himself, because it wasn't a temple dedicated to just one goddess. He expected to find effigies of others along those hallways.
Like a museum, after all.
He had started to worry about Vala, although he suspected she might've been caught up in cataloguing information- when had that happened? Shame rocked him again. He had treated her poorly, not for the first time. Her work had been impeccable on their last few missions. They had developed a routine and she had fallen into step with him, compensating when necessary and learning from him as they went.
He had noticed her eagerness to develop mastery of some of the dead Earth languages on a few missions, now that he thought about it. He briefly thought back to their last mission, Vala's happy face in the sun working beside him as he pointed out some Latin phrases, his laughing at a joke made at his own expense…
He owed her an apology.
So, Daniel stood and steeled himself. Objectively, this pyramid was an excellent archaeological find and once he could move through the room with Amaunet's eyes cast upward in a show of power, he would be able to move on. Find Vala. Apologise. And then…
Well, he would figure that out soon enough.
He carefully avoided the beautiful mirror of his dead wife and breathed a sigh of relief as the lights dimmed down as he moved into the next chamber. He knew this one. Nirrti. She had obviously taken issue with her own face being hidden by other, more beautiful queens.
So not just the Egyptian ones.
Still no sign of Vala. He supposed the older effigies would linger in the back and the more recent ones towards the front. Perhaps Amaunet's previous hosts would appear down the labyrinth of hallways and chambers, lit up for the pilgrims to see.
And then it hit him.
He swallowed back his panic and took off into the next chamber, praying to any god that would listen that his theory was wrong.
It wasn't.
Daniel just about felt his heart break in two as the looming figure of Qetesh lit up in front of him. Vala had obviously been still in her own exile in this chamber, as the lights responded to his movement. She was sitting cross-legged, staring up at a mirror of her own face.
The artist had taken some liberties with her effigy's body language and a feeling of disgust and empathy filled his bones. Qetesh's body was outfitted in scant clothing, leaning over a number of men. Her fingers delicately cupped one man's face and her legs crossed sensually, outlining the shape of her legs. Her eyes looked down at her subjects.
Vala's own eyes were cast upward, locked onto her mirror image.
The words PLEASE YOUR GODDESS were emblazoned in Goa'uld writing at the base of her statue and Daniel felt as if he was going to be sick.
"Vala," he whispered, coming up behind her, not wanting to startle her. Her face looked drawn and her eyes heavy. "I'm so sorry. I…"
"You didn't think," Vala replied, her eyes unmoving from the image in front.
Those words cut him in a way he was not expecting. He sat beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. He half expected her to turn him away, reject his comfort. She didn't move.
"You never do," she added and sighed. Her shoulders dropped and she remained staring, mesmerised by Qetesh. His earlier words pierced him. Vala remained steady for a moment then hung her head, as if in defeat.
"Daniel, I'm in love with you," she said quietly. "But sometimes you can be so cruel."
The air in the dusty pyramid stood still, a stark juxtaposition to Daniel's own inner turmoil. The first thing he considered, something he would likely regret later, was that this was another one of Vala's jokes. A deflection to move past the events of today. Something to rile him up. He nearly scoffed at her but upon a closer look at her, hunched over, eyes closed...something in him clicked.
Vala was being honest.
With gentle hands he reached down and cupped Vala's chin, nudging her face up to be in line with his. Her eyes were wide with a mix of both surprise and longing, almost as if she couldn't believe his tender touch was being bestowed on her. He had been loving and tender, before the Goa'uld and the gate and the Ori and the replicators stole it from him. He had touched Sha're with the same reverence.
Maybe he hadn't lost it after all.
In this moment of clarity, all he wanted to do was kiss her.
And so, he did.
"That's impossible," Karug croaked, as Ba'al's hands went around his throat. Cameron was about to say the same, when a second figure walked into the room. Dead eyes met his and then a hand shot out, flinging Rameris to the ground. He really hoped Jackson knew what he was doing.
"I believe you have something that belongs to me."
Cameron was almost relieved to see the figure of the Orici appear behind Ba'al. Because whatever this was, if Jackson or his new friends weren't pulling strings, at the very least, Adria would be able to save her mother.
If it wasn't too late.
"My mother is coming with me," Adria said, looming over the men on the ground, as Karug gasped for air.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed and his body was only moments away from giving out right there on the ground, but he used what little strength he had to drag himself to Vala. "You're-supposed to be-dead," Rameris wheezed, trying to get up from the ground. Ba'al's boot pressed down on the guy's head swiftly and his head lolled to the ground.
As Rameris blacked out, Ba'al breathed a sigh of relief and promptly dropped Karug.
Adria locked eyes with Cameron, then looked down at Vala, as if realising that she was on a time limit. "Intef, quickly!"
Intef.
Of course it was Intef.
Ba'al clone blinked a few times and his eyes returned to normal. He shook off his clever ruse and within moments, he had produced a Goa'uld healing device. He struggled to get it on.
Adria had climbed onto the bed now, and cradled Vala, the incongruity of the situation nearly forcing a wheeze out of Cameron. "Intef!" She turned to Cameron now. "What happened here?"
"Daniel took the baby," was the only thing he could muster. "Damnit, Intef. She's already bleeding out-is that thing gonna work?" Intef ignored Cameron's question and concentrated.
"Yes," Adria breathed. "It has to." She had not let go of Vala's hand. "Intef, concentrate!" Hysteria had begun to touch her voice and Cameron knew exactly how that felt.
"I am trying," Intef's own desperate voice replied. He raised his head slightly. "I am not him."
That much was apparent. He stole a look at Vala, the sound of the healing device punctuating his every thought. They had been in worse positions than this, hadn't they? A harsh feeling pierced his gut and his vision was about to blur. He had killed Vala.
"Try harder," he spat.
It was then that his long-forgotten radio crackled, heralding a miracle. "Colonel Mitchell, do you read?"
He leaped across the room in a herculean effort, relief pouring from him as he raised the radio. "Colonel Mitchell here, we are in serious need of medical attention."
"Cameron, it's Sam," another voice came in, frantic. The Hammond must have returned. "We have Teal'c but we can't get a lock on you. There's some interference. Are you able to move, even just a few yards out of the room?"
"Keep using that thing," Cameron called out to Intef, "and get ready to move."
He turned his attention back to the radio. "Sam, it's Vala...Beam us straight to the infirmary. We have Intef and Adria with us too. Intef's trying to...revive her."
There was a pause and Cameron closed his eyes, desperately wishing it was not news he had to deliver. "Understood. Hammond out."
He pointed at Intef and Adria. "Our ride's here. Keep that thing on her, even if it looks like it might not be working. We're about to save the princess."