A knock on the door was the only warning colonel O'Neill got before its attempt to smash his face. The man had managed to jump from the offensive furniture and for all his trouble he was greeted by heavily breathing Carter.

"Sir, Nirrti has disabled her room's camera," the major quickly relayed. O'Neill looked at Carter with his eyebrows slowly climbing up. He glanced at General Hammond who was opening his mouth to respond to the news and then returned his attention to the door as the General closed his mouth. Carter had also opened her mouth to add on to the news she had just brought but the whole group was joined by an airman. He saluted before relaying his news.

"Sir, Nirrti has found Barbara."

"That was fast," murmured O'Neill before looking back at Hammond. The general had managed to overcome the surprise from the news. And boy, was he furious.

"Why were we updated only now about Nirrti's jaunt?" the general asked, trying to keep his temper in control. The airman was not at fault. He was just the messenger. He was his. He doesn't snap at his people.

"Sir, there was a delay in sending the initial message."

"O'Neill, Carter. Break out the TERs. Nirrti definitely wants to start something."

Yu was sitting in the common room with another refill of his tea, watching the bobbing leaves in the gaiwan. The System Lord was calm. The situation would resolve itself, without the need of his interfering in it. After all the other two hotheads were already messing things up.

He took another sip before closing the gaiwan. A forced vacation. How lovely. He could have during the time he was forced to spend on the Earth organize his Jaffa and do another revision of the far planets.

At least he had no need to review the documentation right now.

And did he mention the tea?

In the series, the torture with handheld devices was not really accentuated on. There was the episode in which Jackson with his team had sneaked aboard Apophis spaceships. In one of the scenes, Klorel in Skaara's body was torturing Jackson with the ribbon device.

In another episode, a scene where it seemed that Daniel was tortured again when Sha're was sharing information with him about the location of her child. In both cases, a yellow glow was emanating from the device and connecting with the person on the other side of the device.

Another scene, in the events yet to come, is when the alternate Samantha Carter and Kowalski came through the quantum mirror. There we were introduced for the first time to the Rod of Anguish, a.k.a. pain stick. A stick with a 3-point fork which when touching the person causes pain and a soft yellow glow is seen from the tortured person's mouth and eyes.

There was another scene, in the movie when Ra was punishing one of his guards for letting the Earth soldiers to escape. The torture was relatively short, without many special effects but it had led to the death of the Jaffa.

In her retyping of the possible future, Barbara read a bit about the devices used for torment. She didn't think for a moment that she might find herself in such a situation. And boy, was it painful.

At first, there was the light. It was warm yellow and bright, like a home comfort. Her gaze was fixed on the light, and soon Barbara needed to close her eyes, but she just couldn't take her eyes off it. It was mesmerizing. She could feel her tears gather in her eyes.

Then came the sound. A whining, with high pitch, the one that causes ear-splitting pain if listened to long enough. The one that you can't drown out even if you cover your ears. And she couldn't even do that as her body felt heavy, impossible to move. And at the same time, it was lit with fire, but not the one you enjoy in the dark of the night. Oh, no. It was burning. Her nerves were filled with electricity and in her veins lava. It was itching. It was hurting. She had to scratch it. All of her body. She couldn't move her body. And it was cold. So cold that it was piercing her. So freezing that it was burning.

Another sound had joined in. She couldn't breathe. It hurt to inhale. It burned to exhale. A wave of light-headedness hit her. The room was starting to spin. And yet at the same time, it stayed still, and it was her body that was feeling the alteration in the gravity. It was her scream.

Please, just kill me.

The moment they had hear the scream, Teal'c was no longer next to Daniel. Daniel looked at the back of fast departing Jaffa before quickly joining in. Teal'c was running fast and quietly towards the open door, jumping over the sprawled bodies of the posted guards. He practically flew through the door and tackled Nirrti, landing heavily on her. The pair had immediately started fighting for the domination in a wrestling match, with the Jaffa struggling to pin the wriggling Goa'uld to the floor.

At the same time, Barbara, who was no longer held by the ribbon device in place crumpled to the floor in a heap. Jackson, who was slower than Teal'c didn't manage to catch her in time and the girl hit her head as she came down. He started to maneuver her body into a more comfortable position and as far away from Nirrti as he could.

"Unhand me Shol'va," hissed Nirrti, resisting Teal'c's hold on her. He just growled, increasing the pressure of his hold. She wriggled even more before successfully turning to her back and kneeing Teal'c in his groin. The Jaffa winced but didn't let on his grip. He had to let go though when the next blow came on his pouch. Nirrti scrambled to get back on her legs and looked around. Teal'c was trying to get to his feet, holding his smarting abdomen, while the archeologist was dragging the girl to a corner, as far away from her as possible. Nirrti reached for her hidden knife, but she didn't manage to pull it out as Cronus appeared at the door. He gave a cursory glance at the occupants of the room, his gaze holding just a smidge longer on the brat who was lying behind the bespectacled man. She was lying on the floor, curling on herself, trembles passing through her body.

"Nirrti," growled the System Lord as he entered the room, his eyes flashing white. The Female Goa'uld immediately activated her device, vanishing from view. "You bitch. I know you are still here; you won't be able to get out of here so easily."

The room remained quiet, except for Barbara's labored breaths. The body that previously experienced both temperature extremes was now struggling to understand what was going on. She knew she heard sounds of struggle and then Daniel and Cronus saying something, but she was unable to make out the exact words they were saying.

It was a stalemate. Cronus was blocking the only exit from the room. Teal'c had moved to stand in front of Jackson, who was trying his best to soothe Barbara.

Nirrti slowly moved to stand in front of Cronus. He was leaving no spot uncovered in the door. If she wanted to escape, she was going to use her knife. She really had no other option.

Nirrti took out her knife and in a flash, it was buried hilt deep in Cronus's chest. The System Lord didn't even flinch before he reached and caught Nirrti by her neck.

"You should have gone for the neck," he sneered to the still invisible Nirrti.

She knew she couldn't give up right now. She will be dead if she gives up now.

"Thanks for the advice," she reached for the knife and pulled it out before plunging it again. Cronus managed to avoid the knife to the neck, instead getting it in his shoulder. He cried out in pain as the knife hit the bone, but the Goa'uld didn't release his hold on her.

Carter and O'Neill had arrived with a small entourage of airmen, all of them armed with TERs.

"Wow! What a party it was!" O'Neill whistled as he was looking around the mess that was the room now. And what an image it was indeed. In one corner there were Daniel kneeling next to sobbing Barbara, his hand in slow and deliberate pattern stroking her back, with Teal'c in front of the pair. On the other side of the room, Cronus was obviously holding something, or more likely someone, invisible and struggling to get out of his hold, pressing them into the wall with a knife sticking out of his shoulder. The rest of the room was in complete chaos. The small furniture was strewn around with the rest of the knick-knack that Barbara had accumulated over her time here.

Carter walked over to Cronus, activating her TER and Nirrti had finally appeared again, the invisibility shimmering off her body.

"I would recommend you to calm down. You will not be able to get out of this," Carter quietly told off the female-presenting Goa'uld, her TER still pointed at her.

Nirrti just glowered from her position on the wall.

Thor looked up on his screen. The computer had finished analyzing O'Neill's DNA. There was definitely some inheritance from the Ancients. Most likely it was what allowed him to activate the Ancient database, mused Thor as he scrolled down the results. The data itself he had managed to get was good, but the results were not promising. While they could use some of O'Neill's DNA to try and stabilize their Asgardian DNA it was definitely not the solution they were searching for.

Thor had compiled the information he got from this experiment and added all the information Barbara had passed over to him about the Replicators before sending it off to the Consul.

With any luck, it will prevent at least Loki's jaunts to the Earth.

Yu, Cronus, Thor, and O'Neill were all sitting in the same conference room it had all started. The fifth seat had remained empty as Nirrti was locked in her room under a CCTV observation, completely divested from all her weapons. And Barbara was still under observation in the medical bay. Thor had visited her before they had converged again and helped with her treatment, accelerating the healing process. The girl was now feeling much better, but still was breaking randomly into shivers and was struggling with maintaining her body temperature. But it was still much better than before.

Now however it was time to make the final decision on the treaty. O'Neill sat with his back straight as a ramrod, looking at the Goa'ulds and waiting for their decision.

"I will support the Treaty," confirmed the Chinese-themed Goa'uld. He had expected that the situation will turn like this, in favor of the humans.

"I agree with the treaty," Cronus nodded his assent. The humans will be able also to keep their Gate, but he had found that he didn't really care about it. Especially after the blond female had managed to heal his wounds with the healing device they had had on here on the base. He will just catch them when they will be off their planet.

Barbara was leaning on Doctor Jackson as she and the rest of SG-1 were watching the System Lords prepare to leave through the Stargate. Yu was holding Nirrti by her arm as Cronus turned to give his parting words.

"We will not attack your world. But…if you continue to use your Stargate, be warned—anyone who is caught by one of the System Lords will be shown no mercy. They will suffer greatly." Cronus reminded. His gaze fixing on each member of SG-1 before stopping on Barbara. The Goa'uld leered at the girl, before wiggling his eyebrows and going up the ramp. There he also held onto Nirrti and together with Yu led her through the Stargate.

"Well that certainly makes life more…interesting," commented O'Neill at the 'veiled' threat, while Barbara grimaced at the System Lord.

"What a bastard."