Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate SG1 or any of it's characters, I post this strictly for entertainment purposes.

Chapter 14

She couldn't even look Daniel in the eyes. She wanted to, she wanted to convey to him that she was still in there, still Vala. But, long ago her body had been taken from her, the Sorlish's device permanently attached to her forehead had been worse than even Quetesh's possession. Not only was she robbed of her body and her knowledge used against the people she loved, now the Sorlish had used the information in her mind to capture Daniel, the one person she had hoped she would never see here.

While her mind was still her own, her body was under the command of the device. She wanted to reach out for him, tell him she was still here, that she wasn't just a robot. But it was too powerful for her to take total control, she had been able to achieve small victories over the years, moving a finger here or a leg or an arm, but nothing more than that. It was eternally frustrating and torturous.

She knew what they had in store for Daniel. The Sorlish were an unemotional people, they cared little for human feelings for there were no individuals in their society, thinking as one through the devices on their heads. Their babies were never named instead they were connected to the device just after birth, all they ever would know for the rest of their lives would be the collective mind and the voices of all of the others in their head at all times.

Vala also knew they were very determined and ruthless. They would get get what they came for one way or another, no matter what they cost. They could wipe out half of a planet as long as it meant they could use the rest of it. She had seen it many times, the worlds they had conquered, civilizations wiped out, all for the resources the planet held. They would probe his mind just like they had her. There would be no fighting back, no resistance to the device. It would reach inside the deepest recesses, raping his mind, taking what it wanted and stripping what little bit of humanity there was left. Then if they didn't kill him out right, he would be resigned to the same fate as her, existing only in his mind, his body stolen from him to do the bidding of the Sorlish. If only she could strike out against them, she would gladly forfeit her existence to save Daniel from this fate.

"Vala?" He asked her. "Vala, it's me...It's Daniel." If she could only turn her eyes to him. She tried, but was unable to connect with him before he turned to the alien bitterly.

"What the hell did you do to her?"

"She has been reprogrammed."

"Reprogrammed?"

"She has been most helpful in providing us with information and she serves well in her current state. As for you, we desire the information in your mind left to you by the race known as the Ancients. We have gathered from this woman's mind that they were a powerfully advanced people and we could use that knowledge to enhance our own technologies." Daniel was red with anger, twisting and violently attempting to pull on his restraints, but unable to do little more than squirm.

"I'm never going to help you." He growled at the Sorlish.

"We do not require your assistance, we will take what we need." The Sorlish level his clear eyes on Daniel, chilling Vala.

The alien calmly tapped a few controls on the device a top Daniel's forehead. Vala wanted to cry out, wanted to shed tears against the horrors that would begin to be inflicted on him. The pain she knew he would experience had been her pain many times over from the mind probe, but she couldn't even turn her head, her eyes fixed on the spectacle against her will.

Daniel arched his back on the table, pulling at the restraints as the device activated and began its search of his mind.

"Oh God!" He cried out, tears spilling over his cheeks, knowing the blinding pain he felt, she helplessly watched. His screams filled the air and crescendoed off the walls, reverberating into her soul. Just as she thought that she could take no more of seeing the love of her life suffer, he suddenly stopped. Panting heavily and squeezing his eyes shuts against the lingering pain in his head. If the Sorlish ever had shown any emotion, she could have sworn that the one before her was frustrated.

The alien adjusted a few more controls on the device and activated it once again. Daniel screamed as it coursed through his memories, but it lasted only seconds this time, leaving him dazed and breathing raggedly.

"You are damaged." The Sorlish delivered flatly.

"huh?" Daniel was too confused to focus.

"Your brain has been damaged recently, we cannot access your subconcious." The alien disengaged the device and pried it off of Daniel's head, causing him to cry out again in pain.

"Yeah, I have a concussion.... No thanks to you guys." he replied after a few moments of recovery, Vala was relieved to see some of the old Daniel sarcasm that she thought she would never hear again besides in her dreams. She had been worried at first when the Sorlish had said that his brain was damaged and she had thought the worst, but knowing Daniel, he could bounce back from a concussion pretty easily.

"We must wait until your brain has healed. This female will provide you with clothing and escort you to the holding area. Do not attempt escape, she has been programmed to physically detain you should you try to resist." The alien turned to Vala, mentally giving the device the instructions. The familiar sensation of her body reacting without her control took hold as she saw her hands move to the restraints and free Daniel from their confines. Still too weak from his experience with the mind probe, he did little more than lay there until she had removed all of the bindings. Next she retrieved a pair of coveralls that were identical to the beige ones she wore. That was another thing she hated, no color, everything was beige or white.

She helped him get the clothing on and afterward, the Sorlish gave Vala another set of instructions through the device. She could never hear what the alien was telling the thing, but she assumed it had to do with restraining Daniel should he try to escape. She hated to think that she may have to fight him if he tried to resist. Just as she suspected, he body moved to a corner and opened a storage locker and produced an energy weapon, much like a zat it would render one unconscious, but would cause little damage otherwise. Seeing that Vala had the weapon now trained on Daniel the Sorlish exited the room, leaving Vala and Daniel alone.

"I guess I'm supposed to follow you." he said, rising up slowly from the table and trying to look her in the eyes. Oh, how she wished she could convey how she felt through her eyes, if she could just tell him how she loved him and missed him and wished for the Sorlish to die a horrible and lingering death, but she could do little more that stare back into his eyes. Would he be able to see that she was still in here?

"Vala." He tried to reach for her hands, but her body reacted and retreated, aiming the weapon to his head. He raised his hands, but continued his stare into her eyes, sadness and pain shining behind those crystal blue eyes . He was so much older than she remembered and she wondered how long it had been. She had lost all perspective on time long ago but it must have been many years. She wondered how he had fared all these years. She hoped that he still loved her as she still love him, but she also hoped that he had already let her go, she was as good as dead anyway, little more than a ghost locked in a robot's body.

Daniel slid off the table and she lead him out of the room. They traveled down several corridors. "We're not going to the same room again are we." He asked, knowing that she would not respond to him, but Daniel never was one to give up so easily.

Finally her legs led them to a set of doors and her hand reached for the control panel by the door, entering in a code. The doors slid open and Daniel gasped. Vala too was amazed. She had never seen anything like this before. Her arms pushed him forward and he entered the vast bay, the doors closing and locking behind them. In front of the two were people, thousands upon thousands of them. Many of them dazed, some sitting and crying, others rushing for the door as they came in, but stopping short as Vala's weapon trained on them and fired a few blasts into the crowd, felling several of them like trees.

"Wait!" Daniel cried. The people backed off and Vala nudged him towards them. Reluctantly, he backed up to them, keeping his eyes trained on her the entire time. Maintaining her aim on the crowd, her body walked her back to the doors and opened them again allowing her to exit and locking the people inside back up. Now that her task was complete, she knew what would happen next. She was programmed to return to her dark cell and go back to the blackness that had consumed her so long ago.

OOOOO

Daniel watched the door close on Vala. He wanted to call after her, but what would be the point. She was no longer there, the Sorlish had merely left a hull of the woman he had loved so many year ago. Vala herself was gone.

He turned to the crowd of people that stood behind him and stumbled a bit. The effects of the mind probe and the concussion still left him off balance and with a pounding headache. He scanned the assembled people. They all appeared to be of many nationalities, speaking in many different languages all at once making it hard to differentiate them all. He also noticed the men and women that had been hit by Vala's weapon were beginning to stir and he was grateful that the weapons appeared to only stun rather than kill.

The assembly moved in on him, questions poured from their mouths, many of them recognizing him television and his involvement in disclosing the Stargate to the planet, but his mind was still too foggy to make them all out. He raised a hand to fend them off, but they demanded to know answers that he could not provide.

Feeling light headed as they pressed in, the corners of his vision began to fade, but before he could pass out, he felt a hand grab his elbow and lead him to a corner, away from the rest of the crowd, sitting him down next to a wall. Gratefully, he looked up to see his rescuer.

"Dr. Jackson?" The man asked. Daniel squinted, willing his eyes to focus on him until sudden recognition hit him.

"Wha- Walter? How the...I thought you were...."

"Dead? Yeah, I kinda thought that at first too. We were running and then there was this blaze of fire and the next thing I know there's a blinding light and I'm in here with all of these people. I think they beamed us all in here with some kind of transportation device."

Daniel was amazed to see the sergeant alive and apparently well and still wearing the suit he had worn to the wedding. He surmised that the people in here were only the first of many batches of slaves to be taken by the Sorlish. He tried to get up, but Walter pushed him back down. "You should stay put Dr. Jackson, you don't look so well."

Considering how his head felt, Daniel couldn't disagree with him and he leaned his head against the bulkhead.

"Was that woman.....?" Walter tried to ask.

"Yeah, She's Vala....but she's not."

"I don't follow you." He realized he didn't make much sense to the other man, but he was too tired to explain at the moment as his eyelids grew heavy.

"Why don't you sleep." Walter suggested eying him with a concerned face. "I can keep watch and make sure no one bothers you."

"Thanks." He managed to get out before his eyes slid closed all of the way and he was taken away into a deep sleep.

Y'all didn't think I had killed off Walter permanently did you? Anyway, hope you are having a good weekend and thanks for the reviews again, they really help to keep me motivated. :)