Part Nine.

The guy was fast, strong and frightening. He looked human, the way he moved was human but with underlying mannerisms that were anything but human. His eyes were dark say for one pin-point spot which seemed to emit light, the whitest light. It was as if the light wanted out but the man stood before him now, bloody knife in hand had trapped it inside himself. Wanted to hold it there.

A smile.

Not just any smile. A smile that meant he knew he was winning. That the man before him now was at the last of his strength. The kind of smile a predator gave its prey before it sunk its teeth in ready to gorge in the imminent feast.

His hand gripped the knife before him, the blade pointing sky-ward and the shrapest edge now coming towards the battle-weary man beneath him.

"This battle was not meant for you." He said, his voice deep, it was Mitchel's voice and that part at least was familiar to Daniel, it was the other sound that made his head spin with questions, made his heart beat frantically with every laboured breath as he laid there fearing for his life which - looked very much like it was about to end. It had a ringing to it. High pitched, just out of range of his own sense, but he could feel it, tingling his back teeth and the back of his neck. Every word was laced with this sound and it helped seduce Daniel who had been fighting for such a long time now. Fighting to get Jack back home and away from this mad man, but Daniel knew Mitchel wasn't mad. He was possessed. "This battle wasn't part of my contract, this battle I will be seeking further compensation for." The blade swung by Daniel's face and neck making the terrified and exhausted archaeologist almost wish he would just do it and end this terror. "You fight well, you were not meant to cause a problem. An over-sight my employers will be paying for."

"W..who are you?" Daniel finally dared to ask, somehow gripped by those eyes, and the light inside. A sneer was his only reply, the gesture human and completely evil, two things that all to often went hand in hand, but Daniel now knew, as those two eyes fixed pointedly on his, that this was no mere man.

---

Janet jumped when she heard the scream and slowly turned putting down her coffee to glace around the infirmary ward. It had been so quiet all afternoon and evening, most of her patients were sleeping soundly, even the one now currently calling out it seemed.

Daniel's rough, raspy voice croaked the inaudible words he was trying to communicate. He had been so restless for the last hour or so but sleep was sleep and she let him be, but now it seemed that restless dreaming had turned into a full-blown nightmare.

With a urget stride in her walk she crossed over to where he slept and turned the light on hoping that would help in the process of waking him easy, last thing she wanted to do was make this worse by giving him the fright of his life. Her hopes were dashed however when he continued to moan and thrash. He had been perspiring but as touch confirmed he was no hotter than he had been, all she could think of was that it was some deeply suppressed fear re-emerging from his subconscious. After all, he had admitted to some memory loss, the bit he having lost was the battle with Mitchel. Perhaps that was starting to return and Janet frowned in worry and pity for him as he all-but sobbed out a call for help.

Her hand went to his face and she used his name, trying to call him back to reality, trying to gently pry him from the grips of this terror.

"Daniel, shhh. It's okay, you're dreaming." She cooed seeing him settle a little. She rubbed her thumb over his cheek when he whimpered back a reply and she called to him again. "Daniel, can you open your eyes for me?"

"Sh..Shu're..."

His wife. She smiled, a bitter-sweet feel to it as she realised who it was he was weakly calling for. It was romantic and so heartbreaking.

"No, Daniel. It's Dr...it's me, Janet." His eyes finally opened, giving way to tears that freely ran the length of his face as he turned to her. He blinked sleepily once and tried to turned away, obviously ashamed to have shown so much emotion. "Hey, it's okay Daniel. You were dreaming."

"Sorry."

"What? No, don't be. I just wanted to make sure you're okay." She withdrew her hand when she realised her thumb was still moving back and forth over his flushed cheek. "Was...was it about your wife?" Those bright blue eyes turned to stare at her, as if offended she had even referred to the woman he loved, as if it was a crime to have mention her existence. "I..it's all on file." She explained. "I like to think I know my patients well enough to understand what they're going through. Guess I just feel better prepared. I'm sorry, I hope it doesn't seem like I was prying or..."

"No, no. I know you wouldn't. I just, well, never mind."

This guy really was far to secretive, she decided.

"So, what was it about?" He blinked up at her with a frown. "The dream." It seemed to take him another couple of seconds to take that in and gather his thoughts.

"W..where's Jack?" He suddenly asked, looking around the ward with a frightened look in his eye.

"He hasn't come back from the meeting with Hammond yet, why?" Now he was awake, Daniel was looking very agitated and started to sit up, an action that saw him pale suddenly. "Hey, not so fast you're still on the mend." She scolded though with barely a hint of malice in her voice. "Do you need to talk to him, about...?"

"No, I just...look can you just find him, make sure he's okay?"

"I can send Wally out to find him. He was under instruction to come right back here after the meeting. He can't be far, why?"

"And can you tell, the General I need to report something now?" His eye's were closed as he tried to adjust to the upright position.

"Of course." Really Janet wanted to get him to lay back down and sleep, if necessary she would have given him a little something to promote that but, there was something in his tone, his eyes that said this was to important to postpone.

---

The blade came at him again, the deadly metallic edge catching the dim light in the hall and Jack brought up his hands to intercept it. He let the bade pass enough so he could grab the guys wrist and twist. His attacker yelped as his entire arm was twisted the wrong way causing him to let go of the bloodied knife. It clattered harmlessly to the floor and was promptly kicked away back Jack's good foot.

Now he had that problem sorted, both were now evenly matched - well if you over looked the fact that Jack only had one good leg and was bleeding profusely from the corresponding hip. The wound hadn't been enough to kill, which was something of a riddle to the ex-black ops soldier, but that just gave him one more blessing to count really.

With an awkward step into his attackers space, so now Jack's back was against the guys chest without never having let go of his wrist, so now the limb was bent at an impossible angle. The guy screamed, but there was something odd about the sound. It literally went right through Jack and stung his ears and hurt his head. Enough he lost concentration and let go.

Both men staggered back from one another, Jack holding his leg, the assassin holding his now rather limp arm. During this moment they studied the other, Jack trying to spy any distinguishing features - like a face - and commit them to memory because he had a feeling he wasn't going to be up to chasing this guy down. As his casted leg slipped on the pool of blood now at his feet that fact was assured true, but hell, it wouldn't stop him trying.

The assassin was on the tall side - but so was most of the base, this being the military. He wore, green fatigues and black boots - damnit Jack! He wore a cap. The damn thing done enough to hide most of his face the lack of light in the hall helping to add to that effect - not to mention the darkness creeping into the edges of his vision, he didn't have much time left, less if this guy decided to have another go.

As it turned out it was Jack's lucky day.

"HEY!"

The assassin turned to fix the approaching male nurse with a very angry glare, while Jack just fell back against the wall to avoid any more unwanted injuries as his would-be murderer fled.

That had been to close, Jack thought as he sagged back against the wall but then, the amount of blood currently about his feet and now smearing the wall he was sliding down, if he didn't get that particular problem sorted out and soon, his would-be murderer would, in fact, be guilty of such a crime.