AN: This was not supposed to be a series. And yet here I am. Janet's story is still my favourite, so it is staying first and remaining the title of the story…but the others need to be heard as well.

Spoilers: This was written for season six, so spoilers up to that, but also for Every Teal'c Episode ever, including The Reckoning.

Disclaimer: Sooooo not mine.

Rating: Kid Friendly

Summary:

The flames of sacred fire show you what you wish to see:
What was, what will, what might come true,
And what can never be.

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What Will

Teal'c had seen devastation many times before. He had been both devastation's cause and devastation's victim. Since allying himself with the Tau'ri, he had also been devastation's cure, and of all three, this was the one he most preferred. In this case, however, Teal'c was helpless. He could not heal people, nor could he prevent them from becoming ill in the first place. In the city of Laca, for all his wisdom and strength as a warrior, he was good only for carrying bodies to the place where they would be burnt.

He had spent most of the day with Jonas Quinn and, to be perfectly honest, Teal'c was surprised that his teammate had lasted so long. They had made countless trips between the Houses of the Dead and the Burning Field, each time bearing a single body between them. The path between the two places was not long, but today it had been well traveled and the SG teams were tired and depressed and quickly forgetting why they had joined the SGC in the first place.

Lacastrian children moved among them, carrying water and dried ethek, a fruit that, though bitter, quickly restored strength to tired bones. Teal'c took his share gratefully and smiled down at the girl who bore it to him. She turned a deep shade of pink under his gaze and then ran away to her friends who giggled and made pointed faces at her. Hearing the laughter ring out, despite the gravity of the day's work, Teal'c felt his heart lighten. Even now, there was life here. And where there is life, there is a reason to go on.

One of the village healers, haggard and drawn by his recent ordeal, came to Jonas Quinn and said something quietly in his ear. Jonas waved Teal'c over, and told him that the funeral was about to start, and that they had been requested to attend. The very last place in the universe that Teal'c wanted to be at this particular moment was at the mass funeral that was about to take place, but there was a duty to the dead, and he had been asked to pay it, so he nodded and followed Jonas towards the wall.

They fell in with Major Carter and O'Neill, and continued on in silence until they stood with Dr. Fraiser and the rest of the SGC team members who were also in attendance, and the Burning Field spread out in front of them. The Lacastrians moved slowly through the myriad of bodies on the field strewing flowers as they went and pausing when they reached a loved one. Teal'c saw suddenly a hundred other battlefields strewn with dead and the widows and orphans that searched, hoping in vain to find no one they found familiar.

So caught up was he in his memories, that Teal'c missed the signal that told the Lacastrians to withdraw from the field. What finally jolted him back to the present was the loud blast of a horn from somewhere behind them. The single note was quickly joined by others and then drums and then arrows of fired streaked through the air above him and the Burning Field burst into flame.

Teal'c heard a loud cry of victory and wondered what sort of funerary ritual involved such a cheer. There was fire in the sky above him still, but these were no longer arrows. Instead, they were ships, great ships on fire falling out of the sky as their defeat was made absolute.

Beside him, Bra'tac gave voice to one last war-cry in defiance of the Goa'uld.

Teal'c stood on the mountain top and looked down over Dakara. It was the centre of his faith, the centre of his Universe, and now it was free. More than that, his people were free. In the valley below, he could hear music and dancing as the Jaffa celebrated their victory and their newfound freedom from the false gods.

The ground was littered with silver. From his height, Teal'c couldn't tell what it was, but it shone in the fire and made the valley too bright to look at. The glare brought tears to his eyes, but when he raised his hand to dash them, he realized that it wasn't the light at all. His sacrifices had paid off. His work had not been in vain. His people were free.

He was free.

And then the spell was broken and Dakara fell out of orbit and out of time and ended, and he saw that the field had burnt to ash before him, and his friends were all around him. Everywhere, it seemed, there was a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a sibling, a child, all with tears on their faces and a light of wonder in their eyes. Teal'c could see it clearly in the faces of his teammates and knew that it lit upon him as well.

The Lacastrians made their way back into the city in silence, and the teams from Earth went back to the Stargate, also silent in their awe. Jonas dialed the address, and just before he stepped through, Teal'c heard a voice on the edge of familiar sing.

The flames of sacred fire show you what you wish to see:
What was, what will, what might come true,
And what can never be.

finis

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GravityNotIncluded, October 22, 2006