Setting: Between Threads and Avalon, before SG-1 gets split up. Slightly AU because Janet. I refuse to write a fic in which the doctor is not Janet. Otherwise canon. Can follow Red Sky at Night but is not a sequel.

Pairings: Sam/Jack recently established. Hints of Daniel/Janet.

Summary: A routine mission turns sinister for SG-1 while, back at the SGC, Jack awaits an important decision.

Disclaimer: If I owned anything would I be writing fanfic? Yeah, didn't think so. SG-11 (except Lorne, of course) belong to Eisette, who has kindly leant them to me. I guess I do actually own Opis and the Ampelou, but that's it.

A/N: Also, shout-out to Eisette, a.k.a. Anifay on Tumblr, for the gorgeous cover art!

Chapter 7

"You're lying." Sam forced herself to steel herself against Opis' news. If it was true, the last thing she wanted was for Opis to know how she felt about Jack. Her face hardened into a tight mask of indifference.

"Am I?" Opis took a few steps back and stood with her hands loosely clasped at the gathered material of her waist, golden brown eyes fixed on Sam's own.

"Colonel O'Neill doesn't go on missions any more." Unless he was trying to save you... Sam tried to suppress the pang of guilt that thought caused, failed, and spoke again to prevent it showing on her face. "You've mistaken someone else for him. Your intell must be out of date." If Opis was bluffing, she might not know about Jack's promotion to General. At least, Sam hoped.

Opis let out a single, cackling laugh.

"Colonel? Is that so?" Her tone was mocking, revelling in the information she was withholding from Sam. Sam raised an eyebrow, trying to maintain her cool demeanour while internally cringing away from Opis' confirmation of her suspicions. Opis continued, her eyes shining manically while her face remained calmly smug. "Perhaps it's your intelligence that's out of date, Colonel Carter. Was he not promoted following Anubis' attack on Earth?"

"Anyone could have known that." Every bounty hunter in the galaxy had been after them at one point, right? They were pretty much famous amongst the Goa'uld, Sam thought.

"Admittedly, even when my Lord Cronus was alive, details of your team were well-known amongst Jaffa and Goa'uld alike." She smiled again, the hint of mania creeping back onto her face. "But I have had no contact with anyone but my ampelou for a very long time. I was well-known too, and why should anyone let Cronus' queen live when she might well dispute their greedy looting of his property?"

Sam said nothing, focused on maintaining her mask of disgust and scepticism.

"You still refuse to believe I have O'Neill?"

"Uh, yeah. Do you have any idea how many times you guys have tried this scam on us? You've given me no proof, and you want me to believe you just like that?" She shook her head in rejection. "Nope, not buying it."

Opis giggled, obviously pleased, though Sam had no idea why. If she had no proof, this scam was pretty much over. If she did offer some proof, and Jack had been captured, Sam could at least get an idea of the condition Jack was in, maybe try to rescue him. Or maybe he could rescue her and Daniel, while Opis was distracted. Despite the growing annoyance at Jack for putting himself in danger like this, she was more than a little relieved that he might be here. As a team, SG-1 had beaten enemies much tougher than this ex-consort of a system lord. The reassurance of that chain of thought broke through onto her face as a defiant, slightly self-satisfied expression. She saw Opis' smile falter then, replaced for a second by mild confusion before she reinstated her sickly sweet smugness.

"Why don't I show him to you, then? I'm sure you'll want to see with your own eyes the pain I've inflicted on your beloved General O'Neill."

'Beloved'? Where did she get that idea?If Opis didn't have Jack, that was a hell of a leap to make on her own. Sam's stomach knotted a little, despite the confidence she'd felt seconds before, and she reminded herself again that Jack was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

Opis carried on speaking, hopefully oblivious to Sam's conflicting emotions, and, turning, took a few light steps towards the font.

"You wanted to find out more about the lacrima heliandum, did you not, Colonel Carter?" She took a final step to stand a little left of the wooden font, and turned her head, focusing on Sam with a tilt of her head and a cruel smirk. When Sam didn't reply, Opis stretched her arm out over the centre of the font so the amber light danced across her fingers and palm as the sap-like liquid rippled. "One of its many uses is full control of non-sentient plants." She submerged the tips of her fingers, hands claw-like, in the lacrima heliandum. "Including, of course, the structure currently holding you."

Opis shut her eyes for a second or two, and Sam could have sworn that she was actually glowing a little in the dim light of the chamber, waves of golden light oscillating under her skin. As Opis' eyelids fluttered open, however, Sam was distracted from the new almost-golden hue of Opis' irises as the vine at her neck slipped away, and those binding her arms, legs, and waist became solid and swollen, and began to half push, half lift her across the chamber with the soles of her boots skimming the polished wooden floor. Now able to move her head freely, Sam looked around for any kind of exit, but all she saw was the rough bark wall of the circular chamber, centred around the font of glowing liquid that Opis' fingers were still immersed in and which Sam was now moving rapidly towards.

Opis clenched her hand shut, still half in the aureate liquid, and Sam came to a halt at the edge of the basin. Now she could see clearly what it contained – what she supposed was this 'lacrima heliandum'. It was a syrupy liquid, slightly more viscous than water and somewhere between gold and amber in colour, and it shifted by itself in the basin – which, Sam could now see, was more a well, falling deep into the ground, well past the height of even the tallest tree they'd seen when they arrived. Veins of lighter gold fluid swirled almost vapour-like through the liquid, and it was these that seemed drawn to Opis, twining themselves around and into her fingers, causing the pulsing glow beneath Opis' skin that Sam had noticed before.

Sam forced herself to look away from the lacrima heliandum, and to focus on Opis, whose eyes shone gold, which, combined with her smirk, gave her a predatory aspect.

"Beautiful, isn't it? And incredibly useful. Before my arrival, the Senate had only limited control over it – opening doors, influencing tree growth... trivial matters." She swept her fingers idly through it now, dropping her gaze to stare into the well. "I find it much more... interesting."

Suddenly, her fingers stiffened, and Sam felt the vines around her arms do the same, only now they pushed her down instead of forward, dragging her wrists along the sides of the font and pulling her head across it. As she struggled to pull herself away, and her face hovered inches from the surface of the lacrima heliandum, Sam saw Opis extract her hand from the substance. A moment later, Opis' strong grip pushed her down into the whirling amber depths, holding her down firmly.

-/-/-

"Colonel O'Neill, I presume." From behind a gilded haze, Sam saw Jack slumped against the bark wall of a cell identical to the one she and Daniel had been put in. He looked up groggily, before finding her and frowning, and Sam realised it had been her speaking with Opis' voice.

"It's General, actually." She noticed he seemed quite calm about the whole 'being captured' thing. "Are you this 'Opis' I keep hearing about?"

Sam felt her own face – or, Opis' face – twist into that sickly smile she so detested.

"My ampelou informed you of me?"

"Sure. 'Opis will explain', 'leader'... that kind of thing. Feel like explaining where my people are? I assume you have the other guy I brought with me, too?"

"Anders, yes." If Anders was here, that must mean the rest of SG-11 was too. That was comforting, although not comforting enough to stop the growing feeling of dread Sam felt as she watched the scene play out before her.

"What about Carter and Daniel?"

"I... have them in my care, yes." Opis' voice was honeyed but something in her eyes must have made Jack even more suspicious. He sat upright, surreptitiously checking for weapons, all of which had been removed, along with his BDU jacket.

"Care to release them?"

Opis laughed her tinkling, lilting laugh.

"No." Behind the silken tone was a steel malice that chilled Sam to the core. More deadly than anything she'd seen of Opis so far – worse even than the mania. Pure, determined cruelty. Jack's face set in a frown.

"You see, I have a problem with that. And you'll have an even bigger problem, once our people back home realise you've kidnapped not one, but two diplomatic envoys." He paused, letting the full effect of that sink in. "You see? That doesn't look too great for you, does it?"

Sam saw Opis lift a hand to about level with her ear, then felt the room tremble slightly. An ampelou appeared at her side, holding a wooden bowl of the lacrima heliandum.

"I promise you, O'Neill: it will be far worse for you and your team."

Jack snorted, but Sam could tell he was trying to figure out what could be in the bowl. Opis slid her fingertips in, hand held straight, at a 45 degree angle (and Sam tried hard not to be reminded of a human-form replicator). As her fingers moved slowly through the liquid, the liquid moved slowly up her hand, winding round her arm, just visibly shining through the semitransparent fabric of her sleeve, until there was none left in the bowl. She lifted her hand in front of her chest, turning it so the palm was upwards, and the lacrima heliandum flowed up to sit in her hand, forming an orb about 30cm in diameter that maintained both its shape and its liquid state.

Jack's eyes were wide, but still he tried to play it cool.

"Well that's pretty neat. I'll bet Carter'd love to have a look at that. Say, why don't you bring her here and we'll all have a nice, friendly chat about it, hmm?"

Horrified, Sam saw a thin spool of the lacrima heliandum break off from the mass and head towards Jack as Opis lowered her arm and began to advance. The mass shrank as the substance extended towards him, stretching out as if it were a living being desperately trying to reach him. He shrank back into the wall, where the bark cracked to allow vines to dart out and bind him still – neck, arm, waist, and legs, like Sam's had been, but with another around his temple, effectively strapping him to the wall and floor of the cell so tightly that it curbed the flow of blood somewhat and his limbs began to blanch.

The thin cord of lacrima heliandum reached him and began writhing in front of his face like a charmed cobra, waiting for Opis to catch up. When she did, she knelt in front of him, mirroring the knelt position he was bound in.

"It's no use." Jack struggled as Sam had, but couldn't move an inch with the cords bound so tightly round his limbs. "I don't know what you want, or what the hell that stuff is, but I'll be damned if you get anything out of me."

Sam felt Opis' gleeful smile break across her face.

"Oh, I assure you I'll get what I want, O'Neill. Not information – why torture you, when Colonel Carter will very soon give me that information freely? No, what I will get from you is much sweeter."

The restricted blood was now pooling in Jack's hands – held flat against the wall by his constraints – and what still managed to flow freely was rushing to his face as his body attempted to stay conscious against the pressure around his neck.

"Oh really? And what's that then?" Jack's eyes followed the swaying lacrima heliandum wearily, blinking against unconsciousness.

"Revenge." The spool of amber coiled like a snake about to strike. "And a new host, of course."

Jack's eyes clenched shut as Opis turned her hand and aimed the palm at him as if she were using a hand device.

Against all Sam's expectations, the lacrima heliandum taunting Jack twisted back a few inches, slithering partway back up Opis' translucent sleeve, and the vines embedded into his flesh actually loosened, leaving white imprints on skin reddened by a sudden rush of blood. He fell forward, gasping for air, the bonds at his wrists falling completely away and allowing him to rest his hands on his knees. Opis stood, her arm falling to her side, though the aureate thread stretched to remain twirling blindly in mid-air.

Opis watched, amused, until he finally recovered enough to look up at her and splutter out "A new host, huh?" His head dipped for a second as he took another deep breath, before raising it to look in her eyes and give one of his typically deadpan-in-the-face-of-danger comments; "I'll pass on that... Don't look very good in a dress." With a minor flick of his hand to gesture over himself in a attempt to emphasise his point, he leant back a little, supporting himself on hands placed at the top of his legs. "Thanks for the offer though. Really, I'm flattered."

Opis took a step forward, pushing the lacrima heliandum towards Jack's face once more.

"Oh for cryin' out loud."

"Relax, O'Neill; your role in my procuring a new host is only as..." she searched a split second for the word, before the corner of her lip twitched upwards and she continued, "leverage, I assure you."

"Well there's a relief." His eyes flicked to the lacrima heliandum once again, and Opis followed his gaze. "And the glowy stuff-" he gestured weakly at it "-is for what, exactly?"

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order?"

Jack groaned, looking square at Opis as she brought her fingers into her palm to release them in a quick flicking motion. The lacrima heliandum left her and launched itself at him, forcing its way between his lips and flowing down his throat.

The blood seemed to flush from the exposed skin of his arms, face, and neck, replaced instead with a yellow tinge. Opis stepped forward - clearly revelling in this, by the expression on her face – and began to examine the effect her torture was having.

His skin seemed to dry out, cracking apart – first at the swollen, grey, joints of his fingers, then the softer skin on the underside of his arms – splitting from itself in great gashes from which no blood oozed. Sam felt Opis' cruel curiosity well up inside her as she knelt once more in front of Jack, leaning forward to take a clenched fist in her hands. Jack's face was screwed up in pain, teeth clenched in an effort not to cry out, unable to do anything but stay, petrified in place as the alien entity coursed through his veins.

Opis took hold of Jack's wrist and squeezed hard, digging her nails deep to stimulate the swell of blood that would normally have come from the wounds all over Jack's skin. Instead of blood, her compression cause a light dribble of amber liquid to fill the lesion. She smiled again, and dropped his hand to the floor.

The light dribble became a slow flow, oozing initially from the lesions on Jack's hand, but the both spreading upwards across the flesh and oozing from the other wounds as well, extending itself to cover his arm, then his neck, and, from his neck, downwards to the rest of his body, leaving only his eyes free of it. Displaced blood trickled slowly out of his nose, ears, mouth, even from the corners of his closed eyelids, and he seemed to have stopped breathing entirely.

Opis reached out and placed her hand gently on Jack's amber-coated face for a second, before pressing in lightly and removing it promptly after.

Instantly, the liquid changed, becoming a harsher yellow in colour. It began burning slowly through the flesh beneath it like acid, releasing a noxious green vapour as it did so. The soft tissues of his face and arms were reduced to red-raw flesh in less than a minute, and, sickeningly, white bone was soon visible as well. Only Jack's clothes were still recognisable – his body was reduced to that of a weathered skeleton partly stripped of flesh.

Desperately, Sam tried to take control of this body she was trapped in – to reach through the filter of amber clouding her vision and draw the poison out – but instead she felt herself begin to laugh terrifying, lilting, laughter.