Disclaimer: I really wish I could say Stargate was mine, but I can't.
A/N: Warning! This chapter contains extreme UST! Or maybe SSST - slightly satisfied sexual tension. I'm not sure which one is more appropriate. I'll be quiet and let you read it so you can decide.
A Terrible Mistake
By CountryPixie
Chapter Two
Still staring at the Goa'uld's mark, Cam said, "As I see it, there are three things that could be goin' on here. One, Ba'al's dead and his fanatic followers are pissed at us. Two, Ba'al's dead and we've been captured by some Goa'uld who's trying to fill the power vacuum but can't afford to redecorate. Or three - Ba'al is alive. Please, please tell me Ba'al is not alive."
"It is possible he's still alive," Sam said, looking troubled. "We killed the last of the clones, but the real Ba'al could have removed his tracking device." Sam was silent as she continued to think about their situation, eventually shaking her head. "I really don't think that's it, though. It's been three months since his execution and we haven't heard any chatter. It's not like Ba'al to lay low."
"You know of Lord Ba'al?" a diminutive man asked as he stepped into the room.
Turning to face him, Cam replied vaguely, "We've had some dealings with him in the past. Who are you?"
"I am Kasdi. Lord Ba'al has given me the great honor to serve him in the task of apprehending his greatest opponents," the man said as he circled the captured members of SG-1. "If you know Lord Ba'al, then you know that there is no hope of escape. My lord designed this facility – in fact, this whole town, himself."
"Ba'al designed this town?" Sam asked. "Why?"
"To lure you here. I do not pretend to understand why you are so important, but he was quite adamant that should he build it, you would come."
"Man, now he's gone and ruined a perfectly good movie," Cam complained. "Where is Ba'al?" he asked, hoping to talk some sense into the man.
"On his way here. When the town was completed, he left, leaving behind this device," Kasdi said, pulling a slowly blinking device out of the pocket of his zoot suit.
"Subspace transmitter," Sam mumbled under her breath.
"I activated it the moment you arrived on this planet. My lord should be here at any time."
"You do know Ba'al's dead, right?" Cam asked.
"Impossible. Gods cannot die."
"Oh, not this again," Cam muttered. "Teal'c, you wanna give it a try?"
Teal'c inclined his head toward Cameron and then turned toward Kasdi. "Ba'al is no god. He is a Goa'uld, a parasite controlling the body of a human host." Teal'c would have continued, but Cam waved him off.
"Look," Cam said, "if it's not true, then there'd be no harm in sending someone through the gate to check it out. Every other planet in the galaxy knows Ba'al is dead."
"There is no need. My Lord Ba'al will arrive soon. You will wait here until then." With that, he turned and left the room, followed by the three guards.
Cam turned to Sam and Teal'c. "So, what now?"
Following Neiram, Daniel and Vala worked their way through the trees, the forest getting thicker as they went. After ten minutes or so, the trio came upon a small clearing. Neiram stopped, saying, "We may talk here for now, but we must not remain for long."
"What's going on?" Daniel asked.
"The village you have come to investigate is a trap, designed specifically to capture you and your teammates. There is a device near the Stargate that alerted the villagers that you had finally arrived."
"What kind of device?" Vala asked.
"I know not," Neiram replied. "I only know that it was set to detect you and your friends specifically."
Daniel looked to Vala for an explanation. "I'm not sure," she said. "He may have created something to sense our locator beacons, or we could have been tagged in any of our past dealings with him."
"How the technology works is not important. Had you continued on the path, you would have been captured, as your friends have likely been."
"How did Ba'al even know we were coming?" Daniel asked.
"He did not explain his reasoning to us," Neiram answered, "but from what little we were able to discover, we believe that the clothes he makes us wear and the design of the village are an integral part."
"That's what made you want to come in the first place," Vala said to Daniel.
"…and based on our responses to similar situations, he knew if this place caused trouble, we'd come investigate, and then he'd capture us," Daniel finished.
"But why? We'd spent so much time working with him, why go after us now?"
"Just because we worked together doesn't mean Ba'al ever stopped being a Goa'uld who wanted to see us dead," said Daniel. "We still caused him a lot of grief."
Vala began to ask another question, but Neiram interrupted, saying, "There is no time. The search parties will find us soon. You must follow me to the village."
"Slight problem, there," Vala pointed out. "They might see us."
"If anyone asks, you are my brother and his new bride. Please, come." Before either Daniel or Vala could ask any more questions, Neiram turned and began to make his way through the forest once again.
Vala grabbed Daniel's arm as she moved to follow Neiram. "Don't look so glum, darling. We just became partners with benefits."
Neiram quickly ushered Daniel and Vala into his house. The trip through the village had been uneventful, thanks to the fact that most of the populace was in the forest searching for them.
"Stay hidden. I must leave and join the search parties." With that, Neiram turned and left.
"That man needs to learn to slow down and smell the lilies," Vala said.
"Roses," Daniel said distractedly, looking around the house.
"What?"
"The saying is, 'Slow down and smell the roses."
"But those plants we saw outside looked like lilies, not roses," Vala insisted. When Daniel didn't reply, Vala continued, "Another one of your planet's pointless sayings that don't pertain to real life, I assume?"
"You got it," Daniel said, still looking around. "There's nothing down here. Think we should head upstairs?"
"That eager to get me into bed?"
Not dignifying her question with a response, Daniel headed up the stairs. Vala followed, jumping onto the bed when they entered the bedroom.
"Do you think we need fake names?" she asked. "This whole situation is reminiscent of our experience on Ver Ager, and it would be a nice way to honor Harrid and Sallis."
"Fine." Daniel had finished looking around and was standing with his hands on his hips. He crossed to the window when he heard voices outside, seeing a large crowd gathering. "Something's going on," he said, waving Vala over.
Joining Daniel at the window, Vala leaned over his shoulder. They could see dozens of people emerging from the forest and meeting at the center of town to listen to a small man. "Guess the search parties have been recalled."
"Yes, but why? We obviously haven't been found."
"Nap time?" Vala suggested unhelpfully. Daniel rolled his eyes and refocused on the group.
"Well, that was a short meeting. Wonder what it was about." The citizens were already dispersing, each entering their own houses. Daniel and Vala could see Neiram make his way to his house, but before they could go downstairs to ask a few more questions, they heard Neiram yell quietly, "Do not come down. We have been ordered to change out of the clothes Ba'al gave us and then resume the search."
Daniel and Vala exchanged confused looks. "Wardrobe change?" Vala asked Daniel.
"Makes sense. If we're the only ones wearing these outfits, it will be a lot easier to spot us."
A few minutes later, the villagers could be seen leaving their houses wearing the standard robes worn on Goa'uld ruled planets. Each person was weighed down with several suits or dresses.
"They have to turn their clothes in? Those guys are strict."
"Yeah," Daniel said slowly. "Guess they don't need them anymore now that we're already here. They've effectively trapped us."
"So, what are we gonna do?"
"Stay here, for now. When we don't return on time, Landry will either send a team through the gate or send the Odyssey to pick us up. If the others have been captured, I don't think these people will do anything until they have us too."
Vala wondered back over to the window and looked out without being able to be seen from the outside. "Why haven't those people rejoined the search?"
"Huh?"
"Well, all the other groups are heading back into the forest, but a couple are just standing around. No, wait. They're doing something…I can't quite see from this angle. Can you see from that window over there?"
After a few moments of trying to see who Vala was talking about, Daniel spotted the groups. "Oh, no. They're searching the houses."
"That's not good."
"No, it's not. There are no clothes up here. I'm going to go see if Neiram has any downstairs." Before Daniel could take more than a few steps, a group of men could be heard approaching the house.
"What now?" Vala whispered.
Daniel shrugged. "I don't know, but if they find us in these clothes..."
"What if we didn't have the clothes?"
"As if two adults sitting around in no clothes wouldn't raise suspicions," Daniel whispered sarcastically.
"We are pretending to be newlyweds."
"And what about our clothes? Where are we going to hide them?"
Vala pulled her zat out of her purse. "Three shots."
"You've got to be kidding me," Daniel said. Frustrated with his lack of options, Daniel groaned as he shrugged out of his jacket and threw it on the floor, taking a second to throw his gun and the GDO on the bed. The rest of his clothes soon joined the pile, but he hesitated when he reached his boxers. Glancing up quickly, he saw Vala, still fully clothed, hopping in place with her arms behind her back.
"What are you doing? Hurry up!"
"The zipper's stuck! I need help."
"Come here," he said, not waiting for her but instead crossing the room to Vala. He grabbed the zipper, but it wouldn't budge. Hearing the door open, Daniel gave up and ripped the dress from Vala's body. Stunned, Vala didn't move until she heard footsteps on the stairs. She shot the pile of clothes three times while Daniel scooped up the gun and GDO, and then she and Daniel dove under the quilt and pulled it up to their necks. Having been making too much noise to pretend to be sleeping, Daniel rolled on top of Vala and began to kiss her.
Still reeling from having her dress literally ripped off, Vala was more than willing to make the kiss look authentic. Moaning into Daniel's mouth, she hooked one leg around his knee and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Teetering on the edge of a very slippery slope after seeing Vala in her practically nonexistant strapless bra and panties, Daniel lost his footing when she moaned. His hands drifted down from her hair to her waist and he began to explore her mouth with his tongue. Just as he went to move from her lips to her neck, the door burst open and two men entered. Remembering exactly why he was on top of his teammate, Daniel moved so that he was between Vala and the men.
One of the men briefly left the room and yelled, "Mitra! I think you'll want to see this." He came back in and joined his partner in staring at Daniel and Vala.
"What is it, Suotra?" the leader of the group asked as he walked into the room. For a split second, Daniel thought it was Makepeace's twin, but this man was bigger and uglier. Taking in the scene, a smile spread across his face. "So," he drawled, "you think you're too important to take part in the search as ordered. Let's see what Kasdi has to say about that. Get up."
"This is all a big misunderstanding. I'm Neiram's brother, and this is my new wife. We were supposed to come next week, but, well…here we are," Daniel finished lamely, seeing that his explanation fell on deaf ears.
"Any visitors are to be taken to Kasdi. It looks like you're meeting him either way. Up. NOW!"
Giving Vala a quick nod, Daniel through the quilt back and Vala fired. She managed to take out all three men in the room, but she wasn't quick enough to take out the three men who charged into the room when they heard the zat. Dropping her weapon, Vala raised her hand in surrender, Daniel doing the same next to her.
"That worked well," she said.
A/N: So, some answers in this chapter, but even more in the next ones. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.