A/N: Again, it's been a little bit since my last posting, I blame it all on work. And the fact that I was hopelessly stuck as to how I could spice up the next chapter. Finally, I decided with the help of a friend to just forget the spice, and leave it as is. So if it is disappointing, blame it on my friend. But I hope it isn't. Disappointing, that is. Anyway, on with the show!

Chapter 6

Daniel and the young woman stared at each other, eyes locked as firmly as their arms were entwined. "Please, no more. We cannot take any more." The woman begged, voice barely a whisper, but filled with outright fear.

Snapped back to reality, Daniel reassured her. "Don't worry; we're not going to hurt you. We're not one of them. We're here to help." He tried to move his arm, but the vines only tightened more. He hissed in pain as they bit into his skin.

Blinking several times, the young woman seemed to regain her senses. She glanced down at their arms pinned in place by the vines, almost as an afterthought. Realizing his pain, she quickly let go of her grip. The vines whipped back from Daniel's arm and receded back into her arm as if they had never been. "We apologize. It was not our intention to harm you." She said, looking back up at Daniel.

Rubbing his newly freed arm, Daniel gave an encouraging smile. "No problem. You were disoriented and afraid, there's no need to apologize."

"Oh yes there is, Daniel!" Jack stepped forward, then turned his attention to the girl. "What the hell was that?!" Seeing the confused look on the young woman's face, he tried to elucidate. "You know the..." he waved his arms in a vaguely tentacle fashion.

With a look of understanding, the woman lifted her hand. Slowly this time, vines came out of the general area of her wrist and began to wrap her fingers and hand. Soon all sight of her pale skin was covered in green. It was somewhat reminiscent of a glove, and as she flexed her fingers the vines stretched with her. "This?" she said, a bit of amusement in her voice.

"Yeah, that." O'Neill said, a bit overwhelmed.

The young woman smiled. "It is us." She said it simply, as if there was no possible way to be confused.

"U-us?" Daniel stammered, a bit surprised. "Who are you?"

"We are Union. We were sent to search out those of our own kind. Our kin." She stopped with a sigh, looking down at her leg. "We thought we had found them, but we were wrong." Trying to stand up, she hissed as, favoring her left leg, she collapsed back to the floor.

Noticing her obvious effort to protect her leg, Daniel leaned forward, reaching out his hands. "May I?" He asked. The young woman nodded, bracing herself as he slowly lifted the hem of her dress. Daniel gasped, Jack gave a low whistle, and Teal'c's normally stoic expression showed signs of cracking. The cloth wrapping her leg was tattered, small green leaves poking out from underneath it. The leaves were attached to vines that seemed to be holding the cloth together and wrapping themselves over the charred staff wound in an effort to stop the bleeding. The effort wasn't all together successful.

Seeing the others' expressions, the girl spoke. "We have been trying to heal it slowly. The process is very taxing, and we could not afford to be so vulnerable." Thinking of something, she perked up a bit. "But now you are here, and you seem trustworthy. We can leave ourselves in your care?" She asked.

Glancing back at O'Neill, Daniel nodded. "Of course. You can rest easy, we'll watch over you." He turned one more time to face O'Neill. "Right, Jack?"

"Yeah, sure. We'll watch your back." Jack said, needlessly.

With a satisfied sigh, the young woman set to work. The vines wrapped around her hand receded, to be replaced with one large teardrop shaped leaf that curled up to fit in the palm of her hand. Holding her hand out over her wound, she closed her eyes and concentrated. A faint green glow came from her hand, and her wound slowly stopped bleeding. Then new skin started to grow over the old, and within a few minutes, all that remained was a bit of bloodstained cloth. The vines that had been wrapping her leg retracted into her skin, as well as the leaf on her hand. Looking up, her eyes caught Daniel's astonished ones, and she smiled weakly before sliding along the wall and collapsing into his lap.

Daniel sat there, staring at the now unconscious girl in his lap, then looked up at Jack and Teal'c. Sliding over, and gently resting the girl on the ground, Daniel got up and joined the others. "That was…"

"Freaky." Jack cut in.

"Not the word I was thinking of, but I guess." Daniel finished off, slightly annoyed.

"Her powers are quite formidable. I do not understand why she could not hold her own against the goa'uld." Teal'c commented.

"I get the impression that her people aren't that big on violence. She strikes me as a Nox kind of girl." O'Neill said, looking around at their surroundings. "And what was up with the 'we' and 'us' stuff? Feeling a bit uppity or something?"

"No Jack, I think there's a reason for that. She did say her people were called Union. Now, maybe they have some communal consciousness, or something." Daniel began to ponder.

"Or something." Jack put in, clearly not believing Daniel's explanation.

"Well do you have anything better?" Daniel snapped, getting angry at Jack's increasingly indifferent mood.

"Hey, I'm not the one who got myself brainfried cause I was daydreaming about Babylonian this, Celtic that!" Jack quipped back, finally starting to show some strain.

Daniel sighed, shaking his head patronizingly. "It's Sumerian, Jack, not Babylonian…" His voice trailed off, a faraway look coming to his face.

"Daniel?" Jack said, coming closer.

"Omoroca…was…afraid."

"On earth?"

"Yes."

"Of what? Of who? I mean, give me something to work with here. A-a-a time frame…"

"Babylon."

"A-a name…a name of someone she spoke of."

"Belus."

"Belus."

"What?" Jack asked.

Daniel snapped out of his memories and look at Jack. "That's what I couldn't remember. There was something about the connection between Belenus and Sumerian. It's Belus."

Jack shook his head. "You're still making no sense, Daniel. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Was not Belus the goa'uld that killed the Oannes woman Omoroca?" Teal'c spoke up. Jack looked over at him curiously, how could he remember things like this? He hadn't even been there.

"Yes, yes!" Daniel began waving his hands around excitedly. "Belus was a goa'uld impersonating a god in ancient Babylon."

"Again I say…what does this have to do with Belenus!" Jack broke in, getting frustrated at his circuitous friend.

"I was getting to that, Jack." Daniel whined. "The Celtic god Belenus was also known as Belinus, Belenos, Belinu, Belanu…"

"Daniel!" Jack was on his last straw.

"Okay! Alright! Belus! The Celtic god Belenus was also known as Belus. It's possible that after the fall of Babylon, he traveled across the continent toward Gaul and the Celtic areas, reinstating himself as a god when he got there. Then, when the time came, he could have taken with him his Celtic human worshippers and left Earth through the Antarctic gate or even by ship."

Jack motioned with his hands, meaning get to the point. Daniel gave a quick nod.

"My point is, this goa'uld Belenus could very well be the same goa'uld that killed Omoroca four thousand years ago. It would explain his understanding of the Sumerian language." Daniel let out his breath in a sigh, finally winding down in his excitement.

"Now, see, that would have been a lot easier, and faster I might add, if you would have just skipped to that part." Jack grumbled, he never could figure out why Daniel couldn't just say what he meant instead of beating all around the bush and then some before getting to the point.

"Well I wasn't really sure, Jack. I had to work it out before I could be certain." Daniel seemed a bit put off that the others hadn't praised him for his good memory and deductive reasoning.

"Okay, so what good does that do us?" Jack got to his point, a lot faster than Daniel would have.