A/N: Okay this has been very difficult to write, much time has been spent staring at an empty page. I knew exactly what was going to happen, but for some reason I couldn't find the words to write it down. But finally I have it. I was actually inspired by writing the last part of it first, which helped me get into the groove of it. But enough of all that writers mumbo-jumbo, I swear its pure magic how the ideas come. On to the Chapter, and thank you so much to all of you that have taken the time to review and read this story (preferably not in that order). Oh, an added warning to any who are a bit squeamish, this is a burning, just to remind you, but I promise it does not get too descriptive.
Chapter 9
As the group made their way toward the ceremonial square they had seen earlier on first stepping through the Stargate all that time ago, they took in the sight of all the villagers congregated again around the throne. But instead of an empty clearing in front, this time there was a platform piled with sticks and branches, with a pole rising up from the center.
"I'm surprised, no torches or pitchforks." Jack commented, trying to lighten the mood.
"The villagers are indeed armed, O'Neill." Teal'c corrected, not getting the reference. But on closer inspection, Teal'c was right. The villagers gathered did seem to be armed with spears, swords, even a few daggers. They didn't seem menacing, more like they were standing ready for their god's command. This didn't bode well for any escape attempts.
When they got closer to the square, they noticed a sound behind them. Turning, the three men saw that the Jaffa holding Neolaía were having quite a time of it. Upon catching sight of the stake with timber piled around it, she had redoubled her feeble efforts to break free of the guards. Daniel could tell by the look in her eyes that she was very frightened. No matter how much the guards beat her to make her keep still, she acted as if they didn't exist. She was definitely in shock. Her fight-or-flight reaction was in full bore, allowing her to be much stronger than one would expect for such an injured and mistreated girl.
Daniel just shook his head. "Do you think Belenus was right?" He asked the other two.
Knowing what Daniel was referring to, Jack glanced back at the girl before returning his gaze to his friend. "Honestly, even though the goa'uld are textbook bad guys, and therefore not to be trusted…" He paused before continuing. "I wouldn't put it past her, Daniel."
"I thought you'd say that." Daniel replied with a quick nod. "It's just, why couldn't we have met some new race that were good guys; maybe even help us defeat the goa'uld? I really thought her people could be that race."
"Some days just aren't lucky." Jack mused. Teal'c raised an eyebrow to that. "But then again, this is us we're talking about here. We're never lucky. I think Murphy hit the nail on the head with us."
"Who is this Murphy?" Teal'c asked, unsure how Murphy's carpentry had anything to do with them.
Distracted out of his reverie, Daniel looked over at Teal'c with a slightly bemused expression. After a moment, he responded. "It's not actually important who Murphy is; Jack was referring to something called Murphy's Law. To paraphrase, it states that anything that can happen will happen. Even though it applies to both positive and negative outcomes, most people use it to mean that things can and will always get worse." Smirking, he continued. "It's kind of a 'if you can think of something bad happening in a situation, it's going to happen'."
Gazing thoughtfully at Daniel, Teal'c finally opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by O'Neill. "Thanks for the lesson, Daniel. Now Teal'c's completely confused. Nice job." Daniel merely gave him a withering look.
During their little chat, SG-1 and the others had arrived at the square and been ushered through the crowd, which politely parted to let them pass, and stopped before the throne and the stake. It seemed Belenus had somehow gotten there first, despite the fact that he had completely changed his gaudy outfit. Sneering down at them, he raised his arms for silence. The crowd fell into a hush. The sudden silence was disconcerting.
"People!" The goa'uld's voice carried out into the crowd. "Here before you are those that would defy their god! They try to keep secrets from us, hide their knowledge, but they do not realize I AM THEIR GOD! I know what they hide, and shall punish them for thinking they can deceive me!" He stood up, pointing his finger down at the prisoners. The crowd cheered and shook their weapons, eager to see the deceivers punished.
Daniel gulped, "Uh, Jack…you wouldn't happen to have a plan to get us out of here…before we're burned to death, do you?" He glanced nervously around at the surrounding crowd.
"As of now? Nope." Jack shook his head, scanning the crowd more tactically. "Any ideas, Teal'c?" He turned to the Jaffa.
"I do not see any safe way of extracting ourselves from this situation." Teal'c responded.
"What about an unsafe way?" Jack countered.
"I think by safe he means we're still alive at the end." Daniel put in, receiving a small nod and smile from Teal'c.
"Oh." was all Jack could think of to say.
"O'Neill, something is happening." Teal'c said urgently, looking behind them. Jack and Daniel turned to look themselves and saw the Jaffa holding Neolaía dragging her toward the stake. Turning back to the throne, they realized Belenus had been giving orders.
If they had thought the young woman had been fighting her captors before, now she was downright rabid, twisting and kicking out, biting and elbowing. The utter terror on her face caused a pang in Daniel's heart. But she lied to us, he had to remind himself. It was no use; he couldn't get past the instinctual urge to protect her. He began to pull against the Jaffa holding him, vaguely noticing that Jack was also struggling with his guard. Teal'c merely stood ramrod straight, a murderous look in his eyes.
As the Jaffa lifted the Ninsar up to set her up on the platform, she lashed out, vines whipping out her arms, back, everywhere. It caught the Jaffa off-guard, and for a moment it seemed she would break free. Then Belenus stepped forward with his ribbon device and caught her in its beam, stopping her where she stood. The vines went slack and, writhing in pain it seemed, receded into her body. Going limp, Neolaía collapsed onto the platform. Belenus withdrew his hand and resumed his position in front of the throne.
The Jaffa drug her up to the stake and chained her arms up with the cuffs hanging down from the top. They then took a long strand of thick chain and wrapped it around her body several times, from her torso down to her legs. Satisfied that she wasn't going anywhere, despite the fact that she was now unconscious, the guards retreated off the platform and took their places in intervals around the clearing.
Belenus cleared his throat, then spoke again. "These strangers came to our world, calling themselves kin. Kin to Gods! This blasphemy will not be tolerated. The ones who came with this Ninsar died from their wounds, but she lived to be punished by her god! Let this be an example to all that no man is greater than their god." Finishing, he nodded to some of the Jaffa, who readied their staff weapons, pointing them toward the platform.
"What happened to finding out where she came from?" Daniel whispered to Jack.
"Guess old Bellyknots decided the outcome wasn't worth the risk." Jack said back. Daniel opened his mouth to correct Jack about the goa'uld's name, but was given a pointed look in return and decided to keep silent. "At least the girl won't be awake to feel it, that's a comfort." He added.
"I don't know, it just seems wrong." Daniel couldn't help but say, as the Jaffa waited for the signal to light the pyre. "I mean, I know Belenus said she was lying to us, but should we really trust him? He is a goa'uld, after all." He glanced over at Jack, who was staring over at the platform. "Jack?" he asked with concern.
Just then, at an unseen signal, three Jaffa spread out around the pyre shot their staff weapons at the branches and sticks at the base of the platform, causing them to catch flame. The flames rapidly began eating up the tinder, making their way toward the stake and the young woman chained to it. Jack turned a haunted gaze to Daniel, motioning his head toward the blaze. "She's awake, Daniel. She's awake."
Daniel whipped his head around and tried to see through the flames to the face of the girl. Suddenly he found himself looking straight into the emerald green eyes of Neolaía. The fear and pain shown in them wrenched his heart, but what surprised him was the resigned acceptance he saw. She was too young to die. And for a second he thought he saw forgiveness in her eyes, had she been telling the truth?
He didn't get a chance to finish that thought, because just then the Stargate up the hill burst into life, causing everyone to turn and look. Soon after, a group of eight to ten people in familiar SGC uniforms stepped through, weapons at the ready. At the head of the group was a very familiar, and welcome face. Major Samantha Carter. Somehow she managed to spot them within the large crowd in the square, and she immediately began organizing the others into a formation before coming down the hill at a rapid pace.
This sent the villagers into a frenzy and, brandishing their meager weapons, they swarmed toward the comparatively small group of soldiers. With a signal from their god, the Jaffa advanced toward the intruders. Having seen his Jaffa off, Belenus surreptitiously retreated back to the temple.
Taking advantage of the chaos that was ensuing, O'Neill delivered a painful blow to the knee of the Jaffa behind him with the heel of his boot. Releasing his grip, the Jaffa crumpled to the ground. Following his example, Teal'c was able to incapacitate his guard, turning his attention then to Daniel's attempts to break free of his own captor. He had only been partly successful, managing to break out of the Jaffa's grasp, but as yet still battling it out. Picking up a staff weapon from one of the collapsed Jaffa, Teal'c turned and called out to Daniel.
"Daniel Jackson! Stand aside!" As Daniel quickly sidestepped the Jaffa and moved out of the way, Teal'c fired the weapon, felling the guard. Having taken care of the contingent guarding them, the three men came together. Jack and Teal'c had picked up staff weapons, and upon seeing Daniel's unarmed condition, Jack reached into his boot and pulled out a knife.
"You had this the whole time and didn't tell us?" Daniel asked incredulously as he accepted the sturdy knife. Jack just shrugged.
"Let's go help out our rescuers, whaddaya say?" Jack asked patting Teal'c shoulder. Teal'c nodded and they both headed into the fray, blasting a path towards the soldiers with their staff weapons. "Just don't get into too much trouble, Daniel, okay?" Jack called over his shoulder.
Before Daniel could throw back a scathing remark, strong arms landed on his shoulders and spun him around. Standing before him was one of the villagers, thankfully only wielding a knife like him. As the man pulled back his arm for a thrust, Daniel jabbed the survival knife into the man's leg, causing him to double over. Taking advantage of the man's distraction, Daniel ran off, closer toward the center of the square.
Dodging past villagers and soldiers alike, for the soldiers had broken through with the help of O'Neill and Teal'c and were now battling in the square, Daniel caught a glimpse of the platform. In all the frenzy, he had almost forgotten about Neolaía and the burning pyre. The flames were very high now, almost entirely engulfing the stake, but through the smoke and fire he could barely see her figure. Spying her face among the blaze, he was shocked still. It seemed to be frozen in a silent scream, contorted and obviously in great pain. He wasn't sure if the scream was actually silent, or whether the fighting and the fire were drowning out any sound she was making.
Spurred on, Daniel frantically began pushing and shoving friend and foe alike as he attempted to reach the platform. He didn't know what he was going to do when he got there, but he would take one goal at a time. By the time he reached the hotly blazing pyre, the fighting had almost completely died down, the SGC personnel rounding up the last of the villagers who had surrendered. Looking around, he grabbed hold of a bewildered looking villager who had put down his weapon.
"Water! We need water to put out this fire!" Not receiving any response from the man, he shook him vigorously. "Please, get water!" He pointed back to the pyre behind him. Snapping out of his daze, the man nodded and rushed off toward the village, collecting a few others as he went.
Time seemed to crawl along as he waited for the villagers to return with the water. As he stood there, he noticed some of the fires at the base of the platform were dying down, having used up their fuel. By the time the man returned with a bucketful of water, followed by others with the same, much of the fire had already died out. Splashing their water out on the platform, the villagers were quickly able to quench the fire. As soon as the fires were doused, Daniel climbed up onto the remains of the wooden platform and approached the figure still chained to a charred and blackened pole.
Hardly wanting to look, but knowing he had to, Daniel rested his eyes on the figure. Blackened and bleeding, almost unrecognizable as the young woman from before, Neolaía hung from her chains. Thankfully, her face had relaxed into an almost peaceful expression. Fearing he was too late, Daniel attempted to pry the cuffs off her wrists. Having no luck, he turned a desperate gaze back toward the villagers. Almost as if he had read Daniel's mind, the man from before passed up a knife. Daniel nodded in thanks and began again to open the cuffs.
Finally succeeding, he released her wrists from their bonds, causing the girl to slump down the pole. The only thing now holding her up were the chains still wrapped around her body. Making quick work of them, Daniel managed to pull her body away from the pole. The villager, again seeming to be on the same wavelength as Daniel, reached out his hands to take the girl. Reluctantly, Daniel placed her body in the man's arms. After the man rested her on the ground, Daniel climbed down himself to join her. Resting her head in his lap, as he had done what seemed like ages ago in the temple cell, he brushed the remains of her hair away from her face.
Suddenly the body twitched, and Neolaía opened her eyes. Locking her emerald gaze with his she slowly reached out and grasped his arm. Not knowing what she was doing, Daniel let her pull it towards her. She reached out her other hand and began running her finger along the inside of his forearm. Surprised, he tried to get a better look at what she was doing. Finally, she finished and released his arm. Pulling it back to himself, he saw familiar images scrawled on the inside of his arm in blood.
"Tell our kin…what…happened here." She gasped out, barely in a whisper. Slowly her eyes closed and she relaxed in his arms. Looking up to the sky, which was now pricked with stars, the sun having set some time ago, Daniel tried to hold back the tears. No matter how much he tried to convince himself that there was no reason to feel sorry for her loss, that she was as bad as the goa'uld, he couldn't bring himself to think that way. Like she had said before, she had done nothing to cause them to distrust her. So why didn't he, not completely at least?
He was pulled out of his ponderings when he felt a hand grasp his arm, fingers digging into his flesh. Remembering a similar occurrence, he looked down, surprised. Neolaía's eyes were open again, a scared and confused look on her face. Her face spasmed in pain, then the eyes found Daniel's. "Please…help me." She begged, before being wracked with another, stronger spasm. Then she fell back against his lap, her fingers loosening their grip on his arm.
It took him several moments before he realized she had spoken that last in Greek.
A/N: Whew! That was the most difficult chapter to write I've ever had. I'm glad it's finished. Not because of the subject matter at all, but sort of. I wanted to do it justice, the scene I had in my head, and I'm hoping I succeeded. Please let me know what you thought. And don't worry, I've already finished writing the next chapter, so it should be coming up very, very soon. I would post simultaneously, but then what would be the fun in the cliffhanger? Thank you and please review!