On her way to Anubis's ship, Sam hadn't yet realized that the Eye of Ra had been stumbled upon by Ra, as well as Skaara's untimely death and ascension. She had sensed the presence of two Others briefly before they vanished.

Anubis wasn't hard to locate. Standing invisible near by, she waited for the first prime to leave.

"He will give you the Eye of Ra or Abydos will be destroyed," Anubis was saying.

"Yes my lord," the first prime andswered with a hateful smile.

Anger boiled through Sam's essence. The innocent people of Abydos wouldn't die if she had anythig to say about it! That and her friends would perish in the assault.

"I will not let you touch Abydos," she hissed, letting herself be seen.

Anubis turned to her. "And how will you stop me?" She sensed an amused or mocking undertone to his words.

"You'll just have to find out if one more person is hurt or killed down there," she retorted.

Anubis shook his hooded head. "I know what you are. You can only stand there and utter empty threats."

"If you know what I am, then you know very well that I can wipe you from existence."

From his next words, Sam had the feeling he would have been smirking. She frowned as he said, "I know who you are, Samantha Carter, but you know not who I am."

The darkness in his hood became replaced by an eerily familiar light as Sam realized in horror that Anubis was an Ancient, or at least a partial one. Suddenly, some of her friends' plights and Anubis's destruction of Goa'uld forces began to make sense. If he was an Ancient, even a partial one, he was able to work any Ancient technology, making his domination much easier. With the Eyes, he would be nearly unstoppable. The darkness covered his "face" once more.

"With the wave of my hand, I will bombard the surface," he threatened. Sam was afraid ask how; she knew he wasn't so empty in his words. "You can stop me if you choose."

"I will," Sam vowed venomously.

"Your words mean nothing," he scoffed. "Take action if you dare."

Sam happened to glance out of the veiwing screen and see Goa'uld mothership exit hyperspace. She smiled as Yu appeared on the screen.

"I command the collective forces of the System Lords," he said. Sam figured this was probably an old conversation.

Anubis casually replied, "You have finally managed to rally them against me."

"You will hand over the Eye of Ra or face destruction."

"I will consider you generous offer," said Anubis, although Sam thought he would do quite the opposite. Yu disappeared.

"You can't survive that many motherships," Sam said without conviction. She now knew what Anubis was capable of and that he had a slight advantage over the others, regardless of how many were on each side.

"They are not attacking because they fear me," he retorted.

"They can beat you since you don't have all seven Eyes," bluffed Sam with false confidence.

"You know this for a fact?" Anubis asked. For the first time, Sam heard the firmness in his voice waver.

"If you give me your word you won't destroy Abydos or its people, I might give you the Eye of Ra," Sam said without thinking. Instantly, she regreted it. If he got the Eye, he would be the most powerful creature in the galaxy. Still, even for a bastard like Anubis, she could go back on her word; her sense of rightness wouldn't let her no matter how disgusted she was at the thought. Trusting what was written on the tablet was Earth's omly was to defeat him if her freshly conceived was to work.

"So be it." Exactly what Sam wasn't wanting to hear.

She unhappily replied, "That's a promise I hold you to, no matter what."

Yu's ship was easy for her to find. As quickly as she could, she communicated to him about the Eye and it's properties. Luckily, Yu didn't question where his sudden knowledge came from.

She left the ship and returned to the pyramid in time to hear the colonel say, "Anubis must really want this thing if his boys have held off this long."

"He does," she answered, appearing behind them.

"Where were you?" Daniel asked worriedly.

"Busy. Really busy," she replied.

"Oh, and thanks for Skaara. I assume he's okay," the colonel added.

Sam blinked in confusion. "What? What are you talking about?"

"He has ascended," Teal'c said.

"W-wha?"

"That wasn't you?" It was O'Neill's turn to sound confused.

Sam felt it again. The presence of another ascended being. She closed her eyes. "Oma's here," she sighed.

And...?" O'Neill asked, leaving the rest unspoken. Her eyes opened. Was that hopefulness she saw?

"I don't care. You guys's lives are at stake and I won't let him kill you," she answered with the conviction she hadn't had back on the ship. "Besides, he's one of...us, anyway. We're supposed to clean up our messes."

"What?"

"In some bastardized way, he's one of us," she repeated.

"What do you mean," he asked.

She answered, "The Goa'uld that Anubis once was learned how to ascend."

"He was believed to have been dead for some time," Teal'c supplied.

"From what I can guess, and for obvious reasons, the Others didn't want him."

"Understandable," Jonas muttered.

"They tried to send him back but he found some way to stop it."

"So, what is he now?" Daniel asked.

"The black mask he has is what's keeping his energy intact. He's been stuck somewhere between human existence and descension."

"Why have the Others allowed him to remain this way?" Teal'c asked.

"Honestly," said Sam," I don't know. Maybe because they couldn't exile him completely."

"Maybe they just don't care," O'Neill suggested.

"Maybe," Sam shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Either way, he's still very powerful."

"That explains why he's able to master the Ancient technology so easily," said Jonas.

"Huh?" the colonel asked, glancing between the three scientists. "How's that?"

"Sir, the Others are really the Ancients. They are the creators of the Stargates. Neither of you told him?"

"Well, we didn't really have a lot of time..." Daniel said. He and the rest of SG-1 froze as they heard Anubis's first prime and troop of Jaffa advance.

"Just tell me what you're supposed to be getting at," said O'Neill impatiently.

"Anubis's surrounded by a fleet of Goa'uld motherships," Sam said. "I warned Yu about the Eye and what it can do."

"Sweet," O'Neill responded.

Sam didn't want to have to tell him about her bargain. "Give it to them."

She winced at his expression. "Excuse me?"

"Look, sir, I made a deal with Anubis. You give him the Eye and he's supposed to leave Abydos alone."

"You made a deal. With Anubis," he repeated disbelievingly.

"I'm making sure he keeps it," Sam replied with false confidence. "Hopefully, in their determination to get the Eye, the other Goa'uld will destroy themselves and Anubis. Either way, while they're busy recovering, you'll have time to look for the Ancient's lost city."

"The lost city?" he asked slowly.

Sam raised an eyebrow at Daniel and Jonas.

"Ah, Sam found a tablet that made a reference to the lost city of the Ancients," Daniel quickly said.

"If I read correctly, then there's powerful weapons capable of giving the people of Earth a huge advantage over Anubis." Sam was pretty sure she translated correctly; the words were almost as plain as English. Now that the link between her understanding of a Latin-based language and Latin being the Ancients main language, it made some sense. She still didn't understand how she was able to completely comprehend a language she had only seen in passing in Daniel's lab.

"Do you have any idea where it is?" O'Neill asked.

"No, but I'll try to help you find it. What I need you to do it hand the Eye over and get back to the SGC. You cannot let anything happen to that tablet. Anubis already has an advantage over us because of his fail descension. We can't afford to give him another vantage over you."

The others were silent for a moment. Finally, O'Neill said, "You gonna kick his ass?"

Sam smiled. "If I have to, sir."

"Can you?" he asked.

Sam looked at Daniel as she answered, "Nothing will happen to the people of Abydos if I have any say."

Without another word, she "glowed" and left once more for Anubis's ship. As she rose higher and higher, she felt more ascended beings and wondered in the Others were, for some reason, sending a legion of their fellows to stop her. By now, Anubis's first prime should be returning to the ship with the Eye. Her suspicoin was confirmed when she saw his ship powering up to fire. She hurried to Anibis's bridge with renewed purpose. Anubis's hand was hovering over the control to activate the weapon.

"No! Stop!" she ordered. She ignored a staff blast shot at her by the first prime. It went through her and harmlessly hit the wall.

"Stop me, if you can!" Anubis hissed triumphantly.

Sam raised her arms outward and her hands began to glow with a brilliant, golden light.

"Strike me now, or I will destry Abydos," he goaded.

Sam forced the energy surrounding her hands toward him. Little hooks pulled at her essence and the energy she had projected toward Anubis. He raised a hand to defend himself.

The hooks pulled harder. This wasn't Anubis; the Others had finally decided to interfere. "No!" she cried. "Don't do this!" Her attack dissipated and she felt her essence torn, ripped back to the other Ancients.

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For the most part, I have the rest planned. If anyone has anything they might want me to add later, ideas are welcome.

I apologize for the shortness of this chapter and probably the next.

R&R