Thank you to those of you that reviewed! I'm so glad you're still here and like the story; I hope I continue to hear from ya. :) Enjoy this new chapter!

Chapter 5

The two big guards dragged Daniel across what appeared to be a small village of huts just like the one he and Janet had been in. All of the inhabitants he could see appeared to be a simple tribe of Indian-like primitives.

They pulled him to another hut on the opposite side of the settlement, one of them kicked open the door and both hustled him inside, pushed him into a sturdy wooden chair and tied his wrists to the arms. Great.

Osiris stalked in after them, fingering his hand device. "I warned you, Doctor Jackson."

"Yeah, you did, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't let you infiltrate Earth."

The other two men left again, and Osiris glared at him. "I have been stuck on this primitive planet for too long, Doctor Jackson, and I will stop at nothing to get off of it."

"You could leave if you wanted to."

"Yes, but without an army larger than these people under my control, I would be hunted and killed."

Daniel smirked. "Coming face to face with your own mortality, huh?"

"And you are not? Look at you. You would be approximately sixty of your earth years old by now."

"Don't push it. I'm still out here making sure our galaxy is safe from scum like you, and all you're doing is hiding."

Osiris hit him, backhanded him with the one that had the ribbon device on it. He couldn't shut his mouth before he cried out in surprise, and at the same time felt a couple of scrapes open up on the left side of his face.

"You will give me that code, Doctor Jackson. I will not limit my attention just to you to get it, and you already have evidence of that."

Daniel snapped his head back up to look at the Goa'uld, glowering deeply. "You leave Janet alone. She has nothing to do with this."

"But she would also know the code, would she not?" Daniel said nothing. Osiris smirked and brought his left hand up, activating the hand device in his face again. He gasped. "No matter. I will get what I want from one of you before I kill you both."

When Vala, Colonel Mitchell , Teal'c--who was not, in fact, named Murray as Travis had thought for years--and Colonel Hailey got back to the 'gate, Travis was waiting with Cassie and Skaara. Mrs. Jackson didn't look very happy at all.

Travis bounded the last few yards over to them and walked back with them. "Where are they? What happened?" he questioned worriedly.

"They weren't there," Mitchell reported. "We need a new plan."

"W-what kind of plan? How are we going to find them? What happened to them?"

"A good one, we'll probably send out a UAV, and I don't know."

"Oh…"

Suddenly, this wasn't as fun anymore. His first 'gate mission, and something went horribly wrong. What next? He just hoped they found Janet and Doctor Jackson all right.

The pain stopped again. Daniel's head dropped forward, his scattered thoughts slowly piecing themselves back together again. He wasn't sure how long Osiris had been at this, but he kept turning the ribbon device on him, asking questions, turning it off, asking more questions, turning it on again…over and over and over. His forehead probably looked like a wreck. It felt like a wreck.

"Still not helping you," he hissed, just to make sure he knew. He was sure the Goa'uld was smirking, but he couldn't see because his head was still down.

No. That's bad. He'll think you're weak. Or that you're close to giving up. Pick it up, Jackson! Biting back a groan, he pulled his head up again and glared. Osiris actually looked surprised for a second or two. Good for him.

Then the Goa'uld smirked again. "You know, one of the more redeeming qualities of these people is that they have quite effective unconventional methods of extracting information. But I don't suppose you'd like a demonstration."

Daniel swallowed. "No, not really. But I can't really stop you if you feel like it, can I?" he said dryly, pulling at the ropes for a moment. He couldn't pull hard anymore, but it worked to get the sarcasm across. Why, oh why had he turned into Jack O'Neill 2.0? This wasn't helping any.

Osiris smiled and went over to a shelf full of small clay jars. He pulled one off the top shelf. "Now, this is fun. It's from a local plant. The bush carries a defensive mechanism that makes the skin burn for a few seconds if brushed against it, but they have discovered how to gather and concentrate the substance. It's quite potent in this form. And lasts longer."

"That's nice. Why don't you let me and my daughter go, and then go take a bath in it?" he suggested tiredly.

The Goa'uld didn't respond to that. And just why did a long lost snake in hiding have to come out now? Why did it have to be now, when Janet was with SG-1? Why couldn't this have happened a couple of months from now? Or oh…never?

Osiris came back and pushed his left sleeve up, leaving his forearm exposed.

"You do know that's not going to help you, right?"

"We will see."

Daniel pulled at the ropes around his wrists again, but his arm wouldn't budge. His throat tightened. He didn't know just how bad Osiris meant when he said 'quite potent', but he'd really rather not find out. Unfortunately, he had no choice.

He watched warily as Osiris opened the jar and poured a thin film of a sticky substance over the top of his forearm. At first, he felt nothing but the cold stuff hitting his skin. But as Osiris pulled the jar away and closed it, the thick liquid on his arm began, strangely, to evaporate.

And with that came the pain.

Daniel sucked in a sharp breath when the burning started. For a couple of seconds it felt no different than if he'd been scratched, or encountered a similar plant on earth or another planet--and he had before--but then it got worse. A lot worse. It felt like his arm was on fire. His eyes and jaw clenched shut at first, but it kept hurting. He gasped. After another few moments, he moaned. But it wouldn't stop.

He could just feel Osiris smirking at him.

He cried out.

Daniel knew he was sweating. And it wasn't just left over from the hand device.

Finally, finally it stopped. The burning faded, leaving his arm tingling painfully, pin-pricking like it was waking up from being asleep. He didn't realize until then that his chest was heaving.

Osiris smiled. "That was only a taste of was this can do, doctor Jackson. And it is not the only thing I have, either. We'll stop for now, and I'll leave you to think on that."

Janet looked up anxiously when the door creaked again. Her ribs were still rather sore, though they did feel better than they had over an hour before when her dad had been pulled out of the hut.

The same two men shoved Daniel inside. He stumbled inside and landed on his hands and knees, face down and breathing hard.

"Dad!" As the door was shut again, she scrambled on her hands and knees over to him, ignoring the twinges in her chest. She started to help him sit up. "Dad, are you okay? Dad?" She let out a strangled cry of alarm when she saw the awful red burn on his forehead. She almost wished she didn't know what had done it. One of his sleeves was pushed up halfway, and that arm was red, too. She had no idea what that was.

"I'm okay, Janet, I'm okay," he breathed, waving her off and sitting up himself--slowly.

"Okay? You look like a wreck and you're trying to tell me you're okay?"

He sighed. "Janet…I'll be fine."

"B-But. He--" He tortured you. She knew it had happened to him more than once in the past, but she hadn't wanted to see it.

"I know," he said quietly. "But I'll be all right."

"But what did he--?" What did he do to you?

"It's not important," he said quickly.

Janet swallowed back tears and went back to the wall. She sat down against it again and crossed her arms, wincing. Daniel came and slowly lowered himself down beside her.

"How are you doing? He hit you pretty hard," he said in concern.

"I'll be fine too," she swallowed. "Nothing's broken. How are we getting out of here?"

Daniel sighed. "Well, not through the roof. He was telling the truth; there are guards at all four corners out there."

"We're going to need outside help, aren't we?"

He grimaced. "Probably. But that's not a huge problem, I hope. Your mom went for help, so I know they'll be looking for us when we're not there."

"What is that?" Vala asked, leaning over Cassie and pointing at something on the edge of the screen on the control room. SGs one and thirteen were gathered around the computer, with Cassandra in the chair in front of it.

Cassie manipulated the controls and the UAV camera turned just enough to get a better view.

"It's looks like smoke," Sam observed.

"A village," Skaara extrapolated.

"That must be where they are," Vala said hopefully.

Cameron nodded. "Probably. Fly that thing closer, Cas, Let's see what it looks like. Maybe we'll get an idea of where they're holding them if that's the right one."

"I hope so," Cassie agreed, complying. The UAV sailed closer to the clustered various small towers of smoke and went lower, but just before it topped the trees that would probably have given them a good view of whatever was on the other side of them, the ground rushed up sharply, then nothing but static.

"What happened?" Vala asked sharply.

"Wind turbulence?" Teal'c asked.

Sam shook her head. "I don't think so. The trees weren't moving enough. It must have been shot down."

"With what? All I saw that those natives had were dart guns and bows and arrows," Vala pointed out.

"Well, I said 'shot' down, but it was flying low enough that it very well couldn't have been a rock tossed hard at it or thrown with a slingshot. I'm not sure."

Cameron crossed his arms. "They must be there."

Sam sighed. "And I can't authorize sending another UAV to give us a better idea of what we're dealing with. We can't risk the waste, as much as those things cost. But I can give you a go on a search and rescue toward that village. There doesn't seem to be anywhere else they would have taken them. It's the only sign of civilization."

Vala only nodded wordlessly.

Cameron spoke next. "All right. We leave in half an hour. Everybody wear your hiking boots and bring plenty of ammo. That place is about eight miles from the stargate, and we don't know what exactly we'll be dealing with when we get there. But we're bringing them back."

If Janet had been worried the first time Daniel was dropped back into the hut, she was upset the second time. He came back after another hour with his forehead in even worse shape than before and the entirety of both arms and half of one leg red.

He'd thought that maybe when Osiris used that strange gooey substance on a larger surface, maybe the pain wouldn't be so concentrated, but a larger surface only made it worse. After they dumped him back in and he'd managed to calm Janet down, he'd pulled his sleeves and his pant leg back down now that he had the chance. The slight warmth helped ease the lingering pin-pricks.

Wearily he lowered himself to the ground again, and convinced Janet to try and get some rest as well. It was only mid-afternoon, but he could see that she was still hurting, and probably needed it. But until now she'd refused to slow down.

After some argument she relented and lay down. She fought it for another few minutes, but then fell asleep, exhausted. Daniel stayed beside her for a few moments, stroking her hair gently, wondering what else he could do.

But there was nothing. They were trapped, and he had no options. If he could, he would spare her all of this, but now there was no going back. He couldn't reverse time. But he could protect her now. None of them would hurt her again. He wouldn't let it happen. And on that note, he rested, but wouldn't allow himself to sleep. He stayed awake, keeping his eyes glued on the door.