AN: Well, I'm a tad disappointed at only getting two reviews last week- where is everyone? I know I've been slacking, but wow… Now I feel unloved.

Anyway, this story appears to be winding down. I want to take a bit of a break after this to catch up with plans for my next fic, but I have one or two things ready for you in the meantime. *hugs all* You all rock.

Chapter Thirty-One: Möbius

Mina's face was a cold mask as she evaded the stricken Goa'uld's weak return attack.

Kheti collapsed to the stone floor, blood pouring out of his side. His eyes flashed once, then, weakly, came Tom's own voice.

"Mina…" he rasped.

She immediately knelt and cradled his head in her lap. "I'm so sorry, Tom…" she said softly.

"Didn't mean to… couldn't fight… so sorry… Where's… Allan?"

"Here, Sawyer," Quatermain came over.

Tom weakly grasped the hunter's hand. "Always meant to… thank you… for everything…"

He squeezed the American's hand, remembering all to clearly the way his own son had died in his arms. It was happening again. He was going to lose Sawyer like he'd lost Henry…

Mina's normally impassive face was contorted with barely-restrained grief, a single tear trickling down her cheek. Tom looked away from his 'father' and towards her, his vision starting go dark. "…love you, Mina…"

Her auburn hair trailed over her face as she bowed her head.

Quatermain gently reached over to close Sawyer's eyes, his chest aching with more than just the col'kenthe blow. He had come on this mission to save the boy, not lose him again…

The others came over to survey the scene. Nemo, Daria, Jason, and Skinner, partially dust-streaked into visibility, all wore sad expressions. Holmes too looked troubled, and even Hyde deigned to wear a grave expression.

"He is free of the creature," Mina said quietly, her voice containing a slight hint of a quaver as Daria looked away. If only they had been paying more attention, if only she had been more alert… they might have been able to avoid this.

Jason shoved his spectacles further up on his nose. "Now what?" he asked, looking around at the others.

"We will take him home," Nemo said firmly.

Mina looked up at the Indian, about to speak, but a faint shrill squeaking sound made her recoil in instinctive fear.

The Goa'uld parasite had chewed its way out of Sawyer's neck and plopped to the stone floor, its head weaving as it tried to pick out a single new host from the crowd gathered around its last one.

The humans and Tau'ka shrank back from the creature that was the real Kheti- all except Hyde. He kicked Kheti away from Sawyer's body and casually stepped on the little snakelike alien. The parasite only had time to emit a terrified little screech as Hyde ground it under his heel. The beast-man gave a snort of satisfaction as the alien was promptly turned into a smear on the stone.

Daria shuddered in hatred at the sight of her racial enemy, putting her hands at her sides to stabilize herself against the stone box she'd bumped into. Her palms tingled a little, then more strongly as she became aware of and recognized the sensation.

Naquadaa?

On Earth?

Well, this was a Goa'uld temple, so she supposed she couldn't be too surprised at running across some of their technology, which was all based on the stuff…

She looked down, and her eyes widened as she realized just what she was sitting on. Yes, she recognized those hieroglyphs…

"Don't make funeral plans just yet," she said, turning around to inspect the 'box' more closely. If they could just be that lucky and have it be a true sarcophagus rather than a later human imitation…

She blessed the turn of Fortune that made the Goa'uld so paranoid as to have one of the devices in all of their strongholds as her hands flashed over the surface, triggering the initiation sequence. "Get him in here- now."

The others looked at her in confusion, though Jason came over to read the carved inscriptions. He whistled, impressed.

"Does this thing actually work?" he asked, blue-green eyes wide.

"It should," she replied as the cover slid open. The glowing panels lining the interior bathed their faces in a cool white light.

Carefully, Nemo and Quatermain picked Sawyer up and carried him to the sarcophagus, placing him inside. The lid slid shut again as the device began to hum, provoking a look of alarm from Mina.

"What is that thing?" she asked.

Jason smiled as he looked more closely at the hieroglyphs. "It should bring him back," he said. "Odd choice of words here, 'kabah', isn't it?"

Daria glanced at the glyph he was pointing to and shrugged. "Older dialect."

Quatermain frowned. Certainly, shaman's magic had brought him back from the dead, but a stone box? How was that supposed to help Sawyer?

"A box is going to bring the Yank back?" Hyde said dryly, not sounding at all convinced.

"A sarcophagus," Jason corrected. "Used by the ancient Egyptians to store mummified bodies… but this is different."

Daria nodded. "The Goa'uld use them to heal injuries, even mortal ones. It shouldn't take too long…"

Mina's vivid green eyes were fixated on the sarcophagus, so tense with anticipation, torn between fervent hope that Daria was right and fear that she wasn't that it seemed she was not breathing at all. She strained her supernatural hearing, listening for any sound of movement within the device.

Holmes stepped around the crowd as the others waited anxiously, coming to Daria's side. "One of these days, Miss Noclaf," he said quietly, "You must tell me about all of this."

She looked up at him wryly. "Just as you must tell me why you are here rather than in Europe," she replied.

"An admirable riposte," the detective returned. "Sad to say that I cannot, not without making it known that there are several delicate positions involved."

"As it is for me, Mr. Holmes. Thank you for coming, however."

"You are most welcome. I do repay what is owed to me."

"As do I. Perhaps I should catch people falling over waterfalls more often."

"Only if you care to explain a gryphon, Miss Noclaf."

She afforded Holmes a crooked smile. "I knew that you knew I was there."

"I had surmised as much."

Further conversation was forestalled by the lid of the sarcophagus grating open again. Looking a little wild-eyed with confusion, Sawyer sat up.

Mina gave a little cry of delight and rushed over to embrace him, crushing him to her with all her strength.

"Wha- Mina? Ah… oh!"

Jason coughed as she kissed the American soundly, going slightly red and looking pointedly away from the enthusiastic pair. His eyes found Daria.

"Well," he said in a forcedly casual tone, "It worked."

"I don't want t' interrupt anything," Skinner cut in, "But I did do some sneakin' around…"

"The bombs," Nemo said.

As if on cue, a distant rumble reached their ears- the first of Skinner's bombs.

Hyde pushed his way forward and scooped Mina and Sawyer into his arms, since neither seemed to care to be separated from the other. "Time to go."

Sawyer pointed to a side door. "Quickest way out is that way," he told Hyde.

The behemoth glanced down at him, ignoring the glare Mina was giving him, then shrugged his massive shoulders. "It'll be a hell of a lot quicker by the time I'm done."

The second bomb went off, sounding closer than the first. Hyde let out a bellow and burst throw the door Sawyer had indicated, his 'passengers' yelping and covering their heads to protect themselves from the dust and splinters.

"But…" Jason protested, looking longingly at the array of ancient texts and technology. Daria grabbed him firmly around the upper arm and hauled him after her, ignoring his protests at the sight of thousands of years of history being blown to dust and rubble. Scientists. Losing their nerve at the worst moments…

They bolted out after Hyde, now able to hear some parts of the tunnel system collapsing behind them. Holmes dodged some falling rubble by the skin of his teeth- had he been even a hair slower, he would have been crushed by the heavy block of sandstone. Dust filled the air of the corridor, choking and blinding them as they ran through it, the sand that covered the floor hindering their strides, stones now shaken loose dropping from the ceiling…

Then they were stumbling out, coughing as they fell to the sand outside under the clear night sky. Hyde dropped Mina and Sawyer just in time and staggered aside, his body convulsing as the formula wore off.

Jason sat down hard on the sand, removing his spectacles and blowing dust off the lenses. "That was close," he said, just able to see the others nod in exhausted agreement by the starlight.

"Others have gotten out," Holmes commented, looking up from an examination of the sand around them.

"I don't think we'll need to worry about them," Sawyer said with a cough. "You were very thorough with the Jaffa… God… there's too much in my head that's not mine…" He groaned and cradled his head in his hands.

Daria looked over from where she was helping a shaking Jekyll to his feet. "The feeling should go away in time," she assured the American gently. "You have Kheti's memories now, Sawyer."

"I don't want them!" he protested, looking up at the Tau'ka with an expression of panic. "Daria, what he's done…"

Her voice was soft. "I know," she told him. She had seen other freed hosts act the same way when they were suddenly burdened with all the memories of the Goa'uld, without the symbiote to filter the information. It wasn't just Kheti's memories now imbedded in Sawyer's psyche, it was all the memories of the Goa'uld in Kheti's maternal line. She gave Jekyll a quick kiss on the cheek- a promise to give him further appreciation later- and went over to where Sawyer sat with Mina's arms around him. "Tom," she said quietly, "No matter what, you have to remember that you didn't do those things. You aren't the monster- Kheti was. The memories will fade, because they do not belong to you. They are Kheti's."

She glanced at Mina and spoke silently to her. Stay with him whenever you can. He's going to need help getting through this. You need to be there for him.

The vampiress nodded fiercely and kissed Sawyer's temple. She would be happy to stay- she certainly was not inclined to leave, now that she had her Tom back.

"We can't stay here," Quatermain said, glancing at the eastern sky to try and judge the time. It appeared to be a few hours yet until dawn, the most frigid time of night. "We need to head back now, before we get any colder."

The younger League members groaned as one and clambered to their feet. Daria returned to Jekyll, who was starting to shiver in the desert's chill night air. "Come on," she said, touching his arm gently. As always, the relative coolness she felt when touching a human marveled her. Tau'ka 'ran' a little hotter than their counterparts, and so always seemed to be running a low-grade fever by comparison. It was part of their immune system, keeping their internal temperature hot enough to discourage many microbes.

The physician turned to her, a look of utter relief on his face. "Daria…" he managed, before wrapping his arms tightly around her. "When you disappeared, I thought… I feared the worse…"

She returned the embrace with equal fervor. "Can we talk later?" she whispered, resting her cheek against his bare shoulder. "It's cold out here."

He nodded and let her go after placing a light kiss on her forehead, though he was reluctant to have her warm body leave his side. She was right- the desert did get quite chilly after dark.

Holmes took up the rear of the mismatched band that set out back towards something resembling civilization, smiling wryly as he watched Jekyll and Daria set off. Well, it seemed that the doctor had found someone who could both take care of him and handle Hyde. And he seemed to return the affection.

Well, he had heard that Jekyll had obtained an official pardon. As long as he and the rest of the League kept Hyde in check, the detective would let sleeping dogs lie.

And that, he reasoned, would be that.