NOTE FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T CATCH IT: The previous chapter was altered and may need to be reread before this one.
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Teal'c heard a moan. A long pain filled deep moan that he eventually identified as coming from himself. His head ached incredibly badly and his body seemed to throb with pain, especially around his middle – no doubt that was where he had impacted into something after the speedy exit through the Gate. He forced opened his eyes to see a very faint glow of light and saw O'Neill lying unconscious beside General Carter amongst a group of softly glowing crystals.
Worried, he tried to move himself but found it impossible – as if the atmosphere was leaden – although he found no difficulty in breathing. He could only move his eyes a little, noting with concern how even such a trivial amount of movement cost him dearly in added pain. He rested for a moment gathering his strength and because he could do little else he used his eyes to look further.
The room was dim save for the glowing of the crystalline rocks that lay around the room. He had impacted with a transparent wall that stood twenty feet away from the darkened Stargate. He could make out the shape of a DHD and some instrument panels towards the back of the room but there was dust everywhere and he would judge that the place had long been abandoned. He could hear no sounds except his own breathing and … there at the corner of his vision. Daniel Jackson lay sprawled face down a little further on amongst a tight group of the crystals. Again, Teal'c attempted to move himself, incredibly worried for his unconscious friends lying unprotected in this unknown alien place. But despite intense effort he was simply unable to move. He put all of his concentration into lifting his arm and was surprised at how difficult such a task seemed to be – and how even the smallest attempt at movement seemed to exhaust him. He could not perceive any injuries to his spine but his limbs were as unmovable as one whose spine had been severed, yet he could feel his limbs and the pain of a minor wound on his arm from which he could feel the trickle of blood leaking away and knew that paralysis was not the problem.
A crystal beside Teal'c began to brighten and Teal'c had only enough energy to note that the crystal seemed to pulse in time with his own heartbeat. His eyes closed of their own volition and Teal'c sank unwillingly back into unconsciousness.
Many hours later, Sam moaned. She had the worst headache that she had ever had in her entire life and for a moment it was all she could do to breathe through the pain. She was hot – in fact her skin felt incredibly sensitive like it had been scalded all over. She opened her eyes with difficulty and saw a shimmer of light all around her that seemed to emanate from some crystal like rocks scattered around the floor. Her headache ramped up another degree and she could feel her consciousness fading. She managed to turn her head slightly and saw more glowing light around Jack's body before she faded reluctantly back into unconsciousness – her last thought was one of worry for her friends.
She woke a second time, remembering Jack's unconscious body and tried to get up. She only managed to lift her head a little when dizziness assaulted her senses and she tumbled weakly back. For a minute, her head pounded so strongly that she thought she was going to pass out again. She lay very, very still waiting for the pain to subside a little and feeling an odd strained sensation all through her body – as if she had run a forty mile marathon with an Ashrak on her heels again. She heard herself making an odd whimpering sound between panting breaths and closed her eyes tightly. She shivered, despite the heat of her body and tried to move again. The others could be worse than she was and she seemed to be the only one conscious.
She frowned, puzzled by the intense pain. She knew concussions and impact injuries intimately well and her body felt so much worse than one suffering from either or both of those. Perhaps there was something in the atmosphere that was making her feel so bad – in which case she had to get herself moving and get her friends back through the Gate. She forced herself to roll to her side and could have screamed with the pain that that small movement caused. She found herself propped against one of the glowing crystals that seemed to be everywhere in the room.
She took a few panting breaths and made it up on arms that shook like jelly. She was only a few feet away from Jack but it took her nearly a full minute to make it to her hands and knees. She crawled across the floor painfully slowly. Each movement of her limbs was pure agony and she felt as though she had torn each and every muscle and ligament that her body owned.
Jack lay face down underneath a transparent wall. She reached out a shaking hand to Jack and touched a wet patch on his shoulder. She didn't need to see her hand to know that it was blood. She found the tear in his shirt where the wound had been but the shimmer that she had seen before was covering the wound and sank into his skin. As she watched the wound shrank, faded and disappeared leaving flawless skin behind.
"Jack? Jack?" she called to him weakly. She wasn't sure that she had the strength to roll his body over but she tried anyway being careful in case of spinal injuries. She grunted with the effort, gasping and straining to move him carefully and fighting back the dizziness that assaulted her senses – and fell back collapsing to the floor in shock when whe saw his face. The pain of falling was enough to make her pass out again under normal circumstances but the shock of seeing Jack was enough to keep her in the land of the conscious for a bit longer. "Jack?" she gasped out raggedly. A crystal rock beside her began to grow and pulse more brightly and despite her shock, Sam fell back into unconsciousness.
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Hope you enjoyed that - reviews please?