NON REVERSABLE EFFECTS

CH14

I knew that we needed to move, that we didn't have time to rest, but I just needed a moment. My adrenaline was at it's lowest levels at the moment and the pain was coming, I wasn't sure if I could move any more. As I leaned against the wall, Daniel took off his long sleeve and wrapped it around my waist, and tied the sleeves behind my back. My eyes slipped closed for a second and I felt his hand on my cheek, wiping away a tear that had escaped my eye.

"Nick." Daniel spoke softly. "I know that you're hurting right now, and all you want to do is lay down. But we have to go, we have to find the others and get the fuck out of this place and off this Planet." he uncharacteristically, but under the circumstances he could swear as much as he wanted.

I nodded in agreement and opened my eyes, stepping away from the wall. He carefully put my arm over his shoulder and put his own around my waist, we started to walk. Slowly but surely it changed from dirt and brick to tile and steel. We past the cages that I had been thrown into after I was taken form the other, and they were empty. We didn't how many people were here, how many guards and stuff that the doctor had so we were as careful as we could be. But the thing was that we didn't know where the hell Carter was, so we had to check every room that we passed—we also didn't have the correct location of where Daniel and the other were either.

But finally we found the room that Carter was being held in, and she looked at us in surprise as well as relief—I would be relieved too if I were her.

"It's good to see you guys." she breathed out.

She was wearing what Daniel and Teal'c were, just material things—and the collar, of course. And this room was much like the other one, though Sam was along. But the thing that was different about this room was the fact that all of SG-1's weapons were on the table that was next to Carter's cage. I turned to that to see if I could find anything that would help open the door. I felt something brush the back of my legs and put it off to the sleeves from the shirt.

"Holy Hannah!" Sam exclaimed, looking at me. "Are you alright, Lieutenant?" she shared a wide eyed look with Daniel, who gave a quick shake of his head.

"The doors are electrical." I said. "I don't suppose that either of you have any idea as how to open them?" I didn't answer her question, talking about it only made me feel it and right now I didn't have time to feel the pain of my current injuries.

"Oh." Daniel raised a hand and I turned to him. "I think this might help." he said, and stuck his hand in his pant's pocket, pulling out something. "I took it off one of the guards before we got out of there." he said.

From what I could see, it was some sort of switch devise. And if we were lucky, it would solve our door problem from here on out. Daniel pointed the small box at Carter's cage, making sure the antenna was pointing in the same direction and flipped the switch. I winced as there was that loud buzz and instead of just hers opening, all of the cage doors in the room popped open. Carter slid from the cage with relief; she stretched and cracked her back.

"Those things are unbelievably cramped." she complained. "Treating us like animals." at the last word her eyes unconsciously shifted to me. I didn't mind, I was used to it by now but it did bring the question of why Sam gave me the glance. I knew that she was used to it, but I guessed that she was still freaked out about how I knew that I probably looked.

"We should take as much as we can carry." I said, turning back to the table.

"I agree." Carter said, coming up beside me. "We have no clue as to how many enemies are out there."

Carter and Daniel put clips in their pockets as well as a hands gun each and a zat gun, throwing the straps from the P90s over their shoulders—and, thankfully one of the GDOs were there too. I held a zat with my stiff fingers, and with an arm over Daniel's shoulder for support, we continued to check the rooms. And as it turned out, the room the rest of SG-1 was being held in was only a few doors down from where Carter had been held.

Carter went first and Daniel and I after her, we came into to view for of both Mitchell and Teal'c

"Sam! Jackson! Am I glad to see you guys—And holly crap Summers, you look like Hell!" Mitchell exclaimed. "*And a cat . . ." he whispered under his breath.

My lips twisted as I answered him. "I'm so glad that you noticed, Colonel."

He just gave me a raised brow of worry before he turned to Carter. "Can you get us outta here, or what?" he asked.

Carter nodded, taking the switch from Daniel. She flipped the switch and all the cage doors opened.

"Could one of you guys, uh, you know give me something to cover up with?" Mitchell asked with a wince present in his expression.

Carter turned her back on him, a slight blush to her cheeks.

Teal'c took of his jacket and handed it off to Mitchell, who used it to cover himself as he slid down from the cage and tied the sleeve around his waist—much like Daniel had done for me—and twisted it halfway around so that it covered more, only showing some cheek and a thigh. The bloody scratches that had covered his body—the ones that I saw before when he was thrown into the cage and taken away, were now scabbed. Carter and Daniel spread around the weapons, Daniel giving Teal'c his P90 so that he could better handle me.

"I think it's about time we get outta here." Mitchell said and everyone nodded their agreement.

"Wait." Teal'c said before the door could be pushed open. "What of these collars?" he asked.

"Right," Carter cursed. "I can't believe that I forgot about those."

"How do you purpose we get them off?" Mitchell asked, his hand going up to tug at the leather, but at the last second let his hand drop. "How'd you get your off?" he asked me, noticing the fact that I didn't have mine on any more.

"It got damaged." I told them, the leather already torn slightly, so when I did try to get it off, it didn't zap me as much."

A weird and very concerned look crossed Daniel's face at the mention at what happened in the arena. "Do you think that the switch might be able to help with that?" he asked Carter. "Maybe make it so that it would zap us, at least?"

A thoughtful expression crossed her face and she turned to Mitchell, who winced as he realized that he was probably going to be her tester-dummy. But he knew that there was nothing that he could say or do to stop her, so he let her inspect his collar without resistance.

The collar was completely smooth on the outside, there didn't even seem to be a buckle or anything. She was about to give up when she found a small hole in leather, located at the back. It was a small as one of the holes in a button, and instead of being round it was triangular. She furrowed her blond brow for a moment before she took the switch back out form her pocket. She looked at it for a moment and realized what was tickling the back of her mind. The switch had an antenna attached to it, and she saw no real reason as to why if it seemed to open at of the cages instead of just one. But as she noticed earlier, the antenna was different than others she had seen before. Instead of being round, it was triangular, just like the little hole in the back of Mitchell's collar.

She lightly placed her hand on the back of his shoulder, signaling Mitchell to hold still—and to warn him—as she carefully slipping the tip of the antenna into the triangular hole. Mitchell's shoulders tensed as did the rest of us in anticipation as Carter flipped the switch. There was a beep and then the collar just sort of fell to the floor from around Mitchell's neck. There was no build up or anything; there had been no noticeable seam either and some how when it had hit the ground the collar locked again.

"Sooo . . . I guess that works." Mitchell said as Carter went over and did Teal'c and Daniel, before giving the switch to Mitchell so that she could do his.

"Now I think we can go." Daniel said.

Teal'c took point with Daniel and me in the middle, leaving Carter and Mitchell to watch out backs. The hall continued on straight, and we kept passing door after door—never a window in sight. I didn't know how long we walked for, it felt like forever, but was probably forty minutes or so. We came to a set of stairs, and stopped. I gave sigh of relief, knowing that I was putting more of my weight on Daniel than I should.

Daniel looked at me in concern. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Do you think that you can make it up the stairs?"

I nodded and by the looks that SG-1 sent me, I knew that they knew that I knew that I was lying my nonexistent socks off. But I had to bull through this, I couldn't be a burden—not at the risk of their lives.

Carter furrowed her brow for a second. "Hey." she said, drawing everyone's attention to her. "If Lieutenant Summers is here, then where's the rest of SG-3?" she asked.

All gazes turned to me and I paled at the reminder. I squeezed me eyes tight for a second and swallowed, my mouth and throat dry as hell—the only taste was that of blood, whether it was mind or not I still wasn't sure.

"I think that I got hit first, and then I assuming that they went after the rest of SG-3." I said, my voice quite. "I asked the guy that captured us what he did with them. He said that "he let them go", but the way he said left me inclined to think that he killed them." each of their faces were masked with different emotions, dealing with this loss in a different way. I looked to Mitchell. "If you got those in the way that I think did, then you're lucky to be alive." I gave a cough and licked the blood from my lips. "Now are we going to go up these stairs or what?"