Rising from the Ashes of Ascension
Chapter 17
Disclaimer: As much as I might wish, I do not own Stargate: SG1, Highlander: the Series, or any recognizable characters from either show. If I did, I wouldn't be working in the public schools system. However, any characters that are not from either show are mine and I will use and abuse them as I see fit. Everyone else will be returned eventually, for I am only borrowing for awhile, but they might end up a bit scuffed.
Warnings: Potty language, violence, and occasional sexual references
General Hammond, Jack, and Daniel finished up their work and were eventually released from the Pentagon to spend the night as they saw fit.
They went to Zaytinya's across the river. It served a Turkish and Mediterranean cuisine that had come highly recommended by an aide to General Post. Hammond and Jack were hoping that the food and pleasant atmosphere would encourage Daniel to talk about what he had said to Kinsey's aide.
Unfortunately, the good food, the pleasant décor, warm candle-lit atmosphere did nothing to lighten Daniel's rapidly darkening mood. In fact the archeologist sat there, pushing his food around his plate and ended up staring into his wine as he swirled it absently in his glass.
"Daniel, you're driving me nuts. What is going on in that head of yours?" Jack asked, finally deciding that he couldn't take Daniel's brooding silence any longer.
"Nuts, you?" Daniel asked absently, not looking at his friend, continuing to stare at the glass in his hand.
"Oh aren't we the witty one? What's going on in that head of your Daniel?' Jack repeated himself, hoping that Daniel would talk about meeting up with his old student. While he wasn't one for sharing his own personal feelings, he had no problem with being willing to listen to others. If it made him a hypocrite, so be it. He really didn't care about that; he cared about his friends.
"What do you think?" Daniel said angrily, though careful to keep his voice down.
Jack however was not going to allow Daniel to hide his feelings, crawl in to his personal fortress of solitude. His best friend needed to talk and now was as good of a time as any. The place was public, but loud enough that their conversation would not be overheard by anyone.
"Honestly, knowing what I know about you, your past, and your temper, I am thinking worst case scenario," Jack said, leaning forward, staring hard at his friend, doing his best to gage what was going on behind Daniel's blue eyes.
"I'm pissed Jack. That little slimy bastard slithered his way back into my life, not to mention that he is here as an aide to Kinsey, which makes things complicated," Daniel sighed.
"Things being complicated seems to be almost normal for SG-1," Hammond muttered then took a sip of his wine, enjoying the smoothness of the liquid.
"There is a big part of me that would really love to take his head then turn his remains into lawn ornaments for Kinsey's front yard," Daniel half laughed, but it was easy to see that despite the glibness of his reply, the man was serious.
"That's disturbing," Jack said. "Though the guy would make an interesting lawn jockey or one of those whirly things old people put in their front yard. His head could be the body of the ornament, while his arms and legs could be the spinning parts. I wonder if we could do that to Kinsey?"
Hammond looked over at his second-in-command, clearly uneasy with where this discussion. "Can we get back to the conversation please and away from this discussion before I have to recommend you for a psych evaluation Colonel?"
The amused look faded from Jack's face and forced him-self to reign in his wacky imagination. "Getting back, I am hearing a big but here."
Daniel snorted. "If Adam ever asks you to go horseback riding with him, for the sake of the world, say no. You're kind of scary sometimes. And you are right. There is a big but here."
Jack made rolling motions, wanting his friend to get on with it, to stop dragging the story out.
"He's Kinsey's aide, which means that he can't just disappear without someone being suspicious, especially Kinsey. The man hates all of us with a passion and would immediately and rightfully so, suspect us of doing something to his aide. Kinsey, while he is a total ass, he isn't completely stupid. He would start to look into things, Josiah's past and mine too and could expose Immortals to the world. We would end up being lab experiments in Area 51, being vivisected, tested, and tortured in the quest to build a better soldier. Friends and enemies would be hunted down and captured. We barely managed to keep our secret from Hitler and I don't want to be the one responsible for Kinsey making Mengels look like a toddler with a temper tantrum. He could easily be worse, using national security as a justification to play Frankenstein on a bunch of innocent people," Daniel said, careful to keep his voice down. "There is also the small matter that he was my student. It's no small thing to actually kill your former student. Granted the tradition of not killing your student has been broken by countless others, I've never wanted to join the ranks of those that have broken that bond and actually taken a student's head."
"Question," Jack said, caution in his voice. "Would your wife want you to take revenge on your former student?"
"Yes."
Jack and Hammond blinked.
Daniel sighed. "It was a different time. Harere was the daughter of a general. Her people put a lot of stock into the idea of protecting your own and honor. He dishonored us by stealing from us, trying to kill me, and killing her. She would want me to kill him. The idea of pacifism, turning the other cheek, and forgiving your enemies did not start to take hold until twelve hundred years later; even then it's a more modern concept and would have been a foreign to most people back then."
"What about you? How do you feel? You aren't the same person you were three plus thousand years ago. Will killing Josiah make you feel any better? You aren't Danil anymore, you're Daniel Jackson. The guy I know wouldn't kill someone to make himself feel better over something that happened thousands of years ago," Jack wisely said. "Do you really feel the need in your heart to kill him?"
The Immortal member of SG-1 shrugged. "The darker part of me, Danil, still rears his ugly head, screaming for blood, but the voice is much quieter these days and doesn't dominate me like it used to."
"Do you think your time with the glow club has something to do with it?" Jack asked.
"Yes and no. Adam and I had this conversation awhile back. I would like to think the Oma saw that I had changed since my period of insanity. I honestly feel that I have changed, but Danil is still there, lurking in the back of my mind biding his time until he has to be released," Daniel replied.
"And what does Daniel Jackson, peaceful explorer, say now?" Jack pressed.
"He's saying that I don't want the guy's head, but that I will defend myself if necessary. He's also saying that it might be okay and fun to scare the piss out of Josiah," was Daniel's answer, a small smile on his face as he dug into his food, his heart a bit lighter.
SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1
Hammond had left the duo behind, having made plans with General Post earlier. He did caution Daniel to be careful and not do something rash that would endanger himself and the SGC.
Daniel, always respectful (unless under the occasional influence of alien technology) acknowledged the general's words and promised to be smart about confronting Josiah.
Eventually, Daniel grabbed his jacket and pulled his sword out from under his bed.
"Where you are going?" Jack asked.
"I'll be outside by the pool waiting for Josiah. I figure you and the hotel staff might get a bit pissed if we end up destroying the room. I don't think there's a coked up celebrity staying here that we could blame the mess on."
Jack looked at him with a measurable amount of concern. "Do you think he'll actually come and if he does show up, do you think you can take him if he challenges you?"
"Wow, thanks for the moral support there my friend," Daniel said caustically, rolling his eyes.
"No, I'm just saying that this would be your first real challenge since you came back from being ascended. And before you say anything, that idiot at Circuit City doesn't count. This guy has three thousand years under his belt; do you think you can take him?" Jack pressed, looking slightly worried.
Daniel did his best to project an aura of confidence, not wanting his best friend to worry too much about him. "I've been practicing a lot with Methos, who is one of the best swordsmen out there, making sure I can deal with a real challenge if faced with one. And you're right the idiot at the electronics store didn't really count. He was an idiot and an asshole. Josiah will be different, but I am fairly confident in myself and my skills."
"Fairly confident?" Jack grew wide-eyed at that hearing that.
"Jack, I can't be one hundred percent sure about anything, but I am fairly certain that I am ready for this," Daniel said, not wanting to deliberately alarm his friend, but not wanting to give him false expectations.
Jack took this in and looked seriously at his friend. "Daniel, I can't tell you what to do; you're a grown man and part of something that despite my best effort to understand, I can't totally get my head around. However, if you end up fighting this guy, win. He isn't your student anymore, when he killed your wife and tried to kill you, he destroyed that connection to you. That said don't let your nasty, pissy-ass side overtake your more reasonable self."
"I know Jack.try not to worry too much. I'll be out by the pool if anyone asks where I can be found," Daniel said. "Also, please remember that no matter what happens, you need to stay out of it Jack. It's my fight."
"So you're already expecting it to turn out that way?" Jack asked a hard look in his eyes. "That's quite to positive outlook you got there."
Daniel shrugged. "Just being realistic really."
"Watch your-self Danny-boy," Jack sighed, knowing that there was nothing more that he say or do to get Daniel to avoid a possible fight.
"Always," Daniel said, offering up a ghost of a smile to his friend.
SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1
Jack watched his friend leave. He tried to watch some television, but after reading the digital description of what was coming up, he made a quick decision. He knew that Daniel would not be entirely too happy with him, but it wasn't like he was actually interfering. He was just, Jack reasoned, being a concerned friend and team leader. If he had to go through the process of finding and breaking in a new archeologist again, Jack knew there wasn't enough storage under Cheyenne Mountain to hide all of the bodies that would accumulate in a short period of time. The time when Daniel had been with the Glow Club had been bad enough; he didn't want to have to spend the rest of his military career (or until the Goa'uld finally got around to blowing Earth's collective ass out of the solar system) without an experienced archeologist by his side and being a voice of reason in a typically chaotic SG1 mission
He picked up his jacket and a newspaper, and went downstairs to the hotel lobby. There he sat down in the lobby, covertly watching the front door, waiting for Kinsey's aide to arrive. Within the hour, the slighter man arrived through the front door and looked slightly fearful as he scanned the large room, as if he half expected Daniel to jump out from behind the potted palm tree and attack him with his sword.
"Sherman," Jack called out, remembering the other Immortal's current identity and stood up, ignoring the loud creaking in his knees.
Josiah looked startled, seeing the Colonel sitting in an alcove off to his right. Immediately he tensed, automatically suspicious as to why O'Neill was there.
"I'm not here to interfere," O'Neill said quietly, careful to let Josiah see that his hands were empty and that he posed no immediate threat. He remembered Daniel telling him about an Immortal friend of his that had been killed by mortals and how that event had rattled the entire Immortal community to the point where many of their kind were suspicious of any mortal that involved themselves with the dealing of Immortals. He didn't want Daniel's ex-student to think that he had something devious in mind, causing the Immortal to react badly and end up shish-ka-bobbing him as a result of his good intentions.
Josiah, still looking weary, drew his jacket further around his frame. "Then what do you want?" his voice clear and steady, no trace of an accent that would mark his origins as something other than being from the US of A. It made Jack wonder briefly about Daniel's accent, or lack thereof.
"Daniel is waiting out by the pool. I just wanted to have a word with you before you two got into anything," Jack said calmly and gestured towards the chair and sofa combo that he had just vacated.
"Why?" Josiah asked, slowly sitting down on the burgundy couch
"Why not?" Jack replied, sitting on a coordinating over-stuffed chair across from the older man.
Josiah shrugged and joined O'Neill in the nook by a picture window. He sat down and stared at the mortal, letting him start the conversation.
"Do you want to fight Daniel? Seriously?" Jack asked.
"I don't know. Maybe. Why do you want to know? Are you here to talk me out of it, afraid that your friend will lose?" Josiah asked, staring at the Colonel, his brown eyes as cold and unfeeling as Jack's eyes.
"Hardly," Jack snorted. "I haven't been able to talk Daniel out of anything since I met him. I know better than to expect the impossible. I just wanted to ask you a question or two."
"About what?" Josiah asked hostility evident in his voice.
"I want to know why you tried to kill Daniel all those years ago. He was your teacher. Why would you do that to someone that took you in?" Jack pressed.
"We needed the supplies," was Josiah's half-truth response.
Jack ground his teeth. "I am sure that if you had asked, Daniel would have given them to you. Instead you tried to take his head and killed his wife. Did you know that in doing so, through your betrayal, you unleashed something pretty damn scary?"
"What are you talking about?" Josiah asked; curiosity and shame coloring his words.
The mortal sighed. "Daniel has a very nasty side and I will readily admit that I don't know all of it, but from what he has told me, he was not a pretty site. Chaos, death, and destruction were the calling cards of him and his friends. Also, while he is in all honesty and sincerity a peaceful man, he has the heart and skill of a warrior."
"Oh Lord! Was Daniel one of the Horsemen?" Josiah asked, recalling stories and legends that had circulated through the Immortal community over the millennia.
"No," Jack said darkly. "He was apparently friends with them though. Your betrayal and how he died while chasing you sent him over the edge."
Josiah was visibly pale as he thought back to what had transpired three thousand years before and what his actions had unleashed. While he wasn't responsible for what Dan'yar had actually done to others, he was responsible for being the catalyst to bring about the homicidal bent his old teacher had apparently experienced.
"Why are you telling me this?" Josiah questioned when he was finally able to find his voice.
"I want you to think about what you did when you go out there. I want you to understand fully who and what Daniel is and what you helped bring about. While I am sure that eventually Daniel would have snapped and gone all Road Warrior at some point, your betrayal as his student did not help things. Also, I want you to consider what your position as an aide to Kinsey entails. If you, or Daniel to a lesser extent, were to suddenly disappear or show up somewhere a head shorter, there would be an inquiry by certain government agencies, namely the NID. I am sure you are aware of Kinsey's ties to them. What if the NID were to find out about you guys, hunt you down, and start experimenting on you like lab rats?"
"I see," Josiah said evenly, carefully schooling his features so that the Colonel would not be able to see the disquiet that was going on in his mind.
"Thank you for this talk Colonel," Josiah abruptly said and stood up. "You said he is out by the pool?"
"Yeah he is," Jack replied, looking hard at the Immortal. "I'd wish you luck, but Daniel is one of my best friends and deep down, if it comes to a fight between the two of you, I hopes he kicks your ass."
Josiah nodded his head, accepting Jack's words, leaving the mortal behind, ready to face his old teacher, finally after three thousand years.
SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1
"Dan'yar," Josiah called out, looking all around him, taking in the stacked white plastic chairs and the tarp covered swimming pool.
"Not to get all clichéd about it, but Dan'yar is dead and gone. You can call me Danil if you like," Daniel said, adopting his older, colder personae. His expression was pretty unreadable, but there was a dangerous and calculating look in his ice-blue eyes. He sat there in one of the lawn chairs, his sword lying across his lap, ready for action and violence.
Josiah, despite feeling a cold chill run down his back as he gazed upon his first teacher, he forced himself to look Danil in the eye. While he had taken plenty of heads in his time, and gained a considerable amount of skill and knowledge in the past three thousand plus years, he felt easy to stand before the man he had betrayed. "So what now?"
"I want to know why you felt it was necessary to try and take my head and then kill my wife," Daniel asked harshly.
"I was scared. You talked about the Game and that there would be people after my head because I was new and many would take me for a weakling, easy prey," Josiah confessed. "We were told that we had to go and the thought of being out there in the world, an easy target for other Immortals scared me. I thought that if I had your knowledge and skill, I would be safer and that I would be able to protect my people."
"You were plenty skilled and could have easily defended yourself from most threats. I would not have trained you otherwise. I wasn't the type of teacher that would allow my student to be unprepared for the future. If you had wanted to go, I would have given you my blessings and reassurances that you were ready to take care of yourself. You didn't have to steal from my home, you definitely didn't need to try and kill me, and you sure as all hell didn't need to kill Harere!" With each word, Daniel's voice grew sharper and louder, venom pouring from his tongue as he verbally attacked his old student.
Josiah shook his head vehemently. "Killing her was an accident. I had my sword raised over your neck and she ran at me with a knife. I reacted without thinking. I never intended to hurt her."
"Oh, so that makes it all better? You meant to kill me and take my head, but you didn't mean to kill my wife. That's so nice of you."
"Danil," Josiah pleaded, knowing that despite that he didn't deserve it he wanted his former teacher's understanding, if not forgiveness. "I am so sorry for what I did. I never meant to kill Harere and I am so sorry that I betrayed you."
"Do you know what happened after I revived?" Daniel asked, this time his voice void of the hot anger that had been present before, now replaced with an icy fury.
"I heard some things," Josiah ventured.
"After I was killed at the Gulf of Aqaba, I ran into my old friends – the Four Horsemen. I wish I could say that I had a complete break with reality and had no ability to tell right from wrong, but that would be a lie. Sadly enough, I knew better, I just didn't care anymore and I wanted revenge. Since I couldn't have your head, I punished everyone for your actions. I joined up with four of the most infamous Immortals and helped them in their reign of terror across three continents. I was Hades, always following Death, killing whoever crossed my path."
"That was a long time ago," Josiah observed feeling the blood drain from his face.
"Yes it was, but things could always change," Daniel said, playing up the part of Danil. "That part of me is just stored away, it was never completely gone."
"I've seen your file, thanks to my position as a top aide to Senator Kinsey, though I did not even slightly suspect that Dr. Daniel Jackson could be Dan'yar my teacher from over three thousand years ago. A picture wasn't in the folder that I had been given. However what I did see was pretty interesting and let me make my assumptions with less prejudice than I would have if I had know that Dr. Jackson was actually the Dan'yar I knew from long ago. According to your psych profile, you aren't the homicidal maniac that you had been once upon a time and according to Kinsey you are, and I quote, a god-damn tree-hugging, bleeding-heart hippie that wants everyone in the galaxy to be happy and who doesn't give a fuck about the security of the United States."
"I was never a hippie and I don't exactly care about the happiness of the Goa'uld," Daniel said snidely. "And I don't care about the United States? How many times have I died for this planet? Besides, do you really think I would let some shrink actually get inside my head, letting them find out who I really am? Would you?"
"Probably not," Josiah said slowly. "But what about when you ascended? Would you have been allowed to join the Ancients if you were still that way?"
"Maybe Oma made a mistake. The Ancients aren't omnipotent you know," he said.
"You aren't Anubis. Anyways, all I can do is apologize to you for what I did. If you don't accept it, fine and we can always fight it out," Josiah offered.
"Are you sure you want to do that? You won't get to cheat this time," Daniel taunted his former student.
"I've learned a few things since we parted," Josiah said, stepping back putting some distance between him and Danil, careful to angle him-self so he wouldn't fall into the empty pool (it wasn't warm enough for the outdoor pool to be put into usage just yet).
Daniel smiled a nasty smile. "So have I. It's amazing what you can learn from some of the more infamous mass murderers in history."
Josiah, with over three thousand years of experience under his belt did his best to not visibly gulp in fear, but he still felt a flash of fear deep within himself. He would be facing his old teacher, an ancient Immortal, in an even fight. No tricks, no cheating was going to be allowed this time. It would be skill against skill alone and from what Josiah remembered, Dan'yar had been a sword master back when they had first met and surely he had kept up with his skills and had grown even more skilled than from before. While he was far from being a slouch, there was always the possibility that his opponent might be more skilled and more determined to win than him. This could very well be the case.
Dan'yar, Danil, Daniel, or whatever he chose to call himself in thin incarnation clearly oozed with skill and power – his Quickening signature was completely off the scale of anything he had ever encountered before in his long life. Also, there was a look in his eyes that screamed bull-headed determination – probably the same thing that made him such a valued member of the SGC, if the files and reports that he had read were anything to go by.
Daniel unfolded himself from the chair, standing up and stretching, his sword in hand. He held it up, inspecting the blade carefully. In the sickly amber glow given off by the lights mounted around the pool area, the metal gleamed
"You know, I've never killed a former student of mine," Daniel commented off-handedly. He held his sword in a low hand set, at a diagonal covering from his hip to his left knee. Daniel looked ill prepared, not at all ready to defend him-self, unlike Josiah who held his sword out in front of his body, guarding his kill-zone.
Both Immortals stood there, neither of them blinking.
Before anyone could draw in a breath, yell out a warning, Daniel moved. His sword came up in a clearing arc, knocking Josiah's a fraction to the side, but that was all Daniel needed. He drew up his knee and delivered a brutal, but effective side kick to his opponent's knee, forcing the joint backwards. A sickening crunching sound could be heard clearly though the night air. As much as Josiah might not have wanted to react, he could not help a yelp of pain escape from his lips as his knee shattered.
Daniel, not wasting any time, slid forward and brought his trailing leg up and drove it into the other Immortal's stomach. As he did this he brought the pommel of his sword down, striking Josiah just above the base of his skull, causing them man to fall further down, this time, barely able to stand on his one good leg as the injured on started to slowly knit together. To add insult to injury, Daniel then brought up his knee, smashing Josiah in the nose, causing blood to spurt and spatter all over the place.
Josiah crumpled to the ground. Daniel let him hit the pavement like a sack of wet sand. Josiah's sword clattered on the ground, the metal shrieked as it scraped across the concrete. Blood and tears of pain that he could not avoid, formed a pool beneath his head even as his Quickening began to heal the newer injuries.
Daniel stood over him; barely breathing hard, the effort apparently had taken little energy to accomplish. He let the tip of his sword dig in slightly as he drew it across his former student's neck. He stepped on the sword, preventing Josiah from picking it up to defend himself.
"You killed an innocent woman because you were scared. Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you," Daniel said, ice in his voice, playing the part of Danil to the hilt (no pun intended).
"I want to live," Josiah's mumbled reply came, his voice distorted by a broken nose and possible jaw. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry that I killed Harere. I was stupid and foolish. Please don't kill me." Josiah did not beg, he did not bawl, he simply answered his old teacher's question, putting all the truth and conviction he could into his voice and words, hoping that even if Dan'yar did not spare his life, he would at least make it as painless as possible. He remembered when Dan'yar had admitted to torturing someone back when things had been simpler, more innocent; when they had been teacher and student, not adversaries.
Daniel smiled coldly and raised the sword high over his head, preparing to take the other Immortal's head. He swung downwards, power and energy, combined with gravity, the blade sliced through the air. It made a tiny whistling noise as it sped towards the fallen Immortal's neck.
With only millimeters to spare before the razor sharp blade sliced through the muscles, tendons, arteries, and all of the parts that made up the neck of a person, Daniel stilled the blade, wrenching his shoulders, but refusing to let Josiah know how much it actually hurt to stop himself.
"I haven't ever killed a student, and I am not about to start with you," Daniel said softly.
"But I don't understand," Josiah whispered, looking up at his teacher.
"Killing you won't bring Harere back, as the cliché goes. However, you are more valuable to the SGC alive than dead. You owe me your life and you will pay me back by being the eyes and ears for the SGC in Kinsey's office. If you betray any of us to that slimy bastard, I will come after you and kill you. No mercy, no second chances. Do I make myself perfectly clear?" Daniel said evenly, his blue eyes dark and probing. "If you find out that Kinsey is trying to make a move against Hammond, SG1, any other personnel from the SGC, or their families, you are to call me or Colonel O'Neill immediately. Do you understand what will happen if you fail?"
Josiah nodded numbly, grateful for the reprieve. He knew that Dan'yar had every reason and right to kill him, yet he showed mercy.
"Don't think that I am showing you mercy. Like I said, you are more valuable alive than dead. The survival of the SGC and this planet is more important than the three thousand year old grudge I have against you. You fuck me with me even once and there will not be anywhere on this planet or even the galaxy you can hide. I will hunt you down and demonstrate what it was like when I was known as Hades, friend and companion to the Horsemen," Daniel hissed, his voice full of conviction and venom.
With that Daniel fished a business card out of his pocket and threw it at Josiah. "Before the shit hits the fan, I had better get a phone call from you." He backed up, taking his foot off Josiah's sword and moved far enough back that he wouldn't be taken by surprise if Josiah decided to attempt to kill him once again.
With that, Josiah grabbed the card, wiped the blood from his face. His picked up his sword and looked over at Daniel, knowing that the man was not going to let him take him by surprise again, knowing that if he tried anything, Dan'yar would kill him, regardless of the cost to the SGC.
He tried to think of something clever or witty, but nothing came to mind. It wasn't appropriate and he was old enough to know when to shut the hell up. Instead he nodded and beat a hasty retreat.
Daniel watched him go and finally let out a great sigh.
"Was that wise?" Jack called, standing in the shadows, his arms folded across the top of the fence, watching his friend with concern.
A grin broke out across Daniel's face. "It was. It might serve us to have an inside person on Kinsey's staff." He wasn't surprised to see his friend there. "Did you have fun talking to him before he came out? And didn't I tell you to not interfere?"
Jack affected an innocent look. "Who me?"
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Jack, I can see through the windows directly into the lobby from here," he vaguely gestured towards the building. "I saw you talking to him."
"I didn't interfere with your Game. I just wanted to get a sense of him and what he's like."
The older of the two shook his head and sighed.
"Did you have fun breaking the kid's face and scaring the crap out of him though?" Jack asked as he hopped the fence, ignoring the grinding in his knees as he did so.
Daniel laughed and sat back down on his vacated seat. "Yeah, it was actually fun."
"Did you learn anything from any of this?" Jack queried as he collapsed into a chair besides his friend. "I seriously thought you were going to kill him."
Daniel nodded thoughtfully. "I originally intended to kill him, but it just seemed wrong as I sat there, listening to him. Killing that little shit behind Circuit City was one thing. He was a nut and wanted a fight. Killing Josiah seemed pointless, but I didn't want him to know that. There aren't many of us old Immortals left and it just didn't seem right to kill another one of us, especially one for reasons that were thousands of years old. Besides, this gives an in with Kinsey and that snaky bastard won't know anything about it."
"You don't think he'll betray us to Kinsey do you?"
He shrugged. "Anything is possible, but I don't think so. He knows I'll come after him and he won't take the chance of exposing the existence of Immortals to Kinsey. He knows the dangers; he knows the same as the rest of us what could happen if the government and the population at large would find out about our existence. It would be easier for people to deal with the idea of aliens than the idea that there are people that can live forever among them."
Jack nodded, agreeing with Daniel. "So what now? Do we wait with anticipated breath for Josiah to call us and let us know when Kinsey is going to try and take over the SGC?"
"I don't know. I am going to go with my gut feeling and say yes. Besides, we can check with Abbott when we get back and see who is watching him. I would bet that its someone close to the Kinsey camp and we might be able to use him or her to make sure Josiah doesn't screw us over."
"You're a crafty one you know that? So other than that, what do you plan on doing now?" Jack asked, sitting back in his chair.
"Well, I was thinking of buying you a beer and then seeing what's on HBO."
"Porn. Something about desperate housewives looking for something that only the pool boy can give them."
"Oh. How in the hell do you know that and do I actually want to know?"
"There was a description of Naughty Wives Part Five on the digital guide that I saw earlier. But the beer sounds better," Jack said and stood. He offered a hand to Daniel and hauled him up off his chair.
Daniel stashed his sword in the folds of his coat and turned to follow his friend, content to have a beer with Jack, somewhat happier and lighter, knowing that he had been able to finally deal with his feelings of anger and betrayal that had festered for over three millennia. Whether or not Josiah, or Joseph as he liked to be called these days, helped them in their mini-war with Kinsey was not truly important. The fact that he could deal with his anger and emotions and not let them control him was the real victory in this surprise encounter.
A/N: Well, what do you think? Crap or not? Hit the shiny review button and let me know what you think.
First off, apologies and excuses: I know that this is horribly late in being posted. In my defense, my computer went wonko and died once again. It took awhile to get it fixed (I am on my third hard drive btw) so that messed with things. Also, work interfered with my ability to write. State testing and state reviews came up and messed with everything. I was either too busy or too tired to write. Then the husband came home on leave and well, he wanted attention and beer. Plus I kind of massively missed him, so I spent more time with him than on the story. Finally, I got stuck on how to end this chapter. I really hit a wall here. However, thanks to my dear friend Lorilei, I was able to get back on track and rediscover the sadist side to my personality. Thank you so very much for all of the encouragement, proofing, and prodding you sent my way. You are the best! Also, thank you to everyone that has put me on a list, sent me a review, or at least took the time to read my stuff. Thank you very much; it is very much appreciated.
Now, off to work on the next chapter. Hopefully it won't take so long to get done. We shall see.
Cheers!