Rising from the Ashes of Ascension

Chapter 19

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

Over the next two days, Daniel and Adam spent their time going over the cave paintings and the temple, busy translating a language that combined Sanskrit and Goa'uld. It was a challenge for them to be able to switch between the two languages and make sense of it all, but it was something that they both enjoyed immensely. The two scholars were lost in their Magical Kingdom and were as happy as three year-olds on the It's a Small World ride for the fifth time. They might be Immortals, killers, but whether or not they wanted to admit it (at least on Methos' part), they were scholars and enjoyed the thrill of learning.

Sam busied herself, with the assistance of Brennan, studying the statues and other items that appeared to contain imprisoned Goa'uld. According to the carvings that Adam had translated for her, they contained (or at least were supposed to – they wouldn't know for sure until they got the statues back to the SGC for a closer and safer examination) the enemies of Kali.

Sam tried to access the memories of Jolinar, but could not find anything that would tell her if the Goa'uld were actually Tok'ra or just members of the Goa'uld that had managed to piss the false-goddess off. She only hoped that when they got back to the SGC, they would be able to contact the Tok'ra and they would be able to tell them exactly who was imprisoned. She really hoped that her dad would be able to pay Earth a visit. It had been a long time since they had seen each other and she missed him immensely.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Adam were busy scouring the walls of the temple, busy translating the passages carved into the granite walls. Sam had told them earlier that she thought the stone was something similar to Black Galaxy granite, noting the tiny flecks of white in the material, giving it the appearance of stars against the backdrop of deep space.

"You know what," Daniel said while taking a break and getting a drink of water. He had long ago abandoned his BDU blouse and was clearly sweating through his black t-shirt.

"I know lots of things," Methos replied, keeping his eyes fixed on a section of the wall while writing furiously in a notebook.

"Ha-ha. You're hilarious. What I was going to say is that I miss deserts," Daniel said, sighing.

"It's hot in the desert too you know," Methos replied, not bothering to look at his old friend.

"I know, but at least it's a dry heat unlike the humidity of a jungle. This is disgusting," he groused, tugging on his t-shirt, hoping to get a little relief from the damp material that was clinging to his chest.

"I know what you mean. I miss Aruba, the sun, the sand," Methos mussed.

"More like the scantily clad women and the bottom-less drinks," Daniel said sarcastically.

Methos shrugged. "You can't have one without the other."

"Did I hear something about women and drinks?" Jack called out. It was his turn to check on the teams' archeology and cultural experts. "'Cause you know, that really doesn't sound too bad right now."

"Hear that," Methos replied, turning to face the leader of SG-1. "Honestly, when we get back home, I might just go throw myself in a mountain lake somewhere. I know I've been in worse places, but I am beginning to offend myself, though I think Daniel actually smells worse than me."

Jack took a tentative sniff and laughed. "I don't know, you both smell pretty bad, but then I'm no fresh flower myself. So, anything yet," he asked, leaning up against a statue that depicted Kali standing on the body of Shiva. The statue was large, but rested uneasily on a small, low pedestal.

Daniel shrugged. "Much of this is about how Kali defeated and swallowed Time – Kala, and assumed her dark formlessness. It also talks about how Kali went mad at one point and slew her foes and followers alike until Shiva threw himself under her feet. Once she realized that her husband was beneath her, she came back to her senses and the meaningless killings stopped." He carelessly gestured towards the statue that Jack was leaning upon.

"Is she dead or is there still a snake going by Kali somewhere still out there?" Jack asked, sweating as much as the other two.

Methos shrugged. "I don't know. She could be dead, but there is nothing that indicates that she isn't."

"Also, weird thing I noticed is that have any of you noticed that there isn't a significant layer of dust or cobwebs on any of the statues. It's like someone still comes around and cleans the place from time to time," Daniel mussed, looking thoughtful.

At this Jack just about fell over, but instead fell against the statue and sent it crashing to the floor. Everyone jumped back in horror, looking between Jack and the statue that now sported two less arms than it had before the accident. Its head was also broken off.

"My bad," Jack said, looking slightly apologetic.

"What has transpired O'Neill?" Teal'c asked as he, Carter, and Tracey, came running into the room.

"Oh, I think I just committed a cardinal sin in the world of archeology," Jack admitted, feeling the looks of disgust emanating from the two Immortals. "Definitely hell worthy."

Carter took in the sight of her teammate giving her commanding officer the stink-eye and did her best to not laugh. She then switched her gaze to the broken statue. Her eyes were drawn to where the arms and head had separated from the body, noticing that the inside was not solid stone as one would expect, but filled with wiring and crystal technology.

"Oh wow," was all she could say as she moved over to the broken statue, pulling out several diagnostic-type tools, a knife, a pair of pliers, and a roll of duct-tape. It was amazing how she could hold all of those things in her two hands.

"Yes MacGyver?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"I want to take a look at this," she said excitedly, already lost in her attempts to dig further into the statue. "Teal'c, give me a hand here. I think there's a seam here and if I can get it open then I can see what is going inside of this thing."

"Okay," Jack said, doing his best to not roll his eyes. "Keep me informed if you find anything, I'm going to go find Brennan and send him over here to help you. Tracey, you find Francis and continue with your patrol. Keep in radio contact."

"Yes sir," Tracey said and quickly disappeared, running off to find his teammate.

Daniel and Methos continued to work on translating the reliefs and walls, muttering quietly either to himself or each other, trying to make sense of what had been carved into the granite.

"I think this says 'all shall sleep with the pink tiger'," Methos said, squinting between his writings and the carving in front of him. "It could also say 'beware of the sleeping tiger'."

"Oh I'd definitely go with the first," Daniel said, sarcasm heavy in his voice. "That one makes so much more sense."

"Asshole."

"Takes one to know one," Daniel said automatically, not bothering to look up from his work.

By this time, Brennan came in and relieved Teal'c from having to help Major Carter, which really just involved handing her tools when asked for since they had long ago managed to pry open the statue, exposing the inner workings of the deceptively benign statue of Kali and Shiva.

"Guys," Sam eventually called out, her voice worried. "I don't think it's going to matter if the tiger is sleeping or wearing a pink tutu. This statue is a Goa'uld version of a cleverly disguised Brink's home security system and it has been activated."

"Have the authorities been alerted?" Methos asked, his voice an icy calm.

"I don't know, but if they have, I don't think we want to be around," Sam said. "Get your gear together. Sir?" she called over her radio.

"Carter," was Jack's casual reply.

"We might have some company and not of the good kind," came Sam's voice over the radio.

"Damn it!" he said before keying the mike. "Get it together people. Take what is necessary and leave the rest. Tracey, Francis, I want you two to start back to the gate. Dial it up, let command know that we may be in trouble and get back to Earth. We'll bring Brennan back with us."

"Yes sir," the other two members of SG-9 replied and followed the senior officer's orders.

In the meantime, Daniel and Methos shoved their notebooks into their packs along with their smaller tools and cameras. Quickly they shrugged into their black tactical vests, zipped them up, not bothering with their BD blouses and grabbed their weapons.

Brennan, while no stranger to combat, looked a little pale. This was his first time he had ever faced a possible engagement with the enemy alongside SG-1. He knew that the flagship team had a tendency to get into some of the worst situations imaginable and here he was with them.

Fan-fucking-tastic, was the only word that came to his mind at that moment.

SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1

The members of SG1 and the two remaining members of SG-9 made quick work of dismantling their camp site. The stuff that was not immediately necessary, important, or irreplaceable was gathered up and hidden back in the jungle. They covered their belongings and supplies with vines and leaves, praying that their hasty concealment would do the job.

Just as the six members of the SGC were rallying just outside of the temple, ready to make a hasty retreat back to the Stargate, several Deathgliders screamed overhead as a tel'tak suddenly appeared and ringed down several Jaffa who immediately started firing upon the Tau'ri. The teams dove for cover and began to fire their weapons, determined to kill as many of the enemy in hopes of finding a way out of the mess they were in or staving off the inevitability of them being captured.

More Jaffa appeared, either ringed down from tel'taks or having emerged from the jungle foliage, firing their staff weapons.

The Tau'ri replied in kind, the humans firing their P-90s and Teal'c used his staff weapon. The rattle of automatic weapons competed with the whomping blasts given off by the energy weapons. Dirt and shards of rock exploded everywhere, raining down on pinned down members of SG1 and SG9. It did matter how many Jaffa they killed, more appeared to take the place of the fallen.

"Sir! I'm down to my last mag!" Carter yelled at the Colonel, looking at him, separated by several yards, hiding behind a now broken statue of Kali that stood in the clearing in front of the temple.

"Daniel? How you set?" Jack yelled at the man that was beside him, both of them hunkered down behind a large rock.

"Not good!" Daniel yelled back, trying to be heard over the deafening noise. "Any longer and all I'm going to be able to do is throw my weapon at them." At that point Daniel's P-90 clicked empty. Moving with practiced swiftness, he pulled out his last magazine and reloaded his primary weapon.

Jack responded by toss one of the three remaining grenades he had upon him, hoping that would do something. They had already utilized the blocks of C-4 they had planted when they had first come to the planet as a precautionary measure. It was good to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

The grenades only served to piss off the Jaffa even more than they already were.

Eventually though they ran out of bullets and the only functioning weapon was Teal'c staff weapon.

"Defilers of the temple belonging to our Devine Mother surrender," a Jaffa called out.

Taking a quick look out from behind the rock, Jack assessed the situation facing him and his teams. He noticed that several Jaffa, with unfamiliar tattoos on their foreheads surrounding their position. They had no weapons, no guarantee that Francis and Tracey had made it back to the gate to get help (not that he was expecting any), and they were cut off from any means of escape.

"Guys," he called to his people.

All of the members of the SGC sighed heavily and carefully placed their weapons on the ground.

"We're surrendering," Jack called out, a very pissed off look marring his face.

"Who are you?" the leader of the Jaffa called out – evidently the First Prime, judging by the gold seal on his forehead.

"I'm the Great and Powerful Oz. These are my friends Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion," was Jack's glib reply.

"Very original O'Neill," Teal'c said, giving his friend and brother-in-arms an exasperated look.

"I thought so," Jack said, the turned all business, glaring at their captors.

"You're Tau'ri and you," the First Prime said smugly, "are the Shol'va Teal'c."

"Nice to meet you too," Daniel muttered.

"Guys," Jack said quietly to Daniel and Teal'c as they all slowly came forward with their hands raised in the galaxy-wide sign for 'I am completely and absolutely fucked.' "Got an idea on who these guys belong to?"

"I do not know O'Neill," Teal'c rumbled, looking a bit put out that they were surrendering.

"The tattoo looks like a mandala of Kali. The triangle in the middle denotes destruction and the lotus blossoms symbolize rebirth," Daniel said.

"Nice to know," Jack said snidely. "Do you happen to know anything that will get us out of this mess?"

"Not a God damn thing," Daniel replied just as snidely. It was nice to know that no matter how bad the situation could be Jack and Daniel had the ability to needle each other to no end.

All six members of the SGC were thoroughly searched, and after the typical and clichéd smirking and gloating how they, the loyal Jaffa to Kali, had finally been the ones to capture the infamous members of SG-1.

There was much shoving and manhandling as they were ringed aboard the tel'tak and thrown into a cell where they found Francis and Tracey waiting for them. The two other members of SG-9 had been caught before they were able to reach the DHD and were captured.

Needless to say, no one was in a happy mood and when they were told that they were to be taken to meet Kali, no one threw a party in celebration.

"So, does anyone have an escape plan that doesn't involve us dying?" Jack asked, looking around the group, noting the scratch marks on everyone's faces (except Daniel and Adam of course – they had only flecks of dried blood that indicated they had been injured also in the firefight). Luckily none of them had been shot.

Yet.

"I do, but it involves a jump rope, a hundred paperclips, and a lot of butter," Methos said, sliding down a far wall into a sitting position, sitting next to his teammates.

Everyone looked at him for a few seconds.

"Does anyone have a plan that is realistic and not quite so disturbing?" Jack rephrased his question.

No one could come up with something other than trying to fight their captors when the guards came to collect them.

They put up a valiant fight, even with Daniel and Adam doing their damnedest to ensure their escape, but numbers were not on their side. Their mini rebellion was quickly subdued and they were taken away as the First Prime announced their fate.

They were to be brought before Kali, the Mother Goddess, who would decide their fate. Odds were their fate would be death.

A/N: Well, what do you think? Crap or not? Hit the shiny review button and let me know what you think.

First off, I want to reassure people who might be reading this and are Hindi and have reverence (or worship) for Kali. I mean no disrespect to you, your beliefs, or faith. I know that there are many different interpretations of Kali and what she represents to people. I am going with the idea of her being a Mother Goddess, and big on the death and destruction part (in this story she is a Goa'uld after all and not a Tok'ra so I can't really go with the kinder/nicer views of Kali). Please believe me that I am not using Kali as a way to mock someone's faith, but as a way to tell a SG-1 story.

Sources: wiki, a couple of books I have on mythology (I can't find them right now or I would properly cite them), a few odd sites, and a paper written by T.L. Kelly, "Kali as a Symbol of Transformation in Conflict Resolution," July 1998, Portland State University (used without permission, but found it quite interesting – don't sue me please).

Anyway, expect some fun times in the next chapter or two. I plan on having lots of fun with the gang and a certain goddess. Thanks for continuing to read my stuff and if you feel so inclined, leave a review and let me know what you think about it all – good or bad. It would make my day.