Rising from the Ashes of Ascension

Chapter 35

Disclaimer: As much as I might wish, I do not own Stargate: SG1, Highlander: the Series, or any recognizable characters from either show. 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 a while, but they might end up a bit scuffed.

Warnings: Potty language, violence, and occasional sexual references

The group had taken over two hours to make their way back to their hotel, making sure that they hadn't been followed. Their circuitous route took them all over the Kansas City metropolitan area. They got to see many of the touristy highlights of the area, from the amusement parks up north, to the large urban park and zoo in the middle of the city; from the suburban sprawl of the towns surrounding the main city to farm land. It was an educational romp filled with the understandable paranoia that they could be followed. The highlight of the tour was almost hitting a herd of deer in the middle of the road and managing to wipe out a family of raccoons; the truck needed to visit a carwash soon

"Are you guys high?" Amanda asked, sitting on Jack's bed with Daniel's jacket across her lap to hide the fact that her dress was hiked up to un-lady-like levels (not that many people would ever refer to her as being lady-like) as she sat there cross-legged. Her shoes were kicked off into the corner as she listening to her old friend and his friends explain what they did for a living.

.Daniel sighed and ran his hands through his hair, silently willing that this whole thing was indeed a drug induced hallucination and they really hadn't allowed a Goa'uld infected Watcher to escape. "I wish," he muttered and sat back in his upholstered chair, looking at the others sitting around the room. "Someone remind me why I stopped doing drugs to begin with."

"Because you started going through the Gate and the military tests people for illegal substances," Sam suggested. "Other than caffeine, of course."

"Take away my caffeine and I will destroy your lab. Or worse, I'll let Jack in unsupervised," Daniel laughed.

"What is wrong with you?" SG-1's expert on all things scientific asked, her face slightly pale at Daniel's threat. "What did I ever do to you?"

Daniel managed to laugh with narrowed eyes, worrying his friend and reminding her that despite his peaceful demeanor that he showed to ninety-nine percent of the population, he was very much capable of laying waste to the land.

Teal'c looked calm and placid, like he hadn't just watched an op go up in flames, as he quietly meditated in a corner. Jack looked pissed, his hair wild and unkempt; his jacket tossed carelessly on the room's desk while he sat on the rolling desk chair. Sam sat on the same bed as Amanda, frustration clearly etched on her face. Methos, the ass, flopped down on the matching bed, bouncing his leg slightly, knowing it was aggravating Daniel and Jack.

"If you do not sit still, I swear to all that is holy, I will beat you to death with your beer bottle then shove it someplace uncomfortable," Jack ground out, glaring daggers at the Immortal.

"Ooooo, kinky Jack, but you know I require drinks before I put out. You are such a tease with your sexy words," Methos snarked back, though he did stop the bouncing and did a lot of sighing while staring at the ceiling, wondering at his life.

"Can I watch? I like kink," Amanda interjected, a wicked smile across her face.

Sam just rolled her eyes at all of the banter that was going on. While she knew that everyone knew how deep the pile of shit they were in, she appreciated how they were using humor to keep from hyperventilating.

Jack snorted in laughter at Methos, and then answered Amanda. "No you may not and no, we are not high. What you saw was real. The United States' government is at war with an alien race called the Goa'uld, who are hell-bent on either destroying our planet or enslaving us all, depending on the day and which System Lord we have managed to piss off."

"Oh my, aliens are real." she breathed, her eyes wide. "And here I was thinking that Immortals were the most out-there thing possible. I was wrong. No offense to you Teal'c."

"I was not offended AmandaMontrose," the Jaffa rumbled, not bothering to open his eyes. "Space, for your planet, is the final frontier and these are our voyages."

"Can you say that again Amanda dear? I need to record for posterity that you actually admitted you were wrong," Daniel laughed shakily.

The Immortal woman snorted. "Jerk," she laughed, then turned serious again. "So what now? What about Newsome? We can't have a renegade Watcher-slash-Goa'uld running around out there. The damage he could do to your program aside, he is a direct threat to other Immortals, not to mention the Watchers. I don't like the idea of him hurting my friends like Nick or Joe."

Daniel nodded, looking weary. "He is too dangerous to be ignored, even for a little while. He could end up pulling a Seth. I have some vacation time built up. I'll go after him."

Methos sat up and looked at his friend. "No, let me go after him. I still have some connections within the Watchers, and if Goa'uld infected Newsome uses the resources of the Watcher, which are quite vast, using them might be the best way to locate him," he explained. "Also, you guys are going next week to P3X-439. You need to go and pretend like we didn't royally screw this up. I'm still without an off world team," at this he paused and looked slightly remorseful. While he had harden himself against getting emotional over most mortals dying, he wasn't totally immune to regret and loss. Suddenly he shook himself. "I'm floating where needed with the teams. You're head of three departments and a bit more necessary to the SGC than I am."

"What about General Hammond? How do we explain this without him killing all of us?" Sam asked, looking slightly pale. She really didn't want to tell him about this new mess.

"You lie?" Amanda offered unhelpfully.

Jack glared at her. "I cannot lie to my commanding officer Amanda. That's simply not done," he ground out.

"Cause we're always truthful in every debriefing?" Daniel asked sardonically.

Jack growled and dropped his head. His headache was getting worse and worse.

Methos sighed deeply, looking at his friends from the SGC. He knew they were taking this setback hard. "Look, go with my plan of me, with the help of Amanda here, finding the son of a bitch. You guys cover for me. Tell Command whatever, that I've got a family emergency or that I'm on a TDY assignment, whatever."

"I'm helping? Why? I'm not one of you space cadets. I don't take orders," she sarcastically threw back at her friend.

Daniel looked at her with mild irritation. "I'm sorry, but who was it that broke the original statue? Maybe if you hadn't done that, then we could have secured the stasis jar and gotten out of there quicker."

Jack recognized a potential fight when he heard it. "Amanda, Adam needs your help. We have to smooth things over back home. Do it for your friends Nick and Joe. Hell, do it for your planet. Please?"

The Immortal woman glared but nodded, knowing that she was too far down the rabbit hole to back out now. "You owe me Daniel," she growled, starring daggers at her old friend.

"Just add it to my tab," Daniel sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"So, we check out tomorrow morning, head back to Colorado Springs, kind of explain things to Hammond, get chewed out, while you guys go looking for Newsome," Jack pronounced, setting forth a plan for the group. "We'll take care of your apartment and deal with the paperwork your emergency leave will require. You need anything else, like your passport, clothes, whatever, we will get it to you."

Methos smirked. "I've managed to live five thousand years. This isn't my first rodeo Jack. I have plenty of ID's stashed around the world. I'm not tied to my stuff in Colorado Springs."

Jack thought that one over, "D'oh!"

After that, everyone agreed to the general game plan and headed off to their rooms, dreading what Hammond would do to them in the next day.

~SG-1 SG-1 SG-1 SG-1 SG-1~

Daniel, Jack, Sam and Teal'c piled into Jack's pickup truck the next day to head back to Colorado. Methos and Amanda left earlier that morning, setting out to drive to Seacouver. While it was slower than what a flight between the cities would take, Methos was not willing to part with his sword, since he did not bring a secure case with him to transport the weapon, and he figured between the two of them, they could make the lengthy drive into something manageable.

They were going to Seacouver when Methos, after making a series of calls to friends, found out that Joe was back in the city, along with Macleod. While Mac would be nosey and troublesome, they knew that they had to plead their case with Joe in person, for him to give them access to the Watchers' database. The crafty Watcher wasn't going to turn over the keys to the society with a vague long distance phone call. They promised to keep the true details of why they were searching for Newsome to themselves, but Joe would demand an in-person explanation of why Amanda and Methos were hunting a Watcher. Hopefully they would be able to avoid the nosy Boy Scout. He would only complicate matters.

Before they left, Daniel hugged Amanda good bye, apologizing to her for getting her tied up in his crazy world.

The female Immortal just smiled and waved away his acts of contrition. "Please! How many times did I get you tangled up in my adventures? Besides, this, while dangerous and insane, is an amazing opportunity," she said.

Methos rolled his eyes. "Great, we are never going to hear the end of how the Amazing Amanda saved the planet."

Daniel laughed. "Well if there is still a planet to be on and the secret of the existence of Immortals stays secret, I will happily listen to her bragging. However, remind her to please not expose the SGC in the process. And if you can help it, don't kill Newsome. The Tok'ra can remove the snake and then we can always dump him on a planet if he's a risk for talking."

Methos snorted. "I'll do my best."

"We're doomed," Daniel said, accepting that the results might be a bit messy; he was talking to one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse after all.

~SG-1 SG-1 SG-1 SG-1 SG-1~

They made it back to Colorado Springs by early evening. While on the outskirts of the city, Jack called the General and asked him to meet them at his house. None of them wanted the tale of their screw up to make it to the SGC. There were too many secrets involved and no one wanted their story to make it back to the NID.

"What in Sam Hill were you guys thinking?" Hammond yelled. "He escaped?" A vein was bulging from his temple while his face was turning an interesting shade of red.

"If it makes you feel any better, Adam and Amanda are going after the guy. Between the two of them, there is no way this guy can escape. Adam has connections with the Watchers and Amanda is pretty skilled herself," Jack offered, looking slightly morose from his spot on the couch between Daniel and Sam, while Teal'c sat calmly in a chair across from Hammond.

"No it doesn't make me feel any better! Why would having Goa'uld on the loose, being tracked by that ancient son of a bitch and a thief make me feel better?" Hammond was clearly on his way to having a stroke.

"Adam is the best at finding people that don't want to be found. He knows all of the tricks from personal experience and if the Goa'uld ends up using Watcher resources, he knows them too, and Amanda understands the need for secrecy. She isn't about to go blabbing anything. I've known them both for a long time and they really are the best ones for this job," Daniel pleaded his case, looking repentant. He understood why the General was so upset and if the situation had been reversed, he would be as pissed as Hammond.

Hammond glared at all four members of SG-1 and took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down before he ruptured something in his head. "Fine, let the duo work their magic and find this Newsome. I want them to report to one of you, and then you report to me, on their progress once every 48 hours. This cannot get out. The Goa'uld needs to be found yesterday. If the NID finds out about any of this, the consequences will not be pretty for any of us. Is that clear?" General Hammond barked. He was not a yeller, but when he did, people listened; and SG-1 was clearly listening.

"Yes sir," all members of Stargate Command's premier said rather subdued.

"In the meantime, you guys have a scheduled away mission next week P3X-439, but in the meantime, I expect all paperwork that is outstanding to be completed and on my desk before you set foot through the Gate," their commanding officer pronounced, holding his head and rubbing his temples, feeling a migraine coming on. Pushing it aside, he stood up and grabbed a bottle of Glenfidditch Single Malt 26, filched from Methos' personal stock, from the coffee table. It wasn't like the Old Man was going to use it in the immediate future, and it was almost criminal to let a bottle like that sit there with no one to appreciate it for what it was.

"See you in the morning Sir," the others mumbled as they stood up.

Quickly Hammond left, leaving SG-1 to themselves.

Daniel just shook his head, feeling all of his five thousand plus years at that moment. "I have faith in Methos," he said quietly, hoping that his longtime friend would come through for them.

"I'll see you guys in the morning," Jack said. "Hopefully Adam will work quickly and the Goa'uld won't try to shoot our collective asses out of the sky."

"I would settle for you to not get your head stuck in some Ancient technology and send your brain into over drive," Daniel snarked.

"DanielJackson, now that you have said something, Murphy's Law will be upon us like a moist textile wrapper designated for an infant," Teal'c pronounced, looking grave though his eyebrow was slightly cocked conveying some level of amusement.

Sam just rolled her eyes at the Jaffa.

"Nice one," Jack laughed, clapping his friend on the back. "See Danny, this is why you came back from the land of the Ascended. You missed T's witticisms."

Daniel sighed then smiled despite of how terrible things appeared. "Yeah, thanks to my Ascension ending with things in ashes, I finally found out where I belong. It's nice to be home."

The end.

A/N: Well, okay, this is long overdue. Thank you for being so patient and coming back to finish the story up. I truly appreciate it. So, go ahead and feel free to hit the shiny review button and let me know what you think.

I do want to thank Lorilei for kicking my butt and getting me to posting the last chapter. Your help Lori is appreciated. Thank you for the proofing, the idea of using Glenfidditch, and bouncing ideas off of. Your keen wit and amazing levels of sarcasm is something to behold.