Chapter Four: The Reason Why
Daniel woke up the next day, facing Jack whose gaze was locked on him. After the precious night, he blushed at the look the older man was giving him. There was nothing sexier to Daniel than this older man. Jack had always been in good shape and even if he stopped keeping himself in active-duty shape, those chocolate brown eyes would have turned Daniel to Jell-O all by themselves.
"Hi," he said, clearing his throat as his voice was coming out husky.
Jack smiled at him in response, "Hi yourself, my beautiful Danny."
Daniel was pretty sure his blush had just gotten brighter, his face sure got a lot warmer. Jack lifted Daniel's hand and kissed the palm, close to his thumb and it caused a shiver to run through the younger man. The Colonel noticed the shiver and did it again with a little bit of teeth added for benefit.
"SG-1, are you decent?" Damnation called from the other side of the flap.
"Define 'decent'?" Jack whispered as he kissed Daniel's hand once more before sitting up. Daniel sighed, sitting up as well. Across the room, Teal'c and Sam were pulling away from each other, having been involved in some good morning routine as well. This was going to take some getting used to for all of them, SG-1 paired off with each other. If they ever did happen upon a way home, they were going to have to hide everything from General Hammond if they wanted to stay together and Daniel didn't imagine Jack taking to well to the idea of splitting the four of them up. He didn't even approve of when other teams borrowed Daniel, or even Sam and Teal'c. With the institution that would gladly send Jack to jail for loving Daniel they were better off here.
"Come on in," Jack grumbled, Daniel squeezed his lover's hand before trying to pull away. Jack wouldn't let him; Daniel gave him a confused look to which Jack responded with a wink.
"Do you see what you did? You had no right to meddle in their affairs!" Damnation was mad and he was yelling at the young blonde that had served them dinner the night before.
"What's going on?" Jack demanded.
"This is Love, she and her lackeys served you a meal last night and dosed you while she was at it!" Damnation growled, his grip on the woman tightening to painful proportions which Daniel took offense to.
"I think you should let her go," Daniel said in an unflinching tone of voice.
Damnation glared at Daniel for his interruption. He even took a step towards Daniel but Jack took a step over so he was standing between Daniel and Damnation, pulling the Archeologist from his glaring. Jack clearly needed to protect him though Daniel was sure they were going to fight about the mother hen gene that Jack had more than once as they had in the past. Since Damnation couldn't glare at Daniel, he turned back to the victim of his original ire.
"What did she dose us with exactly?" Jack asked, distracting Damnation once more to which Daniel had to grin a little about. He clearly didn't like the look Damnation was giving Love either.
"Her ability is to allow a person to see past all the reasons not to be with the person you love, her lackeys take care of dropping someone's inhibitions. Desire and Lust cannot be stopped, their powers are all around them like air but Love here knows how to control her ability and she used it to make you guys see your love for each other."
"You were incapable of seeing the hurt they felt at not being with each other. You cannot see how much energy they use to hide those feelings from everyone around them."
Daniel stepped forward to look at Jack, curious about what the woman said. He knew for himself it was mostly true, he was constantly guarding his words and actions. Jack glanced sideways at Daniel and gave a little affirmative shrug as if to say, 'eh its not wrong'.
"They must have had their reasons for fighting their feelings, right?" the last word Damnation spit out was directed as SG-1 as a whole.
"Well we are a military unit, its against the rules to fraternize with team members, we would be separated," Sam explained.
"I was married to another woman," Teal'c added.
"I was too," Daniel stated.
"Plus military men are not allowed to be in love with another man," Jack finished with the biggest issue they had. Jack still hadn't released Daniel's hand and he was grateful for that, needing the comfort the contact gave him.
This seemed to enrage Damnation even more, "For the love of Zara! Why must you insist on butting into things that are not your business!"
Daniel took another step forward, definitely away from Jack's physical act of protection, to which Jack heaved an annoyed sigh but did nothing to stop him, "Listen, we know that you're mad at her but we're okay. She's right, we were using too much energy to hide this from each other and we don't seem to be capable of going home so this anger at her is moot."
Damnation stared Daniel down but the he refused to back down from the fight. He wasn't okay with the way Damnation was treating the woman. He hissed at Daniel, "This is my charge, not yours. Keep out of my business; there is a reason they answer to me! It is my job to kill those who are a danger to our people. Could you make that choice for me, for her?"
Daniel stood shocked by his words. He couldn't imagine being in charge of whether someone needed to die or not and Daniel could see the trauma in Damnation's eyes. He'd made this decision for many people before. "She doesn't deserve to die for this, Vane."
The use of his name made Damnation pause and released Love who rubbed her arm where he'd been grabbing her. He turned back to the woman, "Leave them alone. This is not your life and from here on out its their choice what to do with this information and their feelings for one another."
She nodded, looking a little frightened at how close she'd apparently come to losing her life. She looked at SG-1 as well, "I do apologize for taking your choice away from you." She left the room, leaving a still fuming Damnation standing in front of them. He turned that glare on Daniel, who didn't flinch away from the anger.
"Do not ever question my authority in front of my people ever again or you will be kicked out of the village!" he got real quiet as he stepped into Daniel's space, crowding him. Daniel still refused to back down even while Jack grumbled at his side, "And do not use my real name in front of them."
"Don't threaten him!" Jack barked back, losing his patience while he pushed at Damnation's chest to keep him away from Daniel.
Daniel held up a hand again, staying Jack's response. He didn't want this man to think he was someone he could attack as long as Jack wasn't around, "I understand your position as best I can and I can see how you do not have an enviable station in this place or with these people. I wanted you to take into account that we understand that she was trying to help even though she didn't ask us. Please understand that I have no intention of threatening your position but I cannot abide women being harmed by someone bigger and stronger and neither can the rest of the team."
Damnation took a step back from Daniel and the younger man took a deep breath, "It does not matter who you are or what you think you can handle. The Infidels must be contained and ruled with an iron fist other wise they will use their abilities to hurt other people. You may not understand it but you have to accept it."
Daniel nodded in understanding and Damnation relaxed more completely, become the young fun loving, if not a little creepy, man they met the day before.
"Now that everything is settled would you like to see why you cannot just wander around this world without back up?" Damnation asked.
Daniel stepped back so Jack was standing at the lead of their team. Sam and Teal'c were standing off to the other side of Jack, holding hands. Jack automatically reached for Daniel's hand and pulled the younger man so he was standing even with the Colonel. It was a blatant message that they were a couple now and the same rules no longer applied to them.
"Can we have our weapons?" Jack asked, hope evident in his tone.
Damnation grinned, "You are a one track minded kind of guy."
Jack shrugged, "Well?"
"We have some weapons for you to carry, anything we run into will not be harmed by those weapons you carried anyway. The monsters have hardened hides almost over their whole body and it takes close combat to hurt them."
Jack nodded finally, "Let's get this over with, the more information we get about this place the better off we are right?" he asked Daniel. Daniel stared at him in shock before nodding.
Damnation left them to take care of morning rituals and get some food to eat. They all reconvened an hour later. SG-1 standing and looking at four men, one being Damnation and the other three were apparently their guards for the little jaunt they were about to embark on.
"Jack, Sam, Teal'c and Daniel; these are my lieutenants Assassin, Wizard and Phynix. They are going to help protect you while we are traveling outside of the shield." All of the men were young, mid twenties maybe, just like Damnation. Assassin was tan with dark hair, pulled back into a ponytail and dark brown eyes that spoke of hard times in fact they all had that look. Wizard was blonde and blue eyed and they all shared a similar swimmers build. Phynix was a little strange, he was tan like the others and he had dark coloring that was becoming but he was covered in tattoos of phoenix birds all over his neck and arms. They were flying or falling, turning to dust and rising from the ashes over and over again.
"Our jailers?" Jack asked Damnation.
He smiled in return, nodding in answer, "Sure Jack, and you are with me. Assassin takes Daniel, Wizard and Sam and Phynix with Teal'c."
They all moved to stand closer to their charges, Daniel stood next to Jack and Sam next to Teal'c. Jack reached out to take Daniel's hand just as Damnation handed out blades. They walked to the forest side of town and waited a minute before there was a physical snap of power and they walked through where the shield normally was.
They took a leisurely stroll through the woods, Daniel stayed with Jack and every now and then their hands would brush against each other but they didn't hold hands since Jack was very concerned about having his hands free in case of some sort of attack.
Daniel loved that he could get away with touching Jack every once in a while and the night before had been everything he could have imagined. He couldn't wait to spend some more time with his new lover and discover what else they could do to each other and with each other.
They had been walking for about an hour, making good distance away from the campsite when Damnation motioned for them to stop. Jack took a step forward so he was standing just a little bit in front of Daniel as he looked around, "What's up boss?"
Damnation glanced at him then motioned for them to look up. Jack did, not seeing anything at first then his eyes got used to the dim light that filtered through the trees. It was a creature of mixed breeding or something. It had the head of a lion, the body of a lizard and the tail of a scorpion. It jumped to the ground and all of SG-1 moved back away from it quickly. The Infidels as Damnation called them, laughed at their reaction. Assassin stepped forward as the creature lunged. Then the freak of nature just stopped and leaned down like it was being forced into the ground by gravity. Assassin was apparently doing something to it. Daniel stepped forward to get a better look at the creature, curiosity winning him over.
"Danny," Jack warned him gently.
"I just want to see it more closely," Daniel responded.
"Let him be, Jack, Assassin has the creature. Let your scientists have a closer look." Damnation's words did nothing to alleviate Jack's worry but Daniel wasn't stopping and Sam stepped up as well.
"The skin is thick and its strange that the DNA from obvious different sources. How did they make a creature like this?"
Damnation shrugged as the creature fought Assassin's hold, "Zarcorp's scientists found a way to merge DNA to create these creatures which they call ConjoCrea. They are specifically engineered to attack during the nighttime hours and they target Vannas. They are hunters of the night for Zarcorp, the Bounty Hunters are their day partners, they kidnap any Vannas they find to be studied and tortured for information but for the most part the creatures are just used to kill any stragglers."
"How many are there?" Jack asked.
"Not too many but we leave them alone for the most part and they cannot get inside our shields."
"So this is show and tell?" Jack asked. Daniel was listening to the conversation as he moved around the creature; staying away from the deadly tail and watched as it fought the magical hold that Assassin was trapping it under. It was an interesting creature to look at. He wondered about the ethics of the person or people who were willing to create monsters like this for the sole purpose of killing people you didn't understand.
"Hold it Assassin," Damnation warned suddenly. Daniel looked back as the other man struggled and then somehow everything moved too fast for him to act. The creature reached out a heavy paw and slapped Daniel to the ground, leaping over and standing on Daniel's chest as Jack called his name and tried to reach him.
The claw leaned into Daniel's chest until he felt a snap in his chest and shouted in pain before the pressure was removed and he faded into painless unconsciousness.