Sticks and Stones - Chapter 41 - by Emma Nisbet (grnfield)
Osiris's eyes tightened until they were mere slits. "You lie," he raged, and lifted Sam higher by digging the finger further into her chin. The blood ran freely down the young woman's neck now and Sam supported herself on her tiptoes to take as much pressure off her neck as possible.
"Hey," Lou shouted. "Why won't you believe her. Everyone's tried telling you the same thing and I'll tell you too. SG-1 is finished. No more. Gone. Forever."
A glimmer of doubt crossed Osiris's eyes as they fixed themselves Lou. Slowly he lowered Sam back down and stepped backwards, away from the two team-mates. "Explain yourself. How can this be true?"
"It is true, o…officially there's been no SG-1 for nearly nine months, but…but really it was gone months before that." Sam said quietly.
"But you…you are on SG-1. You are here, surely that proves that you are lying?" Osiris asked, clearly getting annoyed again.
"No…no. You're wrong." Sam replied. "You're not listening, I'm…I'm not on SG-1 any more. SG-1 doesn't exist…I'm part of SG-2 now."
Osiris shook his head in frustration, the honey-blonde curls of Sarah Gardner settling over one shoulder. "How can you expect me to believe what you say. All the Goa'uld know that you Tau'ri cannot be trusted."
"How…how…" Sam stammered, trying to come up with an adequate way of 'proving' this to the irate System Lord. Suddenly she remembered the patch on her arm, sure this wasn't sure-fire proof of what she was saying but it was the best she could come up with at short notice.
"Look," she said, holding out her arm for inspection. "SG-2. I am part of SG-2. This is my Commanding Officer, Lou Ferretti."
Lou held out his arm so Osiris could also see his patch. "The young man there, that you killed so callously, was called Jimmy Sands. He was also one of my men on SG-2."
"And what of the fourth? Not one of your own?" Osiris asked, looking over at the man still curled at the feet of one of the Jaffa.
"Mickey Davies," replied Sam, softly. "He's from SG-3. And before you ask, we're the only ones aboard the ship. The others were down on the planet but I'm pretty sure they'll be gone now. When we didn't return last night they would have been ordered to leave us behind in case we'd been compromised."
"Compromised. A lovely way to put it." Osiris sneered. "I assume you mean, implanted?"
"Something like that," muttered Lou.
"I fail to believe that the most honourable Colonel Jack O'Neill would leave you here. Even if he had been ordered to do so. That man is one of the most stubborn people I have ever had the misfortune to stumble across." Osiris grumbled. "And Doctor Jackson also…my host has memories of his unending loyalty and devotion to both his friends and his work. I fail to believe that either of these two individuals would leave you to your fates without trying some daring rescue mission."
At the mention of her fiancé Jack, and her dead friend Daniel, tears involuntarily sprang into Sam's eyes. Osiris noticed this immediately and chuckled loudly. "Ah, your weakness astounds me even now. The mere mention of your friends makes you cry. Do you believe they will not succeed in rescuing you…or do you think they will not even try? Is it as I suspect, that the reason for the loss of SG-1 is that you can no longer function together as a team? Can you no longer trust one another? Are you spread across your teams to keep you away from each other? Has your Colonel O'Neill turned his back on his team? Is that the real reason you are now on SG-2?"
Osiris asked each question faster and louder and watched in amusement as Sam's military façade crumbled.
"NO!" Sam cried out. Tears rolled freely down her face now but she remained standing defiantly in front of the System Lord. "SG-1 died when Daniel did. How could you not know that. You, oh so powerful God, you? How could you not know that Daniel was dead?"
"How can this be? The Lord Ba'al would have informed me if he had destroyed one of the premier team of the Tau'ri. I am also certain that if another of the System Lords had succeeded in killing Daniel Jackson that they would have been more than forthcoming with the information. There is a bounty on the heads of SG-1 but Apophis single-handedly caused the price on Daniel Jackson's head to rise way…way above all others. That price did not go down with the apparent demise of Apophis. So any System Lord who captured or killed Daniel Jackson would certainly have announced the fact to anyone he or she may have come across. In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if his body was not on display for all to see. It would be the ultimate trophy - and such a pretty one too…"
"You sanctimonious b#stard. It was nothing like that." Sam was barely holding herself together now, and had given up all pretence at control over her emotions. "His death was an accident. An accident, God damn it. There was an earthquake and the pyramid that he was inside at the time collapsed, with him inside it. My only hope is that he was killed instantly and that he wasn't buried alive to die alone under hundreds of tonnes of rock, hoping and praying for rescue that would never come. So, no…it wasn't anything to do with the Goa'uld and no, he's not someone's trophy somewhere - thank God. Wherever his soul ended up, I truly hope he finally found the peace and tranquillity that he deserves. God knows his life was traumatic enough."
Osiris was also fighting for control by now. It was rare that Sarah Gardner managed to regain any sort of control over her body but hearing Sam's account of Daniel's demise had created such a flare of emotions in the young woman's psyche that for a few moments the symbiote that was Osiris was overwhelmed. A single tear tracked down the porcelain features of Sarah's face and a gentle hand reached out to wipe away Sam's tears.
Quite taken aback by the radical change in the System Lord, Sam looked deep into tear-filled brown eyes and suddenly realised that she was, for once, looking into the eyes of the host - Sarah Gardner - and not those of the Goa'uld Osiris.
Sarah struggled to speak, "Te…Tell me it's not true," she managed to gasp.
"I'm sorry, I can't." Sam said gently. "Daniel died, nearly eleven months ago."
"Oh…" Sarah's chin crumpled as her emotions ran free. Several more tears escaped from her sorrowful eyes and she stepped back away from Sam. "I…I…argh…"
Sarah's hands clutched at her hair and she gasped in pain. "I'm sorry," she managed to say before she let out an awful shriek and with horror Sam and Lou realised that Osiris had finally regained control over Sarah's body and inflicted a great deal of pain on the young woman in the process.
"Jaffa," the Goa'uld screeched, clearly furious at losing control of his host. "Take these two away and lock them in our guest quarters," he said, waving at Sam and Lou.
"Yes, My Lord," replied the nearest Jaffa. Him and three of his fellow warriors moved in to flank Sam and Ferretti.
"Him…" Osiris then said, pointing at Davies. "Send him to the surface. I have a message for Colonel O'Neill and the Shol'va Teal'c." Ensuring Mickey was listening the Goa'uld continued; "Tell them that they have eight of you Earth hours to present themselves to me or your precious Samantha Carter here will become the first trophy in my new collection."
"Yes, My Lord," replied the Jaffa whom Davies was huddled in front of. He reached down and pulled the young man up by his jacket and deposited him on shaky legs.
"And what of the other one, My Lord?" the final Jaffa asked, pointing at the motionless body of Jimmy Sands.
"Let him take the body back with him." Osiris answered, pointing at Mickey Davies. "If nothing else it will prove that I mean business. Oh, and let him carry his friend. I shall need several hours rest and it shall be your job to ensure I am not disturbed."
"As you wish, My Lord," the Jaffa answered immediately.
With that Osiris turned and flounced through the door at the side of the room and disappeared from view.
"You, move." One of the Jaffa behind Sam said, and jabbed her with the closed end of the Zat which he had just unclipped from his arm.
Sam grunted as the Zat impacted with her ribs. "I'm moving."
Lou glared at the Jaffa to his left but started moving before the Jaffa had a chance to retaliate.
As the pair reached the door Sam turned round and gave a last sorrowful glance towards Mickey Davies. The young man was being 'encouraged' to pick up the body of Jimmy Sands and get moving out of the room. As Sam passed through the doorway she saw Mickey carefully lift the body onto his shoulders and start to move. He had tears streaming down his face but with both hands occupied by supporting the corpse he had no way of wiping them away. The young man could barely hold himself upright, let alone hold the weight of his friend but he valiantly struggled towards the door. He met Sam's gaze just before she disappeared from view and this bolstered him, he stood up slightly taller and fixed a determined look on his face as he carried his comrade on his final journey.