At Last, an Ancient in Atlantis

by palma

The Ori threat has become urgent, and SG1 searches for a way to counter them. This however will take them on a whole new adventure...to Atlantis. How did they get there and why? Crossover between SGA and SG1.

13. Chapter 13

Translate by jmelly88

Have fun reading

Chapter 12 : Truths and Revelations (continued )

In the previous episode

"So, did you find the answers you were looking for?" Mitchell asked Angela discretely.

"No. I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm so tired I think I'll fall asleep straight away," said Angela, her eyelids closing a little at a time and she couldn't fight against it.

It was after midnight.

"She's asleep. She's had an eventful day. I'm going to transfer her to the quiet room," said the doctor.

Dr Lam showed everyone out of the room and she went to her office.

But, three hours later, the alarm in her office started to ring. It was an emergency and the duty nurse was calling. Instinctively, she made her way as fast as she could to the room where Angela was sleeping. As there were no other teams scheduled for today, there was no-one it could be but her. She was exhausted.

"She started shaking 10 minutes ago, so I gave her a sedative but none of them worked and she started to convulse," the nurse explained.

"She must be having a nightmare," Lam said as she looked at her patient's pupils", and none of the sedatives have worked?"

"No."

"We'll have to try and wake her, then, it's our only option," the doctor concluded, uncertain of her choice."

But she never got a chance to act on it. Angela stopped convulsing and sat bolt upright, covered in sweat.

"You okay?" the doctor asked as she measured her patient's pulse.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Do you often have nightmares?"

"I don't know. I forget most of them when I wake up."

The doctor didn't push for more, but she had the feeling Angela wasn't telling her everything.

"I'd better get back to my room. I'll feel better there."

"If that's what you want. Want some help?" Carolyn asked, wanting to put her patient at ease.

"No, it's okay, my bodyguards are watching my every move."

Angela had half woken up, but was still in shock as she moved instinctively in the direction of her room.

Mitchell was waiting for her there. He had gotten wind of her little accident and had been there within seconds.

"Don't you ever sleep?" Angela asked him.

"Not much. Don't you remember?"

"Yeah."

"Actually, I sleep more now since I went on a mission where my men started falling asleep because of a virus and some of them never woke up, so now I force myself to go to sleep before a mission just in case so that I don't need to sleep."

"You learned your lesson, then?"

"Yeah. You'd better get some shut-eye as well. You've had a tough day."

"I know and don't you remember that I sleep even less than you do?"

"Yeah."

"I don't need to sleep. Three hours is enough for me," said Angela.

"I know you don't sleep very much but that's because you're afraid to."

"What?"

"Because of the nightmares. I know all about them. Lam woke me up when the alarm went off. I wanted her to call me if there was any problem with you and I know you have nightmares anyway. That's nothing new."

"I don't..."

"Yes, you do. You had them in the hospital," Mitchell said calmly.

"Everyone has nightmares."

"True, but you have them practically all the time. Whenever you go for a nap, you get anxious. I talked to you about it because I got the feeling that you were forgetting them when you woke up, but..."

"That's true," Angela cut him off, "but sometimes I can remember them. I'm not afraid of much, but my nightmares are terrible. I can feel it when I wake up, my pulse is faster. They're all about disasters and wars. I don't even know why I'm afraid because, when I wake up, I don't feel any apprehension because the wars I'm seeing aren't real. They have nothing to do with us, just some old disputes. The only thing that's there when I wake up is the fear and a sense of uneasiness I can't identify. I can't remember any of the details. All I know is that something bad has happened or is going to happen."

"So, why don't you want to go back to sleep?"

"Because there are some nightmares I don't want to relive. They're based on memories I'd rather forget, but they're quite rare."

"Like the death of your fiancé?"

"And others," Angela sighed. At times like this, she got the impression that people could read her like a book and she wasn't used to that. She carried on saying, "but it's not just that. When I sleep, I feel weak, like I'm in a position of weakness, like I'm being watched. I get the feeling that someone or something is using these images to attack my mind. I know that sounds crazy, but I just feel like someone is trying to control my mind, possess my body, like when I was in that coma. I don't feel safe and I just can't relax."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was in the coma, I wanted to wake up, but I couldn't. It wasn't because of my condition; it was because someone was stopping me from waking up. Something that didn't want my mind to take possession of my body again. There was nothing physically wrong with my brain, well, there was, but that shouldn't have stopped me from waking up. In the coma, I wasn't alone in my body or my mind. I could hear voices telling me to give up, leave this world, telling me dying didn't hurt. They promised me so many things. I had to fight them for a long time to get my mind back and protect it. Something wanted to damage my soul. It was about survival. If I'd given up there and then, I get the impression that I would've disappeared and been a prisoner forever."

"You're right, that does sound crazy. But, at the same time, I don't know what goes on when someone's in a coma. It might just be a life and death struggle. Maybe that's what you felt, nothing else."

"I'm sure you're right," Angela said as she stretched out, "are you going to watch me sleep, or try to sleep anyway?"

"Yeah and I'm sure you'll fall off pretty quickly. Sweet dreams," he said as he kissed her forehead and sat in the armchair next to the bed.

As he suspected, she soon nodded off, without being disturbed by the dark thoughts of her unconscious mind.

The next morning, Angela woke up early. The small amount of time she had spent sleeping had done her good. When she awoke, she saw Mitchell slumped on the chair. She went to find something for breakfast and passed a cup of coffee under Mitchell's nose which woke him up instantly.

"Hmm."

"Good morning," Angela said.

"What time is it?"

"Late. 6am. It's the time I usually go jogging, but I need to eat a little before then."

"You going jogging now?" Mitchell asked as he straightened himself up.

"Yeah, I need to keep myself in shape. Why?"

"Well, it's just that after everything you did yesterday, I thought you'd want to take it easy. I might have somewhere better for you to run than these corridors, but you have to promise me not to go too hard on me and not to go too fast."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Judging by your cruising speed yesterday, I'd be dead in 5 minutes if I tried keeping up with you."

"Okay, I'll go like a snail," Angela promised. So, what's on the agenda for today?"

"I don't know yet. Maybe some more flight training and you'll have combat training with Teal'c."

"Cool, a fight!"

"Uhh, don't kill Teal'c, okay? We still need him and he's not as young as he used to be. I'm just kidding. I'll bet you those 10 bucks that he'll wipe you out."

"Him wipe me out!"

"Yeah."

"You're on," she said as she shook Mitchell's hand, "you know I'm a dab hand when it comes to martial arts. I think I'm at a pretty decent level in a few disciplines and I did have a Chinese master for a teacher. He was very accommodating."

"We'll see if you're still sounding so confident in a little while. And no using your powers, that's cheating!"

"I won't need to," she said, sounding sure of herself, "and you're going to lose your bet again."

"You lose all your bets, Cameron. Come on, it's getting to be a habit and I'd like to remind you that yesterday you were killed by a shot from more than 800 metres away," she said, adding salt to the wound.

"Hmm," said Angela, not wanting to talk about it, "it looks that way," staying vague. She had gotten up and taken some things out of a wobbly cabinet. "Turn around, I want to get changed."

"Okay, go ahead," he said as he turned around, which made him think of old memories. He remembered the time they were in the swimming pool like it was yesterday. They had been in the same situation as they were in today, which reminded him: "by the way, what does your tattoo mean?" he asked, still facing away from her with a smile on his lips.

"What tattoo?" Angela asked, surprised. She had taken off her sweater and put a red top on in its place.

"The one on your shooulder blade, you know the one. Unless there's another one," Mitchell said, laughing.

"I don't really know. A mixture of animals. Well, at least as much as I can see of it."

"You don't even know what it stands for!" Mitchell said, sounding surprised.

-'En faite oui, je me rappelle pas de me l'avoir fait tatoué avant l'accident. Mais il n'y a pas que ça que je ne me rappelle pas, des choses restent encore obscures sur mon passé surtout sur ma jeunesse et mon enfance à l'époque où mes parents étaient encore vivants'.

"Actually, I do remember that I didn't get it by accident. But, that's all I remember about it. There are still a lot of things about my past I can't see clearly, especially memories of when I was young and my childhood back when my parents were still alive."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that..."

"It's alright. Like I said, I only have vague memories of my parents. I can't even remember their faces," Angela said, not wanting to discuss it any further. This was a delicate subject for her and it had made her suffer enough already.

"So, you still have problems with your memory?"

"No, well, nothing to worry about anyway, given the tumour. Sometimes I'll forget things like a meeting with someone, but in general, if it's important..."

"Important?"

"Okay, really important, then I don't, but as for the things in my past, that's all a blur. I just have disjointed memories and I can't remember that tattoo at all, but it doesn't matter, it'll come back to me one day."

"What do the doctors say?" Mitchell asked.

"That I have to be patient and wait. But, you know I'm not a patient person and sometimes that makes me angry. In any case, that tattoo isn't in any of my photos. Maybe it's an optical illusion or maybe I'm just imagining things. since I can't see it, but I get the feeling that it's evolving. Wait a minute...how do you know about that tattoo?" she said as she realised that she had never spoken to him about it.

"Uh...I saw it at the hospital...at the swimming pool, but I swear, I didn't look anywhere else," Mitchell explained, suddenly off ease.

"I hope so!" she said as she straightened up her sweater.

"Well, I told you I was no angel."

"That was for the jog, you idiot!"

"Okay, you ready? Good, let's go out for a little stroll, shall we?" Mitchell finished.

One hour later

"Let's stop here, I can't go any further," Mitchell said as he held his sides.

"No, just a little further."

"You're unstoppable, you know that?"

"It's one of my better qualities and anyway, it might come in handy in my private life, if you know what I mean."

"Oh yeah," Mitchell said as images flooded his mind. He chased those thoughts away before Angela could notice.

"I think that's enough for today, I don't think you'll get much further," Angela said as she laid out on the ground.

"Well, thank you!" Mitchell said as he did the same and lay next to her.

"You've got ten minutes, then we'll head back."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Yeah," Angela laughed, "If I could crawl to the gate, I would. How about you?"

-'Oh oui !'

"Oh yeah!"

But, right then, a blinding light surrounded them and spirited them away. In no time at all, they found themselves aboard the Odyssey.

"What the hell is that?" Angela asked.

"We were just teleported," Mitchell explained.

"I'm not talking about that," she said as she approached the ship's window which gave her a view of a planet.

"This planet has three moons. Amazing, isn't it?" said a voice from behind her.

"It's...breathtaking, Sam," said the young woman without turning around. She then looked at Mitchell, "did I hear you right, Cameron? Teleported? But, I didn't feel anything, I thought I'd feel a tingling on my skin or maybe a little dizziness, but nothing."

"That's because of the Asgard stabilisers," Sam explained.

"The hyperspace module is finally ready for the new ship, Colonel Carter," said a voice from somewhere.

Angela tried to figure out where it was coming from and...

"But what is...?"

"Angela, this is an Asgard."

"I am pleased to meet you, Angela," said the little man.

"'Pleased?' Because they have a gender," Angela whispered to Mitchell, "so this is where those naked ET's come from," said Angela in a low voice.

"Yes," Mitchell answered, a little on edge as the Asgard was staring at him with his large black eyes.

"Asgard is the name of their people. His name is Rod," Sam added.

"Why are we here?" Angela asked.

"We thought it might be a good idea to fly in a real situation and Rod and I would like to control the settings on the Hope, the Ancient ship, before we leave for the mission, but we still need you. We think that you being there will be enough to activate it. So, while you're flying, we'll just make ourselves busy...well, you know what with."

"This planet is our rescue base, in case there's an attack on our base on Earth. It's like our Beta site in case there's a problem," Mitchell explained. "We have weapons and fighters. This is also where we build our combat ships, so they can't be found on Earth."

"That lets us carry out tests without any difficulty, especially nuclear weapons," Sam added. "Colonel O'Neill has decided to give you a flight simulation and Teal'c is going to test your combat skills and show you alien weapons. It'd be a good idea for you to learn how to use them. You never know when you might need to."

"You can never be too careful," Mitchell said.

"Okay, let's get to it," Angela said eagerly.

She had regained her love of flying since she had gotten over her fears. But, she knew that the fight wasn't over yet and accidents were still possible. The wounds inflicted on her soul by this subject would take a long time to heal and, from time to time, the memory still haunted her, could still come back to the surface and harm her. But, what mattered at the moment was that she had finally regained that amazing feeling of being free but also the feeling of power, as if she held the weight of the world on her shoulders and in her hands. She had learned not to fear the way her hands crackled with energy; that gift was meant to protect her and would never cause her or her loved ones any harm. From the start, that gift had done nothing except protect her from her own fears. It had shown her that she was capable of doing so much, that choice was important and how she would always have an impact on the fate of the world, like any soldier, things like killing a dangerous terrorist or destroying a biological weapon while disobeying orders. She had the ability to change the world using her powers. Her abilities granted her a certain sense of power because of the protection they gave her. She was eager to make use of them, for the good of the world. On this adventure, unlike other times in the past, she would not hesitate to use her abilities. She would find limits because her own body was a limit to them and a limit which she should never attempt to exceed unless she wanted to destroy herself . She knew that there were always limits.

Maybe she would meet people like her on other worlds, places where she would no longer have to hide, or where she wouldn't frighten anyone. What mattered in that moment was that she lose her fear.

Stirring from her daydreaming:

"I'm ready."

On saying that, Sam beamed them down to the planet.

It was a sandy, desert-like environment with large canyons which made the ones in the US seem laughable in comparison. The plant life consisted mainly of grey shrubs which struggled to survive and develop in this hostile environment. The shrubs formed into groups to conserve water and reduce the temperature at the centre. The weather was stormy, with grey clouds gathering on the horizon to announce that a sandstorm was on its way. The wind was already blowing, kicking up dust clouds and lifting up sand. The landscape was chaotic and she could imagine finding the skeletons of ancient corpses that had died of dehydration. This strange landscape was in complete contrast with a lush oasis just sat right in the middle of the desert as if it had been put there by magic. The auxiliary military base had been set up and there were several hangars spread out like mushrooms. Spreading out next to the oasis was a steaming lake, the outer edges of which were hidden by the smoke and steam which were most likely being given off by the lake. But, you could just make out a port on the edge of the lake leading out to the middle. Nothing could be alive in that lake, Angela mused, although from time to time, there were ripples on its surface which didn't look like they were the effect of the wind. They didn't walk in the direction of the forbidding-looking lake, but instead made their way to the hangars in the oasis where the temperature had dropped quickly, contrasting sharply with the suffocating heat of the desert. One of the hangars housed the fighters. Angela couldn't see what was inside the others as they were all closed. The fighter hangar was next to the landing strip. The fighters were all ready for takeoff. Then, at the back of the hangar, there was a very unusual flying object. Angela looked at it with interest and curiosity.

"It's an alien ship," Sam explained. She had come with them as well. "Well, more exactly, it's a Goa'uld ship. Teal'c's going to be flying it," she said and then looked at her laptop, "I think I'll be able to take my measurements, the Hope's detected your presence. We've set up a specific area for you to train in where the ship can be active. Beyond that, it'll shut down."

"I just need to be here for it to work, that's all?"

"Yes, for now. We don't think it's programmed very specifically, so all it needs to release control is to detect the Ancient gene. But, I think that with enough training, you'll be able to activate it whenever you want and from a greater distance. Rod thinks that with a little work on your mind, you should be able to do things like piloting the ship just by using your mind."

"Whoa, slow down, one thing at a time, I don't wanna start getting ahead of myself."

"You'll be fine. Or, I'll get stuck inside and then my measurements will..."

"Okay, I'll think about it."

"We'll do our best," Mitchell promised, eager to start the flying exercise alongside Angela.

"Okay, let's do this," said Angela, following Mitchell who was already inside the hangar.

Meanwhile, Sam made her way to the murky lake with several airmen and Rod, the little guy.

"Why are you going so fast?" asked Angela.

"It's just I don't feel like listening to the two of you talking science jargon for hours and, for right now, you're with me," said Mitchell, seeing that he was becoming possessive of Angela.

"Go on, say it: you're jealous," said Angela, clearly amused.

"Of course not! Jealous of what?"

"Jealous that I'm interested in Sam's work, that I'm more interested in her field of work more than yours."

"No, of course not! That's just stupid...okay...I'm just a little annoyed."

"Why?"

"Because we're not spending much time together even though we haven't seen one another in years."

"Years! The way you're going on, anyone would think it had been decades, Cameron. You have your life and I have mine, well, I had one before you all came and messed it up. That's a bad excuse. I haven't seen Sam or Daniel for a long time either and they're not begging me to spend time with them like some attention-starved puppy. Oh Cameron, you're like a teenager who's trying to impress his next crush!"

"It's different with the others. Sam's a woman and Daniel's your ex."

"Oh yeah! How is that any different exactly?"

"It's actually worse, because you and Daniel were very close."

"Why, because we shared the same bed for a few nights!"

"Amongst other things," said Mitchell.

"That's ridiculous! Daniel and I were over a long time ago, Cameron!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Angela said, with no hesitation, "and if, just if, we did get back together, would that bother you?"

"Yeah, at least..."

"Why? Our relationship's over anyway."

"Because I don't think he's being honest with you. He's still attracted to you, maybe more."

"You think so?" Angela said, a little taken aback at this revelation.

"Yeah, and I think he regrets it."

"Really? Well, it doesn't matter anyway, it doesn't change anything. I've moved on and my life doesn't include that relationship anymore, so you've got nothing to worry about. Daniel isn't looking to spend time with me. Actually, he's avoiding me! He won't even look me straight in the eyes."

"That's what you think," said Mitchell.

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Angela, sounding interested.

"He and I sort of arranged it so you wouldn't be alone with him."

"Why? Did you think I was going to fry him over why he broke it off? Actually, I don't want to know. You're like a young couple and I've mislead you both. It's pathetic! But, if you really want to know who I spend my nights with and know all the men I've been out with, I can help you out, because three of them are here. It's crazy how small the world is."

"Who? Don't tell me you..."

"Oh yeah, but with one of them it was just provocation, so I could trap him on one of my missions. We had two different goals on the same target and I wanted to be the first one to get there and the other guy..."

"I think I've heard enough," said Mitchell.

"You sure about that, because..." Angela said.

"We're here," Mitchell cut her off.

They were now on the other side of the hangar. There were several airmen waiting there for them. Mitchell gave them some instructions and then the soldiers each made their way to a fighter. Mitchell approached Angela, who was still annoyed by the conversation they just had.

"Come on, I've got a surprise for you," said Mitchell, hoping the surprise would calm the atmosphere between them.

"Really? What kind of surprise?"

"If I told you that, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Mitchell answered her, as he went over to a dark corner of the hangar. "Close your eyes and promise you won't peek."

"I...we're not kids, Cameron, I..."

"Promise."

"Okay," she said and closed her eyes.

They made their way to a shape covered up by a sheet which he then lifted off.

"You can open them now."

"I wonder if...Oh!" Angela exclaimed as she opened her eyes, "how did you manage to...?"

"We decided to bring it out of storage. It was gathering dust in an old army hangar. I thought you'd like to pilot your fighter again and, since it hasn't been used and I can't see why the army wouldn't want to put her back into service, it's not exactly discreet," Mitchell joked.

"Oh, don't bring that up. It was a mistake any new recruit could make. I was in the middle of an adolescent crisis and I had no idea what I was doing."

In front of her was her old plane. At the end of her first year in the army, she decided to paint it to celebrate passing her first year exams. She had painted an eagle carrying a French flag in its beak. This had instantly given the plane a negative image, since it was American. She had found it ironic at the time.

"And I paid for it. My CO ordered me to get rid of the pictures, especially the French flag. He wasn't big on jokes. But I, like an idiot, had gone and used my own paint, which I'd made up myself and couldn't be removed unless you used good chemicals. I spent a week brushing away at it with a brush and water and it was no good. I could've made an efficient chemical mix to get it all off, but my CO had other ideas. All I could use was water and a stiff brush. But it was impossible. I'd made that paint so it was waterproof! I couldn't even go to sleep because he had someone watching me. Then, the guards changed and after a week he thought I'd suffered enough. Then it was the day of that famous fight. He didn't want me taking him because, in his words, he was too light. So, he didn't die with me and survived. I knew I was going to regret painting that royal eagle. Then I told myself it was time to remove that eagle and let it free. The army couldn't use the plane anymore, because it wasn't discreet. So, I I'd made all the engine settings myself and it was unique in its speed and the way it handled. A few people tried to copy it, but with no joy. So it was forgotten. I destroyed all my calculations and measurements when I resigned my commission. And now here it is again, next to me."

"Sam had a look at it and made some modifications. She says it's flight-worthy again."

Angela was already underneath the craft, looking at all its connections.

"Everything looks alright for now," Angela reported, happy that her fighter hadn't undergone any remarkable transformation, "looks like they left my settings and my little gadgets in place, but I'd like to change a few things when I have time."

"Whatever you want. It's your plane, so you're choice," said Mitchell as he held out his arm to let her step up into the plane, "I take it you don't need any instructions or advice. All you need to do now is launch and follow me!"

Mitchell then went to sit in his fighter, feeling pleased with himself. He connected the radio.

"Do you copy?"

"Affirmative," a female voice answered him.

"Okay, I'll explain the rules once we're up in the air."

"Okay, I'll follow your lead."

Mitchell took off, followed by Angela. Once they were at a high altitude, he explained to her what the aim of the simulation was.

"There are two Goa'uld mother ships, one for each enemy team. The teams will be made up of their mother ship and four fighters. There will be ten hostiles in total. All we have is five normal fighters, giving us numerical inferiority, which is usually the case. Obviously the goal is to destroy the mother ships and, once they're destroyed, it's every man for himself. Actually, it's like the manhunt. All you need to do is mark your target. At the end, there can only be one left standing. It´s just a chase. Any questions?"

"Not really, seems pretty clear: target anything that moves!"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it, except that at the start, you need to avoid targeting your camp on your own; I'll be in your camp at the start. Each camp can choose to make teams that will break up at the end, naturally. Wanna team up?"

"...yes, if you want to."

"Let's fly side by side for now and keep an eye on our exposed flanks."

"Wouldn't it be a better idea if one of us kept an eye on the other's rear?"

"However you want," said Mitchell, putting his faith in the young woman's tactics, "but you'll see when the time comes, we'll have to split up. Oh...one more detail, part of the battle will be in space."

"In space!"

"Don't worry. You don't need to make any adjustments, when you get into space, the fighter will compensate automatically for gravity or your exit. They're the reports Sam made that I was telling you about."

"I didn't think you were talking about that, but anyway let's go!"

Then they spread out into the distance. Angela took one last look at the view that was opening up in front of her: it was amazing. Then she concentrated on her manoeuvres. She paid attention to the screen to memorise her combat zone; to help Sam, she couldn't get too far away. Her freedom was therefore limited by a large perimeter. Sam had done a good job, as usual. All her adjustments were perfect and for the moment, everything was running like clockwork. She even allowed herself a few brief accelerations to test the reactors and the braking system. She tested the device in all its aspects: tight turns; steep descents and changes in tempo. For the first time in a long time, she was feeling in touch with her fighter. It responded perfectly to all her needs and demands. It wasn't as rusty as it seemed. A few of the old settings still worked well, and she had a new-found confidence in herself. She was pretty much untouchable, even if the pictures on her plane meant she wasn't exactly discrete. Unless they confronted her with new functionality on their ships, which had come from new technologies discovered since her missions, things like the grav stabilise. She had even made some strange modifications herself like her fighter's ability to fly underwater and she had even tried to invent an invisibility system for fighters, which wasn't exactly feasible as it required too much power and was defective. For the moment, the most important thing was for her to concentrate on her targets and her flying. The slightest loss in control could be fatal for her. Her hands were already starting to crackle with excitement and the energy was now covering practically her entire body like a protective shield. Luckily, she had isolated the important electronic circuits. If there was an electrical problem, a short circuit couldn't spread to the rest of the craft or damage the rest of the master circuits. Every part was a little separate from the other, but at the same time they weren't independent and each part communicated perfectly with the others.

"The others are in position," said a voice, which brought her out of her daydream.

"So am I," said the young woman.

"Okay then, let the games begin!"

Mitchell instantly tried to spot Angela on his screen, but it was still too soon for him to be able to distinguish her with any certainty. Regardless, he still tried to approach the future combat area because she would be easier to find given the loud colours of her fighter and the French flag. He smiled to himself; that was so much like her. Even for someone like him, who was no stickler for rules, had never gone so far out of his way to provoke them. That was exactly the way he thought of her. He tried to imagine a rebel woman like her in the ranks of the army, ready to go beyond the bounds of duty, something that was so important to the army. Given her nature, he wasn't in the least bit surprised. He had also thought her disciplined, but the opposite was true. It could not have been easy to have her as a pupil. He had made his old teachers complain because discipline was never her strong suit, and as if to prove it, appearing in the corner of his eye was 'the eagle fighter' being chased by three enemy fighters. As usual, she had succumbed quickly to boredom and had immediately attacked a pseudo mother ship. She had a habit of going straight for her targets without taking precautions. He bet that she spent most of her time improvising on the fly and never had an exact plan in mind, so much as a vague idea. He thought that was her greatest weakness, but also, strangely enough, her greatest strength thanks to her ability to improvise and her boundless imagination. All that would have gotten and planning would be her downfall. Mitchell hoped he would be there when that time came to help her avoid the worst.

He turned to follow her. Given the circumstances, Angela's plan was clearly the better one. He had covered her suicide run on the mother ship. She had chosen the second ship, clearly planning to save Teal'c's until last. He would have a surprise for her, though.

But Teal'c had apparently adopted another strategy. He had sent his fighters to pursue Angela, which annoyed Mitchell a little.

Angela was then pursued by three furious enemy fighters. She dodged them with ease and a chase ensued with the main objective in Angela's mind being the mother ship. She soon got near it without suffering any damage, but the three fighters wouldn't let her off that easily. She had to skim the mother ship to try to lose her opponents, but they didn't give up so quickly. At that moment, Teal'c broke the radio silence.

"I demand your surrender," said Teal'c, sounding amused.

"Ha ha, very funny," said Angela angrily. She used her eyes to scan for Teal'c's mother ship, but still couldn't see it, "you have not yet seen me," Teal'c said. Angela stuck out her tongue at hum, even though he couldn't see it.

"You are trapped, Angela. There is no possible means of escape," Teal'c responded calmly.

And it was true. At least that was how it looked from Mitchell's vessel. She pointed her plane right, towards a wall, or rather a building on the mother ship, a kind of control tower. She hadn't seen it right away because she hadn't been concentrating. The "eagle fighter" was surrounded. The enemy fighters were close to targeting her and the slightest wrong move on her part, which was bound to happen eventually. At this speed, it was practically impossible to avoid the building. As well as that, a vessel just above her was blocking her exit from above. If she carried out this manoeuvre, she would be putting herself directly in danger. A pilot had positioned himself just behind her at a reasonable distance. He edged his thumb to lock on to his target as they were heading for the building. Mitchell, unfortunately, was too far away to intervene. He could do nothing but witness this scene. The pilot, growing ever more sure of himself, was ready to fire. His teammates were themselves ready to take out their target.

"They've got you surrounded and I can't help you," Mitchell said over the radio.

"Yes, I know," Angela said simply, her voice sounding calm. But inside, it was the complete opposite. She was beginning to lose patience and that would escalate if she didn't find a solution. Then, an idea came to her: this had gone on quite a while. The pilot was waiting patiently for the crucial moment. It was now a question of seconds. They were getting closer and closer to the building. She was trapped and he was waiting for her to make her inevitable mistake. But, the mistake never happened. The "eagle fighter" accelerated instead of slowing down, going faster than the craft above her, putting a good amount of distance between them. He reacted as well and accelerated so as not to lose her. Then, they were both approaching the watchtower at ever greater speed. At the last moment, she broke off to the left, flying parallel to the tower. The only reaction from the others was to avoid the obstacle. They had lost sight of her. The pilot, having been so sure of himself before, looked at his surroundings to try and find his missing prey. But he could not find her anywhere. Then, she appeared from nowhere just in front of him from the other direction and Angela locked her target before she passed over him, just skimming him. Meanwhile, Mitchell, from his position, noted how the enemy lost four fighters while the mother ships were still there. At the same time, their camp had lost one fighter.

"I've changed my mind, let's attack Teal'c," said Angela, wanting to get her own back on Mitchell.

"Why not?"

"But where is he?" he said, scanning with his eyes for his prey.

She headed for the danger in the combat zone. Then, before her all of a sudden where it had previously been empty, Teal'c appeared. She thought she was dreaming it, but he was there just in front of her.

"He was cloaked," Mitchell explained.

"Really?"

They made their way over to him, but when they were within a hundred metres of him, the two remaining fighters took up position behind them, while Teal'c started moving to help his guards and manoeuvred with ease to ensure he didn't stay in the same place for too long and stop from becoming an easy target. The exercise went on and the number of fighters in each camp was whittled down little by little. All that was left was Tealc's mother ship Angela had been able to eliminate her pursuers by creating a diversion.

"You know I created a cloaking system for my fighter too, but it was still experimental and could never have lasted as long as Teal'c's?"

"Yeah?" said Mitchell as he was looking at his pursuers.

"Yes. Sometimes I would get bored, so I would create programmes to improve my fighter, but I'd disappear for a few seconds and even then I wouldn't be completely invisible, it would just be an illusion. All I was really doing was reflecting the sunlight, but I don't know if that would work in space."

"You get bored? With all those paintings you did?"

"Ha ha, very funny."

"No seriously, it never hurts to try."

"Well, it does actually. It ended up costing a lot of my energy, so I had to stop."

"Anyway, we finished pretty fast. I think we should stop it there!"

"Okay, then, it's over!"

The exercise came to an end and Angela was fuming. She had never fully gotten into the exercise. Teal'c had gotten her riled up and she had then lost her concentration entirely. She had been a handicap to the others. Despite all that, Mitchell complimented her.

"It really wasn't that bad," Mitchell said as he made his way towards the hangar.

"I assume that's a joke! I was terrible. I..."

"No, you performed very well, especially with that chase at the start. You never once lost your cool"

"All I did was run and evade. I didn't...I didn't feel any sensation. I had it at the start, but when the exercise got underway, it was gone. I was almost getting bored."

"Bored! That word again. You were still in danger," Mitchell countered. "What more do you want?"

"I wasn't talking about that. I'm exaggerating when I say I was getting bored, but I'm sick of these exercises. I just want to do something else apart from these damned tests. I want to do something new, I'm stagnating! And I...I just don't get the same feelings from flying as I used to."

"I really think you're great and eventually you will as well. You won't be bored once this mission starts," said Mitchell, parking up in the hangar, followed by the young woman. "But, you can make up for it in hand-to-hand combat. Remember our bet!"

"Oh yes, I'll show this Teal'c some tricks!"

"He's really gotten to you, hasn't he?"

"That's putting it lightly. He annoyed me. You'll have to stop me from killing him," Angela said excitedly.

The lights in the hangar were flashing. The soldiers in the hangar were looking at the lights in surprise.

"Well," Mitchell whispered, "all the better. This should spice up the combat a little," Mitchell followed on, speaking in a louder voice to lighten the mood.

Annoyed didn't do her feelings justice. There was a burning range beating at the young woman's temples. A voice inside was telling her not to drop this: "who does Teal'c think he is, talking to me like that and trying to provoke me? I'll teach him some respect." The young woman quietened that voice which troubled her so much while she slept. That voice that came not from her soul, but from somewhere else, somewhere outside her own body. It wouldn't do to listen to it. Despite that, her blood was still boiling in her veins. She could hear her heart thumping against her chest. This loss of self-control wasn't something she was used to, but she could understand it. Teal'c had pushed her anger to its limits. She was normally a fairly zen and patient person so that she didn't lose control when faced with these situations. But here, all her patience had gone out the window, to be replaced with tension you could cut with a knife. Angela placed her head on the dashboard of her fighter to try and calm down and assuage her anger. She breathed out to try and quash that pressing desire to kill. In the end, she was more or less tranquil.

"Come on! Let's go!" Angela said to inspire herself to get out of the ship.

That was where she often sought refuge, to reflect on life with a can of beer and a good CD. She had drunk away many a time in this sort of a protective shell, where nothing could disturb her. She went there when she was sad or nostalgic for the good old days. For that reason, her heart had been tight with anxiety when she went down with the fighter because it was a lace of such comfort to her. She took one last look behind her before joining Mitchell at the entrance to the hangar.

"Where's the ship?" Angela asked out of curiosity and to change the subject.

"Over there," Mitchell said, pointing to the lake, "the lake's a kind of natural protection; the smoke stops people from seeing it and it's cool in there and I think Sam uses the hydraulic energy to power the vessel when you're not there."

"Really?"

"She still hasn't been able to make head nor tail of that ship. She can't access its main power source and she only has basic data on a few settings," Mitchell explained.

"Where are we going?"

"To the equipment hangar. Teal'c needs to deal with John and Jack first to warm up," Mitchell joked, "so, I want to take advantage of this bit of free time to show you the different weapons we use to defend ourselves. We have conventional weapons and I'll give you some descriptions, but you probably know it all already, given how many of them you had at the entrance to the base."

"Oh! That was nothing. It's just in case. It makes me feel safe and it's really only for decoration," Angela explained, without convincing Mitchell She didn't want people to think she was a terrorist.

"Well, we'll see! Anyway, I was saying that what we're interested in at the moment is really new technologies."

"Cool!"

They spent an hour taking stock and using the different weapons. Angela was curious, maybe even a little too curious. She sometimes went about things too fast. From the start she was trying to play with everything that was placed in her hand, without listening to Mitchell's explanations and recommendations. It was a disaster and she didn't know how to use these weapons; she knocked out a soldier, nearly killed herself in an explosion and destroyed half a hangar wall.

"Oops!" Angela said, when the smoke rose from the rubble of the wall, "I think I'd better stop all this destruction for now!"

"Yeah, you better had!" said Mitchell, taking the weapon off her before she could injure anyone.

"I'm sorry," Angela said, looking down at her hands, "I'm not usually this clumsy."

"What, this isn't the first time it's happened?" Mitchell said as he put the weapon back in its place.

"Not really, I have been known to have accidents. Every now and then I have problems with my environment. I can't judge distances very well and have problems analysing situations and my surroundings."

"But you were just fine in that forest."

"I know. Like I said, it only happens now and again. It's usually when I'm being asked to do too much or if I've just been through some emotional trouble."

"And you know why?" said Mitchell as he approached the table where the other weapons were laid out. He was always so embarrassed when Angela was so open; when she talked to him about her feelings. It was times like this when she seemed most vulnerable.

"Sometimes I get a ringing sound in my ears."

Mitchell stopped what he was doing and turned around.

"What?"

"I think it's my inner ear. It rings and all of a sudden I can't concentrate, I'm distracted. Sometimes I can't hear anything around me and lose my balance."

"Why didn't the doctor find out any of this?" said Mitchell with a worried tone.

"It doesn't happen all the time, but it has started happening more often as my illness is progressing. It's just a side effect. Just things in my medical exams that the doctors can't see anything except for the black mass on the brain scanner, and they don't look beyond that. But that's not everything. Sometimes I also lose my sense of touch and I can't feel pain anymore, so I don't control my movements with much precision which can lead to me doing things like spilling my coffee. Cameron...," Angela sighed, "this is going to be my last mission. After this, I'm retiring?"

"Why?"

"I can't keep putting other people in danger with my actions. That's why I've always flown solo until now, so that I wouldn't hurt any of my teammates. That's why I don't like working in teams."

"You should go and speak to a doctor about that."

"If you want! But trust me, there's nothing they can do for me."

"You think it's because of your treatment."

"My treatment only causes memory loss and pain and even if it is the treatment, I can't change that; I need it to survive and it's the only one that works. It's certainly not perfect, but it's all I have for the moment to make the pain more bearable and give me some semblance of a life. It brings me some comfort."

"What kind of treatment is it?"

"It's an experimental treatment, not available on the market yet."

"What? You're a guinea pig!"

"No, it's just not legal."

"I've heard enough," said Mitchell, "I think that's all there is to see when it comes to weapons. Mind if we go to the practical now?"

"No, no problem. I understand."

"Alright, let's go and join Teal'c then," Mitchell finished.

They left the hangar as several airmen were trying to repair the damage that had been caused. They made their way to a hangar where there were cheers like those you would hear after a game. They could hear the cries and screams of encouragement. When they entered, they saw a group assembled around a central point. There were various kinds of weapons hung up on the walls: close-combat weapons or distance weapons like spears, bows and arrows that they had never seen before. At the middle of this gathering, three men turned round while a crowd of spectators cheered. Bets were being placed thick and fast. Angela was surprised to see Teal'c fighting two men at the same time: Jack and John, who were themselves very good fighters. She wondered how he managed to keep at it. The airmen present must have stopped their duties or their own training to watch the match that was taking place. It looked like the three men were getting tired. Teal'c looked to be in good form, despite his injuries. The bets were flying between the spectators/ airmen. The three men weren't playing games, though; the weapons they were holding were starting to grow heavy in their arms. They weren't hitting with the same force anymore and their attacks were no longer as precise. On seeing Mitchell approach, the soldiers let him through and he stopped the fight from getting any worse.

"What the hell is going on here?" Mitchell shouted.

"We're just training," said John simply.

"I am teaching them new Goa'uld combat techniques."

"Oh really? Just training, huh?" said Mitchell, sounding surprised as he saw that they had all been hit all over.

"Yes," Jack concurred.

"Nothing personal, I just don't want you killing each other."

"No!" all three men responded at once.

"We may have become too involved in our fight," Teal'c said, "but there were no bad intentions."

"That's understandable," said Angela, as she came out of the shadows, "given how much testosterone there is in the air. It's like there are wild animals in here," she said as she threw a towel to Mitchell, who held it out to Teal'c, "but now it's my turn to have some fun."

"I don't think that's a good idea, given the state Teal'c's in. I'm calling it off," Mitchell started saying.

"Why?" Angela asked, sounding half disappointed.

"Well, as you pointed out, there's too much testosterone in the air. You could cut the tension with a knife," and he added as he took her to one side, "and I don't want you in the middle of all that."

"Oh, you're worried for me! That's cute, but I'm quite capable of looking after myself. Anyway, this will be a good chance to take on that bet of yours and maybe for once you'll win."

"I can't talk you out of it?" he said, sighing as he saw how determined she was, "okay, if that's what you really want."

"Yes, it is. I've had it up to here with all these tests. I need some real exercise and after what I've just seen, Teal'c can handle himself well in a fight, maybe even as well as me," Angela joked.

"As well as you? Don't count your chickens before they're..."

"Yeah, you're right, he has just had a hard fight and he looks tired."

"That's true," Mitchell said, as he saw the airmen still stood around the arena, "don't you have anything to do, no training to get on with? It's just an illusion that he's tired."

"Well, we'll just have to ask him, won't we?" said Angela as she made her way over to Teal'c who was putting away his weapons. She then turned round and said, "oh I may have forgotten to mention it, but I do have some experience in martial arts."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Mitchell said as he caught up with her.

"Hey," Angela said to Teal'c as she ignored Mitchell's question.

"Hey!"

"Mitchell and I were just wondering," Angela said as Mitchell shot her a look. She then continued, "especially Mitchell, if you were still up to another little fight."

"Indeed?" Teal'c said as he looked at Mitchell, who no longer looked like he wanted to be there.

"Yes, Mitchell's afraid you'll get tired out given how old you are," said Angela, digging Mitchell's hole a little deeper.

"I never said...," Mitchell said, trying to defend himself.

"I would be happy to battle against you, Angela," said Teal'c, inclining his head slightly as he showed her the weapons on the walls.

"Thank you," said Angela as she also inclined her head.

Teal'c smiled. There were few people who would show this sign of respect. The fact that Angela had done so proved that she had the sense for combat.

"You may choose the weapon."

"With pleasure," she said, as she approached the weapons, but she hesitated, "but Mitchell wouldn't be pleased with me if I didn't give you the choice. He thinks you might be at a disadvantage," she said, taking her prank to the next level.

"Indeed?" Teal'c said as he turned towards the person in question.

"I didn't say that..."

"Perhaps a small bout afterwards will change your opinion, if you wish?"

"No, really, she..."

"I know. Women can at times be extremely manipulative."

"Not at all!" said Angela, her eyes suddenly soft, which gave her an innocent air.

Which might have worked, had she not been holding a double-edged sword. Teal'c and Mitchell fell apart with laughter, which cleared the tension at last.

"Yeah, I know, that wasn't very convincing."

"Not really, no. Okay, I'm gonna leave you two alone and take care of our two secret agents," said Mitchell, "don't mess around?"

"Mess around? You know that's not my style. So, you're not too damaged?" said Angela as she saw John and Jack come out of the showers where they had gone to lick their wounds.

"You won't be laughing or saying that after twenty minutes of fighting with him," John answered her.

But Angela had already gone back over to the weapons while Teal'c and Mitchell were talking and our two agents were getting ready.

It was a difficult choice. Her attention fell on the weapons in an attempt to make the best possible choice. She picked them up one at a time to find the one that gave her the best feeling. She felt a tingle in her fingertips when she touched a spear, but it wasn't like the touch felt between a weapon and its master. All the same, she put it to one side just in case she couldn't find her ideal weapon, as anything was better than nothing. She tried several other weapons such as long daggers with perfectly balanced blades, but they didn't create any sparks inside her. This meant she didn't focus on the weapons she liked the most. She walked passed a simple wooden stick, ignoring it, and then she spotted it and decided to test it anyway. She was surprised by the good sensation she felt when she picked it up. She could almost feel the beating heart at the core of the dead wood as if it were alive. She could feel every fibre of it. That piece of wood was flawless and fit perfectly in her hand; light and soft to the touch. It was strengthened by the varnish that covered it. She found it ridiculous that she could have such an affinity with a simple stick. A beech wood stick; it was obvious it had come from a nice, strong tree, a beech tree; a stick which had responded to her call with joy. It would not abandon her in battle and would be at her side until the end. Still not satisfied, she put it down and looked for another, more sophisticated weapon. But, as she carried on, she found no other weapon, no sentiment for any other. She sighed and went back to the beech stick which vibrated at her touch. It felt vital, like her very touch was breathing life into this stick which had been cut off from a large tree in the prime of its life, as if that tree's soul had been transferred into this simple branch. The beating of the stick were in rhythm with the beating of her own heart, with an almost hypnotic effect. She felt a little better, but it wouldn't last for long. She tested its balance. It wasn't perfect compared with the other weapons, but its structure was and there was a good harmony there. It was a terrible fault that annoyed her as she handled it, but she would get used to it.

"The stick," said a voice from behind her.

"Yes."

"Have you recovered sufficiently from our flight simulation?" asked Teal'c as he sensed her annoyance.

"Teal'c, I don't think this is..." Mitchell said, trying to intervene before Angela got worked up.

"No. Let him speak," Angela cut him off dryly, but with anger in her voice.

"What are you up to, Teal'c?" Mitchell whispered, before he left, casting a final glance at Angela, fearing for the worst.

"What is he up to? This was the question Angela was asking herself. Their relationship had been amicable from the beginning, but all that had now changed. What could she have done to rile him as she obviously had? Maybe it was nothing to do with her.

What was he up to? Teal'c didn't like using this method as it required that he know the limits of his adversary's patience. He wanted her to make a mistake, so that he could find out her weaknesses. Actually, he didn't want her to hold back during combat. Would he come to regret this later? Almost certainly; he had no desire to harm her. Despite this, he knew she would be feeling hurt inside, even if she showed no physical signs of it.

"Take the stick," said Teal'c as he went to find his own weapon.

Unlike Angela, he took nowhere near as much care in choosing his weapon. She couldn't feel any harmony between Teal'c and his weapon.

They settled in another room, where they would have some quiet. Teal'c could see that the young woman was making a visible effort to control herself. They placed themselves in the centre of the room at a respectable distance of two metres. They greeted one another, again calmly, then began to circle one another, with neither side attacking their opponent. They spent several minutes gauging each other. When Teal'c moved to the left, Angela did the same thing to ensure the same distance at all times. However, all this waiting was annoying Angela even more and she couldn't hold on forever. Her blood was again boiling in her veins and in her temples. Her breathing was becoming more and more accelerated; she was entering a trance-like state. She could no longer hear any sound coming from outside, nothing except the blood flowing through Teal'c's veins, his calm breathing and his heart beating inside his chest. He appeared calm, but that was just an illusion. Beneath the expressionless mask there was tension. She decided to end the waiting game and was the first to engage in combat. At first she tested her opponent: she swung for his shoulder, which he deftly blocked. That was a sign that it was going to be a hard fight. Teal'c then performed several sequences of techniques, which required Angela to block quickly and accurately, which she managed without it seeming like a great effort. "She is fast," thought Teal'c, "that is good, but will it last?"

They continued this sequence of parrying and blocking attacks, never once stopping and neither one of them ever showing signs of weariness. When Teal'c attacked the upper body, Angela would block him and immediately go for his lower body. The attacks were perfectly coordinated. Anyone watching would think they were ballet performers: attack-block-counter attack. It was all played out at whirlwind speed between the two combatants. They were soon covered in sweat, although neither one was yet showing any sign of weakness or fatigue in the face of their enemy. For her part, Angela was still in a trance, the rage she felt only increasing as the fight went on. She didn't even notice that some airmen had again gathered around them, alerted by the sounds of fighting. Then, she decided to attack instead of blocking and defending.

"Any chance we can speed this up, I'm getting bored?" Angela said.

"I do not..." Teal'c started, but didn't have the time to answer her.

Angela rapidly let loose a string of precise and clean hits. Teal'c managed to block the first two, but he quickly became lost in the chain of events that followed and took a hit to the back of his leg which make him fall to the ground on his knees. The surprise on his face was clear for all to see. The airmen were now whispering amongst themselves. The cheers had ceased. This was the first time they had seen Teal'c on the ground, hurt. Angela had put some distance between her and Teal'c, waiting for Teal'c to pick himself up in pain.

Time stood still for Angela; nothing else mattered now except this vision of Teal'c weakened before her. She couldn't see the agitation in her audience's faces. Teal'c at last got up, a little too slowly for the young woman's liking and then got back into defence position. Of course, he had lost all his confidence, but he would not let that show. He still seemed serene. He indicated to his opponent to continue the fight and made a gesture asking her to attack him.

"You come to me," said Angela, with an amused tone in her voice, standing in a defensive stance.

Teal'c shook as he heard that the voice of the young woman was no longer her own. She was filled with rage. For a brief moment, he felt fear, but suppressed it.

Angela caressed her stick with her fingertips. She was also primed to attack. she could feel the tension course through her fibres. Teal'c then attacked with fast jabs, but not very accurate ones. "He's starting to get tired," Angela thought in amusement, blocking his attacks with ease. Teal'c left his shoulder exposed and she decided to hit at that level, but Teal'c was ready and had prepared himself for the jab. He absorbed the punch and surged forward, passing by her close enough to land a hit on the young woman's back. This didn't cause her any physical pain, but she knew he had touched her. Pain was a rather moral thing. Her mind signalled an alarm, ordering her to wake from her trance as she was now playing a dangerous game, given that she could feel neither pain nor fatigue.

But Angela paid no heed to that signal and turned round quickly and once again hit out at Teal'c's shoulder. He had not been ready for that hit and it inflamed an old injury.

He fell to his knees once more from the intensity of that pain. Angela was showing a face of calm. The audience was getting restless; the fight was getting out of hand and was taking a turn for the worse.

Again, Teal'c got up with difficulty. He didn't even bother to greet her and went straight for the attack. This time he punched indiscriminately and seemingly at random. Angela evaded them and was now getting to the point where she did not have to block them, but simply avoid them by moving away as Teal'c's blows were no longer reaching their targets and were getting slower. Meanwhile, Angela's blows were becoming more and more fluid, precise and were causing ever greater damage to Teal'c. She decided to go on the offensive, despite the protestations of her rib cage. Teal'c could no longer block her. He had over-exerted himself and was starting to fall back, losing his ground. Suddenly, Angela leapt into the air, her weapon at her side, discovering the power of her own body. Teal'c saw an opportunity present itself and went to hit her, but he took too long to act and Angela, while in flight, struck his back and landed in a crouched position behind Teal'c, who was doubled over. She got up slowly, knowing that her exposed back wasn't in any danger. Teal'c, still in shock, had dropped his stick. Angela moved around him at a leisurely pace. She didn't want to kick a man when he was down. Her body was beginning to get tired and her mind was growing steadily more cloudy. But she hadn't finished yet. He had pushed her to her limits and now he would regret that decision.

"Come on," Angela shouted, "it's not siesta time yet."

"What's happening here?" said a voice from behind her.

But Angela didn't hear it. Her attention was fixed on Teal'c who was now getting up slowly.

"That's enough!" Mitchell repeated his order, placing himself in front of Angela.

But what he saw frightened him, or rather what he didn't see. There was nothing but anger in the young woman's eyes. She couldn't even see him; all she saw was Teal'c. She seemed to looked right through him, as if he was transparent to her.

"Do not interfere," said Teal'c, "this does not concern you."

"No, this situation's getting out of hand, she's not herself. She can't be controlled anymore, I've seen this before, believe me. Sergeant, go and find a medic now."

"Cameron, let me past," Angela said coldly, "you'd be wise to listen to him."

Mitchell shivered. Her voice had a practically metallic sound to it due to the effect of her anger. He saw her stroke her stick and she smiled at him which froze him in place.

She circled around him. Mitchell couldn't move. She was getting ready to end this fight as she could sense a weakness in Teal'c. They both took up position again.

"You think we should get involved?" said a voice that Angela recognised.

She smiled. This situation was getting better and better.

"It's going to end badly whatever way you look at it," Jack answered.

This might be her lucky day. Teal'c was having trouble moving, practically having to hold himself up. He was looking at his stick which was lying at Angela's feet. Fear could be seen on his face. He wondered if he would have to fight her unarmed.

"Ready?" Angela asked.

"As prepared as one can be, given the situation," though Teal'c, but Angela couldn't hear his answer. She approached the stick and, with her foot, kicked it towards Teal'c, who caught it in midair. She instantly attacked him, giving him no respite. She again went to hit Teal'c in his stomach, when another stick stopped her in her tracks. She didn't know who this stick belonged to, but she knew whose this one was: John's. She couldn't block the attack.

"That's enough," John said calmly.

She turned around to avoid an attack from behind by Jack.

"Surprise!" Jack said.

"So, that's how you fight, is it? By attacking from behind?"

The battle then started again with our two men as Teal'c regained his strength He met Mitchell's gaze, who could not understand the situation.

"I am sorry," Teal'c said to Mitchell, "I did not believe that..."

He then decided to go and help John and Jack who were already having problems, faced with the frightening fury of a woman angered. Angela was then forced to defend herself from the three men. She was beginning to get tired, but her anger gave her body the fuel it needed and she was still in one piece. The lights in the room were starting to flash. The three men encircled the young woman, just waiting for the right time to attack, but Angela never let down her guard. They looked at the flashing lights in surprise while at the same time not letting her out of their sight. The room had been cleared and only two soldiers and Mitchell were left, who had not wanted to get involved in the fight for fear of embarrassing the others. Angela took advantage of their slight lapse in concentration to launch an attack. She chose the weak point first: Teal'c. She knew what she needed to do and required no precision in landing this blow, so she lashed out with all her strength without a specific target so that Teal'c could block her easily. The effect of two sticks was fatal against one. John's stick was broken in two. Then, she landed a stomach kick on John as she took advantage of his surprise. John collapsed and bent double. She annihilated him. Then she turned her attention to Jack and took a flying jump kick at his stomach, which sent him flying into the wall. She then turned back around and grabbed Teal'c by the throat and pushed him against the wall. He tried to break free, but he was too weak. Mitchell tried to intervene, placing his hand on the young woman's shoulder to reason with her, but he was electrocuted.

"Why did you provoke me?" Angela asked in a serious tone.

"I..." he started as Teal'c was trying to get his breath back.

"What's she saying Teal'c?" Mitchell asked as he massaged his painful hand.

"I am sorry," Teal'c said, nearly breathless.

"Sorry! You don't even know what you've begun here."

"I think he does now," said Mitchell, trying to calm the situation down.

"I am sorry," Teal'c said again, "I wished to test you."

"Test me!" Angela laughed.

At that moment, armed airmen came into the room. Her anger spilled out from her veins. This was between her and Teal'c and they had no business interfering. With her hand still wrapped around his neck, she lifted Teal'c up with supernatural strength. The airmen took up firing position. She couldn't even hear their warning. She turned her empty eyes on them and smiled.

"You think those damned weapons are going to stop me?" said an unknown voice coming from Angela's mouth. This voice was almost eerie now. She sneered, "always tests. When are you going to stop these goddamn tests and get down to business? It'll be too hard for you after, you poor human."

"What are you saying?" Mitchell said, sounding surprised, "who are you?"

"Don't you know? It's Angela of course."

"No, that's not possible."

"And yet," Andrea said smiling, "it's true that I'm just a part of her."

"Ma'am, let him go or we will be forced to open fire," one of the armed airmen interrupted.

"Oh really? You poor mortals! Always so optimistic, but you're only fooling yourselves," Angela bent her head to one side, "no, you deserve no..."

Angela threw them against the wall with the slightest movement of her hand and, with a glance, they were stripped of their weapons, defeated. Then, the lights went out for a few seconds before coming back on. Teal'c was sitting with his back to the wall, trying to catch his breath while Angela looked at her hand, which had just been holding Teal'c's throat and his life. She threw a look of hatred at Teal'c and took a look around before fleeing the scene.

"Angela, wait!" Mitchell shouted.

"You'd best let her go," said John, who was rubbing his head, "it looks like she'll be after you, Teal'c. It would be best if you avoided her."

"Do you believe so! That was simply a training exercise," Teal'c said ironically.

"Yeah, just an exercise," whispered Jack.

"Hey you can stop that! You and your goddamn training exercises!" Mitchell said, as he went after the young woman.

Angela was running through the corridors as if trying to escape from Death itself. All this in spite of the exhaustion that was now getting to her after the fight. Her behaviour had frightened her. Frightened was putting it mildly, she was terrified by it. She had never allowed her anger to take control of her mind and body. And she knew why, as she was capable of massacres. At the beginning, she felt as if she had entered a trance, then later she had felt like she practically hadn't been present the whole time. It was not as if she was unaware of her actions, but rather that she was no longer in control of anything. She was running with no idea of where she was headed. Her legs were taking her to the lake. When she saw that lake, she felt calm again and the closer she got to it, the more glad she felt. She made her way to it, limping slightly. Fortunately, Mitchell had lost track of her. He was catching his breath and was sitting up against a wall to compose himself. He was gunning for Teal'c; he had hurt Angela and that had angered him. Again, anger was putting it lightly. Rage was a more appropriate word.

During the flight simulation, Sam had made progress with her research. Angela never left the area, which helped her a great deal. But, after working for several hours, the vessel started to shake and she wasn't sure if it was because of their intrusion into the system. Data was being downloaded which could be in response to the situation or could simply be an update. Some of that data was coming from an old programme that she had tried installing, but without any success at the time. Others were settings made by Rod, who had taken advantage of this modification to introduce his own data, but most of it was unknown, being a mixture of maths and the Ancient language, as if the ship was getting worked up.

Sam and Rod had tried to study this data, but the numbers and letters were going too fast. Suddenly, the whole ship tensioned.

"Looks like we've got company," sighing at the fact that she controlled nothing on this ship.

"Indeed," said Rod. He had brought up a screen showing the signal of each person on the planet.

He looked absorbed in his machines. A blue dot marked the position of the ship whereas the others were red. She didn't even try to understand.

"Angela?"

"It would appear so," Rod answered her, as he turned in her direction, "Colonel Carter?"

"Yes?"

"Thor would like to meet this young woman," he said, pointing to the blue dot.

"Thor?" A lot of people want to meet her...but, wait a minute, he hasn't made any request."

"Indeed. It is not an explicit request by Thor."

"It's a request by your people."

"Yes. I had thought that Thor would have made this request, but I am unsure as to why he has not made it yet."

"We understand your request, but she's the only one who can make that decision. We don't control her, far from it. She's not exactly under our command," seeing that he didn't fully understand, she said, "it's complicated..."

"I understand. However, given her evolutionary state..."

"She might be able to help you with your problems. What does Thor think to this?"

"Thor wants no part in this. He wished for her to be left in peace. After the failure with O'Neill, he now seems fixed on our impending death. However, there are those among us who still have hope. And we still think that the solution lies in your species' DNA. All we need it time, but Thor wished to stop troubling you."

"And Angela has given you hope back?"

"Yes. We have read her medical file and have become more and more interested in it over the last few days. We were especially surprised by how quickly she recovered from an injury and her rapid rate of regeneration, even from serious injuries."

"Antarctica?"

"Yes. For many of us, we see in her several things like her regenerative powers which seem to be...spontaneous, in your terms. we still believe. We would surely be able to provide much in exchange for her help."

"I'll discuss it with General O'Neill."

"We would prefer that you did not. We would like to forget the incidents which have occurred. We do not wish to remind him of his failure to help us, even though it was against his will. We also do not wish to remind him of what certain people among us have done to him. It was immoral."

"I understand. But, in this case, I can still give you a sample of Angela's DNA with her permission."

"I...would be grateful on behalf of all my people."

"It's nothing in comparison to everything you've done for us. I'll talk to her about it as soon as I can."

"Talk to me about what?" said a female voice from behind them.

"What happened?" Sam asked, seeing the state the young woman was in.

"I've just done my close combat training."

"Do you want to talk about it? You look pretty shaken up."

"No, it's fine. It was childsplay."

"Indeed?" said Rod, "the vessel was very disturbed."

"So what?" Angela questioned him.

"It was like that because you were like that," said Rod. As if to confirm what he was saying, the dashboard lit up randomly.

"I'd like to come in," Angela said, not understanding what Rod meant.

"Come in?" Sam said, "you know I can't let you..."

"I have to," Angela said, pleading, "I've done something and I need somewhere to think."

"What is it? I could take you back to the base."

"Okay. That's better than nothing, I guess."

"I'll try. Just give me a minute."

But then new data appeared on the screen.

"There is a problem," said Rod.

"What kind of problem?" asked Sam.

"I do not know yet. An unknown programme has started running."

"An intrusion?" said Sam.

"The programme corresponds with the one used to open the stargate," Rod explained.

"But there's no gate!" Sam said in surprise.

"We do not know that. We have been unable to explore the whole vessel. Who is to say what the ship is made up of?" Rod said, "and it would appear that there is indeed a gate."

Indeed, on the screen they saw an image of a room with a funny-looking fighter. They saw the ground open up like a trap door which gave way to a stargate that rose up out of it.

"Cool!" said Angela.

"Cool?" Rod questioned.

"Extraordinary," Sam clarified.

"Yes, it is indeed...cool," said Rod, wanting to use the expression himself. "The coordinates are being entered."

"That's not so cool. Can you stop it?" Sam asked.

"Regrettably, no. The computer is no longer responding to my commands and the system I have just installed is no longer reacting either."

"What about you?" Sam said, turning to face Angela.

"Me? I don't know anything about it. Oh, I'm not sure," Angela said, understanding now what she meant, "what do you want me to do?"

"Well, think about...actually, I don't know."

"So, if I got further away from the ship, that would cut off the power?"

"It's worth a try," Sam said, casting a questioning glance at Rod.

"But you'd be trapped!"

"No," said Sam.

"I deactivated the control and power crystals for the ship's door. Its electrical and mechanical systems are no longer working, so the door will remain open," said Rod, "we can attempt to teleport you away. As with all vessels, this one also possesses its own system which is the same as the one we use."

"Okay then...send me," said Angela, as she still found it funny to use the word 'beam'.

As the fourth symbol locked, millions of years before the fourth symbol had locked as well. Angela was sent to the base at Cheyenne Mountain where she took up refuge in her room, without even looking at Jack O'Neill, who was surprised to see her back so early and alone. She seemed to be in a hurry.

"It worked!" said Sam, pleased with herself.

"Yes and we now also know that the vessel possesses its own stargate, which I find even more surprising."

"Yes, I get it. To use a stargate, you need to be in a fixed point. The ships DHD would have to change its point of origin each time depending on its position. So, the coordinates don't vary according to the gate, but the position of the gate within the solar system. We've never seen that before."

"We will need to add this mystery to the others. We will also need to know what happened if we wish to find out more about the system. We need to know what purpose this gate serves," said Rod.

"I'd say it was the same energy signature we detected the first time."

"Excuse me?"

"This happened to us on Earth as well. The external connection is the same."

"An intrusion? With all the spies the Ori..."

"I'll check," said Sam.

"In any case, it is a outgoing flow," Rod announced, "and it is coming from here. Are you certain this place is completely secure? Given what we are doing here, if the information we gather were to fall into the wrong hands, the result would be catastrophic."

Mitchell was still sitting with his back facing the wall when Teal'c came to join him.

"I am sorry. Are you angry?"

"You couldn't have known," Mitchell said sighing.

The day that had started out so well had turned into a nightmare.

"I did know."

"That she was going to go postal?"

"No, but it was my intention to provoke her. To provoke anger in her. She appeared too calm to me and I needed to know..."

"I understand. Someone that calm must be hiding something. Well, now we know what it was!"said Mitchell ironically.

"That was not her."

"Well, who was it then?" he said sarcastically, and then said more calmly, "so who was it? The doctors didn't find anything unusual and neither did the psychologist. You're talking about split personality disorder and you should've heard what she said. She feels like she's not alone in her own body..."

"What did she mean by that?"

"I don't know. In any case, the shrink never found anything."

"I sense that it was something else," said Teal'c.

"Something not human? No, that's not possible."

"You heard her as well. She said 'poor humans'."

"Maybe she doesn't think of herself as human," Mitchell said.

"Indeed."

"Or it could be her tumour?"

"To what are you referring?"

"A tumour can change someone's mood but it can also make them hallucinate and change their behaviour. Maybe that's what's going on here."

"Perhaps," Teal'c said, but not with much conviction.

"What are we doing?" Mitchell sighed.

"We are guarding and then I will go and apologise."

"No, you will not! You've done enough damage around here for one day."

"I must atone for my mistakes," Teal'c insisted, "I must explain myself to her. There has been a misunderstanding."

"I don't think that's such a good idea. And it was pretty obvious what happened. I'd leave it a while if I were you."

"Yes, when she is calm. Did you wish to speak to me?" asked Teal'c

"Yes, I did. She's already here unwillingly and there's no need to shove her and you...forget it, we just need to find her."

"She is no longer here."

-'?'

"What?"

"I can no longer sense her. Her rage was so strong that her absence has left an empty chasm. Everything has gone back to normal and the air no longer feels like there is an approaching storm."

"Maybe she's gone to see Sam. They're friends. She might have gone to talk to her and confide in her," Mitchell said, hoping he was right.

"Most likely. Let us go and find her."

Angela had immediately headed for her room where she had locked herself in after disabling the electric system in a gesture of rage and desperation. Suddenly she was plunged into darkness and sat huddling in a corner of the room. She rested her head against her knees while she wrapped her arms around them, trying to compose herself. There were tears running down her cheeks. There were all manner of contradictory feelings mixed up inside her soul. It was a mix of sadness, fear and frustration all at the same time. Every part of her body was shaking.

"Where's Angela?" Mitchell asked Sam, who was hunched over a control console. Angela's leaving had made it difficult to study the data.

"She went back to the base," said Sam without raising her head, "she was pretty messed up." At that point, she did lift her head up to look at the who was questioning her and, on seeing their faces, asked, "what's happened?"

"It was a misunderstanding...," Teal'c began.

"I was talking about your bruises...wait a minute, you said something about a misunderstanding?"

"We fought with Angela and I injured her. I was not being attentive and I should not have provoked her," Teal'c explained.

"I don't understand. What really happened?" asked Sam, seeming confused.

"Teal'c tried to get her angry, which I have to say he managed to do pretty well," said Mitchell with a reproachful tone in his voice.

"But why?" said Sam, still not understanding. And then she understood, "you did it to test her! Again? That was unfair."

"I didn't do anything," Mitchell said, defending himself.

"Oh no? You all want something from her: you, Teal'c, Daniel and the General. You all ask too much of her and you can't just leave her alone for a little. You're like dogs chasing a bone. Just let her breathe!" Sam exclaimed, "she needs some space. I'm sorry Rod, we'll pick this up again later, I have some things I need to take care of," she said as she took out her laptop and connected it to the ship's console.

About half an hour later, Sam was headed towards Angela's room. She knocked and tried to go inside but the door was locked. She tried to bypass the opening system the way she normally would, but there was no power and she couldn't make it budge.

"Okay, looks like you thought of everything," Sam said and then, more loudly said, "Angela, it's me, Sam, open the door. I want to talk about what's happened...or anything else you want to tell me about."

Nothing.

"We really need to talk. I'm sorry for the way the others have behaved, what they've put you through. It's unforgivable. But we need to talk about it."

Still nothing.

"Okay then, I'll talk. But, since I don't know what happened, that's not going to be easy. Okay, I'll start, but first I'll just say that I completely agree with you. They shouldn't have done that to you, they acted like...like bastards. They don't understand that women, well, sometimes we need a little careful attention. And you were right to give them the beating of their lives. I've never seen Teal'c in that state. It'll do him good to find out he's not invincible, but that's not what I want to talk about. I want you to tell me what you're thinking."

Still no sign.

One hour later.

"So?"

"Nothing. She doesn't want to hear it, Daniel," Sam said.

"Just go, I'll take over. Go and get some rest," Daniel suggested.

"I don't think that would be the best idea."

"I think it is. I've spent enough time avoiding her as it is. Go, rest. You need as much as you can get before we leave."

"Angela!" Daniel called as Sam left, "it's Daniel. Listen, I've got all night, so I'm gonna sit in front of this door and I'm not moving until you open it. So, I'm just going to wait until you're ready."

Daniel sat on the floor just next to the door, with his back to the wall. He opened up one of his books on the Ancients, the pages of which were in pretty bad shape and the writing was barely visible. He then took out a few tissues that looked like skin.

"I brought some reading material, you interested?" Daniel said, trying to get the conversation going, but without much success, "no? Okay then, I'll just read it out to you."

On the other side of the door, Angela had heard her friend's reassuring words. But, she hadn't been able to respond; she was just too terrified. What was more, she didn't have the strength or the courage. She would have like to have been comforted by Sam's arms around her shoulders. She would have liked to talk to her, tell her what was on her mind. None of the arguments she heard were enough to make her break her silence. Not even the efforts of the legendary Jack O'Neill had had any effect on her, no effect on the state of disarray the young woman found herself in. He had even ordered a team equipped with blowtorches to open the door the day after tomorrow. For the moment, though, he was leaving her alone. He understood that she needed time to think about everything she'd learnt over the last few days. He tried to imagine what he would be like in her place, as he himself had been in the same situation more than ten years ago. To be honest, even after all these years, he still didn't really get it himself. She had handled it pretty well, at least that's how it looked at the start. Maybe because "she was a scientist and she'd worked with Carter on the ship before. At the time, she had her doubts as to whether the technology in front of her was the product of research far beyond that which was known to them. Also, the fact that they never managed to use it must have roused some suspicions. Sam had asked O'Neill to leave these things between the girls, which he gladly did. Then, Sam gave up her place to Daniel. She had missed his voice immensely. She liked to listen to him go on for hours about civilisations and myths. He could bewitch you with his tales. She also wanted to take him in her arms, a kind of contact she had forgotten. She listened to his voice through the door. She didn't know what he was talking about, but her mind was growing more calm a little at a time. She let the tale comfort her. As the tale went on, she started to find her self-confidence. Her strength was being rebuilt. Daniel had stopped reading and he seemed to be translating a passage of text. He was speaking as if he was in front of an audience at a conference, or students. He was thinking aloud, alone in the corridor. It was getting late and the airmen had started to desert the corridors. She could also hear the light pressing of a pen against a sheet of paper where he was taking notes. He was working as he held the conversation, keeping her company. Angela ended up standing to go and get herself one of the beers she had left. Sometimes, the alcohol helped to numb your problems or drown your sorrows and made you feel a little happier. It was only temporary, to be sure, but when you did it, the euphoria you felt did you a lot of good. But this wasn't true in Angela's case. She had grown immune to its effects during a mission in Russia where she had drunk a huge quantity of vodka to dull her target's reflexes. The problem was that the alcohol over there was a lot stronger than the stuff in America. She had had a hard time trying to get used to the vodka so that she wouldn't lose her target. This large amount of alcohol was not doing her any harm, at least not physically. She knew it was no good for her tumour, but at that point that didn't matter. She was not proud of that quality as she could allow herself to drink during a mission to lower her suspicions, which would make her seem like a drunk. But, alcohol also had no psychological effect on her. It didn't make her feel worse, but, like everyone else, she drank because she felt like it, especially if there wasn't a large bowl of ice cream or some chocolate around in case she felt down. This was calming her down, so she decided to keep her mind occupied. She studied the electrical system intently; she had completely wrecked it. She repaired the damage she had done. Ten minutes later, she had reconnected all the wires to one another. The light came on instantly.

Daniel, still engrossed in his writing, quickly put his translations to one side. It was getting to the point where he could no longer stand all these files. He spent too much of his time on them, and, for the first time, he thought about doing something else. It was true that his life was incredible and exciting with all the adventures it entailed, but there was more to life than all that. He wondered if he shouldn't just stop, with his passion for adventure growing weaker every day. He stopped as he discovered this revelation. Adventure was enough for a certain amount of time but after a while, he had to think about other people, starting a family. In fact, since the death of his wife, he had dedicated his entire life to his work . He had no private life. All his relationships revolved around work. Even his relationship with Vala was ambiguous and complicated. Of course, his relationships had never been ideal. Whenever he let his barriers down, he had always been disappointed. He had been manipulated by a master Goa'uld female. The only real relationship he had had since his wife had died was with the person behind this door, Angela. He had messed it all up. She had been the only woman he had ever put so much of his trust in. He had opened up his heart to her, if he had been listening to it, that is. He could still sense the feelings he had for her. He still loved her. In fact, he had always loved her. So why did he leave her out of fear? Fear of losing her? In any case, he did lose her. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of movement and scratching on the other side of the door. Then he saw a light go on inside the room. Angela must have reconnected the electricity, which meant the system that opened the door had also been reconnected. Then the light went out again. Daniel got up with difficulty; his muscles were sore from being sat down for more than an hour. He got his things together and his thoughts before he went to the door. He opened it. The room was consumed by darkness. He was hesitant to step inside, thinking Angela might want to be alone. But, he could no longer turn back. He found himself being drawn to her irresistibly. He could hear his heart beating as he entered. He put his things on the desk and turned on a desk lamp that he found by fumbling about, which just barely made the room more clear. He looked at Angela, who was sitting in a corner with her back against the wall. He briefly saw the beer on the floor. She looked at him as well with tears in her eyes. seeing her like this, Daniel melted and tried his best not to rush over to her, take her in his arms and console her. It was all he could do to approach the bed slowly. He sat next to her without touching her, for rear of reawakening a desire that had long since been put to bed. In the shadows, he could make out the tears on her cheek. He wanted to take them back, take back these drops of despair. But he did nothing. He waited for her to begin the discussion, but silence reigned in the room.

"What have I done?" Angela asked, breaking the silence.

"That's what I was going to ask you."

"I don't know. I don't know what came over me. I don't get it. I just had no control. The doctors warned me that the tumour could make my mood change, but I never thought it would go this far. I'm afraid."

"You lost control?"

"No!" Angela said quickly, "no, I was just a spectator. I wasn't taking part in the show. I was just there."

"You don't know what you're saying."

Daniel broke the distance he had been forcing himself to maintain and took her in his arms. He was touched by the sadness the young woman was feeling.

"Who am I?" Angela asked, her head on his shoulder. She started to tremble slightly.

Daniel didn't know what to say to her. He was moved by the turmoil she was going through. He was seeing her through new eyes, he had discovered a new facet of her personality. He was in front of a sensitive, almost fragile woman and certainly not the one who was sure of herself, the strong woman he had always known. That was what he had loved about her: her confidence in any situation.

"You don't know what you're saying; you're exhausted, you need to rest," Daniel said again, "your ideas aren't clear, go to bed. We've asked too much of you these last few days and I'm sorry."

"You didn't come here for no reason. It came from me," Angela sighed.

"Yes, because we made you come back when you weren't ready after all. You're physically exhausted, I can see that and you're mentally exhausted as well. It's all because of me."

"Don't be stupid. You can't blame yourself for everything that goes on this damn planet. You'd never do anything to hurt me and I know that. Like you say, I just need some sleep."

"I was the one who said to Jack that we should contact you," Daniel admitted.

"What do you mean?" Angela said, now moving away from Daniel.

"We needed somebody to pilot the ship and we didn't look for anyone else, even though we could have and, I didn't want to admit it to myself, but... "

"Admit what?"

"That I wanted to see you again and I didn't know what to do about that, I guess. But, now I do know," said Daniel as he stroked her cheek to smooth away a tear that was running down it, "don't cry, I don't like seeing you like that."

"You didn't seem to care about that when you left me, me crying. You should go," she said, moving further away.

"I know. I'm selfish."

"Selfish! Damn right you are! You think you can just click your fingers and get what you want, see me how you want. I'm not a thing," Angela said in anger, which then grew softer, "and no, you're not selfish. You want to find a solution to save the universe. When this is all over, I hope you'll forget about me and finally leave me alone."

She wrapped her arms around her knees again and got herself into a huddling position.

"You won't need me anymore once you have the weapon," Angela said.

"Yes, in theory. What will you do afterwards?"

"I'll disappear for good."

"What?"

"I'll change my identity again and everything else. It's not hard. What were you thinking."

"I don't know. I thought we could stay in touch and maybe we could even..."

"So you could contact me again over the tiniest problem? Or maybe satisfy your desire to see me again," Angela said scornfully before she heard the rest, which would no doubt bring up painful and dangerous feelings for her.

"That's not what I thought. I thought that after all this, you might want to settle down, make a home."

"A home! Do I have to remind you that I don't have the time or the strength for that. And I don't have any desire to leave a family after me. It wouldn't be much of a gift after my premature death."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think about...that. Anyway, you're not with anyone, I mean..."

"No, I have a few flings, but that's all they are and they never last very long. They're just distractions."

"So, nothing serious?" Daniel asked, relieved.

"No, there's no-one else. But you've already had your chance, Daniel."

"I know, but I'd like for us to talk about it. I want to tell you that you were the only real relationship I had after my wife died."

"I didn't know that," Angela whispered, stunned by Daniel's revelation about his private life.

When they were together, Daniel had never spoken about his private life. He didn't share his memories with her. So, she had no idea that he had been married and she had been the only woman for ten years, well, his only real relationship at least. She should have felt flattered by this, as he had opened his heart to her, something so closed that few had access to it, but that wasn't how she felt. Now she no longer felt that way, in fact, she had shut the door on him and their relationship over the most minor argument. Even so, it had been him who left her, breaking her heart into a million pieces in the process. She had tried to forget about it all those nights where she felt alone in her bed; a bed that was that very day occupied by the same man. But she had changed. She had moved on to other things. At least, that was what she hoped, otherwise she would fall for Daniel's charms again. He should have forgotten her as well. She cursed him for telling her how he felt and leaving it until today. She wanted to put some distance between them because she knew that she wouldn't be able to resist him for very long and didn't want to fall back into his arms, not easily anyway, firstly for fear of being rejected again and secondly, because she didn't want to be unhappy again. Daniel could see the distance Angela had put between them and the conflict that was going on in her mind. He was embarrassed by the situation. They were like two teenagers who didn't know what to do and who couldn't hide their feelings. He could feel the tension inside her and her hesitation. A gleam of hope was appearing in his heart and was growing stronger, in spite of the pain he had felt since his separation from the young woman.

"I think I should go to sleep," Angela said, breaking the silence and the uneasiness that had broken out, but still not making a move. She didn't dare move.

Because, despite everything, she loved Daniel's comforting presence. But, there was an emptiness between the two of them and she was afraid of being alone.

"Yeah, I'll go...," said Daniel, starting to get up despite what his heart was telling him.

"Daniel?" she said as she got beneath the covers.

"Yes?" he said, perhaps a bit too quickly, filled with hope.

"I don't want...to be alone tonight. After everything that's happened, I..."

"I understand," said Daniel, relieved as he sat back down on the bed.

"Daniel?"

"Yes?"

"What's going to happen tomorrow?"

"Tests on the ship, I guess."

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant, what's going to happen about...my behaviour. I don't want to go and see that shrink again."

"No, I don't think what happened was a problem, you..."

"I nearly killed two men!"

"You weren't yourself. You've been having problems with your health, remember? Your treatments can affect your moods and change your behaviour like mood swings, even the tumour could be causing it."

"I don't think my condition is the cause of all that."

"What then? You're not crazy and I doubt you want us to lock you up."

"I am crazy. I'm possessed!"

"No, you're not. After some of the things I've seen, I know you're not crazy or ill, well not mentally anyway. I've actually been possessed myself more than once," Daniel said as he thought that might be what was happening to Angela.

"Really?"

"I understand what you're feeling and I want to tell you that you don't need to worry, but I don't know what you went through in the battle over Antarctica. That's a mystery to us."

"You were there?" Angela asked.

"Yeah, with Jack. He was the one who caused the blinding light. Actually, they were drones."

"Drones?"

"They're an Ancient weapon that we used to destroy a mortal enemy of Earth. Jack targeted them at the ship."

"Then why was I attacked?" Angela asked in surprise.

"You weren't attacked. If you had been, you wouldn't be here talking about this now and your ship would have been destroyed. The drones just had a strange effect on you."

"The drones were giving off radiation?"

"That's what Sam thinks. And that radiation would have caused significant mutations in your DNA."

"Or it caused massive breaks in the double helices of my DNA, which would have lead to errors when it was repaired."

"Well, we do know one thing. We tried to re-write your genome, which would explain certain things."

"Like my gifts?" Angela said.

"I once had powers as well, even scarier than yours but it was only temporary," Daniel said in a nostalgic tone of voice, "an Ancient...took possession of my body," Daniel explained, without naming names.

"An Ancient," Angela said, surprised, "you mean a Lantean, the people you're always telling me about?"

"Yes, that's right and then I ascended. Now that I think about it, your gifts are making me think about what happened to me."

"Are you saying you think it could be an Ancient who's putting me in this state!"

"Well, Jack had the Ancient library of knowledge downloaded into his brain, so yes it is possible. He had all the knowledge of the Ancients when that happened."

"But why was this done to me and not Mitchell, for example?" Angela asked, knocked back a little by all the information.

"I don't know."

"Can it be reversed?" Angela asked with hope in her voice, "I mean, you became...normal again."

"In my case I died, or the spirit of the Ancient left my body," said Daniel.

"Is there a way that's a little less complicated? I don't just die every day," Angela joked.

"There might be another way," Daniel said, sounding hopeful, "one of our teams managed to reverse the process, but I'd have to learn more about it."

"Thank you."

Daniel thought about Dr McKay, who had had the same problem. He had forgotten to mention that McKay was dying as a result of those changes.

-'Pourquoi moi ?', répéta Angéla.

"Why me?" Angela asked again.

"Luck of the draw."

"Yeah. Wrong place, wrong time, just like always! So, tomorrow's agenda is the ship."

"Yes, and with any luck we can finally start this journey tomorrow," said Daniel.

Daniel sat himself down on the chair with a thin sheet while everything became quiet. Angela fell asleep quickly given how tired she was. Meanwhile, Daniel's mind was swimming with the numerous hypotheses on what was going to happen next and the discoveries they would make.

End of chapter