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dragonfly11***
"Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire."
-Jorge Luis Borges
***
Part II- The Rescue
He wanted it to be over with—the search that is, but more importantly the rescue. He wanted his scientist to be tucked safely away in his designated infirmary bed, already begging him to talk Frasier into letting him go home.
Damnit. He needed to see him. Something just wasn’t right…aside from the painfully obvious. It was almost like… the closer to Daniel they got…the farther away he felt
The camp where Daniel and Dr. Lee were spotted being held was less than a few hours away; they should reach it by mid-day, but Jack couldn’t swallow the fear of finding his archeologist dead, or worse…finding only the husk of the man he had known as his best friend.
Jack had seen Daniel bounce back from great physical and spiritual pain so many times, that he swore the kid’s soul was made out of rubber. Rubber, but unfortunately, in this case, not glue… because even as he desperately raced through the forest to catch that very soul—to keep it from falling and shattering its magnificence all over the jungle’s callous bottom, he could feel it slipping away, along with his military mask.
The body wasn’t designed to sustain torture (though ironically some have mastered the “art” of giving it) and the mind can only protect for so long. It only has so many strategies, so many chapters of protection before it needs to hide itself…in an endless waking dream.
~*~SGI~*~
His entire life was based on minutes, hours, days. Fighting time to get more work done, counting the seconds between life and death…on numerous occasion.
He was two minutes late to save Sha’uri and Skaara.
The cover stones that crushed his parents fell in a matter of seconds.
Time, Daniel realized, was his life’s keeper.
But no more.
He finally found a sanctuary from the endless ticking of the day.
Time was of no matter here. It simply didn’t exist. There was nothing to measure your success or criticize your failures with.
You just…were.
Timeless and weightless, he soared through the night towards the ancient light in the distance. He could already feel its warmth reaching out to him, beckoning him closer. Urging him to see.
He knew he should stop, knew he was forgetting something. But what? He had a vague recollection of something…someone searching for him. Maybe he should wait. Maybe he should go back. But it was so beautiful…and big. It was everywhere; stretching out into the furthest corners of the night. Surely they’d know to look for him there. Maybe he’d just take a quick look.
Making up his mind, Daniel reached out to the light. He could already feel a brilliant peace making its way through his body, slowly enveloping him like a warm blanket. It was unlike any other feeling he had every experienced…worldly, universally or higher plan, for that matter.
Before he knew it he was completely cocooned in the light…in another world. But the only one Daniel had known for the last year
He was finally home from his long journey into the desert.
~*~SGI~*~
Four years earlier…
//She had watched her love, as he watched her. She stood at his side, while he sat by hers. She felt his hand in hers, but he did not feel as she tried to wipe away his tears. “It will be alright, my love,” she whispered in his ear as he searched her still form. “Together we will be again.”
She wanted to comfort him, as he sat there at her side in his wheelchair with the telltale marks of the demon’s assault already branded on his forehead. She wanted to remind him that it was okay now—the evil inside her was gone. Her body was free. But the only comfort she was allowed to leave him with was her memory. So she waited and watched him seek solace in the memories of their love, until it was time for her soul to be weighed and set free, along with her body.//
~*~SGI~*~
***
"Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.”
-Tom Clancy
***
Daniel had been disappointed at finding nothing of significance, but it didn’t matter anymore. All the worries of his trip faded away with the smile of his wife. He could see her running through the village towards him, and he quickened his pace. Had it really been a whole week? An entire week without her hands, without the smell of her hair, the sound of her breath lulling him to sleep at night? God, how did he survive?
They reached each other at full speed and didn’t stop until the impact of their desire brought them to their knees. Holding onto each other as if the galaxy were trying desperately to tear them apart, there was no strength left for words.
~*~SGI~*~
The villagers started to gather around them. Some were crying. Some were laughing. And everyone was hooting when Sha’uri placed a kiss on him that would quench a dying man’s thirst. She had lived without those lips, without the safety of his touch and sparkle in his eyes for far too long... too many agonizing years. Now, she had her husband back in her arms and at last they were going get the chance to live out their dreams…together.
~*~SGI~*~
If Jack didn’t know better, he’d swear that lizard was watching him…even calling out to him. But he did know better which… made… that… whole last thought…inane. This, come to think of it, described most of Jack’s thoughts when trying to avoid worry. What he couldn’t avoid, however, was the fact that his “star guide” was sweating exponentially the closer they got to the camp, and it was not to the rhythm of the rising heat.
“You alright there, Wallas?” Jack asked, hoping to get an answer as to why he’d soon be needing to hike up his pants.
Turning around to look at Jack, Cornelius’ face held fear and uncertainty. “Colonel, I just want to make sure you know what you’re getting into.”
Jack just stared at him. Somebody pinch me, he thought. Better yet, somebody pinch him.
“I know what I’m getting into, Wallas. However, I’m beginning to wonder if you know what you’re getting into,” he said slowly.
Cornelius looked down at his feet and Jack thought, Uh-oh…Ladies and Gentleman, would you please give a nice round of applause for moooore drama!
“Colonel…”
Jack instantly whipped his hand up, cutting off whatever his guide was going to say. “Wallas, if you find you know me intimately enough to screw me!” Jack yelled the last few words. “Then please, by all means, call me Jack,” he finished sardonically.
“No Jack…uh…Colonel, it’s not that.”
Jack raised his eyebrows unbelievably at the use of his first name.
“I have long dreamed of being a hero for my country, our country, Colonel and that of my ancestors. I have done many things in the service of our nation. Saved many lives, but not in the field. Not at the risk of my own. Some might consider me a hero. But I do not.”
“Annnnnd?” Jack drawled out, not seeing where this was going.
“I thought this would be my opportunity. My moment to shine. Not only because it was the right thing to do, but because it was a risk to myself. I will take you to your man, Colonel…but after reassessing the risk, I am not so certain I can help you retrieve him.”
Jack didn’t know what to say that didn’t start with, “You selfish little chicken bastard!” so…he just stuck with that.
~*~SGI~*~
***
“‘Til my body is dust
‘Til my soul is no more
I will love you, love you…”
-Fisher
***
Daniel was strangely exhausted and exhilarated. The journey had been a long one—drawn out by the absence of his wife, but seeing her again has filled his body with life. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry. He wanted to dance—to lift her up and match her beauty to the stars. To stroke her hair as they spooned after making love. To whisper, “I love you’s” in her ear as they cast their dreams into the night. Mostly though, he just wanted to hold her for the rest of his life. But he’d settle for tonight…and the night after that, and the night after that—until their bodies turned to dust, and the wind carried their intertwined souls off to dance in eternity.
Walking through the village toward their home, surrounded by their family and friends, Daniel was glad that he had decided not to reopen the gate. His week long expedition had reminded him that no discovery in the universe would ever be able to compare to the one he had waiting for him at home.
He couldn’t get over how much he had missed her. His body felt as if it had been aching to hold her for years. She filled a void in him that not even the biggest discovery on earth could.
She filled a void in him, where he had never imagined happiness residing again.
~*~SGI~*~
***
“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.”
-Anthony Brandt
***
“Colonel, you don’t understand. It’s not my life that I fear for, but my livelihood. If I go with you into that camp…my assignment will be over, along with my life as I know it here. My cover would most likely be blown and I’d be forced to leave with you.”
“And? So? Therefore?” Jack asked impatiently while trying to pump the anger back out of his fists. Getting no response he continued on, this time waving his hand in the air. “That…okay…what you just said…was that supposed to make my heart bleed for you, so I’d take back my previous statement? Which, by the way, still stands,” he added, resting his arm on his P-90.
Yet again, Cornelius found the ground less threatening to look at than Jack. “I…” he started. “I’ve been down here for a very long time, Colonel. A very long time. And in that time…things can happen, by no other fault than fate alone,” he defended quickly.
Jack was losing his patience and the reins on his anger for that matter. “Wallas! Spit! It! Out!” he yelled, enunciating each word with his hands.
“The first time I met her was over a year after I’d been assigned. For a few months I kept her at a distance, refused to get personal with her…refused to let her near my heart.” Cornelius paused, taking in a deep breath that carried the courage he needed to continue. “It was one morning, seven months to the day I met her, when I realized that I succeeded in not letting her near my heart, but that something worse had happened. I had failed in my ultimate resolve. I did not let her near my heart, Colonel, but somehow, somewhere in the short time I knew her, she took possession of it. It was then I knew I could no longer protect it. And I didn’t want to…not from her. Soon after that we were married, and now we are expecting a child.”
Jack let out a loud sigh and took off his hat to scrub at his head. That was an unfortunate, unexpected doozey that he didn’t have an answer for. Luckily though, he packed plenty of advice. “Wallas…” he began, putting his hat back on and using his infamous single cough to clear his mind before continuing, “…not to sound unsympathetic, but you’re not the only man that has gone into battle with a family waiting at home and you certainly won’t be the last.”
Cornelius was about to object, but was again cut off by Jack’s finger flying up to slice the air between them.
“Albeit, you’re the first I’ve met that will most likely never get to see his family again even if you do survive. So let me just say this,” Jack stepped closer and put a hand on Cornelius’ shoulder. “You have a choice. You have to decide what is more important to you. Your family… or dying for something you believe in.” He suddenly felt like he was playing the devil’s advocate. “Either way, you’ll be losing something you never imagined getting the chance to experience. Either way, you’ll be losing a dream.”
Keeping his head down, Cornelius refused to look Jack in the eyes, but Jack knew he was listening. “I can tell you this much, though. Being a hero does not mean you have the luxury to choose for whom, or when you’re going to die. It means sacrifices. It means, not thinking about your own wants and needs.”
“But that doesn’t matter here anyway,” Jack continued, stepping back. “…because no matter what you choose to do today, Wallas, you’ll be a hero. You just have to decide whose. Your family’s… or mine?”
~*~SGI~*~
***
“‘Til the sun starts to cry
And the moon turns to rust
I will love you, love you…”
-Fisher
***
Stepping inside after bidding goodnight to everyone, Sha’uri wasted no time. “My husband…” she whispered, as she kissed her name from his lips. “I have missed you so.”
“Sha’uri…”
“Ssshh, my Danyel,” she purred, running her fingers through his long hair. She just wanted to touch him. Relish in the fact that her body was hers again. Not possessed by the demon that had tainted her thoughts, her touch with hate. She could again look at her husband and know love without vengeance. She could once more touch her husband and feel warmth without the demon’s evil freezing her veins.
It was almost a comfort that he had long hair again. It would make it easier to think of a time when they were happy. It would make it easier to forget the pain in his eyes every time he looked at her. Maybe it would even help her to forget the desire his eyes still held for her… even as her hand had slowly sentenced him to death.
She had often dreamed of what it would be like after the demon was gone. The life they would reclaim. How they would move on and watch their family grow. She never imagined getting the chance to start back at the beginning where their dreams were first born.
She never imagined seeing such innocence in her husband’s eyes again.
~*~SGI~*~
“Sha’uri…” he tried again. He didn’t know why he felt it was so urgent to ask her now. He didn’t know why he felt fear in the safety of her embrace, or why, all of the sudden, he felt like he was frantically racing time so he wouldn’t be left in the dust of his dreams. All he knew was that he was ready; it was time…to become a family.
And as if she read his mind, Sha’uri whispered her answer into his chest as they lay for the first time since their souls were torn. Their only witness was the moonlight peeking through. Their only care was for each other, and their only truth was whispered through the night to the rhythm of their love.
~*~SGI~*~
***
“A loving heart is the truest wisdom.”
-Charles Dickens
***
Cornelius looked like a man about to cry. He had already made up his mind. He would not be the man his wife married… fell in love with, if he denied the code he lived by his entire military life. “Never leave a man behind.”
Pointing north and quickly swatting a stray tear away, Cornelius’ voice was confident, but weighed down deeply with sorrow. “Come. We are nearly there,” he stated, before hastily heading off in that direction.
Back on course, Jack felt for the man. He knew what it was like to have to walk away from someone you never imagined needing in your life one day, only to realize the next that you couldn’t imagine living without. The first time—a Daniel in love asked him to leave him behind on Abydos. The second time—a would be dead Daniel asked him on Klorel’s ship. The third time—a dying Daniel…his best friend, asked Jack to let him go so he could go play tinker bell with Oma Desala.
He had been asked way too many times to let Daniel go. And he did, believing in the man who asked him. But not this time. Not ever again. Nope. The only way he was ever going to let Daniel go again was if someone pried him out of Jack’s cold dead hands. And even then he’d put up a fight.
Speaking of putting up a fight…
On his way to the locker room before he left—one super-sized bag in tow, he ran into her. Carter. Literally. She was standing right around the corner in front of the locker room, twisting her fingers in her hands…
// “Oh! Sorry, sir!”
“S’kay…”
When she didn’t say anything else, just stood there looking uncomfortable in her own skin, he pressed on. “Carter? Is there something I can do for you?”
“Sir…” was all she managed before her gaze lowered to her wrenching fingers.
He knew where this was going. He’d seen it all morning and had been fighting it himself.
She was worried.
“I’ll get him back, Carter.”
“I know you will, sir,” she whispered confidently, looking immediately up at her CO.
Jack was taken aback by the trust she held in her eyes. He knew his 2IC trusted him—they all trusted each other, but still, to see it so exposed as she looked up at him…it left his soul gasping.
Watching her stand there, Jack noticed that her scientific mask was in place. Holding back the emotions she wanted to scream. Holding back the tears she would never allow to fall because if they ever did, it would make it even harder to convince herself that Daniel would be okay. That Daniel was coming home to them…alive. Every tear would be a dagger through the heart of faith. Every tear that slipped would take hope along with it and they had none to spare. So she would fight tirelessly to keep them in place…tucked away, deep down in her soul.
Certain that she would soon dislocate her fingers, Jack intervened. “You know Carter…I’ve been passing out hugs aalll day long if you’re interes...”
he was in his arms in an instant—holding onto him as if he was the last lifeline to Daniel. Maybe he was. He tried to whisper the best comfort he knew of in her ear. Humor. “Come on now, Sam. He’ll be okay, I promise,” he eased, stroking her hair. “Daniel can’t get enough of us. Not even in death could he stay away.” Okay, so he admitted he was a little rusty, but it still had the desired effect. She giggled…and then tightened her grip as if it would allow her a whisper of Daniel.//
Not a single tear fell, not a single sob racked her body, and still, in the brief moments he held her, he felt her soul cry. He still got chills when he thought about it, but they quickly subsided when Cornelius signaled him to get down.
They were there.
~*~SGI~*~
***
“But I need to know- Will you stay for all
time…Forever and a Day.
Then I’ll give my heart ‘til the end of all
time…Forever and a Day…”
-Fisher
***
// “Oh, come on, Teal’c! No Goa’uld allowed on the scrabble board!” Jack exclaimed with exasperation.
“It is not Goa’uld, O’Neill. It is in fact a common Tau’ri term.”
Daniel and Carter chuckled. The four of them had been playing Scrabble for hours as the weather outside had prevented them from doing much of anything else. Jack had said that they all needed some time away from the SGC and the General agreed. They were all about to make their own plans, when Jack practically kidnapped them and carted them off to the great spam state of Minnesota.
Freezing his ass off was not what Daniel had in mind for a vacation. But it hadn’t turned out as badly as he had feared. The snow storm outside kept them huddled together inside, laughing the night away…mostly at Jack.
Jack had been arguing from the beginning that the words his teammates used were not of the English language. Even Carter had been accused of cheating, just because Jack didn’t recognize her language. Getting down to the last few pieces and losing miserably, Jack was getting desperate. Putting extra consonants and vowels in words and saying they were silent. Of course they let him get away with it…eventually. Humoring Jack was just about as much fun as annoying him, Daniel thought. Although, it was really out of pity. Even with Jack’s extra, albeit unethical points, he lost miserably…for the third time in a row, and swore he’d never play Scrabble again with a bunch of “freakishly educated” people while he set up for another game.
What Daniel thought would be a dreadful, cold and boring weekend, turned into being just what he needed. What they all needed; time together without death or destruction knocking on their door. //
Daniel opened his eyes to a new day, but found he couldn’t shake the dream tugging at the edges of his memory. The last time he saw Jack was over a year ago, and the Jack he knew then didn’t have an inch of grey hair. Nor, did he know enough about him to suggest he would cheat at Scrabble so childishly.
It also didn’t explain why Daniel almost admired the behavior...and let him.
And who were the other two? In the dream he felt like he had known them his entire life. But he couldn’t recall ever meeting them. The four of them made a family; he sensed a very unique family—each complementing the other with their inimitable abilities. Trust did not need to be asked of, because it was unquestionably there. He felt secure in their presence…safe, though plagued with constant worry for his team.
Team.
What made him think of that?
Sha’uri whispering in his ear brought him out of his reverie. “My husband…are you not well?” she asked, puzzled by the look on his face.
“No, I feel great. The best in what seems like ages, actually,” he admitted, turning towards her. “I was just lost in a dream.”
“Was I in it?” she asked teasingly.
“Uh, no. Um…actually, I didn’t recognize half the people in it,” he said, sitting up and hoping she would drop it. He had a bizarre feeling of loss when looking back at that dream, like he was missing something. But what? He had everything he had ever wanted and needed right here.
He could feel her as she sat up and started rubbing his back—in an attempt, he bet, to soothe him from what she could only imagine being a nightmare. However, when he looked back at her, it was not compassion he saw in her eyes, but fear.
He was about to ask her what was wrong when he heard Skaara yell for him to come outside.
~*~SGI~*~
She watched her husband as he dressed, admiring the flex of his muscles and the glint of his tan. She knew reality still lingered in his mind, cloaked as a dream to protect him. She was afraid this would happen, in her heart’s heart maybe she even knew it would. Her husband’s mind was stronger and wiser than a thousand men. She just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
The first time forever had been threatened and ultimately taken away was when their reality was crushed, by what the Tau’ri thought, were merely fairytales. The second time, she feared, it would be reality delivering the final blow to their fairytale.
Now her heart, once overjoyed, was filled with fear. Which would her husband choose? The truth he knew in his mind? Or the dream he had never been able to let go of in his heart?
~*~SGI~*~
***
“Greater love hath no man this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
- 1Jn 15:13
***
Jack knew what Cornelius was thinking. They were going to die. They were out in the middle of the jungle about to take on an undetermined amount of seriously crazed heavily armed men…without so much as an illusion of back-up.
He obviously has never been stranded on a Goa’uld inhabited planet with an army of Jaffa hot on his tail.
Okay, Cornelius might be kissing his ass good-bye, but Jack distinctly remembered that nowhere on his agenda did it say anything about dying. Jack did a mental recheck. “Spread cheer, save Daniel and escape in a hail of bullets.” Nope! Nothing about dying and his day was booked so nowhere to squeeze it in. Darn.
Cornelius finished his survey of the camp and was now looking at Jack. “What do you think?”
“I think to get anywhere close to a head start from these goons we’re gonna need to take out as many as we can quickly and quietly. If they should happen to notice us before we’ve made our escape, then hopefully, I’ll already have enough C-4 planted to give us a big boom…where as we will then run like hell.”
“What if the kid can’t run?”
“I’ll carry him,” Jack said matter-of-factly.
“Okay…sounds like a plan to me,” Cornelius replied, deciding that that was not an issue he wanted to dispute and started to unfold the bow he just took from his pack, followed by numerous arrows.
Jack just eyed the odd choice of weaponry. “Wha…? What…? Okay, so more importantly,” Jack asked, raising a finger. “Who takes a bow and arrows with them on a rescue mission?” On earth, anyway? Jack thought to himself. “Who do you think you are? Legolas Greenleaf?”
Cornelius didn’t even bother to look up from his task of putting his bow together—although he did smile at the thought of Jack being a “Lord of the Rings” fan. “Correct me if I’m mistaken, Colonel, but silence is our only advantage here.” Finishing, he threw a quiver of arrows across his shoulder. “Besides, these…” he said, rubbing his finger gently along an arrow’s edge, “…are quicker and much more effective than a knife.”
“Sweet. So do I get one?”
“Sorry, Colonel, but you’ll have to use your knife.”
Jack just stared at his guide. “You mean my very ineffective knife?” he finally asked incredulously, raising his eyebrows.
Cornelius’ only defense was to pick off the guerrillas one-by-one who were furthest from the site and closest to them. Each arrow made its target with marksmen precision, as one by one they fell with barely a noticeable thump.
“Hey, you’re pretty good at this.”
Jack’s surprise, however, was cut short when Cornelius took out a tree instead of the wanna be Jaffa standing beside it. “I take that back,” Jack grunted, as he threw his knife and hit the would be tattle-tale square in the heart, preventing the alarm from ever reaching his lips.
Satisfied, Jack slipped his automatic weapon off his shoulders. “Here, take this,” he said, handing Cornelius his P-90. “Just incase I need more cover than your elbow can handle.”
Cornelius stared blankly at him.
“Hey,” standing hunched over, Jack checked the ammo in his hand gun, “three out of four ain’t bad. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Now if you would excuse me, I’m gonna circle around, plant some C-4 and see if I can find Daniel. After, of course, I retrieve my “ineffective knife,” he quipped, using his fingers to quote the air.
Jack started weaving through the trees, but Cornelius stopped him before he got too far. “Colonel, I do have a gun.”
“Yeah, but mine’s bigger.” Jack smiled and then turned back to leave.
Cornelius, however, stopped him again, whispering as loud as he dared. “Colonel, remember. Just get the kid. We’ll never make it out of here alive carrying the other guy.”
“His name was Bill, Wallas. Bill. And…I know,” Jack conceded, putting his head down. He hated leaving a man behind, dead or alive. But he also knew that in this particular situation, he had no other choice. He could only hope that one day it would be safe enough to come back for their fallen comrade.
~*~SGI~*~
***
“And I need to know- Will you say for all
time…Forever and a Day
Then I’ll give my heart ‘till the end of all
Time…Forever and a Day”
-Fisher
***
Counting the seconds between each rise and fall of his chest, memorizing the way his eyes danced under his lids to the rhythm of his dreams, Sha’uri watched her husband sleep, captivated by his magnificence.
He looked so innocent, so peaceful—as if he didn’t carry the weight of the universe on his shoulders on a daily basis. As if right at this very moment, a battle wasn’t raging inside of him. A battle of the heart and mind. A battle of truth and wishes. She wanted to wake him and choose for him, but she knew the choice was only his to make.
After eating the feast the village had in his honor, Daniel’s strength quickly depleted. He had focused on and talked with every one of the villagers as if he never expected to again. Sha’uri wondered for a second if his mind remembered more than his heart would say. Had he remembered them ascending? Had he remembered her dying? No, she quickly decided. If that were the case he’d no longer be there. If that were the case, she wouldn’t still be standing there, weighing her existence with each breath he took.
~*~SGI~*~
/Memories fluttered through his mind like a butterfly; beautiful, mesmerizing, but always just out of his grasp. Scattering frantically at the sight of the approaching storm, they granted Daniel no peace.
Suddenly the storm clouds opened up and unleashed a river, flooding all he could see, until he was left treading water in a vast ocean. The sky was dark brown and threatening to collapse on him. The water was cold and carried the stench of blood.
His entire body screamed in his attempts to stay above water. His spirit and strength weakened every time a white glove reached up and grabbed his foot, pulling him briefly into the black abyss beneath him. He was so tired…so tired. He felt like he’d been treading water for an eternity and there was no land in sight.
He screamed hours on end for help, but didn’t know of anybody that could reach him…
It was at that thought…that something nudged in the corner of his mind.
Or do I?
Safety was on the tip of his tongue. All he had to do was say it and he’d be safe. If he could just remember what he had to say. The images in his mind were just as disoriented and dependable as the waves he latched onto to keep upright.
But slowly a name started to seep into his memory, as if it were carefully being sieved through his illusions. J…J’k…
“Jack.”
That’s it!
“JACK HELP ME!” he cried as he hung onto the name like a life preserve and listened as his pleas were swallowed by the unyielding waves.
“Jack!”/
~*~SGI~*~
***
"The cannon thunders... limbs fly in all directions... one can hear the groans of victims and the howling of those performing the sacrifice... it's Humanity in search of happiness."
- Charles Baudelaire
***
The cocky goons made Jack’s job a lot easier.
The Telchak Device had given them feelings of grandeur ultimately making them slack in their jobs. He had already planted C-4 on over half the base and was currently making his way over to a little shed he hoped held Daniel. After taking out the two men that had been guarding the hut, Jack traded his knife in for his 9 millimeter.
He had been preparing himself for this moment since he left the SGC, running horrid scenarios through his mind in an attempt to lighten the blow with actual reality when he found him.
What one never prepares for however, what one never allows themselves to imagine… are your horrid scenarios becoming reality.
Before he even kicked the door in, he could smell the blood. It lingered in the air and threatened to seize his heart.
The door swung open with his gun at the ready and for an instant his heart did stop. Daniel lay in a heap on the blood-soaked ground. Face slack, eyes half open but unseeing. His friend was barely recognizable with the crimson that had become his second skin. The only sign that life still graced him was the hitched rise and fall of his chest.
And standing over him was the bastard who was responsible…the bastard who was sacrificing his best friend for short-lived and empty pleasure.
“Jack, I presume,” he drawled casually, tightening the grip on the artifact he held over Daniel.
“Handez Fernandez?” Jack asked through clenched teeth, as he leveled his gun between the bastard’s bloodshot and power drunk eyes.
A simple nod was his answer.
ldquo;Well,” Jack quipped as his grip unconsciously tightened on the gun after sneaking another peek at Daniel, “now that we’ve been properly acquainted, you’ll understand why I’m going to kill you.”
“Uh-uh-uh,” Handez teased, raising the already humming artifact in his hands, “aren’t you the least bit curious as to how I know your name?”
“Not particularly.” Jack sounded irritated, but in truth he was terrified. He didn’t know what to do. Unsure of the power he was up against, one wrong move and nobody would be walking out of there.
“He calls for you…this one,” he said, gesturing to Daniel with the artifact. “In his nightmares he calls for you to save him. Is that why you have come, Jack? To save him?” he laughed arrogantly.
Jack flinched inwardly.
“Then you have failed him. You are too late. His soul is already lost to him!” he yelled over the now roaring artifact and raging winds that were confined to the shelter. “And now, so will his body be to you!” he screamed, thrusting the artifact into the air as a brilliant white light encompassed them all.