“I’m sorry, sir. We should’ve tried to take him.” Sam winced as she made a final turn with the strip torn from the hem of Teal’c’s t-shirt and pulled the knot gently, binding the Colonel’s little finger to the next one.
“Ow,” he said dully, as though by rote. Then: “It’s only a broken finger, Major. Save the heroics for the big stuff.”
Sam looked up from her task and nodded toward the faint shimmer of the force field. Beyond it, Daniel was standing like he had been for the last twenty minutes: head thrown back, lips moving around unvoiced words, eyes roaming the text on the door. “If we’d acted then, maybe we wouldn’t be here now,” she said. “Tactically, this position is way worse.”
“Thanks,” the Colonel answered and pushed her hands away as she made some final adjustments. “Insightful analysis.”
“I’m just saying—”
“I got it, Major. Things suck. Pretty much par for the course.” He started to rub the back of his neck with his damaged hand but grimaced at the sting of pain and stopped. “Any minute now some Jaffa’s going to come in here and be totally humorless and make us kneel.” He got up, walked a few paces and flicked the field experimentally, then sucked on his tingling finger. “I hate kneeling.”
“As do I,” Teal’c said. He was sitting against the rock wall with his eyes closed. One of his hands rested on his stomach above his pouch, fingers kneading it slowly. There was a faint crease between his eyebrows.
“Well, it’s not like you had to do it a lot in your former life,” Jack said, and Teal’c smiled at him, ever so slightly.
Sam wasn’t too enthralled by the idea of another audience with a Goa’uld either. Taking the Colonel’s cue, she rubbed her neck and rolled her shoulders. There was a whopper of a headache looming at the back of her skull, and the pulsing shudder of the mine wasn’t helping. Probably dehydration, she told herself, or low blood sugar. The single MRE packet Aris had thrown into the makeshift cell with them lay beside her, open and empty.
For his part, Aris was finishing his second MRE and starting on the third. He tapped Daniel on the shoulder and asked, “What’s this one?”
Daniel gave it a distracted glance. “Uh, macaroni.”
“Is that good?”
He nodded, his eyes fixed on the text. “If you like chicken.”
Sighing a little wistfully, Sam pressed her index finger onto empty foil and picked up a crumb of granola.
When it was halfway to her mouth, the Colonel said, “Are you going to share that with the rest of us?”
She met his eyes and put her finger on her tongue. He turned away with a small frown, and she felt a tremor of satisfaction, even though her brain was throbbing and too big for her head. The nice little fantasy about daiquiris and nachos she started to build was interrupted by a kick to the side of her boot.
“What?” she snapped.
“What, sir,” he corrected.
“Whatever,” she muttered under her breath and went back to cleaning crumbs off of the wrapper.
“Excuse me?”
“Whatever, sir.”
The Colonel was scowling down at her. “What’s behind that door?” he demanded.
She looked up at him and shrugged with one shoulder. “I don’t know.” I don’t have X-ray vision, she added to herself. “Something the Ancients don’t want anybody to get at, obviously.” There was a sort of sickly pulsing in her eyeballs, and her mouth tasted like bright copper.
“Like what?”
Another shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s quarantined. Maybe there’s a really nasty bug in there. Like the one that killed them off.”
“A weapon,” Teal’c said, without opening his eyes. “Something of great power that they wish to safeguard for their return.”
O’Neill aimed his finger at him. “Yeah. I like Teal’c’s idea.”
“You would,” she said, this time not quite far enough under her breath and the Colonel’s scowl came back to the power of ten.
On the other side of the force field, Aris was choking down his stolen macaroni and cheese while watching his prisoners. Daniel was oblivious, still in the same pose, only now one of his hands was following his eyes across the text, like he was trying to snatch the meaning out of the air in front of him. The rumbling vibration of the crushers was making her butt numb, but the Colonel was standing up near the shield and Teal’c’s legs were sticking out and she had no space at all for her own legs and everyone else had dibs on space and good ideas and she was empty, full of nothing but ‘yes, sirs’ and ‘I don’t knows,’” like somebody else lived in her head, their orders, their intentions—
“You would?” Another kick on the side of her boot.
She glared up at him. His orders, his plans, his intentions. “Maybe it’s not a weapon. Who knows why the Ancients would lock something up? Maybe it’s somebody’s garage for all we know.” She was tired of saluting by reflex like her arms didn’t even belong to her, like somebody inside was pulling strings, like Jolinar was using her voice and looking at Sam in the mirror and thinking ‘me’—
Rolling onto her hip, she leaned over low and retched up one third of an MRE.
The Colonel crouched in the narrow space and brushed her hair back with the good fingers of his left hand.
“Don’t feel so good, sir,” she gasped. When he pressed the canteen against her arm she took it and allowed herself a small sip. It was mostly empty.
“That makes two of us,” he said, giving her neck a pat.
“Three of us,” Teal’c added.
She raised her head and gave the Colonel a thin smile of apology. Aris was still watching.
“Better pick up the pace, doctor,” he suggested to Daniel, and finished the last of the MRE.
Daniel’s eyes were starting to throb with the force of the headache twisting through his brain. He pulled his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. The intertwined glyphs had taken on a uniformity he couldn’t unravel, and they marched behind his eyelids even when his eyes were closed. He was acutely aware of his teammates a few feet away; his fingers twitched with sympathetic pain for Jack’s injury. He would have to think faster, or make a convincing argument as to why he hadn’t made more progress. Lying might work, if he knew what lie to dish out or what Jack had in mind from this point forward. Options were nonexistent, it seemed, but his perspective was limited to the wall, and the Ancients’ warning, and his fear for his teammates.
He squinted up at the silent message, then pressed his palms flat against the cool metal. The glyphs were similar to the rongo rongo of Easter Island, but it made no sense— Easter Island had been populated a mere 1500 years, a drop in the bucket compared to the Ancients and the Goa’uld. He sighed. Polynesian culture was not a specialty he’d ever cared to pursue in more than a superficial way, and he had no reference tools at all to consult. “Maybe what’s there developed independently on and offworld from something much older,” he said out loud.
“Talking to yourself?” Aris asked. Daniel slipped his glasses back on, ignoring the twinge of pain that shot through his temples, and took a long look at Aris’s face.
“Sometimes it helps to solve a puzzle if I trace the parts out loud,” he said, without any expectation that Aris would understand. “I need a few minutes rest. To think it over.”
“Rest standing up,” Aris said, and pointed to the wall. “Feel free to lean.”
Daniel shifted his glance across the chamber, to Sam’s pale face, then to Teal’c, whose eyes were closed. Finally he met Jack’s eyes. Somehow he was going to have to find out if Jack had a plan to get them out of this. Even an attempt at escape was better than nothing, and he knew at this point Jack’s focus was on that and nothing else. To Aris, he said, “Just a few minutes.”
“You humans are so needy,” Aris said, as he rose from his perch at Daniel’s side. “It’s amazing you ever figured out the Stargate system in the first place.”
“Yes, isn’t it,” Daniel said, pushing back a flare of personal irritation.
Jack stood as they approached, his bandaged hand dangling at his side. “Daniel?” he said, eyeing Aris. “Everything all right?”
“Peachy,” Daniel said. Aris hovered right behind him. “I’m not making much progress.” He glanced at Jack’s hand. “How’re you guys doing?”
“The sooner we get out of here, the better,” Jack said, nodding toward Teal’c, who sat sweaty and still in the corner. “I don’t like this place,” he added, adding a tight smile to punctuate the understatement.
“Is there anything I can do to help, Daniel?” Sam pushed up from the ground and brushed her hands off on her BDUs.
Jack shot her an annoyed look. “How about if you wait until I give you the go-ahead, there, Carter?”
“Just trying to help, sir,” she said, but the frown that creased her forehead matched her clipped tone.
“Guys?” Daniel said, looking from one to the other. The tension ratcheted up tenfold as they stared at one another. “What’s going on?”
“Carter here thinks she’s running her own show,” Jack said. “She’s been at it all day.”
“She has not.” From behind Daniel, Teal’c’s voice rose, and they turned to see him watching them. “You are mistaken, O’Neill. Major Carter only offered her assistance.”
Jack turned to him. “You haven’t been right since Apophis brainwashed you, have you? How many times have you switched sides? How do we know that you won’t turn on us again?”
“Jack!” Daniel said. He reached out a hand to grip Jack’s arm, to get his attention, but the force field flared red between them and sent a sizzling jolt up Daniel’s arm. Daniel stepped back, knocking into Aris, who shoved him away and retreated a few paces, all the better to hold weapons on them.
“Sir…sir.” Sam lifted her hand in an appeasing gesture and then scrubbed it over her tired face. “I’m sorry, sir. I should have waited for your order.”
“You have done nothing wrong,” Teal’c said, still staring at Jack. They were toe to toe now, eye to eye. “Nor have I.”
“They’re all in my head,” Carter said haltingly. She squeezed her eyes shut. “All of them. Every one she took as host.”
“What are you talking about?” Jack said, his voice rising. “Make sense, Carter!”
“Do not raise your voice to us in this manner,” Teal’c said, tensing with readiness. Daniel glanced at Aris, who was paying rapt attention to the little tableau, and then over at Sam, whose features were contorted into a mask of horror.
“It’s happening again,” Sam whispered. She backed away from Jack and Teal’c until she hit the wall and could go no farther. “I don’t want your memories!”
In that moment, it clicked for Daniel— Sam was talking about Jolinar. Not her memories, but the memories from Jolinar’s blending. He leaned as close to the force field as he could and said their names sharply, breaking their focus on each other. “Whatever’s happening here, it’s not about us. Do you hear me? Stop this.”
Jack blinked at him, then turned toward Sam, who was sinking toward the ground, curling inward in a fetal position. “Carter,” he said sharply. He took a couple of steps in her direction, then stopped suddenly and raised his hands to his head. “What the…” He staggered backwards and Teal’c stopped him, holding him up with one hand on his elbow. “Okay, that’s…” Jack sat down abruptly; it looked more like a fall, to Daniel, but Teal’c eased the way. “I know that’s not real,” he said, and his hands went to the back of his neck, scrabbling down the back of his collar and over his bare skin there, and then to his throat, to smooth the unblemished skin. “Yeah,” he said, as if confirming something the rest of them weren’t privy to.
Daniel looked up to find Aris watching them. He didn’t seem nearly as wary as he should; this was obviously not a new experience for him. “What the hell is happening to us? You know, don’t you?”
Aris wavered under Daniel’s direct, furious gaze, then admitted, “I’ve seen it before.”
“And you didn’t think you needed to warn us?”
“What good would it have done?” Aris shrugged. “The effects are temporary. I didn’t think it would take you long to get this thing open.”
“Well, you were wrong.”
“Obviously. My faith in your abilities was clearly misplaced,” Aris said.
“You need to take the others back to the surface,” Daniel said. “I’ll keep working on this, as long as you want. Just—”
“Not a good idea,” Jack said. He was pale as a ghost. Teal’c helped him up from the ground; Jack patted Teal’c on the arm, a wordless apology, and Teal’c released him. The tension between them dissolved as quickly as it had risen. “We’re not leaving you down here.”
“Jack, I don’t need you here.” Daniel hated to say it, but if the brutal truth would convince Aris, then he didn’t care. “I don’t need any of you. Not even Sam.”
“You do need me,” Sam said. She made no attempt to get up, but her eyes were like laser points, focused on Daniel’s shaky argument. “Maybe if you can’t get the thing open with words, I can do it with science. That device…” She pointed to the small indentation in the wall to the left of the door and then let her hand fall to her lap. “I should stay.”
“I don’t need you,” Daniel said again, a bit more desperately, but he could tell from Jack’s expression it was a losing battle.
“With what just went through my head…or, didn’t…” Jack cleared his throat, but didn’t elaborate. “We all stay. Or we all go. I vote for ‘go.’”
“What gave you the idea your vote counted?” Aris said.
“Then tell me what’s happening to us, so we can use it to help,” Daniel said.
“Would if I could.” Aris crooked a finger at him, and Daniel reluctantly moved away from his friends until he was back before the door. “I’ve seen it in Sebek’s Jaffa. Even in Sebek himself. It’s been getting worse lately, but he keeps coming down here. It’s like he can’t stay away.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t think this was information I might need to know,” Daniel muttered.
“Is that enough of a ‘reference’ for you?” Aris taunted.
“Every piece of information is part of the key,” Daniel snapped. “You don’t seem to be affected by whatever this is.”
“Very perceptive,” Aris said. Daniel waited for an explanation, but of course Aris had nothing else to say on the matter; it was ridiculous to expect him to give up anything that wasn’t pried out of him.
“Listen.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck slowly. “Why can’t Daniel work on this up top? Take a few notes, maybe…work from them…”
Aris tilted his head to the side, then said, “Too late.” A moment later, the sound of Jaffa stomping down the corridor came to Daniel faintly, growing closer.
Jack sighed. “This day just gets better and better.”
Jack wondered if Jaffa did something special to their boots to get that extra stomping, ringing sound when they marched. It was all about the intimidation and the rib-cracking, which, admittedly, was pretty intimidating. He figured it wasn’t a coincidence that the Jaffa stomped in precisely the same rhythm as the throbbing in his finger and the pounding in his head. A conspiracy all over.
He rubbed his neck and listened to the stomping and the syncopated thudding of the crushers and pictured Aris Boch on the receiving end of some Jaffa intimidation. Then he remembered that Aris had probably been there and done that, thus their current predicament. So, he decided to multitask, turning part of his attention to actively hating the Goa’uld. Oh, and because they were so lucky, an apparently obsessive and possibly crazy Goa’uld.
“Is there any other kind?” Daniel asked.
Startled, Jack looked at him through the field. “Did I say that out loud?”
“Yeah.”
“The part about the boots?”
“No,” Daniel answered. “Not the part about the boots.”
“This place sucks.”
Teal’c glowered through the force field at Aris. “I concur.”
Jack was going to respond with something snarky about how nice it was that Teal’c was such a team player, but Jaffa-shadows were looming, and the stomping was getting closer, and Jack was too busy counting the shadows to deal with Teal’c at that moment. Four of them. Two front, two back, Sebek probably in the middle. And, of course, Aris Boch with his blaster, and the force field, and the fact that Carter was still hunched over her knees against the wall, staring blankly, and that Teal’c was standing down but still scowling his most dissatisfied and scary scowl. There was a crawling in Jack’s skin his rubbing fingers couldn’t scour away. He saw kneeling and possibly rib-cracking intimidation in his future.
“What are those? Lizards?” Jack aimed his chin at the helmets of the honor guard that swept out of the narrow tunnel mouth and down the ramp into the antechamber. They were in the standard cowls and grieves, two of them in skull caps and the other two in helmets thick in the neck and extending out into long, toothy snouts. Red, beady eyes glowed as the Jaffa took up positions in a row behind their god.
“Crocodiles,” Daniel corrected. “It’s a symbol of rebirth.”
Jack’s smile was thin and bitter. “I love their sense of irony, don’t you?”
Daniel nodded and turned resignedly to face the nemesis du jour. “Funny,” he said.
Coming as close to the field as he could get without numbing his face, Jack cocked his head and studied the Goa’uld. “Funny?”
“The tattoos.” Daniel pointed at the forehead of the nearest Jaffa. “That’s Lord Yu’s mark.”
“Huh,” Jack said. He wasn’t sure whether to celebrate about that or not, but he didn’t have time to think on it too much, since the Goa’uld was stepping forward and looking down his nose at them.
As anyone who knew the Goa’uld would expect, Sebek was wearing a fine specimen of a host, easily six-two-and-a-bit without the elaborate King Tut headdress. He tipped the scales at two-twenty give-or-take, but was fine-boned, full of lean muscles, like a gymnast or a diver. His eyes, traced out in dark kohl, were pale grey and too direct, aimed at Jack like they could flay him, turn him inside out. Even though his own eyes were burning and his vision was a little foggy at the edges, Jack looked back and didn’t blink, and Sebek’s full lips curled upward at the corners in a coy grin, part condescension, part admiration. His skin was dusted with gold all the way down his neck to the gilded crocodile cowl that encircled his shoulders and gripped the ends of his linen cloak in sharp ruby teeth. Jack wondered if any Goa’uld would be able to fight at all in that short linen skirt and delicate gold-wire sandals. Then again, the ribbon device on Sebek’s right hand meant that he wouldn’t have to. Rib-cracking intimidation was going to be the least of Jack’s worries.
Sebek’s smile widened as he leaned forward to run a gold-capped finger across Daniel’s cheek, grip his chin, and lift his head so he could delve into him with those eyes. Jack couldn’t stop his hands from clenching and was rewarded with a flaring stab of pain from his broken finger.
“So,” Sebek said. Actually, it was more like a purr, his voice low and insinuating and confident, the voice of somebody who was used to never having to raise it or repeat anything. He had perfect teeth and showed them all as he turned Daniel’s head this way and that. “You are going to unlock our treasure chest.”
The voice crawled up Jack’s spine and slithered into his head. Things stirred somewhere at the back of his brain, sibilant.
“Aris Boch tells us many things about your people. He has promised us that you are intelligent, talented in unique ways, and that you will be useful to us.” Sebek smiled again and let Daniel go. “In addition to being sturdy and rather beautiful.”
Daniel’s face was taking on that clenched-jawed resistance, his brow notched in a frown. He met Sebek’s eyes directly, and Jack pretended he didn’t notice how similar their stares were. Behind him, he could hear Carter getting to her feet, the faint whisper of her jacket against the stone as she dragged herself up the wall. Sebek’s eyes slid away from Daniel and looked over Jack’s shoulder at her, frankly interested and assessing. The slithering at the back of Jack’s skull was making his flesh crawl.
Sebek turned his attention to Teal’c. “Shol’va,” Sebek murmured, drawing out the epithet like it was a term of endearment. The smile thinned and became satisfied, cruel. “A prize. There are many who would offer great rewards for your return. There will be a demonstration of our power, and you will remind your brethren what it means to defy a god.”
“I will not.”
Shrugging Teal’c’s assertion away, Sebek addressed Aris. “You.”
Aris stepped forward, his blaster angled toward the ground. Jack had to flinch a little inwardly when Aris bowed his head; he could feel the muscles protesting. His own neck twinged in sympathy and he added that to the list of things to hate the Goa’uld for, since sympathy for Aris Boch was the last thing Jack wanted to feel.
“If you are correct about these,” Sebek waved a golden hand in the team’s direction. “Perhaps your—”
He stopped, and the hand came up to his temple as his eyes rolled up for a second, showing white. Jack could hear Carter breathing hard behind him and a sound that might have been, “Oh, God,” but he didn’t turn to look; he focused on the Jaffa who shifted nervously, hunching their shoulders. The ones in the skull caps exchanged quick glances; the other two were like machines in their helmets, but still they seemed to crumple for a moment under the weight of their armor before recovering. Jack felt like he could crumple a little, too, curl away from the winding slither along his spine, and he reached out to steady himself on Daniel’s shoulder, only to yelp out in pain when his hand grazed the field between them. Not that Daniel would have been able to do much, anyway, since he was swaying on his feet, eyes wide, unseeing.
Teal’c caught Jack, kept him upright while his vision grayed out and the hissing in his head tried to resolve into words. When Jack opened his eyes, confused as hell, Sebek had recovered and was watching him with that same unwavering gaze. Inwardly, Jack cursed missed opportunities.
The snake angled his head toward Aris, then pointed to Daniel. “Bring him,” he ordered.
Hopping to it like a well-trained dog, Aris grabbed Daniel and dragged him after the Goa’uld toward the vault. Daniel’s feet were slow, his body boneless, and he stumbled in Aris’s grip with both hands cupped over his glasses, his head hanging low.
“You will open this door,” Sebek said with imperturbable assurance. There was a faint clatter as his capped fingers ran across the incised writing and then over the raised Ancient warning. “You will open it, and we will claim our rightful prize.”
Daniel straightened and looked up at the door, his own fingers reaching out and sweeping reverently across the writing. “So…you actually know what’s in there?” he asked faintly.
Oh, no. No way, Jack thought. He knew that tone of voice. That was the sound of Daniel disappearing into a question, sliding into that place where all that mattered was the script and the dead voices. “Hey!” he shouted. “If you’re so interested in getting in there, why don’t you do it yourself? You’re the god here, right?”
Sebek turned his full attention on Jack, and Jack steeled himself for whatever was going to come next. As so many snakes did, Sebek stared him down, as if unable to believe the level of insolence that was being shoved in his face. Jack got some satisfaction out of that. Even if it was the last he was likely to have for a while. “Release them,” Sebek ordered, and Aris’s hand went to his wrist, where the controls were. The force field separating them from the Jaffa fell.
This is the chance, Jack thought. His muscles tensed, ready for action. Sebek’s eyes were bright, and they were narrowed at Jack, and a moment later, when Sebek’s hand came up and leveled the ribbon device at him, Jack could feel his grimace of pain beginning even before the actual sensation hit. Daniel was shouting as Jack hit his knees, saying formless words that were lost in the haze of agony…and then the pain stopped.
Jack pitched forward and caught himself on his hands, panting heavily. That had been too easy. He’d had worse. Much worse. It wasn’t a good sign; there was more to come. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and listened to Daniel’s voice.
“If you do that again, I’ll never help you,” Daniel said, in such a quiet, firm voice that Jack felt enormous pride in him. Even if it was incredibly unlikely his threat would work. So much for Daniel’s curiosity.
In the silence that followed, Jack got himself together and his legs under him, and Teal’c’s arm looped under his and hauled him up. He hated himself for showing such obvious weakness, even if it was out of his control. “Thanks,” he muttered, and Teal’c squeezed his arm, a silent signal. Jack followed the direction of Teal’c’s gaze, then met his eyes and Carter’s, who nodded her understanding. Four Jaffa, one Goa’uld. The odds were even, more or less. There would never be a better chance.
Sebek moved toward Daniel with his easy predatory grace and stepped into his space, as if Daniel was a thing he owned. He was too close. If they made their move, and Daniel wasn’t quick enough…Daniel was standing as straight and stiff as he could, trying to match Sebek’s height; for a moment, neither moved.
Teal’c’s grip on Jack’s arm tightened before his hand dropped away. As soon as the opportunity came, they were going to take it.
“Your threats are meaningless,” Sebek said, and waved at the Jaffa, who leveled their weapons at SG-1. “If your friends mean anything to you, your choice is simple.”
Daniel didn’t look at any of them. His chin came up, and he pointed to the Ancient inscription. “Do you see this? Do you have the slightest understanding of what it means? It’s a warning. It means whatever’s in there is dangerous. A warning from the Ancients is incredibly rare.” He leaned forward, nostrils flaring, gaze still locked with Sebek’s, and said, “Only a very, very foolish person would ignore it. Whatever’s in there is causing…this.” Daniel swept one hand around in a circle, indicating all of them. “None of us are immune to its power.”
Sebek threw back his head and laughed with typical Goa’uld condescension. “Why should a warning from a long-dead race mean anything to us?” he asked. He gripped Daniel by the neck, long fingers sliding around his throat like steel talons. “It is that power we must harness. So now you will choose, or we will choose for you.”
“Don’t do it, Daniel. That’s an order.” It didn’t need to be said, or so Jack hoped, but the words burst out of him anyway. Daniel’s eyes shifted his direction, the whites pink with blood from bursting capillaries, and then Sebek raised him off the ground until the tips of his boots skimmed the dirt beneath him. Daniel made a strangled sound, words caught up and jumbled in the void of air.
Jack made his move.
Two steps, one punch, and he knocked the nearest Jaffa on the ground. Their body armor couldn’t protect their faces, and Jack was on top of him in a split second, beating, punching, drawing blood with his fist. He heard the commotion behind him, zat fire, a shout, the thump of fists on flesh and a harsh cry of pain, but no time to stop to see who was coming out ahead. He knew his team’s abilities; if it could be done, they’d do it. He got to his feet and turned in Sebek’s direction, but the blinding pain hit him again, so fast it lifted all the breath from his body. He gasped and fell to his knees, and a hand landed on his shoulder. Sebek. The stream of light from the ribbon device blinded him, and the roaring in his ears grew louder as his muscles contracted, as his body tried to fight the invasion of fire in every cell.
“Sir!” Carter’s voice, from somewhere behind him, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t fight, couldn’t do anything at all but gasp and breathe and wait for it to be over. Blackness encroached on the edges of Jack’s vision, a cool darkness that wanted him, and he wanted to fall into it.
And then he was on the ground, and the light was gone, and there was a sound so awful he couldn’t process it. Someone was shrieking. Carter? No. Too shrill. Not Teal’c, or Daniel. Jack struggled to place the noise, but his thoughts were too jumbled to be any good. Nothing made sense.
“No!” Teal’c shouted, and the distress in his voice brought Jack back from the edge of unconsciousness.
“God, no, oh, God,” Carter cried, and Jack rolled to his side, afraid for her.
When his vision cleared, he saw her. With a look of stricken horror on her face, Carter was frozen, one hand still on the throat of the Jaffa she had overpowered, all her attention on Daniel, who was on his hands and knees, rising carefully, a little uncoordinated but intact. Teal’c, who held a zat in his hand, taken from the Jaffa he had just killed, was unharmed. Confused, Jack looked back at Daniel, then— it had to be Daniel, though he seemed fine, he seemed—
On the ground next to Jack, Sebek was sprawled, eyes open. Dead. Daniel must have killed him. For this, Jack was going to forego the standard ribbing when Daniel said he didn’t really want beer with his thank-yous. He looked up, the start of a grateful smile on his face…and then he stopped. Daniel was leaning on the wall, one hand splayed across the writing, oblivious to it, and he was staring at Jack. Slowly, a smile spread over his features and narrowed his eyes, a smile that was unlike Daniel. Not Daniel. But Jack had seen that smile before.
“Daniel,” he whispered, and the smile widened.
“No,” Daniel said, in a voice that was not his own, a voice corrupted by the thing inside him. A sick horror flooded through Jack as Daniel’s eyes flashed the terrible yellow-white of possession. Sebek smiled out at him, using Daniel’s body. “Now your friend will tell us what we wish to know.”
Jack’s entire being rebelled. His stomach turned over and he squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t look. Not Daniel. God, not Daniel. But it was too late. There was a hand at his collar, and he let it haul him to his feet without protest; his body was barely under his control anyway. He was no use to Carter and Teal’c this way.
Or Daniel.
“Be smart,” a voice whispered in his ear, and it took him a moment to register it: Aris. Fury surged up within Jack; this was Aris Boch’s fault. If Aris hadn’t brought them there, Daniel wouldn’t be lost to them. Jack pulled away with a snarl, but Aris snapped him back with little effort. “Be smart,” he said again, shoving his weapon into Jack’s back.
“Take them,” Sebek said to Aris, and it was Daniel’s voice, on purpose, to taunt them. Jack heard a small sound that might have been a sob from Carter. He raised his head, locking eyes with Sebek to see Daniel’s light blue gaze subsumed by the snake’s will.
Jack turned to check the remainder of his team. Carter’s face was contorted with her misery, and Teal’c seemed ready to snap Sebek’s neck, even if that neck just happened to be Daniel’s, too. Aris jabbed Jack in the back again, and Jack threw his hands out to the side.
“Okay,” he said, and at the sound of his voice, Carter and Teal’c looked to him, seeking something to hold on to. He nodded to them both. Best he could do. They’d talk it over later. If there was time.
He caught a last sideways glimpse of Daniel as Aris herded them through the tunnels and back up to the surface, the remaining Jaffa trailing behind. Daniel’s hands were running over the writing on the wall; Daniel’s smile was filled with joy.
No. Not Daniel anymore, Jack reminded himself. Next time he saw the thing that used to be his friend, he might have to kill it. When the bile rose in his throat, he pushed it down, merciless.
That thing wasn’t Daniel anymore.