Although they had not planned to enter the village Vin and Teal’c discovered, there was no choice when they had no idea where the fortress of Isis was situated in this land. With Goa’uld technology, the structure could be located anywhere on this planet, and the SG1 team understood more than their friends from the past, time was against them.
Jack gambled they were close by because Daniel was insistent in his belief Isis was trapped on PX 250 for some time until they unwittingly released her. The civilisation that deserted the planet was hundreds of years old, and thus he assumed the Goddess of All was confined for that long. Judging by what they knew of the Goa’uld, it was likely much of her forces either disbanded, taking with them the precious technology that made them so godlike. It did seem sensible Isis would return to the place that would have suffered the least from such plunder.
As they approached the village, Chris Larabee found himself walking in stride with Jack O’Neill, questioning the prudence of this act. It was never wise to let the enemy know you were coming, and walking into a village where they would stick out like sore thumbs would undoubtedly give away what little advantage they had. Still, Chris agreed to let Jack take the reins since the Colonel knew the lay of the land and the Goa’uld better than he ever would. Besides, Jack seemed to be the cautious type, and Chris had to believe the man knew what he was doing.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Chris asked as he and Vin walked next to Jack and Daniel. The village appeared before them, a cluster of homes made of mud and brick, hardly the stuff to inspire confidence in anyone there was useful information here.
"You mean going into the village?" Jack didn't mind the gunslinger’s question. "Yeah, it's alright."
"Ain’t we going to be giving ourselves away?" Vin probed, feeling the same concern as Chris regarding their continued approach towards the village. "They seemed mighty afraid of the guards we saw earlier. They might give us away."
"I don’t think so," Daniel responded before Jack could. "Most cultures under Goa’uld domination tend to view strangers through the gate with the same reverence they view their Gods. Remember, to them, it’s a gateway to heaven or something. They’re most likely to think we’re the same."
"Jesus," Chris found himself reeling with disgust at the ignorance generated by such belief and worse yet, felt a singular hatred for the Goa’uld who manipulated it. "How many of these cultures exist?"
"Lots of them," Jack answered, not wishing to go into too much detail which was what Daniel would do if allowed to speak. "They’re scattered across the galaxy, most of them don’t even know they come from Earth because the Goa’uld convinced them their gods created them."
"You go to all these places?" Vin was fascinated with the idea of exploring the stars in the manner these people must do regularly. Travelling to undiscovered places always appealed to the tracker, who fancied himself as something of a free spirit.
"Most of them," Daniel answered eagerly, seeing Vin's interest. "We visit the people, talk to them and try to learn a little bit about their culture. We keep an eye out for things we can use against the Goa’uld and lots of times, we try setting people straight about their gods."
"Does it always work?"
"Sometimes and other times, we’re the ones who end up looking like primitives." Daniel chuckled, thinking of those times when the SG team were handed their hats and shown the door.
"Like the Nox," Jack said with a faint smile. He had a deep affection for the people who were probably one of the most ancient races in the galaxy, commanding at their fingertips formidable technology surpassing the Goa’uld but chose to dedicate their lives to their spiritual belief in peace rather than conquest.
"And you guys are like cowboys," Daniel stated.
Chris immediately stiffened and threw the young man a dark look that froze the linguist in his tracks. Through gritted teeth, he reminded himself this was not meant as an offensive remark even though Chris had shot a man for saying less in the past. The gunslinger had a deep aversion to being referred to as a ‘cowboy’. He did not handle cows, and it was a very long time since he was a boy.
Jack tried to hide the amusement he found at Chris and even Vin’s annoyance and decided he ought to intervene to save Daniel’s neck. During this entire mission, they had hardly time to discuss the fact both groups were from different points in history, united by a very unusual set of circumstances and a common enemy.
"He didn’t mean anything by it," Jack said to Chris. "Back where we come from, we call all you guys in the West, cowboys."
"We ain’t cowboys." Chris insisted on clarifying that. "I ain’t no cattle hand."
"Sorry," Daniel apologised. "Too much television. Next thing I know, you’re going to be telling me one of you is a gambler, the other a sharpshooter and someone is a doctor."
Vin and Chris looked at each other and then back at Daniel in unison. "What’s your point?"
Daniel looked at Jack on the verge of making an extremely confusing statement when the leader of SG1 merely shook his head in response.
"Let it go." He replied, deciding that this conversation had just gone far enough.
***********
As observed earlier, the village was little more than a collection of mud huts. There was something like a town square where a well stood in attendance over the population’s needs. The travellers could see evidence of domesticated animals and the beginnings of arable farming. This place was even more backward than Chulak, and Jack realised these people had never known an existence without Goa’uld domination.
Faces began appearing out of windows and doorways of the huts. At first, Jack expected fear and a lot of bowing and worshipping, because that was usually the way things went in Goa’uld controlled populations. However, the deeper they went into the village, one pronounced difference became apparent as they were surrounded by the locals.
They were all women.
Whether old or young, healthy or crippled, the entire population of the village seemed to be female only, and they viewed the arrival of the travellers with something akin to fascination and unease. Some peered through doors and windows as if looking upon the men, who did not look like the local variety, was sacrilege. Others pointed and muttered in the strange language that was the spoken word on this world until finally, a woman in her late forties approached them.
A small crowd gathered around them and made both Chris and Jack nervous by all the attention. This was not usually the reception received when the SG team arrived among such primitives. Typically, it required some convincing to make the natives believe they were not a pantheon of gods coming for a visit. Some of the bolder inhabitants, particularly the young women, swarmed around them, staring as if the travellers were the most astonishing things they had ever seen.
"What’s going on?" Chris asked as he found himself surrounded. The women were staring at him with that unfathomable expression, talking excitedly amongst them as they regarded him.
Daniel and Vin, in particular, seemed to be attracting the most attention. The women surrounding them were unsatisfied with mere observation, caution giving away to fascination as their hands ran over the two men’s bodies until both were starting to feel more than a little uncomfortable by the uninvited probings.
"I don’t think they’ve seen men in awhile," Sam commented, trying to keep herself from laughing at the expression on her male companion’s faces. She remembered the humiliation when they visited a world where women were traded like property and felt somewhat vindicated the SG1 team in particular, had a taste of what it was like to be treated with such demeaning regard. "At least not ones like you boys."
Sam could barely keep the amusement out of her voice and noticed the scowl being flashed in her direction by the Colonel.
"Well, Buck, you’re in heaven." JD quipped while trying to fend off the affections of a particularly fetching beauty who was clad in very little and was taking delight in running her hands across his youthful face. "Please ma’am. I’m just passing through."
"That’s just great," Buck grumbled, being similarly assessed by the females gathered around him. "I finally get to a place where the women have never even seen a man, and I can’t do a damn thing about it."
"There is a God." Josiah laughed while politely tipping his hat to one of the natives, unable to answer any of her attempts to communicate with him. The preacher did not see himself in any kind of danger physically or morally, thinking himself to be a missionary in a new land and merely needed to tread lightly to not offend.
"Hey!" Jack exclaimed with outrage when he felt a set of hands going someplace they had no business being. "Daniel, talk to them, please?"
"Oh yeah," Daniel replied, unperturbed by the attention of the natives because he was too busy trying to comprehend their language by listening carefully to what they were saying. Words were starting to familiarise themselves in his mind as he searched for the standard syntax that would provide him with a clue as to which language they might be speaking.
Suddenly, a woman in her forties appeared before Sam. She seemed to be a village elder of some kind because she silenced the others before addressing them. As she spoke, her gaze shifted to Vin in particular.
"I can’t understand what she’s saying." Sam looked questioningly at Daniel.
Daniel gulped visibly because he did understand. However, with Jack waiting impatiently for him to translate, Daniel had no choice but to reveal what had been said.
"Its sort of embarrassing really."
"More embarrassing than this?" Jack bit back sarcastically pushing probing hands away from him as he frowned at Daniel to get on with it.
Blinking slowly and taking the plunge, Daniel decided to just say it no matter awkward.
"Sam, she wants to know what you want for your harem."
"My harem!" Sam blurted out, looking at the woman and realising that was exactly what it must have appeared to these people, considering her entourage was a group of no less than nine men. "She thinks you guys are my harem?" She fought the urge to burst out laughing
"Yeah," Daniel went red with embarrassment. "She says she's willing to pay you ten goats for each of us." He added reluctantly, unable to meet her gaze as he passed on that pearl of information.
"We’re worth ten goats a piece?" Buck baulked, feeling insulted. "Well, I know I’m worth more than that."
"Daniel," Jack looked at the woman unimpressed and seemed to agree with Buck’s assessment at his value definitely being worth more than ten goats. "Tell them that we are not Carter’s...." the Colonel could not even bring himself to say the word. "We just want directions to the Goa’uld."
"Well, I don’t know Colonel," Sam could not resist saying. "I mean ten goats is pretty tempting..."
He silenced her with a look.
Daniel stepped forward and responded because the language here was not all that different from what was spoken on Abydos. There were slight variations of course, but these were minor, and he was able to communicate their intentions quite clearly. At the same time, Daniel made some general inquiries about the way this culture functioned and about the lack of men in the community. She considered his questions odd by the expression in her eyes and was further confused he could speak their tongue while the only woman in the group could not. Men were not meant to be learned, the woman called Ajia was kind enough to explain. Still, Daniel did not think that men were considered lowly because Ajia did not like looking at him directly.
"She says she’ll offer twenty goats for Vin," Daniel replied after a moment, getting Ajia’s more urgent request out of the way first since the woman was adamant he make the offer to Sam. It was the only way he was able to prise any further information about the Netjer, as Ajia called herself and her people, about the Goa’uld control of her community.
"She wants twenty goats for me?" Vin asked mortified, turning red where he stood.
"Yes, apparently you are very fair in face," Daniel added, feeling just as uncomfortable passing on such information to another man without the benefits of headgear. Vin was likely to punch his lights out. "You look capable of producing many fine children."
"I always thoughts so." Buck started laughing as Vin glared at the man with a stormy expression on his face, wishing the ground would swallow him up at this point. Despite the urgency to retrieve their friends, no one could deny the humour in the situation even if Vin’s esteem was taking some bruising.
Jack, however, was in no mood for levity.
"Daniel…" he stared at the linguist, waiting for more useful information so they could concentrate on the mission at hand. He wanted to repair the damage to the timeline by Isis and Sekhmet and return these people back to their places in history so that SG1 could concentrate on the task of getting home.
"It appears," Daniel explained after a few minutes of conversing with the woman. "That breeding is made very selectively. The males are kept in Isis’s fortress, and there is only a handful of them. Apparently, a very select culling process was made when the village was first established. Only healthy males were brought through the gate, and the ratio is something in the area of 1 to every twenty women. The purpose is to create a perpetual stock of breeding males while at the same time, keeping numbers down. No children are born here without the Goa’ulds selecting the female in question."
"Christ!" Chris found himself reeling with disgust. "You mean there are no children born in this place unless these Goa’ulds give them permission?"
"The Goa’uld want perfect bodies Chris Larabee," Teal’c explained. "By severing access to propagate naturally, the Goa’uld ensure perfect hosts are created while at the same time, ensuring numbers do not rise enough to be a threat to them. With the absence of Isis, it may not have been possible for the Jaffa to replenish their ranks. Thus they had to conserve the larvae Goa’uld as much as possible."
"So that’s where Ezra is?" Nathan inquired, feeling Chris's distaste just as prolifically as his own. The reaction of the women around him no longer seemed humorous, in fact, it was downright monstrous and not unlike the type of life he suffered as a slave on the plantation. It appeared the village was being managed as deftly as the plantation owners used to administer their slave population. The whole thing made his stomach turn.
"If he was taken for breeding," Daniel nodded. "That’s probably where he’d be."
"All right. Daniel, find out where this fortress is." An idea having formed in his head now he understood the social politics existing in this place. "As soon as it gets dark, we’ll make for it."
"She also says that the gods have taken a large number of their strongest daughters," Daniel replied, leaving no misconception as to what that might mean. "She’s probably already reproducing."
"Damn," Jack swore under his breath, hoping to arrive here before that took place. If the Goa’uld queen was already nesting, then very soon they would be up to their necks in new Jaffa troops.
"If she’s making more of them," Chris stated, "we can't wait until nightfall."
Jack agreed. As it was, it might be already too late, but he knew from experience newborn Goa’uld larvae needed time to gain strength before they could be implanted in their host bodies. They still had time to avert disaster but not if they waited until tonight. They had to move now.
"Jack," Chris spoke up after considering their options and suddenly realised there was one way they could get into the place and it made all the sense in the world, especially given where they now found themselves. "I’ve got a plan."
***********
Isis was pleased.
The new larvae were thriving and would soon be ready for implantation into their new hosts. She checked on the progress of her new children and saw which each passing hour, they were growing strong. It gave her great satisfaction to know soon she would have her army again and be able to shape this world into the spearhead needed to reestablish her power among the System Lords. A thousand years of confinement had whetted her appetite for conquest once again, and she needed it to live, as vitally as she needed this host body to survive.
Isis did not like to think of her time, trapped in a living death in the prison fashioned by the Nerfetum. While she and Sekhmet had spent much of the time in stasis, she hated being asleep for so long. It felt like an entire lifetime had passed, even though, by Goa’uld standards, a millennium was not at all lengthy. Of course, Sekhmet had suffered for it, and Isis was beginning to suspect the long confinement might have affected her more than it should. There was a time when she and Sekhmet disagreed on nothing, and the younger goddess followed her order without question. The exchange between them earlier would have been unimaginable a thousand years ago, and now, Sekhmet seemed unstable and bore watching closely.
The Goddess of All made a mental note to examine Sekhmet when time allowed it. After all, she was the patron goddess of healing, and there was a great deal of knowledge at her disposal. Inwardly, she could hear the host’s mind screaming Sekhmet was mad, that a thousand years of confinement had driven her insane. Isis crushed the voice mercilessly into submission, refusing to believe Sekhmet, her proudest achievement and most exceptional pupil could succumb to anything. Sekhmet was her close ally, unlike Hathor, also one of her children who sought to become a queen on her own and take her place at Ra’s side when Isis chose to withdraw from the realm of the Tau’Ri.
Always escorted by her personal guards, Isis who would never make the mistake of being unguarded as she had been when the Nerfertum defeated her, journeyed to the cells of the fortress where her future Pharoah was currently imprisoned. Although the dungeon was hardly the place to keep her Chosen One, at the time it was necessary. With so few Jaffa left in the fortress, she could not waste them guarding him when they were required to secure more host bodies to fill their ranks.
Arriving at the dungeon, she noticed the two guards at the doorway to his cell, looking somewhat apprehensive at her approach. Isis ignored them, seldom caring about what her Jaffa thought because their welfare interested her little. Still, when she instructed them to open the door to the Chosen One’s cell, the fear lingered until even Isis began to wonder what motivated it.
"Jaffa." She said in her commanding tone. "You appear fearful. Tell your Goddess why?"
The older of the two, a seasoned veteran with Isis’s gold signet emblazoning her brow spoke, her eyes lowered to Isis’s feet as she replied to her Goddess’s request.
"Forgive me for speaking out of turn, Goddess of All," she said quietly. "We were led to believe he is to be your Chosen One."
"That is correct," Isis found her gaze shifting to the door and a terrible feeling started to permeate even her ancient soul. "We have chosen him for our consort and our Pharoah. Explain to us Jaffa, why this gives you fear?"
"We were merely following our instructions as given to us by the Eye of Ra. We could not question her my lady since she speaks in your name." The Jaffa continued somewhat uneasily until Isis felt her patience with the whole matter draining.
"Isis, Goddess of All demands you explain yourself, now," Isis tolerated no more delay in this Jaffa’s stilted effort to tell her what was the matter.
"Forgive me, my lady," the Jaffa nodded humbly. "He has been injured. We do not believe he can survive without your healing. If he is to be your Chosen One, he must be tended to now."
Isis did not let the Jaffa continue and swept past her, realising what it was her servant was trying to tell her with so little success. Raising her hand and not even bothering with a key, the ribbon device came to life, and tore the door away from its lock, causing it to slam loudly against the wall when it swung inward. It was dark inside, but she needed no lamp to see, the ribbon device began to illuminate brightly enough for her to find him, lying against the wall. She could hear strained sounds of agony and whimpering as if holding it back was too much and succumbing was the only way to endure.
Isis strode towards him, dropping to her knees upon her approach. She rolled him over and heard him cry out in pain as her hand made contact with his skin, and he flinched at her touch. His shirt was gone, the torn shreds of material lay on the ground, and the bruising to his skin was considerable. There did not appear to be any part of his torso not discoloured, and then there was the stench of burning, what she knew to be the result of a staff weapon held against the skin at low power. At low power, it would not kill, but it would burn and cause enough pain to be quite a brutal tool of torture.
She placed her hand on his face and found it was covered in blood. Both eyes were swollen so severely, she doubted he could see. There were deep cuts across his chest, his face and his back and the slick wetness against the stone floor was his blood, pooling steadily from the wounds from a dozen injuries. He was nearly unrecognisable from the human whom she'd seen the night before. Isis caressed his cheeks and saw him react once again in pain before she realised his jaw was broken for his face was twisted from the swelling.
"Jaffa!" Isis fairly roared, her voice filling up the cell and her eyes glowed so brightly that even her guards had reason to fear. All four guards, including the two guarding the cell entrance, stepped forward ready to take their orders. Isis stroked his feverish brow, feeling the heat under his skin signalling the burning of infection. She placed the ribbon gem over his forehead and filled the room with an amber glow as the stone flared with energy. "Sleep now Chosen," she whispered softly. "When you wake, your pain will be no more."
In the same breath, she turned to her guards and spoke in a voice that lacked none of its earlier kindness. "I want him placed in the sarcophagus immediately."
"My lady," the Jaffa who spoke earlier found herself in the unenviable position of providing more unhappy news to her goddess. "Our sarcophagus is no more. Before your return, the gods who matured in your wake plundered much of your temple’s treasures, believing you were dead. We of the Jaffa managed to replace many of the items lost but not the sarcophagi."
Isis swore, realising the plan inspiring this cruelty. "You will take how many you need with you and go to the Chappaii. The world of the Tau’Ri from which we emerged with this body has a sarcophagus there, you will bring it to us so we may use it to restore our consort. If you fail us in this, we will have your skin torn from your body to make his death shroud, do we make ourselves understood?"
The Jaffa swallowed visibly, mistaking nothing.
"As you will, Goddess of All." She nodded and motioned the others with her to follow. Only two of Isis’s personal bodyguards remained and would continue to do so until death. When the others were gone, Isis rose to her feet. "You will take him to our quarters and guard him with your lives. No harm is to come to our Chosen One. We make the same threat to you as we did to those who allowed this to happen to our new Pharoah."
"Great goddess, we would wish nothing more." The guard quickly returned. "But if we are met with the Lady Sekhmet, what shall we do?"
"You need not worry about that," Isis said as she stormed past them. "We need to teach the Eye of Ra, what it is to defy us."
***********
"It’s a good plan." Jack agreed having heard the outline of Chris’s strategy and deciding it wasn't much different to the one he was formulating on his own. Of course, Chris was extremely motivated towards its success, considering what was at stake here was the life of his wife.
"I don’t know Sir," Sam found herself doubtful about the plan considering there were some elements of it would be relying on chance when it was apparent a surgical strike was needed here. "We're depending on a lot here. If Isis has reinforcements on the way, getting into her fortress is not going to be easy."
"Sam, it’s the only plan we got, and Isis won’t be expecting us to come through the gate after her," Daniel spoke up in defence of Chris’s plan because like Jack, he believed it was the best chance of getting inside the formidable defences of the Goa’uld enclave.
"Come on, Samantha," Buck looked at her with an encouraging smile, convinced she could pull this off since he had seen her accomplish some very amazing things already. It did not take much for every member of the seven to know the lady had a great deal of knowledge and courage, to be wearing the uniform of a soldier. Sam reminded Buck of Inez, possessing the same hidden strength that did not exert itself until required. He had no doubt she disarmed many enemies with her understated manner. "You can do this."
Buck’s confidence gave Sam a boost she found entirely unexpected, and she realised she liked the man more than she should. "I hope you guys are right about this."
"It can’t work without you, ma’am," Vin added his voice to Buck’s. He heard from JD it was she who placed him in the device back at the cavern that healed his serious injuries. Vin appreciated Sam was capable of more than she appeared because he was used to dealing with women who proved quite often the only hurdles before them were the ones imposed on them by men who underestimated them.
"Sure," Sam rolled her eyes. "Sweeten me up."
Of course, there was never any question of her not carrying out her duties. She was a United States Air Force major, and while the Colonel had not made it an order, they both knew she had little choice in the matter. Besides, they had to go in this way. Teal’c believed the time was against them. They had to reach the fortress before new Jaffa were created. As it was, the abandoned fortress back on Earth was filled with Goa’uld weaponry. There was no reason to assume it would be any different here. While the Netjer told Daniel there were no signs of flying machines or immense pyramids in the sky, it did not mean the new Jaffa would not have a formidable arsenal at their disposal after they were implanted. If there was any chance of retrieving Mary Travis Larabee, Alexandra Styles and Ezra Standish, they had to do it now.
After Ajia gave Daniel directions where Isis’s temple was situated, the group set off amidst the desperate pleas by the women of the village against doing so. Men were not favoured by Isis, and those that would not serve were killed. To prove their story, they were shown the graves of male children who were put to death for being less than perfect hosts. The horror of the field of small graves struck at the core of both Jack and Chris, who unknowingly shared the same grief of having lost a son to violence. Neither spoke as they viewed what Ajia showed them although each member of the seven and SG1 felt a fierce desire to remove the Goa’uld threat from Netjer.
Until Isis and Sekhmet were destroyed, the Netjer would never have a chance to be free.
Once they put suitable distance between themselves and the village, Jack noticed a more pressing issue that needed addressing before they encountered the Goa’uld. They retreated to the cover of thick woods lying between them and the fortress, following the directions Daniel extracted from Ajia and the trail that Vin and Teal’c could see through the dense jungle. However, before they proceeded any further, Jack called the entire party to a halt.
"What is it, Colonel?" Sam asked, being the second senior ranking officer.
"We have a little problem," Jack remarked as he studied the arsenal being carried by the men accompanying them on this mission. While they might have been formidable ordinance in their time, they were less than adequate when dealing with an enemy carrying zat guns and staff weapons. For all he knew, the firepower in the antiquated guns may not even penetrate Jaffa armour. In a close quarter’s combat, the liability could cost them dearly.
"What kind of problem?" Chris looked at him, not liking this delay now they were so close to finding Mary.
"Who is your best shooter?" Jack asked, ignoring the question.
Instinctively, all eyes shifted to Vin who stared back at the Colonel, puzzled.
"I’m guessing that’s you," Jack said to him and then turned to Daniel. "Daniel, give him your gun and all spare magazines."
Daniel did so without question, understanding what Jack was getting at now. He knew he was an average shot, but someone with the skill could make better use of the weapon then he could. "Sure."
"There’s 80 rounds in that gun," Jack explained, giving the tracker a quick rundown of how to use the P90. "You’re not used to an automatic so keep it off rapid-fire. If you can make every bullet count, that will be a good thing."
Vin examined the exotic-looking weapon with its sight and experimentally took aim, getting a feel for the trigger and the rest of its futuristic accessories. He was more accustomed to his Winchester, but he understood Jack’s reasoning.
"It's light." He commented. There was not a weapon that Vin Tanner could not master and this was no different as long as it worked when he aimed and fired.
"Carter, Teal’c pass your sidearms out, same drill." He ordered and gave Chris his own 45-calibre weapon, capable of putting a very big hole through a steel drum and should have the same effect on Jaffa armour. He gave Chris his spare cartridges before addressing them again. "When you meet the Jaffa, don’t aim for the helmets. It’s armoured, and even our bullets don’t seem to penetrate them. Fortunately, their armour is mostly limited to the head and neck area. If you shoot them, aim for the chest."
"Will they be women?" JD had to ask because he had once had the unfortunate luck to be responsible for shooting a woman and the experience left him anxious about doing it now, even intentionally.
"The Jaffa of Isis will be female," Teal’c answered for Jack because he saw the colonel appearing somewhat uncomfortable himself about the question. "Do not make the mistake of thinking them less dangerous because of their gender. They will die before allowing you to harm Isis. You must purge yourself of any hesitation at firing upon them. If you do not, then they will kill you."
JD nodded, unable to ignore the warning in the big man’s words. "I’ll do what I got to."
"Is there any way we can reason with them?" Nathan asked, hating to believe that killing was the only way to reach them.
"No," Teal’c replied. "Jaffa are the sworn protectors of the gods. They do not see it as a duty but a privilege to serve their masters, and they will die before allowing anyone to harm their gods. There is no reasoning with them." Suddenly, Teal’c fell silent, and his eyes met Vin’s who also heard what the others had not sensed by the quiet shift in the air.
"Someone’s coming." Vin hissed.
"Take cover!" Jack ordered, and the group immediately scattered, seeking cover in the thick growth. While vegetation that relied upon sunlight was scarce, there were a lot of vines and thick creepers that provided them with the concealment they needed. Within seconds, they disappeared from view, taking refuge in the flora as the trio of Jaffa made their appearance. The visitors from the past watched with a mixture of fear and fascination at their first sight of Isis’s sworn protectors.
They were dressed as Jack described, wearing fearsome looking helmets with a faceplate shaped in the form of a lion. No part of their head could be seen, and the armour sat firmly on their shoulders and protected their necks. Their bodies were covered in some kind of chain mail which Jack had been correct in believing could be penetrated by bullets. They carried staff weapons, and zat guns were tucked in the belts around their waists. They were dressed very much like the Jaffa guards belonging to Ra, with short skirts that provided little cover for their legs. Their hands looked like claws mostly because the gauntlets they were wearing only covered the upper portion of their fingers and looked more like ribbon devices than actual gloves. They appeared as frightening as they had been described, and it was no wonder the natives were so afraid of them.
The trio made their way effortlessly through the foliage, unhampered by the dense jungle and apparently oblivious to their presence. The off worlders watched with bated breath as they moved past, with Jack trying to decide the best way to overpower them. Chris’s plan for infiltrating the fortress relied heavily upon acquiring a Jaffa uniform for Sam. Until now, they expected to reach the Goa'uld enclave first, and then decide how that would happen, but with three Jaffa warriors in the vicinity, the opportunity was too good to pass.
Suddenly, one of them paused.
The lion’s head helmet pivoted from left to right as she studied the surrounding area, trying to see past the dense growth to find them. The eyes of the lion’s head flashed with eerie blue light as she cocked her head and then brandished her staff weapon. Those with her did the same, activating the snub-nose barrel, which cackled with an unearthly light. They could easily lay waste to the entire area if Jack did not think of something soon. No sooner than the thought flashed across his mind, he saw Sam standing up from where she was hidden.
"What the hell is she doing?" He hissed at Teal’c, who was next to him.
Teal’c did not answer because he did not know.
Neither did Sam, but Sam knew if she did not act, this was going to break into a firefight. The Jaffa swung immediately in her direction, ready to fire until the guard saw what she was wearing on her hand, hesitating. It was just long enough for Sam to do what was required.
"Jaffa, Kree!" Sam shouted and threw the others into disarray as the ribbon weapon came to life and flung the Jaffa into the trees as the amber light struck her chest. Sam heard the terrible snapping of bone as the guard smashed against the trunk and tumbled to the ground unmoving. The light glowing from the mask dimmed. In the meantime, the distraction was all the others needed to emerge from their hiding places to start shooting. Sam dropped undercover once again as bullets tore through the air from Jack and Teal’c’s weapons. The two remaining Jaffa guard swung in their direction to fire when the hail of artillery from SG1 made short work of them.
Bullets impacted visibly off the helmets as Jack had predicted, but the unarmoured part of their bodies proved to be their weakness as the projectiles tore through their chest and felled them quickly. They were dead before they even hit the ground. The travellers from the past had not fired. It was too much of a hurdle for them to cross at the spur of the moment. Chris emerged at the same time as Jack, knowing eventually he and his friends would have to shoot.
"Nice work, little lady." Josiah tipped his hat at Sam when the group began to emerge from their hiding places to examine the bodies.
"Thanks," Sam said, blushing slightly; feeling strange being called that. It reminded her of something said to her when she was so much younger than she was now.
"Carter, what was that?" Jack demanded, annoyed, unwilling to let her off even though she probably saved all their necks.
"Well Sir, I took a chance." She offered meekly because she could not articulate into words the compulsion that made her take such a gamble.
"Big chance. She could have just shot you."
"Hey," Buck immediately came to her defence. "She did save our asses." He pointed out, glaring at Jack because things could have been worse, a lot worse.
Jack exchanged a glance with Daniel and noted the linguist had the same expression on his face and decided Buck was probably right, and so was Carter. A small smile stole across his lips as he regarded her again, feeling no real anger but more concern because Sam was not just a member of SG1, she was his friend, and he did not want her endangering her life unnecessarily.
"She’s good at doing that," Jack said, throwing a sidelong glance at Buck to show him that he was not really mad. "Good work Major."
"Thank you, Sir." Sam grinned.
"Now let’s get a uniform and all their ordinance," Jack ordered. He kneeled over the form of the dead Jaffa and retrieved the zat gun tucked in her belt. Sam was already searching the trio to see which one of them she was going to be relieving of their uniform.
"Chris," Jack motioned the gunslinger to him. "When we run into your wife, this is what you need to use on her."
Chris took the oddly shaped weapon in his hands and looked at Jack in question. "How?"
"Wait a minute," Nathan looked closely at the weapon that Chris was examining with deep scrutiny, recognising it. "I think this is what she used on you when they were going through the gate. She shot you and Ezra once with that."
Chris remembered and had all questions answered when he realised just how devastating its effects were upon the body. Even now, he felt the slight aching in his limbs from the weapon’s discharge and could well understand why Jack wanted him to have this. If he intended retrieving Mary, this was the best chance of doing so. It would immobilise her with one shot without permanently harming her.
"I remember," he nodded at Nathan. "It hurts like hell."
"It's meant to. Its primarily used for that purpose but you only get one shot at her. Two shots will kill her and three will turn her to dust."
"What about Alex?" Vin asked. "What do we use on her?"
"We will never get close enough to Isis to be able to use such a weapon on her," Teal’c replied automatically. "Sekhmet is an ally of Isis, but she is not the Goddess of All, while the Jaffa would protect her if she were endangered, they would likely forsake her if they believed Isis is in danger. These weapons," he picked up a staff weapon while Daniel handed Jack and Buck the remaining zat guns. "Will be of little use against her. Samantha Carter is the only one who can stop her."
Vin shrugged uncomfortably, trying hard to remember Isis was not his Alex but could not disassociate himself with the fact that any harm done to Isis would make it more impossible for him to ever get Alex back.
***********
Sekhmet lay among the silken pillows, gazing into the ceiling, feeling satisfaction coursing through her body as she savoured the scent of blood against her skin and the soft whimpers of those dying around her. She was tired now and could think of nothing more pleasurable than falling asleep amongst the efforts of a very satisfying day. She could see her Jaffa Guards at their posts at the entrance of the door, trying to hide their fear and not doing a very good job of it. She wondered if they had any feelings about what she did. After all, they guarded the men in this room for years. They might be conflicted about how she butchered their charges in a day.
They lay strewn across the floor, beautiful bodies now broken and bleeding. There were probably some alive, but Sekhmet did not really concern herself with that. She relished the tortured cries of only one in particular and felt her heart hardened by how he had not begged, no matter how she hurt him. She could have taken him, of course, but she had given her oath to Isis she would not interfere with the decision to make him the Consort of the Goddess to All. To his credit, he endured all the tortures stoically, tolerating more than she would have thought him capable. It was strange, she did not picture him terribly formidable and yet he managed to resist until her frustration drove her to hurt him even worse than she had initially intended.
Let Isis make him her Chosen One, now he was not so pretty, and when there was no sarcophagus to miraculously mend his beautiful skin, now it was beautiful no more. She rested her head on her pillow and started to giggle, feeling the delicious warmth of hearing him scream, replaying the sound over and over again in her head until her delight bordered on arousal. He had been engaging, but she was sure the pleasure she derived from him would pale in comparison to the specimen she truly wanted, and that was her host's husband. The one in black whom Isis claimed she would kill before breaking. Sekhmet was almost tempted to return to the land of the Tau’Ri and retrieve him for just that purpose. Perhaps she would do just that after the new Jaffar was created.
Besides, it was probably a wise idea for them to retrieve the sarcophagus from the abandoned fortress anyway, especially when there was none here. Eventually, these bodies would need the maintenance they always seemed to require and Sekhmet liked this new host. She loved hearing the disjointed whimpers of her host mind, making itself heard particularly after every drop of blood she shed. It gave Sekhmet pleasure to know she was causing it as much pain as she was forcing her victims to endure. She stood up from the bed and studied the men who inhabited this room for so long.
Most of them were dead.
She had used her hands, and she had used staff weapons and anything else that might inflict pain and amuse her. Wearing the same dress she used to torture the Consort, the white fabric was smeared in blood and fluid as she glided across the marble floor, examining her handy work and seeing if there was still anyone left alive to entertain herself with. Sounds were emanating from a few of them, tortured groans of pain because of broken bones, torn flesh and burnt skin. It was almost music to her ears.
The guards suddenly stepped aside as Isis, Goddess of All walked into the large room. She paused at the doorway, the sentries quickly falling into stride with her, playing the part of bodyguards now, instead of custodians to the dead males. They felt no sorrow for the deaths but confusion at what the men's purpose had been. For so long, they had been the progenitor of new Jaffa hosts, and now they were discarded and killed.
Isis let her eyes survey the room and saw the dead lying in pools of blood, insects starting to buzz over their bodies as the heat of the day continue to rise. Eventually, their stink would permeate throughout the fortress. There were some alive, but without the sarcophagus, their use was limited, and they would die, just as her Consort would die if it was not brought back from the world of the Tau’Ri.
"What have you done?" Isis demanded. Her eyes glowing with rage and a slight measure of horror.
"I played." Sekhmet smiled unrepentantly.
"Come to us," Isis ordered, taking a step forward and noticing her guards were remaining close as if they feared for her. After seeing what insanity had taken place in this room at Sekhmet’s hands, it was forgiven they should believe her in danger from the Eye of Ra. "You are not well daughter," Isis said honestly thinking their imprisonment had driven Sekhmet mad. "We wish to cure this sickness that has infected your mind."
"I am the Eye of Ra, and I am as well as I have ever been!" Sekhmet roared, incensed by the suggestion.
"You have openly defied us Sekhmet, and in two millennia, this is unprecedented," Isis said approaching her cautiously. She saw Sekhmet's eyes starting to burn with as much hatred as the violence her body was poised to inflict upon Isis herself. "The long confinement in the Nefertum has harmed you. You will come to us so that we can correct your injury."
"The confinement did nothing to harm me!" Sekhmet screeched, her maniacal determination to convince Isis, only served to prove to the Goddess of All she was correct in her original assertion of Sekhmet’s state of mind. "It strengthened me! I am more powerful than I have ever been, and I will not give up the play or the suffering."
"You have threatened our existence here by this elimination of hosts. Without these humans as breeding stock, from where do you think new Jaffa of the future will come? We will be forced to scavenge other worlds to replenish them! We must replace them all because of what you have done here!" The death of the men before her concerned Isis little but the reasoning absent in Sekhmet’s mind when she had done this was of great concern to the Goa’uld queen. It was symptomatic of a more severe problem. A Goa’uld could always be counted upon to satisfy its predilections but not at the cost of bringing harm to itself and Sekhmet’s actions were clearly doing this.
"They are men!" Sekhmet returned viciously. "Use them for your pleasure! Abuse them at your leisure! Is that not what you taught me!"
"We taught you that but not like this. Our position is weak. None of the System Lords are aware of our existence so we must move quietly until we gain our strength. We have no ships, no death gliders, nothing to protect us if Ra and the others chose to attack. We would have birthed new larvae and watch a new crop of hosts grow before we would be ready to acquire that which we have lost. Now not only must we return to the Tau’Ri and retrieve the sarcophagi, but we must also bring back more males. They are not what they used to be, they are powerful now. You saw them as well as we did. Neither can we go to worlds other than the Tau’Ri because the System Lords may discover us."
The idea of returning to the Tau’Ri and retrieving males pleased Sekhmet. "I will go and bring the sarcophagi back."
"No," Isis shook her head. "You will remain here. We have already despatched Jaffa to the Chappaii, they will do what needs to be done. You will stay with us until we have determined if you are fit to make any judgements of your own."
"You will not hold me here like a child!" Sekhmet’s eyes flashed with insane fury.
"We will do whatever we wish, because we are the Goddess of All. You have already shown poor judgement by your actions in this room. You cannot be trusted to make your own decisions." Isis said also preparing to fend off any attack should it come to that.
Suddenly, a smile stole across Sekhmet’s face as her anger slipped away from her readiness to attack and instead, a look of cruelty entered her eyes as she approached Isis.
"You are the one who has been making ill judgements. You have allowed your host to infect your mind. In two millennia, you say it is unprecedented I defy you? I put to you that in two millennia, you have not chosen any man to be your Pharoah and now you have. Why is that? Is it perhaps you liked this human male? Perhaps the host has a memory of affection that has clouded your mind?"
Isis responded by expelling a blast of energy from the ribbon device in her hand. It flung Sekhmet across the room like a rag doll. Her body slammed into a nearby table, crushing it with the force of her impact. Sekhmet landed hard but recovered quickly with the agility of a hunter, rolling across the broken fragments, hardly noticing the cuts on her back as she landed on her knees and then stood up, unperturbed by the attack.
"Are we going to fight over this human?" She asked, her voice becoming coarse and hard, the Goa’uld menace exuding through her glowing eyes.
"No, we do not fight." Isis shook her head and lashed out again, sweeping Sekhmet off her feet in another blast of power, slamming her into a wall and dislodging whatever was hung there. Objects clattered around her ears as blood began to ooze out of Sekhmet’s mouth. "We merely wish to remind you of who you are, and who we are in the great design. You are the Eye of Ra, Warrior Goddess and ally to us, your queen. We forgive you your insolence for we know that it is a result of your illness and we will try to heal you, but our lessons are neither quick or painless for one such as you."
Sekhmet scrambled to her feet and glared at Isis with a smile on her bloody lips. "I enjoy pain," she stood up with great dignity. "Inflict it upon me at your will goddess, and when you are done, I will kill you."
***********
There was no mistaking Isis’s bastion of power on Netjer when the offworlders finally came upon it.
It appeared exactly the same as the fortress that SG1 had seen on PX250. This one was partially underground but in better condition than its counterpart on that other doomed world. As they neared it, they could see the structure partially jutting out of the earth, like something attempting to reach the light of day and not quite succeeding. Although there were no signs of visible activity outside, Jack did not expect there to be a large complement of guards. If the Jaffa ranks were as depleted as he suspected, Isis might not consider the Netjer enough of a threat to post guards nor did she expect there to be visitors through the gate.
There was still plenty of daylight, and while it would have been prudent to attempt their infiltration by night, they did not have a choice. The fortress was surrounded by a buffer of cleared trees and would provide little concealment when they attempted to cross. As they stood on the boundary where the trees ended, and the clearing began, Jack looked over his shoulder at Sam. The Major was fixing the helmet into position over her head.
"You ready Carter?"
"As I’ll ever be." She stepped forward, feeling decidedly uncomfortable wearing the Jaffa uniform, especially when it left so much of her exposed. Even though the lawmen were trying not to notice her bare skin, Sam could still feel their eyes moving across her legs, probably since the women of their time languished under layers and layers of skirts. Nevertheless, Sam felt a bit embarrassed and was glad no one could see her blush under the helmet.
"Well, you look creepy," Daniel remarked, never liking these uniforms very much. Teal’c serpent guard uniforms did not inspire so much of the fear that Ra’s Jaffa guards did. For centuries, they held the people of Abydos under complete domination because they looked so terrifying. He hated to admit it, but Isis’s lion guards provoked the same kind of anxiety in him as the first time he stared into the face of Ra’s first prime, Anubis.
"That’s a good thing, right?" JD inquired, having to admit he did not like the way her eyes glowed or the fearsome visage of the mask she wore. The whole concept frightened him that something could just steal a person’s body as it had done to Mary and Alex, not to mention what Ezra was enduring at this point.
"I guess so," Sam said uncertainly.
"All right," Jack spoke up. "You guys know the drill, hang back until we give the signal."
Gesturing to Chris and Vin to do the same, he hid his zat gun under his clothes and relinquished his rifle to Sam, expecting the two men to follow suit. Once Sam had all their artillery tucked away and they looked seemingly harmless, Jack decided it was time to move out. "Okay, let’s get going."
"Good luck." Buck sang out quietly as the three men emerged first with Sam following closely behind them. Her staff weapon aimed firmly at their backs as she marched them to the steps leading inside the massive stone bunker. The wide steps leading into the building were flanked by enormous statues of lions taking up sentry-like positions at the head of the stone stairs leading to a set of huge doors. The architecture of the fortress was definitely Egyptian in design, although Jack could not for the life of him be more precise than that. This was Daniel’s field. However, he did take note it appeared to look a lot like Ra’s fortress on Abydos, and the memory Isis might be closely affiliated to him made him nervous.
Although they had not realised Ra’s importance in the Goa’uld hierarchy until after their encounter with Apophis and the other System Lords, Jack knew one thing. Ra was by all rights their Supreme Leader. The one ship Jack saw in Abydos was almost nothing like the others SG1 would encounter later. It was far more formidable. Had one like it been sent to invade Earth some time ago, Jack was not so sure how they would have prevailed. In the future he knew, much of Ra’s arsenal was still out there somewhere, unclaimed. It further frightened him to the core if Isis was so closely aligned with Ra, as Daniel believed, she might actually call on the System Lord who was still alive at this point in history for help.
That was not an encounter, Jack would like to make twice in one lifetime.
"Where is everybody?" Sam asked quietly as they continued up the stairs and noticed no guards were posted at the entrance to the fortress.
"Something is up," Jack tensed, wondering if they should abort because this felt too easy, almost like a trap. He told himself immediately it was impossible. No one knew they were here and the village couldn't have gotten word back to the fortress fast enough to anticipate this incursion. If this wasn't a trap, then the chance to get inside was too good to resist.
"No guards?" Chris guessed accurately what was causing the Colonel so much concern.
"Yeah," Jack nodded as they continued up the steps towards the massive stone doors. As they closed the distance; they began to hear sounds of some sort of commotion taking place. It took him a moment to familiarise himself with the noise to realise he recognised what he was hearing. Instinctively, he turned to Sam even though he knew he shouldn’t.
"Does that sound to you like a ribbon device?"
The weapon made a very distinct hum when discharging power. In the years they encountered the Goa’uld, it could not be mistaken for anything else.
"Yes it does," Sam nodded but unable to fathom what was happening.
"It sounds like all hell is breaking loose in there," Vin remarked as they hastened their pace.
"Sir," Sam looked at Jack. "All the Jaffa might be engaged in dealing with whatever is causing that." They could hear the commotion grew louder and did not show any signs of abating.
"Then we better get the others before they work out we’re here too," Chris suggested and immediately broke away from the group before Jack could stop him, which he did not because Chris was right about this. There would never be a better opportunity.
Chris hurried down the steps and reached enough distance to ensure the others would see him from their hiding place in the woods. Waving his hat about, he waited for them to emerge from the tree line, now they received the signal to proceed. It took no more than a few seconds before Buck appeared, followed by the rest of the Seven and SG1. Crossing the buffer zone with the greatest of speed, they made it to the steps unaccosted and further convinced Chris something dire was happening inside the fortress requiring their immediate attention.
"What’s happening?" Daniel asked the minute he reached Chris, who already retreated up the stairs.
"Don’t know," Chris replied abruptly, eager to rejoin Vin, Jack and Sam who continued through the doorway while he had gone for reinforcements. "But it sounds pretty bad. Lots of noise and no guards."
It did not take the group long to find other members of their party, and as they advanced deeper through the wide hallways, it was not difficult to be led to the source of the chaos. Sam took the lead because she was the least in danger should they be discovered. Fortunately, whatever was taking place inside the fortress was occupying most of the Jaffa’s attention, and they were allowed to roam its halls unimpeded. They could hear footsteps and excited voices amidst the booming noise of breaking objects, the roar of staff weapons being fired, not to mention the damnable humming that could only come from a ribbon device, emanating from further down the hall.
"Okay, we need to split up." Jack decided as they came to a pause at a juncture. Their numbers were large and not easy to conceal in close quarters. No, he shook the thought of his head, not if, when. "Daniel, you come with me, Sam, Chris and Vin. This is the plan. We’re going to go after Isis and Sekhmet." Without missing a beat and aware that questions were pending, Jack addressed Teal’c directly. "The rest of you will go find your friend."
"And when we find him? Do we wait for you?" Teal’c asked.
"No," Jack shook his head in answer. "When you find him, you get out of here and take him through the gate. We will meet you back on Earth."
"Wait a minute..." Buck protested immediately. "We ain’t leaving you here."
"Buck’s right," Nathan added almost as vehemently. "We’ve seen the odds, you can’t take this on alone."
"Do it," Chris said sharply, knowing while they might have difficulty accepting such an order from Jack O’Neill, he was another matter entirely. "You find Ezra and get him through the gate. No arguments, you hear?"
"Chris, this ain’t wise," Josiah said reluctantly, never one to argue with Chris but these were hardly normal circumstances, and it did not sit right with him they should just leave.
"It ain’t wise," Vin agreed meeting Chris’s gaze. "But it’s the right thing to do."
"Fine," Buck conceded the point, seeing Chris was adamant about this and the gunslinger seldom made requests like this lightly. "We’ll find Ezra and get out of here."
"Good," Chris offered a slight nod of thanks to Buck whose consent would prompt the others to kerb their disagreement with his choice, besides this was hardly the time for it.
"Get going Teal’c," Jack ordered, and the Jaffa bowed his head slightly in obedience before withdrawing up the way they came, with the others following closely as they began the search for Ezra Standish. When they could no longer be seen in the corridor, Jack turned back to Chris.
"Now, let’s go get your wife."
Ezra Standish woke up.
He woke up to sound, beating against his ears, entering his mind covertly through the soft luxury of the feathers upon which his head was rested. He dreamt of red hair and scented skin, holding him close while a soft voice whispered in his ears, telling him he should sleep, for he would awaken into a dream, not fall asleep into one. He remembered her soft hands on his brow, laughing with him as they became lost in a tangle of sheets, scented heavily with their lovemaking and knew he never wanted to be anywhere else, except in her warm embrace. In the darkness of the pain into which Ezra Standish awoke, only one word made any sense.
Julia.
He wept upon regaining consciousness, feeling terribly weak even though he was allowed. He could feel the pain all over him, the torn skin, the broken flesh and the blood, the god-awful stench of blood, forcing him to crawl painfully across the soft mattress he was lying on so he could vomit. There was nothing in his stomach to eject, so he puked an odious mixture of blood and bile. His mind surfaced the memories he wanted no part of. It was not Mary Travis Larabee who did this to him. What Sekhmet did made the association impossible. Even if he found himself standing before Mary; he could no more harm her than he could, Julia Pemberton. However, if he found himself before the creature who made him endure the hell that reduced him to this, there would be nothing on Earth to keep him from killing her with his bare hands.
He endured much in his life, things he would admit to no one, not even Julia, who knew his secrets and his heart. Moments he told no one and would not even admit to himself. Maude made his life one struggle after another and Lord only knew the things he had done to save her from herself, some he dared not even tell her. Humiliation was something he endured since his childhood. Ezra was so accustomed to it, it was almost an old friend. He tolerated all kinds of evils and buried its effects behind a veneer of southern charm that acted as a magic cloak, protecting him from all things terrible. Until now.
Never in his life did Ezra want vengeance so badly. He wanted to hurt her. He needed to make her scream and tear her apart with his hands. Not just her, but the other one, whose torture was far more inhumane than that of physical pain. Thanks to Isis, he was a rutting animal, required to perform for its meals. He swallowed his pride because some things simply had to be, but not this. There would be no satisfying his rage in this matter.
He required retribution.
Ezra was kneeling on the floor, still coughing blood when he heard footsteps approaching behind him. The guard assigned to keep him imprisoned in this gilded cage of soft pillows and silken sheets was attracted by his noises and had come forward. Ezra tensed and collected himself. He did not need to see his reflection to know he was possibly dying from the wounds inflicted on him. He could smell the stench of it on his skin and knowing there was an end in sight made it easier to act.
The guard spoke, and the voice was female like they were all female in this place. He did not answer and continue to remain on his knees, bleeding and feigning weakness. His adrenalin was coursing through his veins, dulling the pain that burned through him because she had him facing the wall, bound and helpless before she tore through his insides, laughing as she stripped his manhood from him and revelled in the scream she ripped from his lips. The memory of that tearing pain, the feel of warm blood running down his thighs made Ezra double over again, and he retched once more.
God, he was going to kill her. If it was the last fucking thing he got to do in this life, he was going to kill her!
The guard spoke again, standing above him now, concern in her voice, possibly because she understood how important he was to the Goddess of All. Ezra’s rage would have even astonished Chris Larabee who until now had the monopoly on homicidal fury. It was a serpent inside him, coiled and waiting release. He could hear the guard directly behind him, urging him to tell her what could be done for him even though Ezra had no idea what she was saying. He could read the voice like he could read the faces of opponents in a card game.
Without warning, he kicked out his foot, striking her knee hard. She let out a cry of pain, swinging the staff weapon in her hand as she went down. He was on his feet faster than she and grabbed the staff and yanked it away with one forceful pull. She tried to call for help, but there was no time, Ezra brought his foot down on her chest, driving the air from her lungs and killing any sound that might have tried to escape. Swinging the weapon in his grip, Ezra’s hands moved so fast, he never even stop to consider when he paid such careful attention that he knew how to use it. The barrel was aimed in her direction before he was conscious of the fact he had swung the staff weapon over swiftly and had even less cognisance when he killed her.
The guard died quickly, and that was all the thought Ezra gave her as he hobbled past her body, the weapon held tight as he limped towards the door, preparing to kill anything that came in his way if they tried to stop him. He had no idea he was trailing blood as he moved. Something had broken inside of him, something demanding blood and would not end its frenzied desire for vengeance until he killed the thing inside Mary Larabee and freed her.
Because no one deserved to be trapped in the same body with an insane killer.
***********
"What the hell is going on in there?" Jack O’Neill found himself asking, the closer they approached the source of all the commotion. The combination of firepower from the Goa’uld ribbon device and the staff weapon being fired, reverberated through the walls of the structure so fiercely he could not put his hands against any surface without feeling the shudder of violence. An epic battle was being waged, and Jack became more curious to find out what was behind it, the nearer they approached its centre.
They reached the end of the corridor and found it emptying into a large chamber, which Jack held back on approaching until he knew what was happening. As he peered past the corner, he discovered the majority of Jaffa was concentrated on what was taking place in the room below. They were anxiously watching as two women engaged in what appeared to be a battle to the death. It did not take him long to realise the two combatants were clearly Goa’uld since none of the Jaffa dared to interfere in the savage tournament. The room which served as their battleground was covered in debris and Jack felt his stomach hollow when he realised buried amongst the rubble were bodies. He could see a hand protruding from a pile of ruined furniture.
"Is that your wife?" Jack prompted Chris to the edge, and the gunslinger immediately poked his head past the corner to see if Jack had indeed found Mary.
Chris wasted no time searching through the pandemonium in the room to find who he sought. It did not take him long to find her. She stood in the middle of the room, amidst the destruction wrought by the fierce battle being waged between herself and Isis, looking nothing like Mary Travis Larabee, even though she wore his wife’s face. The creature before him was almost feral in its savagery, teeth bared, splattered with blood he was sure was not her own. She was fighting with a staff weapon, her blond hair hanging loose against her skin, appearing like a banshee wailing a dirge in the night.
Her attention was focussed mostly on her opponent and what Chris saw in her blue-grey eyes was killer madness. Rabid animals bore the same look, and it made him shudder to know such insanity possessed his wife’s body. Isis, on the other hand, was a picture of calm and Chris found himself wondering how much of that was Alex. The woman Daniel Jackson referred to as the Goddess of All was not all in the same state of frenzy Sekhmet was currently displaying. If anything, she was a stark contrast to the unrestrained madness that was the Warrior Goddess.
"Jesus," Chris whispered as he saw Sekhmet firing the staff weapon, sending a volley of blasts at Isis who used the ribbon device to block the shots. He could almost see the invisible wall of energy deflecting the deadly bolts, as easily as bullets ricocheting away from steel. The blast impacted against the wall, striking one Jaffa guard who was standing too close and forcing the others back. Sekhmet did not give Isis any time to breathe, renewing her attack with renewed ferocity, oblivious to the fact she could not get through the invisible shielding Isis erected around herself.
"We’ve got to stop them." He said hastily retreating back to the others. "They’re going to kill each other."
"Is Alex out there?" Vin asked quickly and immediately tried to get past them when Jack tugged him back into place.
"Just hold it a minute." The colonel hissed with enough command in his voice to ensure the young man obeyed. "Did you see how many Jaffa they got with them?" Jack inquired since he had not the chance to make a count before summoned Chris to identify his wife.
"At least nine." Chris estimated, making a quick mental calculation. So far, they had maintained their anonymity, but that would end the moment they stepped out from behind this corner to retrieve Mary and Alex.
"Nine." Jack considered quickly and raised his eyes to Sam. "You think you can do what you did earlier with that thing again?" He referred to her use of the Goa’uld ribbon device when they had previously encountered the Jaffa guards in the woods.
"I think so," Sam nodded anxiously, not liking to use the weapon but knowing it would serve much more effectively than their guns at this moment.
"What’s your plan, Jack?" Daniel asked and did not need an answer when he saw Jack removing a few grenades from his belt. "Oh." He said shortly.
"Oh?" Vin stared at Daniel. "What’s 'oh' mean?" He wished someone would explain to him what was going on. At the moment, he was fighting to restrain himself from running out there and confronting Alex. Like Chris, he felt they needed to do something before Mary and Alex slipped out of their reach again.
"Oh means, we ought to step back a little," Daniel answered, retreating further along the wall and gestured at the two lawmen to follow.
Something in the scholar’s manner indicated to Chris neither Vin or he should argue as they left Sam and Jack behind at the edge of the wall. If there was one thing the gunslinger learned by now, they were so far over their heads with what had transpired in the last two days it was wise to let someone with the know-how take the lead. Jack O’Neill appeared to know what he was doing. As much as Chris found it difficult to rely on anyone when it came to Mary’s safety, he knew he had to swallow his pride and accept the help because he simply did not have the knowledge to save her on his own.
Jack nodded in Sam’s direction, preparing to throw the grenades into the thickest part of the Jaffa group as she took a deep breath and readied herself to use the ribbon device once more. He could see the apprehension in her lovely face and wished it their only course of action was not to utilise her experience as a Goa’uld host to fight the enemy they were responsible for unleashing upon a galaxy. Since her blending, as the Tokra liked to call it, more and more latent Goa’uld abilities were manifesting itself in Sam Carter. She was becoming quite adept at using their technology even though he knew secretly, it frightened her.
"You ready?"
"As I’ll ever be." She nodded and prompted him to begin.
With all the noise and pandemonium currently taking place in the next room, the grenades Jack threw in the direction of the Jaffa went virtually unnoticed except by the guards nearest to the objects when they clattered across the floor. Those who did notice did not immediately recognise the devices before them since none of these Jaffa ever encountered the Tau’Ri or had any knowledge of their weapons. Unfortunately, they did not have time to study the devices before the explosives detonated.
The roar of multiple grenade explosions rocked the halls of the building even more violently than the battle of Goa’ulds in the chamber. Jack did not wait to see the effects of his handiwork, emerging at the same time with Sam and firing their zat guns at the remaining Jaffar, who now realised their fortress had been breached while they had been spectators to the battle. At least four or five Jaffa went down with that initial blast. With the onslaught of zat guns carried by the two intruders, they were soon joined by three others, firing alien weapons that tore through the Jaffa bodies, until soon the guards were a messy heap.
Isis and Sekhmet stopped fighting immediately, realising a new threat suddenly presented itself. Isis scanned the room and discovered no Jaffa were standing between themselves and the intruders, at least none she could see over the rising smoke left in the wake of the grenade blasts.
"JAFFA!" She roared in herGoa’uld tongue. "KREE!"
"They’re dead!" Sekhmet shouted, both Goa’uld forgetting their previous altercation as the enemy who killed their guards, approached them cautiously.
Sekhmet recognised the stranger in black almost immediately and found a smile curling her lips as she realised it was the mate of her host. She felt her pulse quicken at the thought of having him in her clutches even though it was a mystery to her how his primitive mind unravelled the secrets of the gate enough to follow them here. All she cared about as her eyes met his, was the pleasure to be had as she broke him into a thousand pieces as she had done his friend.
Chris saw Sekhmet’s gaze fixed on him and dared to hope perhaps there was something in her who knew who he was. That thought lasted just about as long as it took for her to aim the staff weapon at him and start firing. She was deadly accurate with it, and the marble floor spat debris and flying shards of jagged rock as he and Jack ran for cover. Jack fired the zat gun at her, but Sekhmet sidestepped it quickly, allowing the surge of energy to bounce harmlessly against the wall. It took Chris a moment to recover before realising she had every intention of killing the colonel unless he helped the man when suddenly Jack O’Neill was swept off his feet and slammed painfully into a column.
"Colonel!" Samantha Carter cried out as Jack groaned in pain as he slid to the floor.
The attack had come from Isis who had now turned her attention to the interlopers and posed far more danger than Sekhmet and her staff weapon. As Sam, Vin and Daniel attempted to deal with the Goddess of All, Chris made his way towards Jack, who had not moved. Judging by the grimace on his face and the way he was holding his side, Chris guessed immediately he had probably broken some ribs. Jack had been thrown hard enough to suffer such injuries.
"Jack," Chris leaned over him and tried to examine the injury. "You need to get on your feet. We can’t protect you here."
"No, kidding!" Jack swore loudly when his eyes travelled past Chris and shoved the gunslinger down as he ducked for cover himself. "Get down!"
Chris did not need to ask when there was an explosion of rock and marble over their heads. A sizeable chunk of the wall crumbled around their ears from the blast of a staff weapon. Sekhmet was approaching fast, preparing to kill them both when Chris reflexively fired his own zat gun at the woman who was his wife. Once again, she was able to avoid the shot with her lightning reflexes, and Chris told himself he was going to have to stop underestimating her if he was to have any chance of bringing Mary back home. He fired continuously, laying down a wall of energy driving her back, allowing Jack a chance to recover. She was pushed to the far end of the room before Chris could turn his attention to the Colonel and drag the man down the corridor.
"I’m fine!" Jack grumbled, disliking the assistance.
"Now I know what Nathan puts up with," Chris muttered as he pulled Jack to safety. "I ain’t got time for this. Quit bitching."
"Listen to me," Jack grunted as he felt the sharp pain of broken ribs. "When you go after her, she’ll try anything to get to you. Sometimes, they even used the host itself."
"What does that mean?" Chris snapped since that made little sense to him.
"You’ll hear Mary, and you’ll think its Mary, but it won’t be! It will be just a trick. You want your wife back, you put her down, and you do it fast. No mercy Larabee, no mercy!" Jack pulled at his duster and made sure Chris understood just how serious he was about this warning.
Chris nodded quickly, comprehending what was said to him before replying quietly. "Don’t stay here too long. With all this noise, we’re gonna bring the whole place down on us." Chris warned before retreating up the way he came. He cast a brief glance at Daniel, Sam and Vin, seeing them embroiled in troubles of their own as they attempted to subdue Isis, who was proving to be a formidable match for all of them. Chris hoped they could carry out their end of the plan as he searched for Sekhmet and saw her withdrawing into another room, almost as if she wanted him to follow.
Trap or not, he had no choice but to do it.
***********
"We killed you!" Isis shouted, glaring at Vin Tanner in astonishment, unable to believe how he was standing before her when she killed him back on the Tau’Ri world. She made a point of doing it after he dared to assume that she was his mate.
"We revived him," Daniel said quickly before any more on the subject was revealed. They had no wish to let Vin know he died at her hands because explaining it to him might be too much for any man to know about himself, especially when it was his fiancee who did the deed. "We have no wish to harm you, but we need the body you have taken."
She looked at Daniel incredulously as if he had said something highly amusing and started to laugh. "You must be joking. Do you think us a fool? This body is ours. We will kill you for your insolence!" Her eyes flashed with rage, and she raised her hand to attack when Sam quickly stepped in front of Daniel, aware of what was coming in his direction. Vin was still uncertain about firing as the amber jewel poured its lethal energy in Sam’s direction. The beam of light caught Sam in the centre of the forehead, driving the Major to her feet as Isis closed in.
Vin had no idea what she was doing but judging by the pain etched in Sam’s face, he knew he had to do something. His own weapon would cause Alex permanent injury, and so he thought quickly, running forward and slamming his entire body weight into her, freeing Sam who dropped to her hands and knees gasping in pain. Isis reacted swiftly as they both scrambled on the floor. Vin saw her momentarily disorientated and immediately climbed on top of her, trapping her body beneath his own as he grabbed the hand wearing the ribbon device and pressed it to the floor.
"We will destroy you for this!" She bellowed in rage, her eyes glowing with almost demonic light as she struggled.
"Not before I destroy you first!" Vin found himself saying trying to harden his heart and telling himself repeatedly this was not Alex but the vicious creature who stole her body and for that matter, her soul. "Alex, I know you can hear me. We’re going to get her out of you Alex, I promise!"
"Vin, get away from her!" Daniel ordered immediately, scrambling forward once he had ensured Sam was alright. The linguist had produced a zat gun and could not make the shot until Vin had moved out of the way. While it might look to the tracker he had the momentary advantage, Daniel knew better. The Goa’uld may be restrained, but she did not require her limbs to make the ribbon device work.
The warning came too late, and Vin was thrown off her violently, propelled backwards before he even had a chance to realise she activated the weapon. He crashed into some broken furniture with great force, sending debris into the air with his hard landing. Jagged wood dug into his skin, but thankfully, his heavy buckskins saved him from any deep lacerations. Although he was hurt, he was nowhere injured, and he was on his feet in time to see Daniel fire the zat gun.
Alex’s scream tore through the air.
Vin reacted to the sound of her voice more sharply than anything else that happened. He scrambled across the debris, praying to God she was not responsible for the tortured bodies he saw scattered around the place. He saw Alex on the floor, struggling with the intense pain caused by the weapon as Daniel moved towards her.
"Hurry," he looked at Vin. "We don’t have much time. This won’t last long."
Vin nodded mutely and continued closing the distance between her, far more rapidly than Daniel was capable. He glanced at Sam to see if she was alright and flinched at the rivulet of blood running down her nose as she recovered from Isis’s attack. When he was near enough for her to see him, Isis’s eyes widened in shock, but the voice that came from her lips did not belong to a stranger.
"Oh God Vin!" Alexandra Styles gasped in pain and relief as she saw him standing before him. "Oh God, you’re alive! I’m sorry! I couldn’t stop her! I couldn’t stop her from doing everything!" She wailed in absolute sorrow.
For a minute, Vin did not know what to do but felt his own relief flood into his soul as he heard her voice. "Alex? Is that you darling?" He could almost feel tears starting to form in his eyes as he looked into her face and saw it was his Alex staring at him, weeping incoherently.
"You don’t have time for this!" Daniel barked, reaching for her wrist to remove the ribbon device. "She’s only back because the Goa’uld doesn’t like the pain. The minute it wears off, Isis will assume control of her again."
He no sooner said those words when Vin saw Alex’s eyes glowing again and whatever she was trying to say to him withered away in the bellowing tirade of Isis’s enraged voice. "We will make you beg for death for this insult!" The ribbon device glowed, and a powerful surge of energy swatted both men away like disobedient children. Daniel landed on his back, feeling the impact against his body shudder through his bones as he made the abrupt contact with the marble floor. His skull hit the floor hard, and Daniel felt his head swim with the disorientation of the sudden stop.
Vin felt his body flare with pain again after another forceful landing and swore under breath, knowing it could not take much more of this pounding. He staggered to his feet just in time to see Isis rolling onto her knees about to rise. She looked at him with eyes narrowed, preparing to attack when Sam finally entered the fray and placed herself between them to protect him from further retaliation by the Goa’uld queen.
Sam did not know whether she was any match for Isis, but she was determined not to let this go any further. She heard the terrified voice of Alexandra Styles crying out a few seconds ago and remembered most acutely how it felt to be similarly trapped in that hell. Without offering any warning, she concentrated hard and felt the ribbon device coming to life once again. It manifested itself like an insistent tug in the centre of her being that required the crystal in the device to channel its energy outward.
With the same power she wielded a moment ago to dispatch the two men who attempted to steal her host body, Isis was thrown backward as the force of energy delivered by Sam swept her off her feet. She let out a startled cry as she landed in the thick of Jaffa bodies, unhurt but full of indignant fury at being caught at her own game. The look in her eyes as she stood up to face Sam again and return the assault was enough to send chills of fear running down Vin's spine. Suddenly, unable to fathom how he could possibly know but aware only that he did, Vin knew Sam was not going to be able to stand up to the assault.
What came next was purely intuition, and he hoped he was not wrong, and Alex could forgive him when it was all said and done. Pulling out the knife he secreted in his boot, Vin watched Isis raising her hand, preparing to use her weapon against Sam and knew he had less than a fraction of a second to act. He did not know if he could be that accurate with a knife, but he supposed this was a good time as any to find out. The Bowie twirled as it flew across the air before striking Isis in the centre of her palm, penetrating the gem and surging forward until it sliced through flesh, with its tip emerging from the other side of her hand.
Isis let out a high pitch scream of agony as she doubled over in pain, clutching her hand as the blood started to run down her forearm. Vin’s stomach hollowed at the sight of her in pain and reminded himself what Jack told him and Chris about remembering the creatures in possession of Mary and Alex were not the women they knew. Isis glared at him, defenceless now her only means of fighting back was destroyed, and her Jaffa guards were either dead or absent. Vin saw her eyes studying the situation, evaluating the danger to herself and knew instantly she was going to run.
He crossed the space between them and caught her in a full-body tackle, throwing her on the floor before she could make any attempt to escape, perfectly aware that if she became lost in this labyrinth, they would never find her again. Vin had no idea whether or not she had the chance to create new guards, but he did not intend to find out. His knife was still embedded in the centre of her palm, with blood running down her forearm, she struggled beneath him like a hellcat. Her other hand dug into his neck, nails raking across his skin with such force that it drew blood.
"Release us immediately!" She demanded, her glare blazing with white heat beneath her eyes. It made Vin shudder just seeing her this way, and he ignored all the feelings he had about her. or any misconception he had she could be reasoned with.
"Help me!" Vin shouted as Daniel and Sam approached him on either side. Vin kept his weight under Isis and struggled to remain straddled over her as she fought him with near-superhuman strength. Her teeth were bared like she was an animal, and he had no doubt if the device on her hand was working, she would have killed him already.
Sam reached him first and immediately clutched Isis’s bleeding hand. She had put away her own ribbon device, not wishing Isis to exert any control over it. Daniel was standing over them, keeping an eye out for Jaffa guards but it appeared that none were coming. He guessed Isis didn't have the chance to implant new hosts for her Jaffa army, thanks to her conflict with Sekhmet. As Sam removed the bloodied ribbon device from her hand and tossed it away, he quickly found something to tie the infuriated Goa’uld who presently required all the strength Vin could muster to keep her from breaking free.
"Let us go! You will pay for this outrage when we have you skinned alive!"
Vin’s patience was getting the better of him, and he knew they could not drag her back to the gate in this condition. Taking a deep breath, he held her struggling face in his hands and leaned down to kiss her. As his mouth met hers, he felt her pause in his grip as the warmth of his lips melted over her own and for a very brief moment, he could have been mistaken for believing she was his Alex again. He heard Sam demanding what the hell he was doing when he broke away and met Isis’s surprised gaze.
"Sorry Alex," he said with a sigh. "But I’m doing this for your own good." Without further delay, he threw the hardest punch he could deliver, striking her against the jaw. Her head snapped back, and she went limp in his arms, her struggles ending just as abruptly. No one spoke for a few seconds, and Sam examined Isis’s pupils, ensuring she was not playing the part to trick them into letting down their guard.
"She’s out cold." Sam looked up at him.
"That’s one way to do it," Daniel commented, producing a length of silken cord used to hold some curtains together.
"I suppose," Vin drawled climbing off Alex’s unconscious form as Sam proceeded to tie her up. As he looked around the room and saw neither sign of Jack and Chris, he hoped subduing Mary was not going to be as exhausting as this.
***********
Chris saw Mary running down the length of the corridor, leading away from the others and fell into pursuit, once he knew Jack was safe and able to fend for himself. As he ran after the Goa’uld in possession of his wife’s body, Chris kept in mind she was leading him away from the others into a possible trap. However, he recanted on this thought when he realised she had been given no warning of their arrival and most likely had another reason for this separation. It had not escaped his attention, the room they just left was filled with broken bodies, not just the Jaffa they killed to reach Sekhmet and Isis. Chris had this terrible premonition that somehow, Sekhmet was responsible for the carnage. Everything Daniel Jackson had told him seemed to indicate the beast in control of Mary was a sadistic murderer.
The corridor was strangely silent as he followed her, with only the sound of his footsteps against the marble floor. He could not hear her any more, and that gave him reason for concern. He saw her come up this way and knew she was close, probably watching him now as he made his approach. Chris knew just how stealthy she could be when she blindsided him in the cavern before her escape into this strange world. The zat gun as Jack O’Neill called it, remained tucked in his belt, and if it was not for the fact Chris had been shot with it, he would not have placed much faith in the weapon in subduing Mary.
Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from one of the doors, and Chris instinctively guessed it was made on purpose, with the expressed intention of luring him into the room. Reaching for the zat gun, he held it firmly in his grip as he walked through the doorway. The first thing that greeted him upon entry was a series of bursts from a staff weapon. Repeated discharges of energy followed him as he ran across the floor, barely a fraction of a step ahead of its lethal blasts. Finally, he had no choice but to leap towards the bed that sat in the centre of the room and rolled across the soft mattress to the other side. He landed on his knees and instinctively fired without even seeing where she was, relying upon something far more intuitive than sight.
Chris did not hit her. He had not expected to. But the shot from the zat gun impacted very near her. She leapt out of the way with as much fear for her life as he felt a moment ago.
Sekhmet did not fear the pain but the immobilisation the weapon would produce upon her body, refusing to be helpless in his ministrations.
Chris didn't give her time to recover; moving across the room with more speed than he ever thought himself possible of having and kicked high, just inches from her face. The staff weapon was torn from her grip and went flying. She made a wild dash to retrieve it, but he stopped her in her tracks with a secondary shot of warning from the zat gun. The energy beam struck the marble floor near her, and while it did not crack as spectacularly as it had done when fired upon by a staff weapon, the black of charred marble marred the polish of the floor.
"Stay where you are!" Chris ordered, and she froze in place, glaring at him from the floor while resting on her haunches. For a moment, she looked so savage, he wondered if she could even understand him.
"Or what?" She asked in a low voice, her face twisted into an expression of derision as she looked at him. "You’ll shoot me?"
"I’ll shoot you." Chris swallowed, unable to picture that ugly mask of hatred bearing the same features of his wife.
"You couldn’t shoot me, even if you tried." She sneered and rose to her feet slowly. Her spine straightening at each joint, her shoulders curling back as she stood upright and reminded Chris of a cat stretching itself languidly while enjoying the heat of the afternoon sun. There was power in her movements, the power of a sleek animal, seductive and utterly terrifying.
"Don’t try me," Chris replied, knowing he sounded less sure as she met his gaze. The menace drained from her face even though the intense look of hunger remained. She shook her head, tousling her golden hair and allowing it to frame her face with loose strands that made him acutely aware of her. Her lips curled into a smile, and suddenly, Chris realised the game was changing.
"I would like to try you." She whispered with a smile. "My host wishes the joining," she sauntered to the bed and sat down. Chris knew he should have pulled the trigger on this strange weapon, but he could only follow her as she moved across the room.
"No, she doesn’t," he shook his head. " She’s trapped inside you, locked in hell."
"Hell?" She started to laugh. "Is that what you think?" She rose to her feet again, deciding she would be unable to lure him into the sheets with her. "I have given her spirit freedom she never knew. With me in her mind and her body, I have made her a god. What have you done for her?" She accused, taking one step towards him, even though the zat gun was still aimed firmly in her direction. "You have chained her with sentiment, presumed to lord over her as if you were her master. Worst of all, you have reduced her to nothing more than a receptacle for your seed! Which of us do you think is most guilty!" Without another word, she swung around in a flurry of movement that Chris barely had time to register, let alone defend. The kick was aimed directly at the zat gun, and upon contact, the weapon went flying.
Instead of continuing her attack, she paused and gave him a little smile as they stood before each other unarmed. "You’ll never get her back. I would rather kill myself in this body and take her with me before I ever return her to you."
The smug satisfaction in which she delivered this statement snapped whatever restrained Chris had been maintaining she was his wife. She was not his wife. Mary was somewhere else, locked in a dungeon to which this creature had the only key. God help him, if it meant he had to go through her to free Mary, then that was how it was going to be. All this time, she had been on the offensive, penetrating his own lines of defence because she was using his heart against him. Sekhmet knew while he wanted Mary back, he would always hold back, and that gave her an advantage he could no longer afford to allow.
I’m sorry, Mary.
Chris lunged at her, bringing her down on the hard floor with a full-body tackle that gave her neither time to react or retaliate. They both tumbled to the floor together with Chris grabbing her hands before she had time to fight back. He pinned her body down with his weight, but her strength was stronger than he expected, and her fist struck his jaw in her attempt to dislodge him. Chris returned the blow in kind, feeling a dozen kinds of uncertainty when he saw her head snap back from his punch. She did not waste time in responding, bringing her knees up and slamming it into his back, propelling him forward as she twisted hard and threw him off her.
Chris rolled smoothly and was back on his feet in time to see her trying to plant her foot in his face. He grabbed her calf and put all his strength into twisting the leg viciously around. She let out a squeal of pain as she fairly twirled in mid-air before slamming onto the floor once again, landing hard on her belly. He was on top of her before she even landed, forcing her to stay down as he grabbed her hands and tried pinning them to her back with one hand as he fumbled for the belt around his pants.
"You are enjoying this." She said with a smile.
"What?" Chris exclaimed with distaste.
"This is how you took her the first time, did you not?" She sneered, her voice dripping with suggestion and accusation. "You like hurting her. You enjoy it. The enjoyment gave you pleasure, made you slip past all those secret fears. You only dared to take her after you hurt her."
"Shut up," Chris said finally, deciding he did not need to hear this. She was just trying to bait him, trying to shake his resolve and give her an opening to escape.
"Hurt me," she said sweetly. "I like pain." She tried to turn her head to look at him, but she could not quite manage it. "You can hurt me as much as you like and then you can take me. I promise you pleasure beyond your imagining. We are more alike than the whimpering mind inside here with me. Release me, and I will make you my Pharaoh. You cannot imagine what glory is to be had by being in service to one of us. I can show you the universe and an infinity of pleasure and pain. All you have to do is let me go."
Chris barely heard her. He refused to. Instead, he concentrated on securing his belt around her wrists, determined to ignore her words of seduction and knew it was an act of desperation since she was probably feeling fear as her captivity became more and more apparent. "I said, shut up." He repeated himself and leaned forward as he held her down with his body while attempting to tighten the notches in the leather so that there was no possibility of her escape. "I don’t want you," he hissed angrily. "I want my wife!"
"You’ll never get her!" Sekhmet snapped and threw her head back, slamming her skull into his chin and causing enough pain for Chris to recoil backwards and relinquish his hold on her hands. As he felt blood ooze from a split lip, she twisted once again, throwing him off her body. No sooner than she was free of him, Sekhmet was on her feet and turning back towards him, throwing a forward kick that landed squarely in his chest. Chris staggered backwards for a step or two and then promptly recovered and decided enough was enough.
She wanted to play rough? Fine, he could do rough.
She attacked again, using her legs as effectively as some men used their fists. Throwing a sidekick, Chris whose reflexes were just as fast, possibly faster, grabbed her leg and pulled her forward. Unable to maintain her balance one one foot only, she could not resist as he dragged her close enough to reach and then he swung hard, striking the slender bone of her jaw. He felt it crumple immediately under his fist and felt bone shatter. She did not cry out, but he did see her face etched in pain. There was still a lot of fight left in her, even though he was sure he had broken her jaw when he hit her. He had to keep telling himself she was not his wife, that to save Mary, he would have to hurt Sekhmet.
Her efforts to disengage herself from him became more desperate, and she struggled even harder, dropping her free leg to her knees and pulling him down with her in the abrupt descent. Chris lost his grip momentarily as they both neared the floor, and she used the distraction to kick him in the stomach in a blow he was ill-prepared to receive. The ball of her foot drove into his gut, and Chris felt intense pain and was sure he would have a bruise later. She attempted to get to her feet again, but this time he was ready for her. CHris kicked his own foot into the side of her knee. She screamed and fell face front, her skull making a fair whack against the hard floor.
Chris was on his fours and scrambling towards her, determined not to let her get away even though she had not recovered enough to do so. The fall she had just taken was hard, and Chris could tell she was too dazed to attack. Wasting no time, Chris climbed on top of her again. Tightening the belt around her wrists, he was going to carry her out of here if necessary. When his skin made contact with hers, she spoke suddenly.
"Chris."
It was not the voice of the Goa’uld.
He immediately climbed off her and turned her over so that she could face him. A terrible dark bruise was forming on her forehead where her head hit the marble floor, and her lower jaw was starting to twist out of shape with discolouration where he hit her. Her teeth were red with blood, and a thick rivulet was running down the corner of her mouth. She looked at him without the glow, and her expression softened as her gaze met his.
"Chris." Tears started to fill her blue-grey eyes.
"Mary…" he dared to ask.
"You hurt me." She whimpered. "Why?"
Chris closed his eyes to drive away the pain he felt at having to answer. "I have to Mary, I have to hurt you to get that thing out of your body." He looked at her face and saw his wife, feeling white-hot shards of pain penetrating his soul at the injuries on her lovely face.
"Please let me go, Chris," she begged. "I’m myself now. She’s gone. I can’t feel her inside me."
Chris wanted to believe that more than anything else in the world, but he knew she was lying. He remembered what Jack told him, that in desperation, Sekhmet would use any cruel deception to gain the advantage. Chris looked into her eyes and told himself this was Sekhmet using his love for Mary to trick him.
"She’s still there." He whispered, trying not to let the pain get to him. He wanted so much to believe it was Mary speaking to him, but he knew better. He knew it without even having to hear Jack O’Neill’s reminder in his ears. He saw what she did to those poor souls in that other chamber and knew that there were no limits to Sekhmet’s murderous bloodlust or her treachery. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Chris wondered briefly why he would do this when it was not Mary, blaming it on an emotion he did not wish to deal with now and crushed it ruthlessly back into place before he returned her gaze with angry hatred.
"I know you’re still there!" He shouted after a moment.
Her eyes glowed, and Sekhmet spat at him, her spittle striking his cheek as she glared at him in unmasked hatred. "I will never let her go! I will kill her before I allow you to have her back!"
Chris said nothing and withdrew instead, sinking his hand into her hair as he hauled her to her feet. Sekhmet had no choice but to follow the painful tug of her hair as he dragged her upright and held her face inches away from his as he wiped the saliva from his skin. She stared into his eyes and saw something dark and terrifying, almost as black as the depths in her own eyes when she looked at herself in the mirror.
Chris stared at her and whispered softly. "You stupid bitch. You have no idea about anything, do you?" He sneered, feeling the power shift back to him. "You think I would let you live inside her? Even if I can’t have her back, you think I would let you live? If Mary is gone, if I’ve lost her, do you think wearing her face is going to keep me from tearing you out of her? I’ve done worst things than kill you, and if it means that she’ll be free, I will enjoy every minute of slicing her open so I can roast you over an open fire! You like pain, don’t you?" He hissed in her ear, his own voice taking a husky tone of seduction that made his words all the more venomous. "If I can’t have Mary back, you’ll have pain and more, I promise you that."
With that, he struck her with a backhanded blow that sent her reeling, determined she understood her position. Sekhmet was knocked off her feet from the force of that powerful delivery, and she glared at him viciously as a fresh bruise appeared on her pale skin. She bore her teeth and hissed at him, seeming as feral as her actions indicated as she tried to pick herself up. Chris searched for the zat gun and retrieved it from its position at the end of the room, never taking his eyes off Sekhmet as he did so, in case she had in her mind to offer him any further difficulty.
"You would not kill me." She spat. This time, she did not sound as confident as before. "I am the Eye of Ra. I am a god!" She shouted, more determined to convince herself than him, Chris thought.
Chris turned the zat gun on her and pulled his lips back in a humourless smile. "You’re insane."
He pulled the trigger.
He watched dispassionately as she writhed in agony, just as helpless in the grip of the energy creating waves and waves of relenting pain through her body. She tumbled to the floor, unable to stand as tendrils of the weapon’s power dissipated over her flesh. Chris knew he had crossed the threshold now, he now possessed the will to make good on his threat to kill her if it appeared Mary was indeed lost to him. He leaned over to help her to her feet when suddenly he saw her open her eyes and look directly at him. Chris wondered what barbs she was now going to use to provoke his anger.
"Chris." She swallowed thickly, trying to dispel the intense pain of the zat gun.
Chris did not answer her but continued to pull her to her feet.
"Is Billy safe?"
Chris blinked and turned sharply to her. "Mary?"
"Tell me I didn’t hurt my baby!" She wept softly and suddenly, Chris realised it was Mary talking to him.
"No," his voice escaped him in a strangled whisper. "Billy is safe. I didn’t let her hurt him."
The relief in her eyes showed.
"I can feel her coming, Chris," Mary closed her eyes and tears ran down her cheeks. "I don’t know how long I can fight her. I just have to say…," she ground her teeth as if struggling to keep the demon at bay, even for a precious few seconds. "You were right. I don’t want to live like this. If you can’t help me, Chris. Kill me. You don’t know what she is capable of doing. I can’t remember all of it, but I know we can’t let her live, do you hear me?" She started to cry harder. "I love you Chris," she gasped, feeling whatever will she had left slip away as Sekhmet bore down on her. "Do what is right, save me if you can, but let me go it you can’t."
"Mary!" He cried out, pleading to keep her with him, even for a few seconds. "Mary!"
She did not answer, but her eyes glowed.
"Let me go!" She roared, eyes illuminating with Sekhmet’s evil soul once again. "You’ll never get her back! I won’t let her go. She is in here with me, and she will suffer with me!"
Chris closed his eyes, feeling unbelievable anguish inside his soul and wanting at that moment to drive his fist into Sekhmet’s face, just to wipe that smug satisfaction from her lips.
"Chris." Jack’s voice penetrated the chamber.
"In here," Chris called out, swallowing hard and composing himself before Jack found him. As he kept his grip on Sekhmet, he reached into his duster and removed a handkerchief which he immediately rolled into a ball and shoved down her throat. She snapped at his fingers as he made the effort, but Chris ignored her attempts to do so or her indignant outrage as the handkerchief robbed her of the ability to inflict any further any verbal abuse.
"You got her," Jack said, entering the room as Chris started to drag her out of it.
"Yeah," Chris answered quietly as Jack approached him and aided in handling Sekhmet’s violent struggles to break free.
"You okay?" Jack inquired, seeing the hollow expression in his eyes and not believing for a second he was anything close to fine.
"Yeah, I’m okay," Chris said shortly, not daring to look at Sekhmet as he spoke.
***********
Ezra continued down the empty corridors, slowly but progressively, wondering why he had not sighted any of the new Jaffa to be created because he cooperated with Isis and allowed her to use him. He felt pain just as intensely as the massive injuries he incurred when Ezra realised there was nothing he could do to free Alex. All that was left for him to do was to get out while he still could. Ezra had no idea how far he was going to get in his condition, but he knew he was unprepared to die in this place as someone’s captive slave.
Ezra refused to think about Mary in these ruminations.
Although the hallways were devoid of guards, he was prepared to kill any that came his way. He hobbled painfully down the corridor, trailing blood in small but visible puddles of sickly moisture, oozing from a dozen wounds. He wanted to lie down and rest but knew that his survival depended on him leaving this place immediately. Following his departure from the room he was confined, Ezra wandered down through the corridors, trying to find a way out of this nightmarish place. It did not help the fortress was like a giant maze, and he could no more navigate through it then he could discern the layout of the building to make his escape.
He came across rooms that made no sense to him with equipment and machinery whose sophistication could not be doubted even if their purpose was indecipherable. He did see a few guards early on in his escape, but they thinned out to none, the further he journeyed. Eventually, he realised the commotion he heard throughout the structure might be responsible for his easy movement through the place. Ezra had no inclination to investigate what might be causing the ruckus, grateful he could use it to his advantage. He did not wish to know what was happening elsewhere when the only one he ought to be worried about was himself.
Ezra turned another corner when suddenly he heard the footsteps of a large number of people running down the corridor towards him. Ezra took a deep breath, ignoring the pain as he searched frantically for a hiding place. Seeing a door nearby, Ezra limped as quickly as he could towards it, biting down at the agony caused by the rapid movement. By the time Ezra reached the doorway, he was straining to stay on his feet. Stepping inside, he entered the room and found himself confused at its purpose.
If he did not know better, he would describe it to be a bathhouse or something similar. In the centre of the room was an inground pool of black tile, the water inside churning and bubbling with life. It reminded Ezra of hot springs, but the heat emanating from it was nowhere as warm. There were no wisps of steam rising from it and the room, although humid in temperature, was not uncomfortable. There was nothing else in the room except this strange receptacle of water, and for a moment, the gambler had no idea what he was seeing. Of course, this was hardly surprising, everything he experienced in the past 24 hours was unbelievable as it was.
He took a step closer towards it, trying to understand what purpose it served as he stared at the churning water. As he neared the edge of it, he saw something beneath the bubbling surface. All thoughts of those he fled to escape, disappeared from his mind as Ezra sat down on the edge of the pool and looked into the water, at least he believed it to be water. Ezra knew this was foolishness. He did not have time for this. He should be making sure the danger outside passed before continuing his escape, not lingering here, increasing the possibility of recapture.
However, he could not pull himself away. Something was compelling him to investigate, and he swallowed thickly at the dual sensation of yearning to know and dreading to find out. The gambler lowered his hand into the surface, deciding once and for all, he was going to discover if it was really water inside this bath. The temperature was warm as his fingers soaked up the moisture. It was not much above room temperature as he suspected, but it was not water. Instead, its constituency was thick and viscous, slimy to the touch and Ezra recoil at the feel of it against his fingertips. As he withdrew his hand, he saw it drip from his fingers, and the only association he could make was the texture of a raw egg. The thought made his stomach heave, and Ezra decided he had seen enough when something else caught his eye.
Something was beneath the surface.
Leaning in for a closer look, he squinted as he watched for what it was that made the sudden movement, capturing his attention for the briefest of instances. It took a few seconds before he saw it again and was sure something was swimming inside the noisome fluid. Despite his disgust, Ezra felt the same compulsion to know what it was and dipped his hand in once more, hoping to grasp what it was inhabiting the pool before him.
Ezra did not have long to wait. It swam past his hand and surfaced at the contact of skin. For a minute, he clenched, ready to tear his hand away from it out of sheer terror. His fear was overridden by the intense curiosity to know what was swimming so languidly in the strange fluid. Ezra did not feel immediate danger even though his heart was pounding when he saw it suddenly emerged from the bubbling water. For a minute, he was uncertain of what he was seeing until more of it appeared and snaked up his palm, scenting his skin as if he was as much a mystery to it, as it was to him.
It looked like a skinless snake, pale and milky in its colouring with no eyes to speak of and a mouth that opened like a flower as it examined Ezra’s skin. Ezra felt tendrils of fear creeping up his spine at what the thing might be even though he had not withdrawn his hand. Ezra had a premonition he was in no immediate danger but sensed he was somewhere he should not be, somewhere he had no business seeing. The forbidden atmosphere of the place started to exude from the walls until it became as thick and palpable as the steam rising from this bath. It did not take him long to discover the creature, whatever it was, was not alone. Others were swimming in the churning water, so many he could not count them all.
He watched the one that touched his skin, feeling disgusted at the clammy feel of it against his hand. Ezra was about to remove himself from this place and continue with the business of escape when suddenly, he noticed something. The creature was pressing against his skin, attempting to burrow into flesh but was not quite strong enough to manage it, let alone break the skin. For a moment, Ezra was at a loss to explain why it would do this for it did not seem to be attempting to draw blood even though he was ripe for the feeding with his exposed skin. It was almost as if it were trying to get past his skin, trying to slip into flesh and get inside his body...
With a cold start, he realised where he was.
The horror of the situation made him stumble back in nothing less than absolute disgust. He doubled over and started vomiting again, ejecting more blood and bile onto the smooth floor as the realisation gripped him and he almost screamed in denial. He understood, at last, he had just seen one of Isis’s children, the ones she would use to steal the souls of those helpless people in the dungeons. It was these monstrosities that took Mary and Alex, he was sure of it now, except those were adult versions and these things he had helped Isis create were her infants and…
Oh dear God, he realised as he started gasping at the sheer insanity of it.
These were her children and his.
He helped her create these things! Ezra could barely breathe as he staggered to his feet, telling himself hell must surely the place he found himself now. He saw them swimming without any knowledge the contributor to their existence was looking upon them, and about to go insane with the knowledge. Every one of these things would steal the soul of some poor unfortunate as it had done to Alex and Mary. Ezra could not let that happen. He refused to let it happen!
Picking up the staff weapon he dropped on the floor a few seconds ago, Ezra limped back to the pool and aimed the barrel of the staff at the centre of the tub. He had no idea how much damage he could do in their moist environment, but he was sure as hell not allowing them to live long enough to steal someone else’s life away. Possessing no knowledge of the race spawning these creatures, Ezra knew one thing for sure, they were parasites that needed to be destroyed. As he aimed the weapon at them, Ezra considered if he destroyed these things and was recaptured, Isis would have him killed, no matter what she might have thought of him before.
Strangely enough, Ezra found he did not care.
Activating the trigger, he let loose one discharge of energy into the viscous depths and splattered fluid in all directions upon impact. The byre of the creatures was highly flammable for he did not need to fire a secondary shot. The first did its task quite effectively, igniting the entire surface of the pool and creating a wall of fire that sizzled and hissed as he watched it burn. Ezra knew he should be leaving, but he found he needed to watch and heard the faint screech of the creatures dying, feeling some measure of satisfaction knowing the threat he helped to create was ended. Whatever pain she could inflict upon him was incidental now because Ezra would die with the pleasure she would beget no more progeny from him.
The exertions of the past hour weakened him considerably. Ezra dropped to his knees and then back onto his haunches as he watched the funeral pyre. The pain of numerous wounds had become so great it hardly registered in his mind any longer. He could feel his legs starting to get cold, and his body draining with life as the exhaustion took him. It soon became difficult to keep his eyes from remaining in a state of wakefulness as his eyelids grew heavy. The staff weapon slipped from his fingers and clattered on the floor.
"Oh, my God!"
Ezra heard a voice behind him exclaim as he was about to slip away into blackness and knew it was impossible. He was dreaming. That could no more be Buck Wilmington’s voice than it could be Julia Pemberton waking him up and telling him, he was dreaming. Ezra refused to be tricked by any more illusions, no matter how much he needed to believe it.
"Ezra!" Buck reached him first.
"Good Lord!" Nathan gasped as his eyes moved over the gambler and realised it was hard to make out his features from the battered bruising of his face and body. "What in God’s name happened to him?"
"Your friend is extremely ill," Teal’c replied, deciding O’Neill’s order to return immediately through to gate was now the only chance this man had of surviving the wounds inflicted on him.
Ezra collapsed in Buck’s arms, covering the big man’s clothes in ugly smears of blood. The gambler did not seem to recognise the friends around him, even though when they followed the trail of blood during their search, they had not believed they would find him and in this condition. Ezra was slipping in and out of consciousness, not really thinking the voice he was hearing was real and therefore paid no attention to their questions.
"He’s been beaten within an inch of his life!" Nathan cried, glancing over the wounds and seeing dozens with fatal potential. "His bleeding internally in several places." The healer replied, examining the discolouration of Ezra’s skin.
"Then we must get him back to Earth," Teal’c replied firmly.
"Forget that," Nathan protested. "I need to work on him now."
"No," Teal’c shook his head. "We must take him through the gate."
"I got you," JD said excitedly, latching onto what the stranger was trying to say. "If we can get him back to that thing we put Vin in, we can fix him up!"
"Your young friend is correct," the former Jaffa confirmed. "The sarcophagus is his only chance of survival now."
Unlike Chris and Vin who was at this moment, wondering what had become of Isis’s Jaffa guards as they made their departure from the fortress relativelyunaccosted, for Buck Wilmington and company the question held no mystery for them. It seemed the entire Jaffa complement was converging on their location. Finding Ezra had really been serendipity because they had no idea where to begin searching when Chris set them the task of finding the gambler. Logically, they centred their search on where they speculated the cells would be located in the fortress and headed for it. They expected to find Ezra trapped in one of its dungeons until JD spotted the first drops of blood along the corridor.
There were no tracks to find in this environment of straight lines, sterile perfection of smooth iron finish and marble floors, only the lingering traces of blood glistening under the cool lighting inside the corridors. It did not take them long to find the room and Ezra, confused and horrified by what they saw upon laying their eyes on both. The pool in the centre of the room was ablaze. What it contained was a mystery, but they knew for sure, if anything lived within its fiery depths, that life remained no more. The stranger from the future seemed to have some idea, for he gazed at the fire in silent contemplation for a few seconds as the rest of the seven hovered around their injured comrade. Buck wanted to ask him what he thought, but the question slipped away in light of Ezra’s condition.
Ezra himself offered no insight because he slipped into feverish delirium by the time they reached him. Considering the nature of his injuries, it was best to all he remained in a state of unknowing. Just looking at his swollen and broken flesh was enough to convince them Ezra needed some relief from the pain. Yet, they heard him murmuring incoherently, surfacing random words whose meaning they could not fathom. However, he did repeat one word more than any other.
Abomination.
It made no sense to them, and Buck had the strangest feeling when this was all over, Ezra would be reluctant to clarify it either. His injuries were deeper than mere wounds on his skin. One only needed to hear the agonised whimpering of his erudite voice to know the place he was could not be escaped, with scars that would remain forever. Unfortunately, Buck’s puzzlement did not alleviate their present situation. While Ezra was still suffering the personal demons inflicted by his experience here, his physical body was almost in as much danger.
The Jaffa guards who were so elusive during their initial penetration of the fortress emerged in force and were now determined to keep them from leaving. They descended down the corridor almost immediately after they found Ezra, armed with the strange devices they learned from the man named Teal’c to be staff weapons. Teal’c retrieved the one Ezra used for his escape and managed to hold the guards back until they were able to leave the strange chamber.
The margin of escape allowing them to keep a few steps ahead of the Jaffa was slight, and they hurried down the winding corridors, searching for the way out so they could return to the gate and finally return home. Buck tried not to think about Chris and Vin, disliking the fact they were forced to leave the gunslinger and the sharpshooter behind, even if it was at their own request. At the time, he did not understand their reasoning, but with the Jaffa bearing down on them, it seemed logical they offered the guards more than one obvious target.
Keeping ahead of the enemy, and each of them, except for Teal’c, had reservations about firing on the guards. Even though it was impossible to tell with their fearsome-looking armour, every member of the seven felt uneasy about firing on the women who wore them. Eventually, however, as the blasts of staff weapons came closer and the heat of the weapon’s payload smouldered the walls near them, leaving black imprints of death in the stone, reluctance was quickly overcome, and JD was the first to start shooting. This was hardly surprised Buck, of course, JD was always eager to pit himself against a new foe, no matter how different they were. In the absence of Chris and Vin, Buck was glad Teal’c was with them.
Buck knew people, and when he saw Teal’c act, flawless in all execution of moves and reaction, he could well believe this man spent his entire life doing nothing else but fighting these creatures. He wondered if he could stand such an existence this way and decided to just be grateful Teal’c was on their side. As Buck and JD fired, using the futuristic weapons Jack O’Neill provided them, they were amazed at a gun that could fire almost twenty bullets. After Teal’c liberated Ezra’s staff weapon, he had given Buck his weapon and spare clips, after showing Buck how to use them. The gun which looked like a rifle could hold something like 80 bullets in its chamber. The Jaffa guards were soon driven back by the onslaught of bullets and energy blasts as they progressed further into the bunker in their efforts to escape.
This state of affairs that did not impress Nathan because the healer wanted to get back to the gate or find or quiet place so he could tend to Ezra’s wounds. As far as Nathan was concerned, Ezra was only a hair’s breadth from dying and needed mending immediately. However, with the guards pursuing them relentlessly, never more than a few minutes behind them, Buck was starting to wonder if they would get him help in time.
"Are we even close to getting out of here?" Josiah called out as he and Nathan struggled to carry Ezra.
"The Jaffa seem to be coming after us in particular," Teal’c said mystified by their behaviour, wondering what was so important that they would forget about the rest of the bunker. After a second, he realised why the Jaffa was reluctant to engage in the affairs of the two Goa’ulds in possession of Chris Larabee’s wife and Vin Tanner’s betrothed. It was always unwise to become embroiled in the warrings of two Goa’uld’s when it was uncertain who would be the winner of their combat. The Jaffa would busy themselves with other matters in the meantime until an outcome decided which was the clear victor.
"Where are we anyway?" Nathan asked. "I think we’ve gone further underground."
"This place is a maze." Buck had to admit as they looked around the empty corridor of dark walls and polished floors.
"They are designed much in the way of Goa’uld ships." Teal’c said helpfully and realised by the blank expressions he received they had no idea of what he meant by ‘ships’. Deciding it was probably too difficult to explain, Teal'c concluded they better start ascending instead of descending in their escape. By now, the rest of SG1 would have undoubtedly engaged the Goa’ulds, and they needed to leave before their presence became a hindrance to the others.
Buck heard something.
At first, he was unsure what it was. It drifted through the air like soft whispers because it was evidently further along the corridor than he could see. As the others debated on their course of action, Buck found himself following the source, trying to discern from where it was coming. His gun remained poised to fire, and he felt his palms sweat a little as he gripped it tightly in his hand. Buck was unafraid to admit this whole experience unnerved him and felt entirely justified for feeling fear.
He followed the voices until he reached the end of the corridor and then found they were no longer indistinct because he could identify them a bit. As expected, the sounds were that of women, but the language was beyond him. However, though he could not understand what they were saying as he turned off the corridor and started down the steps leading him to them, he could hear the fear in their voices.
It did not take Buck long to realise he was possibly entering the fortresses’ jail for the place reminded him of one of those Mexican jails no man ever wanted to find himself. As he left the steps emptying into a larger chamber, the voices became more excited and frantic, the louder his footsteps became. When he stepped into the dungeon, the noise became fever pitch as the prisoners suddenly saw someone who did not appear to be a guard.
He could not tell how many they were but judging from the hands that waved frantically at him through the small window in the door to their cell and their frantic voices, he guessed they were many. Buck raised his gun to fire at the locking mechanism on the side of the wall when suddenly he heard JD behind him.
"Buck!" The younger man called. "Are you down there?"
"Yeah," Buck returned as he prepared to shoot. He had seen Teal’c shooting a couple of these things while they were on the run and was sure this was a lock similar to what they previously encountered. "Cover me, will ya," Buck called out. "There are people trapped down here."
"Sure, Buck," JD answered, hurrying up the narrow stairs to take the watch at the entrance so they would not be caught unawares while Buck did what he had to. There was no question in his mind whether they should be wasting their time helping others because what he had seen today convinced him the people here needed all the help they could get.
Pulling the trigger, the bullets tore through the metallic device, filling the room with noise and causing screams of fright from the women he was trying to save, and sending them retreating further into their cells. After the bullets had done their worst, the lock remained in smouldering fragments, its smooth metal casing wholly ruined as the door clicked ever so quietly, but loud enough for Buck to know it could no longer keep its captives trapped. Pulling the door open, the lawman peered through the dimly lit room to see several youthful faces staring at him with apprehension and a slight measure of hope.
"Come on now!" He called to them and realised they did not understand a word he was saying until he gestured with his hands to follow. Once that was done, there was no holding them back, and they almost bowled him over in the stampede to flee their dark prison. It was only after they emerged into the light, he realised who they were. These must have been the girls taken from the village to be used to create new guards. With a sigh of relief, Buck decided they had yet to be implanted with the foul creatures that had taken over Mary and Alex.
Suddenly, he realised this was why Ezra was tortured.
The gambler had not submitted to Isis to produce any new creatures to enslave the women in this room. In her anger at Ezra's refusal, she must have vented her rage upon him and caused the injuries slowly killing him. She probably thought the torture might make him submit to her desire to procreate. Good ol’ Ezra, Buck thought with a smile of admiration as he gestured to his new charges to follow him out of this place. At least Vin could rest easy, knowing nothing happened between Ezra and Alex, even though it was Isis who was using her body and Alex had no choice in the matter. Vin had enough insecurities regarding his relationship with the lady doctor, without things being worse if Ezra had lain with Alex.
Buck hurried up the stairs, with the prisoners who were mostly young women in their late teens to early adulthood, following him closely as he communicated to them in hand signals and gestures. He noticed they were all beautiful and healthy, making sense why Mary and Alex were taken. While both of the Four Corner’s women were extremely intelligent and well-spirited, it was their beauty that attracted the creatures who took their bodies. Mary, with her golden hair and eyes that could see through your soul, while Alex with her exotic skin and smile capable of breaking a man's heart where he stood.
Emerging at the top of the stairs, he saw the others coming to meet him and JD. With the freed captives behind him, the hallway suddenly became very crowded.
"Where did they come from?" Nathan asked.
"They were locked up," Buck explained quickly, thinking it was imperative more than ever they vacated the place. "I think they were gonna be used as guards."
"These are the women taken from the village as hosts." Teal’c nodded in understanding.
"Then they haven’t been done yet." JD ventured a guess. "The thing that got Alex didn’t have a chance to make more of them with Ezra then."
"I guess so." Buck shrugged, guessing as much himself.
"I have found a way out," Teal’c announced, deciding they could not linger here much longer and had to keep moving. "We must go if any of us are to escape." As he spoke, his eyes shifted across the faces of the new arrivals who were looking frightened and relying upon him and his companions to lead them to freedom.
"All right then ladies," Buck turned to the group who seemed to have placed their trust in the man who liberated them from their dungeon and was prepared to follow his guidance. "Follow the man." He said as Teal’c started moving, waving wildly with his hands at which direction they should go.
As they started to leave, Josiah could not help but remark. "You know Buck," the preacher chuckled as he brushed past Buck. "You’re the only man I know who can find himself in a mess as crazy as the one we’re in and still manage to find female company."
Buck was tempted to frown at him because he was no happier with the situation than Josiah. By all accounts, this ought to be heaven for him, a place where a man was highly prized and would be waited on hand and foot by the women who owned him and required to perform only one duty, a duty to which he was extraordinarily equipped to handle.
It stabbed at the core of Buck Wilmington to know he had grown.
His child was waiting for him on his world, not to mention the most infuriating woman who ever walked the Earth, who captured his heart from the very first time she told him to get lost, whom he was determined to win, no matter what the sacrifice. God had a strange sense of humour by sending him here to test himself, and Buck hoped the Almighty was adequately amused.
"Yeah," Buck grumbled as he followed the preacher. "I’m so lucky."
***********
Although Chris and the others had not encountered many guards as they made their escape from the fortress, they ran into enough to delay their departure. Their flight from Isis’s stronghold was not made any easier by the fact the two Goa’ulds in their possession were almost feral in their determination not to be taken from this world. Sekhmet in particular, though bound and gagged, was almost hysterical in her captivity. She screamed through the gag in her mouth like some insane wraith while kicking at Chris with such ferocity, the gunslinger had no choice but to use his fists to settle her down.
As they neared the gate, it became obvious no one was following them. There were a limited number of Jaffa in the bunker as it was and if they engaged Buck and the others while they were retrieving Ezra, it would account for the limited number of Jaffa keeping them from leaving the fortress. Upon making the journey back to the Stargate, Daniel advised it was probably prudent they avoid passing through the village since they had no idea how the Netjer would take seeing their gods as captives. Avoiding the village also cut valuable time from their trip and less than an hour or so after they left the pyramid fortress, they could see the outline of the ring of stargate through the trees.
"You fools!" Isis swore in her Goa’uld voice. "Do you think taking us back to your world will change anything? This body is ours! We will not let it go!" Her eyes flared in defiance at Vin in particular, since he was the one responsible for injuring her and had her securely in his grip.
"Gag her," Chris ordered. He knew from experience what cruelties could come from her mouth after the unpleasantness with Sekhmet earlier. He would spare Vin that same torture.
"Good idea." Jack agreed, having heard something of what Sekhmet said to Chris and recognised the haunted look in Chris’s eyes to believe the man knew what he was talking about.
"Could you please get the scarf from my neck, ma’am?" Vin asked Sam who was staying away from both of the Goa’ulds. He was not prepared to let Isis go for any reason because their chances of getting Alex back relied almost entirely on getting Isis to wherever Jack O’Neill intended for them to go.
"Sure." Sam nodded and removed the scarf tied around the tracker’s neck, trying not to look at Isis as she did so. Instead, she stayed well away from the two Goa’ulds since their capture. Every Goa’uld she met since her blending with Jolinahr, knew she was a host, and it made her decidedly uncomfortable they could ferret out such knowledge by just looking at her.
Almost on cue, Isis spoke. "You have had one of us inside you."
Sam refused to answer her, concentrating on undoing the knot around Vin’s neck because this was not a subject she wished to discuss.
"Shut up." Vin snapped, seeing in Sam’s eyes how much she disliked Isis making reference to that. To illustrate his point, he flashed Isis a look of warning, surprising himself because he no longer saw the face before him as Alex but some vile creature hurting his friends. He supposed if he just kept that mindset in place, he might actually have some hope of getting her back.
"You will have the honour of being our first Jaffa." Isis hissed.
"Do all of you queens have nothing different to say?" Jack asked sarcastically, remembering the same words coming from Hathor’s lips when she tried to make him her Jaffa.
She ignored him but then turned her attention to Vin once again. "If you desire this body so much, perhaps we will make you our Pharoah. You need only let us go, and we will allow you access to our host mind. We promise you an eternity of pleasure at our side. We will expand the scant century you would have shared with her into millennia."
"I ain’t listening to you," Vin said stiffly, unable to deny spending forever with Alex was tantalising but not at the price they would have to pay. He was almost relieved when Sam finally removed the scarf around his neck and rolled it into a gag, which she promptly secured over Isis’s mouth. The Goa’uld shook her head vigorously to keep the cloth from cutting off her speech, but Sam was almost as determined to place it there as Isis was to have it gone. Eventually, the major won out, and Vin let out a sigh of relief, not wishing to endure what Chris was going through at this moment with Sekhmet.
"Thanks." He said gratefully at Sam as the gate appeared before them.
"No problem." She replied with a faint smile.
"So where are we going again?" Vin asked Daniel, knowing only the place they were going to had a cure for Alex and not much else. Judging by the group dynamic, it was apparent Daniel was the one who had the answers for such things.
"A place called Sumeria," Daniel explained. "We found it a few years ago. It’s apparently protected by enemies of the Goa’uld called the Asgard. They’ve made it a protected planet, so no Goa’uld can go there."
Both Isis and Sekhmet recognised the word Asgard for they immediately renewed their struggles, with decidedly more vigour and desperation in their attempt to break free. Both Vin and Daniel had to grab hold of Isis to keep her from breaking free of him while Sekhmet became similarly agitated, requiring Jack to help Chris in restraining her.
"Carter, dial the gate!" Jack instructed as the ring of stone loomed over them. Sam hurried forward, jogging to the dial home device located not far from it.
"So I guess this place can help us," Chris responded if Sekhmet and Isis’s reaction was anything to judge. They were fighting every inch of the way to the gate now. Both Goa'ulds realising how close to doom they really were at the mention of the Asgard.
"It’s the only chance you get of getting either of them back," Jack answered truthfully.
The moment they passed through the gate and reached the other side of the wormhole, Isis and Sekhmet’s fate would be effectively taken out of their hands. Once on Sumeria, they would be spirited away to Thor’s Hammer where the symbiotes would be removed from the bodies of both women. Of course, Jack did not feel the pressing need to tell them about the little surprise awaiting them inside the cavernous structure where Thor’s Hammer was located. Still, springing an Unas on them after everything else these men experienced in the past few days would be too much even for their understanding.
"Jack," Daniel spoke since they would soon be departing this world. "Are we just going to leave? Shouldn’t we find out if Teal’c and the others made it?"
Jack frowned, wishing they had news about their friends. Ideally, Teal’c and the others should already be on Earth, having entered the gate long before this. However, it was too much of a risk for them to delay their journey to Sumeria and so Jack would have to rely upon Teal’c to get Chris’s men to Earth and deal with it later if he had not. Teal’c was extremely dependable for such things, and the men who rode with Chris Larabee seem to be of the same ilk. The Colonel had to believe they were capable of handling themselves because they could not afford to go back and look for them. They were having enough trouble keeping Isis and Sekhmet under control without having to backtrack.
"We can’t risk it," Jack said after awhile. "Chris, you know your men. Do you think they can handle themselves long enough for us to get back if anything goes wrong?"
"They’ll do all right," Vin replied confidently before Chris could answer. "With Teal’c showing 'em what to do at the rough spots, I don’t see them getting into any trouble they can’t get themselves out of." The tracker met Chris’s gaze and knew the gunslinger felt the same way as he did. Besides, he could understand Jack’s reasoning to get out of here as soon as possible. The Jaffa had not figured out what had happened to their goddesses yet, but when they did, they would be coming, not to mention the Netjer, who may not take kindly to the very same thing.
"They’re on their own for now Daniel," Jack said finally.
Meanwhile, Sam had begun the dialling sequence. Each symbol illuminated upon activation when her palm pressed the glyphs. Moving in tandem with the series of symbols being initiated, each chevron on the stargate began locking into place, following the same pattern of movements the men from Four Corners witnessed during the previous journey. Despite themselves, Vin and Chris still stared at the thing in astonishment, marvelling at the science that made it work even if its understanding was so far beyond them, it was almost like magic.
The ground began to rumble the closer the gate reached to locking in the seventh symbol until the tremor under their feet become a violent quake that could easily topple them if they were not careful. Birds in the nearby trees took flight as the trunks began to resonate with a vibration that quickly spread through its branches and made its leaves rustle. In the cavern the effect was contained but out here, where they were allowed to witness it in the wide-open space, its power seemed all the more potent. As the surge of energy required to open the wormhole finally manifested itself, the explosion of light and colour gushed out from the hollow of the ring, like white froth before receding into the serene shimmer of energy once more.
"NO!" Isis screamed angrily, managing to loosen the gag from her mouth long enough to cry.
The sound of her voice took Vin by surprise, and for a moment, she almost broke free of both him and Daniel, displaying a burst of strength borne out of fear. But the ropes tied around her wrist held fast, and Daniel pressed the zat gun firmly into her back, forcing her to remain where she was. He was utterly prepared to immobilise her again if she offered any further resistance. Enough time had passed since the weapon was last used, to prevent any fatal consequences if he fired.
"You will pay for this!" She shouted, almost hysterical in her rage as Daniel and Vin pulled her up the stairs. Her legs were no longer cooperating, and she was fighting them with every inch of strength she could muster. Forced to drag her along, they climbed up the steps leading to the platform where the gate stood.
"Daniel," Jack called out since it appeared Vin and Daniel would pass through the gate first. "Remember to keep your hands on her after you get through or you won’t join the party."
"I remember," Daniel declared, knowing all about Thor's Hammer. It was the only way of freeing Sha're from her captors, and he studied all he could about the device to know what to expect. Daniel needed to see how the hammer would work on Isis because he still hoped to bring Sha're here someday.
"Carter, I want you to get in touch with the locals. They were pretty willing to help us in the future, maybe we can get their help again. I want you to round up some horses and get them to the mountain pass when we get through the hammer. These ladies won't be in any shape to cover the distance to the gate once the Hammer is done with them." Jack instructed as they moved past her and headed towards the wormhole.
"Yes, Sir," she nodded and followed him closely behind understanding completely. Sumeria’s local inhabitants believe the Asgard race to be the gods of Nordic Myth. Indeed that was how the Asgards presented themselves to the primitive race who knew of the Goa'uld only as the evil Etns. If Carter were to approach them and asked them for help against the Etns, it was likely the Sumerians would think it their duty as Thor’s children to assist.
Sekhmet was struggling just as hard as Isis, although the gag in her mouth had not loosened and her protests were made with little more than furious grunts and guttural sounds that clearly translated her rage. Even as Sam followed behind, she could see Jack and Chris fighting to keep a grip on her and knew the amount of strength they were using to keep her restrained. The Goa'uld made their hosts very strong, which was why their Jaffa was so formidable.
"You cannot do this to us!" Isis snarled enraged, fighting harder than ever as they neared the wormhole. "We will perish if we are taken there! You will be condemning us to die!" She pleaded, starting to realise there would be no escape unless she could reason with them in some way.
All Goa'uld knew what Sumeria represented, not merely because it was a world protected by the Asgard. Teal’c explained before their first visit to Sumeria, no Goa'uld went there willingly. Those Goa'uld who dared to travel to the planet never returned, and upon arriving there themselves, SG1 understood why. Since all Goa'uld had genetic memory, no doubt Isis would retain the knowledge of this world being taboo. While she might not know what awaited her on the planet, Isis was no fool. As one of the oldest Egyptian gods, she was known for her cunning and intellect and knew the Asgard would surely possess the technology to be of extreme danger to her.
"Please Vin!" She cried out, her voice losing all trace of the Goa'uld inhabiting Alex’s body. "Please help me!"
Vin turned sharply to her, knowing that voice to be Alex’s, not Isis. "Alex?"
"Snap out of it!" Chris shouted before he even had a chance to entertain the notion it might be Alexandra Styles speaking to him and not Isis. Having heard Sekhmet employ this particular ruse to trick him into letting down his guard, Chris was not about to let Vin suffer the same fate. "That ain’t her Vin!"
"You know me, Vin!" She pleaded again. "You can’t let me die! You can’t take me there!"
"Vin," Daniel said with a soft voice as they paused right in front of the shimmery veil of energy. "It’s not her." He swallowed, understanding the pain he saw in the tracker’s eyes as the man tried not to let the anguish overwhelm him.
Isis was still trying to reach him with her duplicitous words, begging and pleading for him to release her but Vin hardened himself inwardly and ignored what she said. He met her eyes and knew what he saw there was not Alex at all but some stranger who would kill him if she had the chance. The only way he had to save Alex was to keep going.
"I beg you, Vin," she begged, tears running down her cheeks as she met his eyes. "Don’t let them take me there."
Vin blinked slowly and looked at the hand wrapped firmly around her arm. For a few seconds, he looked at his firm grip, saying nothing before moving his free hand to her cheek. A slow smile started to form on her lips as she saw his hand move to her neck. She was about to speak when Vin tightened his grip, and stepped into the portal, taking her with him.
"I will kill you!" Her scream disappeared with the rest of her as she and Vin went through. Daniel, who was holding on to her other arm, was also taken on the ride. Sekhmet stopped struggling as she saw Isis vanish as if the shock of it all temporarily numbed her senses. The warrior goddess stared at the space where her companion had been, unable to move and Chris saw the first semblance of real fear seep into her eyes as he and Jack started leading her towards the gate. She made no effort to struggle until they were at its very edge, facing the wormhole that would take her to the end of her two millennia existence.
Suddenly, she broke away, wrenching her arm free from Chris and using the momentary distraction to kick her foot into the flesh part of Jack’s thigh. It was enough to be free of them for several seconds, and she turned around and started to run from the gate when Sam threw a fist into her face and send her reeling backwards…
Right into the wormhole.
She disappeared so abruptly that for a moment, both men were at a loss for words until Sam broke the silence. "Don’t you think you better go after her?"
"Don’t you just love her?" Jack grinned, exchanging a smile of mischief with Chris as he turned back to Sam. "You’re lucky, they still can’t vote in your time."
"Jack," Chris remarked as he started to step into the wormhole. "You think my wife is trouble now? You should have met her before that thing got inside of her."
"Feisty is she?"
Chris shook his head. "Don’t get me started."
***********
The world of Sumeria was not unlike home.
The climate reminded Vin Tanner of places further up north, but in essence, it did not at all look like an alien world. As he stared into the sky, he noticed it was day time here as well, but the sun was only starting to ascend across the horizon, not unlike their previous location where twilight was only a few hours away. Vin did not have much time to contemplate the beauty of the place even though he had to admit he would like to have explored it if time allowed. Unfortunately, as he recovered from the latest trip through the portal, feeling the same icicles of cold stabbing at his skin, he also noticed Isis was trying to make a run for it.
She broke free from him again, taking advantage of the disorientation he felt in experiencing gate travel. He recovered faster than she gave him credit and took note of Daniel shouting at him to catch her before it was too late. He did not understand what was to happen here, but it registered in his mind she was trying to run, and that was enough for him to launch himself at her. Vin knocked Isis over on the stone floor the gate was stood upon and was half-aware of Chris and the others emerging from it as he landed on top of her.
Another set of nails tore through his skin, this time on his exposed neck as he found himself straddling her once again, determined to make her stay put. Daniel was at his side in seconds, looking around anxiously, waiting for something to happen. His eyes rested on a stone monument carved with intricate designs Vin had not seen before. It towered over the gate, standing watch over the ring of stone like it was the custodian of this place. Daniel viewed it with apprehension and as he looked at Isis, realised fear was etched in her face as she stared at it.
Sekhmet emerged first and also tried to run, but Jack O’Neill, who was used to gate travel and had become accustomed to its effects caught up with her quickly. He wrapped his arms around her chest and lifted her off the ground to keep her from making it down the steps, not that she would get very far. Dropping the staff weapon when he captured her, he quickly looked at Sam, who was the last to appear through the gate before the wormhole collapsed, and the gate returned to normal once again.
"Sam, give Chris your gun. You can take my staff weapon."
Knowing what was coming as well as the rest of SG1, she slung her rifle over Chris’s shoulder and started ushering him towards Sekhmet and Jack because now the gate was closed, they did not have a lot of time. During their first visit to Sumeria, it had taken a matter of minutes for the device to work, and they had to be ready for it as it prepared itself to perform its vital function during this occasion.
"What’s going on?" Chris asked puzzled, trying to dispel the cold in his skin while at the same time, wrap his frostbitten fingers around the weapons Sam was giving him, including all the spare clips she inserted into the pockets of his duster. Chris looked at her in question, but Sam didn't bother to explain, because the urgency in her eyes was answer enough.
"You need to be near your wife." She said as they reached Sekhmet, who was fighting for dear life in Jack’s grip. Chris wrapped his hands around her wrists to stop her fingers from trying to prise Jack’s arms from around her body when suddenly, he heard something humming behind him.
"It’s started," Sam looked up at the monument.
"What’s started?" Vin demanded as Daniel placed his hands on Isis’s shoulders, pinning her to the ground.
"That," Daniel gestured to the stone monument was the source of the strange humming sound. It was not very different from the noises made by the gate, but there was something about this that was smoother and more penetrating. The low vibration could be felt in his teeth and picked up momentum with the seconds that tumbled by.
"Release us!" Isis cried again when a beam of blue light sliced through the morning air.
The light which Sam knew to be a sensor beam of some type, quickly scanned the humans before it and found nothing until it reached the two women who were brought here against their will. The reaction as it bathed them in its sapphire glow was immediate. Both Sekhmet and Isis began to writhe with pain, the concentration of which seemed to be centred on their abdomens. Sekhmet tensed in Jack’s grip, oblivious to her confinement now because what was coursing through her body was nothing to be enjoyed but intense and life-ending. Chris looked at Jack in question; panic starting to set in because what she was suffering was apparently agonising. He wanted Sekhmet to feel pain but not at the cost of Mary’s life.
"What the hell is going on?"
"It’s the hammer." Jack tried to explain, knowing what was coming next. "You want your wife back? Hold on because this is the only way."
Chris wanted a better explanation than that, but it did not appear as if Jack was about to provide one. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Isis in similar pain, thrashing about wildly as Vin held on, instructed by Daniel to do so even if his fear was just as apparent as Chris’s own. He met Jack’s gaze again, trying not to show he doubted the man even though the sentiment was in his eyes until something happened which made just about as much sense as everything else that had taken place in the last two days.
The world around him vanished.
***********
Sam saw the men disappear and let out a sigh of relief.
She did not envy what Mary Larabee and Alexandra Styles were about to suffer, but she was glad they would not be doing it alone. Now the Goa’uld threat was removed as far as the sensors were concerned, the guardian at the gate returned to its dormant state with no evidence to prove it was a matter transference device and not a simple stone edifice erected in honour of Thor.
She took a deep breath and dropped the backpack she was carrying on the ground, eager to discard the Jaffa suit she was wearing since it would most likely frighten the locals if she turned up in anything but her uniform. Unfortunately, the staff weapon was her only means of protection so she could not discard it. Nevertheless, the Sumerians were a peaceful people who did not believe very much was beyond the capability of their god. It was likely they would accept her claim this to be a weapon of the Etn taken by Thor's Hammer.
From their previous visits to Sumeria, she had a rough idea which direction the village lay and knew she had at least an hour’s walk to reach it. If she was to meet the Colonel, then she had better get moving, since it would take almost a day on foot to reach the cavern where Thor’s Hammer would deposit the others when it was done with Sekhmet and Isis. Hopefully, she could induce the natives to volunteer some horses to make the journey up the mountainous terrain somewhat smoother. In any case, she had to get moving and be ready for them when they emerged.
After all, Lord only knew what effect passing through the hammer was going to have on Mary and Alex when it was all said and done.
***********
"Now, where are we?" Chris grumbled as he felt his head swim.
"Inside a mountain," Jack explained helpfully as he felt the same disorientation when he got to his feet. Next to him, he could see Sekhmet lying on her face, still groaning from the intense pain she felt when the Asgard device scanned them to determine who was human and who was Goa'uld. It seemed as if the fight had gone out of her even though Chris was not foolish enough to take that at face value. If there was one thing he had learnt about this particular Goa'uld, she knew quite a bit about playing dead until one’s guard was down before she proceeded to make you the same with no hesitation.
Chris stood up and examined his new surroundings only to decide in a matter of seconds, he did not like where they were sent. He had no doubt the device had taken them here as surely as the gate had carried them across the galaxy from one planet to another. Finally, Chris decided not to think about the how or why but focus on what was required to free Mary and Alex. Judging by Jack's taut expression, it did not appear as if their troubles were quite over yet. He walked over to Sekhmet and pulled her to her feet, feeling no sympathy for the creature who took his wife. Chris was determined to expel her by whatever means this place with its dark halls and cavernous atmosphere promised.
"Everyone okay?" Jack turned to Daniel and Vin who had yet to speak but seemed more focussed on securing their grip on Isis who was strangely silent in this place. It did not take any amount of genius to know the Goa’'uld was frightened by what had transpired earlier. By now, she must have guessed whatever this place was, she had no power in it and was at the mercy of the men who brought her here.
"I’m fine," Daniel said, stretching his neck as if he had pulled a muscle.
"What now?" Vin said impatiently, helping Isis to her feet but keeping as firm a grip on her as Chris was doing to Mary.
His question was never answered as the image of a man clad in medieval armour appeared in the nearby distance. While neither Jack nor Daniel reacted to his sudden emergence, Chris and Vin immediately went for their weapons, unwilling to risk anything after the events of the past two days.
"It's okay." Jack quickly said, gesturing for them to lower their weapons. "It’s not real. That’s not really a person." Just to prove it to them, he walked towards the hologram and ran his hand through it. The image of Thor shimmered as his hand moved through it and returned to normal when he withdrew.
"Strange." Vin finally said and holstered his weapon, trusting Jack in this matter.
"Who is he?" Chris asked as he studied the man from where he was, taking note of the armour and the sword, not to mention the clothes that looked straight out of a history book.
"That’s Thor," Daniel explained helpfully.
As if aware of what was being asked, the image became animated and Thor’s voice laced with a thick Scandinavian accent began to address those before him.
"I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet. The High Council of Asgard has designated Sumeria a safe world for developing sentient species by unanimous decree of 40.737.29. The Goa'uld System Lords were so informed.
You were warned not to come here under pain for death. For crimes against the living host and for all those you have murdered and enslaved, the sentence is death. This is your prison. There are no luxuries, no prisoners, no slaves to do your bidding, only basic sustenance and time. When you tire of this existence, go to the hall of Yulnar and face the hammer. There is no escape, only the host can leave this place alive."
The words made no sense to Chris and Vin, well not all of it. They agreed this place was indeed a prison just as they realised only the host could leave once the Goa'uld were brought here. While they had no idea how this would be accomplished, they trusted Jack and company to know he would not have allowed Mary and Alex to be brought here unless there was a genuine chance for salvation.
"We will not leave!" Isis burst out angrily, speaking for the first time since Thor’s eerie warning was given.
"Oh, yes, you are." Jack turned and faced her. "Because one little thing I haven’t let anyone in on and I’m sorry Chris, I probably should have told you, but we aren’t alone in here."
"What do you mean?" Chris eyed him suspiciously, not liking surprises and his annoyance at having one sprung on him right now, showed most evidently by the scowl he was flashing in Jack’s face.
"Its some kind of a monster," Jack described for want of a better word. "It’s been here a long time, and it's hungry. Now we’ve faced it before so I can tell you it isn’t invulnerable, just really hard to kill. Fortunately, it tends to lie dormant until it senses prey, so if we can get to the hammer really fast, we can probably get out of here before it knows about us."
Vin and Chris stared at him, with expressions on their faces that did not show the same optimism he felt.
"Oh, this just gets better." Vin drawled with unhappiness. "What kind of a thing? Is it smart?"
"Yes," Daniel answered. "Its intelligence is equal to us, probably more because its got a Goa'uld inside it."
"Unas!" Isis swore. "You have brought us to a place where there is Unas?" The fear in her voice was evident, and Jack would not be surprised if she was rather glad at this point, her captors were not carrying Goa'uld weapons since none of it would work inside the structure.
"A what?" Vin looked away from her and to Daniel in question. "What did she call it?"
"Unas." The linguist answered. "That’s what they’re called by Goa'uld. Before they started using humans as hosts, they used these creatures called the Unas. They’re already powerful, but with the Goa'uld symbiote inside of them, they’re extremely dangerous."
"Unas will kill you!" Isis said derisively. "We are Goa'uld, it will be ours to command."
"Sorry your worship," Jack interjected, shaking his head in answer. "This particular Unas or whatever has been trapped here a long time, and I’d say the confinement hasn’t been good to him because the first time we got zapped to this place, the bones we found were not just human. Apparently, our Unas has got a taste for Goa'uld as well."
Isis recoiled at the thought, and an expression of disgust drained into her face. However, it was not long before her eyes narrowed with calculation and she straightened her back and raised her chin, looking very much like a queen as she exchanged a brief glance with Sekhmet.
"Sekhmet has hunted Unas."
"Hunt Unas?" Daniel retorted almost immediately and with a great deal of scepticism. "How can you hunt Unas. They’re one of you?"
"They were some who became dangerous to us after we chose to abandon their species as a host." Isis met Jack’s eyes, her lips curling at the corner as she spoke with authority on the subject they did not have. "Those who served as Jaffa attempted rebellion, and we were forced to act. The System Lords made it a sport to hunt these creatures and Sekhmet was one of the greatest Unas hunters. She can aid you if this creature intends to harm you."
"And I’m supposed to believe this?" Jack asked. "Even if I were to suspend all intelligence and personal sanity, how can I trust her?"
"It is to our benefit that we stay alive. Our immediate problem appears to be the Unas that is trapped here with us. We can resume hostilities later, but for the moment, none of us wishes to be a meal for such a creature. You need only ask Sekhmet yourself. She will reveal to you how you may kill this creature."
"Really?" Jack looked at the warrior goddess’s direction and removed the gag momentarily. "This true? You got the deal on how to kill one of these things?"
Sekhmet did not respond immediately, allowing herself to become accustomed to the absence of the handkerchief in her mouth and finding her voice again after a moment.
"Perhaps," she met his gaze and that of Chris. Chris was even more sceptical than Jack in regards to Isis’s claims. "I have hunted many things in my time. Unas is no different from any other."
"I’m sure," Jack responded, more confident than ever this was an attempt to escape, and he was not about to fall for it. "No deal." Jack swung around and face Isis once again. "We can do this without you."
"You are fools!" Sekhmet shouted, eyes flaring in full Goa'uld fury as her voice became that coarse rumble once again. "The Unas will crunch your bones like kindling. I only hope I live long enough to see your death."
"That concludes this portion of the act," Jack said, securing the gag back in her mouth as she tried to snap his fingers between his teeth. "For your information, I’ve been this way before so I know how to get to the Hall of Yulnar fairly quickly." He explained this not only for the benefit of Isis and Sekhmet to let them know why their offer was refused but also the humans present. "Besides," he looked at Isis to make this his final say on the subject. "It will be a stone-cold day in hell before I trust either of you with anything, let alone my life."
"Can’t argue with the man there," Chris added, just in case Jack was even entertaining the notion which he did not believe the colonel to be. Jack was no fool, this much Chris had come to learn in the brief time of their acquaintanceship.
"Then, you all die!" Isis declared angrily, furious that her plan to gain partial freedom had come to nothing. "We will rather die here at the hands of Unas then allow you to kill us by the hammer of Thor."
"You don’t have a choice." Vin declared having heard enough from this stranger who was using Alex’s voice to make her venomous remarks. Without arguing, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, like a sack. He had carried far heavier in his life, and this was the only way to ensure she made no attempts to hinder their progress out of this place.
"How dare you!" Isis screeched in outrage, as Vin waited for the others to proceed. "We will kill you for this insult."
"Now you’re starting to sound like Alex." Vin drawled, showing he was unperturbed by this tirade and would no longer be affected by anything she had to say to him. "You know the way out, Jack?"
"Yeah," Jack said, stifling a smile. "A place like this isn’t easy to forget."
"Well then let’s get a move on." Chris prompted, understanding now why Jack was reluctant to tell them about the Unas before this, not that it would have made very little difference to him anyway. If Thor could bring Mary back to him, Chris would have been willing to take any risk for her life.
"Now that’s the spirit," Jack said with a smile as they started moving out of the smaller chamber, passing by Thor as they began their search for what was called the hall of Yulnar.
***********
Once they had managed to escape the bunker, finishing off the dwindling Jaffa guards during their perilous departure, the visitors to Netjer made one stop at the village to deposit the people they rescued from the fortress. As expected, the villagers were extremely grateful and offered a place for them to rest as well as a medical treatment for Ezra. Understanding them was difficult enough without Daniel playing interpreter but eventually, Buck, whom the group was particularly fond of, managed to convince them it was far more expedient if the visitors left immediately.
Ezra was fading fast, and it took even more insistence by Buck and Teal’c to convince Nathan the best course of action at the moment was to continue their advance to the gate. The healer was not at all happy by this situation since many of Ezra’s injuries needed immediate treatment. The fever gripping the gambler had subsided, but his condition was not improved for it. Ezra had been slipping in and out of consciousness since they found him, but now he was completely unresponsive and did not even favour them with the comfort of his delirium to assure them he was still among them.
If the situation were not already grim when they made the trek back to the gate, there was still no sight of the others anywhere. Ever since they separated inside the fortress, Buck and those with him had no idea of what happened to Chris Larabee and Vin Tanner. Had they made it out or were they still trying to retrieve Isis and Sekhmet? It drove Buck insane with worry not to know, but then he told himself it was what Chris wanted. For the moment anyway, Buck was willing to let that wish stand. Still, he made a silent vow to himself if enough time had passed and there was still no sign of their missing comrades, he was going through the gate after them.
Teal’c seemed to agree with this plan, being just as devoted to Jack O’Neill as the seven were to Chris Larabee and Vin Tanner. However, like them, he was just as bound to Jack’s request as they were to what Chris's request. Buck could see he was fighting the urge to return to the fortress and find Jack and the others, but duty and the most rigid sense of honour Buck had ever seen, kept Teal’c at their side. Perhaps Teal’c knew as well as they all did, none of them could return home without him or for that matter, use the sarcophagus device that awaited Ezra once they passed through the portal back to the world they knew.
"How is he?" Buck asked after they reached the gate and Teal’c began activating the device for their return home. Nathan set Ezra down momentarily and was trying to stem some of the wounds bleeding profusely from the time they found him until now. The makeshift bandages Nathan fashioned were almost all soaked through with blood and Ezra’s pallor seemed deathly pale. Buck could not even begin to imagine what he suffered as he tried to prevail against Isis’s demand for propagation.
"He can’t last much longer," Nathan said grimly, fastening a fresh length of material around the festering wound on Ezra’s side. "He’s lost a lot of blood."
"The fever seems to be gone for now," Josiah said as he rested for a moment. He and Nathan carried the gambler all the way here, and for most of that journey, Ezra was a dead weight. Relying solely on an alien device to heal Ezra when his wounds were so massive and becoming progressively worse, unsettled both men.
"His body has started shutting down." Nathan swallowed, trying to hide how much losing Ezra would affect him.
When they had first met, neither could say they would consider each other brothers in the future to come. Ezra saw him as nothing more than a coloured man. Yet as time passed and they found themselves as part of this strange fellowship, Ezra’s prejudices diminished, and there came a time when the gambler was happy to risk his life for Nathan’s and had proved it on several occasions. While friendships formed within the group dynamic, Nathan found to his surprise his relationship with Ezra was the most unlikely one of all. Letting him die like this without lifting a finger to help was more than Nathan could stand, and he prayed this device secretly would affect just a remarkable recovery as it had done for Vin.
"Well, it won’t be much longer now," JD replied, looking over his shoulder and saw Teal’c bringing the gate to life. Even as the symbols flared with light as he touched them, they could feel the slight quake of the ground as the gate was activated. Despite the urgency of their present situation, the men could not help finding their gazes transfixed at the wonder of the portal being opened. It felt like a force of nature they did not understand being shaped right before them, and even though they were jaded about most things, they could not help being awed by what they saw when the gate came alive.
Once the wormhole was established, Teal’c immediately beckoned them forward as he started towards the steps leading to the mouth of the gate. Wasting no time because, in truth, they were all eager to leave this place and return to the familiar surroundings of home, Buck and JD immediately hurried towards it. At the same time, Josiah and Nathan gathered Ezra into their arms and carried him forward. Teal’c waited for them to arrive, as always keeping an eye on the surrounding area for any danger that might unexpectedly emerge at the last minute. His staff weapon was poised to fire as he saw Buck and JD step up to the wormhole, taking a deep breath before finally disappearing into its sparkling depths. Josiah and Nathan did not show any trepidation when it came time from them to enter, because their primary concern was for their friend and reaching the sarcophagus that would save his life.
When the men from the Tau’Ri’s past had finally left Netjer, Teal’c stepped through the gate itself.
It was impossible to describe the journey that takes a man apart to the subatomic level and then spirit him across the galaxy in a matter of seconds. Some likened it to being born. Others find enlightenment in realising a minute ago, they were nothing more than infinitesimal particles of energy whizzing across space-time. Some are changed by it, others try to forget, but most retain the memory of cosmic unity that perhaps for a very brief second, all things were apart of one brilliant creation.
Certainly, Buck Wilmington felt this way when he opened his eyes and found himself in the cavern they left almost a day ago. Nothing inside the structure was disturbed. Fortunately, no one had come to investigate why Doctor Faulkner and his team of archaeologists had not been heard from for the last day and for that matter, where the seven lawmen of Four Corners disappeared to as well. It gave Buck a great sense of comfort to know their horses were waiting outside and Four Corners was just a few miles down the track with Inez going about her business, waiting for their child to be born.
"We’re back!" JD cried out enthusiastically, even though Teal’c appeared surprised the young man might have believed any differently. They were all getting back their bearings a little because they were not yet acclimatised to gate travel and the biting cold after-effects could still be felt through their clothes even though there was a warm summery heat beyond this cavern.
"Thank God for that," Buck exclaimed with a smile.
"Save the thanks for later," Nathan said crisply as he shook the disorientation from his head and snapped back to full alertness since Ezra could not afford to wait for him to endure a lengthy recovery. "We need to get him into that thing."
"Nathan Jackson is correct," Teal’c answered in complete agreement because he too could see the human who was sadistically tortured by Sekhmet was very near his end. "You will bring him to the sarcophagus while I prepare it for his use."
Buck let out a deep sigh and thought inwardly to himself as they prepared for the task at hand.
Yep, they were home all right, but as usual, things were far from right.
The most prolific thing Jack O’Neill remembered about the cavernous enclave that led to the Hammer of Thor was the smell.
It was not the kind of smell one generally associated with caves, where there was a slight whiff of the dry and old but a stench that was distinct and remained in the mind like a bitter aftertaste. Jack could afford to be more descriptive on his second visit since the memory was reinforced with reality. Its stench was not at all dry, but moist and wet, like the slimy things that slithered across the moss-covered rocks in the dark. It was the stench of decay and decomposition, of flesh and things dying in the blackness of its damp corners.
The temperature inside the craggy passageway was cool but not uncomfortable, yet every human walking the darkened tunnel could feel a slight chill running through them. Even through his uniform, Jack could feel it, and he knew it was not just anticipation of what was going to happen when they reached the hammer or the ominous existence of the Unas, yet to emerge from its hibernation somewhere inside this place. It felt eerie as if the sinister presence of every Goa’uld lured here were watching them with bitterness at the new arrivals soon to join their ranks. Jack wondered how many of the Goa’uld held out over the centuries, battling hunger and isolation, to avoid taking their chances with the hammer? Had they wandered these halls as Jack and his party were doing now, hoping and praying for some way out? Did they, in their last minutes, call upon the deities worshipped by their race? That’s an interesting question, Jack thought to himself. Who do the Gods pray to in their darkest hours?
When Apophis died, the Goa’uld had called upon no heavenly deity to make his passage easier even though the fear of the dying to come, was apparent in his wizened face. Jack had never seen the process of freeing the host from its symbiote because it was interrupted when the hammer was working its worst on Teal’c. He wondered with morbid curiosity what was in store for them when they finally arrived. In any case, it would not be for a few hours yet because the Goa’ulds in captivity were not making the journey any easier, despite the necessity for haste. Sekhmet was particularly difficult, and Jack had a feeling if it did not alert the Unas to their presence with her screaming, Chris would have already shot her with the zat gun.
Of course, she probably knew this too, which was why she was so unafraid of provoking the gunslinger. Having seen the body, which Sekhmet had taken, it was easy to understand why Chris was so determined to get his wife back. She was a beautiful woman, and Jack could easily imagine running his fingers through that cascade of golden hair. Such was the same with Isis, except Vin Tanner’s feelings were easier to read while Chris Larabee’s emotional state was impossible to tell. Jack remembered reading about gunslingers in his childhood days. After all, who didn’t want to be John Wayne as a kid? Yet looking at this man, Jack knew Chris probably avoided several gunfights by the sheer force of his presence. He exuded menace, by the way, he stared with those ice-coloured eyes and in the stealthy language of his body.
Jack just knew if Chris Larabee said he was going to kill you, chances are you were dead already, your body just didn't know it.
While Sekhmet’s determination was to be as much trouble to Chris as she could manage, the Goddess of All was surprisingly subdued and far more lethal. Jack was convinced she was formulating some kind of an escape. Although, at the moment, the possibility seemed rather remote with her being slung over Vin Tanner’s shoulder like a sack of rice. The tracker was taking no chances of anything interrupting their progress to the hammer, especially any wayward attempts to flee.
"Have you seen your wife at all?" Vin asked of Daniel as they took the path over the craggy floor of the tunnel they were passing through. In the background, they could hear the insistent pitter-patter of water against the rock; probably seeping through a fissure created over a thousand years of steady erosion.
Daniel did not look at Vin as he answered, composing himself at the automatic disappointment he felt whenever he thought of Sha're.
"Once." He swallowed hard, remembering the occasion and felt the stab of pain, knowing he delivered a child from Sha're that should have been theirs but was instead the progeny of Apothesis when Sha're was still taken by Ahmonet. Since children born to Goa’uld hosts were often stillborn if the symbiote were in control, for a brief time, Daniel regained his wife when he discovered her on Abydos. However, no sooner than the child was born, Ahmonet resumed control once more, and Daniel had last seen Sha're stepping through the gate with Apophis at her side. "I think of her sometimes. I wonder what’s going on inside her mind. Whether some part of her still exists, that remembers what we were."
Vin did not speak, purposely ignoring the woman he was carrying in his arms as he understood with perfect clarity what Daniel was suffering.
"I thought I could reach her," Vin responded after a moment. "I thought if I could just speak to her once, she’d remember me but she didn’t." Vin raised his eyes and met Daniel’s gaze. "She killed me, didn’t she?"
Daniel did not know what to say. He had no wish to give Vin information like that, but then Vin did not appear to be distraught or angry, and somewhere inside him, Daniel felt he had the right to know.
"Yeah." He nodded quietly, glad Jack was out of earshot because the colonel would surely be furious at that piece of news being revealed to the tracker. "We had to put you in the sarcophagus or else…"
"I felt it," Vin answered, recalling the stark terror when he had risen inside that tomb and thought for one terrible moment he was buried alive. Only after the heavy lid slid open and he climbed out of there, did he dare to believe differently and yet, the moment Vin looked into the faces of the seven when he emerged, Vin knew he was not merely injured. Vin did not pretend to understand the intricacies of life and death, but he knew to them, he had been dead, He remembered the nothingness that came when her hands wrapped themselves around his throat. "I ain’t never been dead before, but I’m real grateful to you and your friends for helping me out of it. I ain’t afraid of dying, I just wouldn’t have liked it too much if it happened before I could help her."
"She must be something." Daniel smiled and knew he felt the same way about Sha're. He would gladly die if it meant freeing her from her prison.
"Yeah, trouble," Vin chuckled. "But she’s the best thing that’s happened to me, and I couldn’t stand knowing she was locked up in hell forever."
"Well, the hammer works," Daniel said with some measure of confidence. "I met a woman who went through it, and she recovered. She had the Goa’uld ability Sam has, but without the technology, your Alex never has to worry about it."
"Will she remember?"
"It depends," Daniel answered, looking upon the question from a scholarly point of view more than anything else because he knew of no other way to explain it. "Kendra, the woman who went through the hammer, said she remembered because her mind was very disciplined. Sam recalls some of the things she did but not all. I think it depends on the individual, trained intellects seemed to remember better the most. Your Alex was a doctor?"
"Yeah," Vin nodded proudly. "She wasn’t no sawbones or nothing, she did all the fancy book learning and had papers to say she went to all these doctoring schools in England."
"She might remember," the linguist ventured to guess, upon learning the intelligence of the woman and then added. "Although it’s probably better if she doesn’t."
"I’m hoping she doesn’t." The tracker replied. "I sure ain’t intending on reminding her if I get her back."
"That’s good," Daniel agreed when suddenly, they heard something like the splash of water in the distance. The sound of it echoed through the tunnels, rushing up at them from some dark place inside the cavern. Immediately, Daniel and Vin froze in their tracks and noticed just how far Chris and Jack were behind them. Even though they could hear the footsteps of the rest of their party, Vin and Daniel were similarly anxious until they saw the duo turn up the path.
"Did you hear that?" Daniel asked first.
"We heard it," Chris replied. "It came from back there somewhere."
"Not too far behind," Vin stated, able to estimate something of the distance from years of experience.
They encountered an underground pool some time back, and while it was hardly what one would call a rushing waterway, it had enough depth to make a noise like that. He recalled how apprehensive Jack was when they crossed it, mainly after they found the first evidence of human bones, intermingling with the crushed skeletal structure of a Goa’uld symbiote. Even Isis and Sekhmet who saw the remains were unable to hide their own fear, especially when they were bereft of their formidable weapons and their freedom. Vin was sure there was something beneath the murky waters, but time had been pressing on them, and Jack did not want to disturb anything in residence into emerging from its black depths.
"We should pick up the pace," Jack instructed. "I’d like to avoid running into it if we can."
"Vin put her down," Chris instructed. "She’s got as much to lose as the thing coming after us if she tries to slow us down."
Vin seemed to agree, and he placed Isis on the ground once again. She threw him an angry glare because that was about as much response she was capable of producing with her hands tied up, and a gag placed securely around her. Judging by the look of her, she was not going to make their advance towards the hammer any faster, but Vin made up his mind she was not going to hamper their progress. As he had said to Daniel earlier, if it was the last thing he did, he was going to see to it, Alex was free of the creature imprisoning her inside her own body.
Chris maintained a constant grip on Sekhmet who made several attempts already to detach herself from the group to hide in the maze of tunnels inside the mountain. Chris knew if he were to allow that to happen, they would never find her before the creature roaming these tunnels stumbled upon her first. She was just spiteful enough to let the beast kill her to prevent Mary from being free. With that in mind, Chris dealt with the warrior goddess most ruthlessly, finding it easy now to bridge the gap that kept him from acting as he should, because he no longer saw Mary when he looked at Sekhmet, but rather her abductor and possible murder.
"How far do we have to go?" Chris asked Jack who knew these tunnels better than all of them.
"Another hour or so," Jack replied automatically, remembering the path taken to the hammer and made a safe estimate since it was difficult to gauge against their previous experience since they were lost at the time.
"Good," Chris answered, giving Sekhmet a cold stare as he shoved her forward to get her moving again. "The sooner this gets done, the better." He muttered as they continued their trek through the darkness. " I want this over with."
***********
It could smell them.
Their scent lingered in the air, heavy with salt and the sweet enticement of blood, pulsing warmth through their veins. The life was like a beacon to it, strong and blinding, filing every corner of its slumbering consciousness, prodding and poking until wakefulness returned once again. This time, it awoke from the darkness where it lived most days, from the time it first arrived here, so very long ago. It could not remember a time before this place when there was sunlight…(was that the word?) above its head and he could see the brightness of the…..it could not remember, knowing only that it had been warm and pleasant.
It had no sense of self that made it a usual Goa’uld host. The years of isolation inside this dark hell of dripping water and sunless tunnels had driven the sanity from the symbiote, and it lived inside the host as a creature of madness, angered and pining the days when they were both godlike and supreme. Their deification was stripped in this place, and the Goa’uld no longer spoke in its mind, so it was utterly alone, alone with this insatiable hunger that never seemed to cease. Eventually, it learned how to slip away from wakefulness into the hibernation native to its species, for great lengths of time, arising only when food was needed.
It was easy to kill the first Goa’uld that came after it. The fact the host was different had made it so much easier. It was aware its time was passed even before it was brought here. The coming of the human hosts was foreseen, although it was not particularly upset when its time was past. It cared for little except the eating and humans with their hairless bodies, and soft skin was excellent eating. It had paused a moment as it saw the symbiote squirming in the entrails of an exposed abdomen, knowing inwardly it was wrong but the instance faded with the yearning for food. By the time its teeth plunged into the soft flesh of the Goa’uld in its grip, it felt as if it had never been wrong.
It would feed well on host and symbiote and then return to its slumber, taking refuge in some forgotten corner that was moist and dark. It liked those things because it harked back to memories before the Goa’uld when its entire existence was the hunting and the feeding in a place that was always dark and wet, where the Goa’uld were not gods at all. Those days were vague, like some far off distant dream it sometimes had while in slumber. As the passage of time lengthened, the more unreal those memories became to be, and it seemed this place was the only reality there had ever been.
Today was different though.
It could smell the scent of fresh prey with its sharp senses. Their hearts pounded with life, and those beats were strong and powerful, signalling the pleasure of challenge in the hunt. It did so like it when there was a hunt before capture, for it broke the monotony before the time when hibernation would come for it again. It did not live underwater even though it spent most of its time there and sleep made its senses dull, for it took time for the scent to reach it in its hiding place. However, now that it detected its existence, it felt its aged body renewed for the hunt, and it emerged from the corner of the rock pool the humans had passed by earlier.
Anyone who might bear witness to Una's awakening would have seen a flurry of movement in the shadows, culminating in the languid extension of limbs climbing out from the water’s edge. The shape of the creature was bipedal for the Goa’uld liked their hosts that way. Fully armoured, it was formidable even before the Goa’uld had taken its body. Thick hides, rivalling the alligators and the saltwater crocodiles of the First World, covered its shape. Still, it was highly evolved for it had hands and more importantly, fully functional digits and an opposable thumb. The Unas in question climbed over the rock like any reptile born to it.
It reached the edge of the pool and climbed out of the dark water, glistening with moisture as it rose to its full height. Like a sleeping giant, it flexed powerful muscles, shaking the lethargy out of its body, like a big dog might shake the water from its back after a particularly wet day. Its movement for its size was silent, for other than the splash of water created upon its emergence, it made no other noise. It stretched and looked abound, nictitating eyelids blinking first before its eyes shifted into focus and concentrated on the smell that brought it to life in the first place.
It was not difficult for it to pick up the trail of the new arrivals to Thor’s mountain.
Their noises could be heard, in their footsteps and even in their speech. It estimated they were some distance away and knew it need not hasten to catch up to them, aware from years of experience no Goa’uld arriving here attempted the Hammer at first encounter. They would wander about the mountain aimlessly, sometimes for weeks, searching for an alternate route out of the caverns the Asgard might be unaware. The Goa’uld part of the Unas who still maintained most of its reasoning capabilities knew it was a futile effort. Sumeria remained untouched by its kind because the Asgard were extremely thorough. There was no way out.
However, the Goa’ulds who came here always tried, like it was some kind of ritual they needed to undergo before they could accept the impossibility of escape. Some searched for months, growing hungrier and hungrier as the basic sustenance, as Thor called it, dwindled. It was never enough to support more than one or two Goa’uld at a time. Mosses and lichens were not the food of choice for the gods. Yet that was all there seemed to be in abundance. The Asgards were not good jailers, but then the Hammer was never about captivity, it was about execution. It was the best kind, really. The death was never forced but chosen by those who died. Those who could not tolerate one more second of captivity, in their delirium and mania to escape, often deluded themselves into believing that perhaps, they would be the one who could best the Hammer.
Anything to end the torture.
But the Hammer always won.
So as far as the Unas was concerned, it was in no particular hurry because the new arrivals would be going nowhere, and if they chose to wander about foolishly to find alternate means of escape, then it would merely make the hunt more enjoyable. In any case, it was only a matter of time before it fed again.
And then it would sleep.
***********
Ezra Standish woke up thinking it had all been a dream.
For a moment after he opened his eyes and realised the agony of his wounds had vanished, he almost believed none of what he experienced was real. A part of him wanted that to be the truth more than anything in the world, that the notion of alien worlds, stolen bodies and abominations were a product of an overactive imagination. The images of the past two days flooded into his mind, making his head swim from the intensity of it. From Mary Travis becoming some dark angel of pain until the last instance of lucidity he where he stood over the birthing pool of his demonic progeny, Ezra prayed he was locked in some impossible nightmare.
Except he knew better.
When he woke up and found himself enclosed on all sides, feeling as if he was entombed, there was no fear in his heart, just acceptance this was merely an extension of the nightmare, one he was no longer willing to fight. Ezra had almost accepted being buried alive if that would mean an end to it all because he could tolerate the horror no more. The walls of his prison were cool against his skin, and as he examined his hands with rising confusion, he could not help feel wonder at the unbroken skin of his face and his body. Somehow, the wounds were gone as well as the pain that came with it. He felt restful as if he had emerged from a deep sleep, which only served to add fuel to the belief everything he experienced was a dream.
Suddenly as if it were aware he was conscious as well as healed, the heavy lid keeping him entombed began moving, sliding away with the grinding noise and allowed him freedom from his confinement. Ezra saw no sky above him but the darkness of an uneven rock-ceiling overhead. It took him a fraction of a second to realise where he was, and Ezra quickly sat up to make sure what he suspected was real and not apart of the nightmare he thought he was still having. The evidence was undeniable. He was indeed in the cavern where this entire experience began. In the centre of the chamber, the ring of stone was holding court over all other objects and structures. He studied the place he was lying in and was reminded absurdly for a moment of those Egyptian tombs he read in books as a youth.
For a few minutes after the lid had slid open, Ezra was uncertain of what he should do. He knew he was inside the cavern unearthed by Faulkner and his archaeology team but how he had come to be here was a mystery. Ezra had a vague memory of hearing Buck Wilmington’s voice but knew it was impossible. It had to be fragments of a hallucination. At the time it appeared in his head, Ezra knew he was severely injured and still reeling from what he found in that black pool in Isis’s fortress. Finally, when he was unable to endure the lack of answers, Ezra forced himself upright and became aware of other things, now he allowed himself to take greater stock of his surroundings.
It was nightfall because the only source of illumination inside the cave was coming from a campfire not very far from the ring of stone. Centring his concentration on the fire crackling softly as it consumed the pieces of wood it used for fuel, Ezra almost let out a gasp of relief when he saw familiar faces except for one sitting around the fire. Buck Wilmington was pacing the space before the flames with typical impatience, kicking up a small cloud of dust as he did so. Josiah was stoking the pieces of wood in the fire; the soft amber glow bouncing off the lines of his face and showing the depth of concern he was trying to hide from everyone else. JD fidgeted uncomfortably where he sat as if the constant movement would make the time go faster. It did nothing of the kind and merely agitated Nathan who was growing more annoyed as he watched this persistent display.
Ezra closed his eyes; never feeling more relieved at seeing them. He knew why Vin Tanner was not present because Ezra saw him die and felt a pang of sorrow at that, particularly in light of what Isis took from him. He noticed Chris Larabee was absent too and would not be surprised if he learned Chris also was dead because Sekhmet would have had to go through him to take Ezra and Chris would have died, before allowing anyone to take one of his men against their will.
Slowly, he stood up and climbed out of the golden tomb or whatever it was. Ezra had no name for it. He noticed the gilded plating on its surface and the intricate carvings, very much Egyptian the more he examined it. Those questions could wait Ezra decided, he needed to see his friends and have them tell him he was not dreaming. He needed to know this was no momentary respite before he woke up and found himself in the hell of that other world. He was clad only in his trousers and would have felt inordinately uncomfortable about approaching them in such a state if this were anything but extraordinary circumstances. All he wanted to do at this moment was to see his friends before this dream ended.
"Your friend is awake," Teal’c announced as he heard the shuffling sounds of bare feet against the dirt approaching their location.
Buck was on his way there before Teal’c finished the sentence, crossing the space between himself and Ezra with the others following. Buck was grinning from ear to ear as he saw Ezra walking towards them slowly, the ordeal he endured evident in every ginger step forward. Buck had not forgotten how Ezra looked when they put him inside the sarcophagus and did not relish explaining to the gambler the true nature of his experience. However, considering what the man had suffered, he had a right to know and besides, Teal’c in any shape or form was going to be hard to avoid explaining.
"Ezra!" Buck almost hugged the man in joy at seeing him alive and well.
"Mr Wilmington," Ezra croaked as he felt himself nearly lifted off the ground from the enthusiastic bear hug and the numerous pat on the back and well wishes descending upon him like an artillery barrage. "Please desist in this embarrassing display. I am sure you can express your gratitude at seeing me without the pleasure of a few broken ribs."
"Well, I’m glad to see you too," Buck said, continuing to grin after he set the smaller man down and started towards the campfire once again.
"Its good to see you, Ezra," Josiah added squeezing his shoulder. "We thought we lost you brother."
The sincerity Ezra saw in all their faces affected the gambler more than he would like to admit and for a moment Ezra Standish was at a loss for words to express how much their friendship meant to him, particularly when he was grateful to be alive. "You were not alone in that assertion Mr Sanchez," Ezra replied, hiding the emotion out of his voice because it was not his way to display it for all to see, not after a lifetime of playing the indifferent bystander. "I was starting to believe I might be required to shed my mortal coil."
"Well we got some coffee brewing," Nathan responded, ever the physician of the group. "You hungry? We thought you might need something to eat after what you been through."
"I gather you brought me back here," Ezra asked, starting to believe that the nightmare was well and truly over.
"It wasn’t easy," Buck explained, glancing at Teal’c who had remained silent during this time. "We owe a lot to this fella here and his friends for getting you back in one piece Ezra."
Ezra glanced at the stranger who had remained silent during all this and knew instantly he was not of this world and came from the one left behind. The gambler tensed immediately, feeling fear creep up his spine so quickly it almost choked the air from his lungs. The symbol on the man’s forehead, though different from those worn by her guards, looked like something required by Isis and her kind. During his captivity, he was told almost nothing about his situation and had to guess most of it. Ezra had known he was on another world only because he recognised the unfamiliarity of the constellations in the sky. Furthermore, Sekhmet had confirmed it when she tried to demoralise him. He understood nothing of what had happened to him or why, and until he did, could never again rest easy.
"Tell me," he said quietly, his voice becoming almost a whisper when the question escaped him. His eyes were fixed on Teal’c because he could not decide whether the man was friend or foe at this moment, despite the trust placed upon him by the others.
"Buck," JD gestured to the big man to explain and judging by the look on Josiah and Nathan, they all seem to agree that Buck should be the one to answer Ezra’s questions. "You tell him."
Buck nodded because he could see Ezra needed to know desperately. Even though he was trying to hide it, they could all see the hollow expression in his eyes, he was trying so hard to shield from them. Buck took a deep breath and made Ezra sit down and saw to it Ezra had some food in his belly and a cup of coffee before Buck related what happened after Ezra was taken through the stargate by Isis and Sekhmet. Buck explained everything the best he could, describing their meeting with Jack O’Neill and his comrades, which included the man called Teal’c, sitting the campfire with them. He described the journey through the gate to the strange world where men were scarce, and women were living in fear of Jaffa guards wearing lion masks over their faces.
Buck related everything they were told about the Goa’uld and how Vin was restored to them through the same device that healed Ezra’s injuries, lying in the corner of the cavern. Ezra seemed to accept everything he was told rather stoically, even to the end when they revealed where Chris and Vin were at this moment, taking Isis and Sekhmet to a place called Sumeria. Something called the hammer would remove the Goa’uld from the women they loved. Ezra listened and said nothing, taking note of the fact Buck seemed to think Isis had not succeeded in getting what she wanted from him even though they all knew he was chosen for breeding purposes. It was just as well, he had no desire to explain how Isis had taken his seed. He was humiliated enough.
"An incredible tale," Ezra said after a long while.
"Every word of it is true though Ezra," JD spoke up as if feeling some need to come to Buck’s defence even though it was a redundant gesture. Ezra had seen enough of that other world to believe every word.
"Considering where I have been for the last two days," Ezra remarked, meeting all their gazes as his eyes swept across their faces. "I am hardly about to disbelieve you."
"Your presence here is proof of that." Teal’c declared.
"Mr Teal’c," Ezra nodded in agreement. "I cannot refute that, and I thank you for your foresight in bringing me to a speedy recovery. I would not have enjoyed a lengthy convalescence."
Teal’c accepted his gratitude with a slight nod and Ezra had the impression the man was not one for many words.
"I don’t know whether you would have had to worry about one Ezra," Nathan said honestly. After what he had seen of the injuries on the gambler, the healer knew it would have taken all his knowledge to repair the wounds Ezra had endured and even then, his chances of survival would have been little more than average. In truth, the sarcophagus might have saved his life as surely as it had restored Vin Tanner’s. "You were hurt mighty bad, I didn’t think you were going to pull through. What happened to you, anyway?"
"Was it Isis?" Buck inquired. "Did she do that to you so that you’d help her make more of those monsters?" There was no reason for Buck to be specific on just how that was to be done since they all felt it a distasteful subject enough as it was.
Ezra swallowed, suddenly flooded with images of tearing pain and warm blood coursing down his skin. The screams that rang in his ears had been his own, and it took all his strength to remain calm and not go entirely to pieces as he remembered the pain Sekhmet inflicted upon him. The tortures and degradations were best forgotten and yet Ezra knew they would be sharing his nights for a long time to come. He closed his eyes to suppress the memories to an acceptable level so he could function without losing any semblance of composure in front of his friends.
"Ezra," Josiah interrupted quickly, seeing the shift in Ezra’s pallor when the question was asked of him. "You don’t have to talk about it brother," he said sympathetically, being a preacher long enough to recognise trauma when he saw it. The gambler was barely holding it together, and after years of friendship, Josiah knew he must have been suffering considerably if he could not maintain that façade of calm deliberation they had all come to know so well. Ezra would cast his demons out eventually but not right now. "In fact, I think it would be a good idea if Nathan and JD took you back to town."
"Thank you, I would actually prefer that at this time," Ezra said gratefully, flashing a look of unspoken thanks at the man for his empathy. Ezra was not ready to talk about his ordeal and was uncertain whether he would ever want to discuss what happened to him in Isis’s fortress. At the moment, Ezra needed a drink so badly he could barely think and he needed to be away from here. He needed to get the keys Julia had given him to her house, so he could bury himself in her bed with her scent was all around him so it would cradle him to sleep.
"That’s a good idea," Nathan agreed, seeing the same distress in Ezra’s face and decided no one was putting him through the ordeal of remembering until he was ready to do so. "JD, go get his horse ready, would ya?"
"Sure Nathan," JD rose to his feet, eager to help Ezra in any way because that forlorn look in the gambler’s eyes was not lost on him either. He wanted Ezra back the way he was; supremely confident about everything, not the wreck he appeared to be now.
Buck watched quietly as Ezra was taken out of the cavern and did not speak until they heard the horses riding away into the distance. When the hoofbeats faded into the night, Buck turned back to Josiah and Teal’c.
"What in God’s name did that bitch do to him?"
***********
The Hammer stood before them.
Despite Isis and Sekhmet's efforts o be as much of a hindrance as possible in the journey to their final judgement, the humans arrived at their destination. With the possibility of the Unas making an appearance, they had every reason to be hasty in their progress through the mountain. As expected, Sekhmet proved to be most trouble, having broken free several times trying to lose herself in the labyrinthine maze of tunnels that twisted and turned at every corner. Eventually, Chris and Jack had taken to flanking her on either side and dragging her along when she chose to be particularly difficult.
The Goa’uld made her strong enough to be a match for any man, but with the two of them determined not to let her escape, using all the strength they could muster to maintain their hold of her, she was helpless. Trapped in this way with no possibility of another attempt at flight, Sekhmet was powerless to do much else but grunt and make guttural sounds of anger and rage through the gag Chris was not about to remove for any reason. Much of what she had said so viciously during their battle penetrated even though he showed no signs of it, and he would not give the Goa’uld the satisfaction of such knowledge.
It was the natural way of things for women to be mothers and wives, restrained by convention, and so many rules that did not apply to men. Despite her venom, Sekhmet was right. Mary and the others like her deserved the freedom to live as men did, without judgement at every turn.
If the Hammer could do everything, Jack said it could then Chris was determined Mary would never have to worry about being a slave to convention. He wanted her to write her book and be the success she could be without having to worry about her duties at home as wife and mother. As long as they loved each other, what were all those things but incidental?
"That’s it?" Vin looked unimpressed at the exit to the mountain that was shaped more like an arrow than a hammer, even though he could sort of see the resemblance. While it felt good to see the daylight outside the mountain, Vin could not imagine how such a thing would be able to remove the Goa’uld from inside Alex. Still, while he asked the question, he noticed Isis had become more desperate in her attempts to break free of his grip.
"That’s it." Daniel nodded, hoping someday he would find himself in the same position as Vin, being able to bring Sha're back to this place so they could accomplish what the tracker was about to do so now.
"Should we wait for Sam?" Daniel asked as he looked over his shoulder at Jack.
"Not with that thing in here with us," Jack said automatically. "Take her through."
Vin nodded slowly and took a step forward when Isis started struggling furiously, she kicked and screamed through her gag, fighting him so violently he could barely restrain her the closer they got to the passageway. Daniel rushed forward to help him, aware this was never going to be easy to do and hoping when it was his turn, he would have friends like Vin Tanner did now, to help him. Vin was forced to wrap his arms around Isis and pick her up bodily to continue the rest of the journey. Her legs were kicking out hard, trying to find any way to stop the advance even though it seemed like a hopeless cause. Her gag came free in her struggles, and Vin’s red scarf sagged around her neck as she started shouting.
"You cannot do this!" She pleaded. "You are condemning us to die!"
"Ignore her Vin!" Chris ordered, seeing the uncertainty cross the young tracker’s face. This was the only way to free Alex but hearing the frantic cries of Isis using her voice as she begged for freedom was beginning to affect Vin, despite his best efforts not to be swayed. He closed his eyes and tried to force out the sound as he reached the hammer and passed through it.
Nothing happened.
He looked up at Jack and Daniel in question, about to demand what trickery was this when he took another step forward and Isis was finally past the threshold. The surge of energy that activated abruptly the moment she crossed over was enough to drive any further doubt from his mind. He fell backwards as she tensed violently, exuding a surge of strength in her spasming body to break free of both Daniel and him. Vin fell over on the other side of the cavern, transfixed as he watched Thor’s Hammer doing its work.
She jerked about like a puppet on a string, with a handler who was unskilled at the art. Isis started screaming, her hands travelling to her head as if the pain was centred there. Her eyes were wide open as the pain hit her in waves and waves of unyielding agony. She was locked in the energy field as if she were a fly caught in amber, struggling futilely to escape even though her fate was sealed the moment she passed through the threshold. Her screams soon descended into shrieks of excruciating agony and hearing her cry out was like listening to a wailing wind with the ability to tear out their souls with each pitiful whimper.
Vin scrambled to her, almost undone by the sounds she was making. He watched in as much pain, as her face contorted into a rictus of agony. He whole body was shaking as the strange glowing did its worst upon her. She was incoherent with the white-hot agony tearing her mind asunder, too lost in its grip to now even beg or plead for help. Vin stared at her, his own features twisting up in sorrow at having to make her endure this and prayed she might forgive him because it was done out of the very best of intentions.
"I can’t let her go through this!" Vin shouted defiantly to the others, even though he knew he had to if he wanted Alex back.
"Stay where you are!" Jack ordered firmly, and with such command in his voice, Vin had no choice but to obey him. Only Chris was able to exert that much influence over the tracker before this moment. However, the look on Chris’s face more or less conveyed the same message to Vin. Whatever this thing was that Alex/Isis was presently suffering, it had to run its course or else they might lose both.
Isis was still screaming when suddenly, she dropped to her knees abruptly, and a new set of convulsions started racking her body with equal violence. Her upper torso seemed to quake violently, shuddering and shaking as it moved into a new kind of pain. Her hands went to her throat as she started coughing loudly, saliva and a little blood beginning to foam at her lips. She doubled over, hunching over before the hacking became more strained and her body started to quake from the ferocity of it. She was holding her throat and her stomach, appearing as if she was going to be violently ill when suddenly, she coughed out loud in one forceful gasp.
Vin saw it first. It moved up her throat, pressing against the flesh of her neck like ripples in water. As both palms touched the ground, pressing firmly against the dirt as her body braced itself, Vin saw the trickles of saliva and blood oozing from her mouth. In one final shudder, it escaped her mouth like an explosion of blood and flesh. Vin’s stomach knotted in disgust as the Goa’uld made its emergence. The creature dropped on the soil before Alex was possibly the most horrific thing Vin had ever seen. It was like a snake but not quite. For a moment, Vin thought he might throw up.
"Jesus Christ." Vin heard Chris Larabee mutter in unconcealed disgust.
"It works!" Daniel exclaimed excitedly, even if the moment was wrong for it.
Alex was barely conscious of anything and upon ejecting the creature that used her body for all kinds of heinous acts, collapsing against the ground now she was free. Vin crawled towards her and pulled her away from the hammer. She was not conscious, and he was glad for that fact. Her body was covered in sweat, blood and saliva and her breathing was ragged and strained. After what she suffered, he could hardly imagine she be anything else. He used the scarf around her neck to wipe the blood and saliva from her lips, almost to the point of tears himself because she was still alive. There was a terrible moment when he saw her in the throes of agony, he actually believed Thor’s Hammer would free her by ending her life. There were no words to describe how he felt it had not.
Instinctively, his gaze joined the others as they stared in silent fascination and horror at what was happening to the Goa’uld forced from its host. The creature continued to struggle under the powerful energy field of Thor’s Hammer. It was not dead yet, but that conclusion was not far away. Even as it writhed and slithered frantically in its vulnerable state, they could tell that its struggles were abating in their intensity. Its mouth opened, exposing the pink innards as it screamed soundlessly in pain as the Asgard weapon drove the life from its body. Eventually, its struggles began to weaken, losing strength with each frantic movement its elongated form tried to make in the desperate bid for life.
Finally, after an eternity of minutes had passed, the Goa’uld’s movements dwindled to a few random twitches and spasms and then moved no more. For the seconds after its death, no one could say anything, not even Sekhmet who would be forced to take the same journey in a matter of minutes. They could only stare at the small, benign life form capable of causing hurt to so many. Chris expected something more formidable but then wondered why he should have thought the creature inside Mary and Alex would be any different. It was a parasite after all, utterly useless without the body it manipulated.
"Is she okay?" Chris finally found his voice and asked Vin who was on the other side of the hammer, cradling Alex in his arms.
Vin looked up and nodded, the emotion in his usually unflappable manner exposed in his expressive blue eyes.
"Yeah pard," he swallowed away the lump of happiness in his throat. "She’s okay. She’s out, but she’s alive."
"Guess what?" Jack looked at Sekhmet. "It’s your turn on the dance floor."
Sekhmet was breathing hard, her black hatred staring back at them both as Chris and he started walking towards the Hammer. She resisted their efforts to drag her forward, which was hardly surprising after what she had just seen it do to Isis. She threw her head from side to side as she kicked and struggled to keep from being taken to the Hammer. Her screams penetrated the gag over her mouth until the chamber filled with the sounds of her desperation.
It was Daniel who saw the Unas appear out of the shadows of the previous chamber. The creature was as huge as he remembered it, with teeth bared and talons brandished, preparing to make a meal of all of them. Its low, rumbling roar effectively eclipsed the sounds of Sekhmet’s screams, and she immediately felt silent at the sight of its approach behind them.
"Holy shit!" Chris exclaimed as he saw the creature that looked like a walking swamp ‘gator except this one seemed to be a lot meaner, not to mention bigger as well.
"Shoot it!" Jack ordered Daniel, who was still standing there, gawking at it.
Jack’s voice kick-started Daniel’s own mental processes, and the linguist immediately pulled out his handgun and started firing into the chest of the creature. It staggered backwards as the multiple bullets tore through the dark skin. Jack released his grip of Sekhmet and hurried to help Daniel, knowing a handgun was not going to be adequate. Even though the Unas was driven back slightly, it was by no means done. Jack had seen the things take at least three or four direct hits with a staff weapon before finally succumbing, and all they had right now were conventional projectile weapons.
"Chris, take her through!" Jack ordered as he unslung his rifle from his shoulder and started firing an even more potent barrage of bullets at the creature.
Chris nodded wildly and continued towards the Hammer when Sekhmet decided to take advantage of the distraction and pull away from him. He lost his hold of her for only a second before she stepped back and tried to deliver a powerful kick. Chris sidestepped her and caught her leg, pulling her forward viciously and planting an equally powerful fist in her jaw. Her head snapped back from the blow, disoriented in his grip for a moment. Not releasing her leg as he dragged her towards the Hammer, Sekhmet had no choice but to be pulled along. She was still dazed when they reached the threshold.
He removed the gag from her mouth, knowing it was necessary after seeing how the Goa’uld would make its exit when the process was done. As soon as her mouth was free, she tried to bite his hand, but Chris kept his fingers out of reach. Behind him, he could hear Jack and Daniel holding their own against the creature who was determined not to die. He had every intention of helping them, but at the moment, he had to deal with her first.
"I guess this is goodbye." He said with a cruel sneer.
"I will kill her first," Sekhmet warned viciously, but it was an impotent threat, and they both knew it.
"You like pain so much," Chris smiled wickedly and shoved her straight into the Hammer’s threshold. "Think of this as one for the road."
"I’ll kill you!" She screamed as the energy field activated once again and trapped her in its grip. All thoughts of him were driven from her as the glow of Thor’s Hammer came alive around her. Sekhmet’s eyes were wild with fear, and then s dissipated when the pain started.
Chris turned away, knowing there was no way for her to escape now the Hammer had her in its possession. He did not need the experience of seeing her scream or writhe or suffer the agonies the Hammer would make her endure. He knew only Jack and Daniel needed his fire to add to their own. They had risked too much for him and Mary, for Chris to do anything but help them. Without even having to ask the tracker, Chris knew Vin would keep a close eye on Sekhmet while she was undergoing the process to bring Mary back to him.
The hail of bullets drove the Unas back into the previous chamber, and even though they needed only wait a few minutes for the Hammer to expel Sekhmet from Chris Larabee’s wife, Jack knew the Unas recovered very quickly. Daniel was in the process of loading another clip into his automatic when Chris joined him and Jack. The gunslinger had the twentieth-century armaments Jack provided, and he had already proven himself in their flight from Isis's fortress he was more than capable of handling the weapon.
"Where is it?" Chris asked quietly. He was trying very hard to ignore Sekhmet’s screams behind him.
"It’s hiding out in there," Jack replied, trying to decide if it was better to go after it or maintain a vigil right where they were standing. The danger would pass the moment Sekhmet left Mary’s body. The Unas could no more pass through the hammer than any other Goa’uld, no matter what host it possessed. Besides if Carter was here, she would be quick to remind him they could not kill the thing because it would create the paradox that would keep it from dying in the Hammer a hundred and twenty-odd years from now.
Sometimes, this whole thing with time travel could really make his head hurt.
"We’ll hold position here." He stated, making the decision once and for all. He did not believe for an instant their bullets could kill the thing and knew it was probably somewhere in the shadows, regenerating from the injuries sustained already. "We don’t need to go after it."
"I hate to say it, but I’m with you there," Chris remarked, his eyes searching the darkened shadows of the previous chambers, trying to sight the creature they were fighting. He could see nothing of it even though he was sure he could hear its laboured breathing somewhere in the darkness. No doubt it was waiting to spring as soon as it recovered enough and was sure to get the drop on them as it had almost done earlier. Chris shuddered to think what would have happened if Daniel had not sighted the creature when he had. The kind of death it promised was one he could do without.
Sekhmet’s screams stopped and descended into gurgles of pain as the Hammer forced her from the body of the host. While Daniel and Jack kept an eye out for the creature, Chris turned his attention to his wife and saw she was now on her knees, her body performing the same dance of agony he saw Isis experienced only a short time ago. Vin was still holding Alex in his arms, but his eyes were fixed on Sekhmet’s trial through the Asgard device.
"Not like this!" She incredibly managed to scream through her pain. "I am a warrior! I will not die like this!"
Chris took one step forward until he could almost touch her through the beam if he chose to. Her eyes were wide with agony, but in them, he saw nothing of the fluidity of Mary’s soul. Instead, Chris saw an evil creature finally getting the punishment it deserved. He had no doubt throughout its existence, Sekhmet had been a butcher as Thor claimed. When their eyes met, he found himself smiling.
"Like this." He said coldly. "Right now."
When she dropped to her knees, Chris knew the battle was over.
He watched dispassionately, the heaving and coughing as the Goa’uld symbiote was forced through her mouth in a surge of fluid and blood. The ground splattered with both when the creature landed on the dirt with a wet thud. Mary had keeled over on her side, almost as oblivious to her agonies as Alex now was. Chris immediately crossed through the energy field, taking note it did not harm him as he stepped over on the other side and started pulling Mary through the door.
"It’s done," Chris called out to Jack and Daniel to follow.
Both men looked over their shoulder and saw the confirmation of it with their own eyes. Without turning their backs on the entrance to the other chamber, Jack and Daniel started towards the Hammer, their guns pointed firmly ahead in case anything chose to emerge and give them any last-minute surprises. Chris kept his own weapon close even though he was busy with Mary at the moment. She was in the same state as Alex, unconscious, and her lips covered in blood. Chris cleaned Mary up as Vin had done for Alex. The Goa’uld that was Sekhmet remained in the path of the Hammer, dying as its companion had done so.
Chris could not know what induced him to do it, but he drew the Peacemaker from his holster and took careful aim. Squeezing off the shot, the bullet fairly exploded the part of the Goa’uld that might have been the creature’s head. Slivers of wet and bloody flesh splattered in a narrow radius around the body. Jack and Daniel stared at him without comment for a few seconds and then stepped through the threshold over the bloody remains.
"Feeling better?" Vin asked, not wishing to know what Sekhmet had done to Chris to engender such a vicious action.
"Yeah," Chris replied, looking down at Mary’s face. "I am now."
***********
They did not have long to wait before Sam arrived with the horses, provided to her by the Sumerians when she explained her origins. Sam informed the village elders she and travellers like herself had come through the gate and brought with them the evil Etns so Thor might pass his judgement upon them. Having been accustomed to numerous attempts by the Goa’uld to infiltrate Sumeria over the years, its native population was hardly surprised by the story or the fact she and the others were from Earth, the land they knew as Mittgard, the First World.
Alex and Mary were still unconscious, and Daniel explained this was normal. Kendra told him she was found days after the extraction of her Goa’uld symbiote, wandering around aimlessly before discovery. She had little memory of what happened to her after she passed through the Hammer, recalling only the pain inflicted by the process. As Jack anticipated when he sent Sam to get the horses, neither Mary nor Alex was in any condition to walk the long distance back to the gate following their ordeal and guessed Chris would want to go home as soon as possible. Jack could hardly blame him for that. What the man had endured was enough to make anyone wish for home. Indeed the colonel could understand the sentiment well enough, now that their mission to return Ezra Standish, Mary Travis Larabee and Alexandra Styles to their proper place in history was completed.
***********
"So you got any ideas, Carter?" Jack asked during the ride back to the gate.
"Actually I do Sir," Sam said confidently having thought in length about the question since they first found out they were stranded a hundred and twenty years in Earth’s past.
"We’re all ears."
"I think when we get back to Earth, we should dial the Nox," Sam announced.
"They could help us." Daniel agreed, seeing where she was going with this.
Next to the Asgard, the Nox was the most technologically advanced people they ever encountered. Not only did they have more knowledge about the gate than the SGC would ever have, Sam truly believed the Nox had the technology to recreate the accident that sent them to the past. "Their gate would still be open at this time."
"I have to admit that does sound sweet." Jack nodded in approval of that particular idea. "Carter, I have to hand it to you. You did good on this mission."
Sam blushed despite herself. "Thank you, Sir."
"We all think so ma’am," Vin spoke up as he nudged the horse he was riding, closer to her. The saddle was a bit strange, but like most men of the frontier, that was hardly an obstacle when it came to this form of transport. "I got to thank you for helping out Alex and Mary."
"I know what it was like to have one of those things inside me," Sam confessed quietly. "I wouldn’t wish that on anyone."
"So you got a way home?" Chris asked Jack, not liking the idea these people would be stranded here after all the help they had been in bringing Mary and Alex back to him and Vin.
"Yeah," Jack nodded. "The Nox are annoyingly nice, and they think we’re not very smart, but like all responsible adults, they want to make sure us kids get back to where we’re supposed to be."
"Sounds like an interesting bunch of folks," Chris remarked with a smile, casting his gaze over the alien landscape before him and finding it was not at all what he would have envisioned another world to look like. The place reminded him of the open fields of Wyoming and Idaho, with its greenery and rolling hills. He supposed it was only natural that people travelling from Earth through the gate would try to find worlds that were as similar to their own as possible.
"You don’t know the half of it." Jack grinned and then on a more serious note, remembered another matter that had to be put to rest before this entire experience could be a thing of the past for all of them. "There’s one other thing to do now we’ve got the time to talk about it. We can’t leave the gate where it is after we’ve gone."
"What if you don’t get where you’re going, you won’t be able to get back," Vin stated, not liking to leave anyone stranded on an alien world when it was just as easy for them to come home.
"We can’t, anyway," Sam spoke up. "Time’s a funny thing. We’re not meant to be in this era, and anything we do might affect how it turns out in the future. If we can’t get back, we know enough worlds where we could stay and not be a danger to anyone."
"How do you propose we get rid of it?" Chris asked Jack, confident the man had a plan.
"The gate needs to be buried. As long as its where it is, the Goa’uld can come through and if you think the two you just got rid of were bad enough, you wait until a System Lord gets into his head to come after you with an army." Jack stated, determined Chris understood just what kind of danger they were talking about. "We’ve got explosives with us with a little more kick than the dynamite you’re used to. Before we go, we’re going to wire the place up so that when they detonate, there won’t be anything left of the bunker or the gate."
"I can live with that." Chris declared, not wishing to go through anything like what he did the past two days.
"When we get to the future, we can dig the gate up and put it someplace safe," Daniel added. "It was not discovered in our time, so it’s a safe bet once we’ve destroyed the bunker, it will stay that way until we can recover it."
"It’s a pity," Vin found himself admitting reluctantly as his eyes travelled over the landscape, studying this new world and the hundreds like it, scattered across the stars. The explorer in his was tantalised about the idea of travelling to new places and discovering races no one had ever heard of. As he glanced briefly at Alex who was lying in his arms, still very much out of it, Vin knew she would have enjoyed it too. Unfortunately, the threat of what was out there was too much of a risk. Vin was never going to let Alex suffer what she had already. "It would have been something to go travelling like you do."
"It ain’t our time to do that Vin." Chris quickly reminded him, not wishing the tracker to get any ideas. "It's theirs."
"It is a pity though," Jack understood where Vin was coming from. Before the Stargate program, Jack never believed exploration could ever fascinate him as it had during these past three years. There was an undeniable thrill in exploring the different worlds and meeting the people seeded throughout the stars from Earth’s past. "But Chris is right. This isn’t the time for it."
Vin let out a disappointed sigh and guessed it was just as well anyway. Some things should remain a mystery, and he supposed this was just going to have to be one of them.
***********
Upon returning to the Sumerian Stargate, the visitors promptly returned home to Earth and found their friends keeping a vigil on the portal there, waiting for their arrival. Following the happy salutations and greetings that followed, Chris reminded the others there was still work to do before they could return home to Four Corners. The SG1 team did not waste any time, setting up the charges that would level the entire structure with nothing left standing to give anyone a clue of what was here. The bodies of the workmen and the archaeological team were left where they were for a story had to be manufactured to keep anyone else from attempting another excavation that might uncover the gate.
The lawmen from Four Corners were eager to help the SG1 team set up the C4 charges throughout the structure, wanting to eliminate the threat it posed not only to the future but to the alarming possibility the Goa’uld might come through the gate. AWhile Vin was disappointed the gate with its opportunities, was to be buried under a ton of earth, he could appreciate the need to protect themselves and said nothing when the last explosives were put into place, and the timer was finally set.
With a twenty-minute margin to allow the SG1 team to leave and the lawmen to get to the minimum safe distance of the blast radius when the charges finally detonated, it was time for everyone concerned to vacate the bunker that was the cause of so much trouble. As Teal'c began dialling the address for the Nox homeworld, the rest of SG1 made their goodbyes to the friends they made in this time.
"I guess this is it," Jack said, extending a hand towards Chris.
Chris returned the handshake firmly and with more warmth than it was customary for him to show. After what they went through together, it was difficult for Chris to consider Jack O’Neill as anything but a friend.
"I guess so," Chris nodded and a pause followed since neither man were really the talkative type. However, after the lapse of silence, Chris added. "You gonna be okay?"
Jack looked up at him and then at Daniel, who dropped his gaze to his feet to hide the smile that stole across his face. Chris could not have known after the Abydos mission, it was the last thing Daniel had said to Jack who had come on the mission to die. When Daniel asked the question, it was the first time Jack realised he could actually go on with his life, even after losing his son.
"Yeah," the colonel replied. "I think so. You take care of that lady of yours."
Chris nodded. "I’ll do that."
In the meantime, Vin, who had said his goodbyes to Teal’c, took a moment to say the same to Daniel Jackson, who was instrumental in bringing Alex and Mary back to them. "I sure hope you find your wife, Daniel."
"I hope so too." Daniel smiled. "Seeing how you got your Alex back gives me some hope for Sha're when I find her." It was true, he felt renewed optimism at retrieving Sha're and freeing her from the Goa’uld spell she was under, after what he saw in Thor’s mountain.
"I’m glad," Vin sincerely hoped Daniel would indeed find his wife someday. Vin would be saddened to think she was lost to Daniel but supposed he would never really know for sure after Daniel and his friends stepped through the gate and returned to the future.
"Its time to go," Sam announced, ushering them out of the path of the gate as the final chevron was locked into place. No sooner than after they scattered, the familiar light show of the wormhole’s formation rocked the bunker and illuminated the darkened structure with its iridescent glow. Once the portal was stabilized and the others said their goodbyes, Jack and Teal’c stepped through the gate and disappeared from view, quickly followed by Daniel who was bidding Josiah farewell. The two had been embroiled in some interesting theological discussions ever since they met and Sam wondered who would miss the repartee more. She was about to take herself towards the gate when suddenly she heard Buck call.
"Hey, Doctor Carter." He said, coming towards her as she saw Daniel go through. Sam found herself smiling as she turned to the lawman, who was the one she would miss the most when she left this place. She had not intended making a lengthy farewell but guess she had no choice now.
"You weren’t going to just leave like that were you?" Buck asked when he caught up with her.
"Well, we don’t have a lot of time," Sam glanced at her watch and then back to his face again. "In ten minutes, this place is going to go up like fireworks."
"We got enough time for this," Buck said and lowered his lips to hers and delivered a lingering kiss of goodbye. Amazingly enough, Sam found she did not mind as she kissed him back and thought absurdly as she was doing so, she was glad the colonel and the others were already gone.
"That was nice." She smiled at him as they parted.
"It was." Buck nodded and took her hand and delivered another smaller kiss to her palm. "You take care of yourself, Major."
She flashed him a smile as she drew away, looking nothing like a soldier but a very intriguing woman he would have like to have known for longer if the world were not as crazy as it was for the two of them right now.
"That’s a hell of a lady," Josiah commented as he waved goodbye to her.
"She sure is," Buck whispered softly and was still staring at her when Samantha Carter disappeared out of his life seemingly forever.
As promised by SG1, there was not much left when the dust cleared.
The bunker, the sarcophagus and most importantly the stargate were buried under a ton of rubble after the explosive charges placed by the SG1 team did its worst. From a distance, they witnessed the tidal wave of soil and rock ejected into the air with a column of fire that left no doubt as to the totality of the destruction. The result of the tremendous blast felt like an earthquake, and the horses were properly terrified by detonation. When the thunderous noise finally died down, and the jets of fire dwindled into smoke, all that was left in the wake of the fiery discharge was a smouldering crater. To the casual observer, it could be believed this entire site was the unfortunate victim of an earthquake.
Certainly, it was a more plausible explanation than the truth.
When they returned to the site on horseback, they found Jack O'Neill was correct, there was nothing to find. All that remained were the dishevelled layers of soil and dirt that would eventually be smoothed back into place by the harsh windstorms rumbling across this land. In a week or two, it would look no different from any other parcel of land in the Territory. The bunker and everything in it would fade into obscurity. The truth would only be known to the seven lawmen of Four Corners, and if God was good, not to the two women who were the centre of the storm, they just passed through.
Before they set off the charges and levelled the bunker, the two women had been placed in the sarcophagus to heal the numerous injuries sustained in their recapture. In any case, neither were awake for the experience. As Sam Carter explained, the ejection of a Goa'uld was an exhausting process on the body, and many of the life functions normal to humans would have to readjust to life without the symbiote. They would wake up eventually, but for the moment, it was better to let them recover from their ordeal.
Chris had a feeling the real battle would begin when they woke up.
Vin was grateful to learn from Buck no 'breeding' took place between Alex and Ezra because of the state they found the gambler. Even though the tracker was resolved to let nothing get in the way of his happiness at having Alex back, especially in a matter where she was powerless to stop Isis from using her body, he was nonetheless glad to hear it. He was sure if Alex retained such memories, Alex would not be able to tolerate it either. While she was hardly a prude, Vin suspected even she would have difficulty knowing her body was used in this way.
Chris, on the other hand, was more concerned about how he would explain Mary's behaviour to the town and decided he was going to have to fabricate a good story, not only for the good citizens of Four Corners but also for Billy. His mother's actions at the onset of this nightmare had left the child in a thoroughly confused state, and Chris had no idea what he would say to the boy. It was one thing to speak an untruth to the town because the reality was too fantastic to be believed, but it was another thing entirely to lie to a child.
They returned to town in the dead of night, and no one noticed their arrival, which was just as well. Chris took Mary straight home and lay her in her bedroom, letting her sleep, hoping things would be better the next morning, even though he seriously doubted it.
***********
He woke up and found her staring at the mirror.
Vin was asleep in the wing chair in Alex's bedroom, too afraid to leave her after what he went through to bring her back to him. He brought her home to her bed and removed the dress worn by Isis, telling himself to burn the thing so she would never have to see it again. Sheepishly, Vin realized Vin had no idea what she wore to bed because she was never dressed when they shared their nights together, although she did take to wearing some of his shirts. Vin thought with a faint smile how he loved it when she wore them because her scent would cling to it all day, and he never tired of it. Rummaging through her things and reminding himself he was after all her fiance so, he was permitted to go through her things, Vin found a nightdress he could not imagine her wearing.
It did not take him long to realize shortly after he placed her in the sheets of her bed, her sleep was anything but restful. Thus he remained in her room at a safe distance, not wishing to overwhelm her with his presence. Nathan dropped by to check on Alex, all without her knowing he was even there. The healer was just as concerned about Alex being on her own and actually insisted Vin stay, promising Rain would take over the vigil in the morning.
He woke up when he heard movement and shifted his eyes immediately to her bed, feeling some measure of alarm when he saw it was empty. It took a further second for him to deduce where she had gone. Alex was standing in front of her full-length mirror, staring into it. Vin rose to his feet quietly, uncertain of what she was doing, only aware she was examining her reflection rather closely. As he neared her, Alex did not react to his approach even though Vin was sure she was aware of him. She glanced sideways long enough to register his presence before looking into the mirror once more.
"Alex." He spoke, breaking the silence creeping under his skin.
She did not answer, but as he finally reached close enough to be standing next to her, he realized she was tracing the skin of her face with her finger as if searching for some flaw or mark he could not fathom. Only when he was close enough to touch her, did Alex finally manage a response.
"I can touch my face." She whispered.
He did not understand the significance but could appreciate she was extremely distressed. After what she had been through, it was only natural.
"Yeah, you can." He said because it seemed the safest answer all around.
"I wasn't sure I could make my hands work," she answered, and Vin understood immediately what she meant.
"She's gone, Alex," Vin said softly. "It's just you in there now, I promise."
"I wasn't sure." She swallowed. "I don't feel her inside me any more, but she's not gone."
Vin was immediately filled with alarm at that statement. Daniel assured him Alex would be free of Isis. What new twist was this? "What do you mean?"
Realizing what he was interpreting from that statement, Alex corrected herself immediately. "You don't understand." She responded, shifting her attention from her reflection and faced him. "I see things in my head," she stammered. "Vague pictures I don't understand, but I know they're hers."
Well, Daniel did warn him about that, Vin was forced to admit. The memories would not be gone with the symbiote. Vin prayed she would be free of that particular horror, but it looked like it was not meant to be. "You'll be getting that for a while darlin'," he said honestly, having no wish to lie to her about this. He took a step towards Alex only to have her back away from him like she was terrified.
"I don't want to hurt you." She warned genuine terror in her eyes.
"You can't hurt me, Alex," Vin quickly answered, feeling a thousand knives in his heart by just the look of desolation on her face. She remembered a great deal more than she ought he realized, including what Isis had done in the bunker before leaving for the other world. "It wasn't you that hurt me. It was her, and she's dead."
"I couldn't stop her!" Alex wailed, the wafer-thin wall of composure holding in her emotions shattered when that memory surfaced. "I tried to warn you because I knew she was going to hurt you! But I wasn't strong enough! I screamed and screamed, but you couldn't hear me!" Alex's voice started to break. "Oh God Vin, I saw her kill you!" She finally exploded into tears and crumbled to the floor. "I watched her use my hands to kill you!"
"I'm all right, darlin'." Vin was on his knees in front of her before she could resume her heart wrenching sobs. "I'm here and you ain't gonna hurt me, are you? You're a doctor Alex and I can't think of anything worse for you to have been trapped with that thing in control of you, but she's gone, and you're still here. It's your body again and your life. She's dead, we saw to that!" He implored, trying to convince her he blamed her for nothing and it was not her fault what had happened.
"Oh, Vin!" She wept even harder than before, wrapping her arms around his neck as she sobbed into the crook of his shoulder, drawing comfort from the one person who could make this all better. "I wanted to kill her so badly for what she did to you, but I was trapped! I couldn't do anything! I wanted to make her feel pain for all the things she made me do, all the terrible, terrible things! "
Then remembering what state Isis had last seen Ezra, Alex's eyes widened. "Ezra! Oh God Vin, Ezra..."
"Ezra's fine," Vin whispered in her ear while running his palm over her hair, stroking it slowly so it would soothe her.
"You didn't see," she spoke through her tears. "You didn't see what Sekhmet did to him. My God! You didn't see how she tortured him!"
Vin felt his stomach hollow at the idea of torture and remembered what Buck said about the condition they found Ezra. If it were not for the sarcophagus that saved his life, Ezra would have died just as surely as he had at Isis's hands.
"He's okay now, Alex," Vin continued to convince her. "We put him in that sarcophagus...whatever it's called, and it fixed him up. He's probably at the saloon now trying to trick some poor bastard out of his money."
Alex shook her head, wiping her eyes long enough to know while Ezra's body was healed, his mind was another matter entirely. No one went through what Ezra did and simply bounced back.
"No Vin." She swallowed, feeling some measure of strength returning to her while his arms were around her, offering support and comfort.
"He's not fine," she whispered softly. "I'm not sure he'll ever be."
***********
Mary slept peacefully.
She dreamed of her son and her home. She dreamed of the man who crossed space and untold distances to find her, and she was content. Of course, no sleep is ever entirely peaceful, and no dream ever wholly pleasant. The memory of the other mind lingered, but Sekhmet's power over her was gone. Still, despite her elusive memories, random images were appearing that made her tremble with cold fear. There were moments of lucidity where she was aware, the thing inside her was insane and had a thirst for blood that made her skin crawl with revulsion.
While it would have been easy to become lost in Sekhmet's dementia, only one thing kept Mary Travis Larabee anchored to reality, and that was Chris.
She was aware of his struggles and the fight to bring her back to him. It was the only thing that made any sense to her when she was trapped in the delirium of Sekhmet's insanity. Mary supposed it was a kindness she remembered very little about what the woman did while wearing her skin. Mary was aware of some violence directed at Ezra Standish and knew Sekhmet had particular hatred for Chris. Perhaps in some ways, she wanted him and could not imagine how he would love the host instead of the Goa'uld in residence.
When she woke from her black sleep, Mary found herself in her bedroom, in the house she shared with Chris. Outside, she could see the sun shining brightly with the promise of a beautiful day. She took a deep breath, savouring the feel of cool air in her lungs and more importantly, the ability to take it of her own free will, with no invader commanding how her body should act. Mary was grateful that much of her memories were fragmented because Sekhmet had been a vile creature, indeed. Still, Mary sensed the goddess had not always been this way.
There was enough left inside Mary to believe Sekhmet was once indeed the warrior goddess she claimed to be. Then Sekhmet had used her considerable skill as a warrior as a tool of conquest, not as an instrument of torture.
Mary was uncertain of what had happened to Sekhmet to change her from a soldier to a butcher, but the turmoil she sensed inside Sekhmet's mind as more and more of the Goa'uld began to unravel, would have ultimately destroyed them both. There was a part of Mary that would never shake the residual effects of Sekhmet inside her.
Even though the wound Chris inflicted were gone, she could still feel the ache, like a phantom memory. Mary felt no anger towards him, who saved her from more than just death.
She wondered where Billy was and shifted on the mattress before noticing there was familiar warmth lying beside her. Chris was asleep next to her. By the looks of it, he had put her to bed and then collapsed beside her in sheer exhaustion, fully clothed over the covers. For a moment, she merely looked at him, revelling in the sight of his slumber as the hardened gunslinger she knew and loved, was nowhere in sight. All she could see was the man who was willing to sacrifice his soul to see to it that hers was safe.
She lay next to him again, stroking the dark gold strands of his hair, relishing the feel of just being with him this morning and felt a swell of gladness knowing it would be the same for every morning for the rest of her life.
He stirred at her touch and lifted his eyelids to meet her gaze. Mary smiled at him and continued running her fingers against his hair, feeling her heart fill with love and telling him in her own way everything was all right, that she was his again. He reached for her hand and cupped it with his own, feeling the smooth texture against his skin as he blinked slowly, composing himself. She could see the emotion welling up in his eyes, the blue, green pieces of jade, filling with tears knowing he had not lost her.
For the past two days, he had been fighting to remain strong because his friends needed a leader, and he needed to keep himself together to get her back. However, those walls came tumbling down now he had done all that was required of him. Chris was finally able to be swept away by the currents of his emotions and the intense gratitude of having his wife back.
"Christ Mary," he said softly, letting warm tears spill down his cheeks because he had not believed it until this moment he had not lost her like he had lost Sarah. Even with his killing Sekhmet, Chris had not known or felt any of it was real until this precise moment. "I thought...I thought.."
"Hush Chris," she wrapped him in her arms and held him there. "I'm home now. You didn't fail me. You brought me home."
He composed himself on the reassurance of those words and calmed down, still uncomfortable after all the months of marriage to show her he could be vulnerable. Had Chris bothered to ask, he would have discovered Mary was well aware of this but allowed him his dignity because he was after all a man and men were never as wise about these things as they should be.
"Are you okay?" He asked. It would take a long time for him to forget Sekhmet, but as long as Chris could look into Mary's eyes and see the woman he loved, he could stand anything.
"There are pieces of her that I remember," Mary confessed, trying to make sense out of the maelstrom that was Sekhmet's mind. "There was so much anger and hatred inside of her. Most of it is a jumble. I know she did something terrible to Ezra because there are moments where I can remember him screaming, but it feels so far away."
"Ezra was hurt bad," Chris explained, grateful that she would not remember.
Daniel and Sam had said that this might happen. The Goa'uld held control of a body by sheer force of will and while Sekhmet certainly possessed that quality and some, her reason was flawed and her mind was damaged. Possibly it was why Isis and Sekhmet had been battling when they had stormed the fortress on Netjer to retrieve both women. While Sam remembered something of the Goa'uld that took her body, she had not retained many of the memories unless specifically drawn out by the technology of the future. With Sekhmet's state of mind, she had not believed Mary would remember much of her experience and Chris was never more grateful of that than at this instance.
"I don't know how he'll take seeing me," Mary answered, wondering how Ezra would react to her, especially if she had caused him the pain she believed she did.
While she remembered his screams and her presence during his torture, she recalled nothing of what she had done and the truth was, it had not been her that caused Ezra's ordeal but Sekhmet. Still, Ezra would undoubtedly look at her face and see his torturer and Mary had no idea how to take that.
"You should stay away for awhile," Chris advised, unable to think of anything else that could be done for the moment. He had not had the chance to see the gambler himself and nothing could be decided until that meeting took place.
Until he saw Ezra's eyes, Chris could not know for sure how Ezra fared following his ordeal. He only knew his advice was the most prudent course of action to take for now.
***********
Ezra kept to himself for most of the day.
Even though he was physically in good health, he continued to hide inside Julia's house, not wishing to see anyone. He knew eventually, he would have to leave and face the reality he was home again and the nightmare of the past two days was exactly that, in the past. He wished more than ever Julia was home because he needed her now more than ever and hated the fact that he was angry she was absent. Even though J.D. and Nathan had left him at his lodgings, Ezra had sneaked away to lose himself in Julia's home, aware she would not mind him being here while she was gone.
He sat behind her desk and thumbed through the books she had on the shelf, fingering in silent contemplation the pages of Dickens which she loved so much, without reading a word of it. The memory of what had happened to him preyed heavily on his mind, and Ezra knew where he was going to end up if he did not snap out of his melancholic state. He did not want to live his life playing the victim. He was not a victim, and yes, he suffered brutal tortures under the ministrations of the demon wearing Mary Larabee's face, but as Ezra told himself a hundred times since it had happened, it was not her fault.
She was not responsible for what happened.
The creature using her body to commit such atrocities was dead. Chris Larabee had put a bullet in it himself Vin assured him when the tracker had stopped by earlier that day to see if he was all right. In fact, all the others had done the same thing, just dropping in to say hello or seeing how he was doing. Ezra hated the attention, and he hated it even more; it was his behaviour prompting this response from his friends.
It was almost nightfall when he heard the door knock and wondered who it could be now. Ezra did not want anyone other than his close friends to know that he was in residence here because it would do Julia's reputation no good to have people know she was entertaining an unmarried man in her home. Grumbling as he went to the back door, he pulled it open and found himself standing before Mary Larabee.
For a moment, he did not know what to do or say to her. The most obvious reaction was to pull out his gun and shoot but as he saw her staring at him, her eyes filled with sorrow at the pain he was feeling, Ezra could not associate her with the woman who nearly tortured him to death.
"Ezra, can I come in?" She asked, still standing at the door.
"No." He shook his head.
"Ezra, please," Mary implored. "I am sorry for what happened to you." Her blue-grey eyes filled with tears, and suddenly, Ezra understood what people meant when they said she had eyes like a dove. She did at that. One could drown in the hope that lay within the depths of those azurite pools. He suddenly had an insight into why Chris loved her so much. Ezra could have loved her himself; actually, he did, just not in the way that Chris did.
"Mary," Ezra swallowed, never thinking these words could be so hard to say, but somehow in these last few seconds of staring at her at the back porch, seeing her with all the compassion in the world in her eyes, it escaped his lips with no difficulty at all. Suddenly, he was no longer speaking from his mind but from his heart. "I thought I would never again be able to view your face without envisioning the brutality I suffered at that creature's hands, but at this moment, I feel locked in a paradox of sorts. I remember your face when I see her, but I look at you now, and I see no sign of her, just the friend you have always been."
Mary let out a sigh of relief but did not delude herself into believing that this was over. "I'm glad, Ezra. I can't remember fully what she did to you but seeing your reaction now makes me glad I don't. I cannot take away the pain she used me to inflict upon you, but I can stay out of your way as much as I can until you feel we can be friends again."
Ezra did not want that at all. He closed his eyes and steeled himself to follow her as she started to turn away.
"Mary," he called out and forced the lady to face him again. "I do not wish that. Your friendship has been one of the brightest things in my life since my dreary existence in this place began. It will not be easy for me in the coming months, I envision we both have experiences of this entire affair neither would like to recall. However, I do not wish to compound my misery by chasing away one of the few friends I have."
"Ezra are you sure?" Mary looked at him, taking his hands in hers as she met his eyes. "I know it is hard for you..."
"It is hard, Mary," Ezra confessed. "More than you will ever know, but I cannot allow her to defeat me yet again. You are my friend dear lady, one that has always stood up for me when I required it the most. I do not take such things lightly and I do not forget it when it becomes inconvenient. Whatever demons plague me, will do so whether or not I see you on a daily basis or not at all. I will have to overcome them either way."
Mary wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded. She leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek. "You are a scoundrel and a con man Ezra Standish," she said with a smile. "But you are a gentleman, and I am honoured to call you, my friend."
The months ahead would require much healing not only for himself but also for Mary and Alex, but they would get through it.
Somehow.
***********
SGC COMMAND
Five months later...
Daniel Jackson could only stare at her.
He could not feel anything as he saw her lying on the slab, her skin turning grey from the cold surroundings of the refrigeration units used to keep bodies fresh before they were shipped to whatever burial their particular faith required. He supposed he would have to be responsible for making the arrangements to have her brought back to Abydos. The least he could do was to ensure she had a proper burial. He owed her father that much at least. When she was first taken, Daniel promised Kasuf he would bring her home someday. He supposed he had not failed entirely.
He was returning her home, just not alive.
There was a well of tears inside Daniel Jackson poised on the edge of bursting in a torrent of grief. He could no longer remember how long he stood by her side, watching her in her eternal sleep, knowing finally she was free even if that freedom offered him no comfort. Instead, he studied her closely, examining the small changes the Goa'uld who had possession of her body, made over the years. Her hair was cut and styled, which he hated. Daniel always loved running his fingers through her wild locks, savouring the pure joy of watching her brush it at night, during that happy year when she had been his wife. He remembered the delicate movement as she ran her brush made of bone and animal hair through the luxurious strands, its lustre bouncing off the dark mane.
Daniel did not even notice when he started to weep.
Sha're was dead. For three years, he prayed and dreamed of having her with him again. He lay awake at nights, knowing one day the endless journeys through the gate would lead him to her. In a way, it brought her to him except the Goa'uld inside of her would not let that reunion be a happy one. He did not blame Teal'c for doing what was necessary even though by rights, he should be angry because the Jaffa had killed his wife. However, Sha're's beast was hell-bent on destroying him, and Teal'c had no choice but to act to save his life. Daniel drew small comfort from the fact Sha're had somehow managed to say her goodbyes in the last few seconds before she was finally granted the freedom she so desperately needed.
I love you, Daniel.
Those had been her last words to him. Even as the life bled out of her, he was the last thing in her heart. He had just enough time to make that same declaration before she slipped away, and the light in her eyes faded forever. He remained next to her on the floor of the tent where she died, until the others found him and took them both home.
"Daniel." Sam stepped into the room. There were tears in her eyes as she took up position next to him. She reached for his hand and held it tightly, knowing no one should have to be alone at a time like this. "Are you okay?" She asked softly, feeling her heart go out to him as she saw the tears behind those steel-rimmed glasses and immediately scolded herself because it was a stupid, stupid question.
His wife was dead. How could he be okay?
"She's free," Daniel whispered as he looked at Sam and allowed her to take him in her embrace as the tears started to come more freely.
It wasn't a happy ending, but at least for Sha're, the nightmare was over.
She was free.