Teal’c watched as the being that controlled the body of his friend entered the cell in which he’d been imprisoned.
“Your friends are exceptionally gullible.”
“You are mistaken.”
Zipacna smirked, and Teal’c resisted the urge to snap his neck, though only due to his care for the true owner of that neck. “They are. All I had to do was remove you and the body of my previous host, and O’Neill believed the scenario I fed to him instantly. He even trusted me enough to give me the device that controls your pathetic explosives.”
“It was Daniel Jackson that O’Neill trusted. Not you. Your duplicity was not the fault of either of them.” Teal’c did not add that he felt some responsibility himself. He had not known Zipacna had fled his dying host for Daniel Jackson until he had been betrayed. He had half-carried what he thought was the injured archaeologist out of the storage room, only to have the man take the zat’nik’tel from the holster on Teal’c’s thigh and fire. Teal’c had awoken in this cell enraged and mourning his friend’s fate.
“I had been expecting further Tok’ra infiltrations. Imagine my surprise when, instead, I found Tau’ri.” The Goa’uld’s smirk disappeared, and he seemed to grow pensive, though Teal’c doubted he was anything of the sort. “Tell me, shol’va, how is it that you believe my host did not hate you?”
Teal’c remained silent. There was no point in responding to this creature that sought only to dishonour his friendship with Daniel Jackson.
“I truly do not understand. You are responsible for the abduction of his wife. You chose her to be host to Amonet. You even slew dear Amonet and destroyed his last imagined hope for ever reuniting with his love.” Zipacna smiled. “He pretended to forgive you for all these wrongs, yet deep within, he could not.”
Teal’c stared steadily at Zipacna, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a response.
“You believe I’m lying. You are wrong, Teal’c, betrayer of Apophis, betrayer of Amonet, betrayer of my host. You have my word that this is so.”
“Your word holds no value. Daniel Jackson has never lied to me, whereas you have yet to speak the truth.” Teal’c scowled at the Goa’uld before him. “You will not succeed in making me doubt my friendship with Daniel Jackson, nor will I tell you anything you wish to know.”
“You claim friendship with the Tau’ri, and in doing so, you betray your gods. You have become as foolish and weak as they are. As weak as my host.”
Teal’c had to smile at that. He could not think of a human that would make a more inconvenient host for a false god than Daniel Jackson. He would wager his life that his friend was even now doing everything in his power to thwart his possessor.
“You are not a god. You are nothing more than a parasite enslaving the body of a good man. A strong man who will never cease fighting you.” Teal’c looked the false god before him up and down. “I will see you die, Zipacna. Perhaps you might ask your host the fate of the other Goa’uld I have sworn to destroy.”
“I ask nothing of my host, for nothing of him remains.” Even as Zipacna spoke, his eyes widened in surprise. Teal’c didn’t know whether Daniel Jackson had actively informed the symbiote, or if Zipacna had simply found the answer in his stolen memories, but Teal’c was sure he had become aware of the ends of Cronus and Tanith. Teal’c hoped that Daniel Jackson was still capable of some small amount of pleasure in the fear Zipacna was failing to conceal.
“Enough! Kneel before your god, shol’va.”
“I will not.”
“You will.” The hand device activated and Teal’c felt the burning begin in his head. “I will have all I desire in time.”
It was only because the muscles in his legs eventually ceased to support him, but Zipacna was right. Teal’c did kneel.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Sam ran her fingers along the seam of the wall, trying to find something, anything, that she could open or use to get herself out of her cell. She was worried about her teammates. She’d seen Daniel on the floor of that chamber earlier, but didn’t know how badly he’d been injured. The Colonel had ordered her to scout ahead, so she hadn’t been able to check on her friend. Then she’d stupidly managed to get herself zatted before she could even cry a warning. She hadn’t had time to locate Teal’c, either.
Sam held out some hope that the reason she was alone in this cell was that the others were still free. The Colonel had helped Daniel, they’d found Teal’c, and they were all hiding somewhere, plotting how to get her out. It was a comforting thought, but it was probably also overly optimistic.
Her current prison seemed to be nothing more than a black box about 5 paces wide with a force field making up one wall. A force field which delivered an exceedingly painful shock, Sam had discovered. It had taken a good five minutes for full feeling to come back to her hand. She was glad she hadn’t run into it with her face.
Sam finished examining the left wall, and started on the back one. The thin seam ran all the way across this wall at about hip height. She traced her fingers along it. There. It connected with another seam about two thirds of the way across. Soon, Sam had traced out a full square. This might just be the access panel she was looking for.
There was a commotion in the hallway outside her cell. Someone was speaking, too low-pitched for Sam to understand, though the cadence suggested it was in Goa’uld. She straightened up from her examination of the wall and moved to the centre of the room. She was sure that whatever was going on, she probably wouldn’t be able to make a break for it. Still, she felt better away from the wall with a bit of room to manoeuvre.
“Swiac?” said a familiar voice. Daniel? Daniel was talking to the Jaffa guarding her?
“Kel’sha, dis’tra.” Sam assumed that to be one of the Jaffa. She wished again that Jolinar had left more memories of spoken Goa’uld in her head. She really should take Daniel up on the tutoring he’d once offered.
She felt the unpleasantly familiar tingle that signified the presence of nearby naquadah, and predictably two Jaffa stepped into view just outside her cell. They seemed tense, but they weren’t glowering at her in that threatening manner the entire species had apparently perfected. What the hell was going on?
The force field came down. Daniel stepped between the two Jaffa and into Sam’s cell. “Sam? Are you hurt?”
Oh, thank God. She’d been worried about him, and now here he was. His left arm was supported in a make-shift sling, and he had ribbon burns on his forehead, but apart from that he looked perfectly fine. Confident, even. “I’m okay. How did you get in here?” She thrust her chin towards the Jaffa in the hallway. “And what’s with them?”
“They’re rebels, Sam. They recognized Teal’c and sprang me. We’ve got to go. If we can get to the gate—”
“What about Teal’c and the Colonel?”
He shook his head. “Zipacna’s in with Jack, and Teal’c’s too heavily guarded by loyal Jaffa. We’ll have to get help from the SGC.” He held up a GDO, tossed it to her and then pulled a radio out of his pocket. “The Jaffa managed to get these for me, but they wouldn’t risk bringing our weapons.”
Sam nodded. If they could gain control of the gate, they could call the General and arrange for reinforcements to come for a rescue mission. And they could finish their original mission of destroying the base and the queen. But why the GDO? Surely Daniel wasn’t suggesting that they leave without the others. “What’s your plan?”
He nodded towards the two Jaffa. “Jer’ac and Re’noc here will escort us to the gate room so we’ll be able to pass the guard posts. Once the gate is activated, they’ll be able to bring down the shield and allow us to contact the SGC. I’m guessing one of us will have to go through to convince General Hammond that this will work”
“What about Dad?”
Daniel hesitated, confusion crossing his features for a moment. She thought she saw a rare flash of anger, but it was gone before she was even sure it was there. “Right, Selmak...and Jacob. I almost forgot. We’ll have to let him know what’s going on once we get to the gate.”
Sam looked back to the two Jaffa guards, who were still standing motionlessly by the door. “You really trust them?”
“They brought our stuff when I asked and brought me here. And they helped stabilize my arm. So far, so good.” He started back out of the cell. “We have to hurry if this is going to work.”
“True enough.” Sam took a step towards him and hesitated. Why would the Jaffa risk bringing them a radio and a GDO, and not their weapons? Surely if they were caught the Jaffa wouldn’t be any less dead for not crossing that line. And why hadn’t they said anything?
Daniel turned to look at her, clearly not understanding why she wasn’t following him. Sam wasn’t sure herself. Something just seemed...off. “Daniel, wait. I think it’s a trick.” She grabbed his free hand to keep him from getting between the Jaffa again. “They’re setting us up some...” Her voice trailed off as she realized that the tingle of nearby naquadah had just become exponentially stronger.
Shit! Sam dropped Daniel’s hand like it had burned her. She backed up until she bumped into the back wall of her cell.
Daniel’s expression changed from surprise to confusion to amusement. His eyes flashed with a golden light, and Sam felt her last ounce of desperately needed denial ebb away. The Goa’uld pulled his arm out of the sling to reveal a hand device, and his voice echoed with the tone of a symbiote. “You were once host to a Tok’ra. I should have realized the implications of that fact. It’s a mistake that, I assure you, will not happen again.”
Sam stared at him, watching his face in an attempt to read his now foreign expression. He pulled the sling off and tossed it aside, then clasped his hands firmly behind his back, emphasizing the muscles in his chest and arms that Daniel had worked so hard to build. “Who are you?” she finally asked.
“Ah, my dear. How rude of me. I had forgotten you would not recognize me in my new...attire. We’ve met before.”
There was something familiar in the tilt of his head and the curl of his lip. “Zipacna.”
The Goa’uld inclined his head in greeting. “A pleasure, as always.”
Not even remotely pleasurable. The only thing she could imagine that would be less pleasurable was if she was in Daniel’s place. Oh, God. Daniel.
No doubt Zipacna knew what she was thinking and took pleasure in her discomfort. He smiled in that insufferable way he had, made all the more intolerable because it wasn’t remotely like Daniel’s. His mouth twisted into a smirk, lopsided and strange.
“What is the matter, Major?” he asked, stepping towards her, far too close for comfort. “Do you not enjoy spending time with your friend?”
Sam looked up at him. His arrogant bearing made his body seem taller and more intimidating than it ever had before. She’d never realized how much Daniel normally slouched. “Youare not my friend. My friend is fighting you with everything he has.”
The smirk turned into a sneer. “He has already given up. Soon he will cease to exist completely. A shame, really. I had expected him to be stronger.” His words were crisp and precise, each consonant carefully emphasized.
But precision was not the same as accuracy. “Daniel will never stop fighting you.” Sam stopped for a moment as a thought struck her. Then it was her turn to smirk. “There’s a reason you tried to trick me into going with you to the gate. You need the codes to get past the iris, and if you need them from me, it means you haven’t been able to get them from Daniel.”
It might have been her imagination but Sam thought she could see a flicker in Zipacna’s eyes. It was gone before she could identify it, but it was...something. Zipacna hesitated a moment, his sneer faltering, but it returned all too soon.
“But what I have learned from him is so much more interesting than access codes. He wants you, Samantha. Were you aware of that? It appears he has for a long time.”
“That is not true.”
“Oh, but it is. Even now, my host is guarding his secrets. Painful beyond words for him, and inevitably futile, but he tries. This, though, he cannot hide. Not with you so close.” Zipacna smiled again, apparently savouring his host’s reaction. “He loves you, and he’s afraid I will force him to hurt you.” The Goa’uld chuckled and lifted his hand, gently tracing a finger down her cheek before turning away.
Sam wasn’t sure she could bear any more of this. A part of her sensed that Zipacna was telling the truth, that Daniel did love her. That part was thrilled to hear what she’d longed to for so long. But most of her was sickened by this betrayal of secrets that were Daniel’s alone. He hadn’t wanted her to know, and now she did. “Stop it! Stop violating his mind.”
Zipacna turned back, a twisted grin on his face. “Violation. An excellent idea. I’m not certain which I’d enjoy more. Your pain or his torment as I rape you with his body.”
Oh, God. Sam felt herself involuntarily back up a half step, only to realize she was already against the wall. She tried to remain calm, to hide her reaction, but she knew she hadn’t been successful. The parasite in Daniel’s body smirked at her again.
“His deepest desires played out for him. You, writhing beneath him. He should thank me, really.” He leered at her, cold and cruel, and stepped closer. “And what of you? Have you not wanted him as well?”
This time, Sam knew she’d been successful in hiding her feelings. She’d hidden them for years from Daniel, and he knew her so much better than this bastard ever would.
However, Sam couldn’t hide her flinch when his hand tangled in the hair at the back of her neck and pulled, hard, tilting her head back. His other hand easily caught her arm as she attempted to push him away. His lips crushed hers, punishing both her and his host with one action. The kiss was rough, bruising and hateful. Not anything like she’d imagined kissing Daniel would be. Of course it wasn’t. It wasn’t Daniel kissing her.
Sam tried to break his embrace. The sharp twist and the tug of her wrist that would have worked on a human attacker were insufficient to escape a Goa’uld. Zipacna almost casually blocked her knee from intersecting with his groin as intended. The hand in her hair tightened painfully, and she felt tears collect in her eyes as he laughed at her.
Then Zipacna was tugging at her jacket, wrenching it over her shoulders, trapping her arms. A knife appeared in his hand and sliced her black T-shirt open from collar to hem. She distracted herself for a moment, trying to figure out what metal the knife must be made of to cut her shirt like it was paper. His hand tugged at her hair again, pulling her attention back to him. The knife had disappeared, tucked back wherever he had pulled it from.
His other hand reached for her breast, no doubt to crush, to bruise. But then the hand stopped, trembling. Zipacna looked down at it in apparent surprise. It inched towards her a bit farther before stopping again.
Zipacna looked up into her eyes, and Sam caught sight of something more. The anger was still there, but it was softer somehow, mixed with confusion and that same flicker that Sam had seen before. Determination? The hand reaching for her breast was shaking outright now, seemingly unable to close the distance and hurt her. And still his eyes stared into her own. His shoulders dropped slightly into a much more familiar stance, and he let go of her hair.
“Daniel?” It was him. She knew it was him.
Suddenly, his eyes flashed menacingly. He straightened to his full height and tilted his chin up, arrogance personified once more. He backhanded her, the ribbon device slicing across her cheek, her teeth cutting into her lip.
Zipacna strode away, calling for his Jaffa to follow. Sam wiped the blood away from her mouth with the back of her hand and absently watched the Jaffa reactivate the force field behind them. Then she shrugged her jacket back over her shoulders, doing it up to cover herself once more, and hugged her arms around her chest. Sam leaned back against the wall and let gravity bring her down to the floor, pulling her knees into her chest. Her defiance fled, and she felt the tears of fear and rage she’d been holding back flow down her cheeks.
Daniel had won a battle with his possessor, and he’d done so to protect her. But Sam knew first hand what he was up against, and though he’d accomplished far more than she had, she knew it was inevitable that Daniel would lose. She had to find a way out before Zipacna returned.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Zipacna stormed out of the prison block, his rage building with every stride as he made his way to his quarters. He ripped the corrective lenses off his face and flung them against a wall as he passed, though it did nothing to calm him. Anger at his previous host for having the gall to die so inconveniently. Anger at his current host for his rebellion. Anger at himself for losing control, however briefly. Especially in front of his prisoner. It would be much harder to frighten her if she thought her friend might emerge to help her at any moment.
‘You’d find it tough to frighten her anyway,’ said the voice of this most stubborn host. ‘Sam is strong.’
‘Your resistance will not go unpunished, human,’ Zipacna snarled. ‘And I will inevitably discover all you know. Your attempts to shield the Tok’ra from me have failed.’ It was only due to Major Carter’s question regarding her father that he’d finally discovered who had brought the Tau’ri to his base, but he was not about to admit that to the remnant of his host. He felt the human’s satisfaction in the knowledge anyway, and sent a flare of the agony only a symbiote could give. The cry of pain from his host gave him some satisfaction in return. It was quite soothing, really.
Zipacna reached his chambers and allowed his lo’tar to dress him in a more suitable fashion than the ugly garments the Tau’ri wore. He watched the slave appraising his new body as she worked, seemingly liking what she saw. He’d long since tired of her as a lover, keeping her only because she was skilled at the other aspects of her job and had earned his trust. But perhaps with her renewed interest in the novelty of this host, she’d again please him as she once had. It would be worth a try. After he’d finished with Major Carter, of course.
Apparently the pain inflicted thus far was not enough to silence his host for long. ‘I won’t let you hurt her. Not like that.’
‘You don’t mind me hurting her in other ways? I can be very... creative.’
‘I don’t have the strength to prevent it. Sam is strong. She can withstand torture. But I won’t let you rape her.’ Zipacna felt the anguish and weariness in his host’s voice, and to his chagrin, he felt relief that the man had been stretched to his limits. He didn’t wish to admit it to himself, but he’d begun to fear this human. The thought alone was enough to make him snort. Zipacna feared no one, certainly not the remnant of the human he possessed. Still, a little bargaining would make control easier. It might save him the headache of continuing to battle for dominance.
The lo’tar finished dressing him and escorted him to his command centre. He would attempt to contact the Tok’ra in orbit above before taking a well needed rest in his sarcophagus. But first he’d seek a bargain with his foolishly obstinate host. ‘Give me the codes that open the Tau’ri stargate and I will never attempt to rape her again.’
‘No.’
Zipacna tried to dig the information out by force, as he would with any other host, but again he failed. He had access to the vast majority of memories and thoughts, but somehow this host had tucked a few key bits of information away in some small corner of himself, a corner Zipacna had so far failed to reach. Never before had he experienced such resistance. Klorel had clearly had difficulties with the host the Tau’ri referred to as Skaara, but Zipacna had attributed that to weakness on the part of Apophis’s son. Certainly not to strength on the part of his host.
The only way to reconcile Zipacna’s knowledge that nothing of the inferior host survived with his current difficulties was to grudgingly acknowledge a fault of his own. Obviously it had been far too long since he’d taken a new host. He’d lost the touch for quickly subjugating the remnant. He’d spent a thousand years in his previous host. He’d become too complacent. Too soft. It would not do to repeat the mistake.
Zipacna also realized he’d have to work fast. Once Anubis discovered he’d taken a formerly ascended being as host it might very well mean Zipacna’s death. Anubis would not allow anyone to pose a threat to his power. Zipacna had to rid himself of the Tau’ri infiltrators, and then find a way to break into both the memories his host was intentionally hiding, as well as those Zipacna could sense were locked in the man’s subconscious. The knowledge of the Ancients might allow Zipacna to rival Anubis, but he would have to be both fast and daring to take advantage of them.
He smiled lopsidedly and spoke to the remnant. ‘I will have all I desire in time. Since you remain uncooperative, I will see to it that you are in pain every moment that I am neither taking the woman, nor learning your access codes.’ He clamped down hard on his host and revelled in the resulting mental screams.
But from somewhere deep within their minds, even through the cries, Zipacna heard his host’s surprisingly calm reply. ‘It’s a deal.’