O'Neill Interrupted an interlude Part 3
"Came to give me a pep-talk?"
He rolled, wincing when the light hit his eyes.
Carter was sitting on the cell floor, her back against the wall. He squinted, trying to get his battered lids to open wider. She looked pale, with a bruise on her temple already fading to yellow.
He didn't try to get up as he answered her. "I didn't come to give you anything. You came to me."
Her forehead creased into a frown and she cocked her head to one side. "Friends?"
His laugh was bitter. "Friends? I'd hardly call us that. Not now."
"So as long as I'm thinking about you
"
He cut her off. "Thinking about me? I doubt that. You've gotten on with your life because it's easier than admitting you forgot about me. I'm a complication one you'd rather do without."
Her dark-ringed eyes stared back at him as if she hadn't heard. "One last thing
"
"There is no last thing, Major. We're done." He rolled back over, turning his back to her. "I said this to Daniel and I'll say it to you fuck off."
**********
"You wanted to see me?"
"That was weeks ago."
"I was busy."
Jack straightened awkwardly. The damage that had been done to his leg had taken its toll, leaving it crooked and barely able to hold his weight. The fact Herak and his goons had taken a particular interest in that part of his anatomy hadn't helped either. The days since the attack on the base had been brutal and bitter ones for the colonel, but his new found determination had steeled him, despite making him feel as twisted as his malformed limb.
Now his request for an audience had been granted, he was briefly at a loss for words.
Anubis leaned forward, his hands gripping the arms of his throne. "Well?"
The time had come, but Jack couldn't bring himself to answer. He shook his head, his throat suddenly dry.
"Never mind. I ordered you brought to me for my own purpose." The Goa'uld seemed to really see him for the first time he sat back slightly and turned to Herak, gesturing towards Jack. "Have him readied for the trip. See he is cleaned up, his appearance offends me."
The First Prime wrinkled his nose. "Yes, My Lord."
And so Jack found himself being bathed, shaved and given a haircut by a resentful Jaffa one of his many torturers. The shaving may have been a trifle close at times, and the Jaffa hadn't been gentle, but Jack revelled in the feeling of being clean. He had almost forgotten what it was like to not have matted hair hanging into his eyes, to not smell his own putrid breath, and to have clothes that were more than rags.
At one point in the proceedings he caught sight of himself in a mirror. The glimpse was enough to turn his stomach as an emaciated wreck stared back at him through sunken eyes that seemed too large for a face crisscrossed with new lines and scars. His hair had more than a few white strands mingling amongst the gray.
He had become old.
He turned away, mourning the fit warrior he had once been.
And that he could have been again if he had been rescued.
**********
They ringed down together, into devastation. Jack stared around him, wondering why Anubis had brought him here. He could see nothing he recognised, just bare earth, debris, and in the distance, trees.
"I wanted to thank you, Colonel. I asked you for the new site of your world's base and you gave it to me. Without your information the search would have been long." The Goa'uld walked forward, Jack trailing slightly behind on his left side, one of the skulls flanking him. "Many Tok'ra and rebel Jaffa died here, along with your own people."
They stepped over rocks, skirting the remains of equipment that was horribly familiar. The area they had ringed down into was dominated by the stargate, the huge ring lying flat on its back like some carelessly discarded giant toy. "The battle was short. My kull warriors saw to that."
"Enough with the cryptic comments. Where the hell are we?"
"I believe you call it the Alpha site." Anubis's Ancient had become more and more fluid each time he spoke to Jack, as if he hadn't used it for a very long time. "I'm surprised you don't recognise it. After all, you are the one who gave me the address."
He hadn't. He hadn't known anything about a new Alpha site.
He hadn't.
Jack turned and looked up at the mountains, his eyes recognising what his mind refused to.
He knew this place. It was one of the many sites he and his team had surveyed. It was a planet devoid of intelligent life, and of anything of interest at all. They had deemed it boring as hell.
He lowered his gaze back down to the area they were coming to, seeing the bodies scattered here and there, the dull red of dried blood mingling with the broken wood and fallen rocks.
Faces he recognised. Malcolms from SG-16. Slokav he had been a new recruit, straight out of training and not assigned to a team last Jack knew. Kerr, barely recognisable, looking like he had been caught in the explosion that had left such destruction in its wake.
He even saw a face or two he knew among the Tok'ra and Jaffa lying dead, and he couldn't help but find himself looking for more faces ones he was afraid to find.
His own team may have been here. Jonas, if he had escaped Anubis's clutches, Teal'c and Carter.
Did he hope they had been here?
Somewhere deep inside perhaps he did. They had left him. If he found their bodies, he could leave them as well.
Jack was barely aware of Anubis's voice, telling him how he planned to find some Ancient city. Something about weapons.
He had done this caused these deaths. Careless words had been enough to destroy so many lives.
"One of your teammates, the woman, was here. She was in a building over there." Anubis nodded towards a space devoid of anything except pieces of debris no larger than small boulders. "She was with one of the Tok'ra her father I believe. An interesting relationship and one I would have liked to explore more fully if given the chance. It is a pity they died."
Jack shook his head, half in denial and half trying to clear it. "No." Now it had been said he knew he did care. The fact that the bodies surrounding them were there because of him was bad enough, but the thought that Carter and Jacob were. . . "No."
The Goa'uld reached into a fold in his robes, bringing out a battered green cap. His face may have been missing but his voice conveyed his pleasure. "Major Samantha Carter."
He held the cap out and Jack found himself taking it without conscious effort. He twisted it in his hands, still staring at the snake, "Nunquamo," unable to look.
He knew the name tag would be there. He could feel it under his fingertips.
He twisted the hat, his fingers dancing on the rim, while his mind danced from emotion to emotion, each stranger than the last, until finally the alien consumed the normal and left him staring at the object in his hand in mute incomprehension.
Jack ignored the kull warrior, left to eliminate any survivors, and limped after Anubis, just one follower among many.
Just before they ringed back up to the ship he dropped the cap in the dust, leaving it and his past behind.
**********
"Why, O'Neill? Why, after all this time?" Anubis drummed his fingers. "I am suspicious of your motives."
Jack didn't answer immediately. The kneeling position he was in should have been agonising for his crippled leg, but he had found his physical body was now unimportant, pushed to the side while his mind spiralled down new paths.
With some difficulty, he brought his attention back to the Goa'uld. He spoke hesitatingly, almost stuttering. "I need to find. . . to complete. . . what is inside me must be used before it destroys me."
Anubis leaned forward. "What is it that is inside you, O'Neill?"
Jack's voice firmed. He finally looked directly into the Goa'uld's face. "Power, My Lord, vast power. And it is yours to command."
**********
Jack sat up, realising that the sense that had saved his life so often had been right to warn him of a presence in his room.
Things were looking up at last. He had been released from the cell and brought to this rather plain, but luxurious in comparison, bedroom. It even came with a closet of clothes and washing facilities. Sure, there was a guard posted at the door and he wasn't allowed out unless summoned, but he didn't care he had a soft mattress and regular meals.
It was that same mattress he was lying on when he had been woken from his light doze by the feeling he was being watched.
"For crying out loud! What do you want? Can't a guy have a nap around here without someone floating in for a visit?"
Janet Fraiser shook her head, her eyes alight with anger. Jack couldn't help looking at her hands to make sure she wasn't holding any sharp pointy medical instruments.
"I can't believe you're doing this, sir, betraying your own planet and your friends. Why? Why are you doing it?"
Jack laughed, moving his feet onto the floor and standing. "Funny that's exactly what Lord Anubis wanted to know."
"Lord? He's a snake one of those Goa'uld you have been fighting so long and now you are calling him Lord?"
"Yeah, well, at least he's looking after me." Jack rubbed his face, limping over to the jug of water on a small table. "You go without the most basic of comforts for over a year and then tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing." He poured a drink, and moved to sit in the single chair, holding the glass carefully in shaking hands. "As for betrayal you're preaching to the wrong guy, Doc. I could write a book about betrayal and how it feels to be abandoned."
"No one has abandoned you, sir. They have never given up hope of finding you."
"That's where you're wrong! They did find me and they left me here." The glass shattered against the wall, flung by a man so angry he could barely speak.
"No! You can't believe that." Fraiser came closer, squatting down beside Jack's chair. "Teal'c didn't see you. You can't believe he would have left you if he had."
"Can't I?"
"No, in your heart you know you're wrong. Your team, General Hammond, everyone at the SGC have been searching for you all this time, but they've had other battles to fight. These kull warriors are unstoppable, that's what Sam and Jacob were working on at the new Alpha site."
He interrupted, his voice vibrating with fury. "They're busy fighting the kulls? That's rich. Those things are so big and slow they could be taken out with a well aimed slingshot. You'll have to come up with a better answer than that."
"You haven't seen them in action, Jack."
He raised an eyebrow. "It's Jack now, is it?"
"We're friends, aren't we?"
"I can't be friends with a figment of my imagination. I guess there's something inside me wants human companionship, so I conjure up someone I can talk to. You, Carter, Daniel. Probably going to be the pizza guy next."
"There is a lot more going on than you are aware of, sir, and you're giving Anubis what he wants because of a misguided sense of injustice? Is that all it is? A temper tantrum? A fit of pique?"
"No, I. . . " Jack stopped, giving her a calculating look. "How do I know you aren't something created by this thing in my head?" He tapped the spot that gave him the most pain, and where he assumed the implant to have been inserted. "Trying to find stuff out." He turned his head towards the door as if he expected it to open, then back to Janet. "I don't have to explain my motives. You are a figment nothing more."
"No. You're not imagining me. I'm really here."
Jack's lips twisted into a smile. He extended his right hand and waved it through the doctor's face, waggling his fingers as he did so. "Yeah, right."
"Last time it was a shoe."
He gave Janet a startled look, thinking through the implication of her words, before asking softly, "Like Daniel?"
She nodded, her face sad. "Exactly like Daniel. I'm dead, Jack."
"Dead? How?"
"A team member was injured offworld Simon Wells of SG-13. I went along with the rescue party. I didn't know what hit me. Alive one second, dead the next. Colonel Dixon was hit too and almost died, he's been leading SG-1 for over a year now, but Sam, Teal'c and Daniel were okay." She smiled, her expression relaxing. "And Simon made it. His wife gave birth to a little girl. They named her Janet, after me."
For a second Jack almost found himself being pulled into the delusion. His eyes began to water and he rubbed at them angrily, then he froze, his mind going into overdrive.
"Jack?"
When he spoke it was in a snarl, every word spat out from between bared teeth. "You almost had me going there with your sob story of heroic self-sacrifice. Almost. But you made two mistakes. Daniel and Carter are dead."
"No. Daniel came back to us months ago. Sam escaped the kull warrior and was rescued by Daniel and Dave Dixon. I'm the only dead person around here, Colonel."
"Dead. They're all dead. And now you are too. Dead." Jack began to chant, muttering the words over and over. "Morte, morte, morte, vos es mortuus."
"Nul desperandum."
His eyes flickered across her face at her words, but he continued to mutter. "Doc doesn't speak Ancient. She isn't real. Dead, all dead. Dead." He knew he was losing his mind and this was just more proof. Anubis had told him they encountered SGC troops on another of the planets he had given them, and this apparition was merely a manifestation of the guilt he felt. Janet's death as punishment for his transgressions. For what he was doing.
Mea culpa.
Nothing more.
Nothing more.
He shook his head and rocked backwards and forwards. His dream was telling him not to despair, but he had done so long ago.
Jack continued to rock far into the night as Janet kept watch over him.
**********
"Hoc est Proklarush Taonas"
Anubis pointed a glove encased figure at the pieces of paper strewn on the work bench. "Here, O'Neill? There is nothing on this planet but fire."
Jack could only nod, it was all he had left, that and the desire for vengeance that burned brightly while his humanity died.
"My spies tell me your people have been searching for weapons capable of defeating me. We shall travel to your planet first." The Goa'uld turned to leave but paused, giving Jack one last long look. "If I find you are toying with me, you will become part of this planet of fire, but only after you watch your own world burn beneath your feet."
"Mei Dominus" Jack bowed low, waiting until Anubis left before straightening and returning to the pieces of equipment scattered around the large workroom. He ignored the watching Jaffa, hurrying to finish his work, driven to complete it before time ran out.
**********
Even Jack's addled brain could tell the Goa'uld was furious. He stormed across the bridge of his mothership, ignoring the cowering Jaffa around him.
"How dare he speak to me that way? I am his god. I will destroy this planet and everything on it, leaving nothing but bare rock. This Hayes will be the first to perish. I shall leave my fleet here, in the skies of your homeworld, O'Neill, as a reminder of just what they risk when they question their god."
Jack carried on, more interested in the ring transport he was building. He lost himself in the calculations flashing through his mind, finding some sense of peace in the formula.
His concentration was shattered as a hand pulled him to his feet, grabbing him by the collar of the black tunic he wore. He found himself breathing into the void that was the Goa'uld's face. He knew Anubis was speaking, but whatever he was saying was beyond Jack's comprehension, all he saw were lights flashing in the darkness and images of loneliness and fear. He leaned forward, staring, feeling himself being sucked into a morass of sensation, almost craving the emotion and, for a second, remembering what he had lost. Then he was flung aside like a rag doll as the Goa'uld gave an exasperated exclamation.
Jack scrambled up and went on with his work.
He surfaced slightly, hours later, if only long enough to rearrange the drive crystals. Getting a zat was difficult, but he managed it, taking his guard by surprise and using the weapon to activate the process he had initiated. As the massive ship lurched forward, going far beyond its normal top speed, he sat back, shaking his head in a vain attempt to dispel the fog that was rapidly filling it. He didn't even notice the hiss of three zat blasts as his unfortunate guard was punished for his neglect.
**********
The Goa'uld held the object carefully, its green and orange lights reflecting off the strangely metallic surface of his cloak.
"Explain."
Jack pointed up at the stars circling his head, no longer having the words. He hoped the Goa'uld got it, because there wasn't much time. Jack needed to get back to Earth. The pressure was building.
The image zoomed in, showing a planet with swirling clouds floating over blue and white.
"This is your own planet?"
Jack nodded, wishing he could rest.
"It is there we shall find the weapon?" When Jack nodded this time, Anubis gave one in return. "This power supply will enable us to use it?" It wasn't really a question, so Jack just shut his eyes. The Goa'uld knew what the thing in his hands was, he clearly recognised it. Jack could rest now he needed his strength for what was to come.
He was dimly aware of being carried back to the rings and then of being deposited in his cramped quarters.
He snuggled his head into the somewhat solid Jaffa version of a pillow, and slept.
**********
The sky was filled with the sound of aircraft as F-302's raced over a landscape torn with ridges and crevasses of ice. They looked somehow triumphant, like teenagers eager to push themselves to the limit and sure of their invulnerability. With co-ordinated grace they formed into groups, each targeting one of the hovering Goa'uld ships, and then, with astonishing speed, leaped into the attack.
Arms of yellow fire spat from the pristine snow, hunted, found prey, and struck.
It was over in seconds. Earth's defence fell to the ground in burning heaps of molten metal.
The best was kept for last, as Earth's last hope, the Prometheus, turned and made a run towards the mothership looming above it. It had barely gone a few meters before it too was engulfed in flame.
And Anubis laughed aloud, one hand firmly gripping his shoulder in approval as Jack grinned and relaxed into the comforting surface of the Ancient chair.
He could rest.
As he always said, a job worth doing was worth doing well.
**********
"O'Neill, we are here." Herak roughly shook the sleeping man's shoulder. "Lord Anubis awaits you."
Jack nodded, pushing aside the dream images and rubbing the grit from his eyes. He stood, without even straightening his shirt, heedless of his ruffled appearance. The walk to the bridge wasn't long, but he was exhausted before they reached the end of the first corridor and for once he felt grateful for the protocol of kneeling before his god.
The Goa'uld stood over him silently for a time and when he spoke it was quietly, with almost a hint of amused affection. "Can you understand anything that I am saying, O'Neill?" He reached down, putting a hand on the kneeling man's head. "O'Neill, I wish for you to know you have served me well. You have your god's thanks. Once the battle is done, I shall see you are buried with full honors."
Jack opened his mouth, trying to think of the words, wanting to tell the Goa'uld what he thought of the honor, but shut it again within a couple of seconds, already having forgotten what he had been about to say and why. He began to move, awkwardly maneuvering so that his good leg took most of the strain.
Anubis stepped back, giving Jack room and allowing him to get to his feet. The Goa'uld followed him, watching carefully as he hurried to the modified ring transport device. Pieces of machinery littered the grey ring that took up much of the space on the floor in front of Anubis's throne. Jack pushed them away, clearing it while making last minute adjustments.
Before long it was ready. The Goa'uld stepped into the centre, Jack beside him, with a kull warrior in front and behind, their weapons ready.
Herak took up his position at the controls. "My Lord, please allow me to go in your place. This may be a trap. I do not trust this Tau'ri."
"Look at him." Anubis gestured to Jack. "What the mind control device and your torture could not do, the Ancient repository completed. Only instinct drives him now. I doubt he even knows he is betraying his own people. No, your place is here, at the head of my armies. With the weapon hidden below, I shall be unstoppable. The power of the Ancients is mine."
They turned as urgent words interrupted them. "We read numerous craft approaching, My Lord!" The Jaffa at the scanner controls pointed at the screen. "They appear to be small attack vessels. There is also a larger ship just entering the area, but our scanners show its weapons are inferior to our own."
The First Prime made a final plea. "My Lord, I beg you to remain here. It is too dangerous to ring to the planet until this threat is eliminated."
"I shall ring down as planned. See that you deal with this annoyance before I return."
"My Lord." With a bow, Herak activated the controls.
***********
The cavern was dimly lit, and Anubis gave orders for the two kull warriors to switch on the lights they had on their armament. Even with the extra illumination there were various alcoves and larger spaces the light didn't reach at all. Covering some entrance ways were decorations of fine tracery, delicate work seeming out of place in the darkness. The kulls' eyes glowed white as they stood, shining the lights over the large area.
Anubis allowed Jack to lead the way, following as the colonel walked towards a closet-like object, barely as high as the tall Tau'ri.
Jack leaned forward, resting both hands on either side of its doors.
"Dolmata."
"Sleep. Yes, O'Neill, you can sleep all you want soon." Anubis pushed Jack hard in the middle of his back, his patience at an end. "Show me the weapon."
Jack walked on, into a room containing a single chair, identical to the one at Proklarush Taonas. Getting down on his good knee, he held his hand over a spot on the edge of the dais, revealing a spent power core. The Goa'uld took the new one from under his cloak, handing it to Jack.
"Hurry." The single word was snapped out in a tone used to obedience.
Jack turned the core, clicking it into place and pushing down on it until it disappeared into the surface. He hesitated a moment, as if unsure of his next actions, then sat in the throne-like chair, resting his hand carefully on the arm controls, his long fingers playing over them as if they were a musical instrument.
The chair turned, and Anubis gave a disgruntled mutter, but before he could move around to see what Jack was doing, lights came on, bringing the cavern into clear view for the first time.
He hurried around the dais, coming to a halt in front of the seated man once more.
"Well?"
Jack stared at him, his face expressionless, his eyes vacant, but all the while his fingers danced on the control pad. He looked straight into the Goa'uld's face, shut his eyes and gave a small smile.
With a rumble of falling ice, creatures of yellow lava vomited forth from the hole that opened at his feet, shooting up and twisting into separate streams, each seemingly with a will of its own. The kull warriors raised their arms, completely unable to defend themselves against the seething onslaught, their bodies wreathed in fire as they fell to the floor.
"No!" Anubis took one step towards Jack, his outraged scream echoing in the chamber, before he put his arms over his face in a vain attempt to stave off the inevitable.
It was no use.
**********
There had never been much noise down in the caves under the ice.
No cries as Jack fed on the vast energy concealed within him. No holy dread from worshippers. Instead he sat there alone, a man with the powers of gods.
And as the last of the fountain of light was forced from the cavern at his feet, and the huge ship that hovered in the sky above him exploded into thousands of pieces, his head flopped to one side, a god no longer, not even a man - just a husk that had for a brief moment held the fate of worlds in his hands.
His heart fluttered in his chest as he gave himself up to all-consuming tiredness.
**********
The whump of a ring transport broke the silence. Flashlight beams pierced the darkness, coming to rest on the man in the chair.
Footsteps thudded dully on the ice covered floor, as four people ran to cluster around the figure, their faces reflecting their astonishment.
"Jack, god. . . how?" Daniel shook his head in amazement.
"He must have been with Anubis all this time, otherwise how else could he have gotten here." Dixon turned his gaze shifting from corner to corner as if seeking out a hidden enemy. "What's his condition, Major?"
Carter let her weapon drop as she reached a tentative hand out to the colonel's neck, as if afraid he would vanish at her touch. "His pulse is erratic." She leaned in, speaking straight at him, her tone fierce. "Don't you dare leave us now. We've finally found you."
Her voice seemed to rouse him. His eyes opened, not fully, just slits but enough for them to see the familiar brown looking back at them. They moved, taking in each of them in turn, lingering longest over Daniel and Carter.
"Morte?"
None of them needed the whispered word translated. It was Teal'c who chose to answer, shaking his head emphatically. "No, O'Neill, you are not dead."
"Please, Jack."
He was able to give her only one word in response.
"Dolmata."
She shook her head, looking to her teammates for help. "I don't understand."
"Sleep. It means sleep."
Jack fought to raise a shaking hand, pointing towards the box, its call already loud in his head. "Dolmata."
"Check it out. Major," Dixon ordered, his eyes never leaving his fellow colonel's face. "Hang in there, Jack." There was no answer as Jack's eyes closed once again.
"He must have had another Ancient library of knowledge downloaded for him to be able to use this equipment." Daniel was looking around, but his hand remained firm on Jack's arm. "But how long ago? How much time do we have? We should contact the Asgard. They helped before." The words rushed out faster and faster as his agitation grew. "We have to do something."
Teal'c answered, a hint of moisture shining in the corner of his eyes, exposed by the beams of the lights. "Perhaps there is nothing we can do. O'Neill may have reached the end of his journey."
"No I refuse to accept that. We just need some time to find a solution."
"And that device may be the answer." Carter came up to them, touching the fingertips of her left hand on Jack's arm as she spoke. "It seems to be similar to the cryogenic chambers on the 'Stromos'. Maybe that's what Colonel O'Neill wants to be put into it until an answer can be found."
Dixon nodded, but raised an objection. "Do you think it will work? It doesn't look like this equipment has been used for a very long time."
"Something must be working. I assume it was Jack who activated the weapons that destroyed Anubis's fleet." Daniel blinked, his next words spoken more slowly. "Anyway, I don't think we have a choice."
Dave straightened, the decision made. "I agree. Teal'c?"
Teal'c reached down as the others stepped away, lifting Jack from the chair. He carried him the short distance to the chamber, the door opening as they approached. At first it looked like Jack would be unable to stand as he slumped bonelessly in Teal'c arms, but then his eyes opened and he stood, leaning slightly against the cold wall.
**********
He knew they were there enough of him was still left to recognise the faces, with their mixed expressions of joy and sorrow.
He was dead. He must be, because Carter and Daniel were dead.
But they looked so real, so alive. Dim memories of his conversation with Doc Fraiser surfaced, and he struggled to put the pieces together.
If they hadn't died. . .
There were so many things he needed to say.
He needed to tell them about Harry. That he had made a promise to come back.
He needed to tell them about the alien craft he had found and where he had hidden it.
He needed them to get that damned machine out of his head, to let him think his own thoughts without them being twisted for a snake's evil whim.
He needed to tell them, to explain that he had never hated them, that even at his lowest he had kept fighting the Goa'uld, fighting to hold on long enough to ensure his world was safe.
He needed to tell them not to grieve. That he had always known they would never have given up looking for him.
And that he understood.
There were so many things he needed to say, but none of them would come. So, as the ice formed across his eyelids, he whispered the only thing he had left in him.
"Aveo. . . amacus."
Goodbye, friends.
And finally slept.
The End
Heliopolis Main Archive
A Stargate: SG-1 Fanfiction Site
O'Neill Interrupted β an interlude
by FlatkatsiSite Navigation
Support Heliopolis