Daniel folded his arms and glared mutinously at the Others.
“Explain why you won’t do anything to stop this.”
They blinked at him impassively.
“Oma learned her lesson,” he pressed. “And it would have been a little nice of you to actually tell her what lesson you wanted her to learn, instead of twiddling your... tentacles while all those inferior ‘lowers’ got killed by Anubis.”
“We do not interefere,” one of them finally said, even as many of the Others started to drift away.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Been there, done that, got the – well, actually, I didn’t get the T-shirt.” Daniel frowned a little at the memory of Oma’s perverse humor. “But Oma dealt with Anubis. All that’s left is what he’s already put into motion. So why won’t you stop it?”
Most of the Others had already returned to their newspapers and coffee. The woman who had spoken before regarded him coolly.
“Why are you still troubled by events of your past life?” she finally asked.
“I care about my friends!”
“You are dead,” she pointed out with infuriatingly calm logic.
“So what?”
“Most of your species no longer concern themselves with the living after death.”
Daniel snorted. “Most of ‘my species’ aren’t offered a get-out-of-death-free card, either.”
“That offer has been withdrawn,” she observed. “The one who made it is no longer available, and she has told you that there will be no further chances.”
“I’m not giving up,” he said stubbornly.
“Even though you are dead?” She looked almost amused now.
“From what Oma told me,” Daniel said, ignoring the question and the hint of mockery, “I can walk out that door and die. Or I can Ascend completely. So what’s to stop me from Ascending and interfering?”
She arched her eyebrows at him. “Us,” she said.
“A microsecond is all the time I’ll need,” he threatened.
She actually sighed. “Daniel Jackson...”
“What?”
There was no waving of the hand, no sudden flash of light, no sparkle or glitter or word of warning. Daniel simply vanished. The woman did blink for a moment as she halted the smooth flow of the space-time continuum for just long enough to allow two lowers on an inferior, mortal plane to stop a laughably primitive calculating device from detonating a massive explosive. She also allowed the faintest of smiles to curve her lips upward as she deposited Daniel Jackson in the place and time of her choosing. He would not acquire a “T-shirt” this time, either.
She turned to find the Others watching her with suspicion.
“You have interfered,” one of them stated, his tone just this shade of accusation.
“I have done only what is required for our own plane of existence,” she said calmly.
“Explain.”
“Did I interfere by returning Daniel Jackson to his mortal plane?”
“You did not,” the Other conceded. “Yet you also manipulated time and space for the lowers’ benefit.”
“It was for ourselves,” she repeated. “If Daniel Jackson had returned and died immediately thereafter, his residual memories of this experience would have enabled him to properly Ascend without assistance.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“With him as a full Ascended,” she noted, “our ability to monitor his subsequent actions would have been extremely limited.”
There was a second, longer pause as the Others contemplated a fully Ascended Daniel Jackson who could not be easily ignored, manipulated, or dismissed.
“Well done,” the Other finally said.
And if the woman noticed the slight shudder that he suppressed, she was wise enough to say nothing about it.