“Hello Colonel Carter.” Abi said, as Sam was lead into the room.
“Princess Abi. Please, you can call me Sam… or Samantha, your choice.” Sam replied, watching the children that where still with her. “If you don’t mind my asking...”
“They are orphans; their parents have all past away from the sickness, all with the exception of Tsukiomi’s. Her parents died in an accident when she was just a baby… I have questions for you.”
“Really? Well, ask away then.”
“Why do you chose to help us, from what you have told us of your people, and what we have seen, you could easily overcome our city and take what you desire, so I ask you, why help?”
“My mother used to tell me, that the only true choice we have in life, is whether we’re a good person or not.”
“I do not follow.”
“If I where to help you, with nothing in return, even if you had something I wanted, but wouldn’t give it to me, I would be a good person.
However, if I where to take what I wanted, with no regard to you or your people, and possibly even harmed you in the process, I would be an cruel and evil person.
Unfortunately, try as I might, I am somehow trapped in the middle of these two choices, in the aspect that, although I try to be a good and kind person, I always end up ruining something, and hurting many people.”
“I think, that as long as you try, then you are a good person.”
“So you understand now?”
“Yes. I believe I do… However, I have another question… What may I ask, has gotten you and your friends so worried?”
“So, you noticed then?”
“I have many eyes among the villagers.”
“Well, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this without my other team mates, or the authority of my superior.
“Very well then, I shall have Laora return you to your room.”
“Thank you.”
“No, no. Thank you, Samantha.”
<><><><><><>“Unscheduled incoming wormhole.” Davis said through the PA system as Jack came into the control room from his office. “It’s SG-1 sir, we’re receiving a MALP transmission.”
“Carter, how’s it goin’?
“Uh… so, so sir.”
“What do you mean by ‘so, so’?”
“Well, on the up side, the planet is inhabited by peaceful people who are more than willing to trade naquada for medicines.”
“And the down side?”
“Well… They call their planet Babylon.”
“I fail to see the problem with that.”
“Well, you see, on the list of planets Ba’al is planning to attack, Babylon is the next in line.”
“Carter, you get back here now, we need to discuss this in person, leave Daniel and Teal’c there so as not to worry the locals.”
“Yes sir, Carter out.” Sam said, then disappeared from the view of the MALP camera, and materialized in front of the stargate.
“Carter, briefing room, now.”
<><><><><><>“So, what’d he say?” Daniel asked when Sam returned to Babylon.
“He said to speak with the leader, and try to convince her to relocate her people.”
“Sounds like Jack.”
<><><><><><>“So, you are saying that this man… ‘Ba’al’ is to attack our world? For what reason? What could we have possibly done to anger him?” Princess Abi asked, astonished.
“First of all, Princess, Ba’al is not a man; he is an Evil creacher yes, but no man.” Sam said remorsefully. “He attacks for the naquada on your planet, and simple malevolence, he will come, and he will attack you simply for the joy of the hunt. But we can help you, if you are willing.”
“What must we do?”
“We’ll have to relocate you, move you to a safer planet, far away from Babylon, and far away from Ba’al’s grasp. But you have to be willing to come.”
“I shall inform my people.”
<><><><><><>“What is happening?” Isumi Garange asked her husband.
“Princess Abi had called for assemblage, it is said to be an urgent matter.” Miroku replied to his worried wife.
“My people.” Princess Abi stated, standing on the village stage. “I am sorry we must assemble over such a distressing matter, however, our friends from the portal bring regretful news. We are to be attacked.”
There was a loud murmur of chatter at her Statement, but she raised her hands, and it stopped. “They have told me of an evil man, who desires the same thing that they do, however he is prepared to take it forcefully.”
“How do we know they are telling us the truth?” A man yelled out from the crowd; however Princess Abi ignored this remark and continued on.
“They wish to grant us sanctuary, and they are prepared to welcome us into their homes, while they search for a new home for us. I shall not force you to go, you may choose that of your own free will, however, my mother and I will be taking the orphans, and anyone else who wishes to go to this new world. This is an urgent matter, and we must leave by sundown. You may make your choice.”
<><><><><><>The sun was setting as people gathered around the gate, there where only about six hundred of the ten thousand population, but they where already cutting it close, and Sam could hear the death gliders approaching, it was time to go.
Sam dialed the gate and Daniel transmitted the iris code.
The Queen was taken through first, by two of the medics who had been sent through with stretcher in case of people in the queen’s condition.
Then the blasts started. Sam and Teal’c proved as backup, while Daniel ushered the people through, Abi was waiting until all of the people had gone through, when she turned pale and yelled above the gunfire, that Tsukiomi was missing.
That was when Sam’s heart stopped, and she had a quick flashback to Edora.
“Daniel, Teal’c, you get through the gate with the princess, I’m going for the girl.” Sam yelled above the gunfire.
“You don’t even know where she is!” Daniel replied with a panicked voice. That was when one of the orphan girls spoke up.
“Tsukiomi said she forgot her parents, in the cave where the accident happened.”
“Where is that?” Sam yelled to Abi.
“It is just north of the village, to the mountains; it would take perhaps, fourty minutes on a horse, no longer then an hour on foot.” Abi replied.
“You guys go ahead! If it gets any worse I’ll wait it out in the cave!” Sam yelled to her team, Daniel tried to protest, but she was ducking for the trees by then.
<><><><><><>Jack stood there in the gate room, watching as people poured in through the stargate, and where one by one escorted into another room. There was a slight hesitation before the last four people came through, and Jacks heart sunk when he realized that Sam was not one of them, there was a young woman, a little girl, Daniel and Teal’c, but no Sam.
Waiting and hoping that Sam would come through shortly, Jacks heart did one last flip, then sunk to his stomach as the ‘gate disengaged.
“Where the *hell* is Carter!?”
<><><><><><>Sam ran through the trees, dodging the Jaffa staff blasts until she saw the village ahead, and realized they hadn’t gotten to it yet… perhaps if she could distract them, they wouldn’t get to it at all…
‘But first things first’ Sam reminded herself, ‘I need to find Tsukiomi.’
<><><><><><>“So, Carter ducked for the trees, and that’s the last you saw of her?” Jack asked as Daniel finished his re-cap of their last twenty minutes on the planet.
“Yeah,” Daniel replied nervously, “I tried to go after her, but Teal’c said it was too dangerous.”
“He was right, Carter said she’d wait it out in the cave, I expect her to, we’ll try to make radio contact in a little bit, then we’ll wait.”
“But Jack, what if…” Daniel didn’t need to finish though, they where all thinking the same thing-Edora.
<><><><><><>Tsukiomi watched as the ships that SG-1 had told them about descended on the forest, obviously looking for something.
She had been up here since it started, she had come to get her parents things-her mother’s bow and bundle of arrows, her father’s sword and sheath- then it all started, and she was too frightened to leave.
Now she was all alone, for they had all gone through the portal by now no doubt.
Tsukiomi heard some rustling, and frightened that they where coming for her, she moved to the back of the cave.
<><><><><><>Sam approached the third cave she had checked, this one looking slightly more promising then the last two.
She new she was making noise, but she was tired, and sore, and bleeding profusely as a Jaffa had managed to hit her in the leg with a knife, Sam had been very lucky he had missed where he had aimed, and her only explanation for that was he must be a young solder.
“Tsukiomi?” Sam questioned as she entered the cave, and heard her sobbing, but did not see her until she was completely inside the entrance.
When Sam spotted her, she was relieved to see that she had no injuries, but was obviously terrified.
“Tsukiomi, it’s me, Sam.”
“Samantha!” Tsukiomi exclaimed as she leapt from her hiding space to hug Sam. “I thought that they where coming for me.”
“It’s okay, I’m here now; I’ll keep you safe.” Sam said, turning to look out of the cave. Sam’s heart sunk as she realized, they where already attacking the village.
“Why did you not leave me?” Tsukiomi asked, sounding somewhat surprised.
“Well you see, we have a policy where I come from, no one, gets left behind.” Tsukiomi didn’t reply, and hugged Sam tighter, seeming unable to reply.
<><><><><><>“Chevron six encoded.” Davis said, as the stargate dialed Babylon. It had been about two hours since SG-1 minus Sam, and the Evacuees had returned through the stargate, and Jack estimated that Sam should be to the cave by now.
“Chevron seven encoded.” Davis finished as the stargate gave a great woosh, then settled into itself.
“Colonel Carter, this is stargate command, do you copy?” Jack said through the little microphone on the control panel.
“Sam is busy right now.” Replied a frightened young voice. She could barely be heard and there was gunfire in the background.
“Tsukiomi?”
“Yes, that is my name.”
“Can you tell me what’s happening?”
“Samantha it trying to repel the-attacking- injured-leg is hurt.”
“Tsukiomi, I could not hear those last few words, did you say Sam was hurt?”
“Yes, to her-“ there was crackling, and nothing more, then the stargate disengaged, and someone tried dialing in.
“Close the iris.”
<><><><><><>Sam was shocked, There had been a staff blast so near Tsukiomi, that it had caused her to drop the walkie-talkie, which was now unable to transmit with all the interference.
But that was not what shocked Sam; Ba’al was here, he must have a legitimate reason for being here, and Sam figured it must be her. She tried to shoot him with her gun, but to no avail, for he had a personal shield, and she couldn’t throw her knife at him, for she already threw it at a Jaffa.
“Colonel Carter, prepare to meet your end.” Ba’al said, advancing on Sam, his right hand reached out and encircled in a golden ribbon device.
“Not quite Ba’al.” Sam said, rolling away from him and snatching up the bow and an arrow that was lying on the ground by her.
<><><><><><>Sam stood to shoot, and as she did, Tsukiomi gasped at the sight that lay before her, for she could swear on her life, that as Sam prepared to shoot, Tsukiomi was seeing her mother standing there, doing all she could to protect her. Tsukiomi had seen painting of her mother Kagome and father Inuyasha, and it had struck her when Sam first came, how much she looked like her, but this was just uncanny.
Tsukiomi’s mother had been a priestess, with high spiritual powers, and one of those, was the power to take out an entire army with a single arrow. And as Sam pulled the arrow back, Tsukiomi saw it glow, a heavenly purple, and when she released it, the entire arrow glowed, and was heading strait towards Ba’al, who retreated with a blue flash of light, but all the Jaffa who where attacking them, where taken up in the purple haze being submitted by the arrow, and disintegrated, as though they where never there.
Sam collapsed from exhaustion, and Tsukiomi ran over to her.
“Samantha, are you alright?” Tsukiomi exclaimed, running towards her, desperately hoping she could help her.
“Yes, just tired, that’s all.”
<><><><><><>They where retreating! Thank havens they where retreating! Sam knew that they where retreating on Ba’al’s command, probably because of how near Sam just came to taking his life.
Sam forced herself up, and moved to the cave entrance; the horizon was covered with flames, as the fire balls fell from the sky, and once they stopped, Sam ran down to the village. Where there survivors? Was anyone left alive? Or was it just Sam and Tsukiomi?
When they made it to the village, the run having made Sam’s leg bleed even more, she saw, the there where only a dozen, that she could see, who where left alive. Sam wanted to scream, there where children, clinging to their mothers, dead on the ground, and men, ready to fight, all cut down without even resistance, and this sight tore through Sam’s heart, she wanted to scream, to cry, to do something.
But she just stood there, and stared. Until, belatedly realizing how much blood she lost, Sam collapsed.
<><><><><><>Jack led SG-1 through the ‘Gate, having checked the MALP to be sure that there where no Jaffa near by, however, they still held their guns at the ready, just in case.
There was a rustling in the trees, and they pointed there guns at the sound, ready to fire if necessary. But it was simply a village girl, looking to be maybe fourteen, obviously scared out of her wits at the sight. Covered in blood and dirt; her medieval style dress ripped and torn.
“It’s okay! We’re not going to hurt you. My name is Jack O’Neill; I’m looking for my friend Sam.”
“Yes! That is right; the people with you have been here before. We where coming in attempt to contact you, Samantha told us how when she regained consciousness momentarily.”
“Can you take us to her?”
“Yes, but she has lost much blood, I am unsure that she will survive.”
<><><><><><>Sam opened her eyes slowly. White, everything around her was white. She knew where she was, she was in the infirmary at the SGC. Which meant…?
Sam slowly turned her head to her left, sure enough.
“Sir.”
“Carter, good to see you’re awake.” Jack said, cheerily. Sam didn’t understand, how could he be so cheery at a time like this? All those people, all those innocent people… Sam knew that even if they did all come, they couldn’t have housed all of them in the SGC, there just wasn’t enough room, but out of a population of ten thousand, only six hundred survivors. And only twelve of them had been present at for the attack.
Sam rolled onto her right side, she couldn’t look at him. She just couldn’t. He hadn’t seen the village… he wouldn’t understand…
<><><><><><>Sam rolled away from him, so she didn’t have to look at him. The realization of this hurt Jack. He knew what she was going through, but she had been unconscious when they got there, she doesn’t know that he was there.
It must have been terrible; to find the village like that, still, something had to drive Ba’al away. Otherwise he wouldn’t have stopped until everyone was dead. But instead he left twelve frightened children, not counting Tsukiomi and Sam, who had come across this site after the attack, after Ba’al retreated.
Tsukiomi told Jack about Sam’s heroic attempt to drive off their attackers, and from what Tsukiomi told him, that’s why Ba’al eventually retreated.
But Jack still had trouble believing Tsukiomi’s story, he needed to hear from Sam, he just couldn’t believe… even with everything he’s seen, he simply couldn’t believe, that Sam was able to destroy so many Jaffa, with a single, glowing arrow.
“Look, Sam… Tsukiomi told me what happened… but…”
“But what?” Sam replied quietly.
“I need to hear it from you.”
“I tried to fight them off, Ba’al showed up, I lost my knife, tried to shoot him with an arrow, and he beamed to his ship, what more do you need to know?”
“Tsukiomi said the arrow glowed purple, and disintegrated all of your Jaffa attackers.”
“Yeah… it did…”
“So, it really did that?”
“Yes. Look I took Archery when I was a kid, and… when I got good at it, the arrows started doing that, it scared me, so I stopped.”
“Wow… That’s a pretty neat trick.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
“You don’t sound too thrilled.” Sam didn’t reply. “Look Sam, you drove him off!”
“Not soon enough.”
“Sam, you saved innocent lives.”
“Twelve! Do you know how many people where left in that village? Exactly six hundred and eighty three came through with Daniel and Teal’c. out of a population of exactly ten thousand people, that leaves nine thousand three hundred and seventeen people. I saved twelve of them.” Sam said, coldly. “That means nine thousand three hundred and five innocent people lost their lives. Roughly sixty percent of them where children! innocent defenseless children, and you expect me to be happy? Sorry sir, it doesn’t work that way.”
“Look, Sam… Of course I don’t expect you to be happy, but you’ve seen this kind of thing before, and you’ve never reacted this way.”
“I’ve seen it this severe. Thousands of people… Children, even infants, clinging to their mothers for protection… all dead.”
“It was pretty bad.” Jack said quietly.
<><><><><><>Tsukiomi had been taken to Princess Abi’s room after Sam’s friends had finished questioning her. They had taken the things that Tsukiomi went back to the cave for into her room, but had them attached to a place on the wall where no one could reach them. At least that is what she was told.
“Tsukiomi, I was so worried!” Abi exclaimed, and threw her arms around Tsukiomi as she entered the room. “Are you alright? Did they harm you?”
“Samantha protected me, and almost lost her life in the process. I am very grateful to her.”
“I have been informed she is in the place they call their ‘Infirmary’ healing. They say she was stabbed in the leg, and was loosing masses of blood.”
“Yes… Sister Abi?”
“Yes Tsukiomi?”
“Did you manage to bring the painting of my parents?”
“Yes, it is in your room, hanging on the wall.”
“Sam… and her friend Jack…”
“Yes… they look like your parents… Very much so. But that is not possible, whatever would make you think it was?”
“When Samantha was protecting me… She used my mothers arrows, and when she shot it… it glowed purple, much as people have described to me, and she took out all of our attackers in one strike!”
“But Tsukiomi, even if Samantha was a reincarnation of your mother, she’s far too old, for your mother only died nine years ago.”
“Yes… your right… it is foolish of me to believe this.”
<><><><><><>Sam walked into Tsukiomi’s room, and gasped at the sight of the painting on her wall.
“It is my parents. Kagome and Inuyasha Higurashi. My Father, Inuyasha, is-was a half demon. But he loved my mother very much, and did everything he could to protect her, and our village. And then, one day, there was a cave in, in one of the mines, my parents where in the cave, protecting the workers against attackers, and where killed in the accident.”
The painting was of A Woman, around Sam’s age, who looked uncannily like Sam, only with black hair, dressed in a red kimono, and a man, with long graying hair who looked uncannily like Jack, who dressed similarly and in the same red color. Kagome was wielding a bow and arrow, the arrow glowed in an almost purple haze, like the arrow Sam had shot earlier that day, and Inuyasha was wielding a sword, that was over sized and glowing yellow, they where back to back, in an almost protective stance.
“I’m sorry… About your parents.”
“It’s okay… I don’t really remember them, I was only one when they died… and I have their things! Sister Abi had taken good care of me, since the queen mother has fallen ill. And I hope you can help her… For Abi’s sake.”
“We are doing what we can.”
<><><><><><>Sam got into the shower, sat down and started crying, her arms wrapped around her legs in an almost protective fetal position.
Why did this happen? Why did she feel this way? She’s seen things like this before, but never before has she felt so connected to a village of people like this. She felt as though her own friends and neighbors had been taken from her, and she didn’t even speak to the half of them.
But still, she couldn’t help but think of the painting… those people looked so much like them… and yet, they weren’t them… She’d seen stranger things, and yet…
<><><><><><>“Lt. Ashley.” Jack said, walking down the hallway from Sam’s lab.
“Yes sir?”
“Have you seen Carter?”
“She said something about going home sir, although she went to the showers about an hour ago, and hasn’t been seen since.”
“Thank you Lieutenant”
“No problem Sir.”
<><><><><><>“Carter?” Jack said, walking into the showers.
“Sir, this is the women’s showers, what are you doing in here?” A tired voice came from one of the showers.
“Looking for you, word on the hallway is you’ve been in there for an hour.” Jack said, walking up to the shower, and crossing his arms.
“So, can’t a girl take a long shower?” the voice replied, annoyed.
“Well, you see, It’s just not like you Sam. The longest shower you’ve ever taken was thirty minutes, and that was only because you had a broken arm.”
“Right.”
<><><><><><>‘This isn’t good.’ Sam thought, knowing Janet was going to kill her, slowly. She just put these stitches in, and now Sam was bleeding all over the shower floor. Sam knew she wasn’t supposed to exert herself, and she was definitely supposed to avoid showers (aside from sponge baths) for at least a week. But she forgot, and her stitches just clean disintegrated.
And now Jack was standing right outside her shower. How was she going to explain this one?
“Look Carter, I know what happened at Babylon was… well-“
“Sir I have a problem.” Sam said, cutting him off. It was either now or never.
“What kind of problem?” He asked, inquiringly.
“Well, sir. You know how when Janet stitches you up she warns you not to go near a shower for a week?”
“Yeah, but when she gives you stitches, she usually keeps you in the infirmary for said week.”
“Well, she let me out to go see Tsukiomi. And I seem to have forgotten about the stitches…”
“Had that happen a few times… you want me to call her?”
“Could you?”
“No problem.”
“Thank you, sir.”