Jack leans against the wall, flexing his fingers. He can do this. It doesn't matter that he feels like crap or that Carter feels like crap or that instead of shooting Baal, he'd rather kick the bastard to death. He can do this.
The force shield falls. Jack recognizes these guards, but they're so stony-faced that he wonders again if anyone is really on his side. But they hold his elbows without gripping too tightly, and the one on his left takes some of Jack's weight. Jack suspects thanking them wouldn't be a great idea.
He limps down the hall with his silent escorts, memorizes the exact position of the zat on the left guy's hip. It's Jack's injured side -- and his ankle is already protesting the walk -- but all he has to do is grab the gun, right?
They go through five long corridors, turning sharply twice, and he can remember the path, he can. But he can remember the inside of the sarcophagus better: that fucking light, and the grating of stone as it opened. And the knives.
Right, right, left. Pain fades from his awareness: there are gold walls, and there are corners, and there is a zat, and there is Jack.
When they stop, the Jaffa pause, giving him a moment to prepare himself. Jack takes a deep breath. He can do this.
The door is heavy, blocking any sound from inside; then it slides away and Baal faces him, smugly. The hand device is active and aimed at Carter. She's on her knees, her wrists chained together behind her back, cheeks puffy, face streaked with tears and snot. Jesus.
Baal flicks his wrist, shutting off the beam, and Carter slumps forward with a shuddering gasp. Focus, O'Neill. Focus.
"Colonel O'Neill," the snake drawls in his strange accent. He looks at Carter, and then back at Jack. "So kind of you to join us."
She hadn't noticed Jack was in the room until Baal said his name. Now she turns her head, eyes wide and red, and mouths the word, "No."
Jack shrugs. The snake is still watching. "Thrilled to be here," he says.
"Which shall it be, then, O'Neill?" Baal pulls a knife from his pocket and catches the light with it. It's not like the other knives, from before. It has a worn, wooden handle and looks too cheap for Goa'uld tastes. "How shall I kill you first?" Baal asks. "Or perhaps it would be more amusing for us both to watch her die."
"Yeah," Jack says, making himself see only Baal's face, not the blade. He can hear Carter sniffling, and he can tell she's kneeling now, but he blocks her out, too. "I'd really rather not. What's behind door number three?"
Baal laughs and aims the knife at Carter, the same way he aimed them at Jack, and Jack can't help but see her now. He struggles against the Jaffa for show, but it's an easy thing to fake. "She is difficult," Baal says. "I wonder that you put up with her."
Jack would like to put up with her a little longer. He doesn't reply; Baal cocks his head curiously. Jack's hand itches for the trigger -- he can already feel the shape and weight of the weapon. He forces his fingers to still.
"I had heard you were no longer a foot soldier in your futile war, O'Neill." Baal turns slightly, reaching for something behind him, and this is it. The zat's in Jack's hand in a millisecond. "I hadn't thought I'd --"
Jack fires, cutting off the sentence. Baal slumps to the floor; a tray falls from his hand, scattering knives like a homicidal waterfall. But he's still conscious, and he makes a desperate move for the shield on-switch on his wrist.
Jack shoots again, and this time it takes: Baal's head thuds as it falls. "Yes," Jack says, stepping closer. "Fucking snake."
Carter sucks in a breath, sitting back on her heels. She looks around, notices the Jaffa, and apparently realizes that they're the good guys. She tries to wipe her face on her shoulder.
Jack fires a third time. Blue lightning crackles along the body, but it doesn't disappear. Crap. "Guess they don't work the same way on Goa'uld," he says, aiming for a fourth shot.
"You can't disintegrate him, Jack," Carter says. Jack's head whips toward her.
"Oh, yes, I can."
She twists her legs out from under her body, and scoots back to the wall. "He's the only thing standing in Anubis' way."
She's right, and it sucks. "Dammit."
"What your woman says is true." Shit, Jack had forgotten the Jaffa were there. He shouldn't forget that stuff. "It would be worse for us all should Anubis gain power over Baal's dominion," the Jaffa says. Jack doesn't even know their names. Maybe he should have learned their names.
Jack lowers the zat. "Yeah, yeah, I get it." He looks around, spotting the stupid thing that caused this mess on a table by the wall. It shines silver and looks like a cheap carnival prize. He limps across the room and pockets it; it's cool on his leg, through the cotton. "I'm tying the bastard up, though. Can you guys watch the door until I shoot you?"
One of them gives Jack a small, Teal'c-like smile. "We will assist you, O'Neill," he says. Jack isn't sure, but he thinks the guy is trying to be funny.
"Uh ... yeah. Thanks." He turns back to Carter. She's okay, she's okay, and they're going home. "Where's the key for those?"
She squints up at him, breathes deeply as if to keep from being sick. "Um. There's a pocket in his coat. Get the power source, too. It's over there."
"Already got it." It's hard to bend down, with his leg, plus it makes him dizzy. He's relaxed enough, after shooting Baal, that injuries and fever have started clamoring for attention again. But he finds the key and limps over to Carter; she bends forward to let him free her hands.
"Can you walk?" he asks, because it's easier than everything else he wants to say.
She rubs one raw wrist, then the other. She's shaking, but Jack can see her steeling herself, checking him out; she knows what they still have to do. "Better than you can," she says.
"Right."
The room spins. Jack blinks the dizziness away as he drags Carter's chains to Baal.
"Take off his sash," she says. "We can use it to tie them up."
Jack shrugs at the Jaffa. "Sorry, guys," he says. One of them, the possibly funny one, nods.
The sash is knotted at Baal's waist. Jack kneels painfully. God, it hurts even more to be this close and not get to break the bastard's neck.
He tugs at the gold material, sniffs, then looks up at Carter. "You puked on him, didn't you?"
"On his shoes," she says proudly. "It was sort of on purpose."
He definitely approves. "Nice work."
"Thank you." She takes one more deep breath and stands, using the wall for balance.
"Sit down, Sam."
She ignores him, and kneels instead -- on Baal's other side, where she wraps the chain securely around his ankles. Jack lashes the wrists, finally chaining arms and legs together in what will be a very uncomfortable pose. Well, that's something. Not that Baal will notice, since he's temporarily dead.
Jack nearly topples as he stands. He grabs the table.
Carter jumps to her feet to help him. "Jack?" She's steadier than he is, for the moment.
"I'm okay. Just ... maybe you can deal with them?" He offers her the zat, trigger end first.
She frowns but doesn't argue, though she does apologize to the Jaffa before zatting them. Jack watches her tie them both up, more tightly than necessary. She gags them, then Baal.
"Nobody'll believe they volunteered for that," Jack says.
"Let's hope not." She bends down for the other Jaffa's weapon, and pauses to inhale deeply once she's upright again. "Come on. Are you sure you can walk?"
"Yeah." But still he welcomes her strength under his left arm, when she hoists him up.
"Jack, you feel like a furnace."
"I can walk, Carter. And you don't look so great yourself."
She shakes her head, either giving up on the argument before it starts, or wondering what she ever saw in him the first place.
Jack can feel her determination in the force of her shoulders. They start for the door, but Carter stops quickly. "Wait," she says. "I need my right hand. I'll have to be on your other side."
"Right. Okay."
She bears as much of his weight as she can while she switches arms. Oh, this is going to hurt. And he'll have to shoot lefty, but she's probably got better aim than he does right now, anyway.
She opens the door and sweeps the corridor; it's clear. Thank you, Sul'kesh. Once they're out, Carter turns and blasts the lock, soldering it shut. It'll be a while before anybody gets in there. If they're lucky, it'll be hours before anybody tries to get in there.
They inch along the wall, as quietly as Jack can limp. The two Jaffa at the first intersection don't fight back, as Sul'kesh promised; Carter takes them down quickly, and leaves Jack propped up behind a column while she drags the unconscious bodies into a side room. She locks that door by zat, too.
When she returns, sucking in air, she heaves him up but then stills. It takes Jack a few seconds to hear it: a Jaffa patrol, sounds like. He and Carter squeeze together in the shadows. Jack swallows hard and fights back a memory of the inside of that stupid stone box.
But the Jaffa, four of them, pass by without slowing. Jack feels Carter exhale, and after a minute she starts to lead him away from the wall. They only make it a few feet before she drags him back.
"Crap," she whispers. "Crap, crap, crap."
It's another patrol, a smaller one as far as Jack can hear. He presses his back into the column, her warmth tight under his arm. The footfalls are heavy and metallic and in perfect unison and there's no way they've been missed so soon. No way.
Jack can't tell anymore if it's her shaking, or him. And suddenly he realizes the Jaffa have turned. They're not coming down this corridor; they're not after him and Carter.
"I'm too old for this," he says.
"Shh. Let's move out." She squints at the light as they emerge.
At the next corner, Carter peeks out and signals that there are two Jaffa ahead. Jack looks, too. They're stationed outside a door. Baal's quarters, maybe? Or his bathroom, who knows.
Carter inhales and exhales a few times. She's got that look like there's something repulsive in her mouth, but she swallows it down and signals Jack to stay put. He nods and she darts across the hall, shooting one of the guards. Jack goes for the other one, only glancing his shoulder.
The guy pivots and takes aim -- he's definitely not one of Sulky's. Jack ducks back and three staff blasts hit the wall, too close to his head; pain shoots up from his ankle. Before he can get back in position there's another zat blast, from Carter. The guard falls, and she disappears to take care of them. Jack has trouble catching his breath.
"Okay," she says, beside him again. She can't feel much better than Jack does. "We go right at the end of this hallway, and then we should see it. You ready?"
"Gimme a minute."
Her head turns sharply. "Jack?"
He fights a wave of nausea. His body doesn't want to be upright, and his stomach wants to be empty.
"Deep breaths," she says, rubbing his back and breathing pretty heavily herself. "We're almost there."
"That way," Jack says. "Okay. I'm good to go."
"You sure?"
Enough already. He just wants to get the hell out of here, even if it does make him hurl. "Well, I don't have a choice, do I?" he says shortly.
"No," she says, equally shortly. Then she leads him back out into the open.
Jack orders himself to keep going. He took out Baal; Carter's had her brain fried and is still shooting like a pro; he can walk to a fucking ship.
It still seems like a full klick before they reach the corner, and Carter deposits him against the wall. She scopes out the corridor, then steps into full view. Curious, Jack shuffles down the wall and looks, too: the only guard by the exit holds his staff out like an offering, and gives them a solemn Jaffa head bob.
Jack mouths, "Sorry," as Carter aims.
She doesn't bother to lock this one up, leaving him in a dark alcove. Jack starts for the door, one hand always on the wall.
The exit is a heavy stone thing that'll make a shitload of noise. Jack grimaces, and Carter reappears at his side. "No other way?" he whispers.
She checks her compass. "Sul'kesh said to go out the way we came and then go northwest. This is the north exit. It'll take too long to find another one." After one long breath, she turns the wheel and the door slides into the even thicker wall. The grinding of stone on stone makes Jack's teeth hurt, but at least his weapon's in his right hand now. And since he expects Jaffa to come running any minute, he'll need it.
Nobody comes, though, and now Jack can see why: rain falls in long, loud sheets. The planet's weather is actually working for them. He hears Carter sigh in relief.
She sweeps the doorway first, then signals all clear. Damn. This is too easy.
"Something's wrong," he says when she comes back to fetch him.
"Maybe. But what can we do?" Good point. She hoists him up on her shoulder again. "We'll go straight west first, into the ground cover, and then circle around."
Only there's a Jaffa patrol to the west: one is up high, manning a cannon trained on the surrounding forest; two more are chatting under a simple shelter at ground level, and could spot them easily.
Outside the door, a portico runs the length of the building. Carter drags Jack to an outer column, which is something like six feet thick. He pats it.
"Gotta love that Goa'uld architecture," he whispers.
"Stop trying to be funny. Let me think."
She surveys the terrain while Jack covers her with his zat. There are maybe ten columns on each side of them, but no other doors that they can see. To the north, directly in front of them, is a broad clearing, with the Jaffa patrol to their left and a path into the forest straight ahead. It's maybe fifty meters away. No way can they reach that without being seen.
"East?" he says.
She nods, still thinking. "We'll have to get to the tree line. It looks like it's closer off to the side, so we'll take cover behind the columns as much as we can."
They're at the fourth one when the cannon blasts behind them, followed by a crash of falling stone. Jack hears shouts, and a metallic buzzing, and his head swims.
"Shit," Carter says. They duck behind the column as Jaffa pour out of the building. "Can you run?"
He's not sure, but he nods anyway. If he can't, it won't matter for very long.
They run. A shout goes up behind them, and Jack hears part of the portico collapsing. He tells himself that the quicker they move, the sooner the pain will stop. Staff fire whizzes past his arm.
"Jack, come on." But then there's another blast, and she jerks them both to the ground, sheltering Jack's head. Oh, fuck. The sudden movement twisted his ankle in a very bad way and fuck. His guts threaten to come up. He swallows hard as she yanks him to his feet, and it's only now that he realizes that the last blast was in front of them. They're left with a narrow, rocky path against the outer wall.
Jack takes one step with her, stumbles, and tries to figure out how to run without using his left leg. Carter tugs at his hand, once, twice, and then she's right up next to him. "Run!" she shouts into his ear. A staff blast just misses her chest.
He shuts off his brain and runs.
The debris offers them a little shelter from behind. They're only a few meters from the end of the portico now, and Carter's propelling them forward. There's still a remote chance the way ahead is safe.
A very remote chance, as it turns out.
"Tau'ri! You are captured!"
The small clearing at the building's edge is lined with Jaffa, their weapons poised and cocked. And in front of the Jaffa, in the mud, are Sul'kesh and three of his men, dead.
They stop, panting. Jack holds up both of his hands and tries to balance on one foot. Carter slides carefully under his arm again.
Water beats on Jack's face.
The Jaffa in charge jerks his chin at Jack's zat, now high in the air. "Your weapons," he says. Carter drops hers, kicking it away, and reaches up for Jack's. She drops that, too.
Oh, so very, very screwed.
Except ... one of the Jaffa nods minutely at Jack, and casts a discreet glance up to the sky. Either some of these guys are rebels, or Jack's going nuts.
Head Jaffa says something in Goa'uld, and half a dozen of them break formation, heading for Carter and Jack. And now would be a very good time for whatever the rebel was hinting at to happen.
Jack looks sideways at Carter, follows her line of sight, and realizes she's having a similar exchange with a different Jaffa.
Then there's a roar, a burst of wind, the whine of an engine slowing down. The rain stops; Jack looks up, shivering. A bright light falls, and Carter says, "Oh, thank God."
And then there's another floor. Jack recognizes it when it hits his face.
***
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