The Quality of Mercy

Part 3

by

ELG

CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence. Language. Physical and emotional cruelty to SG-1. Attempted rape of a major character. Description of a medical procedure performed upon a major character. Mention of previous minor character(s) death(s). Some romantic implications in relationship between Sam and Martouf. Plus, Jack and Daniel hold a few rather dubious conversations. Basically every member of SG-1 is traumatized and/or physically damaged in some way during the course of this story. On the upside, Daniel is naked for one scene, and SG-1 do all briefly wear pyjamas

Click to see collage created by Bri

DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Part Three

The Temple of Onuris was like Rome, Daniel thought: all the roads on this world led there. It was the sticky thread of the spider's web, the center of the maze, and however many times you thought you'd escaped it, you found yourself dragged back there, more shabby, scared, and exhausted than before. He could barely focus although he was aware of guards pulling and shoving him, remembered falling, being hauled up by the hair, falling again, then being cuffed around the head, shaken, slapped. Jack snarling a protest despite being so tired himself he could hardly stagger. Teal'c growling something in Goa'uld and then glowering in frustration as a zat gun was pointed not at him but at the unconscious teammate in his arms. He couldn't make it down this mountainside on his feet. He was going to have to -

Harun's arm around his waist jolted him back into sentience; the other man taking his weight, easing him forward. Daniel blinked in surprise, then turned his head to see other men going to help Jack, even when he snapped at them and shook them off, just going back and supporting him again. Daniel gave Jack a begging look; silently pleading with him to take the help they were offering him, to conserve whatever strength he could. Jack glared horribly but gave in, accepting help from the people who had betrayed them albeit with a very bad grace. Thinking of what was most likely awaiting them in that temple, Daniel had to swallow hard, before saying, "Thank you." When Harun flinched from his gratitude, refusing to meet his eye, it seemed only fitting. Daniel knew he should probably offer some reassurance that he understood the man's loyalty to that prophecy, and so his actions, but he couldn't. He could perhaps have offered absolution for his own death at Onuris' hands, but not for that of the others.

When he turned his head again to try to see how his teammates were faring, the night air ruffled his hair like a phantom hand, and he shivered.

Sam looked as she had when Jolinar had died inside her, fragile as frosted bridal wreath. But this time there were beads of sweat across her pale forehead and an ominous harshness to her breathing which Daniel recognized only too well: the sound of struggling lungs filling up with infection. As Daniel stumbled trying to look at her, to will her back to consciousness and health, he heard Jack murmur, "Teal'c?"

Teal'c shook his head. Daniel had thought he was cold before but suddenly he was shivering, every vein running with ice water. He closed his eyes and let Harun steer him through the dripping dark, listening to the echoes of their own footsteps and the metalshod thunder of the lion guards, but seeing and hearing only Sam's bleached skin, the sweat on her forehead, the laboring sound of her lungs.

The night had become even colder, and his breath was white against the darkness; every inhalation rasping his throat while overhead a million stars he didn't know the names of glittered at them indifferently. Several times he heard Jack stumble on the shale and then snap at the people helping him, but the anger was half-hearted, swamped with weariness. Defeat. He'd never heard Jack sound defeated before. Daniel was practically sleepwalking; Harun and another local who smelt of uncured goatskin, supporting him between them and guiding him over the uneven surface. Had they walked him over a cliff he would still have gone with them, and been only grateful for the long, quiet drop before he hit the ground.

But the sight of the temple penetrated the fog in his mind like a lighthouse beam. For the first time he remembered the morning properly. Gazing up at that temple from his safe place by Jack's shoulder, the alien stone and familiar structure calling to him through the mist. Sam and Teal'c had been barely ten feet away, fiddling with the DHD, safe and well. The worst problem Jack had been faced with then was boredom and the possibility of rain dripping down the back of his neck. Daniel's curiosity had killed all of them since then, they just weren't quite dead yet.

Daniel tried to recapture that brief moment of certainty he'd felt in the catacombs. The realization that if all they had ever done on this world was arrive, be captured, and die, they would have lingered in the minds of their 'followers' no longer than the lifespan of a dragonfly. It had comforted him then. But he couldn't snatch back his belief now. Guilt was overwhelming every other emotion and each time he caught a glimpse of Jack's taut, exhausted face, or Sam's fever-ridden form in Teal'c's arms, hope died inside him.

He couldn't repress a shudder as he entered the temple for the third time in less than twenty-four hours. The towering doorway looming menacingly overhead, all black straight lines like a guillotine. On the first journey across this threshold he'd found pain, on the second carnage. This time there could only be death.

Light blazed triumphantly through the ruins, giving a liquid gloss to every stain, the heat from all those torches only amplifying the stench of spilled blood and seared flesh, but this time Daniel was having a flashback that had nothing to do with Shokmar. Standing by a litter were two Goa'uld in magnificent robes; one male, one female, both beautiful as they were pitiless. They could have been Apophis and Amaunet. How much would I remember if you chose me? Something of the host must survive... The four plumes of the male told him this was Onuris even without the extra proof of the beard and lance, and that warrior's muscular physique. The two lions lying at the feet of the female proclaimed Onuris' mate to be Mehit. Oh wonderful, more belief systems colliding. Now he really was Daniel in the lions' den.

Everyone on the planet seemed to have been herded into the temple to watch them die. Most of the wounded had been removed; killed, Daniel suspected, although the priests were still in evidence, their hairless bodies very white in the torchlight. They had probably told the Jaffa which of the wounded to kill. And these were the men to whom he had pledged Jack's protection? Sometimes the depths of his own stupidity surprised even him. There was the sour stench of burnt skin and hair still lingering, and he imagined the Jaffa walking along those lines of wounded blasting them into oblivion. Buried in the catacombs dreaming of death, he would never have heard their screams.

Onuris turned upon them, gaze flicking dismissively across the other three before he saw Daniel – which was when his eyes glowed gold with recognition, anger, dislike, and perhaps a hint of fear. At once, he began to declaim in Goa'uld, his gaze never leaving Daniel's face.

Despite his exhaustion, Daniel recognized those words which had been so subtly altered from the Book of the Dead. The Chapter of Coming Forth Against Enemies in Khert-Neter. They seemed horribly appropriate. He automatically began to translate for the others: " I have come forth from the horizon against my enemies. I have not permitted him to escape from me. I have stretched out my hand. I have lifted up my feet. I have not permitted the enemy to be saved from me…"

"Daniel."

"… As for mine enemy, he hath been given to me, and he shall not be delivered from me. I walk with my legs. I speak with my mouth. I chase my enemy. He hath been given unto me, and he shall not be delivered from me…"

"Daniel!"

He jumped and turned to find Jack looking at him. The man said quietly, "Don't help him." Just for a second Daniel read the marrow-deep weariness in the older man's brown eyes and then Jack was straightening up, shaking off his helpers, digging some energy out from somewhere. Jack held up a hand. "Uh – sorry – Aneurin, or whatever the hell your name is, we don't actually speak the lingo, so if that was the Welcome To My World speech, I'm afraid we just missed it."

Jack's favorite magic trick. The one rabbit he could always pull out of the hat. A second before none of the other three had even existed for the Goa'uld, all of his attention had been focused on Daniel alone, but now Daniel was momentarily forgotten, and Jack was the one for whom his eyes were glowing with rage and dislike. Onuris said savagely, "Your insolence will not go unpunished."

"Well Apophis was always telling me stuff like that and you know what? He's dead. Incidentally, so is Sokar. Oh yes, and Hathor. And did I mention Ra?"

"Jack…" Daniel murmured.

"The thing is I am really tired, not to mention pissed off. Your planet sucks by the way. I hope you know that? And I'm really not in the mood to stand around and watch anyone playing god right now, so why don't we just tell the nice people on this world the truth about how there aren't any gods and then we can get the hell out of here?"

Onuris strode forward furiously. "You miserable insect! I am their god and your god. I am the only god!"

Jack shrugged. "Now see that's exactly what Ra kept telling everyone and it was a total crock when he said it too. Didn't help him one little bit when I shoved a nuclear missile up his ass either."

Daniel blinked, some of the exhaustion lifting enough for him to think. He stared at the Goa'uld in dawning realization. "That's why you didn't quote the whole passage. You missed out the parts that mention other gods: I stand up like Horus. I sit down like Ptah. I am strong like Thoth. I am mighty like Tem. You've done what Ra did. You've told these people you're the only one."

Jack addressed the assembled people, the clandestine worshippers of the Chosen One, the faithful followers of Onuris, the lion guards massed behind their god. "These people aren't gods. They're Goa'ulds – a race of parasites who have to live inside a human host to survive. I had one of the damned things inside of me once – didn't make me a god, just gave me a hell of a headache. Teal'c here used to serve another Goa'uld – now hopefully deceased. There's thousands of them all over the universe. They're treacherous, back-stabbing, lying, cheating scum, but what they're not are gods."

A ripple of horror and disbelief went around the temple at the man's blasphemy. It occurred to Daniel that someone was translating this. Correction, Harun was translating this, and the translation was being passed on so fast it traveled like a breeze through reeds.

Daniel murmured quietly, "Jack, you're sort of taking a crowbar to their belief system here, not to mention really seriously pissing off an already pretty hostile Goa'uld."

"Their belief system needs a crowbar taken to it, and pissing this guy off is the only hope we have right now. Haven't you ever heard of attack being the best form of defense?"

As a furious Onuris raised his hand with the ribbon device already glowing, Teal'c also addressed the assembled worshippers: "O'Neill speaks the truth. I was once First Prime of Apophis. My father was First Prime of Cronos. There are as many System lords and underlords as there are stars in your night sky. The one you call a god is not even one of the System Lords, and since the death of Ra his worlds are in danger of being taken by Heru'Ur, a more powerful Goa'uld with a greater army. Even the System Lords themselves are not safe from attack, and would have been overthrown by Sokar had it not been for my companions and myself."

Another ripple of unease went through the listeners. A few of the Jaffa shifted uncomfortably. O'Neill knew that at least some of those lion guards most know the truth, must have fought other Jaffa who followed other so-called gods.

"They are liars and blasphemers!" Mehit pointed at Daniel accusingly. "He is the false god, the one the foolish amongst you call the Chosen One, but he is nothing. He is less than nothing. He will die slowly, and his screams will linger in the echoes for eternity."

As Daniel winced, O'Neill stepped forward and looked around the wide-eyed multitudes. "Well she's right about one thing, Daniel isn't a god and he never claimed to be one. He's just a human being. Like me and you."

Onuris lowered his hand, surprise on his bearded face. "Then you admit he is a false god?"

"I admit he's a human being with no special powers whatsoever. But then he never claimed to be anything else. Unlike you."

Onuris smiled triumphantly. "The proofs of my divinity are written in letters of stone and in the truths of my great deeds." He waved a hand to indicate the temple, the pillars that remained all embossed with hieroglyphs detailing his divinity.

Teal'c quoted impassively: " 'Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth, Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.' "

"What?" O'Neill turned and frowned at him.

"What?" Daniel blinked.

"What words are these?" Onuris demanded.

Teal'c met the Goa'uld's gaze with cool contempt. "So it is written in the Bible of the Tau'ri. And yet it is also true that Daniel Jackson is not a god, even though their words state that he is one. Just because it is written does not make it true. But although he is not a god he is the Chosen One."

Teal'c's voice carried such calm certainty that O'Neill found himself believing it for the first time. Teal'c was right. Daniel was the Chosen One. The whole thing might be a screw up involving tears in the fabric of in the space time continuum so brain-meltingly complicated he didn't even want to think about, but Daniel still was the guy in that tablet he wouldn't translate for them, which made him at least as much of a 'god' as an alien parasite in a human host.

Onuris raised his hand again. "When they have watched their 'Chosen One' die they will know I am their only god."

"Ooh – bad move, on so many levels," O'Neill said quickly. "For one thing, the people here know what's going to happen next whereas I'm presuming you don't – which is kind of odd, really, if you're supposed to be a god, as I always thought you guys had that omniscience thing sewed up, but anyway – for all you know, according to their legends, the Chosen One got struck down by you in the temple with the hand device. So if you zap Daniel all you're going to be doing is proving he is the Chosen One. And for another thing, killing so-called deities only makes a martyr out of them. Two thousand years ago on our world this guy turned up claiming to be the son of God. At the time he only had a couple of hundred followers and if the Romans had just left him alone to perform the odd miracle and attend the occasional wedding, everyone would probably have forgotten all about him in no time. But no, they had to go ahead and crucify him, and what do you know, twenty centuries later, no one remembers who the Roman Gods were except for people like Daniel, while there's barely a country on the planet that doesn't have some of their population believing in Jesus Christ. And that's without even starting on Elvis and what dying did for his career."

Onuris hesitated and O'Neill just hoped the Goa'uld was getting the gist of what he and Teal'c were telling him. O'Neill added casually, "And incidentally, Ra's Jaffa already killed Daniel, so did Apophis', not to mention Apophis himself. I'm warning you, the guy takes a lot of killing."

Immediately another excited murmur went around the temple, like flame to gunpowder, a hiss of air and expectancy at this confirmation of the Chosen One's divinity.

"I will feed him to my lions," Mehit looked at Daniel with loathing. "Not that he will make them much of a meal. But when even his bones are licked clean, none then can believe him to be a god."

"Actually we have a tradition on our planet that you can't get eaten by lions if your name is Daniel," O'Neill told her airily. He nudged Daniel. "Daniel…?"

Daniel collected himself. "Um – that's sort of…true. It says in our Bible that King Darius was tricked by princes and presidents jealous of his preference for Daniel into issuing a decree which said anyone who asked a petition of any god or man except Darius himself should be cast into a den of lions. Daniel always prayed to God three times a day, which the conspirators knew, so they caught Daniel praying and took him before Darius, demanding that he condemn him. Darius did so, albeit very unwillingly, and Daniel was sealed into a den of lions. But the next morning when Darius went to the den and cried out to Daniel, Daniel answered him and assured him he was unhurt. An angel had shut the lions' mouths so they couldn't injure him because Daniel was innocent and had done no wrong."

" 'Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no manner of hurt was found upon him.' " Although Teal'c spoke impassively O'Neill thought he detected a certain satisfaction in the Jaffa's tone.

"Making feeding people called Daniel to lions traditionally something of a non-starter on our world," O'Neill added helpfully. Daniel had told him once the Ancient Egyptians set a lot of store by names. If the Goa'uld could be convinced the name 'Daniel' had a protection against lions automatically written into it, he was all for fostering that belief. Especially when there were two hungry-looking lionesses twenty feet away from his team.

As Mehit snarled in frustration he thought she looked more than ready to rip Daniel's throat out with her teeth herself. She turned to her mate and said furiously, "Why do they yet live? Why do you permit them to stand in the temple they have desecrated and still draw breath?"

Because, snakebitch, your old man knows that killing us could make the Chosen One cult even more powerful than it is now and as he's already lost a whole bunch of planets to Heru'Ur he doesn't want to lose this one too. O'Neill watched the Goa'uld narrowly. Onuris was a warrior on a losing streak who couldn't afford to come second in any more skirmishes even with people as unimportant as them. He knew what the guy needed: a plan to discredit all of them, but Daniel in particular; a way to show how powerless and unimportant they were that wouldn't accidentally fulfill any prophecies that might be lying around. A way to prove his way was the only way without making them into martyrs.

"It's always been a difficult question, hasn't it?" Daniel said quietly. "When is a god not a god? Do a million people believing you to be a god make you one? Your race certainly seems to think so. But in that case, how much of a god are you if the people stop believing? Are you still a god when the million followers dwindles to a few hundred thousand? What if it dwindles to a few hundred? Or to one? Or to no one? You had to leave our world, not because we buried the gate, but because we stopped believing in you. These days you don't even occupy the place of demons in our subconscious."

"That's true actually," O'Neill shrugged. "When it comes to nightmares, you guys have all been overtaken by Freddy Kreuger and Hannibal Lector."

Daniel looked at him sideways. "Who?"

"I'll explain it to you later." Always supposing there is a later for either of us.

Onuris looked around at the temple. There was an expectant silence and O'Neill hoped the Goa'uld was hearing what he was hearing: the listening hush of people who had already overheard and understood too much.

O'Neill risked another look at Carter, willing her to stir. Astonishingly, it worked. Her eyelids flickered and then opened. She blinked dazedly and then focused on him. "Colonel?"

"Sam!" Daniel sprang across to her before wincing and giving him an apologetic glance. O'Neill wondered how many times he'd told Daniel not to show visible concern for one of them in front of the enemy. It had to be in double figures by now anyway. He'd given him a top-up lecture before Netu and thought Daniel had finally grasped the principal of not making any move to help a wounded or imperiled comrade when the bad guys could see you. But it now seemed to have been forgotten again and unless Onuris was very slow on the uptake he would now know that a good way to make Daniel do what he wanted was to hurt Carter. Wonderful.

Counting to ten to stop himself biting Daniel's head off, O'Neill stuck his hands in his pockets and said as casually as he could manage it, "How are you feeling, Carter?"

"Weird." She blinked again and looked up at Teal'c then turned her head to see her position. "How long was I out?"

"Hours," O'Neill told her.

Teal'c gently set her on her feet but kept an arm around her shoulders. Which turned out to be a wise precaution. She swayed and Daniel would have taken her arm if O'Neill hadn't sent him his best flesh-stripping glare. Daniel shifted awkwardly and darted a glance over at the Goa'uld. O'Neill guessed by the stricken look on Daniel's face Onuris had been watching the whole show.

Carter put a hand up to her throat, murmuring huskily, "What happened?"

"Harun drugged you and me then sold us out to Onuris' Jaffa. We're now trying to persuade the resident snakehead that turning us into martyrs would not be a good idea. Oh yes, and try to bear in mind that on Earth 'Daniel' means 'someone who can't be eaten by lions' because this Goa'uld's better half seems to think Dannyboy would make good cat food."

"Actually it's 'Judged by God'."

"What?" O'Neill rocked on his heels, pushing his fists deeper into his pockets as he noted how ill she looked. Her eyes were red-rimmed and there were shadows beneath them. Her breathing sounded terrible.

"That's what 'Daniel' means, sir."

O'Neill darted a glance over at Onuris. "Well, under the circumstances, I think we'll keep that to ourselves."

Carter put a hand up to her head. She still looked very pale and it was obviously costing her a great effort to stay upright even with Teal'c's steadying hand. She glanced up at the Jaffa. "You carried me all the way from those caves?"

"It was no burden," Teal'c told her.

"That's not what my bathroom scales tell me. I owe you one, Teal'c."

He inclined his head gently, keeping the arm around her shoulders to hold her upright. She frowned. "Is it me, or is it very…blurry in here?"

O'Neill and Daniel exchanged an anxious glance before Daniel said quickly, "It's the smoke and the dust, Sam. It all looks blurry to me too."

Carter blinked and then swallowed. O'Neill could almost feel the grit in her eyes, the fish hook in her throat. Perhaps it was just flu. Flu could make you feel lousy as hell. He'd had a version of Asian flu in '85 that had sent his temperature up to a 103 and had him coughing up blood for two days but he'd still completed his mission and lived to tell the tale.

"The woman is awake, I see."

O'Neill hated the grating sound of Mehit's voice.

Carter faced her defiantly although O'Neill wasn't sure how much she could see. "I'm Major Samantha Carter of the SGC, and you would be…?"

The Goa'uld threw back her hair. It was so black it had blue lights in it and O'Neill hadn't seen so much eye make-up since he'd spent four hours waiting for a defector in a drag club in West Berlin. "I am the goddess Mehit."

Carter turned to Daniel with an enquiring expression on her face. "I don't know the name."

"She's pretty obscure. Anhur – Onuris was supposed to have brought her back from Nubia but the myth is very close to the Heliopolitan one describing Shu's pursuit of Tefnut, so I'd say they probably assumed both identities at various times. And their cult shifted around quite a lot, it started in the Thinite region of Middle Egypt but by the Late Period Onuris was being associated with the Delta site of Sebennytos, and by the Ptolemaic period he was indistinguishable from the Greek god of war, Ares."

"What - Xena's squeeze? That girl could do so much better." O'Neill sighed as he got another of those totally blank looks from Daniel. This boy had serious holes in his general knowledge which he really was going to have to help him fill in some day. He tried again, this time looking across at the two Goa'uld. "So, definitely minor league deities then?"

He hoped they'd overheard what Daniel had just said. Good. Seeing the glance they exchanged they'd definitely overheard what Daniel had just said. And unlike O'Neill, it would have made sense to them. It occurred to him for the first time that as the Goa'uld believed themselves to be gods, Daniel knowing so much about them might make them think he was a god himself, or at least someone of power. Either way they probably didn't want him talking about them as though Goa'uld like them were a dime a dozen. Watching the two Goa'uld approaching them, O'Neill said, "Daniel…"

"What?"

"I'd really appreciate a lecture on the Ancient Egyptian Gods." Daniel blinked at him and O'Neill was aware of Carter also staring at him in surprise. She was swaying a little with fever and Daniel was wavering with exhaustion but at least he'd got both their attention. He didn't need to look to guess Teal'c had a raised eyebrow as well. Speaking in a rapid undertone, O'Neill added, "And, Daniel, I'd like it now and I'd like at least some of it about these two."

Daniel was obviously too exhausted to work out why at the moment but he was also clearly too weary to start arguing or asking lots of questions. He slipped into lecture mode like a man putting on a favorite pair of slippers. "Well there's really very little known about Mehit. She was never a very popular goddess, like you said, not like Isis or Hathor, although the chapel of the spread wings in the Temple of Horus at Edfi is dedicated principally to Mehit I can't think of many others shrines that have survived...Both Mehit and Onuris are associated with Ra, of course, and were always considered loyal to him, and were also both associated with lions. But Aker was really the major Ancient Egyptian lion-god, while the Delta site of Taremu or Leontopolis – that's Tell el-Muqdam to you, Jack – was sacred to Mihos or Mysis, not Anhur. And of course Shu was also venerated in the form of a lion but most leonine deities were female…"

O'Neill didn't bother listening to Daniel, he just let the familiar litany of information flow over him as soothingly as milk over cookies while enjoying the Goa'uld's reaction to it. They had never been back to Earth, he presumed, and were baffled as to how this young man could know so much about them. And they must be able to hear those whispers as Daniel's words were translated for the benefit of their worshippers. You had to have mystery to be a god. Being told you were washed up and all but forgotten on a world that used to venerate you probably never made happy listening.

"…the most important of the lion goddesses was Sekhmet, but even her cult was eventually merged with those of Bastet and Mut. Because in one myth Sekhmet was sent by Ra to destroy mankind and very nearly succeeded, there were a lot of temples built to propitiate her and stop her wreaking vengeance on the human race a second time…"

O'Neill realized he had pressed the right button. Daniel could literally do this in his sleep, which was just as well, because very little of Daniel still appeared to be conscious, but his brain was ticking over on automatic lecture pilot and his lips were moving, that was all that mattered. The Goa'uld were getting seriously twitchy now. They were looking more and more uncomfortable and their whispered consultation was becoming louder and more ragged.

"…But, of course, after the rise to power of the Theban rulers of the New Kingdom, the Theban triad – that's Amun, Mut, and Khons, became more important and so began to effectively 'absorb' the attributes of other deities. This merging of the gods and goddesses makes it difficult to know where one begins and one ends so it could be that Mehit is also Tefnut, making her the mother of Geb and Nut, but Tefnut was also associated with Wadjyt – as was Sekhmet – in her leonine form, although Wadjyt was originally depicted as a cobra-goddess, and it was in this form that she and the vulture goddess Nekhbet were described as the nebty who symbolized the essential duality of the Egyptian world…"

"Enough!" Onuris snapped.

And even though he'd asked for this particular lecture that was about as much as O'Neill could take as well. He put a hand on Daniel's shoulder to stem the outpouring of information as Onuris and Mehit both strode across to confront their prisoners, the Goa'uld waving aside the lion-guards who made to accompany them with an impatient flick of the hand. O'Neill made his face a careful blank as he and the Goa'uld stared into each other's eyes, warriors sizing up the opposition; a real Sergio Leone moment but he wasn't feeling much like Clint Eastwood today. In close-up Onuris looked around forty and one step away from a Las Vegas stage magician with his long pointed beard and that frankly ridiculous head-dress. But there was a lot of intelligence in those kohl-painted eyes and O'Neill had learned a long time ago never to underestimate an enemy.

He gave Onuris his best false smile and said, "What, you didn't find that interesting? Now, see I always find that kind of thing fascinating, and luckily Daniel can talk about dead gods for hours. There's nothing this boy doesn't know about Ancient Egyptian myths. All those gods in all their different forms no one believes in any more. Daniel can tell anyone who wants to know everything about them."

Onuris looked into O'Neill's eyes and said softly, "The one you call 'Daniel' will be silent or I will cut out his tongue."

"That won't stop people remembering what he said. The truth's out now and everyone in this temple knows Goa'uld like you and Catwoman here were all over our world like a rash a few thousand years back. All of you chasing hosts like they were going out of style. That's why you had to start taking humans through the gate, wasn't it? You needed your own supplies of hosts to give yourselves incubators for your kids and to grow your own Jaffa. And now even the universe isn't big enough for you people because you're still the same greedy, squabbling megalomaniacs you always were, and Heru'Ur is squeezing you out."

O'Neill shrugged as casually as he could. He couldn't believe they were still letting him talk but they seemed stunned. Perhaps they just weren't used to dealing with humans with this kind of attitude. "Now, this world sucks so much I'm surprised you even want it, but I figure you're like Apophis – backs against the wall and needing to hang onto every planet you've got. You kill everyone on this world who believes in the Chosen One, there won't be enough people left to scrape up an army if you need one. And, of course, if you kill the Chosen One, people are going to believe in him harder than ever."

"In time they will forget him," Mehit said furiously, eyes flashing gold again. Her gaze darted towards Daniel with contemptuous loathing. "When his bones are dust."

"You don't know that," Carter said huskily. "On our world there are a million churches in the names of saints who died ten centuries ago."

"You left their world several thousand years ago," Teal'c put in. "Yet your names are still remembered by a few of the scholars who reside there. I have seen the names of dead Goa'uld in the books of Daniel Jackson that even your race has forgotten. The people of the Tau'ri have long memories."

Although glad of the support, O'Neill didn't look away from Onuris, holding the Goa'uld's gaze. "Time is something you don't have. You need these people to stop believing in him now. Do you want to know the best way to do that?"

"Tell me," Onuris' voice dripped with sarcasm but he was still listening and Daniel was still breathing.

"Send him home. Send us all home. There's nothing like an anti-climax for disappointing people hoping for a miracle. The Chosen One turns up, gets caught, gets kicked back through the 'gate. Who the hell is going to get excited about that?"

For a moment he saw the Goa'uld hesitate and wondered if he'd managed to bluff him but then Onuris smiled coldly. "For a human you are less stupid than one might expect."

"I'll try to take that as a compliment."

"Let no one say the god Onuris is not merciful. I will give your companion the chance to save himself from the consequences of his blasphemy."

O'Neill's jaw tightened. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like the options the Goa'uld offered Daniel. "Generous of you."

Onuris stretched out a hand and stroked a finger down the side of Daniel's face. "My priests tortured you, yes?"

Daniel met his gaze. "I don't remember."

"They used Shokmar upon you? The pain was like nothing you had ever known before. You screamed for help that did not come as the agony stole your mind."

Stolidly Daniel repeated, "I don't remember."

"They remember. They have told me everything." Onuris glanced at O'Neill. "You saved him through some technology you carry with you?"

O'Neill shrugged. "That would be telling."

Onuris gestured to the Jaffa who flanked them. "Remove their belongings." The lion guards collected up their packs and weapons and carried them over to the base of the broken statue, leaving only Daniel's vest. Onuris turned back to O'Neill with a thin smile. "This time you will not be able to save him."

He'd known this moment would come but that didn't stop the sick feeling inside him. They were going to torture Daniel in front of him. Payback for all the people he'd killed throughout the years, all the blood he'd shed, the lives he'd stolen. Somehow he'd thought Hell was as bad it got; that having survived his son dying and Netu, he could survive anything. And on the surface he'd survive this, if Onuris wanted him to. He'd stand here – no, he'd probably struggle like a madman – but essentially he'd watch while Daniel died by inches; and then he'd go back and make his report to General Hammond. Then he'd retire. Then he'd die inside. That was the extent to which he would survive.

Carter was arguing with Mehit, throwing reason at the Goa'uld despite the rawness of her throat. She sounded terrible. Every word must be like swallowing ground glass, and it wasn't making any difference. He'd seen the look of triumph in Onuris' eyes: the expression of someone who'd just hit upon a winning strategy.

"Can't you see that you're just reinforcing the prophecy by…?"

Carter had told him once the universe was full of dark matter. At the time it had made him think of the Goa'uld. Now it felt like it had all just collected inside him.

Onuris wheeled around to address the tiers of silent worshippers. "Witness the mercy of your God! Witness the power of your God! You have seen us take life from the unworthy. Now you shall see us restore it to the faithful." He nodded to Mehit and she clapped her hands.

Two Jaffa came forward carrying someone on a makeshift litter. O'Neill recognized the High Priest, still dying by degrees but not yet dead. He'd seen soldiers this badly injured in the field; the ones maimed by hand grenade, mortar or bomb blasts, so mangled inside, so far beyond repair, you wished they'd just die.

"Oh God…" Daniel murmured, turning his head away. "He's still alive."

Mehit walked around the litter and O'Neill swore he could hear her purring as loudly as her lionesses. "You have served us well, Rahotep. Your loyalty shall not go unrewarded." She lifted her right hand and O'Neill saw the Goa'uld healing device glowing in her palm. She turned to address the worshippers in their silent tiers. "See how your goddess gives back life." She repeated the words in Goa'uld and then turned back to the High Priest.  The light from the healing device reflected a glowing circle on his white hairless forehead and then played down his body, which tensed then arced in response. He cried out and Daniel flinched, then Rahotep's skin glowed gold as the healing device did its work. When Mehit stepped back she was smiling triumphantly and the High Priest was staring at his unbroken skin in disbelief. He sat up and pulled open his tunic so everyone could see how his wounds were healed.

The gasp from the worshippers made O'Neill grit his teeth. He had to admit that as parlor tricks went, bringing the mortally wounded back from the dead was an impressive one.

Onuris stepped forward, something in his hands that looked a little like a zatgun. The way Daniel flinched when he saw it told O'Neill what it was. The sick feeling was very bad now. Like someone had wrapped his intestines around a big stone before dropping them off a cliff. The Goa'uld was going to give it to the High Priest and the guy was going to take his revenge on Daniel. And he was going to have to stand here and watch it. He was aware of Teal'c tensing to spring, muscles bunching in readiness, the lion guards closing in to restrain him.

Onuris held out the Shokmar device to Daniel. "Take it."

Daniel blinked in surprise. "What?"

The Goa'uld smiled cruelly. "I am offering you this last escape. Only the priests of this temple may wield this device. If you use it upon them, they cannot use it upon you. Your choice." He turned and snapped his fingers and lion guards dragged forward the other two priests. Both of them were trembling with fear. O'Neill remembered Daniel pledging them his protection and closed his eyes.

"No." Daniel took a step back into the lion guards who were hovering in readiness. They pushed him forward again and he stumbled but glared defiantly at the Goa'uld. His voice was quiet but very sure: "I won't do it."

"Either you turn the wrath of Shokmar upon the priests of this temple or else they shall turn it upon you."

"Then they'll have to turn it upon me. I'm not doing that to anyone."

"So you do remember?"

His jaw tensed but he just shook his head.

Onuris was remorseless. "You begged them for mercy but they showed you none. For hours they tortured you and remained indifferent to your screams. Do you not want revenge for what they did to you?"

"No."

O'Neill could see where this was going and it was nowhere he liked the look of. He said abruptly, "I'll do it."

Onuris turned to look at him in surprise. "You?"

O'Neill shrugged. "Daniel's squeamish. I'm not. He has an over-active conscience. I don't. The sons of bitches tortured my teammate for hours and hours. I'm quite happy to give them a taste of their own medicine." He met Onuris' thoughtful gaze. "You want proof we're not angels? I'll give it to you. I'm a soldier, just like you. We do whatever's necessary to survive."

"Jack?"

"Shut up, Daniel." He didn't look at him, gaze never leaving Onuris' face. O'Neill held out a hand. "I'll do it."

There was only a momentary hesitation and then Onuris smiled and handed over the device. He said amusedly, "It will not work on me."

"I guessed that." O'Neill turned to face the High Priest. He said softly, "For how many hours did you torture Daniel?" As the man looked blank, he turned his head. "Daniel. Translate."

"Jack, I really don't think…"

"Daniel, do as I damn well tell you!"

Daniel flinched, glared at him for making him flinch, then reluctantly murmured something to the High Priest in Goa'uld. Rahotep faced him contemptuously before turning to look at O'Neill. His answer, incomprehensible though it was to O'Neill, dripped with disdain.

"What did he say?" O'Neill turned on Daniel as he didn't answer him. "Daniel? What did he say?"

Daniel moistened his lip before murmuring unhappily, "He said: Not enough."

"Right. I would definitely say that constituted 'asking for it'." As O'Neill raised the zatgun he was very aware of the disappointment in Carter's blue eyes, the sorrow in Daniel's, the unreadable expression on Teal'c's face. He could feel Daniel willing him not to do this; more than that, unable to believe that he would do it. There were days when he really wanted to open Daniel's eyes.

But this wasn't one of them.

As O'Neill leveled the shokmar device on the High Priest, the lion guards automatically took a step back. Giving him the second's grace he needed to pull back his arm and hurl the damned thing at the temple wall with all his strength.

He'd been afraid it might not break, but the device shattered like fine crystal, fragments splintering and some inner filament snapping in two in a way he fervently hoped was irreparable. As the pieces landed on the floor of the temple with a sound like hail there was another audible gasp from the watchers.

The backhand from Onuris stung but as he straightened back up with a hand to his face, O'Neill felt it was definitely worth it for the relief and approval in those two pairs of blue eyes.

"Good thinking, Colonel," Carter said hoarsely.

Snarling, Onuris raised his hand, ribbon device glowing and turned it upon the High Priest. As the man cried out and began to sink to his knees. Onuris said shortly. "We can bring life and we can bring death. Those who follow the false god can bring only death."

"These are people ," Daniel protested. "You can't just kill them and then bring them back to life to demonstrate your powers. You don't have the right."

"I have every right." Onuris snarled it at him over his shoulder as Rahotep fell to the ground, blood trickling from his ears and barely breathing. "They are my subjects. They belong to me. Not to you."

"They don't belong to anyone," Daniel retorted. "You have no right to enslave them."

Onuris stepped back and the priest slumped at his feet. He lowered his hand. "You brought him death and we brought him life. Now we have brought him to the point of death. Can you or your – avatars bring him life?"

Daniel looked at him with loathing. "No. No, we can't, as you – "

"Yes, we can." Carter stepped forward and held out her hand. "Give me the healing device."

O'Neill knew what using the healing device had cost her last time. He'd found her passed out in the corridor after she'd used the thing to save Cronos from his injuries, and he'd banned her from using it again. If the sarcophagus sucked out part of your soul as it restored you, the healing device stole a piece of your vitality when you used it to help others. "Carter, I'm not sure that's a very – "

She faced him and he winced as he saw the fever flush to her cheeks, the shadows under her eyes. He didn't even want to guess what her temperature was right now. She said hoarsely, "Colonel, I don't think we have a choice. We're already enough of a threat to warrant killing. We have to be so much of a threat they're afraid to make us into martyrs. You know that yourself." She didn't need to add This is your strategy we're going with here, but nevertheless it was true. And if Carter could bring the High Priest back to life as effectively as Mehit had done, a lot of the Goa'uld's claim to being special was left hanging like a corpse on a gallows. If the Goa'uld could only restore life because they were gods then Carter could only restore life because she was an avatar of the Chosen One, and killing Daniel just got that much more problematic.

O'Neill bit his lip. "I know that, Carter, but if you try this and can't do it, we could lose all the ground we just made."

Mehit contemptuously slapped the healing device into Carter's hand, hissing malevolently, "You are not a goddess. You are slave stock. You are nothing."

Carter returned her gaze levelly. "Actually I'm a doctor of astrophysics and a major in the United States Air Force. And I didn't need to steal a body from anyone else to achieve it."

She slipped the hand device onto her right hand and then walked over to where the High Priest lay on his litter, blood trickling from his mouth, shock in his eyes. Carter wondered what that did to your body being pulled from death into life and then thrown back to the brink again. She could remember looking at the readings of Daniel's body chemistry after he'd been addicted to the sarcophagus, Janet showing her the usual endorphin levels and then the deranged spike on the graph that was Daniel's current reading. Every cell out of synch and fighting its neighbors. But he'd got better. The human body was a miraculous thing and its magnetic north was always good health; that was the point it strived to get back to. All the Goa'uld technology did was help it to achieve goals it was already reaching for. She could do this. Every joint in her body was aching like a new kind of biology lesson. She now knew for certain the knee bone connected to the thighbone because she could feel the pain from her knee joint sliding along her thigh to throw a grappling iron of agony into her hip. Every drop of fluid in her spine seemed to be on fire. Movement was so painful it made her want to whimper. She could feel infection crashing through her system like a tsunami overwhelming a coastal village while her temperature climbed like the noonday sun in Nevada. Her eyesight was blurring and her brain felt as though someone had encased it in bubblewrap.

All of which was good, she reminded herself firmly, as she stood over the High Priest and looked down at him. There was something faintly repulsive about the extreme whiteness of his skin. Something even more repulsive about his continuing willingness to torture Daniel for no reason. But he had just become the possible means of their salvation, and the fact she was so ill she could barely stand meant Jolinar's memories were far easier to access than usual. It had taken near death from starvation and exhaustion in those naqadah mines to unearth the dead Tok'ra's memories within her in the first place; they had never been as clear afterwards; just scattered fragments in dreams; until Martouf and the memory device had opened the floodgates to all the good and bad things which Jolinar had ever known or experienced.

Half-dead was a good way to be when you needed to access the sleeping memories of the Tok'ra who had died to save you. Half-dead was exactly what they all needed her to be right now. Really, Carter told herself firmly as she swayed and the High Priest blurred in and out of focus, she needed to look on this illness as a case of serendipity. She closed her eyes and let herself slip into the dream state where their identities blurred; two different-colored liquids poured into a tumbler of clear water, twining around each other like sea snakes, the real and the unreal, the human and the Tok'ra, the dead and the living. In Netu there were times when she could no longer remember who was Samantha Carter and who was Jolinar. She'd been afraid of slipping into that blended state forever. Now it hardly seemed to matter.

The light flared and she felt something torn from within her. It hadn't hurt the last time, but when she'd saved Cronos she'd been fit and well. This time she was all too aware of how much energy the hand device sucked from the healer. Energy she didn't have to give.

It was like the opposite of an orgasm, something licking up from her feet through the nerve-endings like an absenceof sensation; an emptiness. She was pouring herself into the light of the hand device and it was feeding her life force to the man who had tortured Daniel to the brink of madness. She could feel herself hollowing out inside as he became stronger. It was a shock when she forced her gritty eyes open to find that she wasn't really transparent, that she couldn't yet see the bones through her skin.

She found the High Priest staring at her aghast. She couldn't recognized his expression at first. There was horror, certainly, but more than horror, there was something unexpected. She swayed and suddenly there were arms holding her up.

"Easy, Major…" The Colonel's voice was as familiar as it was comforting.

She swallowed painfully, her tonsils feeling like pool balls. "Did it work?"

"Oh the gracious goddess Mehit is not a happy camper."

Daniel watched Jack squeeze Sam's shoulder approvingly and tried and failed not to smile. He guessed sometimes actions did speak louder than words. All his Egyptian lore, Teal'c's quotations from the Bible, and Jack's button-pushing, had won them some time certainly, but Sam raising a man from the dead with technology only a goddess was supposed to be able to use had undermined Onuris and his mate more effectively than a thousand skilful arguments.

He'd thought they might possibly see compassion in the High Priest's eyes. He found it hard to believe anyone was completely devoid of compassion. But he'd never dared even hope for doubt. Rahotep was looking between Mehit and Carter. The beautiful goddess with the lion headdress and gorgeous silken robes, and the shabby Air Force Major, swaying with fever, lips cracking, skin white with exhaustion beneath a faint dusting of dirt. Both had restored him to life. Mehit's gamble had just paid off spectacularly for the opposition.

"Way to go Sam," he said softly.

"I'm not so sure," she nodded her head in the direction of the furious Mehit and the Goa'uld's bearded mate. There was a worrying stillness about Onuris. He reminded Daniel of a cobra in the second as it waits to strike. "They might just think we've all lived too long."

"That is possible," Teal'c admitted gravely. "They may decide the knowledge we have of the Goa'uld coupled with Major Carter's ability to use Goa'uld technology makes us too dangerous not to kill."

Onuris strode towards them and Daniel read both rage and fear in the Goa'uld's dark eyes. His gaze was fixed on Daniel and his intentions did not appear to be friendly. The lion guards seized Teal'c before he could spring to his teammate's defense. Jack stepped in front of Daniel with his hands up in a placatory manner. "Look, let's just talk about…"

But Daniel could hear what the watchers were saying. Their shock and disbelief turning to dawning doubt. And hope. They had just watched Sam save the life of the man who had tried to kill him. He could imagine how that translated into the language of prophecy. That was why she was called Compassion. She was the angel who had raised the torturer of the Chosen One from the dead. This had already been written. The people Onuris needed to worship him as a god had just seen a prophecy come true right in front of him. Fate was closing around all of them like a net.

When Onuris grabbed Jack by the shoulder of his jacket and yanked him out of the way as though he weighed less than a child, Daniel wasn't even surprised. When the Goa'uld seized him by the hair and dragged him into the center of the temple he didn't bother struggling. They'd put up a good show for the faithful anyway. Sowed a whole field of seeds of doubt. Daniel was going to die bitterly regretting the way his curiosity had condemned his friends to death, but there was at least that faint silver lining of knowing the days of Onuris' reign were probably numbered.

Onuris tightened his grip; yanking Daniel's head back cruelly.

"Ow!" Daniel said pointedly.

Still holding him, Onuris turned a slow circle, dragging Daniel after him. He raised his voice so the worshippers could hear him. "This – boy is not a god."

"I never said I was," Daniel murmured.

"His followers are not avatars."

"They never said they were either. Peaceful explorers was all we ever claimed to be."

"The one you call the Chosen One has no power of any kind and I will prove it to you. If he cannot save his own companions, how then can he save you?"

"No," Daniel said tautly. "Whatever you're planning. Don't. It's already written. Everything you do or I do or either of us tries to do. It's chiseled in stone and we can't change it. Anything you do will end up fulfilling a prophecy that proves you're not a – No…!"

He read Onuris' sudden resolution in those glowing eyes and abruptly he was in hell again. His throat was burning, his skin was burning, he could hear the groans of the dying and the shrieks of the damned, Sam's father was fading minute by minute while she had to stand there and watch it. They were coming for her and he couldn't stop them. Even Jack couldn't stop them.

"Jack – !" He yelled the warning as Onuris backhanded him to the floor. Everything slowed down. There was so much time and no time. He knew exactly what the Goa'uld was going to do and he still couldn't stop it. He'd seen this before. Already lived this moment. Onuris had snatched a staff weapon from a lion guard and the weapon's maw was opening, there was the fizz of it charging, light flaring, the roar as it fired. Sam calling out something, her voice so hoarse he couldn't make sense of the words. Teal'c shouting "O'Neill!"

Jack cried out as he crumpled, clutching his thigh; then hit the ground, face twisted in agony while his leg smoldered. He swore horribly, putting a hand up to his face as he rolled over, trying to escape the pain and not succeeding. With Daniel also lying on the ground they were at eye-level. Daniel could smell the older man's skin burning as the wound cauterized, read for himself in Jack's eyes how very much it hurt. He tried to say "I'm sorry…" but the words couldn't find a way out past the lump in his throat.

Onuris smiled and threw the staff weapon back to the lion guard, then bent and seized Daniel by the collar of his jacket, yanking him to his feet again. "I will prove you are not a god," the Goa'uld said softly. "I will set you a task a god could accomplish and you will fail. The people of this world shall witness your failure. They will see that I am the only god."

"Don't do this," Daniel said quietly. "My friends have done you no harm. Kill me if you have to, but let them go."

Onuris dragged him into the very center of the temple. He looked up and Daniel followed his gaze. As he saw the transportation rings his sense of déjà vu became stronger. Onuris raised his voice. "The woman who pretends to be a goddess is dying. The fever she was given will kill her."

There was a murmur of dismay from the watchers, a sense of them pressing forward, being halted by lion guards. Onuris seemed to sense it too. Daniel felt the Goa'uld's fingers tighten on his collar in annoyance. Onuris continued, "I will set this Chosen One a task and if he fulfils it, I will save the woman."

"What task?" said Daniel wearily.

Onuris snapped his fingers and lion guards bent and seized Jack by the arms. Daniel winced as the man's cry of pain hissed across the temple, but then his eyes widened as they dragged Jack towards him.

The Goa'uld was looking around at the listening worshippers, and in the sudden quiet before he made his next pronouncement, Daniel could hear the harsh sound of Jack's breathing as the lion guards manhandled him across the flagstones, the pain clearly catching in his throat every time his foot made contact with the floor. He looked across at Sam, and saw Teal'c was having to support her with an arm around her shoulders. She looked so drained it already seemed like a miracle she was still conscious. But it sounded as though Onuris wanted more circus tricks. Daniel felt hands close on his shoulders and then he was being shown to the populace, turned in a slow circle so everyone could look upon him one last time.

"If this false god, burdened by his false avatar – who you witness can be wounded like any mortal man – manages to return to the temple he has desecrated within two nights from this one, I will spare his life and save the one you call Compassion. If he does not return, then the woman will be left to die of her fever and the shol'va will be put to death."

Daniel mustered the last of his energy. "I told you I'm not a god. We both know I can't possibly…"

"Be silent!" Onuris hissed, eyes glowing gold as he wrenched Jack from the lion guards and shoved him roughly at Daniel.

"You son-of-a – "

Daniel staggered under Jack's weight but caught him. He steadied him as well as he could, tightening his grip on his shoulder to suggest that maybe insulting the Goa'uld wasn't the best idea the man could have right now.

Jack had his teeth gritted and was looking at Onuris with both loathing and promise. "You are so dead, you know that?"

Onuris gave him a contemptuous glance before turning to address the worshippers again. "Witness the reason and justice of your deity. I am giving this false god every chance to prove his divinity and that of his avatars. If he returns by nightfall of the second day then all will be well with him and his followers. If he does not return, these two who have been left behind will pay the price for his treachery, and any of you who follow him shall join them on the funeral pyre. But fear not, when his falseness is proven, you will be given the chance to reaffirm your loyalty and love to your true god. The one god. The only god. Onuris!" His eyes glowed triumphantly but as he turned back to Daniel he hissed too softly for the worshippers to overhear, "If you dare return here, I will give you to my Jaffa."

Daniel was still wincing from the look in the Goa'uld's eyes when Mehit's taloned fingers closed on his arm and dug deep into the skin. With an effort he dragged his gaze away from Onuris' hypnotic stare to meet the loathing in her kohl-painted eyes. Her voice was soft with hatred as the torchlight picked out the links of the golden chain attached to her lionesses' collars: "And when they are done with you, I will feed your still-living remains to my pets."

"Oh that's nice," Jack said breathlessly. "That's real classy. Tell me, what actually happens if you guys accidentally tell the truth? Does your throat close over or something?"

They were both thrown into the circle beneath the transport rings, Daniel just grabbing Jack in time to stop him falling. He held onto him tighter as the first ring fell, as light glowed. Through the descending metal circles he had his last look at Teal'c's set face, at Sam's exhausted one. The friends he couldn't possibly save, who were going to die because of him. As light engulfed them, he closed his eyes and held onto Jack as though he was all he had left in the world.

***

Teal'c's greatest fear was that they would separate him from Major Carter. Although she was fighting to stay on her feet, he knew how ill she truly was, could feel the fever emanating from her like heat rising from desert sand as her temperature climbed higher and higher. Using the healing device had greatly weakened her resistance to infection and he could almost picture the illness taking gleeful hold of her system. As the rings ascended, taking O'Neill and Daniel Jackson with them, she swayed and would have fallen if he had not caught her.

"I'm okay, Teal'c, just a little…dizzy."

She had a hand pressed to her head and was barely clinging onto consciousness. Teal'c saw the distress he felt mirrored in the eyes of Harun who was still hovering close to them. Bending his head as though to talk to Major Carter he whispered urgently to the man, "The medicine she needs is with our equipment." He had no way of telling if Harun understood what he said or would feel inclined to act on it.

The High Priest was also gazing at them. The hatred had gone from his face. So had the certainty. Teal'c recognized the look in the man's eyes because he knew what it was to have doubt forced upon you when life would be so much easier if you could just continue to believe. Had the man not tortured Daniel Jackson, Teal'c might even have pitied him.

"Take them away." Onuris clapped his hands, and lion guards made to seize him. Teal'c shook them off contemptuously, fixing those nearest with a gaze promising what he would do to those who manhandled his companion. That expression had served him well when he was First Prime of Apophis and it made them take a step back now. He put an arm around Major Carter's shoulders and she leant against him, clearly very glad of his support. Her lips cracked as she murmured, "Is it me or is getting very hot in here, Teal'c?"

Giving the nearest Jaffa another look warning them to keep their distance, Teal'c tightened his grip on her, saying gently, "It is indeed growing somewhat warmer, Major Carter."

She managed a faint smile. "You need to practice that lying a bit more, Teal'c. I don't think you've quite got the hang of it yet."

"I will endeavor to do so," he assured her.

The over-muscled seven foot First Prime of Onuris jabbed his staff weapon at Teal'c, the Jaffa giving him a quelling glance before easing his teammate in the direction their guard had indicated. She went where he directed, clearly very much in need of his arm around her shoulders, and he steered her gently across the temple. As he drew level with Onuris, Teal'c met the other's kohl-painted gaze and said, "Heru'Ur will take this world from you and none of the System Lords will aid you against him. You might be wise to ally yourself with the Tok'ra and the Tauri –"

"I said take them away. Now!" The Goa'uld's eyes glowed gold with fury and Teal'c gave him a look of contempt.

Surrounded by lion guards but not actually bound or touched by any of them, they were marched through the concealed doorway from which a shokmared Daniel Jackson had been escorted all those hours before. The corridors were featureless rectangles lit by smoking torches, every stone block fitted perfectly against its fellows, all fashioned from the same strange black stone which had blocked their radio transmissions as easily as it had muffled Daniel Jackson's screams.

As they passed one chamber lit by the fire from a grate, Teal'c saw a form of altar with metal cuffs at each corner. Anger flared as he realized this was the room in which Daniel Jackson had been tortured. He was trying not to think of the young scholar or O'Neill, hoping the transport rings had taken them somewhere safer than here. For now his duty was clear – to endeavor to protect Major Carter in any way he could.

As they were shoved roughly into a small chamber, the door slamming closed behind them with echoing finality, he tightened his grip to stop her falling, then helped her over to the corner. Apart from some straw and a pitcher of water, the cell was empty and cold, the only illumination from distant stars, their chill light a faint glimmer through a small barred window set too high for even him to reach. He helped Major Carter to lie down on the straw as he had earlier helped Daniel Jackson lie down in the cave, wishing vainly for the emergency blanket they had been forced to leave behind in their flight from the caverns. He took off his jacket and laid it over her, the cold stinging his bare arms at once. Her eyes were closing even as she touched the ground but as she dozed off she murmured drowsily, "Don't take this the wrong way, Teal'c, but I'm glad you're here."

As she drifted into a feverish sleep, he rested a hand gently on her head, saying quietly, "So am I."

***

Despite the fire in his leg, O'Neill tried to focus on their surroundings. The rings had descended, dumped him and Daniel, and then vanished, taking light with them. In the eye blink of illumination the transport rings had cast upon the walls he'd seen only a greenish darkness. Now there was nothing to see except blackness. Straining his ears, he realized there was also nothing to hear except their own breathing – slightly accelerated, he noticed, in Daniel's case, ragged with the pain it was trying to filter out in his own. But he knew where they were. There was no magic trick involved. He knew where they were because they'd just been in the same damned surroundings and he could recognize the signs. They were in a cave. A cold, damp one. He wondered if it had any exits or if the ever-merciful Onuris had just banished them to a locked box.

"Are you okay?"

He didn't ask Daniel why he was whispering. When it was black as wet asphalt and you might as well have had your head in a sack, keeping your voice down was a sensible precaution. But this time he thought it was an unnecessary one. Years spent in Special Forces had given him a pretty good instinct for when there were people – or animals – close at hand, and the only thing he could smell right now apart from his own blood was a reminder that Doctor Daniel Jackson was in serious need of a shower.

"Jack?"

"As well as can be expected. What about you?" The stab of light was skewering and he put up a hand instinctively. "Damnit, Daniel!"

"Sorry." Daniel turned away from him, letting the beam from his flashlight cut through the shadows, turning the cave from soot-black to chill blue. The water running down the walls glistened at them coldly.

O'Neill opened his mouth to give Daniel the lecture about why you didn't give away your position to possible hostiles by flashing light about until you had ascertained…And then thought what the hell. He'd already decided there was no one here except them. It would make more sense to praise Daniel for hanging onto his flashlight and vest rather than bawling him out for using it to check out their current situation. He followed the beam of light and saw folds of dark rock, a lot of greenish slime, and…an opening in the rock. Good. Maybe it only led into another cave but at least they weren't going to be stuck here. Daniel pointed the flashlight at the ceiling and there were the circles waiting to descend and whisk them back to the temple, but if there was a mechanism for summoning them it was very well hidden.

He'd thought those rings could only go up or down; spaceship to ground; floor to dungeon kind of deal, but now it seemed they also worked like a giant slinky, flipping you from one part of the planet to another. He wondered what happened if the power system failed halfway. Did you fall out and rematerialize, or did you never get all your bits back, and just stay a whole bunch of little swirling atoms forever? If Carter had come along for this particular ride she could have bored him senseless speculating on that very subject. Just as well he only had Daniel with him, who was as clueless as he was when it come to naqadah-powered Goa'uld whirligigs.

It occurred to O'Neill that Onuris had known what he was doing when the Goa'uld divided up his team. Teal'c and Carter both understood Goa'uld technology, could make it work, even hotwire it if they had to. Daniel could speak, write, and read the language, but he knew as little about Goa'uld equipment as O'Neill. Carter or Teal'c might have been able to get those rings to spirit them somewhere else but unless the last Goa'uld who'd used them had left an instruction manual, he and Daniel were going to be out of luck.

He and Daniel both gazed up at the rings for a moment and then met each other's gaze. O'Neill read in Daniel's blue eyes the same rueful embarrassment he was currently feeling about always leaving this kind of thing up to Carter. Daniel sighed and dejectedly began to shine the flashlight along the walls. "There was that panel thing in Bynarr's quarters…"

"Yes." O'Neill put a hand on his arm and tilted the flashlight beam down. "Which Martouf knew how to fix to make it work without the key – thing. We don't."

"Maybe if we found it, we could figure it out."

"Not in time." O'Neill didn't say Daniel, I've watched you change a fuse, remember? But he hoped commonsense would reassert itself in time. Fiddling around with Goa'uld toys was not their strong suit. You had to play to your strengths in survival situations. And this was definitely a survival situation.

"I'm sorry about your leg. Actually, I'm sorry about…" Daniel looked around helplessly. "This is all my fault."

"Daniel!" Pain roughened his tone and the younger man jumped slightly. O'Neill collected himself, taking a deep breath. "Look, we don't have time for this now. What's done is done, let's just deal with it."

"I should never have – "

He grabbed him by the arm, steadying himself with a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "a) That doesn't help, and b) It's written in goddamn stone, Daniel. It's been written for centuries. Like Teal'c said, if we hadn't got captured on Chulak, he'd still be First Prime of Apophis, and if you hadn't gone to that temple – "

"You wouldn't have been shot in the leg, Sam wouldn't be dying of a fever, and Teal'c wouldn't be under a death sentence. Oh yes, and you and I wouldn't be stuck on an alien planet with no way of helping Sam and Teal'c. Apart from that, I think it was probably one of my better ideas."

O'Neill sighed in exasperation. "You're the one who said it. They wouldn't have been waiting for us all this time if all we did was get ourselves killed."

"Well we hadn't done anything…impressive back then. Now we have. You talked Onuris into sparing my life, and Sam raised the High Priest from the dead. You add that to trashing their temple and destroying the statue of Onuris, not to mention probably laying the foundations for the end of their belief in him as a god, and I think we've probably earned ourselves a place in the history books."

O'Neill looked at his teammate by the blue glare of the flashlight. Daniel had his arms wrapped around his chest – never a good sign. He also looked pale, grubby and close to despair. Whenever he went this brittle and self-hating action needed to be taken quickly. As getting him drunk wasn't an option and as O'Neill was frankly too exhausted and in too much pain himself to want to have to compose a comforting speech, he decided sleep was probably the best solution.

"I don't know about you but I'm beat," he said conversationally. "Let's get the hell away from these rings and find somewhere to get some shut-eye. Help me, will you?"

He saw a look of mingled gratitude and anxiety flashed in his direction. Daniel obviously couldn't decide if he was so dangerously ill he didn't mind asking for help, or if he was just trying to give him something to do to make him feel better. Too damned intense. He could literally say he had been in marriages less complicated than this friendship. If he didn't watch every word he said to Daniel there was always a risk of hurting his feelings in some unforeseen way, and as watching every word he said didn't exactly come naturally to him, he probably did hurt Daniel's feelings on a fairly regular basis. The saving grace being that Daniel now knew him well enough to also know he didn't mean it.

Daniel supported him carefully, helping him to hop across the cavern to the opening in the rocks although he was still tending to wave the flashlight beam around the walls instead of aiming it in the direction in which they were heading. "This feels like some kind of emergency exit to me," Daniel peered over his shoulder. "A sort of backstairs entrance. You know we usually only get to explore the area of a planet closest to the Stargate, this time we could be miles – hundreds of miles – maybe even thousands of miles from the Stargate…"

O'Neill didn't say anything. On other occasion he might have suggested they had more important things to think about but right now he was all for Daniel worrying about the intangible and the probably unprovable if it stopped him guilt-tripping.

"…which of course means we're also thousands of miles from Sam and Teal'c."

Well that had to be the shortest holiday from a guilt-trip he'd ever known. Time to join in the conversation. "Emergency exit suggests trouble to me," he put in, trying not to let it show in his voice how much his damned leg was hurting. "Like the Goa'uld had to retreat in a hurry. Maybe they don't worship Onuris on this part of the planet. Maybe we'll find some allies here who'd be happy to help us drive out the Goa'uld." Maybe there's more than one Stargate and we can dial home and get help. Maybe the people here have invented the internal combustion engine and they'll have left us a Porsche with the keys in the ignition. Maybe the moon really is made of green cheese. What the hell, he was willing to say just about anything to make Daniel feel better at the moment. Quite apart from the other considerations, Daniel was much more useful when he was thinking positively.

Another cavern. Dripping, dark, cold, musty. He was getting seriously bored with caves. He supposed he should be grateful these were so dank and featureless; the sniff of any paintings on the walls and Daniel would never get any sleep.

Yet another cavern. And another. This was jarring the hell out of his leg, he could feel the damp getting into every piece of scar tissue he possessed, and Daniel was definitely struggling, but he was damned if he was going to lie down and go to sleep with no idea of their current situation. He needed to see the sky, needed to know if it was day or night here. The only way they could work out how far they'd traveled was if they got a glimpse of the outside world.

"Jack, for all I know we could be going around in circles, down here. Don't you think you ought to rest?"

He felt torn. Daniel was going to fall down with exhaustion if he didn't let him sleep soon but if they were to have any chance of saving Carter and Teal'c they had to know their position relative to that of their teammates'. If they were ten thousand miles or ten miles away they needed to work it out. A cold breeze made him shiver. He jerked his head in that direction. "Daniel."

"What?"

"Shine the flashlight over there."

As Daniel did so, he saw an opening, a ragged fissure in the rocks, not what you could a proper doorway, but they could slip through as long as they breathed in. There was a pool between them and the way out and he flinched in anticipation before edging into it cautiously. "Jesus!"

Daniel gasped something in Abydonian that sounded like a swearword, lurching as the freezing water splashed up to his calves. "Cold. Very, very cold."

They splashed through it awkwardly, the water feeling as heavy as liquid metal against their legs and so icy O'Neill could feel shrieks of protest running up from his toes to discharge straight into the deep throbbing of his wounded leg. Whether by luck or judgment Onuris had managed to get him almost exactly in the same place as Kintar; making it all the easier to remember how it had felt being in hell.

They staggered through the freezing water, hauling themselves out stiffly and – in his case – painfully the other side. Daniel wriggled through the fissure first and then offered him a hand. It was a bit more of a squeeze for him, but he made it with some determined tugging from Daniel. They both staggered down an incline into another cave. It was bare and freezing cold, but beyond the cave mouth there was light; faint and eerie, yet recognizably pinpricks of silver in what was definitely a cloud-bruised night sky. The outside world. Points of reference. Wherever they were it was still dark, that was something. At least they hadn't been transported to the equivalent of Australia. He hobbled to the mouth of the cave and peered up at the constellations. Yes. There were some he recognized from sitting in Harun's hut and also from their climb up the hillside. The stars had changed position, but they were still there, so they were in the same hemisphere but…

Daniel watched Jack anxiously, wondering if he had any idea how ill he looked. His right pants leg had almost melted into his skin around the staff weapon blast and the surface of the wound looked shiny and crusted, like the black skin which formed over cooling lava, the redness glowing through from underneath. He felt in the pockets of his vest. He knew he didn't have much in the way of supplies because he'd searched them thoroughly earlier when he'd been so hungry, but he thought he'd come across some…Yes!

"Jack." Daniel put the two Tylenol in Jack's hand. "You have to get the weight off that leg and you really need to get some sleep."

Jack was murmuring things under his breath, peering up at the stars as he did so. He nodded in satisfaction, throwing the aspirin down his throat without even seeming to notice. "I think we're on the same continent. I'd say we're about the same distance from Teal'c and Carter as say Acapulco is from Colorado."

"What?" Daniel felt the dismay overwhelm him. He'd been trying to tell himself Onuris would have been limited in where he could send them by the existing rings. The Goa'uld might have only conquered one particular area of this planet. "We can't possibly walk that far in two days. Even if you weren't wounded – "

"It could be a lot worse, Daniel. I was afraid we might be in the equivalent of Antarctica."

Daniel shivered. "Well it's cold enough."

"That's because we're high up. Look."

Unwillingly, Daniel went to the mouth of the cave and looked down. There was a rustling sea of darkness beneath them which it took him a moment to realize was the top of trees. They were a long way up, so high up it made him feel breathless to think about it. He tried to snatch some oxygen and Jack's hand closed on his arm. "The air's a little thinner than you're used to, that's all. I think we're in the equivalent of Quito. That could be the local version of the Amazon rain forest down there, in which case it will get a lot warmer once we can get down lower."

Daniel looked back at the rippling canopy, then up to the implacable, unfamiliar stars. He felt chilled through every cell and his mind ached with exhaustion. He couldn't think about possibilities now. He couldn't think about anything except Jack's injured leg. He said stolidly, "You need to get the weight off that leg and let me take a look at it." He began to search through his pockets for the silver blanket that folded up so small it almost defied the laws of possibility, so used to it being to hand that it took him three searches to realize he didn’t have it. The priests must have taken it or else he'd left it behind in the catacombs, and Jack didn't have his vest with him. For once the SGC wasn't going to be able to provide. "I don't have my blanket thingy," he offered.

Jack limped away from the cave entrance and sniffed the air. "Can't smell any bears or mountain lions so I don't think we're trespassing on anyone's den. Of course it's a little difficult smelling anything with you upwind of me."

Daniel looked at him reproachfully. "You're not exactly a can of air freshener yourself."

"Trust me on this, Daniel, you're worse." Jack took his elbow and began to steer him deeper into the cave. "Which is bad luck for me, because without the contents of my vest to hand you're my only heat source at the moment, so I guess I'm going to have to put up with you stinking like a dead elk in high summer if I don't want to die from hypothermia."

"What?" Daniel was flicking the beam from the flashlight disconsolately around the cave but all it was showing him was bare ground and cold rock walls.

Jack put a hand over the front of the flashlight. "That light is going to show up if there's anyone down there to see it and I don't know about you, but I'm not really in the mood for visitors, so point it down." As Daniel hastily lowered the beam, Jack continued quietly, "We're going to have to share body heat, Daniel, or else we're not going to make it through the night."

Daniel remembered asking Sam how weird it had been, having to cozy up with Jack in Antarctica. She'd told him the worst part was trying not to roll on his broken ribs. When pressed she'd admitted it was very weird. 'But not,' she added with the flicker of a smile, 'entirely unpleasant…' Now he realized he should have asked her something practical: like did Jack snore or kick you in his sleep.

"Okay."

"Just 'okay'?"

"The Ancient Spartans did it all the time. Actually the Ancient Spartans did a whole lot of other things to keep warm as well but you probably don't want to hear about that right now."

"However did you guess?"

Right, Jack was tired, pissy, and hurting. It hadn't been a fun day and if they didn't both get some sleep soon their chances of finding a means of getting back to the temple were going to dwindle to zero.  First things first. He needed to get that wound seen to, then they needed to argue about who was going to take the first watch. Daniel sat down on the cave floor. There was a faint sprinkling of dust but it wasn't exactly a feather mattress. "Here okay?"

Jack glanced around the cave and then shrugged. "It all looks equally uncomfortable to me. Here will be dandy."

"Let me see to your leg first."

"Must you?"

Daniel gave him a look which he hoped spoke volumes then pointed at the floor. The priests had clearly rifled through the pockets of his vest because half the contents were missing and the rest had been shoved back in any which way. His fingers were so cold they fumbled clumsily before finding the pad he was looking for. He yanked it out gratefully, ignoring that groan from Jack as the man reluctantly sat down next to him and straightened his leg.

"Let me do it," Jack protested.

"No." Daniel handed Jack the flashlight so he could hold it on his leg, then began easing the burnt cloth away from the wound as carefully as he could.

"Ow!"

"Jack!"

"It hurts."

Daniel wondered how someone who was without a doubt a bona fide American hero could be such a whiner about having his wounds treated. "You're the kind of patient who drives doctors out of medicine."

"Yeah, and you're the kind of doctor who's only qualified to dig up dead people. Jesus, Daniel!"

Daniel decided to ignore him. It was the only way with Jack when he was wounded; otherwise it was impossible not to be distracted by his constant bitching. He concentrated on getting all the bits of burnt cloth out of the wound, mentally humming loudly to himself to block out the sound of Jack's swearing. When he was satisfied the wound was as clean as he could get it, he fumbled in his vest pocket for the antibiotic cream, relieved when his fingers closed on it. He squeezed a generous measure over the burn, pointedly ignored Jack's hiss of "Christ, that's cold!" then strapped a pad around the wound. Although he said it himself, he thought that was a pretty good bit of doctoring.

The way Jack examined his handiwork and offered a grudging 'Humph', suggested to Daniel that the man could find nothing to complain about. "You're welcome," he told him as he switched off the flashlight. The darkness was enveloping for a moment and then the starlight began to grow brighter as his eyes adjusted, a faint bluish glow bathing them both.

Jack beckoned to him wearily as he unzipped his jacket. "Okay, cuddle up."

"Do I look like that kind of boy?"

Jack's glare was steely. "We can do this with you conscious or unconscious: your choice."

Daniel reluctantly unzipped his own jacket, murmuring, "And yet he's single…"

Despite the kidding around, Daniel wasn't too sure how he felt about snuggling up to Jack for warmth. They'd been closer than this on Netu and it had comforted him then but there had been other people nearby on that occasion. He didn't want to overstep any boundaries and he was very aware of Jack's wounded leg, not to mention his decidedly ragged temper. If he touched that wound, Jack was going to hiss with pain and exasperation right in his ear, then probably tell him he'd rather freeze to death by himself, thank you. Daniel lay down next to Jack awkwardly, knowing he was probably coming across like an unwilling bride on the wedding night but not wanting to be the one who made the first move.

"Daniel, we have to share body heat. That means we have to be touching."

"I'm worried about your leg," he protested.

His answer was Jack impatiently pulling him against his body. He immediately felt several degrees warmer and tentatively put his arms around the man's back, the same way Jack had done – his arms around the older man's torso and under his jacket. He could feel their body heat mingling, creating a cocoon of warmth enveloping their chests, but he was afraid he might be hurting that wounded leg. "Is this okay?"

"Well it's not an emergency blanket but it'll do."

"Thanks a bunch."

"I know it would be warmer if we went deeper into those damned caves but I can't stick the thought of spending another night underground." Jack gave him an apologetic shrug, face grainy and ghost-lit by starlight. "I just…needed to see some stars."

"You could always hit your head on a low doorway. That usually does it for me."

"Shut up and go to sleep," Jack told him.

"No, let me take the first watch."

"There's not going to be any first watch. We're both going to sleep."

Daniel gaped at him. That was unheard of. "But, Jack…"

"Daniel, we're both dead on our feet here. If we don't get some rest we're never going to be able to help Carter and Teal'c. Now, will you please shut up and go to sleep?"

The silence stretched as Daniel tried to get comfy. He didn't want to disturb Jack but the guy was full of awkward edges tonight and between the rock floor and trying not to roll on Jack's wounded leg, and trying to find a way to stay close without being jabbed painfully by body parts…

"Will you quit it with that wriggling?" Jack muttered in annoyance.

Daniel tried again to get comfortable but it was no good there was something very hard sticking into his stomach and it hurt. He scratched his jaw. "Jack, don't take this the wrong way, but is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?"

Jack's sigh of exasperation warmed his right ear nicely. He could tell Jack wasn't even bothering to open his eyes, and he sounded like most of him was already asleep. He muttered drowsily, "Damnit, Daniel, like I told Carter in Antarctica, it's my sidearm…"

"Uh – Jack? You don't have a sidearm." Daniel grimaced apologetically. "Don't you remember? The lion guards took all our – "

Jack rolled away from him in an instant and Daniel saw him patting himself down. Daniel cleared his throat. "I don't mind. It's just a bit disconcer – "

"Will you switch the damned flashlight on?"

Blinking in surprise, Daniel fumbled for it and then did so. As his eyes watered from the sudden brightness he saw Jack staring at something in disbelief. It took Daniel a moment to recognize what Jack was holding. "It was your sidearm."

Jack was already checking the weapon, as wide-awake now as he had been drowsy only seconds before. He ejected the clip, examined it, then jammed it back in before turning to Daniel with disbelief on his face. "How the hell – ?"

Daniel's eyes widened in realization. "Harun. It had to be Harun. He must have slipped it to you. You're so used to having a gun you wouldn't have noticed the weight of it."

"Have you got yours?"

His brain was so tired it took Daniel a moment to realize what Jack was asking. As he made to pat himself down, Jack impatiently pushed his hands out of the way and did it for him, reaching into his pockets in turn. "If he gave me a weapon he ought to have given you – Yes."

Daniel shone the flashlight on the small knife in Jack's hand. "That's not mine."

"One of your 'worshippers' must have put it in your pocket while they were helping you down the mountain."

He took the knife from Jack and turned it over in his fingers. "If they gave these to us, they might have given something to Sam and Teal'c."

Immediately Jack's face was closed over and hostile again. "They're only interested in fulfilling their precious prophecy, remember, Daniel? Maybe it's written that you and me survive but Carter and Teal'c don't. The only thing we know they gave Carter is a fever. Now put the knife away and let's get some shuteye."

Daniel opened his mouth to protest and then closed it again. Jack was right. They needed their sleep. If they were too exhausted to think they were never going to be able to find a way back to the temple. He lay down gingerly next to Jack, heart sinking as he realized they were going to have to go through the awkward ritual of getting close again.

"Oh for crying out loud." Jack pulled him back into his arms and pushed Daniel's head against his chest. Warmth spread out from the older man in an instant and Daniel quickly put his arms around him in return. For the first time since they'd entered the temple and seen Onuris waiting for