Title: On Paths Divergent
Author: Wonderland
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Don’t own ‘em, wish I did, you know who does, yadda, yadda, yadda
Summary: What if a totally different Daniel Jackson had joined the Stargate program?
Season/Spoiler info: Stargate, the movie.

Author’s Notes: This came about because of a couple of things. One, I was re-reading one of Biblio’s excellent fics, ‘A Curse and a Blessing’, in which Jack’s mother voices a completely understandable disbelief that no one ever adopted a sweet, young Daniel.

And two, I have a fondness for what I call ‘fork in the road’ ideas, where we basically look at storyline canon as we know it and then introduce a slight twist and see how the Stargate world becomes something totally different.

On Paths Divergent

“Daniel! Dr. Langford is here.”

“Coming, coming!” He shrugged on the suit jacket, taking a moment to glance in the mirror, then straightened his tie. Hoping he looked more confident than he felt, he took the time to control his breathing. Damning the fact that he usually looked fourteen instead of twenty-four, he forced himself to slow his step, to walk down the stairs like an adult.

“Dr. Langford, my son, Daniel Jackson. I’ll leave the two of you alone. Hannah will be bringing your tea in just a minute.”

“Thanks, Mom.” His mother squeezed his hand before she smiled and left. “Dr. Langford, please have a seat.”

She settled on the comfortable sofa, looking at the elegant sitting room with interest. It was full of lovely furniture and beautiful antiques that bespoke quiet wealth. “Did I misunderstand your mother? I believe she called you Daniel Jackson?” Catherine already knew the story; after all, the Air Force wouldn’t have allowed her to approach Daniel Jackson without a full background check. But she wanted to hear him speak of his past, see if he’d open up.

“The Marshalls adopted me after my parents died, but Daniel will do just fine.” He turned at the soft step behind him. “Thank you, Hannah, just put it there on the table. Dr. Langford, will you play mother?”

She laughed. “Only if you’ll call me Catherine. After that remark, I assume you’ve been to England.” She handed him a cup, watching his beautifully expressive face, open, enthusiastic and so damned young. A quietly regretful sigh escaped her.

“We’ve been all over the world. We started here in New York and then Dublin for awhile, then back and forth between there and London. A bit of time in Paris, and Leningrad, too.”

Catherine knew Dr. Nicholas Ballard; who in the archaeology community hadn’t heard of the much vaunted explorer? She hadn’t liked him, his people skills were completely nonexistent and his arrogantly condescending manner had always rubbed her the wrong way. It was plain that this intelligent, sensitive boy had been far better off raised by the Marshalls. “And now you’re wondering why I asked to meet you?”

He just shrugged, not even bothering to deny it. “I have no idea why, to be honest.”

“Professor Tinlake knew I was searching for a linguist to help me solve a puzzle I have. He suggested I contact you and see if you could help.”

“I’m flattered, to be sure, but why me?”

“I understand that most of your childhood was spent in Egypt.”

“Yes, my parents were archaeologists who discovered an undisturbed tomb not far from Cairo. The display is what brought us to New York...” He stopped abruptly.

“Where your parents were killed. I’m so sorry, it must have been dreadful for you.”

“It was,” he saw no reason to lie. “It could have been so much worse if Mom…I suppose I should explain. Anne Marshall was the curator of the museum at the time of the accident. She persuaded the police to let her take me home instead of turning me over to social services.”

“That was a bit unusual, wasn’t it?”

“You have to remember, it was 1973. Times were different and David Marshall was a fairly high-ranking diplomat. Between the two of them, they had a lot of contacts. Mom, Anne went to social services and informed them that she intended to keep me so they could just shuffle all the paperwork they wanted, I was staying. My grand-father…”

“Nicholas Ballard.”

“Yes, he was in South America. By the time they found him and he got back to the states, the Marshalls had had me for eighteen months. And they were no longer David and Anne. I think she and Dr. Ballard had quite a fight and she told him that if he wanted me, he’d have to step over her dead body to get me. She fought for me, like I was her own child.” His eyes were suspiciously bright. “Whatever success I have, I owe to my parents. Both sets of them.”

Catherine made no comment on the fact that Daniel referred to his grandfather by his title. “It’s obvious she loves you as if you were her own.”

“There are times that we, all of us, forget that I’m not.”

*

“Daniel, you’ll do fine.” Anne fumbled with his tie in an attempt to put off the moment she put her only child on a plane for Colorado and the next phase of his life. She remembered sending him off to college with much the same trepidation. Of course, that could have been because he was only fifteen at the time. The fact that she now had to look up to see his face did nothing to alleviate her worry.

“Mom,” he stilled her hands with his. “Don’t worry about me, please?”

“How can I not worry? You’re my baby, this is what mothers do.”

“And I’m a linguist and this is what I do.” They both looked up as his flight was called. “I have to go, Mom. Love you.” His words were smothered against her hair.

“Love you, too. Take care of yourself? Please?”

“Yes, Mom. Promise. And you and Dad are coming out once I get settled, right?” He looked over her head and smiled.

“Wild horses, Daniel.” His father waited patiently for his turn to embrace his son. “Someone’s meeting you at the airport?”

“Yes, Dad,” Daniel sighed silently. “The Air Force is sending a driver, I’ll be staying on base for awhile, at least until I get an apartment. I’ll call you after I land.”

*

Within hours, Daniel was in another world. He was met at the airport by an Air Force officer, he had no idea what her rank was. She was silent as she saw his bags settled in the trunk, the bulk of his luggage had been shipped ahead and was allegedly waiting for him in storage, and drove him toward Cheyenne Mountain.

Daniel took advantage of the time to check out the sights and scribble in his ever-present journal. He wanted to capture every moment, every thought, to share with his parents. Not for the first time he wondered what would have happened to him if Anne Marshall hadn’t bulldozed everyone who stood between her and a suddenly orphaned eight-year-old.

It didn’t bear thinking about.

*

“Fascinating, absolutely fascinating.” Daniel was enthralled by the writings he was currently trying to translate.

“But can you do it?”

He jumped at the voice behind him. “Oh, Dr. Langford. Good morning.”

“Daniel, have you even been to bed?”

”Hmm? This is ancient Egyptian here. And here? I’m not sure what this is. But why? Why mix up the languages? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Dr. Jackson? Daniel?”

“Oh, sorry. You wanted something?”

“I want you to take a break, get some rest. We’re not on some kind of schedule here.”

He finally looked at her. And he realized she wasn’t alone. “I’m sorry.”

“Dr. Jackson. This is Colonel Jack O’Neill. Colonel, Dr. Daniel Jackson.”

What Daniel Jackson saw was a pair of frozen brown eyes, tight, thin lips and a humorless face. He wondered what had happened to have soured the man on life so completely.

What Jack O’Neill saw was a pair of bright blue eyes, a wall-to-wall smile and enough enthusiasm for ten kids. He wondered what kind of perfect life the kid must have had.

“So, this is the boy wonder you’ve been raving about.” His voice was cool, disparaging. “You been able to make any progress? No one else she’s brought in has been able to do shit with this stuff.”

Daniel longed to wipe that smugness from his face. Fortunately, he was currently in possession of the means to do so. Widening his already innocent looking eyes, he looked at Catherine. “Dr. Langford, does he have sufficient clearance?” One thing he’d learned very quickly was just how the machinations of the Air Force worked; there were very few people on this base with whom he could talk about his work, leading to his almost total isolation. He accepted this because it couldn’t be changed and he’d always thought better alone anyway.

Catherine’s thin lips twitched in humor; O’Neill’s eyes were no longer frozen but fired with fury. “I’ll have you know, Dr. Jackson, that I have the clearance to hear anything you have to say.”

Acting on some unknown desire to further piss the man off, Daniel glanced at Catherine again, waiting for her nod before continuing, getting right to the point. “Okay, then. It’s a map of constellations.” He announced with aplomb at the twin expressions of surprise. “See, this here is Orion,” he pointed out the newspaper he’d been scribbling on.

O’Neill sighed loudly, interrupting him before he caught his breath. “You know what I think? I think we need to get everybody together and let him explain just the one time.”

*

Not for the first time, Jack O’Neill was glad he hadn’t quit smoking as he watched the boy wonder completely demolish two years-and untold millions of dollars of taxpayer money-within minutes. Two weeks, he thought disparagingly, two weeks the kid had been here and succeeded in turning this base upside down. Most of the civilians had quietly, efficiently been replaced with Air Force personnel; he doubted if Jackson had even noticed the constant turnover in personnel.

General West glanced at him as someone mentioned the other artifact; O’Neill’s shrug clearly said ‘why not?’

O’Neill couldn’t keep his eyes off the Jackson kid, watching his eyes light as they raised the window and revealed the room below.

“What….what is it?” Daniel whispered in awe.

Jack had to smile as Catherine leaned forward. “It’s your Stargate.”

*

Jack O’Neill shook his head in disbelief. General West was pinning the whole mission-and his entire team’s survival-on his misplaced trust in the kid. True, he had corrected the original translation, solved the mystery of exactly what the big stone ring did and had gotten it working but Jack still wasn’t crazy about putting his life in the kid’s hands.

He growled at this team, assembled in the hallway, fighting the urge to laugh as someone sneezed loudly. “Deliver me from geeks,” he muttered as they followed him into the gate room.

*

“Where the hell is he?” Jack growled as he counted heads in the alien gate room and came up one short. The words had barely left his mouth when Jackson came barreling through the gate to end up in a heap on the floor.

“Shake it off, Jackson,” Jack steadied him as he swung around in confusion. “You’ll be okay in a minute.” He nodded at Kawalsky. “Keep an eye on him, will ya? The rest of you, fan out, get me some recon.”

*

Maybe, Jack thought to himself, we ought to start taking geeks on mission with us. The Jackson kid had been able to communicate with the natives, had prevented the inevitable misunderstanding that might have ended in bloodshed with, of all things, a candy bar. He glanced up as he heard the natives giggling and laughing out loud. And he noticed that Jackson’s face was a warm shade of red.

“Hey, kid, what gives?”

“Um, uh…” Daniel’s eyes didn’t quite meet his before his attention turned to the native, Kasuf. It had taken Jackson an amazingly short period of time before he was talking with the natives, albeit quite slowly.

Jack might not have been a linguist but he could read the signs fairly well. Kasuf had pulled a pretty young girl forward and was gesturing toward Daniel. Jack sighed. “No, let me guess. He just gave you his daughter.” Jack bit back a laugh at the ferocious expression on Daniel’s face. “You mean I’m right?” He did laugh at that.

Daniel rolled his eyes and turned back to Kasuf, expressing himself with both hands and words before he rose and bowed formally. “Please forgive me but I must decline your generous gift.” Daniel spoke slowly, but reverently.

“She does not please you?” Kasuf frowned.

“She is very beautiful, but I cannot accept. My culture does not allow me to take a wife whom I have not chosen freely, who has not chosen me freely.”

“Your father has already chosen for you?” He clearly did not understand free will; understandable considering these people were still enslaved to an absent god.

“No, my father waits for me to choose for myself. I cannot take a wife from outside my culture.”

“To refuse is to dishonor my daughter.” Kasuf stood his ground.

“To accept would be to dishonor my father.” Daniel answered calmly.

After long moments, Kasuf nodded. “It is a good man who honors father and mother.”

“Then I am sure you enjoy the respect of your children.”

Kasuf smiled. “Come, let us break bread together and you will tell me of your world.”

Jack leaned over as Kasuf motioned his daughter to precede him away from the fire. “Talked yourself out of that one, did you?”

“I merely pointed out that to marry his daughter would be against my beliefs.” He paused. “As it would.”

“Still, she was mighty pretty.”

“Really,” Daniel affected a surprised expression. “I never noticed.”

“I didn’t know you had a sense of humor, Dr. Jackson. How about after dinner, you figure out how to get us home?”

*

The good news, Jack pondered over something resembling breakfast, was that the kid could get them home. However, the bad news was that he couldn’t locate the seventh symbol. Without that, they were well and truly screwed.

*

O’Neill kept a close eye on Jackson during the run back to the pyramid. Really, he had no idea how the kid would react in the firefight they were apparently about to walk into. Not being able to contact the rest of the team wasn’t surprising, given the sandstorm. But finding the hastily abandoned campsite piqued Jack’s danger radar. He just knew what they were going to find wasn’t going to be pretty and might mean they were screwed even worse than before.

*

It could, he supposed, have been worse. Brown was dead, killed right in front of their eyes by the aliens and their strange weapons. The kid had flinched and O’Neill had barely kept him from betraying their position. “Here,” Jack handed him a gun. “Shoot anything that comes at you.”

Daniel turned bewildered eyes toward him. “What? Where are you going?”

“Just gotta check something out. Do what I tell you.” Jack waited until the other man had a firm grasp on the pistol before he crept over to the bomb. He already had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Once he opened the panel, he knew why.

It was empty.

The bomb was gone.

Suddenly, a shaft of light erupted in the ceiling and quickly descended into the room. Shielding his eyes, Jack shifted over until he was beside Daniel. When his eyes adjusted, he could see three guards, weapons aimed at them. He put his hand on Daniel’s shaking pistol hand. “Put it down, Jackson.”

He paid close attention to the room where they were taken, after the light beamed them up. A large, ornately decorated room with an equally large throne on one end and the big bad guy-what had Daniel called him?-Ra seated there. Jack shot Daniel a warning look, hoping he got the message to follow his lead. Hopefully, they might just get out of this alive.

Jack saw his chance and grabbed one of the staff weapons, turning to fire at the guards. The children who had been lounging around the throne immediately threw themselves in front of Ra. Daniel screamed in protest as one of the guards turned the weapon on Jack, instinctively flinging himself between Jack and the weapon.

Stunned by both the children and Daniel, Jack hesitated and was knocked backward by the nearest guard, who began beating him with the staff until Ra raised his hand.

Walking over, Ra fingered the pendant around Daniel’s neck, tracing the delicate etching of the eye.

*

Jack was wakened rudely by cold, foul-smelling water in his face. “Colonel.” He jerked his head, finding Kawalski thrashing behind him in the waist deep water. “Where’s Jackson?”

Jack just shook his head.

*

Daniel woke as a sudden, choking gasp of breath entered his lungs. Wildly, he sat up, tearing the delicate veil from his face. He was lying in something, something that looked faintly…coffin-like. He scrambled out frantically, landing on this hands and knees, brushing aside the netting clinging to his clothes. He was…hadn’t he been shot? His hand found the torn, burnt patch of his uniform, but the skin beneath was perfectly white and healed and unscarred.

I was dead, he thought. And now I’m not.

He whipped around as he saw a small boy, carrying a cat, chuckle at his frantic actions.

Without thought, he followed the child, watched as Ra rose from his bath, was clothed and adorned by his clearly loyal subjects.

“I was dead?” Daniel needed to get his attention, refusing to let his mind dwell on so many other questions. Like what had happened to Jack and the others and how did he maintain the façade of being Ra for all these years and how he, Daniel, had really been dead just a few minutes before.

Ra finally looked at him, acknowledged his presence, explaining that humans had been chosen as hosts because their bodies were so readily repaired.

“What are you going to do?” Daniel spied what Jack had lost. A bomb, he thought numbly, it was a bomb. He got a sudden, sickeningly clear idea of just how far Jack O’Neill was willing to go to carry out his mission.

“You should never have come. I have no choice but to destroy your world.”

Daniel’s overtaxed mind didn’t register the fact that he was speaking Ancient Egyptian with a dead God. “Why? We are no threat to you.”

“You have harnessed the power of the atom,” he waved at Daniel’s books, open and strewn around the room. “I created your civilization and I will destroy it. But before I do that, you will prove that I am your God by killing your companions.”

I don’t think so, Daniel thought. Aloud, he said, “And if I refuse?”

“I have already given these peasants a demonstration of my displeasure.” He nodded in satisfaction as Daniel’s face paled. “If you do not do as I command you, I will complete the task. I will rid myself of everyone who has seen you and spoken to you.” Suddenly, he ripped the eye of Ra pendant from Daniel’s neck, his eyes glowing malevolently. “There can be only one Ra!”

*

Well, Jack thought, it was a nice day, anyway. The sun was shining, glinting off all the gold with which this guy liked to surround himself. He stiffened as he watched the guards part the netting behind Ra’s throne and escort someone out. Some one who looked an awful lot like…Daniel?

Daniel. It was Daniel, and he was alive. And he had a weapon in his hand. Jack stiffened again. He could clearly see where this was going and he didn’t like it one damn bit. Obviously, they’d done something to Daniel, brainwashed him or tortured him or something.

Jack’s eyes narrowed as he watched a flash of light catch Daniel’s face, caused him to squint. He didn’t dare look around but Daniel was clearly distracted by something or someone. He braced himself as Daniel fired up the weapon, then whirled and, instead of shooting Jack, fired at the throne.

Jack was on his feet the second he heard gunfire behind him, hustling his team down the steps, shouting for Daniel in the melee.

Then someone was throwing robes over their heads, disguising them, dragging them toward a mastadge. Jack was aware that Freeman had gone down, that Kawalski was trying to go back for him. With regret, Jack hollered at him to leave his obviously dead teammate and save himself.

Another sandstorm assailed them on their flight and Jack and Daniel were forced to dismount, use the mastadge’s bulk to shelter themselves as they trudged along. Jack grabbed Daniel as he fell to his knees, urging him to get up and follow him. Even the beast stopped in the face of the relentless sand. Jack shielded the other man as he snugged them up against the animal, trying to keep the sand from burying them all alive.

The sand and the wind were like a white noise in Jack’s head. All he knew was that he had to stay alive, had to keep Daniel alive until the storm was over. When someone grabbed his arm, he instinctively came up swinging, narrowly missing hitting the native boy, Skaara, in the face.

“Come, O’Neill, we must take shelter.” Jack kept Daniel’s shirt in his grasp as he rose and followed where they led.

*

Jack was in no mood to celebrate. Yeah, he was grateful for the rescue but they were still stuck on a planet a million miles from home with no escape. He’d lost most of his team. He frowned as he realized Skaara and some of the boys had started carrying Earth weapons. “Kawalsky, take those guns away from them.”

“Colonel, I know they’re young but our backs are against the wall here. Besides, they want to help.”

“They’re children,” he growled. “They don’t know what they’re getting into. Take those guns before they get hurt. That’s an order.” Reluctantly Kawalsky grabbed the guns.

“Why don’t you tell them the truth?” Daniel asked quietly. Kawalsky and Ferretti turned to stare at him. “Why don’t you tell them about the bomb?”

“What’s he talking about, sir?” Kawalsky focused his attention on his commanding officer. “What does he know that we don’t?” He couldn’t keep the resentment out of his voice. He didn’t like being lied to and he damned sure didn’t like going into a mission without all the facts.

“I had orders. If I found a threat, I was to use the bomb to eliminate it. Well, I found a threat, a big one.”

“And Ra has the bomb now and he’s going to send it back to Earth. With that element they’re mining here. And if he’s telling the truth, and I have no reason to suspect he isn’t, the force will be greatly multiplied, probably a hundred-fold. Even if we could get home, we probably won’t have anything to go home to.” Daniel pointed out.

“That’s not going to happen, I’ll detonate that bomb before he can send it.”

“Why wasn’t I told?” Kawalsky was still upset.

“It was need to know,” Jack shot a killing look at Daniel. “And you didn’t.” He sighed loudly. “You were all going back to Earth and I was going to stay here and detonate the bomb.”

“It isn’t this gate that poses the biggest threat,” Daniel argued. “It’s Earth’s gate you have to shut down.”

“Well, unless you can figure out a way to get us back, that isn’t going to happen, is it?” Daniel met his stare until finally Jack growled and walked away.

*

Jack was smoking a cigarette when he felt Daniel flop down beside him. “I’ve asked Skaara and Shau’ri to help me find the last symbol.”

It was, Jack supposed, as close to an apology as he was ever likely to get. “Okay.”

There was a long silence. “Why did you take this mission? You knew you were going to die. Don’t you have anyone who cares about you?”

“I did. Once upon a time.” He flicked his cigarette out onto the sand, watched as the red embers slowly faded into nothingness. “No one should ever outlive their own child.” He could have bitten his tongue as soon as he said the words.

“I’m sorry,” Daniel offered softly. “I…”

“If you’re going to tell me you know how I feel, you can stop right there. You have no idea how I feel.”

“No, I suppose that’s true, I’ve never buried a child. But I have lost people, people who I loved.”

“Yeah,” Jack snorted derisively. “What, your dog die or something? What does someone like you know? You, with your perfect family, your perfect life?”

Daniel charged to his feet, his hands clenched at his side. “You don’t know the first thing about me. Or my life. I don’t know if my parents were perfect or not, but you know what? I’ll ask them the next time I visit their grave.” He realized he was shouting and he also realized he hadn’t been mad enough to shout at anyone in a very long time. He forced himself to calm down, to lower his voice. “I don’t want to die, your men don’t want to die and these people here don’t want to die. It’s a shame you’re in such a hurry to.”

*

No one was more surprised than Jack O’Neill to wake up and find himself still alive the next morning. He looked around the room, mentally tallying his team. Kawalsky was awake, having pulled the last watch. Ferretti was asleep, propped up against the wall. Jack envied him; he wished he could turn it all off like that. That just left Daniel.

Someone must have heard them murmuring, a young girl swept in with a jug of water, another following with a tray obviously holding breakfast. “Where’s Daniel? He needs to eat something.”

“Him and those two kids have been up all night, trying to find something to help us.” Kawalsky was still just a bit cool.

“Kawalsky,” Jack’s voice had a warning in it.

“Relax, they took a gun with them. I gave it to Jackson. I assume you don’t think he’s too young to fire a gun?”

Jack winced at the bite in the other man’s voice. “Okay, after we eat, let’s see what he’s found.”

*

Daniel hated to admit defeat, but they’d been at it all night, scouring the walls of the cave for something, anything, that would help him define the seventh symbol. He glanced over at Skaara, who grinned back while drawing on the cave wall. Daniel scooted over beside him. “What are you doing?”

“Drawing the day of our victory.”

Suddenly, Daniel saw it, saw the picture Skaara was drawing. Taking up a piece of the chalk-like substance, he copied the drawing, then slowly drew a line connecting the moons. “That’s it.”

“What’s it?” Jack knelt behind him.

Forgetting his anger, Daniel pointed to the wall. “That’s it, the seventh symbol! We’re going home!”

*

Jack expected the locals to be hard to convince and he wasn’t wrong. Kasuf insisted that they would bring the wrath of the gods down on all of them, especially after Jack blasted a Horus guard for beating one of the miners.

As he had come to expect, Daniel stepped in to save the day. He released the guard’s hood, then beckoned the villagers closer. “Come, come see your god.” Kasuf dropped to his knees, beginning a wailing prayer. Impatiently, Daniel jerked him to his feet. “Come, see for yourself, take a good look.”

Kasuf finally brought himself to look, then stepped closer, finally finding the courage to touch the face of the dead man. “He is a man.”

“Yes, like you. No different. Wearing the armor of a god does not make him a god.”

Kasuf raised his hands, shouting to the villagers. Jack sidled up to Daniel. “What’s he telling them?”

“That their god is no god, that he a mortal man.” Daniel swallowed, blinking his stinging eyes rapidly. “That they no longer serve, that they are freed.”

*

There was only one way to get into that pyramid, Jack argued. They were going to have to don native robes and go in with the caravan offerings for the gods. Kasuf protested, that it was for them, the Abydonians, to do this.

They finally compromised with Skaara, Nabeh and several of the other boys accompanying the team. Jack pulled Kawalsky aside to give him his orders. “If this thing goes down bad, you take Jackson and get him the hell out of here.” Kawalsky opened his mouth. “That’s an order. He’s the only one who can figure this thing out. We need him alive and on the other side of that gate.”

“Colonel.”

“You’ve got your orders and I’ve got mine.”

Kawalsky drew himself up straight and saluted. “Yes, sir.”

*

Jack should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as it seemed. Yes, the first wagon had gotten into the pyramid but the guards had questioned one of the boys. Not liking what he heard, he started yanking the hoods off, revealing the first two native boys. The next yank revealed the light-haired Daniel, who was purposely keeping his gaze down. The guard grabbed his chin and pulled it up roughly, forcing Daniel to meet his eyes.

“Hey,” Jack shouted, seeing the guard turn his way and Daniel adroitly dropping out of his sight. He fired, taking the guard down quickly.

So much for that plan, Jack thought, as all hell broke loose. He heard the enemies’ weapons firing up, heard his team return fire. And the inevitable sound of the door creaking closed.

Doing a quick head count, he saw two bodies. “Daniel?” He shouted over the sounds.

“Yeah?”

“Just checking.” Jack replied. “We have to get to that bomb.”

“I’d love to! We just gonna shoot our way in?”

Jack swung his gun wildly, mowing down soldiers as he went. “Sure, why not?”

Daniel reloaded his pistol. “Why not?” He muttered to himself.

“When I say go, run for the gate room.” Jack began spraying gunfire along the doorway. “Go!”

Daniel ran, sliding around the side of the door, looking back for Jack when he felt a hand on his shoulder. With a gasp, he swung around.

“I am not amused.” Ra snarled at him, blasting Daniel with the hand device before motioning Anubis to drag him to the rings.

“Daniel!” Jack shouted as he heard the rings activate. He shot his way into the room, only to find it empty.

Except for the bomb. And Anubis, with a cocked staff weapon. Jack rolled behind a column as Anubis fired at him.

*

“You will bear witness to the destruction of both worlds.” Ra nudged Daniel with his foot, eliciting a groan from his prisoner.

“Why don’t you just kill me?” Daniel’s head was a jumble of motion and light and pain from the hand device.

“I have decided I require a scribe to assist me. You will do nicely. And you will serve as an example of what happens to people who oppose me.”

“I’m never going to bow down to you. Ever.”

He took Daniel’s chin gently in his hand. “Do not say ever, young one. Life is made of many, many days and I can cause you pain in so many different ways.”

Daniel was deathly afraid he was right.

*

Jack was out of ammo and he and Anubis were down to hand-to-hand, down and dirty fighting. He’d caught a glimpse of the countdown on the bomb. There was less than eight minutes for him to kill this bastard, rescue Daniel and get the hell out of here. He gave Anubis a series of short, hard punches to the nose; he’d always found that to be a fairly vulnerable spot. The guard staggered backward, falling heavily to the floor. Jack took advantage and began kicking him in the kidney area. Supposing these guys actually had kidneys, he thought.

Jack fought back a spear of elation as he felt the tide of the fighting turn. He was much better motivated than his opponent, who was fighting for his god’s life. Jack was fighting for his own, praying that Daniel was still alive up there somewhere, that Kawalsky and Ferretti were safe outside.

*

Daniel realized if he was getting out of this, he was going to have to do it himself. The last he’d seen of Jack, he’d been shooting it out and the rest of the team was trapped on the outside of the pyramid. Daniel winced as he heard the death gliders firing again and again. He supposed that was good news, though. They wouldn’t be shooting at dead people, right?

He groaned and rolled over, trying to escape Ra and that damned hand device. I wonder how he’d like a dose of his own medicine, Daniel speculated, as he fumbled in his pant pocket for the lighter from his provisions. It would make a pretty good mirror. He palmed it, rolling again, toward the rings.

It was now or never, he decided, as he flung his hand up, getting the polished lighter between Ra’s hand and his battered brain. Ra screamed as the beam from the hand device ricocheted back into his eyes. As Ra staggered backward, Daniel grabbed his pendant back and tried to crawl away. Ra fell against the dais, screaming as the device overloaded on his hand.

Daniel heard the hum of the rings and instinctively curled up in a ball.

*

Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he shoved Anubis halfway into the rings. “Give my regard to King Tut, asshole!” He rolled away as the rings flung down, neatly separating Anubis’ head and body.

Grabbing the staff weapon, he trained it on the rings, freezing when he saw Daniel curled up, apparently still alive. “Daniel!” He yanked him out of the ring platform.

“Ow,” Daniel complained. “Can you keep it down? My head’s killing me. Literally.”

“Love to, but this bomb is going off in like a minute and I can’t shut it off.”

“What?” Daniel staggered and crawled over to the bomb. “Dismantle it!”

“I can’t, they’ve rigged it.”

They glanced up, looked at the bomb, then looked at each other.

“I’ve got an idea.” They spoke simultaneously as the floor began to vibrate wildly.

*

They were staggering as they made it to the now open door of the pyramid, stepping out into bright sunshine and deafening cheering. Daniel made it to the top step before sitting heavily. Jack dropped down beside him, squinting up as he heard a large explosion in the atmosphere. The cheering only increased. Daniel winced and slumped even further.

“Daniel.” He looked up to see Shau’ri handing him a goatskin drinking pouch. “You drink?”

“Yes, thank you.” He took a long drink and promptly choked. “What…what is that?”

“You have headache, make you feel better?” She asked.

“I don’t know about better. I’m not sure I can feel anything at this point.” Evidently, they thought this was hilarious, Kasuf slapped him on the back as he took another sip. “Ah, what the hell.” He finished it off.

*

Jack though he was going to have to kidnap Daniel to get him off the planet. The villagers were crowded around him, touching any part of him they could get to. The object of their affection seemed to have a permanent blush on his face as Kawalsky finally took pity and pried him out of their hands.

“You will return, O’Neill?” It sounded more like an order than a request.

“We will try, Kasuf,” Jack smiled back at him. And he was glad he could smile again. “Take care of yourselves, okay?”

“You have given us much to be thankful for.” Kasuf bowed.

“It wasn’t just me, you owe Daniel most of the thanks.” Jack watched as Daniel slowly made his way through the crowd and up the steps of the pyramid.

“It is so.”

*

Jack felt like kissing the ramp in the gate room. He knew he’d been changed by this mission, by the simple people who wanted only to live as best they could. “General West, sir.”

“Colonel O’Neill. I assume you encountered some trouble?”

Jack straightened his spine. “Sir, I regret to inform you that Lieutenants Brown, Reilly, Freeman and Porro were killed in the line of duty.” He eyed Daniel standing beside him. “And I’d like to go on record in commending the rest of my team for conduct above and beyond the call of duty.”

“Would that include Dr. Jackson?” West glanced at the civilian, who looked much worse than when he’d departed.

“Especially Dr. Jackson, sir. If I may make a suggestion, Dr. Jackson needs to head to the infirmary. He had a couple of run-ins with the bad guys.”

“Very well. Please relinquish your weapons to the SF’s.” He nodded at one of the soldiers. “Airman, escort Dr. Jackson to the infirmary. Colonel O’Neill, perhaps you and the rest of your team could debrief me.”

*

Jack started to stick his head in the doorway of Daniel’s office when he heard the other man speaking. Intrigued, he shamelessly listened in. “Mom, I’m fine. I know I was supposed to call but I got really busy and then things got nuts here. Honestly, I’m going home to get some sleep right now. I’ll call you back tomorrow and we can have a good long talk.” He paused. “Yes, I love you too.”

Jack had taken the time to look at Daniel’s personnel file; something he admitted he should have done before they departed on their mission. Then, he would have known the story about the death of his parents and his subsequent adoption. “Knock, knock,” Jack rapped on the metal wall. “So what did the doc say?”

“Oh,” Daniel was loading books into his backpack. “There wasn’t a whole lot he could say. I mean, I died and got brought back then had my brain scrambled…”

“Twice.”

“I believe I mentioned that to him. But he’s got nothing to compare it to, so he gave me some pills for the headache which is really hurting now and told me to take it easy for a couple of days.” He slipped the backpack on his shoulders. “Which is what I fully intend to do.”

“Come on, then, I’ll give you a ride.”

Daniel stopped. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Leave your car here. With that headache, I don’t think you should be behind the wheel. Come on, it’s no big deal.”

They chatted amiably as they made their way out of the mountain and into Jack’s truck. After ascertaining he knew the way to Daniel’s apartment, Jack pulled out onto the highway. “So,” he drawled. “How about this gate travel thing?”

“Wild, isn’t it?” Daniel turned to him enthusiastically.

Jack winced then decided to just drop the bomb. “West is being replaced.”

“Really? By who?”

“Don’t know. West was just there to shut the command down. Now that it looks like we can actually go somewhere, they’re bringing in someone else.” Jack glanced over. “West is recommending that you stay this side of the gate.”

“What?” Daniel shot up from his slump.

“If we figure out…okay, if you figure out how to go to other planets…”

“Which I will.” Jack had already heard the ‘the gate has to go other places’ spiel during the official meeting debrief, thank you very much.

“The military may decide you’re too valuable to risk going on missions.” Jack parked the truck in front of Daniel’s apartment building.

“I’m going through the gate, Jack. Either with your team or another, I don’t care. But I’m going.” Jack shook his head at the set of that chin.

“Get some rest, Daniel. I’ll call you when the new general shows up. Meanwhile, you can work on your argument until then.”

Daniel grabbed his pack and stared at Jack. “Your team or someone else’s. I’m not kidding. I am going.” He shut the door forcefully.

Jack watched him lope across the street. “Of that, Dr. Jackson, I have no doubt.” He put the truck in gear, reached for his cigarettes and headed home.