Stargate SG1: What Dreams May Come (10/21)
All disclaimers, notes, warnings and summary are in the Master post: What Dreams May Come
Chapter Ten
Teal'c's eyes moved back and forth between the man in his grip and the body in the bed beside him.
"How can this be possible?" he asked. "The mind and body of Daniel Jackson are both dead."
"No, Teal'c," Daniel answered softly. "My body is dead. I am still very much alive."
"So you do reside inside of O'Neill."
"Not entirely," Daniel said. "He can see me and hear me, yes. And we're definitely sharing each other's thoughts and memories. But we're still two separate ... people. To be honest, Teal'c, I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. I don't know what I expected to happen, but it definitely wasn't this. Then again, this has never happened before, so there's no way I could know."
If the statement confused Teal'c, which Daniel admitted to himself that it must have, he gave no sign. "Is O'Neill present as well?"
Daniel closed his eyes and concentrated as he searched for Jack's presence in his mind. "He's here," he answered slowly. "But I think he's asleep. I don't think it's possible for both of us to be awake at the same time. Actually, I don't think I'm supposed to be in here at all." Daniel opened his eyes again and looked up into Teal'c's face. "Teal'c, do you think you could ... ?"
Teal'c released his grip on Daniel's arms immediately. "I apologize, Daniel Jackson. I did not intend to cause you injury."
"It's okay," Daniel answered. "I would imagine that watching Jack's eyes turn blue would probably freak me out a bit too." Daniel smiled. "Which is why I'm going to find a mirror."
Teal'c followed Daniel as he moved around the room. Daniel wondered if perhaps Teal'c was beginning to think that he was dreaming too, like Jack had done at first. When Daniel glanced back at Teal'c, though, he saw no confusion or uncertainty on the Jaffa's face.
"Teal'c? Are you okay with this?"
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "You are alive, Daniel Jackson. I see nothing that is not 'okay' with this situation."
Daniel smiled. "Good. So you don't mind helping us out a bit?"
"I will help in any way I can. What do you require of me?"
"Well, some help with the MacKenzie thing would be nice," Daniel said. "After what he saw Jack do, I think we're going to need all the help we can get to convince him that Jack's not insane."
"Of course," Teal'c replied.
Daniel finally remembered the two-way mirror that hung between the isolation room and the observation room above, and he walked toward it quickly; Teal'c followed close behind him.
Daniel simply stared at the reflection that looked back at him. He'd known what to expect, but actually seeing it was still a shock. He was looking into a mirror and seeing another person's face-Jack's face-but he was staring directly into his own eyes.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked quietly.
"This is incredible," Daniel whispered. "This has to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
"It is a most unusual sight," Teal'c admitted. "Yet it is comforting."
"How's that?"
"You are not dead. O'Neill is not insane. Your eyes stand as proof of both of these facts."
Daniel smiled at himself in the mirror. "You've got a point there," he said. "Even MacKenzie is going to be hard pressed to argue with this."
"Indeed."
Daniel started to step away from the mirror, but faltered and stumbled when a sharp, stabbing spear of white-hot agony shot through his head. He leaned against the wall for support and pressed the palm of his right hand against his temple.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c stepped forward and placed a hand against his arm. "You are in pain."
Daniel nodded his head slightly and grimaced. "Yeah," he gasped. "A bit, yeah."
"Can I be of assistance?"
"No, I just think ..." Daniel sagged heavily against the wall. Teal'c grasped his arms to keep him from falling to the floor. "I think that maybe ... I can't stay, Teal'c. This really, really hurts."
"You will be well again if you leave O'Neill's body?"
"Oh, I hope so," Daniel answered. He looked up at Teal'c once more as desperation gripped his heart. "MacKenzie ... if I leave now, he won't see me."
"You cannot stay," Teal'c said. "You are causing yourself serious distress and you may be damaging O'Neill's body."
"I don't think I can do this again, Teal'c. This is my one chance ... I should have waited ..."
"I will tell Dr. MacKenzie what I have seen, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c allowed himself to bear more of Daniel's weight as he sank further down the wall. "Your strength is waning. You must leave O'Neill before you lack to ability to do so."
Daniel nodded in agreement. "Thank you," he whispered.
"You are welcome."
Daniel closed his eyes and drew in a deep, ragged breath. The body in Teal'c's arms shuddered once and then went completely limp.
"Daniel Jackson?"
"What the hell just happened?" Jack lifted his head and looked around in confusion. "And why are you hugging me?"
"O'Neill?"
"Of course it's me," Jack answered hotly. "Who else would it be?" Jack pushed himself out of Teal'c's arms and stood straight. "What's going on?"
Jack glanced around the room again. His brown eyes widened when he saw what was lying on the floor at his feet.
"Daniel?"
Jack knelt down at Daniel's side and glanced up at Teal'c. "What happened to him? What'd he do?" Jack closed his eyes and shook his head. "And how would you know? You can't even see him."
"Daniel Jackson was experiencing a great deal of pain, O'Neill. I believe he may have lost consciousness."
Jack looked up in surprise. "You know what happened to him? How do you ... ?"
"I have seen Daniel Jackson, O'Neill," Teal'c answered simply.
"You have?" Jack asked excitedly. "That's great, Teal'c! When? How?" Jack's eyes narrowed in a mixture of confusion and suspicion. "And why don't I remember it?"
Teal'c's face betrayed nothing as he calmly answered, "You were sleeping."
Jack settled himself on the floor next to Daniel. "Sleeping?"
Teal'c nodded.
Jack looked up at him. "He did it, didn't he? He jumped into me."
"He did."
"Of all the stupid, reckless ... Damn it, Daniel, I told you no! Why didn't you listen to me?"
Daniel neither moved nor responded.
Jack had noticed immediately that Daniel's eyes were open. He was still conscious, but he stared straight ahead. His eyes were blank and empty, while his face was a mask of terrible pain. Moans and whimpers escaped his lips, and Jack leaned forward in expectation. He hoped that Daniel would be able to pull himself out of whatever it was that had gripped him, but as the moments passed and Daniel showed no signs of recovering, Jack found himself growing more and more uncertain.
Sam sat in her lab, tapping her pencil on her desk and staring at the data on her computer screen without really seeing it. She had hoped to work on her research from P2A-759, but she wasn't able to concentrate for more than a few seconds at a time. She was trying to hide from the events of the past day, and she knew it, but studying the energy readings that were so closely linked to Daniel's death was a lousy way to do it.
She jumped back slightly as a thought suddenly occurred to her, and her mind repeated what she'd just said to herself: the energy readings were closely linked to Daniel's death ...
She'd seen images in the past of "energy clouds" supposedly leaving a body at the exact moment of death-spirit photography it was called. She'd never been able to get close enough to one of the energy blobs on 759 to get an accurate reading of them, but they had affected her physically, and she'd felt the exact same thing here, in her lab, and again in the isolation room ...
The more she thought about it, the more solid the theory forming in her brain became, and the more the events of the past twenty-four hours began to make sense.
Human souls were comprised in part by the consciousness, which was sometimes theorized to be a form of electricity, the "wiring" that defined individual people; it was believed that the energy cloud captured in spirit photography was the consciousness escaping. The surface of 759 was "inhabited" by formless energy clouds. She had seen a shadow going through the wall of the temple shortly before Daniel and the colonel got caught in the beam, and the colonel had kept rubbing his eyes and complaining about seeing shadows ...
Electricity had different effects on everyone-that much she knew from her classes at the Academy. Some people felt it, much as she had felt the hair on her back stand up and the fluttering in her chest. Some people were just unsettled by it, much as Teal'c had said his symbiote had been. Some people could actually see it, just as the colonel had seen those shadows. Some people could hear it, and they described it as a high-pitched buzzing or ringing noise, exactly like the sound of the insect that Daniel had sworn kept bothering him ...
If those energy clouds on 759 were actually human consciousnesses that had been separated from their bodies, and the different annoyances SG-1 had each felt had actually been their bodies reacting to the presence of disembodied souls, and they'd all had the same reactions here at the base, to something none of them could identify ...
Sam's pencil hit the surface of her desk so hard that it snapped in half, but she didn't even notice. Her every thought was wrapped up in the implications of her theory. If she were right, and if Daniel's consciousness had somehow been removed from his body before he actually died, and if he'd somehow managed to follow them back to the base, maybe not even realizing what had happened to him ...
Daniel's consciousness was still alive?
Memories flooded her mind, impressions of things she had seen and felt and had dismissed as impossible, as wishful thinking, as dreams. She remembered the buzzing sound she had heard the night before, that had seemed so comforting and familiar, and when she really concentrated on the sound, she could hear Daniel's voice beneath it, offering her absolution for her part in "killing" him and reassuring her that he wasn't really dead. And she had heard him in the isolation room that morning, despite her protests to the contrary. It had all been so confusing before, but it wasn't any more. It all made perfect sense, and it pointed to only one conclusion.
Daniel was still alive!
The realization brought her comfort, but it also brought with it the deep, undeniable feeling that something was horribly, terribly wrong. Something had happened in the isolation room ... she had no idea how she knew that, but only knew that she had to get to him. Daniel may have been alive, but he was far from safe.
Sam pushed herself away from her desk and ran down the corridor as quickly as she could.
"Daniel."
Aynad's voice sounded through the fog in his mind, focusing it on the task at hand. He wasn't shouting, but he sounded frantic.
"Daniel, my friend, you must answer me."
"Aynad?"
"Daniel, thank the gods. The demon god has found us!"
"What? How?"
"I do not know how he was able to follow us, but he is here. I have felt him. He is very near to us."
"Does Daniel know? Aynad, does he understand what's happening?"
"I have told him all that I can, about our history and how Belos came to be here, but he does not yet understand. He still wishes to believe that he is only dreaming," Aynad answered. "He has been occupied with trying to reach the others."
"Aynad, you need to get him out of there. Now!"
"I cannot, my friend. He is currently... indisposed."
"Indisposed? What do you mean 'indisposed'?"
"I do not know what has happened to him. Several moments ago, he grasped his head and cried out in great pain, and now he lies on the floor and will not respond to me."
Daniel sighed. "I felt it too, Aynad. But this isn't the way it's supposed to be. He and I shouldn't be feeling each other's pain. We're not the same person!"
Aynad continued speaking as though Daniel hadn't said a word, or as though he hadn't heard him. "He grows weaker with each passing moment that he is so far distanced from his body. He must return to it soon, or he will die. My friend, I fear that we..."
The sudden silence struck fear in Daniel's heart, and he called out.
"Aynad! Aynad, what's wrong?"
"The demon god! My friend, I must terminate our communication. The demon god grows ever nearer. I will do what I can to protect him, but I fear that I... Belos!"
"Aynad!"
"You will not have him, Belos! As I fought you once before, I will fight you now! Even if it means my own death, you will not have this young one again!"
"Aynad!" Daniel's cries went unanswered, and the few moments of silence that followed were punctuated by a feeling, a knowledge and a certainty that caused him pain very near to what he had felt the day he had watched SG-1 fall by Belos' hand.
Aynad had given his life to protect the twelfth Daniel Jackson.
Daniel wept silently for his fallen friend, but even as he mourned, he understood the sudden importance of his own task. With Aynad gone, there would be no more time loops, there would be no more chances.
If the eleventh Daniel Jackson failed now, everything he knew, everything he loved, everything he fought for, was forfeit.
Daniel wiped the hot, bitter tears away and steeled himself for the struggle ahead. Time was running out. Belos had succeeded in gaining unfettered access to Daniel's consciousness - he would not succeed in stealing his soul.
"O'Neill?" Teal'c said quietly. "The condition of Daniel Jackson remains unchanged?"
Jack nodded slowly.
"Perhaps we should consider ..."
Sam burst through the door of the isolation room. The flush of her cheeks and her breathlessness were clues that she had run the entire way from her lab. She tried to mask her obvious excitement and make it appear as though she bolted through doors as a matter of course, but she failed miserably.
"Carter? What are you doing here?"
Sam flushed again, this time in embarrassment. "I um ... I just had to ... Is the doc ... ?" Sam looked back and forth between the two men in front of her and dropped all pretense of calmness. "What's going on? What's wrong?"
Jack turned to Teal'c in surprise, and Teal'c raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean what's wrong?"
"I was down in my lab, and I suddenly had this overwhelming urge to be here. Are you all right, sir? Teal'c?"
"We're fine, Carter," Jack answered softly. "It's Daniel."
Sam tried to hold on to the certainty she had felt in her lab, but when her eyes settled on the body in the bed, she closed her eyes and turned away. "Colonel, Daniel is ..."
"Daniel Jackson is alive," Teal'c declared. "I have seen him."
Sam's face brightened slightly. "You have? How did you do that?"
"Daniel jumped into my body," Jack said. "Teal'c talked to him for a few minutes."
Sam's excitement grew. "Well, can he do it again? Can I see him? Colonel, can I talk to Daniel too?"
Jack only shook his head.
"Daniel Jackson's possession of O'Neill's body has taken a great toll on him. He has been unresponsive for several moments."
Sam moved closer to the two men and looked back and forth between them. "Well, what's wrong with him? Is he all right?"
"Wait a minute," Jack said. "A few seconds ago, you were all ready to give me that, ‘Colonel, Daniel is dead,' speech again. Now you believe us?"
Sam nodded.
"So what changed?" Jack asked. "Why are you so willing to believe it now?"
Sam smiled sheepishly. "Sir, I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but I think I've known that Daniel was still alive almost from the very beginning."
"You have?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"Why did you not speak of it sooner?" Teal'c asked.
"I was scared," Sam admitted. "I mean, I knew he was alive, but we were standing here staring at his body ... I just didn't know what to believe." Sam dropped her eyes to avoid Jack's icy glare. "You were right, sir. I did hear him this morning. I was just too scared to admit it."
"Damn it, Carter, do you know what might have happened if you'd backed me up from the beginning? We could have gone back to the planet already! We could have him back by now!"
"I know, sir," Sam answered softly. "I'm sorry."
Jack shook his head in anger and started to speak again, but a loud groan from the floor stopped him.
"Daniel?" Jack rose to his knees at Daniel's side and leaned forward. "Daniel, you back with us?"
Daniel blinked slowly and pushed himself up until he was sitting upright. "Yeah, I think so."
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Jack demanded. "I told you not to do that. Look at what you did to yourself!"
Daniel nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. But it seemed like a good idea at the time ..."
"All right," Jack said. He glanced up at Teal'c and Sam before he turned back to Daniel. "There's nothing we can do about it now. What's done is done. We need to concentrate on the positives here. Teal'c's seen you now, and Sam's ready to admit that she can hear you ..."
Daniel pushed himself to his feet suddenly and spun to face his body in the bed.
"Daniel? Are you listening to me?"
When Daniel turned back to face Jack, his expression was one of pure panic. "Jack, we've got to go back now. I've got to go back now."
Jack looked back at Teal'c and Sam again, and was somehow not surprised that they had moved closer to Daniel. The expressions on their faces made it clear that they felt Daniel's sudden desperation.
"Daniel, relax. It's going to be all right now."
"No, Jack, it's not all right."
"So MacKenzie won't see you. So what? Teal'c did. And Carter's going to back him up."
"No, Jack, you don't understand."
"We've got time now, Daniel. We'll keep your body on the machines as long as we need to. We'll convince them of the truth."
"Jack ..."
"I know that this isn't the best situation to be in, but it's the one we've got. The machines'll do their thing, and we'll do ours, okay? You can calm down. We've got all the time in the world to do this."
"No," Daniel answered with a shake of his head. "There is no more time."
"What are you talking about? The machines ..."
"The machines don't matter!" Daniel cried out. "I'm dying!"
Chapter Ten
Teal'c's eyes moved back and forth between the man in his grip and the body in the bed beside him.
"How can this be possible?" he asked. "The mind and body of Daniel Jackson are both dead."
"No, Teal'c," Daniel answered softly. "My body is dead. I am still very much alive."
"So you do reside inside of O'Neill."
"Not entirely," Daniel said. "He can see me and hear me, yes. And we're definitely sharing each other's thoughts and memories. But we're still two separate ... people. To be honest, Teal'c, I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. I don't know what I expected to happen, but it definitely wasn't this. Then again, this has never happened before, so there's no way I could know."
If the statement confused Teal'c, which Daniel admitted to himself that it must have, he gave no sign. "Is O'Neill present as well?"
Daniel closed his eyes and concentrated as he searched for Jack's presence in his mind. "He's here," he answered slowly. "But I think he's asleep. I don't think it's possible for both of us to be awake at the same time. Actually, I don't think I'm supposed to be in here at all." Daniel opened his eyes again and looked up into Teal'c's face. "Teal'c, do you think you could ... ?"
Teal'c released his grip on Daniel's arms immediately. "I apologize, Daniel Jackson. I did not intend to cause you injury."
"It's okay," Daniel answered. "I would imagine that watching Jack's eyes turn blue would probably freak me out a bit too." Daniel smiled. "Which is why I'm going to find a mirror."
Teal'c followed Daniel as he moved around the room. Daniel wondered if perhaps Teal'c was beginning to think that he was dreaming too, like Jack had done at first. When Daniel glanced back at Teal'c, though, he saw no confusion or uncertainty on the Jaffa's face.
"Teal'c? Are you okay with this?"
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "You are alive, Daniel Jackson. I see nothing that is not 'okay' with this situation."
Daniel smiled. "Good. So you don't mind helping us out a bit?"
"I will help in any way I can. What do you require of me?"
"Well, some help with the MacKenzie thing would be nice," Daniel said. "After what he saw Jack do, I think we're going to need all the help we can get to convince him that Jack's not insane."
"Of course," Teal'c replied.
Daniel finally remembered the two-way mirror that hung between the isolation room and the observation room above, and he walked toward it quickly; Teal'c followed close behind him.
Daniel simply stared at the reflection that looked back at him. He'd known what to expect, but actually seeing it was still a shock. He was looking into a mirror and seeing another person's face-Jack's face-but he was staring directly into his own eyes.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked quietly.
"This is incredible," Daniel whispered. "This has to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
"It is a most unusual sight," Teal'c admitted. "Yet it is comforting."
"How's that?"
"You are not dead. O'Neill is not insane. Your eyes stand as proof of both of these facts."
Daniel smiled at himself in the mirror. "You've got a point there," he said. "Even MacKenzie is going to be hard pressed to argue with this."
"Indeed."
Daniel started to step away from the mirror, but faltered and stumbled when a sharp, stabbing spear of white-hot agony shot through his head. He leaned against the wall for support and pressed the palm of his right hand against his temple.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c stepped forward and placed a hand against his arm. "You are in pain."
Daniel nodded his head slightly and grimaced. "Yeah," he gasped. "A bit, yeah."
"Can I be of assistance?"
"No, I just think ..." Daniel sagged heavily against the wall. Teal'c grasped his arms to keep him from falling to the floor. "I think that maybe ... I can't stay, Teal'c. This really, really hurts."
"You will be well again if you leave O'Neill's body?"
"Oh, I hope so," Daniel answered. He looked up at Teal'c once more as desperation gripped his heart. "MacKenzie ... if I leave now, he won't see me."
"You cannot stay," Teal'c said. "You are causing yourself serious distress and you may be damaging O'Neill's body."
"I don't think I can do this again, Teal'c. This is my one chance ... I should have waited ..."
"I will tell Dr. MacKenzie what I have seen, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c allowed himself to bear more of Daniel's weight as he sank further down the wall. "Your strength is waning. You must leave O'Neill before you lack to ability to do so."
Daniel nodded in agreement. "Thank you," he whispered.
"You are welcome."
Daniel closed his eyes and drew in a deep, ragged breath. The body in Teal'c's arms shuddered once and then went completely limp.
"Daniel Jackson?"
"What the hell just happened?" Jack lifted his head and looked around in confusion. "And why are you hugging me?"
"O'Neill?"
"Of course it's me," Jack answered hotly. "Who else would it be?" Jack pushed himself out of Teal'c's arms and stood straight. "What's going on?"
Jack glanced around the room again. His brown eyes widened when he saw what was lying on the floor at his feet.
"Daniel?"
Jack knelt down at Daniel's side and glanced up at Teal'c. "What happened to him? What'd he do?" Jack closed his eyes and shook his head. "And how would you know? You can't even see him."
"Daniel Jackson was experiencing a great deal of pain, O'Neill. I believe he may have lost consciousness."
Jack looked up in surprise. "You know what happened to him? How do you ... ?"
"I have seen Daniel Jackson, O'Neill," Teal'c answered simply.
"You have?" Jack asked excitedly. "That's great, Teal'c! When? How?" Jack's eyes narrowed in a mixture of confusion and suspicion. "And why don't I remember it?"
Teal'c's face betrayed nothing as he calmly answered, "You were sleeping."
Jack settled himself on the floor next to Daniel. "Sleeping?"
Teal'c nodded.
Jack looked up at him. "He did it, didn't he? He jumped into me."
"He did."
"Of all the stupid, reckless ... Damn it, Daniel, I told you no! Why didn't you listen to me?"
Daniel neither moved nor responded.
Jack had noticed immediately that Daniel's eyes were open. He was still conscious, but he stared straight ahead. His eyes were blank and empty, while his face was a mask of terrible pain. Moans and whimpers escaped his lips, and Jack leaned forward in expectation. He hoped that Daniel would be able to pull himself out of whatever it was that had gripped him, but as the moments passed and Daniel showed no signs of recovering, Jack found himself growing more and more uncertain.
Sam sat in her lab, tapping her pencil on her desk and staring at the data on her computer screen without really seeing it. She had hoped to work on her research from P2A-759, but she wasn't able to concentrate for more than a few seconds at a time. She was trying to hide from the events of the past day, and she knew it, but studying the energy readings that were so closely linked to Daniel's death was a lousy way to do it.
She jumped back slightly as a thought suddenly occurred to her, and her mind repeated what she'd just said to herself: the energy readings were closely linked to Daniel's death ...
She'd seen images in the past of "energy clouds" supposedly leaving a body at the exact moment of death-spirit photography it was called. She'd never been able to get close enough to one of the energy blobs on 759 to get an accurate reading of them, but they had affected her physically, and she'd felt the exact same thing here, in her lab, and again in the isolation room ...
The more she thought about it, the more solid the theory forming in her brain became, and the more the events of the past twenty-four hours began to make sense.
Human souls were comprised in part by the consciousness, which was sometimes theorized to be a form of electricity, the "wiring" that defined individual people; it was believed that the energy cloud captured in spirit photography was the consciousness escaping. The surface of 759 was "inhabited" by formless energy clouds. She had seen a shadow going through the wall of the temple shortly before Daniel and the colonel got caught in the beam, and the colonel had kept rubbing his eyes and complaining about seeing shadows ...
Electricity had different effects on everyone-that much she knew from her classes at the Academy. Some people felt it, much as she had felt the hair on her back stand up and the fluttering in her chest. Some people were just unsettled by it, much as Teal'c had said his symbiote had been. Some people could actually see it, just as the colonel had seen those shadows. Some people could hear it, and they described it as a high-pitched buzzing or ringing noise, exactly like the sound of the insect that Daniel had sworn kept bothering him ...
If those energy clouds on 759 were actually human consciousnesses that had been separated from their bodies, and the different annoyances SG-1 had each felt had actually been their bodies reacting to the presence of disembodied souls, and they'd all had the same reactions here at the base, to something none of them could identify ...
Sam's pencil hit the surface of her desk so hard that it snapped in half, but she didn't even notice. Her every thought was wrapped up in the implications of her theory. If she were right, and if Daniel's consciousness had somehow been removed from his body before he actually died, and if he'd somehow managed to follow them back to the base, maybe not even realizing what had happened to him ...
Daniel's consciousness was still alive?
Memories flooded her mind, impressions of things she had seen and felt and had dismissed as impossible, as wishful thinking, as dreams. She remembered the buzzing sound she had heard the night before, that had seemed so comforting and familiar, and when she really concentrated on the sound, she could hear Daniel's voice beneath it, offering her absolution for her part in "killing" him and reassuring her that he wasn't really dead. And she had heard him in the isolation room that morning, despite her protests to the contrary. It had all been so confusing before, but it wasn't any more. It all made perfect sense, and it pointed to only one conclusion.
Daniel was still alive!
The realization brought her comfort, but it also brought with it the deep, undeniable feeling that something was horribly, terribly wrong. Something had happened in the isolation room ... she had no idea how she knew that, but only knew that she had to get to him. Daniel may have been alive, but he was far from safe.
Sam pushed herself away from her desk and ran down the corridor as quickly as she could.
"Daniel."
Aynad's voice sounded through the fog in his mind, focusing it on the task at hand. He wasn't shouting, but he sounded frantic.
"Daniel, my friend, you must answer me."
"Aynad?"
"Daniel, thank the gods. The demon god has found us!"
"What? How?"
"I do not know how he was able to follow us, but he is here. I have felt him. He is very near to us."
"Does Daniel know? Aynad, does he understand what's happening?"
"I have told him all that I can, about our history and how Belos came to be here, but he does not yet understand. He still wishes to believe that he is only dreaming," Aynad answered. "He has been occupied with trying to reach the others."
"Aynad, you need to get him out of there. Now!"
"I cannot, my friend. He is currently... indisposed."
"Indisposed? What do you mean 'indisposed'?"
"I do not know what has happened to him. Several moments ago, he grasped his head and cried out in great pain, and now he lies on the floor and will not respond to me."
Daniel sighed. "I felt it too, Aynad. But this isn't the way it's supposed to be. He and I shouldn't be feeling each other's pain. We're not the same person!"
Aynad continued speaking as though Daniel hadn't said a word, or as though he hadn't heard him. "He grows weaker with each passing moment that he is so far distanced from his body. He must return to it soon, or he will die. My friend, I fear that we..."
The sudden silence struck fear in Daniel's heart, and he called out.
"Aynad! Aynad, what's wrong?"
"The demon god! My friend, I must terminate our communication. The demon god grows ever nearer. I will do what I can to protect him, but I fear that I... Belos!"
"Aynad!"
"You will not have him, Belos! As I fought you once before, I will fight you now! Even if it means my own death, you will not have this young one again!"
"Aynad!" Daniel's cries went unanswered, and the few moments of silence that followed were punctuated by a feeling, a knowledge and a certainty that caused him pain very near to what he had felt the day he had watched SG-1 fall by Belos' hand.
Aynad had given his life to protect the twelfth Daniel Jackson.
Daniel wept silently for his fallen friend, but even as he mourned, he understood the sudden importance of his own task. With Aynad gone, there would be no more time loops, there would be no more chances.
If the eleventh Daniel Jackson failed now, everything he knew, everything he loved, everything he fought for, was forfeit.
Daniel wiped the hot, bitter tears away and steeled himself for the struggle ahead. Time was running out. Belos had succeeded in gaining unfettered access to Daniel's consciousness - he would not succeed in stealing his soul.
"O'Neill?" Teal'c said quietly. "The condition of Daniel Jackson remains unchanged?"
Jack nodded slowly.
"Perhaps we should consider ..."
Sam burst through the door of the isolation room. The flush of her cheeks and her breathlessness were clues that she had run the entire way from her lab. She tried to mask her obvious excitement and make it appear as though she bolted through doors as a matter of course, but she failed miserably.
"Carter? What are you doing here?"
Sam flushed again, this time in embarrassment. "I um ... I just had to ... Is the doc ... ?" Sam looked back and forth between the two men in front of her and dropped all pretense of calmness. "What's going on? What's wrong?"
Jack turned to Teal'c in surprise, and Teal'c raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean what's wrong?"
"I was down in my lab, and I suddenly had this overwhelming urge to be here. Are you all right, sir? Teal'c?"
"We're fine, Carter," Jack answered softly. "It's Daniel."
Sam tried to hold on to the certainty she had felt in her lab, but when her eyes settled on the body in the bed, she closed her eyes and turned away. "Colonel, Daniel is ..."
"Daniel Jackson is alive," Teal'c declared. "I have seen him."
Sam's face brightened slightly. "You have? How did you do that?"
"Daniel jumped into my body," Jack said. "Teal'c talked to him for a few minutes."
Sam's excitement grew. "Well, can he do it again? Can I see him? Colonel, can I talk to Daniel too?"
Jack only shook his head.
"Daniel Jackson's possession of O'Neill's body has taken a great toll on him. He has been unresponsive for several moments."
Sam moved closer to the two men and looked back and forth between them. "Well, what's wrong with him? Is he all right?"
"Wait a minute," Jack said. "A few seconds ago, you were all ready to give me that, ‘Colonel, Daniel is dead,' speech again. Now you believe us?"
Sam nodded.
"So what changed?" Jack asked. "Why are you so willing to believe it now?"
Sam smiled sheepishly. "Sir, I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but I think I've known that Daniel was still alive almost from the very beginning."
"You have?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"Why did you not speak of it sooner?" Teal'c asked.
"I was scared," Sam admitted. "I mean, I knew he was alive, but we were standing here staring at his body ... I just didn't know what to believe." Sam dropped her eyes to avoid Jack's icy glare. "You were right, sir. I did hear him this morning. I was just too scared to admit it."
"Damn it, Carter, do you know what might have happened if you'd backed me up from the beginning? We could have gone back to the planet already! We could have him back by now!"
"I know, sir," Sam answered softly. "I'm sorry."
Jack shook his head in anger and started to speak again, but a loud groan from the floor stopped him.
"Daniel?" Jack rose to his knees at Daniel's side and leaned forward. "Daniel, you back with us?"
Daniel blinked slowly and pushed himself up until he was sitting upright. "Yeah, I think so."
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Jack demanded. "I told you not to do that. Look at what you did to yourself!"
Daniel nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. But it seemed like a good idea at the time ..."
"All right," Jack said. He glanced up at Teal'c and Sam before he turned back to Daniel. "There's nothing we can do about it now. What's done is done. We need to concentrate on the positives here. Teal'c's seen you now, and Sam's ready to admit that she can hear you ..."
Daniel pushed himself to his feet suddenly and spun to face his body in the bed.
"Daniel? Are you listening to me?"
When Daniel turned back to face Jack, his expression was one of pure panic. "Jack, we've got to go back now. I've got to go back now."
Jack looked back at Teal'c and Sam again, and was somehow not surprised that they had moved closer to Daniel. The expressions on their faces made it clear that they felt Daniel's sudden desperation.
"Daniel, relax. It's going to be all right now."
"No, Jack, it's not all right."
"So MacKenzie won't see you. So what? Teal'c did. And Carter's going to back him up."
"No, Jack, you don't understand."
"We've got time now, Daniel. We'll keep your body on the machines as long as we need to. We'll convince them of the truth."
"Jack ..."
"I know that this isn't the best situation to be in, but it's the one we've got. The machines'll do their thing, and we'll do ours, okay? You can calm down. We've got all the time in the world to do this."
"No," Daniel answered with a shake of his head. "There is no more time."
"What are you talking about? The machines ..."
"The machines don't matter!" Daniel cried out. "I'm dying!"