Masquerade - Ch 12
Title: Masquerade - Chapter 12
Pairing: Sam/Janet
Rating: adult
Summary: SG-1 make the horrifying discovery that Janet Fraiser has been host to a Goa’uld for the past three years.
This chapter: SG-1 mount a less than timely rescue.
“How could I have been so stupid?”
Cam looked up from the table he shared with Daniel where, if they were honest, they’d been waiting for Sam to find a solution and tell them how they were going to find Vala and Nephthys.
Sam walked into the mess with Teal’c at her side. The Jaffa had been keeping her company, or keeping her calm, while she wracked her brain trying to figure out how to amplify the power of the ship’s scanners and pick up Vala’s beacon.
“Well,” Cam said, sitting back in his chair and kicking his head to the side. “I’m sure you’d be the one to tell us how it was possible.”
Teal’c almost smirked, but Sam was oblivious to the joke.
“She’s out of phase,” she said, extending her arms outwards in exasperation. “That’s why we can’t find her. That’s why we can’t scan for her.”
Daniel smacked the table with his fist and scowled at himself. Cam decided the man must have thought he should have thought of that.
“Assuming you’re right, which, let’s face it, you always are, what’s our next step?” Cam asked.
“We put the ship out of phase. Our scanners should work in finding her,” Sam explained.
Daniel slumped in his chair. “Right, but the Odyssey doesn’t have that kind of technology on board.”
“I know.” Sam sighed and shifted her weight apprehensively from one leg to the other and looked up at her CO regrettably. “We’d have to travel back to Earth and pick up Arthur’s Mantle.”
“Do we really have that kind of time?” Daniel asked.
“We have even less the more we argue about it.” Cam launched back in his seat so the legs wailed on the floor. He gave a motivational clap as he rocketed to action. “Let’s head on home.”
Vala squeezed her toes and let her chin rest on her knees. Nephthys had made sure Daniel wouldn’t be able to find her until she was completely gone. When that happened, it wouldn’t be like before. She wouldn’t just be trapped inside her own body while Qetesh reigned. Vala wouldn’t be there at all. She wouldn’t be anywhere.
Daniel promised her he would bring her back. Vala didn’t even know where he would even bring her back from. She shouldn’t have let him make that promise. She should have made him promise to kill Qetesh. Kill her, before she killed him and everyone else she’d ever loved.
“Do you remember the night we shared,” Nephthys said, her voice gentle next to her. She sat beside her on a two seat sofa overlooking the ocean and jagged mountains beyond. “That wonderful night we had before...before Setesh...”
Sorrow and affection swelled in Vala’s chest. She could waste strength denying they were her feelings but she felt them so strongly that where they came from didn’t matter. Her arms ached at the grain of trauma in Nephthys’ voice. She wanted to turn and take her into her arms and hold her.
She could remember the way her body, her former body, felt in her embrace. The height and breadth of muscular shoulders under her hands, the way her own body fitted perfectly in the strong arch of Nephthys’ spine. Vala could remember that it was only in her beautifully severe presence that Qetesh ever surrendered herself completely.
In those moments, even Vala was unafraid. She felt peaceful, she felt protected. It was the most complete relief she ever felt as Qetesh’s host. Nephthys was not like other Goa’uld. She was another kind of force, brilliant and scary and intoxicating.
When Nephthys made love to Qetesh, Vala felt fleeting freedom. Somehow, by some use of alien technology or other mysterious power, Nephthys could lull Qetesh into such a state of suspended euphoria, Vala’s suppressed consciousness drifted to the surface.
“There you are,” Nephthys would say to her, power crackling across her body like blinding starlight, and Vala would squirm and practically see, in her head, Qetesh perfectly sedated and peaceful, almost pitiful.
“Vala. Poor little thing.”
It was really only a side effect. Vala didn’t think Nephthys ever really meant to set her free. It fascinated the Goa’uld when it first happened. Her manipulation of Qetesh was just so complete that Vala’s mental binds released.
“Shhh,” Nephthys would coo. Vala would feel her inside, and sensations so overwhelming her whole body pulsed.
Qetesh relished what Nephthys did to them both, her pleasure, and her host’s torment. Vala never knew what was happening, only that everything hurt so much, so much she shrieked and only a small whisper of air would flutter from her throat, and so good she never wanted it to end. But it would. And that was the cruelty.
Nephthys could keep them like that all night long. Vala never had an accurate sense of the time, but new that Nephthys took hers and was never in any hurry.
“Just a little longer.”
Vala could only lie there and be grateful Nephthys held her through it. The Goa’uld’s pity on her was always expressed in threads of amusement and irony. Because the longer she took, the more time Vala was free. Qetesh was with her, for every blissful swell, but she hadn’t the strength or cognition to suppress her.
“Now little one. Time to go.”
She didn’t have the voice to beg. She wanted to stay. Nephthys could see it screaming in her eyes but only smiled at her. Vala was forced back into the farthest recess of her mind. It felt exactly like falling backwards into a deep pool of water neither hot nor cold that never touched her skin.
The night before Setesh came, Nephthys was scared. It was a shock to Qetesh and Vala both. Their feelings, for once, were mutual in their ache and love and their want for nothing more than to comfort and protect her. They wanted her to run away with them. Their world would end without her.
Qetesh was but a lowly underlord and one of many serving Camulus. His patience regarding Nephthys was thin, but he tolerated her when she promised him, and teased him with, Ancient technology in exchange for time with his fiery servant.
Qetesh had not yet risen ranks, and had no real force to her name. Seth had all but clipped Nephthys’ wings by the time she first encountered her. There was no escape for either of them. Vala knew that. Qetesh refused to give in.
She tried again to convince Nephthys to run away with her. They spent the night together. Setesh caught them. Vala had never felt Qetesh so afraid. Seth beat her and strung her up to watch a nightmare that Vala couldn’t shut out. And when he was done he made them watch him savage Nephthys apart and tear out her symbiote.
Vala’s voice rasped. “You were a lot taller then.”
Nephthys snorted and laughed prettily. “You tried to persuade me. You tried to get me to leave with you. I was...I was too scared. I was scared Seth would come after us...no matter where we went. I didn’t want him coming after you.”
There were tears in Vala’s eyes that just wouldn’t fall. They suck there, burning. Qetesh searched everywhere for where Seth had hidden her lover.
Nephthys raised her palm.
Vala pulled away, fretting, and her tears quickly fell. “Please. Please don’t.”
“Shhh,” Nephthys whispered, stretching her body over Vala as she shrank down into the sofa. Vala sobbed as the hand device hovered above her eyes. “Now little one. Time to go.”
Vala seized and gagged.
“Vala?”
“Ah!” The dark haired ex-con leapt backwards from Janet. “Gurh, stop doing that,” she grumbled, puffing frazzled hair from over her eyes.
Janet arched an eyebrow. “Sorry,” she said, smirking.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Vala said, clutching her skull.
“You need to focus on yourself. Focus on who you are.” Janet touched her arm and gently urged her to the end of the bed so they could sit together. “Tell me more about yourself. Tell me about your new life on Earth.”
Vala winced. The hand device was making soup of her mind. “Heh. Hard to think clearly.” She pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead, as if to push escaping thoughts back inside.
“Do you have a favourite food?”
Vala laughed. Her hands came together on her lap, bouncing a little. “I’m quite partial to waffles. Cameron Mitchell makes extraordinary waffles. Daniel is hopeless.”
Janet chuckled fondly.
“I like jam.”
“Mmm. I must admit I do miss strawberry jam on toast.”
“...Oh...Daniel and the others sure are taking their sweet time rescuing me.”
“They won’t give up on you, Vala,” Janet said, putting her arm around the woman who propped her heels on the bed and hugged her knees.
Vala nodded. “Sam is smart. She’ll figure something out.”
Janet’s eyes shimmered. She reached for the frizzy locks of hair falling out of Vala’s plaits and smoothed them down affectionately. “Yes she will.”
Suddenly Vala convulsed and froze, eyes wide, breath fast and shallow. She tugged away from Janet, rising to her feet. She leered contemptuously at the doctor and snapped, “Who are you?”
Janet frowned. “Vala?” When she tried to rise from the bed Vala slapped her across the face. Janet turned with the blow and tensed desperately. If she lost concentration, Nephthys would discover her.
“Where am I? Why have you brought me here? Answer me you useless cretin.”
Vala’s hand snatched into Janet’s hair and pulled her brutally off the bed to the floor. She held her up, and gave her a shake. Janet clenched her fists. She knew it wasn’t really Qetesh, but knew it wasn’t Vala either. She just had to hold on.
“...Janet? Oh!” Vala let her go, trembling. “Help me!”
Janet turned on her knees and stepped up to her feet. “It’s alright. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” It wouldn’t happen again. She was caught off guard when Vala mentioned Sam.
“I can feel it. I’m losing more and more of myself,” Vala sniffed, letting Janet hold her.
“No you’re not. Here.”
Vala looked down at Janet’s hand. Draped across her fingers was a small silver chain. A familiar charm flashed and twinkled in the dim SGC guestroom light.
Vala blinked, amazed. “Where did you get that?”
“You know where.”
Vala took the chain into her own fingers, holding it up and smiling. “My father gave me this.” She wound the chain into her palm and closed her fingers over the charm.
“You’re not losing anything, Vala. I’m here to make sure of that,” Janet said firmly.
Vala closed her eyes and smiled so broadly it hurt her mouth. Holding the little necklace over her heart, she felt anchored. She looked at Janet. It was all her. She was keeping Vala together.
“...Sam was right about you.”
Janet sighed, her heart rattled by the endearment. “Sam is right about everything.”
Daniel intended to keep his promise. He didn’t know yet how he would reverse what Nephthys did to Vala, if she succeeded, but he would never give up. He had let down too many people he loved most in the universe. Damned if he was gonna let Vala go.
Cam checked the Sodan cloaking device on his wrist. They were pretty darn nifty. “Now,” he ordered.
They followed his lead. Together SG-1 raced into the villa. They found Nephthys on the porch, her palm extended, and the terrible beam burrowing into Vala’s head as she lay prone and twitching across an outdoor sofa.
“Another step and I’ll kill her,” Nephthys warned calmly.
“Qetesh dies with her,” Daniel returned, inwardly relieved that she hadn’t yet succeeded in restoring the Goa’uld’s identity.
Nephthys scoffed and smirked. “I’ll get over it.”
“Really?” Sam challenged, cocking her head. “Just like that?”
Nephthys grinned and deactivated the hand device. She left the sofa and stalked back through the pillars into the living room. “You want to know the beauty of this situation? I can kill you, but you can’t kill me.”
“Who said we were here to kill you?” Cam grinned. Nephthys turned in time to see him whip a zat gun from its holster. He barely got it set when Nephthys threw a wave of energy at him. Cam went flying, and if Teal’c hadn’t been there to catch him, might have fatally collided against one of the stone columns.
The two crashed hard against the column, and fell in a painful heap. Teal’c had taken most of the impact and didn’t move. Cam moaned and a single finger quivered against the stone tiles.
Sam fired her zat, but it struck Nephthy’s shield. The Goa’uld simply thrust out her hand, fingers sticking into her throat like the savage jaws of an animal, and drove her back into the wall. She used her other arm to twist the zat out of Sam’s hand. It clattered on the floor.
Sam grabbed at her fingers, gulping and gagging tears blooming in her wide, frantic eyes. The volley of a zat gun kept hitting the shield.
“Sam! Let her go!” Daniel charged at Nephthys but she tossed her hand out behind her and sent him flying against the wall, only hard enough to wind him and keep him out of the way.
Nephthys squeezed harder. Every once in a while Sam’s body ticked with spasms, her energy to struggle coming in short, dwindling bursts as muffled noises gurgled from her limply parted mouth.
There was a quality of fascination vivid in the Goa’uld’s eyes as she watched Sam suffering and felt the throb of blood and contracting throat muscles squirming uselessly against her palm.
Nephthys held up her hand device and the jewel glowed. Sam was drawn to it, mesmerized. Her arms fell slack by her sides and she drooped against the wall. The phenomenal strength of the Goa’uld alone kept her from slumping to the floor.
“I’ll let Janet watch you die again later.”
Sam slid down the wall and folded over like a ragdoll. Nephthys spun and honed in on Daniel. The man was just pushing himself off the floor. He gripped his zat gun anxiously, baring his teeth.
“I’m surprised at you. At all of you. This was a very poor plan,” Nephthys snarled.
Daniel sighed and shut his eyes. He lowered the zat gun in defeat. “I just wanna say...one thing,” he said, his eyes opening and fixing on Nephthys.
“What is that?”
“Don’t give up.”
Nephthys blinked. A flash of blue sparkling light shattered around her body. Daniel released a long breath as she crumpled to the floor.
“Wow. You weren’t kidding about the outfit.”
Daniel looked up at Jack and made his lips into a thin line. “Nope.” He left Jack to admire Nephthys’ scantily clad form while he went to help a waking Vala.
“Ohhhh I’m gonna have this headache for years,” the woman groaned.
Daniel helped her to sit up. When she opened her eyes and realized who it was she gasped. “Daniel!” Then she punched him hard in the stomach. Daniel wheezed and doubled over.
“That’s for taking so long!” Vala scolded, as Daniel fell to his knees, coughing. She shot up to her feet. “You are just the worst at timely rescues.” With that she marched around him and back into the living room.
“Oh. Hello, General O’Neill,” she said brightly.
Jack was still distracted by Nephthys’ exotic outfit on Janet Fraiser’s body. “Hm?”
“Nice of you to come rescue me.”
“Yes,” Jack muttered. He tugged his gaze away from Nephthys with some effort and looked up at Vala. “Kiss for the hero?”
“Uhh...little help?” Cam pleaded, his voice muffled by the angle of his face against the floor.
Vala skipped off to help him and Teal’c. Jack shrugged and then turned, responding to a moaning Sam.
“Easy,” he said.
Sam sat up and blinked her eyes to focus. “Jack...what...?”
“Shhh,” he said, with a finger over his lips. “You’ll wake The Little Goa’uld That Could.”
Sam leaned over to peer around him, her heart sagging at the sight of Janet’s unmoving form. Jack pulled her up and steadied her to Nephthys’ side.
Daniel joined them, still wincing. “Take a picture, Jack.”
“What?” he whined innocently.
Sam knelt down. She tenderly brushed the curls of hair from over Janet’s face, her heart breaking.
“Sam...” Daniel said gently. “The Asgard only permitted us to rescue Vala. We have to leave her.”
Sam’s vision blurred with tears. “I know.” Now she knew how Daniel had felt. A hand squeezed her shoulder, and a finger brushed affectionately around the edge of her ear.
“Give her a moment,” she heard Daniel whisper to Jack before leading him over to where Vala struggled to lift Cam or Teal’c to their feet.
Janet looked so beautiful. Sam wanted nothing more than to lean down and feel her lips against hers. But the others were watching her. Daniel had done his best to give her a little privacy but her team were still only a few feet away, even if they were distracted by Teal’c and Cam’s humorous immobility.
“I love you,” Sam said - quiet - touching Janet’s shoulder. “I’ll be back for you. I promise.”
Tossing a quick glance over her shoulder she kissed her fingertips and touched them to Janet’s cheek, so that when Jack turned, he saw nothing suspicious.
“Carter.”
“Coming, Sir.”
Once again, they left Janet Fraiser behind.
Pairing: Sam/Janet
Rating: adult
Summary: SG-1 make the horrifying discovery that Janet Fraiser has been host to a Goa’uld for the past three years.
This chapter: SG-1 mount a less than timely rescue.
“How could I have been so stupid?”
Cam looked up from the table he shared with Daniel where, if they were honest, they’d been waiting for Sam to find a solution and tell them how they were going to find Vala and Nephthys.
Sam walked into the mess with Teal’c at her side. The Jaffa had been keeping her company, or keeping her calm, while she wracked her brain trying to figure out how to amplify the power of the ship’s scanners and pick up Vala’s beacon.
“Well,” Cam said, sitting back in his chair and kicking his head to the side. “I’m sure you’d be the one to tell us how it was possible.”
Teal’c almost smirked, but Sam was oblivious to the joke.
“She’s out of phase,” she said, extending her arms outwards in exasperation. “That’s why we can’t find her. That’s why we can’t scan for her.”
Daniel smacked the table with his fist and scowled at himself. Cam decided the man must have thought he should have thought of that.
“Assuming you’re right, which, let’s face it, you always are, what’s our next step?” Cam asked.
“We put the ship out of phase. Our scanners should work in finding her,” Sam explained.
Daniel slumped in his chair. “Right, but the Odyssey doesn’t have that kind of technology on board.”
“I know.” Sam sighed and shifted her weight apprehensively from one leg to the other and looked up at her CO regrettably. “We’d have to travel back to Earth and pick up Arthur’s Mantle.”
“Do we really have that kind of time?” Daniel asked.
“We have even less the more we argue about it.” Cam launched back in his seat so the legs wailed on the floor. He gave a motivational clap as he rocketed to action. “Let’s head on home.”
Vala squeezed her toes and let her chin rest on her knees. Nephthys had made sure Daniel wouldn’t be able to find her until she was completely gone. When that happened, it wouldn’t be like before. She wouldn’t just be trapped inside her own body while Qetesh reigned. Vala wouldn’t be there at all. She wouldn’t be anywhere.
Daniel promised her he would bring her back. Vala didn’t even know where he would even bring her back from. She shouldn’t have let him make that promise. She should have made him promise to kill Qetesh. Kill her, before she killed him and everyone else she’d ever loved.
“Do you remember the night we shared,” Nephthys said, her voice gentle next to her. She sat beside her on a two seat sofa overlooking the ocean and jagged mountains beyond. “That wonderful night we had before...before Setesh...”
Sorrow and affection swelled in Vala’s chest. She could waste strength denying they were her feelings but she felt them so strongly that where they came from didn’t matter. Her arms ached at the grain of trauma in Nephthys’ voice. She wanted to turn and take her into her arms and hold her.
She could remember the way her body, her former body, felt in her embrace. The height and breadth of muscular shoulders under her hands, the way her own body fitted perfectly in the strong arch of Nephthys’ spine. Vala could remember that it was only in her beautifully severe presence that Qetesh ever surrendered herself completely.
In those moments, even Vala was unafraid. She felt peaceful, she felt protected. It was the most complete relief she ever felt as Qetesh’s host. Nephthys was not like other Goa’uld. She was another kind of force, brilliant and scary and intoxicating.
When Nephthys made love to Qetesh, Vala felt fleeting freedom. Somehow, by some use of alien technology or other mysterious power, Nephthys could lull Qetesh into such a state of suspended euphoria, Vala’s suppressed consciousness drifted to the surface.
“There you are,” Nephthys would say to her, power crackling across her body like blinding starlight, and Vala would squirm and practically see, in her head, Qetesh perfectly sedated and peaceful, almost pitiful.
“Vala. Poor little thing.”
It was really only a side effect. Vala didn’t think Nephthys ever really meant to set her free. It fascinated the Goa’uld when it first happened. Her manipulation of Qetesh was just so complete that Vala’s mental binds released.
“Shhh,” Nephthys would coo. Vala would feel her inside, and sensations so overwhelming her whole body pulsed.
Qetesh relished what Nephthys did to them both, her pleasure, and her host’s torment. Vala never knew what was happening, only that everything hurt so much, so much she shrieked and only a small whisper of air would flutter from her throat, and so good she never wanted it to end. But it would. And that was the cruelty.
Nephthys could keep them like that all night long. Vala never had an accurate sense of the time, but new that Nephthys took hers and was never in any hurry.
“Just a little longer.”
Vala could only lie there and be grateful Nephthys held her through it. The Goa’uld’s pity on her was always expressed in threads of amusement and irony. Because the longer she took, the more time Vala was free. Qetesh was with her, for every blissful swell, but she hadn’t the strength or cognition to suppress her.
“Now little one. Time to go.”
She didn’t have the voice to beg. She wanted to stay. Nephthys could see it screaming in her eyes but only smiled at her. Vala was forced back into the farthest recess of her mind. It felt exactly like falling backwards into a deep pool of water neither hot nor cold that never touched her skin.
The night before Setesh came, Nephthys was scared. It was a shock to Qetesh and Vala both. Their feelings, for once, were mutual in their ache and love and their want for nothing more than to comfort and protect her. They wanted her to run away with them. Their world would end without her.
Qetesh was but a lowly underlord and one of many serving Camulus. His patience regarding Nephthys was thin, but he tolerated her when she promised him, and teased him with, Ancient technology in exchange for time with his fiery servant.
Qetesh had not yet risen ranks, and had no real force to her name. Seth had all but clipped Nephthys’ wings by the time she first encountered her. There was no escape for either of them. Vala knew that. Qetesh refused to give in.
She tried again to convince Nephthys to run away with her. They spent the night together. Setesh caught them. Vala had never felt Qetesh so afraid. Seth beat her and strung her up to watch a nightmare that Vala couldn’t shut out. And when he was done he made them watch him savage Nephthys apart and tear out her symbiote.
Vala’s voice rasped. “You were a lot taller then.”
Nephthys snorted and laughed prettily. “You tried to persuade me. You tried to get me to leave with you. I was...I was too scared. I was scared Seth would come after us...no matter where we went. I didn’t want him coming after you.”
There were tears in Vala’s eyes that just wouldn’t fall. They suck there, burning. Qetesh searched everywhere for where Seth had hidden her lover.
Nephthys raised her palm.
Vala pulled away, fretting, and her tears quickly fell. “Please. Please don’t.”
“Shhh,” Nephthys whispered, stretching her body over Vala as she shrank down into the sofa. Vala sobbed as the hand device hovered above her eyes. “Now little one. Time to go.”
Vala seized and gagged.
“Vala?”
“Ah!” The dark haired ex-con leapt backwards from Janet. “Gurh, stop doing that,” she grumbled, puffing frazzled hair from over her eyes.
Janet arched an eyebrow. “Sorry,” she said, smirking.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Vala said, clutching her skull.
“You need to focus on yourself. Focus on who you are.” Janet touched her arm and gently urged her to the end of the bed so they could sit together. “Tell me more about yourself. Tell me about your new life on Earth.”
Vala winced. The hand device was making soup of her mind. “Heh. Hard to think clearly.” She pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead, as if to push escaping thoughts back inside.
“Do you have a favourite food?”
Vala laughed. Her hands came together on her lap, bouncing a little. “I’m quite partial to waffles. Cameron Mitchell makes extraordinary waffles. Daniel is hopeless.”
Janet chuckled fondly.
“I like jam.”
“Mmm. I must admit I do miss strawberry jam on toast.”
“...Oh...Daniel and the others sure are taking their sweet time rescuing me.”
“They won’t give up on you, Vala,” Janet said, putting her arm around the woman who propped her heels on the bed and hugged her knees.
Vala nodded. “Sam is smart. She’ll figure something out.”
Janet’s eyes shimmered. She reached for the frizzy locks of hair falling out of Vala’s plaits and smoothed them down affectionately. “Yes she will.”
Suddenly Vala convulsed and froze, eyes wide, breath fast and shallow. She tugged away from Janet, rising to her feet. She leered contemptuously at the doctor and snapped, “Who are you?”
Janet frowned. “Vala?” When she tried to rise from the bed Vala slapped her across the face. Janet turned with the blow and tensed desperately. If she lost concentration, Nephthys would discover her.
“Where am I? Why have you brought me here? Answer me you useless cretin.”
Vala’s hand snatched into Janet’s hair and pulled her brutally off the bed to the floor. She held her up, and gave her a shake. Janet clenched her fists. She knew it wasn’t really Qetesh, but knew it wasn’t Vala either. She just had to hold on.
“...Janet? Oh!” Vala let her go, trembling. “Help me!”
Janet turned on her knees and stepped up to her feet. “It’s alright. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” It wouldn’t happen again. She was caught off guard when Vala mentioned Sam.
“I can feel it. I’m losing more and more of myself,” Vala sniffed, letting Janet hold her.
“No you’re not. Here.”
Vala looked down at Janet’s hand. Draped across her fingers was a small silver chain. A familiar charm flashed and twinkled in the dim SGC guestroom light.
Vala blinked, amazed. “Where did you get that?”
“You know where.”
Vala took the chain into her own fingers, holding it up and smiling. “My father gave me this.” She wound the chain into her palm and closed her fingers over the charm.
“You’re not losing anything, Vala. I’m here to make sure of that,” Janet said firmly.
Vala closed her eyes and smiled so broadly it hurt her mouth. Holding the little necklace over her heart, she felt anchored. She looked at Janet. It was all her. She was keeping Vala together.
“...Sam was right about you.”
Janet sighed, her heart rattled by the endearment. “Sam is right about everything.”
Daniel intended to keep his promise. He didn’t know yet how he would reverse what Nephthys did to Vala, if she succeeded, but he would never give up. He had let down too many people he loved most in the universe. Damned if he was gonna let Vala go.
Cam checked the Sodan cloaking device on his wrist. They were pretty darn nifty. “Now,” he ordered.
They followed his lead. Together SG-1 raced into the villa. They found Nephthys on the porch, her palm extended, and the terrible beam burrowing into Vala’s head as she lay prone and twitching across an outdoor sofa.
“Another step and I’ll kill her,” Nephthys warned calmly.
“Qetesh dies with her,” Daniel returned, inwardly relieved that she hadn’t yet succeeded in restoring the Goa’uld’s identity.
Nephthys scoffed and smirked. “I’ll get over it.”
“Really?” Sam challenged, cocking her head. “Just like that?”
Nephthys grinned and deactivated the hand device. She left the sofa and stalked back through the pillars into the living room. “You want to know the beauty of this situation? I can kill you, but you can’t kill me.”
“Who said we were here to kill you?” Cam grinned. Nephthys turned in time to see him whip a zat gun from its holster. He barely got it set when Nephthys threw a wave of energy at him. Cam went flying, and if Teal’c hadn’t been there to catch him, might have fatally collided against one of the stone columns.
The two crashed hard against the column, and fell in a painful heap. Teal’c had taken most of the impact and didn’t move. Cam moaned and a single finger quivered against the stone tiles.
Sam fired her zat, but it struck Nephthy’s shield. The Goa’uld simply thrust out her hand, fingers sticking into her throat like the savage jaws of an animal, and drove her back into the wall. She used her other arm to twist the zat out of Sam’s hand. It clattered on the floor.
Sam grabbed at her fingers, gulping and gagging tears blooming in her wide, frantic eyes. The volley of a zat gun kept hitting the shield.
“Sam! Let her go!” Daniel charged at Nephthys but she tossed her hand out behind her and sent him flying against the wall, only hard enough to wind him and keep him out of the way.
Nephthys squeezed harder. Every once in a while Sam’s body ticked with spasms, her energy to struggle coming in short, dwindling bursts as muffled noises gurgled from her limply parted mouth.
There was a quality of fascination vivid in the Goa’uld’s eyes as she watched Sam suffering and felt the throb of blood and contracting throat muscles squirming uselessly against her palm.
Nephthys held up her hand device and the jewel glowed. Sam was drawn to it, mesmerized. Her arms fell slack by her sides and she drooped against the wall. The phenomenal strength of the Goa’uld alone kept her from slumping to the floor.
“I’ll let Janet watch you die again later.”
Sam slid down the wall and folded over like a ragdoll. Nephthys spun and honed in on Daniel. The man was just pushing himself off the floor. He gripped his zat gun anxiously, baring his teeth.
“I’m surprised at you. At all of you. This was a very poor plan,” Nephthys snarled.
Daniel sighed and shut his eyes. He lowered the zat gun in defeat. “I just wanna say...one thing,” he said, his eyes opening and fixing on Nephthys.
“What is that?”
“Don’t give up.”
Nephthys blinked. A flash of blue sparkling light shattered around her body. Daniel released a long breath as she crumpled to the floor.
“Wow. You weren’t kidding about the outfit.”
Daniel looked up at Jack and made his lips into a thin line. “Nope.” He left Jack to admire Nephthys’ scantily clad form while he went to help a waking Vala.
“Ohhhh I’m gonna have this headache for years,” the woman groaned.
Daniel helped her to sit up. When she opened her eyes and realized who it was she gasped. “Daniel!” Then she punched him hard in the stomach. Daniel wheezed and doubled over.
“That’s for taking so long!” Vala scolded, as Daniel fell to his knees, coughing. She shot up to her feet. “You are just the worst at timely rescues.” With that she marched around him and back into the living room.
“Oh. Hello, General O’Neill,” she said brightly.
Jack was still distracted by Nephthys’ exotic outfit on Janet Fraiser’s body. “Hm?”
“Nice of you to come rescue me.”
“Yes,” Jack muttered. He tugged his gaze away from Nephthys with some effort and looked up at Vala. “Kiss for the hero?”
“Uhh...little help?” Cam pleaded, his voice muffled by the angle of his face against the floor.
Vala skipped off to help him and Teal’c. Jack shrugged and then turned, responding to a moaning Sam.
“Easy,” he said.
Sam sat up and blinked her eyes to focus. “Jack...what...?”
“Shhh,” he said, with a finger over his lips. “You’ll wake The Little Goa’uld That Could.”
Sam leaned over to peer around him, her heart sagging at the sight of Janet’s unmoving form. Jack pulled her up and steadied her to Nephthys’ side.
Daniel joined them, still wincing. “Take a picture, Jack.”
“What?” he whined innocently.
Sam knelt down. She tenderly brushed the curls of hair from over Janet’s face, her heart breaking.
“Sam...” Daniel said gently. “The Asgard only permitted us to rescue Vala. We have to leave her.”
Sam’s vision blurred with tears. “I know.” Now she knew how Daniel had felt. A hand squeezed her shoulder, and a finger brushed affectionately around the edge of her ear.
“Give her a moment,” she heard Daniel whisper to Jack before leading him over to where Vala struggled to lift Cam or Teal’c to their feet.
Janet looked so beautiful. Sam wanted nothing more than to lean down and feel her lips against hers. But the others were watching her. Daniel had done his best to give her a little privacy but her team were still only a few feet away, even if they were distracted by Teal’c and Cam’s humorous immobility.
“I love you,” Sam said - quiet - touching Janet’s shoulder. “I’ll be back for you. I promise.”
Tossing a quick glance over her shoulder she kissed her fingertips and touched them to Janet’s cheek, so that when Jack turned, he saw nothing suspicious.
“Carter.”
“Coming, Sir.”
Once again, they left Janet Fraiser behind.