Fool's Path Chapter 2
Chapter 2
What seemed like an eternity later, but was really only a couple of hours, SG-1 heard the stomps of booted feet and the sound of doors being opened. Soon the jaffa soldiers reappeared, dragging a limp Edward between them. But something was… different this time. Instead of the rough manhandling of earlier the jaffa were almost… gentle with the blonde. The jaffa muttered something between themselves in their language that caused both Teal’c and Daniel’s eyebrows to shoot up. The jaffa deposited Edward by the wall, carefully securing him his restraints before moving back out of the cell, shooting glances back at the kid.
“Okaay… anyone want to enlighten me as to what that was?” asked Jack.
“It would appear that Edward Elric has earned the respect of several of Ba’al’s jaffa,” said Teal’c, eyeing the chained blonde in curiosity.
“Oh really? How did that happen?”
“He was tortured by Ba’al for the last two hours without crying out once,” said Daniel, a mix of horror and respect mixed in his voice.
There was a pause as SG-1 considered this and the short blonde chained to the wall.
“Damn,” said Jack, breaking the tension. “He’s a tough little bastard, I’ll give him that.”
“Not… little…” came a growled out response from the wall.
“Oh my god! He’s still conscious!” said Carter, rushing over to check the kid’s vitals.
Edward raised his head, giving SG-1 a loot at his unfocused gaze, which still packed a punch. His eyes slid over to Carter, then suddenly widened in hazy shock.
“Lieutenant Hawkeye?” asked Edward, hope clear in his voice.
Sam blanched. Lieutenant? Had this kid met a SG team before? But for the life of her she couldn’t remember a lieutenant named Hawkeye…
“No, I’m Major Samantha Carter. I’m sorry…”
Edward blinked in confusion then shook his head, as if trying to clear a fog. Which, judging by his confused statement earlier, was very likely. When he looked back up again it was with a sharper gaze. And as he looked again at Carter they could see him visually slump again in his chains.
“I’m sorry. You just look a lot like a… friend of mine…”
“That’s alright,” Sam said with a smile.
Silence came over them. After a moment the kid rolled his neck, popping several bones, before he began to look around the room. “About time we start trying to get out of here, don’t you think? I don’t enjoy the thought of another ‘session’ with that jack ass.”
“Couldn’t say it better myself,” said Jack with a grin.
“Speaking of which-what the hell did he mean by ‘host’?” asked Edward.
That stopped SG-1 in their track.
“Why do you ask?” asked Daniel cautiously.
“Because just before they drug my ass back in here I heard him mention something about turning me into one… Said it would take a few hours to ‘ready for the ritual’ or some shit…”
“Oh hell no. But we’ll explain more about that when we get out of here,” said Jack, determined now more than ever to get out, if just to keep on more kid out of the snake-head’s hands.
“Agreed. Do any of you have something sharp? Or just something metal?” asked Edward, sitting up.
“I have an eyeglass screwdriver, why?” asked Daniel.
“Just an experiment. If it works it will make getting out a helluva lot easier.”
Daniel fished out the small screw driver and Edward instructed for him to put it in his left hand. They heard the sound of metal scraping against metal and Edward concentrated on whatever he was doing, his eyes closed. Daniel looked and saw a picture of a circle with a strange geometric design on the inside being formed.
“What are you-?”
“There, done,” sighed Edward. “Now let’s see if this works…”
They saw Edward run a finger over the strange pictograph.
Then suddenly bright blue light like what they had seen back at the gate shown for a split second and when it dissipated, SG-1 was left gaping as Edward pulled his arm free of the destructed manacles.
“How-How did you-?”
“I’ll explain later,” he said, twisting around to repeat the process on the other cuff. As soon as the chains were not supporting him he fell down to his knees. Daniel and Jack tried to help him up but he waved them off.
“I’m fine, just give me a second…” And slowly, using the wall for support, he pulled himself up to his feet and started moving towards the door. But instead of drawing another of the circle-thingies, he clapped his hands then placed them against the door. The blue light crackled like electricity around the door before the whole thing glowed blue, molding itself into a different shape. When the light subsided, a hole had been made in the door.
“Wow,” said Daniel, his lips forming an ‘o’ shape as he observed.
“You know kid, I think we could become fast friends, you and I,” Jack said, nodding. “You beat the shit out of Ba’al, make escaping easy, and shut Daniel up,” Jack said jerking a thumb back at the stunned linguist. “Yup, that definitely puts you in my good book.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t last long,” said Edward with a grin. “I have a knack for pissing people off. And judging by Major Carter’s title and all of your uniforms, I’d say you’re military dogs. That’s already two strikes.”
“I take it you have a problem with military?” asked Daniel. Jack was pouting after being called a dog.
“Not so much the military per se, so much as the authorities involved. Too much bullshit and power games for my liking. Besides, I don’t like being told what to do.”
Jack nodded with a smile, “Funny thing! So do I! The reason I kept getting transferred between CO’s in my earlier years. At least I think that’s why…”
“You sound like you’ve had experience with it,” said Carter.
“Yeah, but that’s a story for another time. You guys coming or what?”
“Sounds good to me. Move out!”
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The area around the stargate was quiet. The two jaffa standing guard now at the gate moved back and forward between their two feet. One, breaking all code of conduct, even yawned.
Then they heard the explosion.
The jaffa straightened. What was that? They went on their guard, hefting their staff weapons into alert position.
Then an odd sound reached them…
“Yaaach! What the hell was that?!”
“Whatever it was you did must have caused an unstable reaction!”
“What the hell was in that metal to cause an unstable reaction?!”
“It could be anything! There’s over 250 (see ch. 1 p.s.) elements!”
“Over 250?! I thought there were 236?!”
“Could we not discuss this while we’re running for our lives?! Damn scientists!”
“Hey!”
Finally whoever was speaking rounded an area of bushes. The jaffa immediately recognized the group as the prisoners taken to Lord Ba’al earlier that day. They raised their staff weapons and began to shoot.
A short blonde tuck and rolled to avoid the shot.
“Ne! What’s the big ide-Ah!” again he dodged, narrowly avoiding the jet of light that just singed the ends of his hair.
“Carter! Take care of the kid-“ yelled Jack.
But before either of them could do anything the teen let out a growl of annoyance and lept forward attacking the first jaffa.
“Edward--!”
Fortunately, this seemed to catch the jaffa by surprise, giving Edward an initial advantage. He landed two spinning kicks in quick succession followed up with a flow to the stomach with his metal hand that caused the warrior to double up and fall to the ground retching. But before Edward could take out the other guard he had his staff weapon powered up and raised.
“Dodge!” yelled Jack.
As soon as Edward realized that it was a shooting weapon, he growled, “Shit!” Jumping back into several backward handsprings that would have made a cheerleader proud in order to avoid the blasts.
With Edward distracting the jaffa Teal’c grabbed the discarded staff weapon dropped by the now unconscious jaffa and quickly shot the other guard, ending the fight.
Edward landed from his last flip at a squat, still on alert for an attack.
“Nice work there shorty,” said Jack. “Are you a gymnast or something?”
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE’S IMPOSSIBLE TO TARGET?!”
“I have no clue what you mean,” said Jack innocently. “Though that is a good point…”
Ed was about to lunge at Jack when they heard the unmistakable sound of a troop of foot soldiers herding their way.
“Colonel, could we continue this later?” asked Carter.
“Righto,” said Colonel O’Neill, turning back around to the stargate where Daniel was already dialing home.
“Hey, what’s that thing?” asked Ed, motioning towards the ring.
“That would be the stargate we mentioned. And that’s how we’re getting home.”
“What does it d-“
Edward cut off his sentence as the gate activated, letting loose the blurb of watery light with a sloshy sound.
“Whoa…” said Edward, transfixed. “How did that-“
“Explanations later,” said Jack, pushing the kid towards the gate. The jaffa were just coming around the out cropping of tree, their angry cried carrying over the clearing. And judging by the look on Daniel’s face, what they were saying was nothing good.
Edward seemed to catch that point as well and hurried over to the ring with SG-1.
“Just walk on through and the gate will take care of the rest,” said Daniel before walking through himself.
“And it may feel a little strange at first, but it’s just the stargate converting you matter,” said Carter, stepping through.
“Shit, what is it with me and gates,” growled Edward.
“Go ahead, Edward Elric. I and Colonel O’Neill will keep the enemy jaffa at bay,” said Teal’c.
Edward vaguely reflected on the fact that it was the longest statement he had heard the dark skinned man say to him since they had all met, before taking a deep breath and plunging into the watery depths of the stargate.
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“It’s SG-1, sir,” said the gate technician from the control room.
“Open the iris,” commanded General Hammond.
The protective barrier was opened and soon after the slosh of exiting travelers followed.
Immediately Daniel called out, “We’ve brought company! Don’t shoot the blonde kid!”
Hammond nodded before turning to the armed soldiers to repeat the order. When he turned back Major Carter had arrived.
“He should be coming up behind me,” she said before turning back to the gate.
There was a third slosh, and there on the platform stood a short, blonde haired, golden eyed boy.
‘Wait-golden eyes?’ thought Hammond, blinking.
Ed stood for a moment taking in the room, especially the men with the guns.
“Umm… are you guys sure we’re at the right place?” he asked Daniel and Sam.
“Yes, they’re just there for precaution, in case a goauld or jaffa try and follow us through.”
“A what?” Ed asked.
“Those people back there that captured us. We’ll explain more later.”
“Oh, alright.”
Just then there were two more sloshes as Jack and Teal’c crossed over.
“Close the iris!” yelled Jack.
The technician did so immediately. And a second later they heard a couple thuds, then the stargate shutting off.
“What were those sounds?” asked Edward.
“That would be the sound of someone’s body being slammed against a metal covering faster than the speed of light,” said Jack.
Edward’s face turned a slight shade of green, but he kept the contents of his stomach.
“Welcome back, SG-1,” said General Hammond, giving a salute that O’Neill and Carter quickly returned. “Care to explain what happened on what was only supposed to be a routine inspection, as well as make introductions?”
“Well sir, everything was going fine until Daniel just had to touch that one damn crystal…”
“How was I supposed to know it would activate their systems?”
“Did someone never teach you to look but not touch-“
“Ehem,” the General cleared his throat to bring attention back on him. Daniel had the grace to look sheepish while Jack merely grinned innocently.
Edward quirked an eyebrow. The military men’s interactions reminded him of the office back home. Were all militaries eccentric like this?
“Anyway, so Daniel touched the crystal and that alerted what seems to have been a jaffa posting. We were making our escape when the gate activated and did something… funky,” said Jack with an odd look on his face.
“Sir, the wormhole went from a bright blue, crackling with electricity to an inky black, like a black hole,” said Carter. “And then Edward here came through unconscious.”
Hammond’s brow furrowed. “Do you know what caused this?”
SG-1 shook their heads, but Edward hesitantly nodded.
“You do, son?” asked Hammond.
“Sort of… I don’t know how or why it happened, but the Gate of Truth and the stargate must have connected somehow as I passed through it. Their description of the reaction sounds a lot like what the inside of the Gate looks like.”
“The Gate of Truth? Do you mean another stargate?”
“Nah, it’s… complicated. If I’m going to have to explain it then we might as well get comfortable.”
“Alright, let’s move to the briefing room then. What’s your name again son?”
“Edward Elric, sir.”
“Umm… sir, I think before we go into debriefing we should stop by the infirmary. Especially Edward,” said Daniel.
“That fine, but why him especially?”
“Because, General, Ba’al was there, personally,” said Carter.
“What?”
“Yeah, we all got a bit of one-on-one attention from the snake-head, but the kid got a double dose-two hours straight,” said Jack.
“No really, I’m fine-“ Edward tried to say.
“Nonsense, all of you will stop by and see Dr. Frazier for a check up. If she clears you we’ll meet for a debriefing. If not we’ll schedule it for later. Dismissed,” said Hammond, leaving in the direction of his office.
“You heard the man, let’s start heading that way,” said Jack, leading them towards the door. Normally he would have fought against the visit himself. But he really wanted to get the kid looked at, so if just for this time he would go along peacefully.
Said kid was grumbling audibly behind him.
“What is with people and treating me like a damn kid! I just busted their asses out of that freak’s place and their still doing-“
Conscious thought became impossible however, as the adrenalin that had kept him going for the past few hours seemed to finally abandon him, causing his vision to suddenly go dark and to begin falling forward towards the floor.
Jack whipped around as he heard an urgent, “Colonel!” yelled behind him. He turned just in time to catch Edward from falling face first into the cement in a dead faint.
“Damn it!” he swore, hefting the kid into his arms, slightly disturbed that the only real weight on the kid seemed to come from his metal limb. It was also then that he noticed through he the boy’s leather pants that part of the left leg was also made of metal. Quickly he jogged out of the room in the direction of the infirmary, doing his best not to jar the slight boy in his arms.
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A/N: I ought to clarify that the vote mentioned in the previous chapter not only includes romantic relationships, but also parental, mentor, brother/sister, equals type relationships and friendships. Just tell me what you like! Also, hopefully my grammar and spelling was better in this chapter.