Of Loyalty and Morals Chapter 7
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Chapter Seven: the Decision of Loyalty.
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“Finally we’re free,” Vala cheered as they left the Forest of Death. “Let’s head back to the hotel so I can get a shower. Let me tell you, I’ve been in worse places, but that place was not high on my list.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be,” Cam said. “That’s why it’s called the Forest of Death.”
“I don’t know, I think its name is rather cliché,” Vala replied. “Truthful, but still cliché.”
“Can we debate the whole name thing later?” Jack asked. “Before you set any of the geeks off.”
“Forest of Death or variations thereof are pretty common, even on Earth,” Daniel offered, smirking at the look that Jack sent in reply.
“You have until tomorrow at dawn to make your decision,” Toshiro interrupted, keeping his voice low and checking the area to make sure that there was no one in hearing distance.
“That soon?” George asked.
“We need to make preparations,” Toshiro said. “We need to know who to count on. Do you have your answer ready now, or do you need more time?”
The SG1 members were silent for a moment as they walked down the road that would take them back into the village proper and the hotel. “I think we would like one last chance to discuss it,” Jack said when no one else spoke up.
“Very well,” Toshiro said with a nod. He didn’t mention the subject again and the trip back to the hotel was spent in silence.
Once at the hotel, they broke up and allowed themselves to get cleaned up before the SG1 members gathered in Jack and Daniel’s shared rooms to discuss the issue. Jack, Daniel and Vala sat on the two beds while the others took seats on chairs or the floor, getting comfortable while they waited for someone to break the silence.
“Well, what should our decision be?” Jack finally said. “Do we help Suna with the mission or do we stay out of it?”
“Technically we have an obligation to help, as a part of the military of Suna,” George said. “We made a decision to serve when we signed up for the Academy and then when we accepted the Hitai-ate and became Genin.”
“Normally we wouldn’t have allowed ourselves to be involved in other planet’s conflicts,” Cam said. “Of course, there have been exceptions, but our policy has tried to be hands off.”
“So basically it all comes down to loyalty,” Jack said with a sigh.
“I think it’s more than that,” Daniel said. The others looked over at him and he drew one leg up and wrapped an arm around it. “I think it’s less about loyalty to Suna and more about our loyalty to Earth.”
“Our loyalty to Earth?” Cam repeated.
“I think that we’ve been debating this so hard because each of us knows that we need to make a decision,” Daniel said. “For the past few years we’ve made a life here, but we never really gave up hope that we could go home; even if we knew that our home really wasn’t ours anymore.”
“And now the circumstances call for us to make a decision on whether to give up on Earth and fully support the country that took us in, or continue to hope for the SGC to find us and allow that to affect our judgment,” George said.
“Right,” Daniel replied.
“Don't you think that we’ve gotten past that issue already?” Jack asked. He scowled at Daniel and waved his hand in the air. “I mean, this situation has happened before and we’ve made this decision more than a couple of times.”
“I think that’s the problem,” Daniel said. He waited for their shocked murmurs to die down before he continued. “Yes, there have been plenty of times where we’ve been stranded off world and made our own lives during those times, but the SGC always rescued us. Time and time again, the SGC showed up and beat the odds to bring us home. It's happened so much that I think we’ve come to expect it and that’s why we can’t allow ourselves to fully integrate with this world.”
“It's true, we’ve got a pretty good track record with that,” Jack said after a moment. “I mean, we even got Daniel back after a year and some would say that was impossible.”
“Well, technically I wasn’t really gone for a year,” Daniel said, “but we got Vala back pretty much the same way.”
“Well, it looks like you all have a hard decision to make,” Vala said as she stretched before relaxing back onto one of the beds.
“You all?” Daniel repeated, arching his eyebrows at Vala.
“I really don’t care who I work for, as long as I get what I want,” Vala said. “I see no problem in helping Suna out. Besides, you know as soon as we give up, the SGC will be here to rescue us.”
“So you think that we should just give up?” Cam asked. He turned to Jonas. “You had to decide something similar to this; was it a hard decision for you back then?”
Jonas shrugged. “Well, I knew I had to do the right thing and that wasn’t staying on my planet. But, I haven't regretted it at all.”
“The question, then, is will we regret this?” Jack said, bringing them back on topic. “If we join in for this attack, will we regret it?”
“There is always something to regret when turning to violence,” Daniel said. “But I think we have already come this far.”
“Team Sekka are already Chunin,” Sam pointed out. “And we’ve tried for the exams once before.”
“That is also something that we must consider,” Teal’c said. “You are here also to attend the Chunin exams.”
“I think that even if we don’t participate in the mission we probably won’t be promoted to Chunin based on what our country has just done,” Jack said.
“Speak for yourself, you aren’t in the exam,” Vala said. She placed her hand on her chest and smiled at them. “Besides, there’s no way that they’ll refuse to make me Chunin.”
“We’ve already kind of made our decision, haven't we,” Jack said. He looked around at all of them.
“We’ve made friends, made a commitment to a government, and I think we’ve found a place to belong,” Daniel said. “It might not be perfect and it’s not Earth, but we’re together and alive.”
“That’s the most important thing,” Sam said.
“So, we’re agreed, then? We carry out the mission?” Jack asked, gaining nods from everyone in the room.
“It might not be what we would have done if we were on Earth, but we aren’t on Earth anymore,” George said. He stood up and stretched. “I’ll tell Sensei our decision.”
“So, does anyone want to bet on whether or not our counter parts show up anytime soon?” Vala asked, giving them a mischievous grin.
“I’ve learned never to take bets from you,” Cam said, raising his hands and backing away. “I’m going to go find a place to train; do you want to join me, Teal’c?”
“Indeed,” Teal’c replied before following Cam out of the room.
“You said you wanted me to show you an easy medical jutsu, right?” Janet asked Jonas as she got up.
“I think it could be useful, if I could learn it,” Jonas answered before they left, leaving Sam alone with Team Tomo.
“I finished repairing the Quantum Mirror before we left,” Sam softly said. “I think I might have even managed to build a device and write an algorithm to search out our original universe by using our DNA as a parameter. There’s a small chance that it could find it, even with the limitations that the control device has.”
“So, there is a chance that we could go home?” Vala asked, bouncing up in excitement.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Daniel asked.
“There’s only a slim chance that it would work and I didn’t want to get people’s hopes up for something like that,” Sam said. She started for the door. “Besides, you were right, and I was focused on the Chunin exam.”
“Looks like we made our decision without really realizing it,” Jack said. “Though, it’s not really like we could have our same lives back on Earth, I remember how many times I shoved my clones off to the side and this time would be exactly the same.”
“Really, if I had a clone I would definitely use her in a better way,” Vala said.
“By using her as an alibi?” Daniel suggested.
“Of course,” Vala replied. “Now, come along, Jack, I feel like beating something up. I never got to really do anything in this exam.”
“That gives you an edge on the other students, though,” Jack pointed out. “Besides, why do I have to be the one that you beat up? Don’t you usually work with Daniel?”
“We might be facing each other in the tournament and, as you say, I have an edge,” Vala said. She grinned before grabbing Jack’s arm and dragging him out of the room.
“I’m going to go service my guns,” Sam said before she left Daniel alone.
Daniel sighed and stretched. “I suppose I should work on my seals.”
With that, everyone started preparations for not only the finals of the Chunin exam, but for the invasion of Konoha. They had a month to train themselves and to get all of the plans together and they weren't wasting any time.
-
In another universe, far away from Konoha, a brunette in pigtails crept down a hall checking for treasure. Instead she found a mirror, brightly lit in a dark room. She blinked when she realized that it wasn’t showing any reflection, instead it showed what looked to be the inside of a temple wall. “Interesting,” she said as she took a step closer. “It seems there was a treasure here, after all.”
“What are you doing here?” a voice interrupted. “This area is off limits to all visitors.”
“We’re not just any visitors, besides, we already got permission to tour the main lab,” Cam said as he came up from behind the guy in the lab coat. He paused and peered into the room. “So what about this room that don’t you want us to know?”
“I told you that they were hiding something,” Vala said. She motioned them in and then pointed to the mirror. “This is Ancient.”
“A Quantum Mirror,” Daniel exclaimed as he came into the room and spotted it.
The lights came on as more people entered, revealing the long tubes set up in the middle of the room. Sam was the next person in the room and her eyes focused on those. “Didn’t you say that you used those for cloning purposes?”
All eyes turned to the two scientists that were showing them around and finally one of them cracked. “All right, all right, we’ll tell you everything.”
End.
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Masterpost
Chapter Seven: the Decision of Loyalty.
-
“Finally we’re free,” Vala cheered as they left the Forest of Death. “Let’s head back to the hotel so I can get a shower. Let me tell you, I’ve been in worse places, but that place was not high on my list.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be,” Cam said. “That’s why it’s called the Forest of Death.”
“I don’t know, I think its name is rather cliché,” Vala replied. “Truthful, but still cliché.”
“Can we debate the whole name thing later?” Jack asked. “Before you set any of the geeks off.”
“Forest of Death or variations thereof are pretty common, even on Earth,” Daniel offered, smirking at the look that Jack sent in reply.
“You have until tomorrow at dawn to make your decision,” Toshiro interrupted, keeping his voice low and checking the area to make sure that there was no one in hearing distance.
“That soon?” George asked.
“We need to make preparations,” Toshiro said. “We need to know who to count on. Do you have your answer ready now, or do you need more time?”
The SG1 members were silent for a moment as they walked down the road that would take them back into the village proper and the hotel. “I think we would like one last chance to discuss it,” Jack said when no one else spoke up.
“Very well,” Toshiro said with a nod. He didn’t mention the subject again and the trip back to the hotel was spent in silence.
Once at the hotel, they broke up and allowed themselves to get cleaned up before the SG1 members gathered in Jack and Daniel’s shared rooms to discuss the issue. Jack, Daniel and Vala sat on the two beds while the others took seats on chairs or the floor, getting comfortable while they waited for someone to break the silence.
“Well, what should our decision be?” Jack finally said. “Do we help Suna with the mission or do we stay out of it?”
“Technically we have an obligation to help, as a part of the military of Suna,” George said. “We made a decision to serve when we signed up for the Academy and then when we accepted the Hitai-ate and became Genin.”
“Normally we wouldn’t have allowed ourselves to be involved in other planet’s conflicts,” Cam said. “Of course, there have been exceptions, but our policy has tried to be hands off.”
“So basically it all comes down to loyalty,” Jack said with a sigh.
“I think it’s more than that,” Daniel said. The others looked over at him and he drew one leg up and wrapped an arm around it. “I think it’s less about loyalty to Suna and more about our loyalty to Earth.”
“Our loyalty to Earth?” Cam repeated.
“I think that we’ve been debating this so hard because each of us knows that we need to make a decision,” Daniel said. “For the past few years we’ve made a life here, but we never really gave up hope that we could go home; even if we knew that our home really wasn’t ours anymore.”
“And now the circumstances call for us to make a decision on whether to give up on Earth and fully support the country that took us in, or continue to hope for the SGC to find us and allow that to affect our judgment,” George said.
“Right,” Daniel replied.
“Don't you think that we’ve gotten past that issue already?” Jack asked. He scowled at Daniel and waved his hand in the air. “I mean, this situation has happened before and we’ve made this decision more than a couple of times.”
“I think that’s the problem,” Daniel said. He waited for their shocked murmurs to die down before he continued. “Yes, there have been plenty of times where we’ve been stranded off world and made our own lives during those times, but the SGC always rescued us. Time and time again, the SGC showed up and beat the odds to bring us home. It's happened so much that I think we’ve come to expect it and that’s why we can’t allow ourselves to fully integrate with this world.”
“It's true, we’ve got a pretty good track record with that,” Jack said after a moment. “I mean, we even got Daniel back after a year and some would say that was impossible.”
“Well, technically I wasn’t really gone for a year,” Daniel said, “but we got Vala back pretty much the same way.”
“Well, it looks like you all have a hard decision to make,” Vala said as she stretched before relaxing back onto one of the beds.
“You all?” Daniel repeated, arching his eyebrows at Vala.
“I really don’t care who I work for, as long as I get what I want,” Vala said. “I see no problem in helping Suna out. Besides, you know as soon as we give up, the SGC will be here to rescue us.”
“So you think that we should just give up?” Cam asked. He turned to Jonas. “You had to decide something similar to this; was it a hard decision for you back then?”
Jonas shrugged. “Well, I knew I had to do the right thing and that wasn’t staying on my planet. But, I haven't regretted it at all.”
“The question, then, is will we regret this?” Jack said, bringing them back on topic. “If we join in for this attack, will we regret it?”
“There is always something to regret when turning to violence,” Daniel said. “But I think we have already come this far.”
“Team Sekka are already Chunin,” Sam pointed out. “And we’ve tried for the exams once before.”
“That is also something that we must consider,” Teal’c said. “You are here also to attend the Chunin exams.”
“I think that even if we don’t participate in the mission we probably won’t be promoted to Chunin based on what our country has just done,” Jack said.
“Speak for yourself, you aren’t in the exam,” Vala said. She placed her hand on her chest and smiled at them. “Besides, there’s no way that they’ll refuse to make me Chunin.”
“We’ve already kind of made our decision, haven't we,” Jack said. He looked around at all of them.
“We’ve made friends, made a commitment to a government, and I think we’ve found a place to belong,” Daniel said. “It might not be perfect and it’s not Earth, but we’re together and alive.”
“That’s the most important thing,” Sam said.
“So, we’re agreed, then? We carry out the mission?” Jack asked, gaining nods from everyone in the room.
“It might not be what we would have done if we were on Earth, but we aren’t on Earth anymore,” George said. He stood up and stretched. “I’ll tell Sensei our decision.”
“So, does anyone want to bet on whether or not our counter parts show up anytime soon?” Vala asked, giving them a mischievous grin.
“I’ve learned never to take bets from you,” Cam said, raising his hands and backing away. “I’m going to go find a place to train; do you want to join me, Teal’c?”
“Indeed,” Teal’c replied before following Cam out of the room.
“You said you wanted me to show you an easy medical jutsu, right?” Janet asked Jonas as she got up.
“I think it could be useful, if I could learn it,” Jonas answered before they left, leaving Sam alone with Team Tomo.
“I finished repairing the Quantum Mirror before we left,” Sam softly said. “I think I might have even managed to build a device and write an algorithm to search out our original universe by using our DNA as a parameter. There’s a small chance that it could find it, even with the limitations that the control device has.”
“So, there is a chance that we could go home?” Vala asked, bouncing up in excitement.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Daniel asked.
“There’s only a slim chance that it would work and I didn’t want to get people’s hopes up for something like that,” Sam said. She started for the door. “Besides, you were right, and I was focused on the Chunin exam.”
“Looks like we made our decision without really realizing it,” Jack said. “Though, it’s not really like we could have our same lives back on Earth, I remember how many times I shoved my clones off to the side and this time would be exactly the same.”
“Really, if I had a clone I would definitely use her in a better way,” Vala said.
“By using her as an alibi?” Daniel suggested.
“Of course,” Vala replied. “Now, come along, Jack, I feel like beating something up. I never got to really do anything in this exam.”
“That gives you an edge on the other students, though,” Jack pointed out. “Besides, why do I have to be the one that you beat up? Don’t you usually work with Daniel?”
“We might be facing each other in the tournament and, as you say, I have an edge,” Vala said. She grinned before grabbing Jack’s arm and dragging him out of the room.
“I’m going to go service my guns,” Sam said before she left Daniel alone.
Daniel sighed and stretched. “I suppose I should work on my seals.”
With that, everyone started preparations for not only the finals of the Chunin exam, but for the invasion of Konoha. They had a month to train themselves and to get all of the plans together and they weren't wasting any time.
-
In another universe, far away from Konoha, a brunette in pigtails crept down a hall checking for treasure. Instead she found a mirror, brightly lit in a dark room. She blinked when she realized that it wasn’t showing any reflection, instead it showed what looked to be the inside of a temple wall. “Interesting,” she said as she took a step closer. “It seems there was a treasure here, after all.”
“What are you doing here?” a voice interrupted. “This area is off limits to all visitors.”
“We’re not just any visitors, besides, we already got permission to tour the main lab,” Cam said as he came up from behind the guy in the lab coat. He paused and peered into the room. “So what about this room that don’t you want us to know?”
“I told you that they were hiding something,” Vala said. She motioned them in and then pointed to the mirror. “This is Ancient.”
“A Quantum Mirror,” Daniel exclaimed as he came into the room and spotted it.
The lights came on as more people entered, revealing the long tubes set up in the middle of the room. Sam was the next person in the room and her eyes focused on those. “Didn’t you say that you used those for cloning purposes?”
All eyes turned to the two scientists that were showing them around and finally one of them cracked. “All right, all right, we’ll tell you everything.”
End.
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Masterpost